Helping a Child Go Where She Wants to Go
Not so long ago, we had a big running week. Day after day, we rolled out of bed early and hurried down to the bush tracks at the end of our road for a 5 or 6 km run. Then…
Why This Unschool Mother Doesn’t Care
He who doesn’t care has more power. I heard those words somewhere, scribbled them into my journal, and then pondered them. Are they true? Should we care? Or are there some things we shouldn’t waste our time caring about? One…
Making an Aussie Bush Christmas Tree
A few days ago, we were planning my daughter Imogen’s latest music video. “I’m singing a Christmas carol. Where do you think we should film the video?” “We could put up our Christmas tree early and film it inside.” “I…
Helping Kids When Their Interests Are Different to Ours
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The Changing Seasons of the Unschooling Year
I saw a friend the other day who asked, “When are you finishing school work for the year?” I grinned wickedly and replied, “Finishing? We haven’t even started. We haven’t done anything for a long time.” I shouldn’t joke. People…
Should We Buy Kids What They Need to Further Their Passions?
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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…
Unschool Maths Records: 20+ Ideas for Evernote
Is anyone looking for ideas on how we can use Evernote to record unschool maths? I hope so because I have put together a list of 20+ ideas I use! 1. Copy and paste infographics Recently, we’ve been pondering such things as how much does the average person spend at Christmas? How many Christians are there in Australia? How do people fund their Christmas shopping? We found some infographics which gave us the answers. 2. Clip any stats associated with…
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…
Boy Stories
Usually I speak and write about my four youngest daughters. But not today. For this week’s podcast, I share some boy stories. I received…
Unschooling Children, a School Teacher Father, and Tea
“What does your husband think about you unschooling your children?” I have been asked this question quite a few times. I guess people are…
Unschooling Is Carried by Conversations
Dinner tables, car rides, bedtime chats, and café corners are the real places where unschooling lives and grows. Conversations—often unscheduled, informal, and unplanned—can become the central structure of a learning life. Gathering at the Dinner Table In our house, we never met for breakfast or lunch. Those were meals where people ate what, where and when they liked. But we…
Unschooling: Trusting the Process and Letting Go of Control
“I kind of love my title for this podcast. It’s very ambitious. Let’s fix it all!” And so begins another Ladies Fixing the World conversation in which Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd and I dive deep into unschooling, sharing our thoughts and experiences. In S2E4, we discuss Unschooling: Trusting the Process and Letting Go. Want to know more…
How Unschooling Doesn’t Guarantee a Fairytale Life
Yesterday evening, like all Sunday evenings, my kids who live locally came to dinner. Six of us gathered around our dining room table, savouring a meal cooked by my husband while enjoying the usual end-of-the-week lively catch-up conversation. There was a time when we dreamed that all our children would buy houses on the same street as our family home.…
Can Christians Unschool?
Can Christians unschool? We’re Christian unschoolers. Maybe you’re Christian unschoolers too? There are lots of us living this way of life. But are we doing the right thing? Or are we side-stepping our responsibilities when we choose to unschool? Are we choosing the easy, lazy path? I often hear of parents who are struggling with homeschooling. Their kids aren’t doing…
Letting Go of Control
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