trust

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When Our Kids Are Wired Differently

Amina lowers her voice. “I don’t like to admit this, but one day I said, ‘Harry, can’t you do as I want for once? Can’t you be nice to me just for one day?’ Harry looked confused. Be nice to me? I don’t think he deliberately tried to upset me. He was just being himself. Wasn’t that okay? – Amina,…
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Unschooling: Doing What Is Right

Unschooling is the right thing to do. That’s a bold claim that you might challenge if your ideas about what’s right are different from mine. What if my right is your wrong? Is that the end of the conversation? Or could we agree that we must all decide what’s right for our families, and then live by those principles? Knowing…
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Christian Unschooling: Letting God into Our Kids’ Lives

I used to tick off my spiritual boxes religiously every day. I said a lot of prayers and read my Bible. And I got extra ticks whenever I was able to get to daily Mass, so I made the effort to get there as often as life allowed. It wasn’t easy doing all that, but I did it. I had…
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Do We Have Trouble Trusting Our Kids Because of Our Own Experiences?

Can kids be trusted? If we give them the freedom to direct their lives, won’t they do nothing much at all? Won’t they choose to be lazy? I wonder if we have trouble trusting our kids because we remember what we were like when we were children. Perhaps we weren’t hardworking. Could we have spent lots of time trying to…
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Unschooling Cats and Rats and Trust

Did you hear that we’ve had lots of rain recently? It’s brought everything back to life after the bushfires. The burnt bush is regenerating. We’ve got grass, instead of stubble, in our back garden. It’s lush and green and knee-deep. We have new life inside our home as well. There are rats living upstairs in our roof space. They are…
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Time and Trust and Letting Go

If Darth Vader somehow got into your podcast, would you still publish it? If you tuned into a podcast episode and heard some noisy breathing, would you continue listening? Why am I asking these strange questions? Well, the latest episode of my podcast isn’t perfect. And that’s because I’m experimenting with yet another recording setup. Oh my, I’ve had a…
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Respecting Kids and Christmas Presents

Does having a simple Christmas sound good? It does to me. This year, like last year and the one before, I wanted to announce that I’m not buying a lot of Christmas presents. I thought about saying that I’m not buying any at all. I didn’t want to think and think until the perfect gift ideas came to mind. I…
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An Unschooler Talks About Life, Work and Dreams

Perhaps we worry that if we let our kids follow their interests, they won’t gain all the knowledge they will need if they decide to do some kind of tertiary study in the future. How will they get on when the time comes to study at a university or other higher education institution? I have five children who have studied…
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When a Child Is No Longer Gripped by a Passion

A friend asked: “Have your kids ever been between interests?” The short answer to that question is yes. There have indeed been times when my kids have lost their enthusiasm for their interests. Their excitement for learning, in general, disappeared. Nothing seemed to grab their attention. They were no longer gripped by a passion. At first, this worried me. But now, having…
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