Stories of an Unschooling Family

76: Another Typical Unschooling Day

This week, I talk about our unschooling days:
Is there such a thing as a typical unschooling day?
Do our days change over time?
Is it time to share a new typical day?
Along the way, I chat about things related to our days:
How can we share our beliefs (Catholic or otherwise) with our kids?
Do I force my kids to say family prayers and go to church?
Does the Church force me to attend Mass?
Do my girls exercise because I make them?
Do I ever follow my girls' good example?
Can we strew verbally?
Do sibling relationships change over time?
Does position in the family affect relationships?
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 you to join us! 
Thank you for listening! If you enjoy my podcast, perhaps you can share the link to help spread the word about unschooling!
Podcast music: 60's Quiz Show by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0)
 

75: Unschooling Siblings Working Together

Today, my 21-year-old daughter Imogen joins me to talk about siblings, writing, and music.
Is it possible for siblings to teach siblings?
What special challenges are involved?
What benefits are there to siblings sharing their talents?
Can siblings work together on a single project? Is it possible to make everyone feel part of the team?
Imogen talks about the piano and singing lessons she gives to her younger sisters. 
We chat about her last music video which features her three younger sisters who all sang as well as helped make the video.
We talk about writing and the upcoming Camp NaNowriMo event. Is it too late to join in? Do you need a novel plan before signing up?
Imogen tells us about the Writing Circle Meetings she, Sophie and Gemma-Rose have each week. 
And how she'd like to turn these meetings into a formal online course to help and inspire other young writers.
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, and on her blog Gossiping with Dragons.
Thank you for listening! If you enjoy my podcast, perhaps you can share the link to help spread the word about unschooling!
Podcast music: 60's Quiz Show by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0)
 

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)