adult unschoolers

195: What is Unschooling?

This week, I’m going back to basics: I’m discussing the question, What is Unschooling? I’m also sharing several stories to illustrate my definition:
What Is Unschooling?
Why Unschooling Isn’t a Method of Homeschooling
What Is Unschooling? A Transcript
I also share some links to other unschoolers’ definitions of unschooling.
 
Show Notes
Please visit my blog, Stories of an Unschooling Family, to read my post, Unschool Basics: What Is Unschooling? It contains today’s show notes.
 
My Unschooling Books
The Unschool Challenge: Kindle
The Unschool Challenge: paperback
Curious Unschoolers: Kindle
Curious Unschoolers: paperback
Radical Unschool Love: Kindle
Radical Unschool Love: paperback
My Amazon Author Page

188: It's Not for Me!

This week, Imogen and I are discussing:
The value of casual work and lower profile jobs
How our kids can surprise us
Jobs and passions
Why we need to promote our work
How to answer critics and critique other people’s work
The importance of helping each other
Jane Austen, Sanditon and Bridgerton
Ageing
And other things!
 
Show Notes
 
Things we mention in this episode
This is Marketing: book by Seth Godin
The Illustrated Man: book by Ray Bradbury
Sanditon: miniseries adapted from Jane Austen's novel by Andrew Davies 
Sanditon: unfinished Jane Austen novel
Pride and Prejudice: 1995 miniseries adapted by Andrew Davies from Jane Austen's novel
Bridgerton: miniseries
Bridgerton: book by Julia Quinn
 
My Unschooling Books
Curious Unschoolers: Kindle
Curious Unschoolers: paperback
Radical Unschool Love: Kindle
Radical Unschool Love: paperback
My Amazon Author Page
 
Where You Can Find Me
Unschooling Community
My Stories of an Unschooling Family community
Youtube
Sue Elvis
Blogs
Stories of an Unschooling Family
Where the Carol Birds Sing
Instagram
sue_elvis
 
Where You Can Find Imogen
Blog
Write.Rewrite.Read
Instagram
write.rewrite.read
Youtube
Imogen Elvis
Books
The Crystal Tree
The Shattering Song
Frost Hands
 
Thank you for listening to this episode!
 
 

187: The Problem With High Expectations and Control

This week, Imogen and I are talking about:
High expectations and control. Do they result in unhappy children? Do controlled kids look for distractions? Does limiting screen time result in an increased attraction for devices?
A novel that Imogen reviewed: Dear Hero
Inspiration and different ways of telling a story
How we can work together, share our skills, and help each other
The Catholic Homeschool Conference (I'm a speaker!)
News of two soon-to-be-produced unschooling podcasts
 
Show Notes
Things we mentioned in this episode:
 
Indistractible by Nir Eyal
Masterchef Australia 2021
Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
Dear Hero by Hope Bolinger and Alyssa Roat
Illuminae Files Book Series by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
The Catholic Homeschool Conference
 
My Unschooling Books
Curious Unschoolers: Kindle
Curious Unschoolers: paperback
Radical Unschool Love: Kindle
Radical Unschool Love: paperback
My Amazon Author Page
 
Where You Can Find Me
Unschooling Community
My Stories of an Unschooling Family community
Youtube
Sue Elvis
Blogs
Stories of an Unschooling Family
Where the Carol Birds Sing
Instagram
sue_elvis
 
Where You Can Find Imogen
Blog
Write.Rewrite.Read
Instagram
write.rewrite.read
Youtube
Imogen Elvis
Books
The Crystal Tree
The Shattering Song
Frost Hands
 
Thank you for listening to this episode!
 
 

186: Criticism, Reviews, and Paying it Forward

This week, Imogen and I have a lively conversation about:
The highs and lows that affect our parenting, homeschooling and creative lives
Criticism: why do we let other people's opinions affect what we do? Whose opinions should we listen to? Why we shouldn't let criticism stop us from using our talents
Reviews: why we don't ask for many reviews
Writing about things we have never experienced
Paying it Forward: is free online stuff really free? 
We're also discussing some books and movies.
And we're telling stories about:
how to remove a dead tree
cockroaches
how I might have made a difference to the lives of the world's dogs
and many other things
 
Show Notes
Things we mention in this episode:
 
Tamworth
Botanic gardens and Marsupial Park
Country Music Festival
 
Gunnedah
Silo Art: Dorothea MacKellar and her poem, My Country
Water Tower Art: The Long Tan Battle of the Vietnam War
Silo Art at Barraba
 
Book
Show Your Work: Ten Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon
 
Tin Tin comics and Netflix shows
 
Movies and Series
The Greatest Showman
Les Mis
Oklahoma
Hamilton
The Crown
The Chosen
 
My Unschooling Books
Curious Unschoolers: Kindle
Curious Unschoolers: paperback
Radical Unschool Love: Kindle
Radical Unschool Love: paperback
My Amazon Author Page
 
Where You Can Find Me
Unschooling Community
My Stories of an Unschooling Family community
Youtube
Sue Elvis
Blogs
Stories of an Unschooling Family
Where the Carol Birds Sing
Instagram
sue_elvis
 
Where You Can Find Imogen
Blog
Write.Rewrite.Read
Instagram
write.rewrite.read
Youtube
Imogen Elvis
Books
The Crystal Tree
The Shattering Song
Frost Hands
 
Thank you for listening to this episode!
 
 

185: Social Media, Hooks, Distractions, and Books

This week, Imogen and I are discussing:
Social media and video games: can we break the hooks that pull us in?
Books: is it okay to use someone else’s ideas and create something of our own?
In particular, we’re talking about the documentary, The Social Dilemma, and the books, Dust by Kara Swanson and The Drover’s Wife by Leah Purcell.
We’re also telling a few family stories.
 
Show Notes
Things we mention in this episode:
Indistractible and Hooked by Nir Eyal
The Social Dilemma on Netflix
Dust by Kara Swanson
The Drover’s Wife by Leah Purcell
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Henry Lawson: poems and short stories
Bleak House and Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens
How to Train Your Dragon: movie and book
The Princess Bride: movie and book
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Jeff Wayne’s musical, The War of the Worlds
 
My Unschooling Books
Curious Unschoolers: Kindle
Curious Unschoolers: paperback
Radical Unschool Love: Kindle
Radical Unschool Love: paperback
My Amazon Author Page
 
Where You Can Find Me
Unschooling Community
My Stories of an Unschooling Family community
Youtube
Sue Elvis
Blogs
Stories of an Unschooling Family
Where the Carol Birds Sing
Instagram
sue_elvis
 
Where You Can Find Imogen
Blog
Write.Rewrite.Read
Instagram
write.rewrite.read
Youtube
Imogen Elvis
Books
The Crystal Tree
The Shattering Song
Frost Hands
 
Thank you for listening to this episode!
 

183: Big Ideas and Big Passions,

This week, my daughter Imogen is back, and we're talking about:
Writing: the definition of a story, what to write about, how we use our own experiences in stories.
Superhero movies: the big ideas contained in seemingly trivial stories
Behind-the scenes documentaries.
Rock climbing and glass blowing: creativity, and the lengths (or heights!) some people will go to follow their passions.
We’re also telling lots of stories.
 
Show Notes
Things we mention in this episode:
Camp NaNoWriMo
The A-Z blogging challenge
 
Masterclass:
Neil Gaiman and his writing class
Margaret Atwood and her writing class
 
WandaVision
The Making of Wandavision
Captain America: Civil War
 
Solo Free on Amazon Prime
The Dawn Face on Netflix
 
Blown Away on Netflix
 
My Unschooling Books
Curious Unschoolers: Kindle
Curious Unschoolers: paperback
Radical Unschool Love: Kindle
Radical Unschool Love: paperback
My Amazon Author Page
 
Where You Can Find Me
Unschooling Community
My Stories of an Unschooling Family community
Youtube
Sue Elvis
Blogs
Stories of an Unschooling Family
Where the Carol Birds Sing
Instagram
sue_elvis
 
Where You Can Find Imogen
Blog
Write.Rewrite.Read
Instagram
write.rewrite.read
Youtube
Imogen Elvis
 
Thank you for listening to this episode!
 

180: Unschool, Martian, and Risque Stories

My daughter Imogen and I are discussing play, writing, books, Martians, and exercise. This episode is jam-packed full of stories, unschooling thoughts and resources.
Episode Contents
0:00-01:56 Intro
01:56-07:53 Excitement 
07:53-10:51 Writing
10:51-18:08 Music
18:08-30:15 Kids’ Play
30:15-42:10 Adults’ Play
42:10-59:18 A Space Phase
59:18-01:03:31 A Novel and Priest Holes
01:03:31-01:07:11 Exercise
01:07:11-01:13:51 A Risqué Story
01:13:51-01:17:01 Listener Questions 
01:17:01-01:21:38 End Stuff
 
Show Notes 
 
Writing
NaNoWriMo
 
Music
Musescore
Garageband
 
Play
Blog Post: Doing What Kids Ought to Do
 
A Space Phase
The War of the Worlds book by H.G. Wells
Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds
The Martian book
The Martian movie
Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets
 
Exercise
Leslie Sansone's Walk at Home
 
Books
The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton
Imogen's new novel : Frost Notes
 
My Unschooling Books
Curious Unschoolers: Kindle
Curious Unschoolers: paperback
Radical Unschool Love: Kindle
Radical Unschool Love: paperback
My Amazon Author Page
 
Where You Can Find Me
My Stories of an Unschooling Family community
Youtube
Sue Elvis
Blogs
Stories of an Unschooling Family
Where the Carol Birds Sing
Instagram
stories_ofan_unschoolingfamily
 
Where You Can Find Imogen
Blog
Write.Rewrite.Read
Instagram
write.rewrite.read
Youtube
Imogen Elvis
 
Thank you for listening to this episode. If you enjoy my podcast, please consider sharing the link so that we can spread the word about unschooling!
Please feel welcome to visit my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family or Instagram to leave a comment. Perhaps you have a question for Imogen? We'd love to hear some feedback about our conversation!
 

179: Unschooling, Plot Holes and Twonk

My daughter Imogen and I are sharing some unschooling thoughts while we talk about what we’ve been working on, what we’ve been reading and watching, and what’s making us feel excited.
0:00 Intro
00:58 Introducing Imogen
01:47 Returning to Podcasting
05:50 Frost Hands and Writing
14:34 Writing Novels and Unschooling Books
21:57 The Inconvenience of Losing Our Videographer 
32:14 Excited About Exercise
41:59 Escaping into a Novel
48:55 Rereading Retold Fairy Tales
53:52 Masterchef and Kids’ Happiness
01:01:29 The Masked Singer and Twonk
01:08:50 End Things
 
Show Notes
 
Imogen's new novel
Frost Hands
 
Podcasts about NaNoWriMo
Episode 153: More Unschool Writing Ideas and Resources
Episode 140: Difficult Things
 
Imogen's Music Youtube Channel
Imogen Elvis
 
Websites
Skillshare
Walk at Home
 
Books
The Lake House by Kate Morton
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
 
Blog Post
Why We Need to Support Our Kids' Choices
 
Video
My 2020 Global Homeschooling Summit interview video
 
My Unschooling Books
Curious Unschoolers: Kindle
Curious Unschoolers: paperback
Radical Unschool Love: Kindle
Radical Unschool Love: paperback
My Amazon Author Page
 
Where You Can Find Me
My Stories of an Unschooling Family community
Youtube
Sue Elvis
Blogs
Stories of an Unschooling Family
Where the Carol Birds Sing
Instagram
stories_ofan_unschoolingfamily
 
Where You Can Find Imogen
Blog
Write.Rewrite.Read
Instagram
write.rewrite.read
 
Thank you for listening to this episode. If you enjoy my podcast, please consider sharing the link so that we can spread the word about unschooling!
 
Please feel welcome to visit my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family to leave a comment!
 

171: The Problem With Being Too Nice

This week, I'm talking about the problem with being too nice.
Is it okay to be honest about how we're feeling?
Should we avoid comparing ourselves with other people?
I'm also talking about the A-Z blogging challenge.
And I'm sharing one of my old challenge stories, the Y story: You Come to Visit
 
Show Notes
 
Blog Post
The Problem With Being Too Nice
 
Writing Challenge
The A-Z Blogging Challenge
 
My Unschooling Books
Curious Unschoolers: Kindle
Curious Unschoolers: paperback
Radical Unschool Love: Kindle
Radical Unschool Love: paperback
My Amazon Author Page
 
Where You Can Find Me
My Stories of an Unschooling Family community
Email Me
Youtube
Sue Elvis
Blog
Stories of an Unschooling Family
 
Thank you for listening to this episode. If you enjoy my podcast, please consider sharing the link so that we can spread the word about unschooling. A quick review or rating would help too!
Please feel welcome to visit my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family to leave a comment.  I hope to see you inside my unschooling community!
 
 

156: Building Strong Relationships with Our Kids

This week, I'm sharing 3 stories about my young adult son Callum (who likes to grin!):
How I Removed an Engine from a Car
Engines, Muscles and Spending Time with Dad
My Fridge Adventure
I talk about building strong relationships with our kids by:
Taking an interest in their passions.
Spending time with them.
Being daring and adventurous parents who like to have fun.
As well, I talk about:
Self-directed learning.
Being honest.
I also share a couple of reviews for my books Curious Unschoolers and Radical Unschool Love.
 
Show Notes
 
My Unschooling Books
Curious Unschoolers: Kindle
Curious Unschoolers: paperback
Radical Unschool Love: Kindle
Radical Unschool Love: paperback
 
Youtube
Sue Elvis
 
Instagram
stories_ofan_unschoolingfamily
 
Thank you for listening to this episode. If you enjoy my podcast, please consider sharing the link so that we can spread the word about unschooling. A quick review or rating would help too!
Please feel welcome to visit my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family to leave a comment about this episode. (You could tell me how many times I said the word 'grin' in this episode!) And please join me on Instagram!