gentle parenting

70: Trust, Respect and Love Unconditionally

This week, my 15-year-old daughter, Sophie, joins me to talk about unconditional love, respect, and trust. 
These are some of the questions we explored during our conversation:
Should every parent respect and love their children unconditionally?
Do all children feel loved unconditionally?  If not, why not?
How does Sophie know I love her?
Do all parents talk to their children with respect? If not, what does Sophie think they're doing wrong?
Why do parents criticise their children and what does criticism do to them? Does it result in a child trying harder?
How can a parent encourage a child to overcome her faults?
Is it really necessary to change our children? Do all children have to be the same?
What do misbehaving children need?
Do we gossip about our children?
Is writing down our thoughts and feelings valuable?
What is trust? How can trust grow between parent and child?
Do we judge people on their appearance? Including children?
Am I a perfect mother? Have I got everything worked out? Or is it okay if I make mistakes?
We hope you'll be patient: Sophie is suffering from allergies and this is affecting her ability to speak clearly. Speaking with a stuffy nose was very annoying for her. Sophie did her best and I'm grateful for her effort.
You can find me on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. 
You can find my children's novel The Angels of Abbey Creek on Amazon.
If you'd like to sign up for my newsletter, please do. I'd love to have you on my team! 
Podcast music: 60's Quiz Show by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0)
 

69: Ideas, Passions, and Earning an Income

This week, I talk about:
ideas
passions
Gemma-Rose's latest passion for writing
how passions lead to ideas
how an idea may lead to an income
how we decide if an idea is worth pursuing
unschoolers and entrepreneurship
what kind of jobs my kids would like to have
my son Callum's recent visit home
parenting adult children 
Australian history resources
my new unschooling blog
my newsletter
You can find me on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. 
You can find my children's novel The Angels of Abbey Creek on Amazon.
If you'd like to sign up for my newsletter, please do. I'd love to have you on my team!  If you feel my podcast is helpful, please consider sharing my link and writing an iTunes review. Let's spread the word about unschooling! And please feel welcome to comment, or you can email me if you'd like to chat or just say hello.
 
Podcast music: 60's Quiz Show by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0)

68: Love and a Mother's Heart Stories

This week, I'm sharing some stories about the love we have for our children. Even though that love brings us great joy, it can sometimes make our hearts ache. Or the joy of parenting can become buried under a heap of tiredness. I hope you enjoy these love and a mother's heart stories:
Because I Am a Mother
How to Have Demanding Children Who Rule the House
A Mother's Hug
Sons, Scrapes and Love
Breeding Like Mice
You can find me on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. 
You can find my children's novel The Angels of Abbey Creek on Amazon.
If you'd like to sign up for my newsletter, please do. I'd love to have you on my team! You can find the details in the sidebar of my blog. If you feel my podcast is helpful, please consider sharing my link and writing an iTunes review. Let's spread the word about unschooling! And please feel welcome to comment or you can email me if you'd like to chat or just say hello. Next week my podcasts will be back to normal. Enjoy your week!
Podcast music: 60's Quiz Show by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0)
 

67: The Dead Body and Other Stories

This is a special holiday episode. (My husband Andy is home for a couple of weeks because it's the school holidays.) 
This week, I tell a few family stories.  Locked Out, Locked In and Lies
Andy Elvis Presley
There's a Dead Body Near Our Running Track
A Doctor's Waiting Room Education
You can find links to the original stories in the show notes on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family.
While you're on my blog, why not sign up for my new newsletter? I'd love to have you on my team!
If you enjoy stories, how about taking a look at my children's novel The Angels of Abbey Creek? It's available on Amazon.
I hope you'll consider writing a review of my podcast and share my link. Let's spread the word about unschooling! Thank you to my kind listeners who have already done this. I appreciate it very much!
Music: 60's Quiz Show by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0)

66: The Fear of Failing

This week, I discuss the following questions:
Are we reluctant to try new things because we fear we might fail? 
Why do we fear failure when we know we learn from our mistakes?
How can we encourage our kids to give new things a go?
How do we react when they do make mistakes?
And are some people afraid to try unschooling?
I also share some stories and a few resources.
 
You can find the show notes on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family.
If you have time, please consider writing an iTunes review of my podcast. I'd appreciate it very much!
And if you share my link, we can spread the word about unschooling!
 
Podcast music: 60's Quiz Show by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0)
 
 

65: Dealing with Our Fears and the Critical Comments of Other People

This week, I ask:
 
How do we respond to the critical comments of other people?
Do our fears about unschooling increase when we are faced with negative opinions? How do we deal with that?
 Are communication skills important? How can we pass on good skills to our kids?
Is it really possible for an unschooled child to direct her own learning?
Do a parent's words and fears affect a child?
How can we encourage a child to write? Would free-writing help a reluctant writer?
Can a visit to the doctor be recorded as real life maths?
You can find the show notes on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family.
Please feel welcome to comment on this episode. I hope you'll share the podcast link. And if you have time, I'd be grateful for an iTunes review.
Thank you for listening! Podcast music: 60's Quiz Show by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0)

63: Wasting Time Watching Too Many Movies?

This week:
 
I talk about movies: 
Are movies educational? 
If a child watches lots of movies, won't she be missing out on other things? 
Can we tempt our kids away from the screen? 
And how can we turn movies into notes for our homeschool records book?
Also:
Can we use websites designed for traditional homeschooling/schooling in an unschooly way?
Is there such a thing as too many resources?
I share a story about kids and joy.
Should I be embarrassed by my early podcasts which are far from perfect?
Should I get upset when I think about my mothering mistakes?
I also share lots of resources.
You can find the show notes on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family Podcast Music: 60's Quiz Show by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0)
 

61: Maths, Chores, and Thanking Our Kids

 
This week, I discuss the following questions:
 
Why do little kids love doing chores but older ones don't?
Should we thank our kids more often?
Should we avoid talking to people about their grief? Perhaps it's better not to upset them?
What's wrong with a lot of real life maths resources (in my opinion!)?
 
I also share some maths and geography resources including games, videos, podcasts and websites.
 
 
 
You can find the show notes on my blog, Stories of an Unschooling Family.
You can find my children's novel, The Angels of Abbey Creek on Amazon.
 
Music: 60's Quiz Show by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0)
 

60: Listening to Kids

In this week's episode, I talk about:
Celebrations and joy: Why should we celebrate the small everyday things in life?
Cake: Did I make my kids adopt a sugar-free diet? Do we no longer eat cake?
Perfection: Are we a perfect family? Do we need to be perfect if I'm sharing my family's experiences on the Internet?
Mistakes: If I do make mistakes, am I going to lead you astray? What if I tell you something that's wrong?
Christian unschooling: Are we an obnoxious religious family? Is unschooling not a very Christian thing to do?
Listening: How do we encourage kids to talk to us? How can we improve our listening skills?
Popularity: Do I want to be popular? 
I also tell my mean kids story, the one I forgot to talk about last week! You can find the show notes on my blog, Stories of an Unschooling Family.
You can find my children's novel, The Angels of Abbey Creek on Amazon.
Music: 60's Quiz Show by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0)