Liking, Tweeting, Pinning, Aching…
Years ago, when I first started blogging, I wanted to be popular. I looked at all the big bloggers with envious eyes, and dreamed of a day when I’d have just as many followers as they did. After a while…
Doing Nothing?
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Popularity, Learning to Read and Shakespeare
Is there such a thing as a typical unschooling day? What about a typical unschooling week? Do my children spend equal time on all the key learning areas? The answer is no! We tend to get immersed in a few…
What if We’d Like Our Kids to Be Early Risers?
Sometimes when I write a post about our typical unschooling days, a reader stops by and says, “Oh, Sue, your mornings sound delightful! I wish my family would get up early so we could get a good start on the…
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…
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…
Our Typical Unschooling Mornings
This post follows on from Why Some Kids Are Willing to Help With the Chores. I’ve been thinking about how our life does look rather conventional. What makes our life… different from any structured homeschoolers’ life? Is it any different? How do we tell if someone is unschooling or not? We don’t stay up really late at night, we don’t drift through our days doing exactly what we want at all times, we get up very early in the morning,…
Why Some Kids Are Willing to Help with the Chores
I said that I have to be a good example if I want my children to help me get the house organised each morning… I have to jump out of bed and go out there and dive into the chores. I have to be willing to help so that my children are willing to help me. Sometimes when I go to the kitchen and see the dishes (waiting to be washed), I don’t want to do them. I think: Somebody…
Our Unschooling Morning Routine
Just before Christmas, Karen asked me if I could write about our typical unschooling days. I spoke about this topic in a podcast a few months ago, so I thought I’d share some of what I said in a short series of posts. Today, I’m starting with our morning routine. Routine? That doesn’t sound very unschooly, does it? We all get up early in the morning. If it’s one of the warmer months of the year, we might go for…
Talking About Exercise With My Unschooling Teenager
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Who’s on Your Team?
The other day I went for a walk with my daughter Imogen. As we were heading along a bush track, I noticed she was fumbling with her iPod. “Are you listening to something?” I asked. “No,” she replied. “I just had an idea about a blog post, and I’m making a note of it before I forget.” I understand about note making. I scribble down ideas all the time. If I didn’t, I’d soon forget them. And then some ‘brilliant’…
Evernote Homeschool Records: How Many Notebooks Do We Need?
How many Evernote notebooks do we need for recording our unschooling? Here are three options: 1. We could create only one notebook for the whole year eg: 2015 We can easily sort our notes if we tag them with the term and the week eg: term 1 week 1 If we want to see all the notes for week 1 of term 1, 2015, we search the 2015 notebook for the tags week 1 and term 1. 2. We could create…
One-on-One Times: Are They Important?
I got up early this morning. The house was quiet until our three cats, and one dog saw me. Meows and pitiful whines accompanied…
Is Unschooling More Than a Method of Homeschooling?
I told this story on Instagram: I heard a sad story. Two women were enjoying lunch together in a cafe. They were halfway through…
Guiding My Children Responsibly Without Imposing Rules
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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: Coping With the Unexpected
I used to think I could control my life. To achieve a perfect life, all I had to do was organise everything well, including my kids. What is a perfect life? My perfect life vision included a graduated row of good-looking and well-behaved children. I wanted people to admire my family and home, saying, “Sue is such a good mother!…
Christian Unschooling: Letting God into Our Kids’ Lives
I used to tick off my spiritual boxes religiously every day. I said a lot of prayers and read my Bible. And I got extra ticks whenever I was able to get to daily Mass, so I made the effort to get there as often as life allowed. It wasn’t easy doing all that, but I did it. I had…
The Discomfort of Letting Go and Allowing Our Kids (and Ourselves) to Grow
We organise life so we’re not challenged too much. We don’t want to stray outside our comfort zone because that could be painful. We say no instead of yes to our kids, not wanting them to go to parties at night, ride their bikes on the road, run through the bush alone, or learn to drive. We don’t want thoughts…