Some Real Life Covid English

The other morning, while we were driving to town, my daughter Gemma-Rose did something that’s socially unacceptable: she sneezed! “It’s okay,” I said. “We belong to the same bubble.” Then we had a very interesting conversation about words. Since covid-19…

The Dangers of Distraction

We often let ourselves be distracted, don’t we? But while we’re enjoying the excitement of pursuing something new and sparkly, there’s a danger we’ll lose the important things we already have. I dart from one project to another as they…

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 I used to feel about unschooling maths. We used to be unschoolers who unschooled everything except…

Giving My Unschoolers a Maths Test

I had this brilliant idea. Well, I thought it was a pretty good idea until this morning. It was all to do with maths. How do you prove your children are covering the required maths syllabus, and achieving the necessary…

Homeschooling Heidi

“Can we have another chapter of Heidi, please Mum?” begs Sophie. It’s the third time I’ve been asked that question today. “If you make me a cup of coffee and get the book ready, I’ll be there in a minute.” The girls…

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The Extraordinary Ordinary Things of Life

I’m at Thomas’ wake. I have his memory box on my knee, and I take out a few photos and pass them to a friend. “He was a chubby baby!” she exclaims. I reply, “He wasn’t really. Those photos were taken at the funeral home. He looked different at the hospital.” I think about this. I remember how much I longed to see Thomas once more at the funeral home before his burial. He was in his coffin at the…

Unschool Socialisation: Making Friends, Being Different

It’s Saturday afternoon. I’m at home, settled in front of the heater, thinking about socialisation. Am I’m feeling sociable at the moment? No. I’m quite capable of socialising, but I’m happy sitting here alone with my computer. Actually, I often feel like staying home and not seeing people. And my girls feel the same way. I suppose part of this has to do with the fact we’re introverts. But some of it is due to the fact we’re isolated unschoolers. Now…

Turning Our Unschool Weeks into Homeschool Records

Sometimes life is quiet. We can stay at home and relax. There’s plenty of time to say such things as “Would you like to watch a Shakespeare play with me?” We read books and drink hot chocolate. We write and chat and work on our individual projects. And as we do all this, I add links and notes to our homeschool records book. But sometimes life races along at an incredible pace. We take trips away from home. I drive…

Is Unschooling More Than a Method of Homeschooling?

I told this story on Instagram: I heard a sad story. Two women were enjoying lunch together in a cafe. They were halfway through eating their egg and bacon rolls when another woman approached their table and said, “You shouldn’t eat that food. You’re fat.” She then pointed out that she had no problems with her weight – she was slim – because she was careful about what she ate. She thought the two women should follow her example. How…

Turning My Teenager’s Unschool Learning into Homeschool Records

How do we turn our unschoolers’ learning into homeschool records notes? What do we write? What educational language can we use? If we haven’t got any written assignments or worksheets, what do we add to our notebooks to show what our kids have been doing? I’m going to share some of my daughter Gemma-Rose’s recent learning experiences and how I’ve recorded them in our records book. Gemma-Rose is fourteen so I am going to call this post Turning my Teenager’s…

Turning Outings into Homeschool Records Notes

We all know that outings are packed full of learning experiences. While we’re enjoying a picnic or strolling through the bush or visiting a museum or an art gallery, we’re soaking up a lot of information without even realising it. We don’t really need to think about it. Unless, of course, if we have to keep homeschool records. Yes, we can turn an enjoyable outing into a lot of homeschool records notes. This might seem rather sad. Why do it?…

Guiding Our Kids by Radically Unschooling

Is radical unschooling all about stepping back and letting our children make their own choices without any influence from us? They might make choices we feel happy about. Or they could choose to do things we feel are detrimental to their health and happiness. Perhaps it doesn't matter. It's not about the parent. It's about the child. Shouldn't our children be free to do whatever they like even if that means eating a diet of junk food and not washing…

The Complicated Issue of Unlimited Screen Time

If we give kids unlimited access to screens and the Internet, will they all learn to self-regulate their usage? Perhaps all we need to do is let go of control and trust. Maybe allow a bit of time for kids to get used to the fact that the screens won’t be taken away and they don’t have to fit as much computer time into their days as possible. It’s that simple. Or maybe it’s not. Could some children have problems?…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

The Ladies Fixing the World

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.…

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: 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!…

Christian unschooling

Christian Unschooling: Are Desires Important?

Do you have great desires? Are there things you want to do with your life? Maybe you know in a vague kind of way that you need to do something, but you don’t know what you should do. Or perhaps your desires don’t feel important. When I was a child, I had desires, but they came to nothing. Other people…

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…
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