Interviewing Sophie (13), an Unschooling Teenager
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.…
Unschooling: Doing What Is Right
Unschooling is the right thing to do. That’s a bold claim that you might challenge if your ideas about what’s right are different from mine. What if my right is your wrong? Is that the end of the conversation? Or…
Do You Need to Follow an Older Unschooler? (Part 1)
Our fluid intelligence – our ability to focus and problem solve – will inevitably decline as we age. Listening to Arthur C. Brooks say this during a YouTube interview, I instantly protested, “No!” What if I keep my brain active…
Aiming for Love, Not Perfection
I had a vision… By the age of 18 all my children were going to be perfectly brought up and perfectly educated. I wanted them to fly off into the world without a problem. I was going to sit back…
Becoming Real Life Maths Detectives
“We use maths all the time,” I say to my daughter Gemma-Rose (10). “Maths is everywhere.” Everywhere? She doesn’t look convinced. “You use maths to count your money,” says Sophie, “and when you’re cooking.” Cooking? How many times have you…
Why I Am My Children’s Number One Fan
“You have such good children!” says a woman as we come out of the church. My children smile. They glow with happiness. And then I spoil it all by saying rather hurriedly, “They’re not always this good, you know!” I feel uncomfortable, rather embarrassed. I want to brush off the woman’s compliment. I swipe it away as quickly as possible. And then I notice I’ve also swiped the smiles off my children’s faces. I have not only rejected the kind…
Imogen Talks about the Role of Parents in Unschooling
Last week I made a video of my 18 year old daughter Imogen talking about unschooling and university. Thank you to everyone who took the time to watch it! Bernice left a question for Imogen in the combox: How did your parents make your unschooling/homeschooling a positive experience? Imogen and I discussed this question together. Then I grabbed the video camera and the tripod, ready to interview my daughter once again. Imogen talked about such things as a parents’ example,…
How to Have Demanding Children Who Rule the House
Things people sometimes say… “You’re not feeding that baby again, are you?” “If you feed your baby to sleep, she’ll never learn to go to sleep on her own. It won’t hurt her to cry.” “You’re not giving into her again, are you?” “If you carry your baby around all the time, she’ll never want to be put down.” “You’re still feeding during the night? It’s time you got that child into a routine. She might cry for a few…
Imogen Talks about Unschooling and University
Today I made my first ‘talkie’ video. We’d been discussing ideas for the last couple of weeks, and just needed a free moment to actually start filming. “Why don’t you interview me this afternoon?” suggested my daughter Imogen. “I’ve got some free time.” So I grabbed the video camera and Imogen hunted for the tripod. Unfortunately the tripod didn’t want to be found so I raided the bookshelf for a pile of encyclopedias instead. I placed these in a tower…
Why it’s Not a Good Idea to Read Slowly and Carefully
My girls come home from the library with towering stacks of books. Even as they walk through the front door, they have their noses between the pages of the first book in their piles. A couple of hours later, a sigh of contentment can be heard as a book is closed. “I enjoyed that!” By the end of the week, I hear, “When are we going to the library again, Mum?” “Surely you haven’t read all your books yet?” I…
The Problem of Applying Sunscreen to Wet, Sandy Bodies.
My husband Andy is home from school for two weeks. “What shall we do during the holidays?” he asks. “Let’s go to the beach!” The girls’ eyes light up. Callum’s eyes light up. It’s been two years since we last saw the sea. We pack bags of swimming gear, and an esky full of delicious picnic food. Shall we take SAND-wiches? We grab the sunscreen and our hats and sunnies. Of course, we don’t forget the buckets and spades. “Are…
Do You Know What’s at the End of Our Road?
“Shoes on!’ I shout. “Grab a jumper. Do we need sunscreen?” Soon we’re ready. The girls and I are off on an outing. “I’m going to record some video,” I say, holding my camera aloft. “Nancy wants to see where we live. We’re going to show her what’s at the end of our road.” I’m going to make my second movie. The Elvis girls are going to star again. “Everyone ready?” I ask. I press the start button on the…
Bite-Sized Pieces of Unschool Maths
So many people love the idea of unschooling and are even tempted to give it a go, but often there is one huge stumbling block… maths. Very few parents seem to be confident that their children will learn all the maths they need to know, without being prodded along by some kind of intentional instruction. Many homeschoolers who decide to unschool make a compromise. They might say something like, “We unschool everything except maths. My children do a couple of…
Parenting Teenagers: Why I Don’t Make Rules
Every now and then, I stumble across a blog post containing a long list of rules for keeping teenagers safe from the dangers of…
What if Our Unschooled Kids Complain or Reject Everything We Hold Dear?
I took my blog offline to fix a few technical problems, but at the back of my mind was a question: Have I had…
Interviewing My Children and Other Family Movies
I have this brilliant (?) idea. I might have to learn a few new skills to put it into action. “Girls, do you want…
Unschooling and Connections: How Learning Is All About Creating a Web of Understanding
When I finished my university degree, I threw all my botany and biochemistry lecture notes and books into the garbage bin with relief. And I said, “No one will ever make me learn anything ever again!” I have a science degree, which was presented to me while I was wearing a fancy gown with a mortar board on my head.…
How Unschooling Doesn’t Guarantee a Fairytale Life
Yesterday evening, like all Sunday evenings, my kids who live locally came to dinner. Six of us gathered around our dining room table, savouring a meal cooked by my husband while enjoying the usual end-of-the-week lively catch-up conversation. There was a time when we dreamed that all our children would buy houses on the same street as our family home.…
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…
Bringing God into the Unschooling Picture
A few months ago, I wrote a post called Why This is the End of the Line for Me. I decided that I’d explored unschooling from every possible angle. What more could I write about? It was time for me to move onto other things. Let my kids tell their own unschooling stories and find something else of my own…
Respecting Kids and Christmas Presents
Does having a simple Christmas sound good? It does to me. This year, like last year and the one before, I wanted to announce that I’m not buying a lot of Christmas presents. I thought about saying that I’m not buying any at all. I didn’t want to think and think until the perfect gift ideas came to mind. I…