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, writing, homeschool registration, responding to critics, difficult days and much more.
Sue says: “… imagine us sitting around your kitchen table, mugs in our hands, chatting about unschooling together. I’m going to share my family and our experiences. We’ll ponder ideas and thoughts. Our conversation will go deep and wide. It’ll be honest and real. And it’ll be flavoured with love and gentleness.”
Curious Unschoolers will make you feel excited about the possibilities. When you get to the last page, perhaps you’ll feel encouraged to set out on an unschooling adventure of your own.
And if you’re already unschooling, this book might reassure you that you’re not as crazy as the critics try to make out. Unschooling is not an irresponsible way to educate and bring up our kids. On the contrary, could it be a way of life that everyone should live?
Maybe there’s never been a better time to try unschooling. Life may be difficult at the moment, but it’s certainly rich. We’re all googling and reading and talking and swapping opinions and learning about all kinds of things. Our kids are learning too. There really is no need to set school work for them or organise some structured homeschooling. No one has to worry about our children’s education. Kids are getting an excellent education just by living their lives. And this is probably just as well because the coronavirus is a bit distracting, isn’t it? It has turned our lives upside down. It’s impossible to live normally.
We might not be able to go to the cinema or the gym. Some people can’t go to work. Many schools are closed. We can’t meet anyone at a cafe for a leisurely lunch. Maybe we can’t buy any toilet paper!
But we can spend time with our kids. We can watch movies and cook cakes and read books out loud. We can chat and listen and laugh and discuss anything and everything including the state of the world. We can forget about school work. Just go with the flow. Learn from what’s happening around us.
We can unschool.
2020 will be remembered as the year of the coronavirus pandemic. A difficult year full of fear and sadness and uncertainty. But when the crisis is over, perhaps we’ll look back and discover that it wasn’t all bad. Maybe we’ll be very aware of what is truly important in our lives. We’ll cherish the time we were able to spend with our families. Perhaps we won’t want to give it up. Could we not want to return completely to our old lives?
Will we remember 2020 (or 2021!) as our best unschooling year ever?
I hope my books Curious Unschoolers and Radical Unschool Love will give you lots of ideas to ponder, and the encouragement and information you might need to live an amazing unschool life with your children.
If you like my books, will you consider sharing them with your friends?
