Guiding Our Kids by Radically Unschooling

Is radical unschooling all about stepping back and letting our children make their own choices without any influence from us? They might make choices we feel happy about. Or they could choose to do things we feel are detrimental to…

An End of the Year Unschooling Challenge

At the end of 2020, which was a very tough year, I wrote the following unschooling challenge. 2021 turned out to be a difficult year too. I think we could substitute 2021 for 2020 and do the challenge again! This…

Unschooling During a Crisis

Are there some things you hate doing? We don’t like gardening. Usually, we let our garden take care of itself. That’s why our hedges grew and grew until they were higher than the roof of our house. We should have…

Examining An Unschooling Life

I drop a peppermint teabag into my favourite glass mug, add boiling water, and carry it to the living room. Opening the blinds so I can see the sun as soon as it rises, I settle on the sofa with…

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Is Unschooling Just Living Life?

Sometimes life gets busy. Too busy. I like empty weeks: five days waiting to be filled with whatever we like. I thought last week was going to be an empty week. But unexpected things happened. We ended up having lots of appointments to attend and errands to do. In the course of last week, I walked to and from our village a number of times as I posted and shopped and visited and attended… And as I walked, I chatted…

Of Spiders and Saints and So-Much-Kindness

A Guest Blog Post by Suzie Andres My family and I are visiting my husband’s family in Florida. Yesterday my husband surprised me by getting up early (this is vacation!) and asking if I’d like to go with him to Mass (it was a weekday morning; the feast of St. Sixtus the Second and of St. Cajetan, as it turned out). As we got into his parent’s car, we noticed something on the driver’s side mirror, just a few inches…

Encouraging Kids to Write (and the Youngest Child in the Family)

When my son Duncan was about six or seven years old, his head was bursting with stories he wanted to tell. Every morning he would sit in front of an old manual typewriter and hammer on the keys and his tale would appear on the paper. While he worked, his face was lit up with a huge smile. His whole body vibrated with sheer delight. “Would you like to see my story, Mum?” Duncan would ask when the final word…

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 things at a time. This isn’t so good for my record-keeping, but it’s a very enjoyable and effective way of learning. Recently I’ve had a lot of English and Creative Arts learning experiences to record in my records notebook, but…

Can We Say We’re Unschoolers if We Require Maths?

Some people will tell you if you unschool everything except maths, you’re not really an unschooler. For how can we say to our kids, “I trust you will learn everything you need to know… but not maths”? We either trust or we don’t. Nothing else makes much sense. So yes, I do understand that point of view. But before I upset anyone with my opinions, I want to say I also understand how difficult it is to let go of…

Learning from My Daughter and Other Unschool Stories

Once upon a time, I knew more than Sophie when it came to our shared passions. But I have to admit, these days, her knowledge far exceeds mine. Now I’m learning from my daughter. “How did you make that blog post graphic?” I ask. “I’ll show you,” offers Sophie. Then she adds, “I could make a screencast tutorial video about it for you. It might help if you forget what you have to do.” So she does and I watch…

Deciding to Be Positive about Homeschool Record Keeping

“Hey, girls, come and look at my video!”“It looks wonderful, Mum!” (My daughters know exactly the right words to say!)“Do you like the slideshow? How about the pan and zoom effect? Does that work?” The girls nodded. And, of course, I smiled. I love learning new things. It’s a wonderful feeling gaining a new skill. And it’s great having people to share my achievements with. So what exactly have I been doing? I’ve been making short unschooling videos, 2 –…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

The Ladies Fixing the World

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…

Unschooling Isn’t Freedom Gone Wild: Why Choices Matter More Than Ideals

My husband Andy returned to work today after two weeks at home. Holiday time is over. We’ve now moved into term time. A whole term of possibility days stretches before me. I’m free to do whatever I like with my time while Andy is at school. My eyes light up with delight. But then I remember there are many…

Christian unschooling

Should We Encourage Our Kids to Follow Their Dreams?

What did you want to be when you were a child? I wanted to be a writer. I had a cardboard box inside my wardrobe where I stored my scribbled stories about princesses, dragons and faraway kingdoms. At night, in bed, before dropping off to sleep, I’d think up stories about large happy families who were a lot like the…

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…
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