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…

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…

Be Brave and The Unschool Challenge

Sometimes we have to be brave, don’t we? We might need to ignore people’s opinions and possible criticism and do whatever fulfils the needs of our kids. We could need courage to ignore our fears about how our work will…

Unschooling Book Two Is Done Too!

Would you like to hear my latest unschooling book news? As you might know, I finished writing Curious Unschoolers a few weeks ago. Now I’ve finished my second book, Radical Unschool Love! I don’t know if that’s good news for…

Unschooling: Making the Right Choices

Years ago, when life was overwhelming, and I was looking for yet another way to homeschool my kids, I was tempted to unschool. I thought if we were unschoolers, we could do whatever we liked, and if we didn’t want…

Latest

How It’s Okay if We’re Not Perfect Parents

Do I want to be as good a mother as Sue Elvis? Or do I want Sue Elvis to be my mother? Perhaps a bit of both. Another phenomenal book that I’ll read again and again. Sue’s books remind me that there’s so much fun & whimsy to motherhood & childhood. I just love everything about these 2 books and hope more will come soon. I found the above words in a Goodreads review of my unschooling book, Radical Unschool…

Being Unschool Superheroes Who Save the World

A few days ago, it was my husband Andy’s birthday and our children gave him a lot of superhero-themed gifts: an Iron Man t-shirt, the original Hulk DVD and matching socks, a Captain America shirt and a Superman towel. Perfect presents for Andy who is our superhero. [/bigletter] I was thinking about superheroes while I was writing my book Curious Unschoolers. One of the last stories in the book is called Does the World Need Unschooling? Here’s part of it:…

Fearing Our Kids Will Fail

When I was about eleven or twelve, I swam in a school carnival. I didn’t want to. You see, I wasn’t a strong swimmer. I was rather alarmed when I found out that I’d been entered for a freestyle race. The only good thing about the race was that it was short. I only had to swim the width of the pool. Anyone could do that, couldn’t they? Except somehow I didn’t manage to get across the pool in one…

Building Strong Relationships With Our Kids

Last week, we went on an adventure. Sophie, Gemma-Rose, Andy and I travelled to a small country town in the north of our state to visit our son Callum. We spent a few days bumping along dirt roads in Callum’s truck seeing all the local sights. We saw herds of cows, grubby sheep, an unusually huge black wallaby as well as kangaroos, wedge-tailed eagles, a couple of open cut coal mines, extraordinarily long coal trains which looked like brown snakes…

Another Way of Looking at Our Unschooled Kids’ Learning

I didn’t publish a podcast episode last week. That might not surprise you because recently, I’ve become an unreliable podcaster. But maybe you will be surprised when I tell you that I did make an episode. This morning, I dashed into my closet recording studio and recorded episode 155. I edited it and then checked it by listening to it while walking the dogs. And then I uploaded it. It’s now available online! So I’m feeling good. I’ve caught up.…

Another Way of Looking at Our Kids’ Learning

While I was eating my lunch today, I thought about all the things my daughter Gemma-Rose did this morning. I mentally translated all her learning experiences into schooly language. I knew I could write lots of impressive notes that would convince an education authority that Gemma-Rose is learning everything that they think is essential for a good education. And then I thought about how Gemma-Rose’s learning experiences aren’t just about history and English and creative arts. She is learning far…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

When in Doubt, Just Love

Last Wednesday, I pushed our living room sofa out of position, exposing a stretch of plain duck-egg blue wall. I placed a chair and…

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…

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…

Christian unschooling

Unschool: Greater Things

She was tempted to aim low, afraid to risk failure, but she knew she shouldn’t settle for ordinary. More was expected. So she gathered her courage, did what she should, and life got exciting. And she changed. How often do we aim low because we’re too afraid to risk disappointment or failure? We want to stay where it’s comfortable and…
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