Telling the Same Story in a New Way

It’s 3.30 pm. “I’m taking Nora for a walk,” I say, and my daughter Sophie replies, “I’ll come with you.” We slip our feet into our shoes and shrug on our coats before sliding open the outside door. Our dog…

Passing on Our Fears to Our Kids

How do you feel when your children try things out in public with everybody looking on? Do you admire their courage and say, “Have a go!” Or do you worry they’ll fail? When my kids were much younger, we made…

Perfect

I raise my camera to my eye and frame my daughter Sophie within the viewfinder. She grins before raising her own camera. I almost protest and say, “Hey, I look terrible! Don’t take any photos of me!” But I don’t.…

Falling in Love the Jane Austen Way

My older girls are busy introducing their younger sisters to the delights of Jane Austen. “You must watch Persuasion,” insists Imogen. “I’ll explain all the difficult bits,” she adds, as she notices the uncertain look on nine year old Gemma-Rose’s face. So we…

Latest

Ideas for Starting Unschooling

A few posts ago, I was talking about collaboration. Would anyone like to work with me as we try to spread the unschooling message? Could we light a gentle unschooling fire together? I was afraid no one would respond to my invitation, but quite a few people did! You might have noticed the recent guest posts which have widened the unschooling conversation. Instead of just reading my thoughts and ideas and hearing about what my family is doing, you’ve been…

Watching a Child Learn

This is a guest post written by Elizabeth Johnson. As mothers (and fathers) we are blessed with an incredible privilege: watching our children’s minds unfold to the world around them. I used to take great pleasure from seeing an “A” at the top of my daughter’s spelling tests and would congratulate myself on parenting well done when my son could parrot back to me the correct answers for an upcoming science test. Never mind the distasteful preparation on behalf of…

A Podcast Transcript: Passing On Our Values and Beliefs to Our Children

This post is a transcript of part of my podcast, Episode 102: Sharing Our Values and Beliefs With Our Unschooled Children. I edited my original words to make them flow better. I reordered some of them, cut out repetitions, and made some small additions so that my thoughts are easier to follow. (Unfortunately, words never fall from my lips in a perfect manner when I’m podcasting!) I don’t think it matters whether we have a faith or not, whether we are…

Sharing Our Values and Beliefs With Our Unschooled Children

We all have our beliefs. Even if we don’t have a religious faith, we still believe in something. We all have values which shape our lives. Is it okay if we share these beliefs and values with our kids? I’ve heard some unschoolers say that we shouldn’t influence our kids. They should be free to make up their own minds about such things without any input from us. I have a couple of problems with this opinion. For a start,…

How I Gave Up and Started Unschooling

A guest post by Venisa McAllister We started with high hopes. When my oldest daughter Sarah was old enough for kindergarten I enrolled her in a program called k-12. They would give us a computer, fun learning materials, and help me turn my daughter into a genius! We started with high hopes. How could it not work? Everything came beautifully organized in a large box and it seemed very well planned. The downside was that this curriculum was very big…

Adult Peer Pressure, Clothes, Rules, and Compassion

Have you even made decisions based on other people’s opinions rather than the needs of your own family? I have. I almost ruined my relationship with my eldest daughter by doing this. I chose to listen to my friends rather than to my child. You see, I wanted to be accepted by the group. I bowed to adult peer pressure. Adult peer pressure can affect the way we unschool. Sometimes we might find ourselves doing things we just aren’t ready for…

If We Collaborate Could We Light a Gentle Unschooling Fire?

I’m looking for collaborators. People to work with. Other bloggers and podcasters and vloggers and authors who are passionate about spreading the unschooling message. In a gentle way. Helen Keller said: Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. And Louisa May Alcott said: It takes two flints to make a fire. I only have to look at my family to see how much can be achieved when a few people pool their talents and work…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

When in Doubt, Just Love

Last Wednesday, I pushed our living room sofa out of position, exposing a stretch of plain duck-egg blue wall. I placed a chair and…

The Ladies Fixing the World

Unschooling: Trusting the Process and Letting Go of Control

“I kind of love my title for this podcast. It’s very ambitious. Let’s fix it all!” And so begins another Ladies Fixing the World conversation in which Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd and I dive deep into unschooling, sharing our thoughts and experiences. In S2E4, we discuss Unschooling: Trusting the Process and Letting Go.   Want to know more…

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!…

Unschooling: Trust, Autonomy, and The Realities of Learning

The Ladies are Fixing the World again! Cecilie, Sandra and I are discussing the words ‘self-regulation’ and ‘limits’. When we say, “I’ve let go of control, and now I’m waiting for my child to learn how to regulate his time playing video games (for example),” do we have expectations about what that regulation should look like? Do we want…

Christian unschooling

Speed Angel Joy

I am sitting by the lake watching four girls scooting along the path. They are the Speed Angel Sisters and they are fast! Every now and then the girls veer off onto the grass and come to a sudden halt: a pedestrian is approaching. Now the speedway is clear again, and strong legs start pushing, wheels are revolving, hair…
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