Hitting the Pause Button and The Colin Show

In this week’s podcast, episode 128, Cricket is my unschooling guest podcaster. The Colin Show Cricket tells us about her family She shares their journey from school-at-home homeschooling to unschooling Cricket recorded her guest podcast with her son Colin’s help.…

Mud Pies, Stews and Cakes

Gemma-Rose and Sophie are outside. They have been in the garden for hours despite the cool winter temperature. They have sand buckets and spades, and a big box of odds and ends: plates, bowls, spoons, pots, all leftovers from different…

Questioning the Wisdom of Unconditional Love

Do you ever have doubts about your parenting? Do you ever wonder if your ideas are wrong? The other day, I wrote something about unconditional love, and later, rereading my words, I began to doubt what I’d said. While sharing…

Latest

REAL LIFE Junk Mail Catalogue MATHS

Yesterday I noticed a pile of junk mail catalogues sitting on the kitchen bench, waiting to be thrown into the recycling bin. I had an idea… “If I gave you $500 what would you buy, if you could choose anything from these catalogues?” I asked my youngest daughters. Both Gemma-Rose’s and Sophie’s eyes lit up as they began thinking of all the wonderful things they could buy. “Is the $500 real or imaginary?” asked Sophie hopefully. “Imaginary, of course!” I…

A Typical Unschooling Day at Home

Yesterday… The phone alarm beeps at 6.10 am. A few minutes later, I swing my legs over the side of the bed, and pad down the hall to the girls’ bedrooms. I open their doors and say, “Anyone want to come running with me?” I can see vague shapes stirring in the semi-darkness. Soon after 6.30 am, Charlotte, Sophie, Gemma-Rose and I are walking down the road to the park. It is quiet and cool, the best time of day.…

Time for Some Strewing

Sometimes life provides my children with more than enough learning experiences without any help from me. A bushfire might be burning on our doorstep, giving everyone a unique learning opportunity. At other times, ordinary life provides one question after another for us to answer:  We might discuss the problem of a broken washing machine or we’re anticipating the installation of a hot water system. We might have a pile of books we’re engrossed in, or we have dozens of projects we’re working on. There’s lots going on. We are…

The Curriculum of Life

What curriculum are you using this year? The girls and I are going to be using the curriculum of life. Surely day-to-day life doesn’t provide many learning experiences? Most days are the same, aren’t they? And perhaps this is true unless we regain our sense of awe and wonder about life, and keep alert. How often do we wander from day to day without asking any questions? I am sure we miss many opportunities to muse and ponder and take…

Team-Writing a Fantasy Novel

Or how I’m writing a third of a novel I am writing a novel. More accurately, I am writing a third of a novel. I am part of the team, the fairy tale writing team. The other evening when I went into the younger girls’ bedroom I discovered Gemma-Rose scribbling in her notebook. She and Sophie were discussing the novel they are going to write together. They told me they intended to write alternate chapters. “Sophie is going to write…
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My Unschooling Books

Parents and Kids

Why You Should Consider Radical Unschooling

This week, in episode 109 of my unschooling podcast, I’m discussing radical unschooling. Do you unschool but don’t like the sound of radically unschooling? Maybe you’re convinced you’ll…

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…

Christian unschooling

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