freedom

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How to Write a Million Unschool Love Stories

I used to think the defining word of unschooling was freedom. Freedom attracted me. I wanted to be free to do whatever I liked. I wanted to get up each day and do anything or nothing at all. But I soon realised there’s a problem with freedom. If we always do whatever we like, won’t we become self-centred? Thinking only of ourselves won’t lead to happiness because we were made…
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Do Unschoolers Drift Aimlessly Through Each Day?

Years ago, when I was researching homeschooling methods, I thought unschooling sounded good because we’d be free to do whatever we liked. And if we didn’t want to do anything, that would be okay. There would be no rules, no control, no expectations, no pressure to do anything in particular. But then one day, I wondered whether unschooling is another word for wasting time. Shouldn’t we make the most of…
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Could a Lack of Freedom Damage Our Kids’ Mental Health?

On the first morning of my recent holiday with my daughter Imogen, I got up early, grabbed my camera and headed to the beach. I sat alone on the sand, waiting for the sun to rise and thought about freedom. The last couple of years have been hard, haven’t they? In 2020, here in Australia, we endured a lockdown of several months. Last year, I was confined to home for…
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The Important People in Our Lives

About a week or so ago, I received a beautifully encouraging message from one of my friends in our unschooling community who’d listened to my podcast, The Problem with Being Too Nice. You might remember that I made that episode in March last year, at a time when I felt overloaded with various difficulties, including the pandemic lockdown. As I rarely received any feedback about the unschooling work I was…
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Directing Our Lives Instead of Letting Life Direct Us

‘ve always wondered about the connection between freedom and not wasting time. We have a limited number of hours, so we should make the most of them, shouldn’t we? But we don’t want to live on a tight schedule, slotting activities into every minute of our days ahead of time. We need to be free to make our own choices about the things we do and when we do them. But…
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