Adding Joy: Unschool Bits and Pieces
Adding Joy to an Unschooling Day Not so long ago, a mother told me she only arranges special outings for ice cream or coffee or lunch with her kids as a reward. They can earn special time with her by…
A Very Resource Full Week: Rescued Paintings, Graphs, and Expensive Cats
At the beginning of the week, I said, “What shall we do today, Gemma-Rose?” My youngest daughter replied, “How about some maths?” Maths? I nearly fell off my seat. Gemma-Rose is not a maths fan. “Are you sure? Yes? Well,…
Why You Should Consider Keeping an Evernote Homeschool Records Book Even If You Don’t Have To
The other day, our Authorised Person (AP) from the education department came to see us. It was time for our biennial homeschool registration visit. “We’re still using Evernote to record our homeschooling,” I said as the AP sat down in…
Thinking about Maths Creatively
It seems to me there are three main ways of learning maths: the workbook way, the real life maths way and the messing-about-with-numbers way. Sophie once learnt maths the workbook way. She wasn’t actually using paper books. She was using…
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 resting after his busy term teaching. He got his holiday off to a good start by…
Is It Okay if Parents Want to Influence Their Unschooling Kids?
Is it okay if we try to influence our unschooling kids? What if we’d like them to acquire particular values? Can we expose them to our beliefs? Or should we stand back and try to keep quiet about the things we base our lives on and let our kids work out everything for themselves? Let’s say we decide it’s not right to influence our kids in any way. What would life look like? Imagine if we never shared an…
The Role of Repetition in Learning, Unschooling, and Shaping Identity
What if kids want to watch the same movies, read the same stories, or play the same games again and again? Should we try to move them on to other activities? Or is there value in repetition? Does repetition have an important role in our lives?…
More Unschooling Math/s – What Does Learning Mathematics Naturally Look Like
When my kids were younger, I’d search for maths associated with their passions. I’d Google ‘maths and Jane Austen’ or ‘maths and art history’ or ‘maths and Shakespeare’. I discovered loads of unschool maths and interesting facts that I made into notes to include in our homeschool records book. I shared this story and other unschool maths ones in the Virtual Kitchen Table podcast episode 38.…
Why Parents Should Help with the Family Chores
When I was at school, my friend Beatrix never had to do any chores. She didn’t have to wash dishes, clean bathrooms, or sweep floors. I wonder if she had to clean her bedroom. Beatrix’s mother said that once she was grown up and had a home of her own, she’d have to do all the chores. She wouldn’t have a choice. For now, she needn’t do any. I don’t think many parents take this approach to chores. Most say…
Does Respecting Older People Begin with Respecting Kids?
Whenever someone says I look young for my age, I grin. I accept the compliment. But recently, I’ve wondered: what’s wrong with looking my real age? Do I need to appear younger than I am? There’s an older woman who sits in the front pew at Mass. One day, when the service was over, I couldn’t help but overhear someone bending over her and asking in a sing-song voice, “How old are you, dear?” And I thought: when did…
Learning to Read and Trusting Unschooling
It is absolutely essential that we are curious people who are excited about the possibilities in life. The atmosphere in our homes gets picked up by our kids so they think it’s normal to learn, to be curious, to follow thoughts and ideas and try things out… I was battling with my kids for a while. They kept saying, ‘Why do we have to do this, Mum?” And I replied, “Because I said so.” And I thought, “It’s your turn…
Do Unschooled Kids (and Parents) Need Time Away From Their Devices?
If we conclude that good mental, physical, and spiritual health requires silence, nature, real people, and exercise, what does this mean for our unschooling kids? Should we limit their screen time? Should we force them off their devices and make them exercise and spend time with us? Perhaps we should announce we’re having a screen-free day, and everyone must spend time hiking through the bush. Or won’t that work? When we research a question, we often know the answer…
The Discomfort of Letting Go and Allowing Our Kids (and Ourselves) to Grow
We organise life so we’re not challenged too much. We don’t want to stray outside our comfort zone because that could be painful. We say no instead of yes to our kids, not wanting them to go to parties at night, ride their bikes on the road, run through the bush alone, or learn to drive. We don’t want thoughts of danger to torment our minds. We don’t want to worry. But are we truly comfortable when we try to…
Tired and Difficult Days
Today I’m tired. “Have you got anything you really need to do?” asks my daughter Imogen. “I haven’t yet recorded my podcast,” I reply.…
Listening to Kids
The other day I interviewed my 14-year-old daughter, Sophie: I wanted to hear her opinions about perfect families, mistakes and listening to kids. It…
Younger Unschoolers: When Does Unschooling Begin?
The other day, I posted this on Instagram: Does anyone want to talk about little kids? Unschooling? Parenting? Both? I often talk and write…
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…
Unschooling: Trusting the Process and Letting Go of Control
“I kind of love my title for this podcast. It’s very ambitious. Let’s fix it all!” And so begins another Ladies Fixing the World conversation in which Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd and I dive deep into unschooling, sharing our thoughts and experiences. In S2E4, we discuss Unschooling: Trusting the Process and Letting Go. Want to know more…
Is It Working? Wrestling with Doubt in Unschooling
A grey day arrives that completely blots out the memory of all the preceding good days. We feel overwhelmed, tired, worried and lost. We wonder why we ever decided to unschool. A puddle of doubt about unschooling forms around us. What do we do? Cecilie, Sandra and I are discussing unschooling doubts and sharing our experiences in episode 10 of…
When We Don’t Know What to Do
I’ve just updated my blog. I started at the first post I ever wrote and then worked my way through 14 years of stories, reading each one before deciding whether to keep it or revert it to draft. I then checked the formatting of the retained posts, rearranging paragraphs, eliminating dead links, and changing or improving the images. As I…
Christian Unschooling: Should We Encourage Our Kids to Seek Security?
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.…