Recently, while travelling to town with two of my daughters, we talked about unschooling and how it’s impossible to say to another family, “Unschool in the same way as us.” Each family is different. Kids have their unique needs based on their personalities, interests and missions in life. And families have different circumstances such as number of children, health, commitments and responsibilities.
Even the place where a family lives affects unschooling.
We chatted about the disadvantages of our home town. While our kids were growing up, we often yearned to have greater access to galleries, museums and social groups where our kids could have met more people with similar interests. We sometimes wished we lived closer to a beach.
Of course, we could have moved to a different place, but then we’d have missed out on the advantages of living in our quiet village surrounded by bush.
Our kids couldn’t go to a museum whenever they felt like it. We weren’t able to say on the spur of the moment, “Shall we visit the zoo? “ or “Let’s go to the beach for a swim.” We needed to plan those kind of outings well ahead of time. Getting together with friends also involved complicated arrangements.
But there were many days when we ran or scooted around the lake in the centre of town or had picnics under the gum trees by the river.
We ran through the bush as the sun rose, heard kookaburras laughing and saw kangaroos bounding ahead of us along the tracks.
We made music videos at stunning locations on cold frosty mornings, the only people witnessing the golden light glowing off the trees and the birds calling as a new day dawned.
We experienced the trauma of bush fires that threatened our homes, and maybe no one would envy this experience, but we gained strength and knowledge and a strong sense of connection to each other and our community as we faced the difficulties.
Our unschooling life was bound up with the bush, not museums, galleries and other attractions of city life. And that was okay.
Some of my kids have now moved away from home in search of new adventures. But different choices doesn’t mean they don’t love home.
Home is more than a place. It doesn’t matter where we live or what we enjoy doing or how many children we have or what our individual circumstances are, unschooling families can still be the same:
At the heart of all our lives we can find unconditional love.
Home is where our family experiences unconditional love. And that can be anywhere, can’t it?
Is Our Unschooling Life Rich Enough?
I wrote about this topic in a blog post called Is Our Unschooling Life Rich Enough?
Some months later, our son was born. We called him Thomas. He lived for a day. And soon we realised that we were having experiences that nobody would ever ask for. We were learning things we didn’t want to know about. We learnt about the things that matter: what life and love are all about.
And we discovered that it’s not important whether we live in a yurt or a campervan or a tumbledown cottage on a fish farm or an ordinary house in town. As long as we love. It’s love that enriches our lives. It’s what our kids need to experience. It’s love that will change the world.
Is Our Unschooling Life Rich Enough?
Are We Living a Second Best Kind of Unschooling Life?
I also told the story of how our family moved to a fish farm while searching for the perfect home in episode 84 of my podcast: Are We Living a Second Best Kind of Unschooling Life?
Do you ever dream about living a slower life, about being self-sufficient, about stepping outside mainstream society? Perhaps you already do this. I know there are a lot of unschoolers living an alternate existence. You see, I’ve been reading a few blogs.
And I’ve been dreaming…
Perhaps things would be perfect if only we could also live a free back-to-nature unschooling life.
The Perfect Home
More Unschool Love Stories
If you’re interested in the topic of unschooling and love, you can find lots of stories in my book Radical Unschool Love.
The Heart of This Post
- Unschooling will look different for every family.
- We can unschool anywhere (as long as there’s no legal reasons preventing us from choosing this way of life).
- The perfect home is the one where everyone experiences unconditional love.
- Unconditional love is at the heart of unschooling.
So, I’m wondering…
Do you live in the city or country or somewhere in between? What’s your idea of the perfect home?
Why not stop by and share a story?
↑↑↑ I made a graphic that’s perfect for Pinterest. You could pin it!
Yes, I do think unconditional love should be at the heart of unschooling! I also live in a small town off the beaten path. We have a lot of trails near our house, so we hike often. Our family also enjoys our time at home.
Gina,
Oh yes, it sounds like you live in a similar place to us! We’re both surrounded by nature and have beautiful places to walk. And we’re blessed to be surrounded by love too. If love is at the centre of our lives, everything will be okay, won’t it?
There are so many possible places to live in this big, beautiful world that I sometimes play the mental game of what if we lived in x, y, or z place, but always I come back to the place we call home as where we live and love now ultimately understanding that every single place has great advantages and great disadvantages. Yet no matter where we are, we have the unconditional love of our family, and that is the most beautiful thing about any place in the world! Thank you, Sue, for a lovely post!
Staci,
I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to reply to your comment. I really appreciated you stopping by. When I first read your words, I thought, “Yes!” You echoed my thoughts exactly. It’s unconditional love that gives beauty to every place!
Such a beautiful piece. It is so true and I appreciate that you address the point that no matter where our location is, “unconditional love” is in every part of unschooling life. We are experiencing that right now even though our family’s unschooling journey is not that perfect but love is always there. Thank you!
Robert,
Thank you! Oh yes, life doesn’t have to be perfect when we have unconditional love, does it? I appreciate your kind comment. I’m so sorry it took me a long time to reply.