Episodes

As Jen Lumanlan puts it, “I don’t have much in the way of parenting instinct but I make up for it with outstanding research skills.” Her deep dive into parenting research led first to a Master’s in Psychology with a focus on Child Development, then to another Master’s in Education, and then ultimately to choosing unschooling as the path forward for her family. In this episode, we dive deep into how she came to that decision, and how she’s shifting things so that she can soon stay home with her d...

Natasha Allan-Zaky joins me this week for a wonderful unschooling conversation! We talk about her family’s move to unschooling, the challenge of embracing fun, learning piano, her biggest a-ha moment so far on the journey, and lots more. Questions for Natasha Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? What did your family’s move to unschooling look like? I love hearing what unschooling kids are getting up to. What are your kids interested in right now and how are you helping them ...

Amanda Sharma joins me this week to share her fascinating perspective as a grown unschooler who is now unschooling her own children. We dive into her experience growing up unschooling, the process of choosing unschooling for her children and family, what she’s found challenging on the journey, her favourite thing about unschooling right now, and lots more. Questions for Amanda Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? Growing up, what did your family’s move to unschooling look lik...

I first met Alec Traaseth and his family when he was maybe twelve or thirteen, at an unschooling conference. I’ve enjoyed little glimpses of his life over the years through social media and I was so happy when he agreed to come on the podcast to chat about his experience growing up unschooling. We talk about his interests and passions, his experience with unschooling camps, his choice to go to college and how that’s unfolded, how his passion for math developed, and lots more. Questions for Alec...

Wendy Hart and her husband are unschooling their eight-year-old daughter. They live in Ontario, Canada where Wendy runs a local un/homeschool group that hosts fun activities, like yesterday’s Not Back to School Beach Meet-Up! We dive into how she discovered unschooling, how she’s helping her daughter pursue her interests, her biggest stumbling block on the road to unschooling, her biggest a-ha moment, her blog, and lots more. Questions for Wendy Can you share with us a bit about you and your fa...

This week on the podcast, I’ve put together a new kind of Q&A. It dawned on me recently that I’ve written many thousands of words in email replies to unschooling-related questions over the last few years. And I suspect that, for every person who actually emailed me, there are many others with a similar question in mind. So, I gathered a handful of questions from my inbox, heavily summarized and anonymized them, and then edited and expanded my answers. As you listen, even if a question is about ...

This week on the podcast, I’ve put together a compilation of sixteen experienced unschooling parents answering the question, “Looking back, what has been the most valuable outcome from choosing unschooling?” I titled this episode The Sparkle of Unschooling because the guests are talking about THE ONE THING. It’s the thing we eventually discover that we celebrate the most. BOOM! Mic drop. Fireworks. And often it’s not the thing we thought we were looking for when we started out on our unschooling...

Courtney Barker and her husband Dave are unschooling their three children. Originally from Australia, they moved to Northern Zambia when their first child was 12 weeks old. Four years later they moved to Chile, and four years after that they moved to Canada. We have a wonderful conversation about their journey from school to unschooling, her most surprising discovery about life with children so far, tips for handling big emotions, unschooling and atypical kids, her favourite thing about unschool...

Jessica Hughes and her husband, Micah, have three children, ages 11 to 18. When their kids were younger, they were homeschooling with a curriculum but they eventually found their way to unschooling. We talk about that journey, what you can do when you feel caught up in everyday “struggles,” supporting your husband’s journey, shifting away from fear, how unschooling has helped their family heal, and lots more! Questions for Jessica Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? How did ...

Anna Brown is back! We have so much fun diving into her family’s move to unschooling, how she developed trust in the process, what she found to be the most challenging aspect, tips for moving from conventional parenting to consensual living, stretching our comfort zones, and lots more. Ten Questions for Anna 1. Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? 2. What did your family’s move to unschooling look like? 3. How did you develop trust in unschooling? Meaning, what helped you mo...

Virginia Warren’s two daughters have never been to school. We have great fun diving into their journey to unschooling, her biggest stumbling block along the way, her perspective as a gamer mom, what’s surprised her most so far, what her favourite thing about unschooling is right now, and lots more! Questions for Virginia Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? How did you discover unschooling and what did your family’s move to unschooling look like? What was your biggest stumbl...

Béa Mantovani is an unschooling mom with two children. I’ve known Béa online in unschooling circles for quite a few years—she’s even translated some of my blog posts into French. We have a really interesting conversation as we dive into the twists and turns of their unschooling lives, including how she found unschooling, her biggest deschooling challenge, navigating learning to read, how technology weaves into their days, the ups and downs of extended travel, being trilingual and exploring langu...

Iris Chen is a Chinese American unschooling mom who was born in the US, grew up in the US and Canada, and now lives with her husband and two boys in China. She’s been unschooling for about a year and began sharing her experiences on her blog at untigering.com. I’ve really enjoyed reading her posts, and I was excited when she agreed to come on the podcast. We dive into why her and husband decided to move to China, her family’s move to unschooling, unschooling in China, deschooling expectations ar...

Maria Randolph’s unschooled daughter is now twenty, which gives her a great perspective to look back on her own deschooling, It was a fascinating journey! We talk about what she found to be one of the most challenging areas to deschool, regret and how it can get in the way, her journey through the question, “But how will they learn math?” and lots more! Questions for Maria Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? How did you discover unschooling and what did your family’s move to...

Ronnie Maier has two daughters now in their twenties, who unschooled after leaving school in the early grades—plus a niece who has stayed with them part-time over the years. In a fun twist, Ronnie was the working parent while her husband Frank was the at-home unschooling parent. Ronnie has shared her family’s unschooling experience for many years, both on her blog and speaking at the Life is Good unschooling conference. I really appreciated her joining me on the podcast to deep dive into the cha...

Noah Tetzner is seventeen, left school last fall, and it was not long before he was passionately unschooling. We talk about his transition from school to unschooling, what excites him about unschooling, the podcast he’s now had time to start, his advice for new unschooling parents and lots more. Questions for Noah Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? You were homeschooled before going to private school for grades 9 to 11, and you left school last fall. What led up to that cho...

Zach and Heather Lake join me this week to talk about Zach’s journey from reluctant spouse to unschooling advocate. Heather has been on the podcast before taking about her deschooling journey, and after the episode she mentioned that her husband has had quite the journey as well. It occurred to me that it would be interesting to have them on together to talk about his journey from both their perspectives. We talk about how Zach learned about unschooling, how Heather shared information with him, ...

Ann Rousseau and her partner Tim have been unschooling their three boys for about six years. Ann and I have a fascinating conversation, digging into how her family came to unschooling, moving through fear and discomfort, the many ways curiosity drives their days, her documentary about her experience of alopecia, and lots more. Questions for Ann Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? How did you discover unschooling and what did your family’s move to unschooling look like? As w...

This month, Anna Brown and I treat you to an extra long Q&A episode as we finish up the remaining questions! We dive into questions around the challenge of deschooling while holding tight to your fears, engaging with the unschooling community before having kids of your own, the decision to unschool, the transformational impact of shifting our mindset from balance to flow, the ideas of talent and practice, homeschooling regulations, deschooling around weight and physical activity, and the back an...

This week on the podcast, we have the first compilation episode! I gathered clips from fourteen different episodes where I asked some version of this question: “What has been one of the more challenging aspects for you on your unschooling journey?” I think it’s fascinating to hear them side by side, but I’d love to know what you think. Please let me know in the comments whether you enjoyed it and if you would like to see some more compilation episodes on the podcast in the future. Audio Snippe...

Jen Kobrick connected with me recently and suggested an episode about the idea of unschooling in the early years—before kids reach school age. Her son is almost three and she so beautifully explained why she thought it was a valuable topic that I asked if she’d be interested in talking about it with me. I was thrilled she said yes! We have a great conversation about her experience with attachment parenting through toddlerhood, ways to approach various parenting challenges through connection, lik...

This week on the podcast I’m trying something new: a round table discussion on a single topic. Questions around food are very common as people are deschooling and contemplating releasing control over their children’s food choices and Sylvia Woodman, Jo Isaac, and Meredith Novak join me to talk all things food. I hope you find our conversation helpful! Children need to consume vitamins, supplements and healthy food to grow properly, however, a coq10 examination will recommended if they have musc...

Robin Bentley is an unschooling mom who loves dancing hula, playing the yukelele, and supporting her daughter’s exploration of her interests and passions. We have a wonderful conversation about unschooling passions, including how supporting our child’s interests often ends up being a positive experience for us as well, healing our own childhood, tips and ideas for supporting our child’s interests, even if we don’t share it, and lots more! Quote of the Week “One way to become supportive of your ...

Anna Brown joins Pam to answer listener questions. This month we dive into questions around managing the environment when a parent works at home, when we’re not a “perfect mom,” helping our kids learn about diversity, when you’re not into your child’s passion, and helping your children process their emotions without taking them on yourself. Click here to submit your own question to the Q&A Round Table! Listener Questions Anonymous Question [TIME: 6:00] Hi. We are a South African unschooling fa...