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…

Stolen Paintings and Real Life Maths

Last week was a hunting week… My daughters and I watched as the FBI tried to hunt down a number of stolen masterpieces. And then I went on a hunt for some real life maths experiences. (Where’s all that maths…

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 eating their egg and bacon rolls when another woman approached their table and said, “You shouldn’t…

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Letting Our Writing Imaginations Go Wild

The day before yesterday, while we were driving down the back road to town, we saw a tractor. “I’m glad it’s not going our way,” I remarked as it crawled along the road in the opposite direction. Yesterday, we were out on the road again. And again we came face-to-face with another slowly chugging tractor. This morning, as we were driving out of our village… “Look another tractor!” “The third this week!” Now tractors aren’t an uncommon sight in our…

Real Life Maths: Designing a Dream Home

“Anyone want to watch Grand Designs?” I shout. My family appears. “We do!” We turn on the TV, slip a disc into the DVD player and settle back to enjoy. In every episode of the TV lifestyle program, Grand Designs, a couple or family builds their dream home in their dream location. In every episode, something goes wrong: “The house will go over-budget,” someone predicts. “The windows won’t arrive on time.” “They’ll find an underground river just where they want…

If You Think Computer Games Are a Waste of Time…

Does your child like to play computer games? Maybe you wish he’d do something else because you think he’s wasting his time, doing nothing much at all. If you do, I have a story for you! The other day, my girls were playing computer games at the Coolmath Games website. “What game are you playing?” I asked. “Run!” said Gemma-Rose. “It’s great. Run 2 is even better.” “Can I have a go?” I asked. “Oh yes!” A moment later, I…

Is it Necessary We Agree with Each Other’s Ideas?

A reader once linked one of my posts to her blog and added the words: “I don’t agree with all her ideas, but I like this one.” Someone liked my post! I smiled. But a small part of me thought, “What’s wrong with some of my other ideas?” I wanted the reader to agree with everything I have to say. Is that just a natural reaction? Have you ever felt that way? Maybe most of us want our opinions to…

How to Live Radically

Radical unschooling children don’t necessarily brush their teeth, or shower and if they want to exist on an exclusive diet of coca cola and donuts, well, that’s up to them. Or so the stories go. And for some people that might not sound a very attractive way of life at all. But what if we forget about teeth and showers and junk food?  Perhaps there’s something far more important at the heart of a radical way of life… What if…

When Our Help and Strewing Are Rejected

My daughter Charlotte used to be openly enthusiastic about everything. Every evening she’d be eager to tell me about all the things she’d discovered that day. She’d listen to my ideas and ask for resources. Then things changed. During the last year or so of Charlotte’s official homeschooling years, she stopped turning to me for suggestions. If we did get together and mull over ideas for learning, she never followed up on anything. My help was often rejected. “What did…

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 my dream changed which is just as well because those followers didn’t materalise. Why do we want lots of followers? So we’re popular? Do we all have a need to be liked? Because it’s a sign we’re successful? All our…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

When in Doubt, Just Love

Last Wednesday, I pushed our living room sofa out of position, exposing a stretch of plain duck-egg blue wall. I placed a chair and…

The Ladies Fixing the World

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.…

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…

Christian unschooling

Sharing the Catholic Faith With Our Kids

Maybe you’re thinking about unschooling. Letting children follow their own interests, and trusting they will learn all they need to know sounds great. But stop! Wait! What about religion? This is important. You think: “Can I just stand back and hope my children will want to learn about their faith? Doesn’t that sound a bit risky? What if they don’t…

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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