Could This Be Your Best Unschooling Year Ever?

You can find the following words on the back cover of my unschooling book, Curious Unschoolers: Have you ever wondered how unschooling works? What do unschoolers do all day? Perhaps they don’t do much at all? Or do unschoolers live…

10 Reasons Why You Should Read My Blog

What if someone said, “Sue, there are lots of people writing about unschooling. Why should I follow your blog and read your posts?” What would I say? I did some thinking and came up with 10 reasons why you might…

The Problem With Being a Younger Sister

Younger sisters want to do everything older sisters can do.  The other Sunday at Mass Imogen was the psalm cantor. I glanced at Gemma-Rose while her older sister was up at the lectern singing, and noticed she had a big…

Real Life Family Unschool Maths

A few years ago, when my daughter Sophie was 10, she started to say, “I’m no good at maths. I hate it!” At the time, Sophie was using a formal structured maths course. When she started sighing over her work,…

Learning about Punctuation the Lewis Carroll Way

I never used to bother with the finer points of punctuation because I wasn’t sure how to use such devices as colons and semi-colons. For a long time, I didn’t even know their proper names. To me, they were two…

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?…

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, and looking for the delights in our days. Show Notes A Blog Post Unschooling When Charlotte Mason Also Appeals to Our Hearts Podcasts Episode 151: All About Strewing Episode 30: Why Classical Music Is Not Enough A…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

Reassessing

It’s the first day of the official school holidays so my husband Andy is home from school for two weeks. He’s looking forward to…

Teenagers are People Too

At Mass on Sunday, during the Prayers of the Faithful, we were asked to pray for sullen teenagers. When we returned home, Imogen was…

The Ladies Fixing the World

How Unschoolers Can Deal with Questions and Sceptics

My mother-in-law visited us for the birth of our son, Thomas. After he died and we’d buried him in his tiny white casket, Andy’s mother asked me if we wanted more children. As I replied, “Oh, yes!”, my mother-in-law’s face dropped into a disapproving frown. “She thinks we already have enough kids,” I thought as my defence hackles rose. But…

The Math Myth: How Do Unschooled Kids Learn Math?

There are many unschool maths questions. Here are just a few of them: Can kids really learn maths without formal instruction? What does unschooling maths look like? Can we strew unschool maths? Is it possible for registered homeschoolers to unschool maths? How can we provide evidence kids are learning maths when we don’t have formal records like workbooks and test…

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…

Christian unschooling

Christian Unschooling: Should Parents Demand Obedience from Their Children?

Not so long ago, I was reading a spiritual book that mentioned monks and their life of poverty, chastity and obedience. And this got me thinking about obedience. Monks are obedient to their superiors and the rule of their order. They are imitating Jesus who was obedient to God the Father even until death. Obedience is obviously good so perhaps…

Radical Unschool Love, Praise and Joy

Do you ever praise your kids? Do you tell them you’re proud of them? Some people say we shouldn’t praise our kids. Maybe that’s because our children might end up doing things only because they want to gain our approval. And is there a risk a child might think she is better than everyone else if we praise her too…
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