How Younger Siblings Learn by Listening In

On Sunday Father S began his homily: “In Hamlet, it says, ‘To thine own self be true’.” Gemma-Rose dug me in the side and whispered loudly, her eyes wide with excitement, “Hamlet!” We are halfway through reading this Shakespeare play…

Making Children Learn What They Don’t Want to Know

We can’t force knowledge into children if they aren’t interested, though it might appear we can. For, of course, children learn things they don’t want to learn all the time. Anyone who’s been to school is very aware of this.…

What Snakes Can Teach Us About Unschooling

Strolling through the bush on a spring afternoon, sunscreen on my bare arms, a dog on a leash, I round a bend in a track and almost trip over a writhing venomous brown snake. With my heart beating fast, I…

Life after University: Following Dreams

My daughter Imogen has finished her Bachelor of Arts degree. For the past three years, she’s been studying Professional Writing and Publishing. Now Imogen is about to set off on new adventures. So what will she be doing? I thought…

The Problem with High Expectations and Control

Expecting a lot of our kids sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? If we have high expectations, perhaps our children will strive to achieve more. And if we keep raising the goal posts, won’t they end up doing amazing things? They could…

Latest

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…

Giggling in the Cemetery

Three little stories to celebrate our son Thomas’ birthday. he worst day of my life could have been the day that Thomas died. Or maybe it was the day we buried him because it was then that I knew I’d never see my son again. But perhaps, it could have been the day after the funeral when all the busyness was over, and I was alone with my sorrow. Would I survive? Could I move forward and live the rest…

Motivated to Learn

Did you ever hear my physics story? When I was in grade 11, we moved house, and so I had to go to a new school. On my first day, I turned up at a physics class. The teacher who’d never had girls in his class before said, “What are you doing here?” And I told him I’d come to learn physics. He replied, “We’ll see about that!” I was told that I’d have to prove that I was worthy…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

The Ladies Fixing the World

Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Curiosity, Flexibility, and Trust

I’m a Lady Fixing the World! Cecilie Conrad kindly invited me to join her and Sandra Dodd for Season 2 of her podcastThe Ladies Fixing the World. We recorded our first unschooling conversation together in November 2024 before life got extra-busy with Christmas, and it has just gone live! The audio version. Here’s the audio version: You can also listen…

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.…

Christian unschooling

Can Christians Unschool?

Can Christians unschool? We’re Christian unschoolers. Maybe you’re Christian unschoolers too? There are lots of us living this way of life. But are we doing the right thing? Or are we side-stepping our responsibilities when we choose to unschool? Are we choosing the easy, lazy path? I often hear of parents who are struggling with homeschooling. Their kids aren’t doing…

Kids, Needs, and Church

Should unschooled kids be forced to go to church? I wonder if this is the wrong question to ask when our kids protest about coming with us. Would it be better to ask, Why doesn’t my child want to go to church? In this week’s podcast, I talk about this question as well as : The importance of trying to see…
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