Reschooling Posts // March 26-April 1 2023
They Won't Stay in Time Out!
April 1, 2023 from Think Again
Some children just haven’t read the parenting manuals. You count to three and they stand there watching. You tell them to go to Time Out, and they either refuse completely, or settle in and say they’re never coming back. When you tell them off, their behaviour escalates and you wish you’d never started
Unschool: Aqua Waves and Awe
April 1, 2023 from Stories of an Unschooling Family
While my daughter, Charlotte, and I were on holiday at the beach, we spent hours watching the rolling waves headed towards the shore. “They look like they’re loaded with aqua dye,” I said, raising my camera yet again to my eye. “When I show my photos to everyone at home, they’re going to think I edited them, boosting the blues. They won’t believe the ocean really is this colour.”
VIRGINIA GOES FREE-RANGE! FIFTH STATE TO PASS “REASONABLE CHILDHOOD INDEPDENCE” LAW
March 30, 2023 from Free Range Kids
Children in Virginia can now play outside without their parents getting investigated for neglect. Imagine that! (Connecticut readers — see bottom for action you can take TODAY.) Sunday night, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed what is colloquially called the “Reasonable Childhood Independence” bill — and was formerly known as the Free-Range Parenting bill. It passed both houses unanimously. (Democrats and Republicans AGREED on a PARENTING issue in Virginia? YES.)
Teaching Adventure
March 30, 2023 from Notes on Adventure
BIKING THROUGH THE SUN-DRENCHED VINEYARDS of southern France in October 2021, caffeinated and high on life, I asked myself: What am I capable of teaching? I was thinking of John Taylor Gatto, the award-winning schoolteacher who quit his post in New York City public schools after 26 years to write about the problems inherent in modern education—and who subsequently inspired me to design my own undergraduate degree in alternative education theory.
EU345: Unschooling "Rules": No Bedtimes
March 30, 2023 from Living Joyfully with Unschooling
This week on the podcast, we’re sharing a new episode in the Unschooling “Rules” series! The word “rules” is in quotes, of course, to draw attention to the fact that there is no such thing! When we’re learning something new, it can feel easier to reach for a set of rules to follow, but we want to offer you space to look within and find what makes sense to you and your family.
Ep 10 Untigering & fostering non-coercive cultures with Iris Chen
March 30, 2023 from Consent-Based Everything
Fran chats to Iris Chen, author of the book Untigering, writer, and unschooled. They chat about building consent-based relationships with our children and our family members, creating a family culture, and cultural expectations and how we navigate them. They also speak about doing the inner work of parenting our children without coercion and domination, about unschooling and how to break free from dogma, and how you don't have to be the perfect parenting or excel at unschooling! (in fact both of those things comes from schoolishness!).
Is Emotional Well-Being Connected to Self-Directed Education?
March 29, 2023 from Let ‘em Go Barefoot
How often have you learned a new skill, delved into a topic, or curled up with a book because you were forced to? How often have you set out to learn new information because you were genuinely interested & intrigued to understand? Can you recall the differences in those two experiences?
Are Homeschooled Children Too Dependent? (Q&A)
March 29, 2023 from Stark Raving Dad
"I’ve been told homeschooled children don’t learn to be as independent of their parents – does this even matter? If it does a bit, are there ways to help with this when homeschooling? Thank you!" I sat staring at this for a while when I first read it, because there are a stack of layers. My first reaction was one of those allergic sort of ones –
Comparison: A Toxic Parenting Trap
March 29, 2023 from Raising Lifelong Learners
It’s easy. It’s so easy to slip into comparing our kids to other kids. And usually we’re doing it with good intent. Maybe we want them to feel better about themselves. Maybe we want to help them build confidence in their own abilities or gifts. But is comparison really the best thing to use to encourage our kids?
Does Unschooling Create Lazy Children?
March 28, 2023 from Stark Raving Dad
It’s a common perception: unschooling is a lazy form of parenting that will result in lazy children. That they'll use the autonomy they’re given to opt out of much of life. That they'll do little that's meaningful with their time, and become less and less motivated.
#39 Unschooling on the path to healing, with Sarah Rose in Maine
March 27, 2023 from The Unschool Space
My guest today is Sarah Rose. Sarah lives in Maine with her husband and her 11-year old daughter. Her family’s journey to unschooling stemmed from their daughter’s illness, which resulted in her leaving school and embarking on a long healing journey at home.
Librarian Tells Mom She Broke The Law By Letting Son Browse for 6 Minutes, Unattended
March 27, 2023 from Free Range Kids
A couple of weeks ago, I brought my 6 ½ year old son to the Children’s Room of the [local] library, a place we visit regularly. After some serious consideration, I decided that I would let him walk into the room and browse the shelves while I ran across the street to grab him a snack. I gave him firm instructions regarding safety and etiquette, which he received with an attitude of gravity (he was thrilled for this opportunity to be independent). I then dashed across the road to the market, grabbed a bag of chips, and paid before rushing back to the library.
Learning to Feel Safe
March 27, 2023 from Think Again
Whenever we talk about trauma, people want to know “What happened?”. What was it, the terrible thing which has left you feeling so unsafe and like your world has shattered? It’s often hard to answer, because it can feel like it’s hard to pin down what happened. Sometimes it’s obvious – a car crash, a bereavement – but often it’s not. Often the ‘trauma’ can feel like it doesn’t quite measure up to what they expect. A detention for the wrong haircut. A friend moving away. Difficulties with school.
When Giftedness is Misdiagnosed as a Behavior Problem
March 27, 2023 from Raising Lifelong Learners
“But… what’s wrong with him?” I was sitting across from the counselor we’d been seeing every week for six months, desperation leaking from my eyes and filling the small room with a heaviness we both felt. On the walls were graduate degrees and charts that identified emotions with children’s faces, the bookshelves were brimming with diagnostic manuals and parenting helps and countless books about understanding difficult people. None of them helped.
SPECIAL RELEASE EPISODE: A Documentary Perspectives that SDE Needs
March 25, 2023 from Rethinking Self-Directed Education
Ben and Genevieve are crowdfunding and starting their project to create a documentary miniseries. As unschoolers and young people themselves, this documentary will ask questions from a lens of connection with youth, who they plan to center in their documentary. We are so excited to hear more about their project in this short special release podcast episode. If you want to know more about what they are doing and why, give it a listen.
What Am I Actually Doing In My Homeschool?
March 25, 2023 from Different By Design Learning
Have you ever found yourself in a season in your homeschool where you know you have been busy – you know there has been learning and progress but it is a struggle to feel good about any of it? That’s me right now.