Encouraging My Daughters and Other Women by Embracing My Age
I was 58 on Christmas Day, 2019. If you do some real-life maths, you’ll soon work out how old I am today. There have been times when I haven’t wanted to admit my age and wished to appear younger than I am. Why? Did I fear no one would like…
An Unschool Conversation with Jesper and Cecilie Conrad on the Self Directed Podcast
Remember how I was talking about pushing ourselves to do things outside our comfort zones? Well, I almost said no the first time someone invited me to discuss unschooling on their podcast because I didn’t want to put myself in an unfamiliar and possibly uncomfortable situation. I was confident talking…
Pushing Ourselves Instead of Our Kids
Often, we push our kids to try new things, don’t we? We want them to be adventurous. We say, “If you give it a go, you might discover you like it. You might be good at it.’ But what about ourselves? Are we willing to try new things? Or do…
Chatting with My Unschooled Author Daughter
It’s been a while, but I’m back with a new podcast episode! My author daughter Imogen is back too. In episode 205 of my Stories of an Unschooling Family podcast, we’re chatting about: Writing and how Imogen is promoting and selling her YA novels Collaboration and how we achieve more…
Challenging Ourselves to Put Away Our Phones
Did you hear the story of the photographer who visited the Grand Canyon and took millions of photos of the awe-inspiring sights, and then later realised that he hadn’t seen a thing despite having his eye glued to his viewfinder the whole time? He retraced his steps, his camera dangling…
Taking Risks, Looking Strange
… And we shouldn’t be afraid of taking risks: doing something different and trying new things. People might look at us strangely, but then again, they might not. They might think what we’re doing is great. It’s strange how many of us tend to stick to the same way of…
An Almost Empty Unschool House
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Too Anxious to Unschool?
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When Children Move Out of an Unschool Home
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How to Have Demanding Children Who Rule the House
Things people sometimes say… “You’re not feeding that baby again, are you?” “If you feed your baby to sleep, she’ll never learn to go to sleep on her own. It won’t hurt her to cry.” “You’re not giving into her again, are you?” “If you…
What if We’d Like Our Kids to Be Early Risers?
Sometimes when I write a post about our typical unschooling days, a reader stops by and says, “Oh, Sue, your mornings sound delightful! I wish my family would get up early so we could get a good start on the day. I can’t get my…
Peering out of the living room window, Quinn spots the postman approaching our house. She barks deep and loud. I abandon my iPad, tossing it on the sofa, push my [...]
I complained about last year’s Christmas tree: “It hasn’t got enough colour!” So, I ordered a string of red lights to brighten up this year’s tree. When they arrived in [...]
The other day, after my husband had washed the dinner dishes, I returned to the kitchen and discovered everything was clean and tidy except for the sink. A pile of [...]
Some Bits and Pieces…
The other day I was looking at a letter Gemma-Rose had written to a friend. It was long and detailed and her spelling was…
How to Turn Cooking into Unschool Maths Homeschool Records Notes
When you hear the words ‘real life maths’ or ‘real world maths’ what do you think of? Cooking? That’s the usual example, isn’t it?…
Let’s Talk Maths
My girls have been learning maths in a formal way rather than as a consequence of life. But I have been thinking… The girls…
Questioning Our Decision to Unschool
Sometimes events in our lives make us stop and reassess what we’re doing. I’ve been doing a bit of this kind of reassessment about…
Unschooling Books and Bedtimes
Knock! Knock! My husband Andy looked at me and I looked at him. We both looked at the clock. Who could that be at…
A Passion for Writing
I love writing. It’s one of my passions. And all of my children love writing too. They observe me sitting at the computer with…
How We Can Trust Kids and Dogs
We look up from our cameras to see two lean and muscular dogs racing towards us. They grin and circle around us before disappearing…
What’s Stopping You From Unschooling?
I’m sure there are many people investigating unschooling. But not everyone who considers unschooling will actually decide to give it a go. Why’s…
Making Unschooled Kids Learn Maths Just in Case: [Podcast]
In this week’s podcast episode, I’m sharing a story called Making Unschooled Kids Learn Maths Just in Case. And I’m discussing the main points…
Giggling at Shocking Things
On the first day of 2020, I lost my sense of humour. Usually, I’m a positive person, but the current bushfire situation pushed me…
Would You Like the Key to the Secret Unschooling Garden?
The other day, I stumbled across a ‘hilarious’ radical unschooling collection on someone’s blog, and there was the graphic for my post When Rules…