Hello friends! It’s been four years since I’ve posted here, and even longer since my posts contained any stories about my kiddos. While that’s partly due to the general whirlwind that is my life, mostly it’s because my children asked me to take a break from broadcasting their lives to the general public . Recently, though, one of my daughters re-discovered my blog and shared it with her siblings. Being several years older and wiser, they have now given me their blessing to write about our unschooling journey into the tween and teen years.

I’ve got so much to tell you! But for now, here’s a quick run-down of the highlights:

Thomas is eighteen! He unschooled all the way through high school and received a diploma from Clonlara School. He is now applying to colleges while working part-time. Thomas is a dedicated musician who writes, records, and produces his own and others’ music. He has released several albums, and is starting his own music production business. Thomas is also passionate about politics and is active on a local level. He’s become an expert on dinosaurs, has acted on stage and in amateur films, and (the major highlight of his life) got to meet Taylor Swift at a private event for Swifties in New York City!

Faith is sixteen and laser-focused on her goal to become a Broadway actress. When she is not training through the Broadway Collective’s Hello Broadway program, she can be found performing in local theater troupes. This summer, she spent eight weeks in New Hampshire performing with the New London Barn Playhouse Junior Intern company where she got to meet many people involved in professional theater. Faith is passionate about her local community, and she spearheaded an initiative for an annual town-wide tree-lighting (she made the local news for that one!)

Katy is also sixteen, and a dedicated actress in her own right. She has performed with local troupes and spent part of her summer interning at the New London Barn Playhouse with her sister. She is also something of a dog psychology expert, and built a business providing pet care and owner education. Her enthusiasm, hard work, and knowledge caught the eye of a local breeder who invited our family to become a guardian family for one of her breeding dogs. As a result, our family has raised two litters of puppies (both during the pandemic lockdown, which made us appreciate the abundance of puppy-snuggles all the more!). She and Faith both continue to unschool, are working with Clonlara to document their education, and are planning to graduate a semester early.

Maggie is now twelve and a rabid ninja athlete. She discovered ninja training during the pandemic, and worked with Ted and Katy to build ninja courses both indoors and outdoors. She and Katy documented Maggie’s fifteen months of self-training on Maggie’s YouTube channel, which gained the attention of other ninja-kids both locally and world-wide. When we finally emerged from quarantine, she started training at a ninja gym and was invited to join their team. Her first competition is coming up, and she’s pumped! Maggie enjoys playing piano and caring for our two dogs. She is also a tiny but dedicated politician, and probably knows more about the current political scene than many adults!

Ted and I have been busy facilitating the passions of our kiddos (the aforementioned ninja-course was quite the undertaking!) and pursuing our own interests. Ted has written a book on sales which is due to be released at the end of the month. I’ve been creating new classes to share with homeschoolers and unschoolers on my website, uCurriculum.com, and embarking on a journey toward better health and self-care, and learning a new skill: dog grooming (you’d be amazed at how relaxing it is!)

Unschooling into the middle and high school years has been an amazing journey, and I’m excited to start to share it with you!