Strewing , Unschooling, and Charlotte Mason

In this week’s podcast, episode 178, I’m sharing and discussing two stories about strewing: Time For Some Strewing Unschooling When Charlotte Mason Also Appeals to Our Hearts I’m also talking about overwhelming times, how we don’t have to be perfect,…

Learning from Life, Record-Keeping, and Strewing

Last week, life was very busy. And even though there was no time for such things as ‘school’, we had a week jam-packed with learning. By the time Friday rolled around, I had an equally jam-packed unschool records book. Yes,…

Ideas for Starting Unschooling

A few posts ago, I was talking about collaboration. Would anyone like to work with me as we try to spread the unschooling message? Could we light a gentle unschooling fire together? I was afraid no one would respond to…

The Power of a Few Encouraging Words

Have you ever had a dream? I have. When I was a child, I wanted to write children’s novels. But somewhere along the way, I gave up the idea of becoming an author. There was no time for dreams. I…

A Big Chat About Unschooling Teenagers

Some time ago, I asked: Is anyone interested in discussing the teenage unschooling years? I’m thinking of recording a podcast on this topic with my daughters Imogen and Sophie. . My girls both have a day off work tomorrow so…

Latest

How Limiting Screen Time Can Limit Our Learning

Do you use the screen time feature on your phone and other devices? I used to. At the end of every week, I received a report telling me how much time I’d spent on my iPhone and iPad and how I’d used that time. When I saw the number of hours I’d spent on my devices, I felt guilty. How could I have let myself sit in front of my screens for so long? Each week, I told myself I…

Why We Need to Support Our Kids’ Choices

The other evening, we were watching an old episode of a cooking competition TV show. It was elimination night. For three hours, the contestants measured and mixed and baked and decorated. They also made mistakes, felt discouraged, picked themselves back up, and tried again. No one wanted to go home. They all had to keep fighting for their place in the competition. Eventually, the clock ticked down, and everyone stepped back from their benches. Cooking was over. It was now…

An Unschooling Challenge: Looking for Joy

Each week, in our Stories of an Unschooling Family Community, I post an unschooling challenge. The challenges are a way for us to explore the principles of unschooling, ponder a few ideas together, and make unschooling a reality in our lives. A few weeks ago, I shared the following challenge. A Looking for Joy Challenge Do you ever look for ways to add joy to your days? Well, that’s this week’s unschooling challenge! Here’s an old Instagram post that I…

Searching for Daily Delights

In episode 178 of my podcast: Strewing, Unschooling, and Charlotte Mason, I mentioned a book called The Book of Delights, written by Ross Gay: ‘In The Book of Delights, one of today’s most original literary voices offers up a genre-defying volume of lyric essays written over one tumultuous year. The first nonfiction book from award-winning poet Ross Gay is a record of the small joys we often overlook in our busy lives. Among Gay’s funny, poetic, philosophical delights: a friend’s…

Is it Okay to Share Our Kids’ Photos and Stories Online?

The other day, I asked my kids, “Would you like me to delete my blog?” ”Why would we want you to do that?” “Well, you might not like your photos and stories all over the Internet.” ”But you’ve been posting them for years.” ”I know, but you might have changed your mind about wanting to share them. Perhaps you’re no longer happy to have your photos online.” “I don’t mind you using my photos,” said Imogen. “And you can tell…

Locked Out, Locked In, and Lies

This afternoon, I was poking about on an old blog of mine, reading old stories and remembering when my children were much younger. Locked Out, Locked In, and Lies is one of those stories. I wrote it four years ago for an A-Z blogging challenge. Of course, it was my L post! urry! Hurry! Time to go!” I yelled as I herded my three oldest children through the front door. I swung my bag onto my shoulder, scooped up the…

A Fresh Perspective

One of the huge delights of my unschooling life is sitting quietly with my children while chatting together. I’m good friends with my kids. We’re always sharing our thoughts, ideas, stories, dreams, problems, and moments of joy. We don’t talk so that I can impress my opinions on my children. I don’t tell them what I think and therefore what they should think. Instead, I’m interested in what they have to say. Who are they? What ideas do they have?…

Encouraging Unschooling Kids and Mothers

In this week’s podcast, I’m talking about encouragement. I have two encouragement stories to share with you which I’m hoping you haven’t heard before. But if you are familiar with them, will you think, “Sue is getting repetitive”? Will you consider giving my podcast a negative review? I hope not. Instead, maybe you’ll offer some feedback. Do you have any ideas for future episodes of this podcast? What would you like to hear about? Most of my kids are grown…
1 … 29 30 31 32 33 … 109

My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

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.…

Unschooling: Trust, Autonomy, and The Realities of Learning

The Ladies are Fixing the World again! Cecilie, Sandra and I are discussing the words ‘self-regulation’ and ‘limits’. When we say, “I’ve let go of control, and now I’m waiting for my child to learn how to regulate his time playing video games (for example),” do we have expectations about what that regulation should look like? Do we want…

Unschooling Is Carried by Conversations

Dinner tables, car rides, bedtime chats, and café corners are the real places where unschooling lives and grows. Conversations—often unscheduled, informal, and unplanned—can become the central structure of a learning life. Gathering at the Dinner Table In our house, we never met for breakfast or lunch. Those were meals where people ate what, where and when they liked. But we…

Christian unschooling

Love or Fear? What Guides Our Lives?

There are so many things we could fear. We might be too afraid to send our kids to school if we listen to the loud voices telling us how bad traditional education is. We might choose homeschooling because of that fear. If we decide to homeschool, we’re still not safe. Fears could follow us. We might be too afraid to…

Does Christian Unschooling Interest You?

I’ve written three unschooling books: I focused on the educational side of unschooling in Curious Unschoolers. I extended the unschooling story in Radical Unschool Love by sharing parenting thoughts and stories. And I offered practical suggestions for turning all those interesting unschooling ideas into something real in families’ lives in The Unschool Challenge. Three books. A trilogy. Everything I can…
Go toTop