Is anyone interested in discussing the teenage unschooling years? I’m thinking of recording a podcast on this topic with my daughters Imogen and Sophie.
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My girls both have a day off work tomorrow so we could sit around my Yeti together and discuss such things as:
What does unschooling look like in the teenage years?
Is this a time to tighten up and prepare for university or other tertiary learning?
How do unschoolers get into university?
What if a teenager has no idea what she wants to do when official homeschooling finishes?
Will the teenage years be difficult?
Can we trust teenagers?
Can we be friends with our teenagers?
What do teenagers need?
Can children start unschooling during the teenage years?
A few people added their own questions such as:
Could you and the girls talk about Radical Unschooling? How you were able to build such a solid level of respect for each other? Also, did you as a mother still maintain a good level of authority for those times when the children really did need your intervention in a situation?
So on Friday, Imogen, Sophie and I made a podcast about unschooling teenagers, attempting to answer all the above questions.
We concluded that it’s important that we give teenagers the freedom to find out who they are. They need to explore their interests, express their opinions without being shut down, try things out, and make some mistakes while in the safety of a family that loves them unconditionally. If we do give our teenagers the opportunity to do all this, they will end up having a strong sense of who they are and what they believe. They’ll go out into the world feeling confident and won’t be swayed by other people’s opinions. They won’t do things they don’t agree with just so that they’ll be accepted and liked. Our teenagers are not likely to get into serious trouble because that would mean sacrificing who they are.
So if we want to keep our teenagers safe from the dangers of the world, we shouldn’t do what appears to be sensible: Make lots of rules and hold onto them tightly. Instead, we should make sure we build up the bonds between parent and child, and then give our teenagers the necessary freedom to find out who they are.
These are only a few of the thoughts we shared in this week’s podcast. We hope you’ll listen to the whole of our conversation!
Show Notes
Imogen Elvis
Website
Youtube
Imogen’s novel
Photos: I took the photo of Sophie, and Sophie took the photos of Imogen, Gemma-Rose and Charlotte. (Sophie did all the magical editing!)
Thank you for listening to this episode. If you enjoy my podcast, please consider sharing the link so we can spread the word about unschooling. A quick review or rating would help too!
Please feel welcome to leave a comment about anything we talked about in this episode. Maybe you have some further questions we could try and answer. If you’d like to stop by and say hello, please do!
This podcast has to be one of the BEST ones recorded!!! It was so great to hear the opinions of Imogen and Sophie on these topics! Every question was answered very well and I now understand Radical Unschooling children AND teenagers much better! I have 3 very young boys and I tend to think ahead to their teenage years with fear! No more!!! Truly I thank you Sue, Imogen and Sophie!!! I look forward to hearing the next podcast!
Rebecca,
Thank you for your kind feedback. We’re glad you enjoyed this episode. It was good to discuss your questions. I’m glad our answers were okay!
We didn’t record a podcast last week because the girls were very busy with work and other things. I hope we can get together and make an episode this week. We have a list of things we’d like to discuss!
I hope you’re enjoying the weekend. Thank you so much for stopping by!