Aiming for Love, Not Perfection
I had a vision… By the age of 18 all my children were going to be perfectly brought up and perfectly educated. I wanted them to fly off into the world without a problem. I was going to sit back…
What Is Unschooling?
What is unschooling? I’ve been blogging about unschooling for over 5 years now. You’d think I would already have written a post with this title, wouldn’t you? But somehow I haven’t. Maybe that’s because unschooling is hard to define. Everyone…
Unschooling: Dishes
This evening, after dinner, I didn’t want to help with the dishes. I just wanted to relax on the sofa and leave everyone else to clean the kitchen. I could have done that. I could have taken advantage of my…
Watching TV, Playing on the Computer, Doing Nothing Much at All
Continuing our ‘transition from homeschooling to unschooling’ discussion… So all of a sudden there are no homeschooling plans to follow. You aren’t saying, “This is what I want you to do today.” You’re hoping your children will be eager to…
How to Get Children to Do Their ‘School Work’
I often hear parents chatting together about how they can’t get their kids to do their school work. What do they do? Keep pushing their kids because that’s what parents are expected to do? Is this part of their duty?…
Opening Myself Up to Criticism
I’m It’s inevitable: someone is going to criticise my unschooling books. No one has yet, but someone will. How do I know this? Well, even though we would like to think everyone agrees with our ideas and likes our work, that’s just not true. It’s impossible to please everyone in this world. A week or so ago, I finished listening to the audio version of Trent Dalton’s, Boy Swallows Universe. Maybe my family was glad when I came to the…
Stories from My Closet
Yesterday, I sat inside my walk-in-wardrobe (closet) for an hour. Do you know what I was doing in there? I wasn’t sorting out my clothes. I was recording a podcast! Why was I podcasting in my closet? Well, in podcast episode 151, I was pondering the possibility of making an audio version of my book Curious Unschoolers. Do I have the necessary speaking skills? Could I make my recording sound good? A listener -James – stopped by to say, “You…
Stories from ‘Curious Unschoolers’
I wrote an unschooling book called Curious Unschoolers. I published it. Then I told everyone about my book. I received many wonderfully supportive comments. A few days ago, I posted the following words on Instagram: I was telling my husband Andy about my brilliant friends: “It was wonderful how everyone got excited when they heard I was about to publish my unschooling book. Then I announced the book is available and they ordered copies and couldn’t wait for them to…
My Book ‘Curious Unschoolers’ is Now Available!
My book Curious Unschoolers is now available for purchase. I’ve been wanting to say those words for a very long time. Yes, it has taken me years to write and publish this book! You might know that I received a proof copy of Curious Unschoolers in the mail about a week ago. Since then, my daughter Imogen and I have been adjusting the formatting of the book so that it looks as good as possible. Last night, we finally got…
The Best Time and Place for Things to Go Wrong
On Sunday morning, Sophie and I headed into town for Mass. Earlier, I’d said, “Let’s take our cameras with us. After Mass, we can do some street photography, and we could have coffee in that cafe down the far end of town, the one we’ve never visited before.” So that was the plan. A morning out with my teenager daughter. We travelled along the back road to town, up hills and down. When we reached the final hill, I noticed…
Unschooling Books and Bedtimes
Knock! Knock! My husband Andy looked at me and I looked at him. We both looked at the clock. Who could that be at our front door, at 8 o’clock on a weekday evening? Andy heaved himself out of his armchair and plodded off to find out. “Hello!” Our new friends Tony and Ellie appeared in the doorway of our living room. “I hope you don’t mind us dropping by.” They smiled, their eyes meeting mine. Then their eyes wandered downwards…
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 my daughter, Imogen, because I’m about to give her more work to do. Soon she’ll be formatting the manuscript ready for publication! . I feel like I’ve been writing my unschooling books forever. Many, many times I’ve wanted to walk…
My Unschooler’s Homeschool Registration Visit
It seems like a very long time since I last wrote a blog post. Maybe you were beginning to think I’d abandoned my blog. Could I have gone off to do something completely different? No, I still here! I’ve just been spending a lot of time working on my unschooling books instead of blogging. So how are my books coming along? The first book Curious Unschoolers is finished. But even though all the words are written, there are still other…
Unschool Maths and Uncomfortable Ideas
Some ideas might make us feel uncomfortable. We push them to the back of our minds, not wanting to consider them. This is how…
When Unschooling Spills Over into Parenting
Some random thoughts about unschooling and parenting… Sometimes I get the feeling most of the world thinks I’m a little strange. Whenever I post…
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.…
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?…
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, Attachment, and the Art of Letting Go: Building Trust Instead of Rules
We don’t make rules in our family, so how do my children know what is right and what is wrong, if they aren’t guided by clearly stated limits? Do I believe my own quiet example of appropriate behaviour is all that is needed in order to influence my children? Perhaps I stand back, hands-off, and let my children behave as…
How to Write a Million Unschool Love Stories
I used to think the defining word of unschooling was freedom. Freedom attracted me. I wanted to be free to do whatever I liked. I wanted to get up each day and do anything or nothing at all. But I soon realised there’s a problem with freedom. If we always do whatever we like, won’t we become self-centred? Thinking only…
A Genuine Invitation for Christian Unschoolers
Sometimes, invitations aren’t genuine invitations. They might sound like proper invitations. We say the right words, “Would you like to…?” but expect a particular response that doesn’t include the right to decline. Then, some invitations are issued without a personal touch. We wonder, “Does it matter if I accept? Will anyone notice if I’m there or not?” This happened to…