trust - Page 5

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Our Reluctance to Trust and Other Croaky Thoughts

A week or so ago, three boxes arrived on our doorstep. Imogen cheered and jumped up and down, and said, “Wow! Our new home audio recording studio!” Yes, we now have some new sophisticated equipment which should make our audio recordings sound more professional. “You should make a podcast, Mum,” urged my daughter. “Try the new mic out.” “You’ll have to help me work out how to use everything,” I…
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Questioning Our Decision to Unschool

Sometimes events in our lives make us stop and reassess what we’re doing. I’ve been doing a bit of this kind of reassessment about unschooling. I’ve been thinking… Is there a better way of bringing up children? Can we trust too much? Is there such a thing as loving too much? Am I ready to jump off the unschooling ship? I share my thoughts in this week’s podcast. This post…
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Should a Child Be Given the Freedom to Choose?

If children are given the freedom to do whatever they want, will they choose to do nothing at all?… Imogen, would you like to discuss this question with me, in this week’s podcast?” My nearly 20-year-old daughter said, “Okay!”, so I grabbed my notebook and we began brainstorming points we could talk about. Soon we had a list of additional questions: Is anyone actually capable of ‘doing nothing at all’?…
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Squishy? Living in the Unschooling Moment

I’m playing the writing game, the unschooling version. “Your word is squishy.” “Squishy?” Squishy and unschooling… what’s the connection? Think! Think! I know! In the garage is a plastic storage box, and at the bottom of that box is something very squishy. Little pudgy fingers loved to wrap themselves around it and squeeze. Big ones did too. When I first saw that hot pink squishy ball I couldn’t resist buying…
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Exciting Times, Slow Times and Unschool Holidays

There is nothing more exciting than watching a child who is gripped by a passion. Early each morning, my 13 year old daughter Sophie knocks on my bedroom door. I invite her in and the first thing I notice is her huge smile. Her first words are always the same: “I’ve got so many things I want to do today. I can’t wait to get started!” Sophie’s excitement is contagious.…
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Pondering Trust

I never wanted to be in a position where I had to trust God. I preferred to rely on my own resources. I wanted to be totally in control of my own life. That seemed easier to do because trusting is so very difficult. Or so it can seem. Then one day, at a time when I was feeling rather proud of the way I was handling my life and…
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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…
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Teenagers are People Too

At Mass on Sunday, during the Prayers of the Faithful, we were asked to pray for sullen teenagers. When we returned home, Imogen was most indignant. “Why does everyone automatically think teenagers are sullen? Charlotte and I are teenagers and we’re not that way.” “It’s the typical teenage stereotype,” said Charlotte. “It’s not necessarily true.” I think my teenage girls are quite right. Society tends to think of teenagers in…
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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…
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The ‘Risky’ Business of Trusting Children

Trusting children to make their own choices sounds risky enough when it applies only to education, but what if you extend this trust to other areas of life? Will children decide they don’t want to go to Mass or eat healthy food? Perhaps they will want to watch inappropriate movies or play computer games all day. Some parents decide they just can’t pass control over to their children as it…
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Nurturing Independent Learners

To me, unschoolers are independent learners. At least mine are. What further can I say? Because one sentence isn’t much of an article, I decided to do a little research to see what other people have to say about this topic.  I did some Googling, but before I found what I was looking for, I got side-tracked by an article written by an author who believes it is irresponsible for…
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Having the Confidence to Ignore the Opinions of Others

Gemma-Rose is eight years old, and she still can’t tell the time. Well, that’s not quite true. If I put my watch in front of her and say, “What’s the time?” she’ll screw up her face and look unhappy for a while, and then eventually she’ll give me the correct answer. But her calculating will be accompanied by a lot of huffing and puffing, and the answer won’t arrive instantly.Now…
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