How Much Is Enough?
Once upon a time I used to worry about how much learning my children were doing each day. “Can we go now, Mum? Have we done enough school work for today?” How much is ‘enough’? I used to look at…
Clock Watching, Short Lessons and Curious Questions
This morning, after a long break, I dusted off my mic, sat down and made a new podcast episode! I enjoyed doing this, but I don’t know if I’m back permanently. Can I afford to keep podcasting? Can I afford…
Strewing to Share Passions and Keep Our Bonds Strong
Driving past a cafe in town, I spied a blue racing car. “I need a photo of the car to send to Callum!” I cried. So Andy turned the car around and headed back to the cafe. As we parked…
A Passion for Writing
I love writing. It’s one of my passions. And all of my children love writing too. They observe me sitting at the computer with my head down, in a world of my own, tapping away. Then: “Hey! I’ve finished. Read…
Responding to Unschooling and Other Critics
Earlier this week, I got involved in a long and involved conversation on Facebook. I don’t usually do this, but this time, I didn’t have a choice. The discussion began on my timeline. It was rather a heated debate: There…
Unschooling Teenagers: What They Think and What They Do
Have you ever wondered what unschooling teenagers are like? What kind of people are they? What do they think? What do they do? Have you ever googled the words ‘unschooling teenager’ to find out more? If you have done a search using those words, you might have ended up here on my blog. Two of my unschooling teenager posts show up high in the search results. An Unschooling Teenager Blog Post The first post is A Day in the Life of…
A Gradual Approach to Unschooling and More
Perhaps you’ve already tried unschooling and it didn’t work out for your family. You might have ended up in a situation you didn’t feel comfortable with. Maybe unschooling didn’t look as you’d imagined? Or maybe you haven’t yet dived in because you’re not sure about certain aspects of unschooling. What if your kids want to spend all their time in front of screens? Yes, other people have told you that kids learn to self-regulate their screen usage. But what if they…
My Unschool Unplanning Strewing Notebook
How can we unschool and, at the same time, be registered homeschoolers? What if our kids have to follow the school syllabus in order to fulfil the registration requirements? And what if we have to present a plan of how we’re going to be teaching our kids that material? Can all this be done without compromising our unschooling way of life? I think it can! We’ve been unschoolers and registered homeschoolers for a long time. I’ve never had a problem…
How It’s Easy to Make a Difference
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Polish Language Problems
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Do Unschoolers Need Holidays?
It’s the last day of the official school term. Yes, Term 3 for 2018 is just about over. So what are we doing? Are we jumping up and down with excitement, glad the holidays are almost here? Perhaps we’ve already dived into holiday mode? I might have said, “Thank goodness this term is over. I’ve had enough. It’s time to take a break!” No, we didn’t do any of that. We’re not even thinking about the holidays. We’re too busy.…
A Balanced and Productive Unschool Life
It’s good to read stories about unschoolers, isn’t it? What do they think? What do they do? What kind of people are they? Stories about real unschoolers bring unschooling alive. But there is something better than reading stories. And that’s listening to unschoolers themselves. In this week’s podcast: A Balanced and Productive Unschool Life, I’m chatting with my teenage daughter, Sophie who has lots of her own stories, ideas and opinions to share. We start with these conversation prompts: Something…
When an Unschooler Isn’t Interested in Maths [Podcast]
Every morning, I lace up my running shoes and then grab our dog Nora’s leash before sliding the kitchen door open and stepping out onto the patio. Sometimes I have to pull Nora from her kennel but usually, she is eager for a run and as soon as she sees me, she bounds ahead to the gate. Once the dog is secured to the leash, I open the side gate and we all head out to the front garden and…
Why We Have to Accept Ourselves as We Are
Sophie points her camera at me and says, “Smile, my beautiful mother!” I reply, “I’m not beautiful. Look at all my wrinkles!” Sophie pushes…
Live a Radical Life of Unconditional Love
Cecilie and Jesper Conrad invited me to be part of their Self Directed podcast, so I met them online, via Zoom, and I had…
What if We’d Like Our Kids to Be Early Risers?
Sometimes when I write a post about our typical unschooling days, a reader stops by and says, “Oh, Sue, your mornings sound delightful! I…
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.…
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?…
Christian Unschooling: Disciplining With Unconditional Love
If our children misbehave, what do we do? Make them sit on the time-out chair? Punish them? Perhaps we should withdraw our love. Be cold and distant. Make things unpleasant for our kids because they need to know how upset we are, don’t they? We want them to feel bad because then, maybe, they’ll remember to act in the right…
Christian Unschooling: Letting God into Our Kids’ Lives
I used to tick off my spiritual boxes religiously every day. I said a lot of prayers and read my Bible. And I got extra ticks whenever I was able to get to daily Mass, so I made the effort to get there as often as life allowed. It wasn’t easy doing all that, but I did it. I had…