encouragement

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The Art of Conversation and Lifelong Learning

Everyone has a story to share. Everyone is interesting. Unschoolers and hosts of the Self Directed podcast, Jesper and Cecilie Conrad, roam the world seeing spectacular sights, but the real heart of their travels is the people they meet. As Cecilie says, "People are the adventure." I once read that to be interesting, we need to be interested in others.…
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Words Matter

Yesterday, I sang happy birthday to a friend in a video message despite thinking I have a terrible voice. “I’ll sing the low version,” I announced before plucking up my courage, taking a deep breath, and attempting the first note. My low voice is the one I use when I’m messing around with my family, pretending to be a bass…
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Encouraging Unschooling Kids and Mothers

In this week’s podcast, I’m talking about encouragement. I have two encouragement stories to share with you which I’m hoping you haven’t heard before. But if you are familiar with them, will you think, “Sue is getting repetitive”? Will you consider giving my podcast a negative review? I hope not. Instead, maybe you’ll offer some feedback. Do you have any…
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Encouraging Each Other

Sue Elvis is a mother of 8 with stacks of stories to tell. She generously shares her Stories of an Unschooling Family on her blog, YouTube channel, podcast, Instagram and most recently in her books, Curious Unschoolers and Radical Unschool Love. And these stories are epic. Not in their length, most of them are short reads. And certainly not fantasy.…
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Leaving Magical Fingerprints on Each Other’s Lives

Friends leave their magical fingerprints on our lives. I remember the day that I heard that Nancy Shuman had died. It was a Sunday. Andy, the girls and I had spent the afternoon with my parents. My son Duncan was at home looking after our new puppy, Quinn. It was just a normal weekend day. But when we arrived home,…
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Encouraging Each Other to Do Difficult Things

he other morning while I was running with our dog Quinn, we met a man ambling along with a huge roly-poly overweight dog. There they were on the track just ahead of us. Instantly, I came to a halt and grabbed Quinn’s collar. The man took hold of his dog and tried to stop too. But he couldn’t. His dog…
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Critical Comments: Unschool Bits and Pieces

Dealing With Unschooling Critics I know your heart is in the right place. You’re full of love. I can see that. But is that enough? Frankly, my dear, I’m worried. I’m not saying this lightly. I’m not the kind of person who likes to interfere. Everyone knows that. However…. don’t you think you’re putting your kids at risk? They need discipline.…
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How Kids (and Adults) Learn

In this week’s podcast, episode 108, I’m telling some stories and chatting about how kids and adults learn: What is the best motivation for learning? Why do we persist using teaching methods that we know aren’t working? Why do we waste our time? Would more people unschool if there was no such thing as homeschool registration? What bad habits have adults learnt…
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Unschooling Siblings and Other Stories

I started writing this blog post last Friday. This is all I managed to write before I was interrupted: I didn’t make a podcast last week. Some unexpected things happened and so I didn’t find time to sit in front of my mic and record one. I felt a little frustrated because I’d promised to get back on track and podcast…
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The Fear of Failing

Last Wednesday morning, just after sunrise, we headed into the bush to record another music video for Imogen. “What song are you singing today, Imogen?” I asked. “May it Be from The Lord of the Rings, the Enya song.” “Do I know that one?” “You’ll recognise it once you hear it.” Did I recognise it? Was the song familiar to…
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Encouraging Kids’ Ideas

The other day, I was telling you about my plans to transcribe parts of my podcasts. I want to make them into blog posts. I found some software called Transcribe to help me, and this afternoon, I tried it out. I transcribed a segment from podcast episode 52, Getting Older, Unschooling, and Moving On. It’s about encouraging children’s ideas (and…
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