unschooling - Page 9

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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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Motivated to Learn

Did you ever hear my physics story? When I was in grade 11, we moved house, and so I had to go to a new school. On my first day, I turned up at a physics class. The teacher who’d never had girls in his class before said, “What are you doing here?” And I told him I’d come to learn physics. He replied, “We’ll see about that!” I was…
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Some Real Life Covid English

The other morning, while we were driving to town, my daughter Gemma-Rose did something that’s socially unacceptable: she sneezed! “It’s okay,” I said. “We belong to the same bubble.” Then we had a very interesting conversation about words. Since covid-19 appeared, how many words have gained additional meanings? Bubble used to conjure up images of filmy spheres that delight children (and adults), and now when we hear that word we…
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Unschool, Martian, and Risqué Stories

A few days ago, we all got very excited when a box of Frost Hands landed on our doorstep. My daughter Imogen opened it, eager to see the print version of her latest novel for the first time. Would it look good? We all agree that Frost Hands looks fabulous. My daughter Charlotte designed its cover and we love it. Imogen talks about the exciting arrival of her books in…
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Doing What Kids Ought to Do

Years ago, we lived in a back-to-front cottage. The back door faced the long driveway that led to the road, and the front one turned towards an endless paddock of chewing-the-cud cows. Around the cottage was what the real estate woman had called a yard: “It’s nothing fancy,” she’d said on the day when she’d shown me the house. Her yard was my garden, and my garden was my kids’…
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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 avoid such things as chores? Maybe we weren’t dedicated to…
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Unschooling, Plot Holes, and Twonk

Yesterday, something unexpected happened: I recorded a new podcast episode! It had been a long time since I last headed into my closet, set up my mic, and started talking. Yes, I’d been neglecting my podcast. But why? A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post called Falling Apart. I explained how I was feeling overwhelmed and needed to take a break from some of my regular activities. I…
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How to Unschool During the Baby Seasons of Life: The Magic Answer

Maybe most people think of me as an older unschooler blogger because, at the moment, I'm surrounded by unschooling teens and young adults. I'm also older in age! But, of course, my children were once babies and toddlers and younger unschoolers. I remember those hectic days of trying to unschool some children while, at the same time, trying to see to the needs of the smallest members of our family.…
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Adding Rhythm to Our Unschooling Days

Years ago, when we first began unschooling, I thought that to unschool properly, we had to get up each morning and take the day as it came. Do whatever we felt like at each moment without thinking too far ahead. This sounded attractive – we’re free to do whatever we like!- but we soon found ourselves drifting through our days not achieving much which was very unsatisfying. I needed to…
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How Limiting Screen Time Can Limit Our Learning

Do you use the screen time feature on your phone and other devices? I used to. At the end of every week, I received a report telling me how much time I’d spent on my iPhone and iPad and how I’d used that time. When I saw the number of hours I’d spent on my devices, I felt guilty. How could I have let myself sit in front of my…
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An Unschooling Challenge: Looking for Joy

Each week, in our Stories of an Unschooling Family Community, I post an unschooling challenge. The challenges are a way for us to explore the principles of unschooling, ponder a few ideas together, and make unschooling a reality in our lives. A few weeks ago, I shared the following challenge. A Looking for Joy Challenge Do you ever look for ways to add joy to your days? Well, that’s this…
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