Tough or Unconditional Love? Parent or Friend?
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The Rose Round – children’s fiction
I have just finished reading Meriol Trevor’s book The Rose Round to Sophie and Gemma-Rose. They were enthralled with the story from the very first page. So was I! The book description on Amazon doesn’t say much at all: Young Matt…
Maths, Chores, and Thanking Our Kids
For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been living a quiet life. We haven’t done anything exciting. No music video shoots. No picnics by the lake. We haven’t even been running. The reason? We’ve all been unwell. It can be…
Finding Unschooling in Unexpected Places and Other Things
A couple of weeks ago, I read C.G. Drews’ young adult novel, A Thousand Perfect Notes after hearing about it in one of my daughter Imogen’s book review videos. In the story, Maestro, a former famous pianist, forces her son…
Can We Say We’re Unschoolers if We Require Maths?
Some people will tell you if you unschool everything except maths, you’re not really an unschooler. For how can we say to our kids, “I trust you will learn everything you need to know… but not maths”? We either trust…
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 had another go. I recorded a new version of episode 118 (on a different topic). Is it better than the…
Christian Unschooling and Other Things
I made a new podcast episode! Yes, after an absence of a few weeks, I’m back. So where did I go? Nowhere in particular. I was just at home enjoying lots of slow summer days. Maybe I was feeling lazy. But yesterday, that changed. I suddenly felt like getting back to work. And so I thought I’d record a catch-up podcast episode. In this week’s episode, Christain Unschooling and Other Things, I’m talking about what’s been going on around here…
An Impossible Adventure
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Letting Go of Control
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Bringing God into the Unschooling Picture
A few months ago, I wrote a post called Why This is the End of the Line for Me. I decided that I’d explored unschooling from every possible angle. What more could I write about? It was time for me to move onto other things. Let my kids tell their own unschooling stories and find something else of my own to do. I’ve spent weeks trying to work out what that ‘something else of my own’ is. Should I blog…
Is It Time to Unschool?
A new year. What’s ahead? More of the same? Or are you going to try a few new things in 2018? How about unschooling? If you’ve been sitting on the fence, thinking about it but not actually committing to this way of life, perhaps it’s the perfect time to let go and do it. Jumping into unschooling might feel scary. Are you really prepared for what feels like a huge step? Perhaps you should read one more book or blog?…
Why It’s Important to Allow Kids to Follow Their Interests and Passions
After my recent series of short unschooling blog post story podcasts, I now have a longer episode. It’s jam-packed full of thoughts, ideas and news! In episode 116, I’m discussing the following questions: Does planning have any place in unschooling? Can we make attractive planners using Evernote? Will I continue my Evernote workshop series? How does balance fit into an unschooling life? Why is it very important that we let our kids follow their passions and interests? Is it okay to…
Learning During a Crisis
In this week’s podcast, episode 115, I’m sharing and discussing two stories: Learning From Life and Homeschooling in a Crisis I’m talking about those times when we don’t need to strew because life is rich enough without any help from us. Maybe life is sometimes too rich. We might have a crisis to deal with that prevents us from getting involved with our kids’ learning. Should we worry if we can’t do all the things we normally do? And what about our…
Have I Changed My Unschooling Mind About Screens?
If I had younger children, would I give them iPads of their own? Would I encourage them to spend as much time as they…
Interviewing Sophie (13), an Unschooling Teenager
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Encouraging Kids to Say Thank You
How do we encourage our younger children to say thank you? Do they need only our good example to copy? Is learning good manners…
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…
Unschooling Isn’t Freedom Gone Wild: Why Choices Matter More Than Ideals
My husband Andy returned to work today after two weeks at home. Holiday time is over. We’ve now moved into term time. A whole term of possibility days stretches before me. I’m free to do whatever I like with my time while Andy is at school. My eyes light up with delight. But then I remember there are many…
Unschooling Is Carried by Conversations
Dinner tables, car rides, bedtime chats, and café corners are the real places where unschooling lives and grows. Conversations—often unscheduled, informal, and unplanned—can become the central structure of a learning life. Gathering at the Dinner Table In our house, we never met for breakfast or lunch. Those were meals where people ate what, where and when they liked. But we…
Losing Time
I’ve been reading a book called A Time to Die by Nicholas Diat, who visited eight monasteries to talk to the monks about the experience of death. Here’s something that caught my attention: One monk described how he cares for the old and sick, and how he has to guard against doing things in a routine way, trying to complete…
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…