What if Unschooling is Wrong?

Today, I’m sharing an incomplete thought. Some thoughts are like that. They sit at the edge of our minds, refusing to enter completely. We could dismiss them, but they might hold something of value. If only we could grasp them…

Parents, Teenagers and Opinions

Why do some parents want to impose their opinions on their children? Do they do this because they care? Perhaps they want their teenagers to benefit from their experience. Prevent them from going down wrong pathways and making mistakes, ones…

Latest

Learning about Fashion and other Friday Afternoon Stories

It’s a warm autumn Friday afternoon. I’m sitting on the family room sofa, computer on my knee. Now and then I gaze out the window. I can see gum trees. A slight breeze rustles their leaves. Each tree has a crown of cream flowers. Sitting next to the window is my youngest daughter, Gemma-Rose. She’s writing a new novel. It’s day 1 of Camp NaNoWriMo. “How many words have you written today?” I ask. “3,577.” Only 46,423 words to go.…

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 are going to school and work, we’re off on our unschooling adventures. Sometimes joy washes over us. Aren’t we so very fortunate to live this way of life? Occasionally I hear of unschooling teenagers who want to go to school.…

Choosing Not to Look for a ‘Real’ Job

Most people think my 21-year-old daughter is unemployed, but she’s not. She’s a.. Full-time writer, blogger, and musician. So far unpaid… And so far completely undaunted by this fact. I love Imogen’s description of herself. I found it on her blog, Write.Rewrite.Read: Full time musician? Yes, Imogen is recording songs and making music videos. She’s not getting paid for this work, but that’s a minor inconvenience, at least for the moment. The other day, Imogen suddenly said, “I love my…

Wasting Time Watching Too Many Movies?

“What shall I get Dad for his birthday?” I asked, and my girls giggled, and with one voice said, “Flowers… chocolates… promises you don’t intend to keep…””Flowers… chocolates… promises you don’t intend to keep…? Where’s that quote from?” “Beauty and the Beast!” Of course! Why didn’t I recognise this quote? Beauty and the Beast is Imogen and Charlotte’s number one favourite movie of all time. They’ve watched it a million times. Sometimes I say, “How can you possibly want to…

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 frustrating having to slow down, especially when there are a million things we want to do. But there was one thing I did do while resting on the sofa: I went on a search for more real life maths resources.…

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 was only later when I watched the finished video, I realised I’d made a big mistake: I’d done more talking than listening, especially in the first few minutes. Yes, I’m not perfect. I make mistakes all the time. How do I know this? Sophie told me so in the interview! After a couple of minutes, I…

Thinking Critically About Unschooling

The other day I was talking about obstacles to unschooling. I said, “So I wonder if there are things about unschooling that bother you, It can be a useful exercise to think about what it is that’s stopping you from unschooling. Write it down. It might be that those things which you don’t like about unschooling aren’t really unschooling. With a little bit of information, some research, you might discover that they’re not obstacles at all. Where should we look…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

The Ladies Fixing the World

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 maths? How can we provide evidence kids are learning maths when we don’t have formal records like workbooks and test…

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…

Christian unschooling

Does Christian Unschooling Interest You?

I’ve written three unschooling books: I focused on the educational side of unschooling in Curious Unschoolers. I extended the unschooling story in Radical Unschool Love by sharing parenting thoughts and stories. And I offered practical suggestions for turning all those interesting unschooling ideas into something real in families’ lives in The Unschool Challenge. Three books. A trilogy. Everything I can…
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