Episodes

We may have been unschooling pretty comfortably for years, connecting with our kids, having fun, actively supporting them as they pursue their interests, but then our eldest approaches the teen years and all of a sudden we start to feel a bit uncomfortable. We begin to worry. Is unschooling going to work through the teen years? It’s a pretty common scenario and I’m excited to dive into it with you! In this talk I gave in February 2021 at the Canadian Online Homeschool Conference, first we’re g...

Christina Kauffman is an unschooling mom of three young kids, and she joins me this week to talk about her deschooling journey. We explore both what she’s found challenging and what she’s found surprising so far. She also shares her experience with navigating sibling dynamics. We have a lovely conversation! Questions for Christina Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? What is everybody interested in right now? How did you discover unschooling and what did your family’s move t...

Philip Mott, a former teacher and unschooling dad to three young children, joins me this week. Philip shares how his unschooling journey began and how his experience as a teacher and what he learned about educational philosophy shaped his path. We talk about the challenges of deschooling and how ingrained our cultural beliefs really are. For Philip, the opposite of unschooling is authoritarianism, and deschooling is all about questioning authoritarian practices and replacing that model with a f...

Fran Liberatore, unschooling mom of two and the creator behind the Instagram account Big Mothering, joins me this week to talk about her unschooling journey so far. Fran, currently working on her master’s degree in early years education, shares some of her reflections about educational philosophy and practice and how she hopes to see schools change for future children. We talk about adultism and other societal messages we absorb about children, which then affect the way we treat children. Fran ...

Iris Chen, author of Untigering and mother of two, returns to the podcast this week to share what their unschooling lives look like right now and talk about her book. Iris talks about her family’s experience with a self-directed learning center and the path her sons took to make the choice to attend one. We dive into the connection between parenting and unschooling and how her book is about the inner work needed to be a peaceful parent—and in turn, an unschooling parent. Iris also shares how he...

This week, we’re finishing up my miniseries, In Celebration of Unschooling, sharing the draft of an as yet unpublished book I wrote a few years ago. The book looks at unschooling through the lens of parenting. In chapter 8, Childhood is Bigger Than School, I explore how we can choose to embrace the unschooling mindset even if school happens to be part of your lives right now. I talk about a number of small, but powerful, paradigm shifts that can help you move beyond the school mindset. The cla...

I’m continuing my miniseries, In Celebration of Unschooling, sharing the draft of an as yet unpublished book I wrote a few years ago. The book looks at unschooling through the lens of parenting. This week, we’re diving into Chapter 7: Family Relationships. In this chapter, I explore moving beyond power struggles, the idea of fairness and how it doesn’t mean equal, ways to cultivate strong and trusting relationships with our kids, and the value of fostering joy. These ideas around family relat...

I’m continuing my miniseries, In Celebration of Unschooling, sharing the draft of an as yet unpublished book I wrote a few years ago. The book looks at unschooling through the lens of parenting. This week, we’re diving into Chapter 6: Exploring Character. In this chapter, I dive into some of the character traits being explored and discussed by psychologists and researchers. Building on the character discussion we began in chapter 2 where we looked at the why, now we’ll tackle the how. And we’r...

I’m continuing my miniseries, In Celebration of Unschooling, sharing the draft of an as yet unpublished book I wrote a few years ago. The book looks at unschooling through the lens of parenting. This week, we’re diving into Chapter 5: Cultivating Creativity. In this chapter, I dive into the widely accepted Geneplore model of creativity, a combination of “generate” and “explore.” The generative stage is the brainstorming of ideas, and the exploratory stage is the evaluation and implementation o...

I’m continuing my miniseries, In Celebration of Unschooling, sharing the draft of an as yet unpublished book I wrote a few years ago. The book looks at unschooling through the lens of parenting. This week, we’re diving into Chapter 4: The Joy of Learning. Things mentioned in the episode Pam’s Instagram, sharing highlights of the episode Video Watch the YouTube video The Living Joyfully Network community The Network is a wonderful online community for parents to engage in candid conversations ...

To mark the occasion of hitting 300 episodes, I decided to share the draft of an as yet unpublished book I wrote a few years ago. The book looks at unschooling through the lens of parenting and with an audience in mind who are curious, but maybe haven’t yet made the leap. And I was trying to bring in ideas that I’d come across out in the world that, likely unbeknownst to the authors, resonated well with unschooling. Last week, I shared the book’s Introduction, Chapter 1: What is Unschooling?, a...

Episode 299! Wow. For the last few weeks, I’ve been pondering what I’d like to do to mark the milestone of 300 episodes. Maybe a compilation episode, maybe a solo episode. Hmm. I’ve been doing those regularly for the last while (which I’m loving), so I planted that seed and let it bubble around in the back of my mind as I went about my days. I had a title I loved, though, In Celebration of Unschooling. And then (at pretty much the last possible moment, of course) … CLICK! But first, I need to...

Megan Valnes, an unschooling mom of six, joins me this week to talk about her unschooling journey. Megan was on the podcast once before, way back in 2018, and it was so fun to catch up and see how her life has unfolded since then. She shares some of the challenges of having a large family, as well as many of the mindset shifts and creative solutions that have helped her meet so many varied needs. We talk a lot about the inner work of deschooling and how it is an ongoing part of her life, even a...

Anna Brown joins me this week to talk about our theme in the Living Joyfully Network this month, Cultivating Trust. This has been such a valuable theme to explore because trust really is foundational to unschooling—I can’t imagine unschooling thriving without trust! We begin by looking at how we can develop trust with our children, which goes both ways: our trust in them and their trust in us. We also explore how we can similarly cultivate trust with our partner, which in turn helps to create a...

This week, I’ve put together a compilation episode exploring deschooling discoveries. One of the many things I love about the unschooling journey is how unexpected it can be. As we dive deeper and deeper into deschooling, we begin to question so many things! Things we thought were pretty much facts—about children, about learning, about relationships, about how the world works. Many podcast guests have shared how surprised they were that the unschooling journey entailed a lot of personal growth ...

Jesper Conrad joins me this week to talk about his experience as an unschooling dad. Jesper shares his perspective of their family’s decision to unschool, which began when their now 15-year-old son tried kindergarten. We talk about Jesper’s move from an office job to working from home and some of the paradigm shifts that he’s experienced over the years as a result of questioning the mainstream path. He also reflects on the benefits of being a traveling family and what he enjoys the most about th...

Cecilie Conrad joins me from Istanbul this week to talk about her unschooling, worldschooling life with her family. Cecilie shares about her path to unschooling, which started when her second child began attending school. We talk about how her family’s love of travel has enriched their lives and how the unschooling lifestyle fits so well with their choice to explore. Cecilie also reflects on the amazing relationships that she has been able to cultivate with her four children as a result of divin...

Akilah S. Richards joins me again to talk about her most recent book, Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work. We talk about her definitions of unschooling and deschooling and dive deep into the far-reaching impacts of choosing an unschooling lifestyle. We also dive into some of the profound realizations she’s had about schoolishness, adultism, and the way our culture treats children, as well as how questioning all of that has allowed her to create deeper relationships wi...

Anna Brown joins me this week to talk about our monthly theme in the Living Joyfully Network, Embracing Cocoons and Bubbles. It is part of the human experience to have periods of introspection, of pulling inward, processing, and integrating. Our children may lose interest in their usual activities while not yet knowing what’s next for them, or they may choose to stay home more, spending time in a comforting nest. We look at some common seasons in which our children may choose to cocoon and ways...

This week, I have a solo episode for you! As the back-to-school energy hits its peak this month, I thought it might be helpful to re-commit to our choice to NOT go back to school. It’s completely understandable to feel a bit off-kilter as the “back to school” messages ramp up around us—be kind to yourself. We can use it as a nudge to remember why we chose this path in the first place. So, with all the schooly messages around us, let’s focus on what we’re doing instead of school. I hope you fin...

Jae Williams recently decided to leave his teaching job and stay home to dive into unschooling with his two young children. Leading up to this choice, he spent the last year immersed in podcasts and books, exploring natural learning and questioning many mainstream paradigms about children, schooling, and success. We talk about his experience as a sixth-grade teacher and the frustrations he felt within the school system. He describes his excitement and the big aha moments that have come from expl...

Izaak Sibley joins me this week to share his experience as an unschooling dad. He shares about his own school education, how he saw his love of learning disappear over time, and how unschooling with Q has reignited it. We talk about trusting human curiosity and how he has seen Q’s learning naturally lead in such interesting directions. Izaak and his partner Holly have been creative with their living and working situations in order to meet the needs of everyone in the family, and he shares some i...

Anna Brown joins me this week to talk about our theme in the Living Joyfully Network this month, Sitting with Fear and Discomfort. This is something that comes up on our unschooling journey pretty regularly because, not only are we challenging lots of cultural norms around learning and parenting, we’re also giving our children space to make meaningful choices in their days, from what they want to do to how they want to explore the world. Sometimes their exploration has us bumping against our com...

This week, I have a solo episode for you! The idea to share why I focus on joy and the unschooling journey bubbled up a couple of weeks ago and it’s been fun to put this together. And for listeners who may be newer to the podcast, I share a bit about me before diving into exploring the idea of joy and how it became a very helpful compass for me as I navigate, not just unschooling, but life. I hope you find it interesting! Discussion areas Joy is a beacon for learning. Joy is a beacon for buil...