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When Excitement for Learning Appears to Disappear
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.…
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Mothers, Unschooling and a Lazy Way of Life
Is unschooling a lazy way of life? Do mothers choose to unschool because they can’t be bothered putting together a proper homeschool program for their children’s education? Perhaps unschooling mothers don’t actually do much in a day. My daughter Imogen and I discussed these questions in today’s podcast. Along the way, we also talked about how we can encourage a…
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How We Unschool Despite Strict Homeschool Regulations
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we didn’t have to answer to anyone and could unschool our children with total freedom? I guess some people are fortunate to be able to do this. But we’re not. In our state of Australia, if we want to homeschool, we have to fulfil certain requirements. Our children are supposed to follow the same syllabus…
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Unschooling, Strewing and Unplanning
The other night I turned off my computer for the day, and settled down with my family to watch a movie… at least I tried to watch. My mind kept straying from Beauty and the Beast to Evernote. Then just as the beast demanded Belle join him for dinner, I had this ‘great’ idea’. Great? I don’t know what you’ll…
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Encouraging Children So They Get Excited About Learning
We never made a conscious decision to unschool. I didn’t wake up one morning and say, “Hey kids, let’s give unschooling a go.” No, over a long period of time I gradually threw out all that wasn’t working for us until we found a way of homeschooling that felt right. We ended up ‘doing our own thing’. It was a…
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Time for Some Strewing
Sometimes life provides my children with more than enough learning experiences without any help from me. A bushfire might be burning on our doorstep, giving everyone a unique learning opportunity. At other times, ordinary life provides one question after another for us to answer: We might discuss the problem of a broken washing machine or we’re anticipating the installation of a hot water system. We might have…
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Sharing a Few Ideas with My Unschooling High Schooler
“How about we have a chat after lunch?” I ask 16 year old Charlotte. “You can tell me what you’ve been doing recently. Maybe I can help with some new resources.” So after the lunch dishes have been cleared away, we meet in the family room. I have my computer on my lap. Charlotte has her notebook. “How’s maths going?”…
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Homeschooling in a Crisis
“So what have we got planned for today, Mum?” Sophie asks me. “Well, nothing really,” I reply. “We can’t go anywhere because of the bushfire, but I guess I don’t have to keep such a close eye on the fire updates. I could read to you, or we could watch a DVD together.” Sophie smiles. Doing something together? That sounds…
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Bite-Sized Pieces of Unschool Maths
So many people love the idea of unschooling and are even tempted to give it a go, but often there is one huge stumbling block… maths. Very few parents seem to be confident that their children will learn all the maths they need to know, without being prodded along by some kind of intentional instruction. Many homeschoolers who decide to…
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When a Child Has Only One Interest.
“It’s all very well, letting children follow their own interests, but my daughter only wants to do one thing. She’s not interested in science or maths or writing… All she wants to do is cook and how’s that going to satisfy the educational authorities?” a hypothetical mother asks. What would I do if one of my girls only wanted to…
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What to Do When Strewing is Rejected
Recently I found all kinds of things to strew in front of Charlotte. I came across a website and DVD series that has an episode about a man who settled on the uninhabited Cocos Islands, later making himself king over the workers of his coconut plantation. His family ruled for 150 years before Australia brought that rule to an end.…
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Planning the Next Term’s School Work in Half an Hour
Andy is sitting hunched over his computer. He has been there on and off for the past fortnight. Only one more week until the official start to the new school year and Andy is busy writing lesson plans for his primary school class. I don’t envy him. Homeschooling is so much easier. I don’t have to spend weeks planning work…