What if…?
What if instead of doing what you usually do, you did some of those things your children have been wanting to do for ages. All that fun stuff that usually has to wait until all the serious stuff has been…
With So Much Freedom, Will an Unschooler Choose to be Lazy?
If a child is given the freedom to choose what she wants to do every day, isn’t there a risk she will choose to be lazy and not do anything at all? Or maybe she will decide to do what…
Are You a Curious Unschooler? [Podcast]
I recorded a new podcast episode! That might surprise you because it’s been quite a while since my last episode. I’ve become a bit of an unreliable podcaster. But, hopefully, that’s about to change: I’m planning to record a new…
Unschooling: Making the Right Choices
Years ago, when life was overwhelming, and I was looking for yet another way to homeschool my kids, I was tempted to unschool. I thought if we were unschoolers, we could do whatever we liked, and if we didn’t want…
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…
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 –…
Starting Unschooling
Initially, I liked the idea of unschooling so we set off down the unschooling pathway. But it didn’t take me long to discover a few things I didn’t like about this way of life. We ended up moving away, travelling down various side-tracks as I explored other homeschooling philosophies. For a few years, I searched for the perfect way to bring up and educate our children. Although I considered many different ways of homeschooling, I never intended to return to…
Why Kids with Families Don’t Need Workbooks to Learn Basic Maths
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.…
Kids and Computers
Each member of our family has a computer of her own which she is allowed to use without any restrictions. This doesn’t mean we spend all our time looking at screens. No, we like to do other things too like run and bushwalk, cook and read, sew and play music, talk to each other! But we do value our computers. We regard them as a very useful tool. They open up the world to us and allow us to get…
Regaining Her Enthusiasm for Learning
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.…
From Unschooling to University
My 17-year-old daughter, Charlotte, is now a university student. It’s hard to believe. When did she grow up? Charlotte is studying her first unit through Open Universities. It’s part of a Bachelor of Arts degree in Digital Design. She may go on to complete the whole degree. Or she may not. She’ll see. There’s no hurry. One unit at a time. “So how was your first week as a uni student?” I asked her last Friday. “Okay,” she replied. “I…
Real Life Maths Resources: Some Thoughts and Links
I often go looking for real life maths resources to strew under the noses of my girls. Yes, I like to tempt them with different maths experiences, hoping they’ll think, “Wow! Maths is so interesting, and useful as well!” So when I have a few free minutes I can often be found at my computer, googling the words ‘real life maths’ or even ‘real world maths’. And as soon as I hit ‘search’, pages of resources appear on my screen.…
My Number One Unschooling Fan
I’m my kids’ number one fan. I cheer my children on from the sidelines, encouraging them to develop their talents and become the people…
Rules, Responsible Parenting and Radical Unschooling
If you do a Google search on unschooling it won’t take you very long to find someone criticising unschoolers. The most judged unschoolers are…
Our Unschooling Morning Routine
Just before Christmas, Karen asked me if I could write about our typical unschooling days. I spoke about this topic in a podcast a…
Resources for Unschoolers
Strolling towards the shopping centre, I spy an older man with three hand-reared brightly coloured parrots. A few wide-eyed kids are gathered around him, and as I watch, he transfers a parrot to one of their shoulders, where it bounces lightly upon its feet, nuzzling a little ear. The child grins, hardly daring to move. The children have questions which…
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…
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…
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…
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…