An Irresistible Invitation to an Unschooling Voyage of Discovery

Isn’t it wonderful to receive an invitation? Someone has chosen us!

There are all kinds of invitations, from coffee dates to weddings. I love hearing, “Mum, would you like to meet up for lunch with me?”

Sometimes, we eagerly accept an invitation: “Lunch sounds good! Thank you for asking me!”

But occasionally, we express our regrets and decline the invitation. That’s okay. An invitation isn’t an order. No one is forcing us to accept it.

Recently, I excitedly accepted an invitation to be part of the Virtual Kitchen Table podcast. Oh yes, I definitely wanted to chat with Erin, Hayley, and Ashley about Hayley’s blog post, Unschooling: A Voyage of Discovery.

Hayley began her article with these words:

No fixed destination, no time to be back. A trip of a lifetime.

Unschooling, a voyage of discovery

Full speed ahead in a definite direction, or meandering and drifting where the wind blows.

The deck can be busy and bustling, or quiet and serene. No barking of orders or rotas on show, though the mess has a menu and the food’s looking good 

A mixed bunch, the crew, varied in age, and in skill and experience. Little in the way of required routines, no set hours or chores or jobs they must do.

Yet seeming at ease, sharing the load, relaxed and contented they work as a team. Yet each on their own journey, alongside one another. They look out for each other, chatting and cheery, at least most of the time…

Hayley, Ashley, Erin and I sailed all over the seas, frequently throwing down the anchor while discussing Hayley’s fabulous article, exploring ideas and sharing stories. And somewhere in the conversation, the word ‘invitation’ appeared.

Invitation is a wonderful word, isn’t it? I’m going to add it to my favourite unschooling words like unconditional love and freedom.

We offer invitations, not orders, to our kids. Sometimes, we want to share the joy of an experience. We could be eager to share a favourite book friend. We find something that might interest our child and ask if they’d like to take a look. We could just want to enjoy our child’s company while watching a movie on a cold day, snuggled under blankets.

Have you ever accepted an invitation when you didn’t want to? Have you smiled and said, “Yes, I’ll be there!” when you didn’t want to attend a party or other event? I have. Why do we do this? Perhaps we know our presence at the event is important and decide to put aside our preferences in favour of someone else’s. Or maybe we just don’t know how to decline. We can’t find the appropriate words, so it’s easier to accept. Whatever the reason, we always have a choice. That’s what invitations are all about.

So, our children are free to accept or decline our invitations. Unless, of course, our invitations are not invitations after all. They could be orders in disguise.

I could say more about invitations and our fabulous podcast conversation, but I will stop there. Instead of rambling on, I’m going to invite you to read Hayley’s article and listen to episode 31 of the Virtual Kitchen Table podcast, Unschooling: A Voyage of Discovery. You are free to accept or decline, but I’m sure you’ll want to listen because it was a brilliant conversation!

Unschooling, A Voyage of Discovery

During the recording of episode 31, I accepted a second invitation from Erin, Hayley and Ashley. Yesterday, we recorded another Virtual Kitchen Table podcast episode together, continuing our unschooling voyage of discovery. Watch out for that conversation!

Update

Here’s Part 2 of our voyage of discovery conversation:

Unschooling, A Voyage of Discovery – Part Two

Images

These ship photos were taken by Raimond Klavins, Unsplash