On a typical day, my daughter Sophie (16) gets out of bed soon after 5 am. By 6.10 am, she’s heading out the door with sister Imogen who drives her to work. A few minutes later, Gemma-Rose (14) and I also leave the house. We’re on our way to the bush tracks at the end of our road for our morning run.
This is how my unschooling teenagers’ typical days begin.
A typical day doesn’t stay typical for very long. As my girls grow and develop and learn, what they do each day changes. But at any one moment in time, I can say, This is what my teenagers are doing right now. These are their current typical unschooling days.
At the moment, Sophie’s days are dominated by her part-time job. Long empty days, waiting to be filled with whatever she likes, are a thing of the past. I feel rather sad about this. However, Sophie accepts this new situation. Actually, she has chosen it. You see, she has plans. She hopes the skills she’s learning, and the money she earns from her job will allow her to continue following her passions. In her free time, Sophie works on those passions: She takes photos, cooks, reads, writes, goes to the gym and makes vlogs.
Gemma-Rose’s typical days are totally different from Sophie’s. On a typical stay-at-home day, after our morning run, she will help me with the chores, and then we spend some time together. “What shall we do today?” we ask each other. “Shall we watch another episode of Back in Time for Dinner? How about reading another chapter of Great Expectations? I found some articles about The Secrets of Your Food. Do you want to read them? I’ve put some links to some things that sound interesting in this term’s Evernote notebook. Would you like to take a look? Or do you have plans of your own?”
While I’m busy with my work and interests, Gemma-Rose will practise the piano, continue her drawing course, work on her novel, read her library books, walk the dogs, cook the dinner, listen to music, watch movies, and play or make her own computer games. We don’t stay home every day. Sometimes we go out on adventures or go shopping or catch up with the errands.
I’m talking about my unschooling teenager’s typical days in this week’s podcast, episode 122. I discuss the following questions:
- Is there such a thing as a typical unschooling day?
- Can we have too many resources? Do our kids sometimes get overwhelmed by too many possibilities?
- Are documentaries and lifestyle TV series a good source of learning adventures?
- What TV series have Gemma-Rose and I been enjoying recently?
- Why did I initially reject this episode?
Show Notes
Podcast
Episode 110: An Interview with a Teenage Radical Unschooler
Videos
Back in Time for Dinner
Further Back in Time for Dinner
Back in Time for the Weekend
The Secrets of Your Food
The Big Family Cooking Showdown
Website
Open Learn: Free learning from the Open University
Podcast music
Twombly by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0)
Do you remember how we were talking about the trouble with being a perfectionist? How my draft files are full of rejected blog posts and podcasts? Well, this week, I’m trying not to worry about perfection. This podcast is actually a failed episode. Yes, I rejected it because I couldn’t decide whether it was interesting enough. Now that I have told you that, you’ll either not listen to episode 122 because it might not be very good or perhaps you will listen to see what’s wrong with it. Anyway, despite its imperfections, I do hope you get something out of this week’s podcast.
If you enjoy my podcast, please consider sharing the link so we can spread the word about unschooling. And if you’d like to stop by and share your typical unschooling days or just say hello, please do!
I can’t listen to your podcasts at my beach house where we are at the moment. I’m storing them up for when we return.
Our days down here look very different as you can imagine.
Today was my birthday so we did presents and balloons, pancakes and later a day at the beach with kayaks, snorkelling and spearfishing ( sand fishing:-).
And finally thai food in front of top gear on the tv.
Each day is different and has its own magic.
I don’t envy you your early starts! We have had to wake up early here to get on the beach before 9 to walk the dog and that has been hard 🙂
Back to civilisation next week.
Hope you are enjoying the lovely autumn weather.
xo Jazzy Jack
Jack,
I hope you had a fabulous birthday. How lovely that you were at the beach on your special day. We make pancakes on our birthdays too. And on one of Charlotte’s birthdays we went kayaking at Swan Lake. However, we’ve never been snorkelling and spearfishing!
‘Hope you are enjoying the lovely autumn weather.’ It’s turned a bit cool here though next weekend is forecast to be very warm. Today when I drove into town, I noticed the trees were changing colour!
It’s good to chat. I’ll be in touch via email very soon!
Our typical unschooling day is much different than yours. Nathan suffers from insomnia so often his days and nights are confused with ours. LOL. So he is many times pursuing his interest while we are asleep. He may be playing a sixteenth-century video game, he may be looking up things that interest him like poetry, certain types of music, possibly weapons from the Medieval Times. The other day when his schedule was more back to normal, he came to me and said that he thinks he may be interested in writing poetry when he’s older. He seems to have the bent towards it. Unlike many children that are typical but for many who are on the autism spectrum he does not require interaction with other children. In fact he doesn’t even prefer that. He doesn’t really care for the company of anybody but his immediate family. We are blessed to have this wonderful child who has just turned 19 years old and still has several more years of unschooling before he feels like he is ready for the next chapter . It’s nice to hear what other people do in their daily lives. Isn’t it great that we are not all the same.
Nancy,
Oh yes, it’s wonderful being our unique selves and doing things in our own way. Imagine if we were all the same!
I can relate to Nathan’s insomnia. I also have lots of trouble sleeping. Some nights, when I’ve been lying in bed awake for hours, I wish I could just get up and start my day. Like Nathan, I’d look things up and get involved in things that interest me. I never do this because I keep hoping I’ll go to sleep. I know I need to keep my schedule aligned with the rest of the family’s. That’s sometimes very difficult!
Nancy, you are blessed indeed. Thank you for sharing Nathan’s typical days and nights with us!
Love listening to your podcast Sue and hearing about your typical days. One of my favorite ways of finding out what the kids are interested in is taking them to the toy/ learning areas of our store and seeing what they gravitate to. It’s always fun to buy some new supplies that the kids are interested in and then use other things we have at home along with that. We have a lot of supplies from years of homeschooling. My teens are taking a lot of classes this year and working on a lot of projects. I am very excited to see them take preparing for their futures. My baby will be three this month so I am getting more quality time with the teens and feeling less stressed as well. I am excited to try watching the videos you suggested!
Venisa,
“One of my favorite ways of finding out what the kids are interested in is taking them to the toy/ learning areas of our store and seeing what they gravitate to.” That is such a good idea!
The baby years are so delightful, but they are tiring as well, aren’t they? And then one day, life moves onto the next stage, and there’s time and energy for new things. It sounds like you are enjoying your children and their learning!
Thank you for listening to my podcast. I hope you like the videos!
Sue, I am so happy to find you again. I have been meaning to catch up, but we stay busy with our three granddaughters…yes THREE. Little Isabelle, born on St. Therese’s birthday is almost 3 1/2 months old and such a living doll. Ella Grace is 20 months and Adie will be four in May.
I am still fascinated by unschooling. I would have loved it growing up and most likely would have lived at the library 🙂 I think my son would have benefited as he was a math and science whiz but hated history and English. As an only child, he may have been lonely.
I cannot believe how grownup your girls are! I love Imogen’s videos. She has a beautiful voice, and so much love abounds as the girls work together on these lovely productions.
As a side note, Joan is doing quite well. I am so in awe of her strength, although I know she has her private moments. Yet, she allows God’s grace and strength to carry her each day. She is a wonderful aunt to my granddaughters.
I keep saying I want to blog again…it is just finding the time. I will let you know so that you can visit and leave a comment as long as this one. ? Miss you, Sue. I hope to cut back on Facebook…such a time gobbler.
Love and blessings to you and your family. ❤️
Patricia,
Your comment reminds me of the ‘old days’! It’s so lovely to catch up with your news. Adie is almost four? Oh my, the years are flying by!
I can imagine the joy that your granddaughters bring to your life. All those beautiful girls. God is good!
You are always so kind and encouraging. Thank you for your kind words about Imogen and the other girls. Yes, they love working together. They have a very special relationship with each other.
As I said yesterday, I do hope you will return to blogging. I miss you. Sometimes I read an old (long!) comment of yours and remember the conversations we used to enjoy. I miss Nancy too. I treasure each one of her comments. She left part of herself behind for us to enjoy and learn from. Isn’t that a beautiful thought? Yes, let me know when you write a new blog post. I will indeed visit and write a long comment!
Please pass on my love to Joan. May God bless you too! xxx