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…

What Kind of Home Do Kids Need?

The other day, while walking our dogs through the bush close to home, I met a neighbour who warned me to watch out for snakes. He’d almost stepped on one and had sighted others that had slithered away. Years ago,…

Christian Unschooling: the Foremost Task of a Parent

A few days ago, in my Stories of an Unschooling Family community, I posted these thoughts: A parent does her best to give her child a good education but should concentrating on academic success be her main focus? Perhaps a…

From Unschooling to University

My 17-year-old daughter, Charlotte, is now a university student. It’s hard to believe. When did she grow up? Charlotte is studying her first unit through Open Universities. It’s part of a Bachelor of Arts degree in Digital Design. She may…

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Parents, Teenagers and Opinions

Why do some parents want to impose their opinions on their children? Do they do this because they care? Perhaps they want their teenagers to benefit from their experience. Prevent them from going down wrong pathways and making mistakes, ones they might have made when they were younger. Maybe it feels safer to force their teenagers to adopt the ideas they think are right rather than let them develop their opinions for themselves. Sometimes it can look like teenagers have…

Playing for Ian

If you listened to episode 125 of my podcast, Connecting Unschooling and Ageing, you might have heard this story. I wrote it in 2012 and originally published it on one of my other blogs. I think it’s a story worth repeating because it’s about an extraordinary person, someone we’ll never forget. Ian freely shared his talents with my kids and affected their lives in a big way. Perhaps you know someone similar? My son Callum’s singing teacher suggests he audition…

Hitting the Pause Button and The Colin Show

In this week’s podcast, episode 128, Cricket is my unschooling guest podcaster. The Colin Show Cricket tells us about her family She shares their journey from school-at-home homeschooling to unschooling Cricket recorded her guest podcast with her son Colin’s help. Please visit Colin’s Youtube Channel, The Colin Show, and subscribe! Hitting the Pause Button I share some of the responses from my Stories of an Unschooling Family survey I respond to some constructive criticism I talk about some changes I could make…

Unschool Reading: A Slow Learner

It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was helping my daughter Gemma-Rose learn to read. She’d choose a book and we’d sit side-by-side on the sofa and we’d enjoy the story together. Actually, I don’t know if ‘enjoy’ is the right word. Reading was a very slow process. We hardly ever got to the end of a book. I’d think, “Will Gemma-Rose ever read fluently?” which was a very silly question because I’d already experienced six other learner readers.…

Thankful and Facing Facts

I’m very pleased to announce that Venisa McAllister is my guest podcaster for this week’s episode: Thankful and Facing Facts. Thankful Venisa is talking about: Her own educational and childhood experiences How her family moved from homeschooling to unschooling Her children and how they have their individual learning styles The reasons she is thankful that her family is unschooling Facing Facts I’m talking about: How perfectionists like me don’t always face facts What I discovered when I was brave enough to…

My Number One Unschooling Fan

I’m my kids’ number one fan. I cheer my children on from the sidelines, encouraging them to develop their talents and become the people they are meant to be. I tell them I’m proud of them. I share in the joy of their achievements. Now some people might not approve of all this cheering. Maybe they worry that with all this positive attention, a child might start to think she’s someone special, someone better than everyone else.  However, my daughter…

Confident to Be Me

8Love and acceptance are so very important. They give our kids the confidence to go out into the world and be themselves. This post was written by my daughter Imogen. It’s easy to recognize the Elvis Gang when we’re on the move. There’s us four (at-home) girls and Mum, tunic dresses fluttering over denim leggings, striking a ridiculous pose for a photo by a classical statue in a garden, striding through the Australian bush, or maybe just taking an epic…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

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…

Is It Working? Wrestling with Doubt in Unschooling

A grey day arrives that completely blots out the memory of all the preceding good days. We feel overwhelmed, tired, worried and lost. We wonder why we ever decided to unschool. A puddle of doubt about unschooling forms around us. What do we do? Cecilie, Sandra and I are discussing unschooling doubts and sharing our experiences in episode 10 of…

Unschooling: How Do We Know They’re Learning?

There are loads of unschooling questions we could ask about learning: How do we know unschooling kids are learning? Should they be learning particular things? Is there knowledge that all kids need? Are our unschooled kids learning enough? Can they get behind? Should we just trust our kids are learning? But what if we have doubts? Or what if we…

Christian unschooling

When We Don’t Know What to Do

I’ve just updated my blog. I started at the first post I ever wrote and then worked my way through 14 years of stories, reading each one before deciding whether to keep it or revert it to draft. I then checked the formatting of the retained posts, rearranging paragraphs, eliminating dead links, and changing or improving the images. As I…

Can Unschooling Be a Christian Thing to Do?

When a child has been controlled all her life, she just might grow into the kind of adult who says, “Nobody is ever going to make me do what they want ever again. From now on I’m going to do what I want.” She might close herself off, stand well back, not let anyone get too close. Because you never…
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