Nurturing Independent Learners

To me, unschoolers are independent learners. At least mine are. What further can I say? Because one sentence isn’t much of an article, I decided to do a little research to see what other people have to say about this…

Confident to Be Me

8Love and acceptance are so very important. They give our kids the confidence to go out into the world and be themselves. This post was written by my daughter Imogen. It’s easy to recognize the Elvis Gang when we’re on…

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A Bit of Murder in Our Typical Unschooling Day

“Miss Scarlett did it in the conservatory with the dagger,” Gemma-Rose announces to her older sisters. Miss Scarlett, the conservatory and the dagger: Those words belong to my childhood. Many years ago, I loved playing Cluedo with my own sisters. I hoped I’d be the first person to discover the identity of the murderer. Could I work out how the murder was committed and where? It’s a lot of fun trying to solve a murder. At least it is when the…

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…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

The Ladies Fixing the World

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

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…

A Genuine Invitation for Christian Unschoolers

Sometimes, invitations aren’t genuine invitations. They might sound like proper invitations. We say the right words, “Would you like to…?” but expect a particular response that doesn’t include the right to decline. Then, some invitations are issued without a personal touch. We wonder, “Does it matter if I accept? Will anyone notice if I’m there or not?” This happened to…
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