difficult times - Page 3

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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 I decide I need to offer something extra. How about…
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Could This Be Your Best Unschooling Year Ever?

You can find the following words on the back cover of my unschooling book, Curious Unschoolers: Have you ever wondered how unschooling works? What do unschoolers do all day? Perhaps they don’t do much at all? Or do unschoolers live amazing lives full of love and learning? In Curious Unschoolers, Sue Elvis discusses all aspects of unschooling including starting unschooling, passions and interests, trust, technology and screen time, maths, reading,…
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Fighting on the Front Line

A couple of days ago, we had some good news: the status of our bushfire has changed from ‘out of control’ to ‘being controlled’. Isn’t that wonderful? The fire is huge so the fight to put it out is far from over. But the change in status is very encouraging. So far this week, the weather has been mild. I’m sure the RFS (Rural Fire Service) is grateful for the…
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Giggling at Shocking Things

On the first day of 2020, I lost my sense of humour. Usually, I’m a positive person, but the current bushfire situation pushed me over the edge. “I’m tired of breathing smoky air,” I complained. “I’m fed up of watching fire updates and wondering if the fire is coming our way. I want life to return to normal.” My husband Andy tried to make me feel better. “It will all…
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Mother on Duty

At 10:15 am, my youngest daughter Gemma-Rose appears in the living room where I’m keeping track of the bushfire activity near us. (Through the window, I can see the fire trucks and other vehicles arriving and leaving our road.) ”You slept in for a long time,” I say. “You must have been tired.” Gemma-Rose nods. I understand. Living with a bushfire in our village is exhausting. ”I didn’t get much…
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When Life Gets a Bit Too Interesting!

Life is certainly interesting at the moment. A little bit too interesting! You might remember how a week or so ago, we prepared our house just in case the out-of-control bushfire that was burning not very far away arrived in our village. Well, the other day, the fire did arrive. Life hasn’t been normal since we received an emergency warning about the fire. It’s become full of bushfires, fire trucks,…
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Unschool Bushfire Maths

I open my phone to google ‘smoky or smokey’ to find out the correct spelling of this word. (I’ve been using it a lot lately.) And I find a warning waiting for me to read. (It arrived in the night while I was asleep.) A fire has escalated in your watch zone. I head straight over to the Fires Near Me app to see what’s going on. I discover that…
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Unschooling During a Crisis

Are there some things you hate doing? We don’t like gardening. Usually, we let our garden take care of itself. That’s why our hedges grew and grew until they were higher than the roof of our house. We should have pruned them back years ago. We shouldn’t have left it until a crisis forced us to do something about the branches that were overhanging our house. You might know that…
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Realising What’s Important

Many years ago, I discovered that a friend of mine never irons her clothes. She doesn’t even own an iron. I thought this was rather strange. Surely clothes need ironing? At the time, I ironed nearly everything. (I didn’t iron underwear!) And then one day, I stopped ironing my clothes. Maybe I got lazy. Or perhaps I was busy. Whatever the reason, I embraced the wrinkles instead of smoothing them…
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Asking for Help

A few weeks ago, I was feeling rather stressed out so I took a break from podcasting. It’s been good not having to produce a new episode each week. Podcasting is hard work! I must now be feeling more rested because a day or so ago, I suddenly felt like making a new podcast. I headed into my closet, set up my mic and started recording episode 162 of my Stories…
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Christian Unschooling: Disciplining With Unconditional Love

If our children misbehave, what do we do? Make them sit on the time-out chair? Punish them? Perhaps we should withdraw our love. Be cold and distant. Make things unpleasant for our kids because they need to know how upset we are, don’t they? We want them to feel bad because then, maybe, they’ll remember to act in the right way next time they’re tempted to misbehave. Or could all…
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