An Answer to the Chores Problem

We’d all like our children to be considerate, hard working and happy to help others. We’d especially like them to be willing to help out with the chores. Maybe we also hope they’ll be generous, to go beyond what they…

How NOT to Be Your Child’s Worst Nightmare

Have you ever seen this meme? I am not your friend I am your parent I will stalk you I will flip out on you Lecture Drive you insane Be your worst nightmare and Hunt you down when needed Because…

The Joy and Love of Living an Unschooling Way of Life

Last Friday, my girls and I had a wonderful morning filming Imogen’s latest music video on the banks of a local river. On our way home, we couldn’t help expressing our gratitude for the life we lead. While other people…

Unschooling: No Hippie Way of Life Needed…

… unless you want one of course. When our first child was 6 years old we headed off to our very first homeschooling camp. At that time, we thought we were unschooling. Then we met our fellow campers who also…

Doodling

My girls love to doodle. I do too! I used to think doodles were those scribbles people draw while they are talking on the phone. They are, but they’re also a whole lot more. Doodles are easy to draw, require…

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Podcasting Breaks and Unschooling Books

This is a very short blog post. All I want to say is: I’m taking a short podcasting break while I work on my unschooling book. If you’d like to hear more about Podcasting Breaks and Unschooling Books, you could listen to this week’s very short podcast, episode 103. I hope you’ll watch out for a regular full-length podcast episode in a few weeks’ time! Podcast music: Twombly by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0) Image: I didn’t record a podcast episode last week because…

Miles’ Model Munitions Germination

This is a guest post by unschooling teenager Miles Brack. About a month ago, my local home-schooling group held a “winter markets”. Mum suggested that I sell my wooden model guns… Setting up for the markets was a little hard. Seeing as I’d never met the audience I had no idea what to make for them. I had a hunch that the long guns had potential to be a best seller, but since they were the hardest and most expensive…

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…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

The Ladies Fixing the World

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…

Learning to Read and Trusting Unschooling

It is absolutely essential that we are curious people who are excited about the possibilities in life. The atmosphere in our homes gets picked up by our kids so they think it’s normal to learn, to be curious, to follow thoughts and ideas and try things out… I was battling with my kids for a while. They kept saying, ‘Why…

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…

Christian unschooling

Igniting a Child’s Love of Learning

Do you wake up each morning with a delicious feeling of anticipation? Do you swing your legs out of bed quickly, anxious to get dressed and move onto the business of the day? Another day of learning with your children stretches ahead… Do you feel excited? Once upon a time, I used to drag myself out of bed and…

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…
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