Fighting on the Front Line
A couple of days ago, we had some good news: the status of our bushfire has changed from ‘out of control’ to ‘being controlled’. Isn’t that wonderful? The fire is huge so the fight to put it out is far…
Funny How Things Change
Last Friday, I was ready to swing into a new season of our unschooling year. “No more record keeping for this term,” I announced to my girls. No more looking out for educational experiences to turn into Evernote notes. No more strewing.…
Getting Kids to Help with the Chores
Should parents expect kids to help with the chores? How do we encourage kids to have a generous attitude and want to be part of the family team, helping with the work? Here’s a simple suggestion that doesn’t involve chore…
A Musical Interlude
Let’s lighten the mood. Let’s smile and feel joyful. Let’s have a musical interlude. Last night I finally got my husband Andy, and children Callum, Imogen and Charlotte together. (Callum has been busy at work.) They gathered around the piano…
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…
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…
Our Writing Unrules for Unschoolers
How do unschoolers learn to write? Can they gain the necessary writing skills without any formal instruction? I think they can. Actually, I know they can because that’s what my daughter Imogen did! She’s an unschooler who went to university to study writing. Now she has a Bachelor of Arts degree in professional writing and publishing. She’s also written and published her first YA novel and is well on her way to finishing its sequel. So Imogen is an unschooler…
Tough or Unconditional Love? Parent or Friend?
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.…
How Do Kids Learn to Be Generous?
On Monday, my daughter Imogen and I were the filling in a truck sandwich as we drove from our quiet village, along the busy…
More Sibling Rivalry: Another Unschooling Interview
Yesterday, I posted a video about sibling rivalry. It’s an interview with my 14-year-old daughter Sophie. Towards the end of the interview, I asked,…
Unschooling: Coping With the Unexpected
I used to think I could control my life. To achieve a perfect life, all I had to do was organise everything well, including my kids. What is a perfect life? My perfect life vision included a graduated row of good-looking and well-behaved children. I wanted people to admire my family and home, saying, “Sue is such a good mother!…
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, 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…
Dragon Mothers and Parenting Mistakes
In a previous post, I wrote: Oh my, you should see my file of ‘failed’ podcasts. Yesterday, I added another one to the pile. “How did your podcast go, Mum?” my daughter Imogen asked me, and I replied, “It wasn’t quite right. It didn’t flow.” And with a sigh, I added, “I’ll have to record it again.” Well, today, I…
Sharing the Catholic Faith With Our Kids
Maybe you’re thinking about unschooling. Letting children follow their own interests, and trusting they will learn all they need to know sounds great. But stop! Wait! What about religion? This is important. You think: “Can I just stand back and hope my children will want to learn about their faith? Doesn’t that sound a bit risky? What if they don’t…