Here in Australia, the new school year has just begun, and for the first time in nearly 30 years, our family doesn’t have any registered homeschoolers. I don’t need to create a new homeschool records notebook labelled 2021, Term 1. This year, I won’t have to gather lots of notes of all the fabulous learning that my kids are experiencing because we no longer have any school-aged children.
One person who hasn’t finished with school is my knowledge transmitting husband Andy. He’s once again busy teaching his kindy students.
So, Andy is back at school, and our kids are off working and having adventures without me. And I’m here at home almost alone. (At the moment, my daughter Charlotte is doing some freelance design work from home. And our dogs, Nora and Quinn, are still here!)
What does an ex-homeschooling mother do with her time? How am I going to spend 2021? I’ve been pondering that question for a while.
I want to finish a couple of books that I’m writing, and I would love to write more posts for my neglected blog Where the Carol Birds Sing.
And I’m going to continue building up our Stories of an Unschooling Family community. I had planned to keep this community open for only a year, but when I mentioned that our time together was running out, some members asked if we could find a way to stay together. Could the community continue? So, we talked over lots of ideas, and some beautiful and generous people offered their help, and now we’re all looking forward to spending another year with each other.
Our unschooling community is my top priority for 2021. Within our private group, I’ll keep writing articles, and sharing stories and photos, and maybe recording podcasts, and encouraging and supporting anyone who’s interested in unschooling.
But what about my blog and podcast? Is it time to let go of them? When I’m feeling sensible, the answer is yes. But I’m not always in a sensible mood. Oh my, sometimes it’s hard to make decisions. On my not-so-sensible days, I wonder if I could write some shorter Instagram style posts for this blog. Find some photos and add a few quick thoughts or bits of news or tell some stories. Or is it just easier to stick to Instagram? Perhaps no one’s interested in that style of post. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try out that idea before deciding to abandon my blog, would it?
So, I’m wondering if you’ve made any big plans for this year. Will 2021 be business as usual for you and your family? Or are you planning some changes? Could this year be the right year for diving into unschooling? Maybe it’s the perfect time for joining my unschooling community! Why not hop over and check it out?
Photo: My daughter Imogen gave Andy a Strange Planet t-shirt for Christmas. (She gave Sophie one as well.) We’re big Strange Planet fans. Are you fans too?
I enjoy hearing your thoughts, Sue. I’m not quite to where you are with the ages and stages in our family, but I’m getting strangely close and I’m better able to imagine how different life might be in a very, very few years. I think so many parents must have these feelings as their kids grow up and it’s nice to hear about it directly. I really appreciate your community, so I’m selfishly glad you’re continuing with that;). I still really love reading blogs and just feeling like I’m in someone’s own created space, rather than just leaving it to the quick snapshots of social media, but I guess there are pros and cons to both.
And as an aside, I’m sure this isn’t the first time I’ve seen a photo of Andy in a fun T-shirt? I imagine he’s a wonderful Kindergarten teacher:).
Erin,
I’m very slow at replying to your comment. I’m sorry! I haven’t visited my blog for a few days. I feel sad about this. Blogging used to be at the centre of my life. I miss the days when we had a bigger blogging community. So many people have either moved to social media or stopped writing altogether. I’ve been tempted by the shorter format of social media. It’s quick and easy and there’s a lot of people on such platforms as IG. But writing in our own space, where there’s no word limit is special, isn’t it? We’re in charge of our blogs!
I’m so glad you enjoy our community. I really love connecting with you there!
Yes, Andy has lots of fun t-shirts because the girls buy them for him. His shirts reflect his good sense of humour!
I would be very happy to read any posts you might want to share, no matter how short. Maybe it would be least work for you, if you share a bit or snippet here and there from your unschooling community.
But I also understand if it is time for you to spend your time differently.
Sending you a big hug! Luana
Luana,
It’s so good to connect with you! If I abandoned my blog, I’d miss chatting to you. Posting snippets from our community is a wonderful idea! Yes, I could do that.
In other news, my new Angels book is almost finished. It’s written and edited. I’m just going through the chapters again, changing a word here and there, doing some fine-tuning. I’ll be very happy when the book is finished!
I hope all is well with you and your family. I keep you in my prayers. Sending hugs to you too!
Such exciting news about your new Angels book! Yeah!!!
We are all doing fine, thank you. Spring is slowly (but surely!) comming and I hope that will give me some more energy and sunhine! Right now I am so tired of all covid restrictions and feeling stuck in our home.. We are not allowed to meet friends as a family, or visit our families and it makes everything harder. But hopefully it will not stay that restricted for long. Glad to see you have a new blog post 🙂
Luana,
I love how you’re excited about the new Angels book. Thank you! I can’t wait to find out if you like it.
I’m sorry to hear that you still have very tough covid restrictions. At the moment, ours aren’t too bad but still, I’m tired of them. The restrictions that are bothering me the most are those that affect our churches. I hope things improve for you soon. We need to meet with friends and family and hug each other, don’t we? Keeping you in my prayers, Sue xx
Oh Sue,
A whole new stage in your life after 30 years!!
Knowing you I’m sure you will soon find new. fascinating and fulfilling things to learn xx
Hi Erin,
What a treat it is to swap comments with you! Oh yes, another stage of my life is over. But that’s okay. As you said, I’m sure there are other fascinating and fulfilling things still to come.
I hope all is well with you and your family. Thank you so much for stopping by!
Hi Sue! I am glad you have decided to keep sharing your unschooling wisdom! I hope your next books go well!
My kids are starting to grow up too. My second oldest will be going off to four year college in the fall to study computer science and my oldest – get this – will be a graduate student at Virginia Tech studying mechanical engineering (robotics)! I am so excited for him!
I think it would be so fun to teach kindergarten! I like helping my kids and others with high school and college level math but I love the kindergarten age with all the cute kids and how full of wonder they are!
Gina,
That’s such wonderful news about your kids! I can feel your excitement!
Oh yes, kindergarten kids are fun to teach. Andy enjoys his job. You are right: young kids are full of wonder. It’s fascinating seeing the world through their eyes.
Thank you for your kind words. You have been such an encouraging friend to me over the years. I really appreciate your comments. It’s always so good to connect!
Hi Sue, just wanted to say thank you for your blog.
Only
found it a couple of days ago, it was mentioned in a
Facebook discussion regarding registration. Since I
found your blog I have been reading it all my free time. At
first I was just curious how is unschooling different from
everything else. Later I realised that what you describe is
exactly what I do with my kids. I also discovered that I
have all the same thoughts in regards to school system
and forcing kids to learn as well as parenting (love,
respect and trust). How wonderful to find a person with
similar ideas (I have never met one)! We are in NSW, my oldest is 5 and we just started kindy or better say un-kindy.
Hi Sue, just wanted to say thank you for your blog. Only
found it a couple of days ago, it was mentioned in a
Facebook discussion regarding registration. Since I
found your blog I have been reading it all my free time. At
first I was just curious how is unschooling different from
everything else. Later I realised that what you describe is
exactly what I do with my kids. I also discovered that I
have all the same thoughts in regards to school system
and forcing kids to learn as well as parenting (love,
respect and trust). How wonderful to find a person with
similar ideas (I have never met one)! We are in NSW, my oldest is 5 and we just started kindy or better say un-kindy.
Olya,
I’m so sorry it has taken me a long time to reply to your very welcome comment. It was very kind of you to stop by and leave me some kind words about my blog. I’m so glad you’re enjoying reading my posts.
I love how you’ve arrived at unschooling without intending to like we did. I also remember reading about unschooling and then thinking, “That’s what we do!” Unschooling isn’t as crazy as some people make out, is it? We all need to love and trust and respect each other!
As my kids were growing up, NSW had a reputation for having a strict homeschool registration system, but we never had any problems even though we were unschoolers. I no longer keep up-to-date with the regulations, but I’m sure most of the info that’s on my blog will still be helpful. If you have any questions about registration when you need to do your paperwork, I’m happy to help! Also, please feel welcome to join us in our unschooling community. We talk about all kinds of things including registration. Maybe you’d enjoy chatting with some very friendly like-minded people!
https://stories-of-an-unschooling-family.mn.co/
It’s been good to chat with you!