homeschooling

74: Is Play Important for Both Adults and Kids?

This week, I discuss the following questions:
Should we condemn people, including children, who are having a bad day? Or can we help them?
Do adults need to play?
What about teenagers? 
What happens if we don't play?
Is it okay for kids to spend all day playing?
Do kids need time to play without a parent's involvement?
What are the benefits of play?
What are the best toys?
Should we let kids play games that involve risk?
Are our kids in danger of losing their childhoods?
Why am I very glad I let my kids play?
Should parents be daring and adventurous?
How can we increase our enjoyment when playing with our kids?
I also talk about Facebook.
You can find me on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family, 
Facebook, Instagram, Youtube 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)
 

73: Helping a Child Discover Her Talents

This week, my 21-year-old daughter, Imogen, joins me. We explore a lot of questions including:
Do children's talents need the right environment in order to be discovered? 
How can parents create that environment? 
How can we support a child's talents?
Should we be worried if a teenager doesn't know what she wants to do as a future career?
Do we put too many pressures on teenagers?
How can we help children who seem to have no interests?
What if children don't want to do anything but watch TV?
What if they don't want to do anything but play?
Is play valuable? How has it helped Imogen as a musician and writer?
Do parents feel pressured to offer their kids impressive learning experiences? Do they feel pressured to show others that their kids are doing impressive things? Are we all too competitive?
How did we cope with multi-aged kids, including babies and toddlers, while homeschooling?
You can find me on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family, 
Facebook, Instagram, Youtube 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 Imogen on Youtube and Facebook.  
 
Podcast music: 60's Quiz Show by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0)
 

72: Choosing Not to Worry About What Other People Might Think

This week,
I talk about:
ageing, appearance and associated insecurities
video making
Facebook
Livestreaming
resources which might spark off some new learning experiences if life is a bit quiet
I also ponder a few unschooling questions such as:
 
Are some kids so resourceful they have no need of basic skills?
You can find me on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family, 
Facebook, Instagram, Youtube 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)
 

71: Tired and Difficult Days

This week:
I talk about tired days: do we plough on when we are overtired, trying to do all we normally do? Should we slow down? Ask for help? How do our tired days affect our children? And how does our attitude affect how we feel about being tired?
I ponder the many different definitions of the word 'unschooling' and 'radical unschooling'. Are any of them an adequate description of unschooling? What ingredient do I feel is essential for unschooling? Does it need to be included in any definition, especially when we're talking about radical unschooling?
I share some thoughts about chores
I revisit podcast 70, clarifying a point my daughter Sophie and I talked about last week. Is it ever okay to talk about our concerns about our children? What conditions do we feel are necessary if we do this?
I share my latest projects: my newsletter and my first it's-not-a-periscope. What is an it's-not-a-periscope? I explain in this podcast or you could hop over to my Youtube channel to find out!
Lastly, I talk about the positive aspects of being tired. Yes, there are some!
Thank you for listening!
 
You can find me on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family, 
Facebook, Instagram, Youtube 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)
 

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)