The Unschooling Life

Clips from interviews with Sandra Dodd that didn’t get put elsewhere.

Extra bits and pieces that didn't get included anywhere else.

Unschooling can repair damage done by traditional parenting and schooling approaches.

While my kids were in school, we could easily go several days without laughing together. When we were unschooling, hardly an hour would go by without at least a giggle.

How does unschooling affect sibling dynamics? 

Where did it come from? And where is it going?

Sometimes people worry that, if children don’t follow a set curriculum, they will have gaps in their education, or that they will be behind.   Is this a valid concern?

What do unschoolers do when they encounter hard times?

For many people, unschooling as a single parent would be way too hard. But today we hear from some “solo mums” who are unschooling successfully, with joy, learning, abundance and partnership. Katie O’Connor is the director of the Talking Stick Learning Center. Danielle Owens is on the board of DrMomma.org and Saving our Sons. Brie Jontry teaches online classes for West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Tanya Marinelli runs Wellness and Empowerment Camps for Kids.    Lainie Liberti facilitates World School Retreats for unschooling teens.

When relatives don’t support unschooling… what then?

What about dads?

Quitting and learning; learning and quitting.

How do unschoolers handle sex education? 

The flexibility of an unschooling lifestyle makes it possible for some families to travel and learn all over the world. It's hard not to be jealous of them, but maybe they can inspire us to realize the world is an amazing place and wherever we go we can have a learning adventure. And maybe we can discover traveling is more within our reach that it may seem.

Gever Tulley is the founder of Tinkering School and author of the book 50 Fangerous Things You Should Let Your Kid do.  This is an extended recording of Gever talking about Tinkering, his original TED talk, his book, and the value of parents and children doing dangerous things together.

Today we hear about danger and safety from Ben Hewitt, Sandra Dodd, Renee Cabatic, Gever Tulley and Lenore Skenazy.

Can unschooling make the world a better place?

One of the hidden benefits to unschooling is that it can help parents learn, heal and grow.

Sometimes people say “Unschooling isn’t working for my child” or they say, "We tried unschooling but it didn’t work."   This is the topic for today: When, why or how does unschooling fail?  

How do unschoolers find community?