More About Starting Unschooling
Yesterday, I was brave. When I tell you what I did, maybe many of you will think, “Is that all Sue did?” You might not be impressed. However, I did something that was difficult for me. I hosted my first…
Why We Have to Take Risks
Today I posted my very first podcast. “Do you want to listen to my podcast?” I ask my girls. They nod and soon we’re sitting around my computer listening to Podcasting, Blogging, Books and Lice! “You’re using your ‘other people’…
Kids, Needs, and Church
Should unschooled kids be forced to go to church? I wonder if this is the wrong question to ask when our kids protest about coming with us. Would it be better to ask, Why doesn’t my child want to go to…
The Math Myth: How Do Unschooled Kids Learn Math?
There are many unschool maths questions. Here are just a few of them: Can kids really learn maths without formal instruction? What does unschooling maths look like? Can we strew unschool maths? Is it possible for registered homeschoolers to unschool…
An Impossible Adventure
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Radical Unschooling
Are you thinking about radical unschooling? Maybe you see the benefits of educational unschooling and now you’re thinking about letting unschooling spill over into all aspects of life. What do you do next? Perhaps you say to your kids, “We’re going to try radical unschooling. From now on you’re free to choose when you go to bed, what you eat, if you help with the chores… You can do whatever you like.” But will this work? Surely letting go in…
Learning from Life, Record-Keeping, and Strewing
Last week, life was very busy. And even though there was no time for such things as ‘school’, we had a week jam-packed with learning. By the time Friday rolled around, I had an equally jam-packed unschool records book. Yes, notes were spilling out of my Evernote notebook, and our heads were buzzing with all the things we’d learned. In this week’s podcast episode, I tell you about our week and how I recorded all our wonderful learning experiences. I…
How Children Learn When They Have a Need
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Go Out There and Make a Difference!
Do you ever compare yourself to someone else who’s doing similar work to you? Do you feel discouraged if they seem to be more successful than you? Perhaps you feel like giving up. Why bother? Well, don’t give up. You have a unique voice. So do I. So does everyone. No one can do things in the exact same way as us. We all have an important job to do. And we have to get out there, do it, and…
How to Make Evernote Unschool Records Look Impressive
Every two years, an Authorised Person (AP) from the Education Department comes to visit our family as part of our homeschool registration process. We have to show her what we’ve been doing. We have to prove to her that my girls are fulfilling the necessary registration requirements. Last time our AP came to see us, I presented her with our Evernote records. I opened my computer and set it down on the table in front of her. She scrolled through…
What We Need to Film Imogen’s Music Videos
The evening before a music video shoot day, I say to my girls, “Have we got everything ready? Are the camera cards empty? Have we charged the batteries?” We find all our equipment and pile it by the front door. The next morning, we gather it together as we head out into the dark, shortly before sunrise. We’ve got into a good routine. We know exactly what we need to film each music video. So what do we need?…
A Triple Celebration
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Cold Piano Fingers
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Love and a Mother’s Heart Stories
Children bring us great joy. Our hearts overflow with love for them. We enfold them in our arms and enjoy. But sometimes that same…
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…
Should We Push Kids to Use Their Talents, Aim High and Impress?
Do you ever wonder if you should push your kids? Make them do hard things even if they complain. Drill them. Give them a…
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…
Resources for Unschoolers
Strolling towards the shopping centre, I spy an older man with three hand-reared brightly coloured parrots. A few wide-eyed kids are gathered around him, and as I watch, he transfers a parrot to one of their shoulders, where it bounces lightly upon its feet, nuzzling a little ear. The child grins, hardly daring to move. The children have questions which…
Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Curiosity, Flexibility, and Trust
I’m a Lady Fixing the World! Cecilie Conrad kindly invited me to join her and Sandra Dodd for Season 2 of her podcastThe Ladies Fixing the World. We recorded our first unschooling conversation together in November 2024 before life got extra-busy with Christmas, and it has just gone live! The audio version. Here’s the audio version: You can also listen…
Should We Encourage Our Kids to Follow Their Dreams?
What did you want to be when you were a child? I wanted to be a writer. I had a cardboard box inside my wardrobe where I stored my scribbled stories about princesses, dragons and faraway kingdoms. At night, in bed, before dropping off to sleep, I’d think up stories about large happy families who were a lot like the…
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…