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Things I've let go of
Unschooling is sometimes also called child-directed learning or life-learning. Labels can be misleading as they tend to miss out more...
May 5, 20195 min read


Passions for life
According to a Gallup poll published in 2017, 85% of adults worldwide hate their jobs. What a depressing statistic! All those years of...
Apr 25, 20195 min read


About motivation and robots
People sometimes wonder how children who don't go to school will make it in 'real' life. That's an odd notion, that school is preparation...
Apr 8, 20195 min read


So what did we do today?
Today it felt like early summer. This is our first springtime here on the hill and it's fascinating to see the different flowers and...
Apr 2, 20194 min read


Independence goes at its own pace
We were living in the centre of Barcelona when my eldest son (now 13) was born. Our house was on a pedestrian passageway, and across from...
Mar 5, 20195 min read


So, where's that tribe?
Something I often come across in unschooling groups is how alienated people can feel when they choose this path. And I admit that in...
Feb 21, 20194 min read


Looking for the win-win
My partner is away for a few days, so life is just that little bit more orderly. When there's another adult here it all feels so...
Feb 6, 20194 min read


Children and the natural business of life
Entrepreneurship is a natural part of life in this house. Just about every day someone comes up with a new idea for making their fortune,...
Jan 30, 20194 min read


Thoughts from a 13-year-old gamer
One of the most challenging aspects of unschooling for me was letting go of conventional paradigms about gaming, and screen time in...
Jan 24, 20193 min read


So, what did we do today?
I thought I'd start some posts about what our average days are made of. I chose Monday because it still feels like a minor act of...
Jan 21, 20195 min read


Unschooling and working from home
People often ask how I get anything done when I'm with the children at home. Surely, life is too chaotic for me to be productive. Is...
Jan 17, 20195 min read


Slow living
We came back to Spain a week ago, after visiting family for Christmas and New Year. I love to be with family and old friends in the UK,...
Jan 9, 20194 min read


New Year's resolutions
I'm writing this post on the morning of New Year's Eve, at my mother's house in the Yorkshire town where I grew up. We come here at least...
Jan 1, 20194 min read


When everything means something
Society seems to have created an odd hierarchy of children's activities which, at first glance, is there to help us parent better and...
Dec 18, 20185 min read


Italian for beginners
I often reflect now on my own learning experiences and the ones that have impacted me most. I think that being willing to look at our own...
Dec 11, 20187 min read


Learning to read
Our sons, who are now 12 and 11, both learned to read about three years ago, when they were nine and eight respectively. When they were...
Dec 4, 20185 min read


Numbers, numbers, numbers
One of the most common questions I get about unschooling is how will the children learn maths. It's funny how nervous maths makes us....
Nov 26, 20186 min read


When learning becomes teaching
I read something recently about how easily and unwittingly we adults turn a learning experience into a teaching experience. A particular...
Nov 19, 20183 min read


How we became unschoolers
Our journey to unschooling has taken a few years, and finally arrived at its inevitable destination some months ago. I look back now at...
Nov 13, 20189 min read
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