A Jane Austen Education
I was on my way to bed when I noticed the older girls’ bedroom light was still on. As I stood outside the door I could hear Imogen’s voice. It sounded like she was reading out loud. Pushing open the…
Podcasting, Blogging, Books and Lice!
I’ve been learning new things. You could say I’ve been unschooling! Yesterday, I worked out how to make a podcast. It wasn’t that difficult. I downloaded Audacity, pressed the ‘record’ button and then started chatting. When I’d finished speaking, I…
Accidental Unschoolers
This is the second part of our homeschooling story. It follows on from my post Undercover Homeschoolers. When our first child Felicity was about 6 years old and we’d been homeschooling for maybe a year, I met Anna. She lived…
Letting Go of Our Own Ideas About Our Kids’ Education
Many years ago, I set out on a big search for the perfect method of homeschooling. I was looking for something that would ensure that my kids learnt all the essentials of a good education. (These basics varied depending on…
Trying Not to Complain
Hour after hour, day after day, heavy rain dropped upon us. At first, we delighted in this extraordinary event. We searched for our long lost umbrellas. We remembered how to drive in the wet conditions. We took pleasure in the…
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…
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…
Why Picnics are Important
Many years ago, parenting and homeschooling could sometimes seem rather overwhelming, Some days my children refused to do what I asked. Or everyone needed…
Are We Becoming the People We Want Our Kids to Be?
Last weekend, my son Callum came home for a visit, and on Saturday morning, we had a breakfast picnic together at our local lake.…
Attachment Parenting and Unschooling
My first child was a perfect baby. She ate and played and smiled, and then when she was tired, she put herself to sleep.…
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…
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…
Is It Okay if Parents Want to Influence Their Unschooling Kids?
Is it okay if we try to influence our unschooling kids? What if we’d like them to acquire particular values? Can we expose them to our beliefs? Or should we stand back and try to keep quiet about the things we base our lives on and let our kids work out everything for themselves? Let’s say we decide it’s…
Letting Go of Control
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.…