Unschool Science

By Lucinda Leo My kids love science. We’ve never followed a curriculum. Instead, we’ve done experiments, been to science shows and read interesting books. Pinterest has loads of fun ideas, or you can buy or borrow books full of experiments…

What Do Children Need to Learn?

Here’s another younger unschooler story. My daughter Gemma-Rose was 8 when I wrote this post. Being the youngest child in the family, Gemma-Rose often slipped under my radar as far as teaching her the essential skills of life goes. But…

Critical Comments: Unschool Bits and Pieces

Dealing With Unschooling Critics I know your heart is in the right place. You’re full of love. I can see that. But is that enough? Frankly, my dear, I’m worried. I’m not saying this lightly. I’m not the kind of person…

Tired and Cranky and Lacking Enthusiasm

I was awake nice and early this morning. Too early. I lay awake at 4 am thinking… How will I be able to run if I don’t get more sleep? How will I get through the day? But of course,…

Growing Kids Who Like to Help

Not so long ago, I posted a photo and caption about kids and chores, and a friend stopped by and left this comment: My kids are only 5 and 2 at the moment but I’m trying to figure out how…

Latest

How I Made a ‘Huge’ Mistake and Was Forgiven

Some days are difficult. Unexpected things happen, and mistakes are made. Clouds blow in and blot out the usual sunshine of our days, and we feel miserable. We let those mistakes overwhelm us. We get bogged down in woe, unable to move on, not because others fail to forgive us, but because we can’t forgive ourselves. Last week I wrote (in my notebook) a list of my top ten tips for joyful unschooling. I added ‘forgive instantly’ to this list,…

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…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

The Ladies Fixing the World

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…

Unschooling: Trust, Autonomy, and The Realities of Learning

The Ladies are Fixing the World again! Cecilie, Sandra and I are discussing the words ‘self-regulation’ and ‘limits’. When we say, “I’ve let go of control, and now I’m waiting for my child to learn how to regulate his time playing video games (for example),” do we have expectations about what that regulation should look like? Do we want…

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…

Christian unschooling

Igniting a Child’s Love of Learning

Do you wake up each morning with a delicious feeling of anticipation? Do you swing your legs out of bed quickly, anxious to get dressed and move onto the business of the day? Another day of learning with your children stretches ahead… Do you feel excited? Once upon a time, I used to drag myself out of bed and…

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…
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