Opening Myself Up to Criticism

I’m It’s inevitable: someone is going to criticise my unschooling books. No one has yet, but someone will. How do I know this? Well, even though we would like to think everyone agrees with our ideas and likes our work,…

How Do Kids Learn to Be Generous?

On Monday, my daughter Imogen and I were the filling in a truck sandwich as we drove from our quiet village, along the busy motorway, through the heavy rain, to the city shops. I wanted to buy some white sneakers,…

Unschooling, University and More: An Interview

How do unschoolers get into university? Does unschooling prepare kids for the university experience? How do they get on studying in an educational institution for the first time? When my son Callum was 22, we discussed these questions in a…

Our Writing Unrules for Unschoolers

How do unschoolers learn to write? Can they gain the necessary writing skills without any formal instruction? I think they can. Actually, I know they can because that’s what my daughter Imogen did! She’s an unschooler who went to university…

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Busy Days and Catch-Up Days

Do you ever have weeks where you find yourself racing through your days trying to keep up? We’re having one of those weeks right at the moment. Usually, we get up early each day. We work our way through our morning routine, and then we are free to enjoy all those empty hours stretching ahead of us. They’re waiting to be filled with whatever we like.But some weeks, things happen. People ask us to do things, cats get fleas and…

More Sibling Rivalry: Another Unschooling Interview

Yesterday, I posted a video about sibling rivalry. It’s an interview with my 14-year-old daughter Sophie. Towards the end of the interview, I asked, “No such thing as sibling rivalry?” and Sophie answered, “Not in this house!” I’ve been thinking about the value of posting this video. Is it helpful? Perhaps it’s not. Could it be off-putting? We’ve all heard about those blogs where the blogger and her family seem to be perfect. They make us wonder what we’re doing…

Sibling Rivalry: An Unschooling Interview

Sometimes people ask me if my children get on with each other. Have I ever had to deal with sibling rivalry? I think back through the years, and it wouldn’t be true to say my kids have never argued with each other. I don’t remember any incidents of physical fighting, but there must have been times when they fought with their words. But that seems a long time ago. Today, they have no trouble living peacefully with each other. My…

Obstacles to Unschooling

In last week’s podcast, I asked the question: What’s stopping you from unschooling? And then I pondered some of the obstacles that might be holding people back from giving unschooling a go. After the podcast was published, a friend asked if I’d transcribe it into some blog posts. So that’s what I’m doing. Maybe there are some people who have investigated unschooling. They like the idea BUT… What is holding them back? A couple of things held me back when…

Responding to Unschooling and Other Critics

Earlier this week, I got involved in a long and involved conversation on Facebook. I don’t usually do this, but this time, I didn’t have a choice. The discussion began on my timeline. It was rather a heated debate: There was more than one opinion. So I’ve been thinking: How do we respond when someone challenges us with a different opinion? In particular, what if people criticise our decision to unschool? What is the best thing to say? I talk…

What’s Stopping You From Unschooling?

I’m sure there are many people investigating unschooling. But not everyone who considers unschooling will actually decide to give it a go. Why’s that? What holds people back? Do they like the sound of some aspects of unschooling but aren’t sure about others? In this week’s podcast, I talk about the things that could be stopping people from unschooling. I also share some of our unschooling story. Why did we start as unschoolers but then go in a different…

Why My Children and I Share Our Unschooling Evernote Notebooks

When I signed up for Evernote so did my children. Yes, we all have our own accounts. This allows us to share our notebooks. Why would we want to do that? That’s what I’m going to talk about today! Whenever I create a new weekly homeschool records notebook, I invite my daughters Sophie and Gemma-Rose to share it. I give them the ability to not only view the notes but to edit them as well. And my girls do the same, sharing…

Fan Mail and Lots of Unschooling Thoughts

This morning I felt very discouraged. Perhaps it was the result of being overtired. I don’t know. It’s strange how grey the world looks when we’re tired. Earlier today, nothing excited me. I didn’t want to blog or podcast. Sharing unschooling didn’t seem important. All I wanted to do was close my computer and forget everything. “Are you going to record a podcast today, Mum?” “I’ve got nothing to say,” I replied. “I’ve said it all before. I’m just repeating…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

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…

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…

The Ladies Fixing the World

Unschooling: How Do We Know They’re Learning?

There are loads of unschooling questions we could ask about learning: How do we know unschooling kids are learning? Should they be learning particular things? Is there knowledge that all kids need? Are our unschooled kids learning enough? Can they get behind? Should we just trust our kids are learning? But what if we have doubts? Or what if we…

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…

Christian unschooling

Unschooling, Homemaking, and a Mother’s Role

Erin wrote: What does the idea of homemaking mean to you? Is it a certain skill set or talent? Does it need to look or happen a certain way, or is it a flexible term? What role does homemaking play for you in home ed life? Do the two need to go together? Are there aspects of homemaking that you…

Shall We Talk About Christian Unschooling?

I often get to the point where I feel I haven’t got anything more to say about unschooling. I wonder: is it time to move on? At the beginning of last year, I reached such a point. However, instead of thinking about moving away from unschooling, I proposed the idea of exploring unschooling from a different angle. Should we discuss…
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