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14: How to Talk and Save Lives, and Can I Mention the Weather?

Is it okay to talk about the weather or should that topic be avoided if you want to have an interesting conversation? Is it important for our children to have good conversational skills? How do they get such skills? 
Bushfire fighters are heroes but can school teachers be heroes too? Should we all know how to do CPR, just in case? And what about our children? Should they learn too?
Do the youngest children in the family sometimes miss out? Should parents make the effort to give them the same experiences as their older siblings?
And should we brush off other people's thanks? (Hey, it was nothing!) Or is it necessary for us to be gracious and accept them?
I hope you'll listen to this week's podcast to find out my answers to all these questions and much more! 
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.

13: About Me, About Podcasting, About Adventures!

I start this week's podcast with a belated introduction of me and my family. Maybe I should have done this in episode 1. Oh well, better late than never!
 
I talk about our visit to a professional audio studio and mull over ideas to improve my podcasts. 
 
And finally I chat about adventures. Is it necessary for unschooling families to travel? Or can we find adventures at home?
 
I should add that I never dived to the BOTTOM of the lake to look at the map of the bush tracks. (That would have been very adventurous!) Words never come out perfectly when podcasting. The map was on a board BY the lake!
 
The program notes can be found on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family. I hope you'll visit!

12: A Baby's Birth and Death, and Christmas (Again!)

Last weekend we celebrated the birth and death days of our son Thomas. In this week's podcast I share some of Thomas' story. I ponder the question: How does a family homeschool during a crisis like a death in the family? Christmas is approaching. Anyone grieving might find this joyful season very difficult. But is Christmas actually a season for the broken-hearted?On a lighter note, I revisit a simple Christmas. I have a new idea!
 
I hope you will listen, regardless of whether you have lost a child. We all have ups and downs we have to deal with. They are part of life and we learn from them all.You can find the program notes on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family. 

11: Teenagers, Rules and Rebellion

In this week's podcast, I chat about teenagers with my own teenage daughters, Imogen (19), Charlotte (17) and Sophie (13). Many parents expect life to get difficult once their children turn 13. But will it? Are teenagers really trouble or are they unfairly labelled? 
 
We talk about the pressures teenagers face. Do parents unwittingly magnify these pressures? Are rules necessary to keep teenagers safe, or will rules lead to rebellion? My daughters tell me what they think teenagers need instead of rules. We also talk about mistakes, forgiveness and honesty. And how, because of adult peer pressure, I made one of my teenager's life unnecessarily difficult. 
This week's program notes can be found on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family. If you'd like to read my posts related to this podcast, please visit!

10: Should a Child Be Given the Freedom to Choose?

If children are given the freedom to do whatever they want, will they choose to do nothing at all?
My teenage daughters, Imogen (19) and Sophie (13) join me for today's podcast, to discuss this question. During our conversation we talk about whether it is actually possible to do nothing at all, and how parents and children sometimes differ in their opinion about what is a valuable way of spending time. I ask my daughters if they think children should be made to do difficult things. And what about things they do not like doing? We also chat about the need for quiet time. By the time we get to the end of the podcast we are mulling over this question: Could it actually be essential for parents to let children choose?
 
I've gathered together a few blog posts I've written on this subject. They can be found in the program notes on my blog, Stories of an Unschooling Family.

9: Mothers, Unschooling and a Lazy Way of Life

Is unschooling a lazy way of life? Do mothers choose to unschool because they can’t be bothered putting together a proper homeschool program for their children’s education? Perhaps unschooling mothers don’t actually do much in a day. My daughter Imogen and I discuss these questions in today’s podcast.  
 
Along the way, we also talk about how we can encourage a love of learning, strewing, tiredness and how everything is potentially interesting, even maths!
 
Please ignore any contradictions. This is an unscripted conversation where we mull over ideas as we chat. Words don't always come out perfectly!
 
The program notes can be found, as usual, on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family.
 
sound effects credit: http://www.freesfx.co.uk/
 
 
 
 

8: Beginnings and Endings, and a Simple Christmas

This week I talk about beginnings and endings. Last week the new school term began, my daughter Charlotte started a new year of her life, and two of my girls have begun a new project. (They're hoping to earn some money!)
Some beginnings are followed closely by an ending, like the death of a baby. I ponder whether grief is something of interest to only a few, or will we all experience grief at some stage of our lives? Along the way I also chat about traditions, minimalism and Christmas, and how to begin and end podcasts. (Something I want to improve!) As usual the program notes can be found on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family.

7: Unschooling Children, a School Teacher Father, and Tea

This week I chat to my husband Andy and our 19 year old daughter Imogen. We talk about Andy's two roles: school teacher and unschooling father. Andy shares his own learning story as he tells of his redundancy, and his return to university mid-life which led to a whole new career. Along the way we discuss a few unschooling principles, the ways fathers can be involved in his children's lives... and tea!
 
As usual, this week's program notes can be found on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family. 

6: Unschooling Experts, Criticism and Radical Chore Rosters

This week:
I talk about the definition of unschooling. 
Are labels useful or an invitation for criticism? 
I ponder if there are such people as unschooling experts. 
And can a radical unschooling family use a chore roster? No? Perhaps?
I chat about how my ideas have changed over the years. And how inconvenient it is to have my past ideas published somewhere in black and white, for all to see, when I no longer believe what I wrote!
As usual the program notes, which include a number of posts related to this podcast, can be found on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family.

5: Unschool Writing, Essays and a Few Panicky Moments!

This week I chat to my 19 year old daughter Imogen about writing. 
 
Imogen is in her final year of a Professional Writing and Publishing degree at university. So how did she get there? Did she learn to write by doing a structured course? What about spelling and grammar? Surely she learnt all about essay writing before she started her university degree? And how did she write before she knew anything about letters? We discuss all these questions and much more, including NaNoWriMo which is only a few weeks away. Somehow I found myself mentioning a couple of panicky moments I experienced while unschooling!You can find the program notes, which include a list of recommended writing books, on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family.