What I Think Unschooling is All About: the Podcast

I’ve been having trouble finding the right words to express the ideas swirling around inside my head. But instead of worrying about it, I’ve been heading out the door to run along the sandstone tracks that weave their way through…

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. After we’d eaten, we took Callum’s dog for a walk around the lake. It wasn’t a…

Resolving to Go on More Adventures

This afternoon I had to drive to town to buy a few essentials: cheese and biscuits, wine and coke. Andy and I are off to our parish’s trivia event tonight, and we need to take along a few things to…

Beautiful Faces

Last night, I ordered our groceries online for the third week in a row. I shouted, “What do we need?” My daughter Imogen looked in the pantry and fridge and told me what things were running low. Then I clicked…

Latest

Encouraging Kids’ Ideas

The other day, I was telling you about my plans to transcribe parts of my podcasts. I want to make them into blog posts. I found some software called Transcribe to help me, and this afternoon, I tried it out. I transcribed a segment from podcast episode 52, Getting Older, Unschooling, and Moving On. It’s about encouraging children’s ideas (and not being afraid to try out our own ideas). I’ve used this segment before. If you’ve watched my short video,…

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 me to the kitchen. Apparently, our animals were on the edge of starvation. It’s just as well, I appeared. Once I’d tossed food into each pet bowl, I filled the kettle. As I stood waiting for the water to boil, I heard a sound. My daughter Sophie was up. I placed her cup next to mine and…

Making a Music Video in the Australian Bush

On a hot summer’s evening, we head into the beautiful Australian bush: Imogen, Sophie, Gemma-Rose and me. We follow a narrow stone-strewn track that winds between gum trees until we arrive at a cave-like rock on the edge of a cliff. Sophie and I have cameras and tripods. Gemma-Rose has an iPod. And Imogen has a golden cardboard box. Imogen sits on a rock next to the cave. She places the box on her lap. We point our cameras towards…

How All Kids Are Amazing

The other day, I read a parenting article in which the author said that parents can love their kids too much. I told my daughter Imogen about this and she was horrified: “You can never love a child too much!” I wonder what the author meant by love. Maybe he thinks parents give their kids the idea they are something special, and then they go out into the world and discover they aren’t quite as wonderful as they have been…

10 Reasons Why You Should Read My Blog

What if someone said, “Sue, there are lots of people writing about unschooling. Why should I follow your blog and read your posts?” What would I say? I did some thinking and came up with 10 reasons why you might consider reading my blog. And here they are: 1. Do you want to ponder unschooling ideas without feeling pressured to do things a certain way? Then you can do that here. All families are different. But we can still share…

Life after University: Following Dreams

My daughter Imogen has finished her Bachelor of Arts degree. For the past three years, she’s been studying Professional Writing and Publishing. Now Imogen is about to set off on new adventures. So what will she be doing? I thought I’d interview Imogen to find out. Imogen was very happy to answer my questions about her university experience and her plans for the future. They include: Did she like studying online? What does she want to do now? The quick…

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. She even slept through the night. I thought I was a perfect mother. (What was everyone else doing wrong?) But my second child wasn’t quite so obliging. Cracks began to appear in my perfect mother image. My third child? When he joined our family, all my high opinions of myself fell in a heap. He had…
1 … 69 70 71 72 73 … 109

My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

The Ladies Fixing the World

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…

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

Love or Fear? What Guides Our Lives?

There are so many things we could fear. We might be too afraid to send our kids to school if we listen to the loud voices telling us how bad traditional education is. We might choose homeschooling because of that fear. If we decide to homeschool, we’re still not safe. Fears could follow us. We might be too afraid to…

When We Can’t Decide What’s the Best Way to Bring Up and Educate Our Kids

Do you ever swap between the various methods of homeschooling looking for the perfect way to bring up and educate your kids? I used to do that. I’d try one thing after another, confusing myself and my kids, while never finding what I was searching for. As I said in my book Curious Unschoolers: … I pondered lots of questions:…
Go toTop