Getting Older, Unschooling, and Moving On

My unschooling blog has a limited life. One day, in the not too distant future, I will no longer have anything to write about. My youngest child will have grown up and moved onto a new stage of her life.…

Younger Unschoolers: When Does Unschooling Begin?

The other day, I posted this on Instagram: Does anyone want to talk about little kids? Unschooling? Parenting? Both? I often talk and write about teenagers and young adults because my children are older. (My baby will soon be 16!)…

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Are We Living a Second Best Kind of Unschooling Life?

Sometimes I wonder: Are we living a second best kind of unschooling life? Perhaps we should move to a farm or a large property. We could grow organic vegetables, have chooks, a goat, and even a donkey. Maybe we could get a milking cow. And what about a horse? We could ride bikes, go off-grid, and recycle everything. We could spin wool, bottle fruit, and make our own soap. The kids could swim in the river (or dam), chop wood,…

How Introverts Aren’t Necessarily Shy

Introverts aren’t shy. At least we’re not. Yes, we’re an introverted family. The whole lot of us. This is rather nice because we understand each other perfectly. Outsiders often don’t. When we’re at a gathering, especially if there’s a crowd, we might be quiet and reserved. We’re out of our environment. We don’t feel comfortable. And people might say, “Join in. Don’t be shy!” We protest, “We’re not shy!” But maybe no one believes us. Shy people stand on the…

Do You Live in the Best Place in the World?

Two girls, a dog, and a mother. We’re strolling down the middle of the road under the midday sun, heading for the bush. A few minutes later, dog by my side, I’m running over the red sandstone and under the tall gum trees. And as I run, I listen. Michael Hyatt is talking about the forces that can shape our character. He says something like this: If we want to become good leaders, we have to work on our characters.…

How to Start a Great Art Conversation

On Monday, I plug my mic into my computer, open Audacity, hit ‘record’, and start to talk.  For 40 minutes, I discuss a current unschooling topic. Along the way, I share some family news. Before I know it, I have a new podcast episode to upload to Podbean. Episode 82 is done. And it’s only a day late! On Friday, I think, “If I want to post next week’s episode on time, I should record it this afternoon.” But before…

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 I love you. Every time I see these words, I feel very sad. Why do so many people think we can’t be both parent and friend to our children? Do we really need to be their worst nightmare in…

A Day in the Life of an Unschooling Teenager: Miles Brack

From the outside, my day looks like this: I wake up somewhere between 11 am and 1 pm Play video games till about midnight. And go to bed. Very basic and boring to write about. However on the inside: This morning I woke in my bivouac which I built in the backyard, in order to test out my new folding bed which is going into my Andersen Shelter I am digging on our block of land. The temperature was between…

Will All Unschoolers Do Amazing Things?

Will all unschoolers do amazing things? If you do some googling, you’ll find many stories of young unschoolers doing extraordinary things. You might think that every unschooler has a guaranteed amazing future. But what if it doesn’t turn out that way for your kids? Will you think you have failed? Will you wonder if you did something wrong? I have a few unschoolers who are hoping to do amazing things. In particular, my daughters Imogen and Sophie have big dreams. Imogen…

Are You a Daring and Adventurous Parent?

Last week, my husband Andy and I took our four youngest girls away on holiday. We spent a few days at a salt water lake, swimming, kayaking and making sandcastles. Two of my girls are young adults, but they were just as keen to make sandcastles as their younger siblings. “Will they ever grow up?” joked Andy as we sat on the sand watching our girls. “Will our daughters be making sandcastles forever?”Later, I told Imogen, our 21-year-old daughter, what…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

Listening to Kids

The other day I interviewed my 14-year-old daughter, Sophie: I wanted to hear her opinions about perfect families, mistakes and listening to kids. It…

What Is Unschooling?

What is unschooling? I’ve been blogging about unschooling for over 5 years now. You’d think I would already have written a post with this…

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…

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

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