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Big Ideas and Big Passions

I say to my daughter Imogen, “I’d better post the details of our last podcast on my blog.” And she replies, “You haven’t done that yet? How will we become podcasting stars if you don’t let anyone know we’ve published a new episode?” Podcasting stars? That sounds so unlike us. We grin! I love chatting to Imogen while we’re making podcasts together. We hope you enjoy listening! In episode 183 of the Stories of an Unschooling Family podcast, Big Ideas and…

Bad Haircuts and Unschooling Adventures

In this week’s solo podcast episode, I’m sharing a few stories, and talking about how we can be more adventurous. It’s good to be adventurous, isn’t it? Adventures are fun. They connect us together as a family. They open us to new experiences. I’ve noticed that parents are often reluctant to be adventurous. We’d rather sit on the sidelines of life where it’s safe because sometimes we’re too afraid or embarrassed or set-in-our-ways to get involved or try new things.…

Writing, Explosions, and Unsuitable Horror Stories

After a 4-month break, my daughter Imogen and I are back. We made a new podcast episode! This week, we’re chatting about: Finishing novels and beta reading My 19-year-old daughter Sophie and ‘graduate’ unschoolers Bushfires and exploding trees How our generous members saved our unschooling community Vlogging The TV shows we’ve been watching The Masterclass classes we’ve been enjoying We’re also discussing the question: is it okay to expose our kids to ‘unsuitable’ movies and books? Show Notes …

Be Brave

Yesterday, my Youtube subscribers must have fallen over backwards with surprise: I published a new video! It had been a very long time since my last one. In this vlog, I’m sharing a story about red hair, shampoo, and being brave enough to do the things we want to do before time runs out. I hope you’ll watch!…

Home Almost Alone and Pondering What to Do

Here in Australia, the new school year has just begun, and for the first time in nearly 30 years, our family doesn’t have any registered homeschoolers. I don’t need to create a new homeschool records notebook labelled 2021, Term 1. This year, I won’t have to gather lots of notes of all the fabulous learning that my kids are experiencing because we no longer have any school-aged children. One person who hasn’t finished with school is my knowledge transmitting husband…

Unschooling: Are We Willing to Give Up Our Own Ideas?

Educating our kids can sometimes feel like a huge responsibility, can’t it? There are so many choices. We have to make lots of decisions. What is the best way to homeschool? We read books and blogs, listen to the experts, ponder different ideas, think about our own experiences and preferences. Then we find a method that excites us, we buy the associated resources, and put it into action. And everything goes well, at least for a short while. But then…

Directing Our Lives Instead of Letting Life Direct Us

‘ve always wondered about the connection between freedom and not wasting time. We have a limited number of hours, so we should make the most of them, shouldn’t we? But we don’t want to live on a tight schedule, slotting activities into every minute of our days ahead of time. We need to be free to make our own choices about the things we do and when we do them. But what if we end up drifting through our days without…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

Why I Wanted to Delete My Blogs

I was staring gloomily at my computer this morning. “What are you doing, Mum?” asked my daughter Imogen. “I’m about to delete my blogs,”…

The Ladies Fixing the World

How Unschooling Doesn’t Guarantee a Fairytale Life

Yesterday evening, like all Sunday evenings, my kids who live locally came to dinner. Six of us gathered around our dining room table, savouring a meal cooked by my husband while enjoying the usual end-of-the-week lively catch-up conversation. There was a time when we dreamed that all our children would buy houses on the same street as our family home.…

Resources for Unschoolers

Strolling towards the shopping centre, I spy an older man with three hand-reared brightly coloured parrots. A few wide-eyed kids are gathered around him, and as I watch, he transfers a parrot to one of their shoulders, where it bounces lightly upon its feet, nuzzling a little ear. The child grins, hardly daring to move. The children have questions which…

Christian unschooling

Losing Time

I’ve been reading a book called A Time to Die by Nicholas Diat, who visited eight monasteries to talk to the monks about the experience of death. Here’s something that caught my attention: One monk described how he cares for the old and sick, and how he has to guard against doing things in a routine way, trying to complete…
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