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…
Encouraging My Daughters and Other Women by Embracing My Age
I was 58 on Christmas Day, 2019. If you do some real-life maths, you’ll soon work out how old I am today. There have been times when I haven’t wanted to admit my age and wished to appear younger than…
Turning Famous Paintings into Jigsaw Puzzles
My girls love putting together jigsaw puzzles. We often look out for cast-off puzzles at markets and garage sales. We come home clutching piles of old boxes, hoping all the pieces are inside. The girls like to work on huge…
Love and a Mother’s Heart Stories
Children bring us great joy. Our hearts overflow with love for them. We enfold them in our arms and enjoy. But sometimes that same love can cause our hearts to ache. There are times when we wonder if our soft…
An Unschooling Way of High School Science
I hop from blog to blog, sampling a homeschooling science program here, and one there, and I become alarmed and a bit unsettled. The programs all look so impressive and detailed. I creep quietly back to my own little blog…
Unschooling and Trust
I have been struggling with this post for a while now, and wondering why I’m having so much trouble finding the right words. And I have decided it’s the language. I want to write a story from a personal point of view like I normally do. And I can’t. We had such a gradual transition to unschooling, I didn’t really face the issues I want to write about. So why write about them? Shouldn’t I leave this topic to someone…
Watching TV, Playing on the Computer, Doing Nothing Much at All
Continuing our ‘transition from homeschooling to unschooling’ discussion… So all of a sudden there are no homeschooling plans to follow. You aren’t saying, “This is what I want you to do today.” You’re hoping your children will be eager to follow their own noses when it comes to learning. You’ve imagined them using their new freedom to pursue impressive projects. Other unschoolers are doing wonderful things. You’re excited because soon your kids will be doing amazing things too. But they…
Encouraging Children So They Get Excited About Learning
We never made a conscious decision to unschool. I didn’t wake up one morning and say, “Hey kids, let’s give unschooling a go.” No, over a long period of time I gradually threw out all that wasn’t working for us until we found a way of homeschooling that felt right. We ended up ‘doing our own thing’. It was a long time before we realised other people were homeschooling in a similar way, and there was actually a name for…
Some Thoughts on Unschooling and Experts
I’m browsing the Internet, hopping from one unschooling site to another. And I notice that some authors sound more expert than others. They write with authority. They use language such as, “You should do this or that or the other.” I get the feeling there’s a right way and a wrong way to do things. The writers sound so sure of what they’re saying. Obviously they are unschooling experts. And I should listen. Experts? I wonder what makes someone an…
When a Child Wants to Read the Same Book Again and Again
I remember when my kids were much younger. They’d bring me a picture book and ask me to read it, and I would say, “Not this one again! Don’t you want me to read you something new?” They’d shake their heads, and I’d sigh and begin the book for the 100th time, or so it seemed. Yes, sometimes children want to stay with the same book for a very long time. The same thing happens with drawing. Gemma-Rose has sketchbooks…
Helping a Child Go Where She Wants to Go
Not so long ago, we had a big running week. Day after day, we rolled out of bed early and hurried down to the bush tracks at the end of our road for a 5 or 6 km run. Then one morning my husband Andy groaned when I woke him up. “I’m tired. Do we have to run this morning?” “No, you stay there,” I said. “I’m only doing a short run today anyway.” “A short run?” Andy opened his…
Glimpsing the World through a Child’s Eyes
“Do you want to watch a movie? We’re having a boys’ movie night.” A movie night? That sounds like a relaxing way to spend an evening. Someone grabs the popcorn, someone else inserts the DVD into the player and then waves the remote control. The TV screen lights up. Three boys settle back and start munching and watching. The movie is good, the story involving, the tension is mounting. And then… Someone waves the remote control once again at the…
The Problem with Disguising Maths Practice as Fun
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.…
Perhaps I Shouldn’t Have Told You about Our Typical Unschooling Day
In my last podcast, I spoke about our typical unschooling day. Every day we get up early, do our chores as a team, and…
Do You Need a Happy List?
I’m at a cafe with my pretend friend Amina, who places her mug of coffee on the table between us, sighs and says, “Unschooling…
Do Beautiful Photos Fail to Tell the Whole Unschooling Story?
Can photos reflect the beauty of an unschooling life? We could post loads of pictures of smiling kids involved with impressive activities or running…
Unschooling Is Carried by Conversations
Dinner tables, car rides, bedtime chats, and café corners are the real places where unschooling lives and grows. Conversations—often unscheduled, informal, and unplanned—can become the central structure of a learning life. Gathering at the Dinner Table In our house, we never met for breakfast or lunch. Those were meals where people ate what, where and when they liked. But we…
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…
The Role of Repetition in Learning, Unschooling, and Shaping Identity
What if kids want to watch the same movies, read the same stories, or play the same games again and again? Should we try to move them on to other activities? Or is there value in repetition? Does repetition have an important role in our lives?…
The Problem With Being Too Nice
Are you too nice? I am. I want to help everyone. Support and encouragement are my middle names. Send me an email and I’ll spend hours answering it. Write me a comment and I’ll always reply. Ask for some mentoring and I’ll do my best even though you tell me you can’t pay. I write a book. And another. Then…
Speed Angel Joy
I am sitting by the lake watching four girls scooting along the path. They are the Speed Angel Sisters and they are fast! Every now and then the girls veer off onto the grass and come to a sudden halt: a pedestrian is approaching. Now the speedway is clear again, and strong legs start pushing, wheels are revolving, hair…