One common theme among parents is the dreaded “morning rush”. We talk nostalgically about our childhood summers, when the world seemed to be on “kid time”. These days, people always seem to be racing to keep up with their schedules. Being an unschooling family, we rarely experience the “morning rush”, which makes it all the […]
Radical Unschooling
Faith’s Food Story: Unschooling with Food
In my article about food, I mention that my daughter Faith is my best food story. So here it is: From the beginning, Faith has had issues around food. She always seemed worried that there wouldn’t be enough. I know it sounds crazy, but I swear this is because she’s an identical twin, and never […]
Small Bodies, Big Feelings: A Peaceful Parenting Perspective on Emotions
Last night, my daughter Katy was upset. Really, really upset. A while back, I would have said she’d had a huge “temper-tantrum” or “meltdown”. You know what that looks like, right? Katy was throwing and kicking things, lashing out physically at anybody who tried to get near her, screaming and crying. And this went on […]
Second Class Citizens: Rethinking How We Treat Our Children
Last night I walked into the middle of a conversation between two moms. The topic: the age old dinner-time struggle. One mom was lamenting about how tired she is of hearing that her kids don’t like what she has prepared. The other mom chimed in, saying that in her house, she simply says the kitchen […]
Separation Anxiety: An Unschooler’s Perspective
Today I witnessed a heart-wrenching scene. Three year old Stella was being dropped off to a child-care class for the morning. Her mother was attending a week-long event for moms, and Stella had been placed in a small class with other preschool age children and several loving adults. The morning was packed with appealing activities led […]
Unschoolers: Judge Not
Ever been here? It’s 4:00 p.m. and I’ve dashed into the grocery store with four tired, hungry kids in tow because I used my last dipaer about 4 hours ago and I know I can’t get away with putting it off much longer. Nobody much wants to be there, and everyone is expressing this in his or her unique way. Thomas finds teasing […]
Voices in My Head: turning the tables on conventional parenting
I hear voices in my head. A lot of them. My parents, friends, parenting “experts”, former colleaugues, acquaintances from church, other parents…you name it, they’re talking to me. And they have an annoying habit of speaking up whether their opinions are welcome or not. Lately, I’ve gotten pretty fed up with it. So I’ve decided […]
Food Freedom: Success Stories
When my husband and I first began exploring the idea of food freedom – allowing our kids to make their own choices with regard to food – it really helped me to hear about other people’s experiences. Early on, as our kids began to experience that freedom, they made some choices that caused us to […]
Tiny Aliens: seeing our children from a new perspective
Join me on a journey of the imagination….. We’re living sometime in the distant future, and intergalactic travel has become possible. A new world, light years away, has been discovered to have intelligent life. What’s more, the beings there have invited you to come for a sort of exchange program. You’ll be assigned a host […]
Life With a Louse: How Unschooling Helped Reframe an Itchy Situation
What can you learn from a louse? A lot, it turns out. Particularly when the louse is joined by a goodly number of compatriots and comes calling on three small, unschooled heads. You guessed it: I’m talking about the dreaded head lice.When they first made their presence known (on Valentine’s Day, no less…how romantic!), my […]