Stories of an Unschooling Family

This week, I ponder these questions...   What happens when we remain open to new experiences? Do I have any good tips for anyone who has resolved to get fit? What has running got to do with encouraging children to write? Are there advantages to reading many books, on the same subject, by different authors? Can I recommend some interesting novels to read? What do I mean by the words 'multi-directional learning'? Why am I feeling very excited about writing? Can I pronounce the word, 'tomatometer' or does my tongue get all twisted up?  What do I always do after reading a good book?  Should we steer our children only towards books that portray the good? Should parents preview every book a child wants to read? Is there a danger with banning books? Can some ‘wrong’ books actually be right? Can punctuation rules sometimes be broken? Is there a place for quick and easy reads?  What if kids only want to read easy books with little literary value? And do I say 'Cartload of Hay' instead of 'Cartload of Clay'?    If you listen (to the end!) you'll also discover I tried a new podcast feature for the first time.   The program notes can be found on my blog, Stories of an Unschooling Family. Lots of links to related books, movies, blog posts etc!   Featured music: Sunny Morning Exercise Club by Origami Repetika, (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

  This week's podcast is all about interesting resources I discovered in 2014. Along the way, you'll find out the answers to these questions... How do I discuss at least 17 resources in only 30 minutes? Do I talk very fast? How many free trial accounts can I sign up for? How many times can I say, “I Googled it”, in one podcast? Has anyone ever become a successive pianist/composer without ever having a single music lesson? Can an effective animation be made quickly and easily? Is there a better presentation program than Powerpoint? Is there a perfect method for keeping unschool records? What's a glog, and can they be used for homeschool records or portfolios? And what about mindmaps? Can a computer screen image be projected onto a big TV screen? What are historical reality series and where can they be found?   And for anyone following my learning-to-podcast adventure…   What new technique did I try this week? And was it successful? I hope you'll listen to find out!   The program notes, including lots of resource links, can be found on my blog, Stories of an Unschooling Family.   Music featured: The Time to Run (Finale) by Dexter Britain, (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)  

This week my youngest daughter, Gemma-Rose joins me for my Christmas edition. We talk about:   A magical Santa Christmas A magical Christmas without Santa Advent and Christmas traditions Why the Three Wise Men set out to find Jesus before He is even born Why St Nicholas isn't very reliable Why we are rotten parents Why midnight Mass isn't at midnight The worst Christmas job that I no longer have to do Australian Christmas traditions and carols Why Santa wears his singlet, shorts and thongs What Orana means... .. and lots of other things!   And we listen to some beautiful Christmas music sung by my daughter Imogen.   The program notes can be found on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family.   I hope you have a very happy and blessed Christmas!   (I apologise for any poor quality transitions. I'm still learning!)

This podcast is a few days late or a couple of days early, depending on how you look at it. It's also not the same podcast I originally recorded. This week I reveal what happened to the first one and I also talk about... Beginnings: How do we capture an audience's attention? Books, especially Australian ones Free music which can be used for podcasting, video making and any other purpose My new Zoom audio recorder and how it performs What not to do if you are afflicted by blogging burnout   I also try something new: My podcast, for the first time, is not one long unending passage of speech!   The program notes (with lots of links) can be found on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family.   Music used in podcast: mighty lilbumble bee by Origami Repetika, (CC BY-NC 3.0)

Is it okay to talk about the weather or should that topic be avoided if you want to have an interesting conversation? Is it important for our children to have good conversational skills? How do they get such skills?  Bushfire fighters are heroes but can school teachers be heroes too? Should we all know how to do CPR, just in case? And what about our children? Should they learn too? Do the youngest children in the family sometimes miss out? Should parents make the effort to give them the same experiences as their older siblings? And should we brush off other people's thanks? (Hey, it was nothing!) Or is it necessary for us to be gracious and accept them? I hope you'll listen to this week's podcast to find out my answers to all these questions and much more!  You can find the show notes on my blog, Stories of an Unschooling Family. You can find my children's novel, The Angels of Abbey Creek on Amazon.

I start this week's podcast with a belated introduction of me and my family. Maybe I should have done this in episode 1. Oh well, better late than never!   I talk about our visit to a professional audio studio and mull over ideas to improve my podcasts.    And finally I chat about adventures. Is it necessary for unschooling families to travel? Or can we find adventures at home?   I should add that I never dived to the BOTTOM of the lake to look at the map of the bush tracks. (That would have been very adventurous!) Words never come out perfectly when podcasting. The map was on a board BY the lake!   The program notes can be found on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family. I hope you'll visit!

Last weekend we celebrated the birth and death days of our son Thomas. In this week's podcast I share some of Thomas' story. I ponder the question: How does a family homeschool during a crisis like a death in the family?  Christmas is approaching. Anyone grieving might find this joyful season very difficult. But is Christmas actually a season for the broken-hearted? On a lighter note, I revisit a simple Christmas. I have a new idea!   I hope you will listen, regardless of whether you have lost a child. We all have ups and downs we have to deal with. They are part of life and we learn from them all. You can find the program notes on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family.

In this week's podcast, I chat about teenagers with my own teenage daughters, Imogen (19), Charlotte (17) and Sophie (13). Many parents expect life to get difficult once their children turn 13. But will it? Are teenagers really trouble or are they unfairly labelled?    We talk about the pressures teenagers face. Do parents unwittingly magnify these pressures? Are rules necessary to keep teenagers safe, or will rules lead to rebellion? My daughters tell me what they think teenagers need instead of rules. We also talk about mistakes, forgiveness and honesty. And how, because of adult peer pressure, I made one of my teenager's life unnecessarily difficult.  This week's program notes can be found on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family. If you'd like to read my posts related to this podcast, please visit!

If children are given the freedom to do whatever they want, will they choose to do nothing at all? My teenage daughters, Imogen (19) and Sophie (13) join me for today's podcast, to discuss this question. During our conversation we talk about whether it is actually possible to do nothing at all, and how parents and children sometimes differ in their opinion about what is a valuable way of spending time. I ask my daughters if they think children should be made to do difficult things. And what about things they do not like doing? We also chat about the need for quiet time. By the time we get to the end of the podcast we are mulling over this question: Could it actually be essential for parents to let children choose?   I've gathered together a few blog posts I've written on this subject. They can be found in the program notes on my blog, Stories of an Unschooling Family.

Is unschooling a lazy way of life? Do mothers choose to unschool because they can’t be bothered putting together a proper homeschool program for their children’s education? Perhaps unschooling mothers don’t actually do much in a day. My daughter Imogen and I discuss these questions in today’s podcast.     Along the way, we also talk about how we can encourage a love of learning, strewing, tiredness and how everything is potentially interesting, even maths!   Please ignore any contradictions. This is an unscripted conversation where we mull over ideas as we chat. Words don't always come out perfectly!   The program notes can be found, as usual, on my blog Stories of an Unschooling Family.   sound effects credit: http://www.freesfx.co.uk/