I read an article lately that really resonated with some of my own recent experiences. It had to do with taking our children’s dreams seriously, and resisting the temptation to meet those ideas with our own sensible, grown-up feedback. This is easier said than done, I tell you. Thank goodness we get lots of opportunities […]
Understanding Peaceful Parenting
Identifying Your Child’s Underlying Needs
One of the major ideas of peaceful parenting is that what we often term “misbehavior” is actually an expression of an underlying need. In the past several decades, parents have gotten...
Saying Sorry in Silence
Earlier this week, I had the remarkable experience of seeing how powerfully my own “inner story” affected my daughter, Katy. Yesterday, I had yet another amazing experience: witnessing the...
Unschooling: A Man of Few Words
My husband Ted did not come to the unschooling life as quickly or as easily as I did. It was kind of a long road for him, with some serious doubts and struggles along the way. So it’s been very...
Radical Unschooling: Works in Progress
My daughter Katy has been the subject of many of my radical unschooling posts. That’s because she’s given me plenty of much-needed opportunities to practice my peaceful parenting approach!...
Unschooling: Sharing the Power
Power. Such a loaded word. And with power comes the potential for mis-using it. Recently my daughter Katy has been thinking a lot about power. Specifically, she’s been thinking about how much of...
How Punishments Backfire: An Unschooling Perspective
The day after Hurricane Irene hit we had no electricity (we had no electricity for days, actually, but we shall not speak of that). It turned out that a downed transformer just around the corner was...
Identifying Your Child’s Underlying Needs
One of the major ideas of peaceful parenting is that what we often term “misbehavior” is actually an expression of an underlying need. In the past several decades, parents have gotten pretty good at applying this idea to babies. Most of us are on board with the idea that a crying baby is a baby […]
Peaceful Parenting: It’s All in my Head
My daughter Katy reminds me very much of myself. Nowhere is this more apparent than when she has what many people would call a “meltdown”. I remember what it felt like at her age to experience such enormous, strong emotions. Being a “spirited” child, I experienced all of my emotions intensely, including my anger. Back […]
Unschooling: Sharing the Power
Power. Such a loaded word. And with power comes the potential for mis-using it. Recently my daughter Katy has been thinking a lot about power. Specifically, she’s been thinking about how much of it she wields. This has made for some interesting dynamics. A few days ago, after an altercation with her younger sister, Katy […]