Léo's Insights

Let’s focus on what to expect at the primary level. If we describe the primary level as starting when the child is ready to read, that could be anywhere from age four to puberty. Bearing in mind that dyslexics are late bloomers, they can actually start reading post-puberty, but do not worry. They usually learn to read and very quickly surpass age-appropriate expectations. Also to be considered is an elusive thing called readiness. Obviously, as a child grows older there is a greater capacity for learning, but let’s not get in a rush. There is plenty of time to learn the foundational skills of communication and mathematics. It has been shown that these skills take around 100 hours to learn, ONCE THE CHILD IS READY! Why does it take 6-9 years in school you may ask? The answer is related to daycare provisions for working parents. Also, consider that the modern junior high level is actually repeating the basics, perhaps at a higher level, but it is largely a repetition of skills in preparation for the next stage of learning. I am of the opinion that if students completely skipped junior high and entered directly into high school, they would do just fine. Once again, school needs to fill in time as they also function as “daycares”. Unschoolers need not spin their wheels in this way. So, what should be done regarding book work during the early primary years? NOTHING. Let your children play. As they demonstrate readiness, go ahead and provide them opportunities to learn but avoid the needless boring repetition found in most school-based curriculums. Have them learn concepts and move on. There is no need to make students relearn what they already know, unless of course you want to play school at home which is most certainly not recommended. As students reach puberty, most will start to demonstrate a readiness for higher learning. This may be more so for girls who generally reach puberty before boys. Boys, on the other hand, may initially demonstrate a readiness for two main subjects – eating and sleeping – until they have completed most of their physical growth, at which time they will quickly catch up and maybe even surpass their age-related female counterparts. The first and foremost rule for the primary education of children is RELAX. Have faith. God does not make mistakes and everyone is equipped to learn what they need to learn when ready. That is what unschooling is about. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/01/14-Primary.mp3

Have you ever noticed the levels of learning the world has invented? Someone or something, somewhere at some time determined there is a perfect time to incarcerate children in an institution for learning. Unfortunately, the age is getting younger, as the true nature of the school system becomes evident. It doubles as a daycare system. We now have some kind of play-school, pre-school or pre-kindergarten leading to full-fledged kindergarten; then elementary grades merge into junior high school, followed by senior high school. The perplexing thing is senior high school precedes the next level which is post-secondary. If we consider that higher training is regarded as post-secondary, shouldn’t there be a secondary to post? And should there not be a primary before we can talk about a secondary? If this all sounds confusing to you, it is. I am old enough to remember that education was once divided into three levels: primary, secondary and post-secondary. I cannot say I am fully aware of how this came to be, but let’s assume the primary grades were intended to instill basic skills. In the old days those were referred to as the three Rs, namely reading, (w)riting and (a)rithmetic. Perhaps a bad spelling example but effective in advancing the necessary skills to function in the world. The secondary level eventually morphed into junior and senior high. Back in the day, when the primary level included both today’s elementary and junior high levels, students were considered to have completed the primary levels by grade 9. I am certainly dating myself, but I am in possession of a junior high diploma issued by the province of Alberta at the end of my grade 9. Many students considered their formal education to be complete and quit going to school at that time. The academically inclined continued to the senior high level, ending with a high school diploma, and a few went on to learn at some post-secondary institution. Regardless of how the world has divided learning into varying levels, there really are only three stages of learning: the primary level where basic skills are learned before puberty; the secondary level where the basic skills learned at the primary level are applied to higher learning; and finally the post-secondary level where students specialize in some skill. Unschooling should follow the three steps just outlined. Primary is time for play. Once the children reach puberty, expect a more mature approach to learning and then leave the post-secondary up to God and the student. This is faith expressed as unschooling. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/01/13-Learning-Levels.mp3

Once children have reached “school age,” most parents simply do as expected and send their children to school. This often comes with resistance and tears. Why? Children know they are safe at home. They know school will not be a place where they will be coddled and loved like they are at home. A question worth asking is what part of tears do parents not understand? Keep your children safe at home while remembering that learning needs to be age appropriate and ability based. Not every five year old is ready for the “rigours” of school programming. On another note, some people say school is necessary to enable children to exercise independence from their parents. Others say children become witnesses of their faith. Still others say children need to hone up socialization skills. All very poor excuses. Let children mature to adulthood before expecting adult independence. Should you decide to keep your children at home, you may be conflicted about what program to follow. Why? Programs are part of the problem with schooling. Besides, have the children stopped learning at home? What has been going on up till this time? They have been playing and, in the process, they have been learning and gaining enormous amounts of information about the world and themselves. Don’t stop that. Let them play. If they are ready to learn academically, they will let you know in their own way and in their own time. Why did God make humans take so long to reach sexual maturity? Could it be because he wanted children to learn through play? He most certainly did not instruct parents to engage in programming. That’s what you do with computers, not children. You may ask, “Don’t children need to learn certain things by this age?” What age? Who has standardized children in such a way as to have universal expectations of them? I have seen a child seriously reading at age three and half and I have seen dyslexics learn to read as late as eighteen. One thing for sure, every home educated child learns to read, eventually. This cannot be said of schools. Schools often expose children to learning what they are not ready for, resulting in poor skills and a bad attitude. Teach them when they are ready. At this point, no program will be necessary. I am not discouraging the use of programs as much as encouraging you with the knowledge that learning requires readiness, opportunity and encouragement more than programming. Let it happen naturally. That is unschooling. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/01/12-School-Age.mp3

Now that we understand that unschooling starts at birth, let’s take it one step at a time. Before we begin, we must acknowledge one necessary element of unschooling. It cannot occur outside of the home, which requires a stay-at-home parent, usually, but not always the mother. The moment outside childcare is utilized, the default belief is that others, including government, will have equal authority and positive impact in a child’s life as parents. This is NOT so. Needless to say, birth is followed by careful nurturing, initially mostly engaged in by the mother. However, do not kid yourself. The child is learning right from the beginning and both parents need to be involved. As children grow, they quickly demonstrate how voraciously they gather information about their environment. Nothing seems to escape their notice and they involve all their senses. Eventually they will learn to walk, use the potty, and get into all kinds of trouble. All of this is without government programs. Once they learn to communicate using language, things change. Stop and think about this stage for a moment. How complicated is language and how does learning it happen? Naturally. No program. No lessons. No test. No desk. No books (obviously). It just happens because the children are wired to learn. Once the children start learning to talk, one of the first words is “why”? This is true learning in action! Again, naturally. No program. No lessons. No test. No desk. No books. Repeating, it just happens because children are wired to learn. It does not take long before the child reaches “school age”. What does that mean? It means some outside agency is claiming to now be in a better position than the parent to direct the learning process God created. Huh? Think about what has been learned to this point. What input has any third party had in comparison to the parents? This reminds me of the time I nearly engaged in inflicting property damage. It was a mobile home with all the windows removed and a fence surrounding it. On the side, a big sign announced it as Tiny Tot Daycare – Where Learning Starts! I nearly started throwing stones at it. Learning most certainly does not start in such a sterile place. Ask any parent. So, does unschooling change as the child matures and learns? Yes, it does. As children grow, offer more food, and as learning ability increases, offer more opportunities to learn. Just don’t send them to school, whether at home or elsewhere. Just unschool completely. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/12/11-the-Primary-Years.mp3

Let’s start the new year by first stating that most home education providers and facilitators do not wake up in the morning with the objective of obstructing the unschooling approach to education. Most, in fact, have never given unschooling much thought at all. They simply advance the only thing they know which is something aligned with public programming, as most everyone has adopted the idea that government knows what children need. Nonetheless, how can an agency incapable of procreation know what is best for children? Furthermore, how can a one-size-fits-all system accommodate the incredible diversity seen in humanity? Although the education system may state it is focused on the well-being of the individual child, differences are dealt with by doing everything possible to make a child fit the government learning model rather than to encourage independent development. Unschooling is not like that. It is not encumbered with having to align children with a universal expectation. That is its greatest strength. Still, we must be cognizant of the universal advancement and application of school-based approaches to education. As mentioned in the beginning of this year’s vlog series, the term unschooling has come into vogue of late, but has the understanding of what it entails grown with the movement? Unfortunately, no. Government programming remains the standard so there is a general movement away from the freedom found in true unschooling. Indeed, there are some who use the term in an attempt to be all things to all men. In fact, there is a particular organization in the province that advances itself as unschoolers while pushing the need for government programming and accreditation. In this case, as in many others, unschooling has come to mean not being physically in school. But this is not what we mean by unschooling. Unschooling is nothing more than not schooling. By that I mean it is something that starts when a child is born and continues throughout his/her upbringing within the family environment. It is natural learning fit for the individual without a preconceived objective or standard other than what is best for the child. It should go without saying that unschooling programs will be adapted with experience and maturation. But in the end, nothing really changes in the child’s upbringing other than providing more academic opportunities as s/he matures, in keeping with the innate individual gifts, talents and abilities of each child. Unschooling is fitting the program to the child not the child to the program. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/12/10-Unschooling-Review.mp3

As modern schools became bastions of compliance for secular ideology, the home education movement in Alberta grew. Wanting to preserve their faith from erosion, many parents chose to escape schooling, entrusting dedicated home education providers to support their programs, as parents believed these providers held a common objective of faith in God. However, with home education being funded in Alberta, the character of home education began to transform into being more of an industry than a ministry as nearly every school began providing for home education with the intent of increasing cash flow. Along with the increasing number of home education providers came the natural advancement of public curriculum. Taking advantage of parental ignorance and its associated fears, the normalization of secular programming started to win the day as many of the formerly dedicated faith-based providers began to offer government programs. The two primary motivations for doing so should be obvious. The first is that attracting students who believed in the need for government programs meant more money. The second reason, which often escapes parental notice, is that increasing public programming resulted in more funding. It is by far in the best financial interest of schools to provide increasing amounts of secular public programming. Knowing this should cause us to question why the government would fund its secular programming at a higher level than traditional Christian programming. The answer should be obvious: it is the advancement of secular ideology in direct opposition to faith-based programming. Exposing that schools have always had a hidden agenda of compliance toward something and that modern day schools aim to instill compliance within a Godless secular society, begs us to question why any home education board or parent would want to bring that ideology home. If parents are keeping their children home to assure compliance with God’s will, why would any believer, whether board or school, want to use curricular programs in direct opposition to that goal? With the advent of the normalization of school programs in the home, the home education movement became corrupted by its own money-driven motivation and drifted to advancing another form of compliance: that of normalizing, accepting, even Christianizing public secular programs in opposition to advancing parental authority and freedom. Parents need to beware of being drawn in the opposite direction of their original motivation of obeying God. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/11/9-Parental-Motivation.mp3

Last time, we ended by questioning the ultimate goal of modern schools. As long as there have been schools, there has been an overarching motivation toward some sort of universal compliance. Perhaps some of these motivations have been of a good nature, but then again, whenever something becomes mandated by government, the objective should be suspect. The best way to evaluate the potential motivation of a school is to ask a simple question: What part does God have in the overall program? While the Jesuits may have originally had God in mind, the compliance objective was toward a particular expression of faith or doctrine which was essentially nothing more than indoctrination. Since then, all schools have had precious little to do with God, especially since the social revolution of the 1960s. Needless to say, public schools which advance themselves as neutral will most certainly not have faith in God as a central tenet of their existence. Separate, mostly Catholic, schools are also not likely to be advancing faith in God, at least not from an academic perspective since they use the very same curriculum as public schools. Private schools aren’t much different. Most use the secular public school curriculum or a facsimile thereof, and operate with a fear of funding shortfall. Most alternative schools and charter schools also follow government-mandated programming, all of which has little to no place for the advancement of faith in God. That leaves us with homeschooling. I may perhaps have been blind or naive when we started home educating nearly thirty-five years ago, but I believe the very reason the home education movement got started was that parents wanted to escape the Godless secular public education system, and many had come to understand that the separate Catholic system was really no different. Parents wanted to reincorporate God into the education of their children. To address this goal, private schools came into existence, and they also provided the child-care aspect of schools that parents had come to expect. However, with government funding came the expectation of following Godless government programming. When my wife and I got seriously involved with the home education “industry” as facilitators, and later as home education providers under a private school, I initially found a sort of camaraderie among providers and staff. However, it did not take long before the central focus and the competition for students started to take on embarrassingly un-Christian-like characteristics. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/11/8-School-Motivations.mp3

The “best” dictionary definition of school is: “An institution or place where people, typically students, are educated, instructed, and taught, often by teachers, to acquire knowledge, skills, and understanding to function in society.” At first brush, this definition seems to be accurate and non-threatening. However, it may be a good idea to look into the history of compulsory education before coming to any foregone conclusions about what school was and what it has come to be. Like many modern institutions, the school concept has its roots in Christianity. Although I am not sure how things came to be, Sunday school was initially a class held either before or after a church service to help parents to teach their children to read. An old Catholic order called the Jesuits was among the first to create day schools but they had an ulterior motive. They wanted to entice children of Lutheran families back to the Catholic fold, as their parents could not be convinced to do so during the reformation period. They knew they would have a better chance with children than adults, and they continue to this day as proselytizers of the Catholic doctrine. An interesting aside about this school – other than the fact that parents volunteered to have their children attend – is that the mostly illiterate students started attending after puberty. They learned much, much more than what is learned in our modern twelve-year schooling program, and they were ready for seminary, college or university in less than three years. Makes one question how the twelve years to certification ever got started and why it continues to exist. Compulsory education was not really a thing until the mid 1800s. It was started in Prussia (now Germany) to instill military-style compliance in students. This was obviously successful when one considers this country started both the first and second World Wars. Seeing that the early compulsory schools in Germany were successful, American industrial capitalists brought the concept to the United States, even going so far as to fund it so they could create a compliant workforce to man their factories. This was not initially accepted by parents who wanted to maintain their agrarian, family lifestyle, but eventually school came to be a desired institution. At this point, the government got involved. The initial Sunday schools were dedicated institutions of learning, however the Jesuits, Germans, American industrialists and governments all had a different objective in providing school: universal compliance toward something. Making it compulsory greatly increased the potential for achieving this goal. This begs the question: what could be the compliance goals of modern schools? https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/10/7-what-is-school.mp3

Before diving deeper into our discussion, we should ask ourselves what it is that we are trying to “undo” or escape when we talk about “unschooling.” Before we begin, let me tell you a funny story. I was once invited to preach at an evening service; the pastor asked me to speak on what the Bible has to say about school. It turned out to be the shortest sermon in history. I was introduced, got up, went to the podium, announced the topic the pastor had asked me to cover, opened my Bible, took a minute, then looked up and said, “Nothing.” I returned to my seat, causing a bit of discomfort in the congregation. A few moments later, I returned to the podium and stated that since the Bible has nothing to say about school or schooling, I would instead talk about what the Bible has to say about education. Once again, I repeated the exercise of opening the Bible, announcing that there was nothing in it about education, closed it and sat down. By now the congregation was a little more at ease, but still not quite sure what was going on. I returned to the podium and announced that while the Bible has virtually nothing to say about school, schooling or education per se, it does have much to say about parents and parenting. Our remaining time together was instructive, and I believe the folks in the congregation got the message that we often justify what we don’t understand by reading it into the Bible. Even though public school, schooling and education have come to be a focus in every country of the world, it should be noted that the word “school” is not mentioned in the Bible other than the one reference found in Acts 19:9 where it talks about the Apostle Paul reasoning in the School of Tyrannus, which was a private lecture hall owned by a fellow called Tyrannus and not an actual school. There may be the occasional reference to a schoolmaster in some translations, but in every case the word mentor would be a better fit when considering what the terms school and schoolmaster have come to mean. From this, it should be easy to conclude that school is not a biblical concept. However, in fairness, there is also no reference to cars, computers or cell phones. As with these items, schools are a relatively new concept, yet they’ve been around long enough for most people to believe they always have been. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/10/6-The-Bible-School.mp3

Hopefully by now, you have come to the conclusion that the reason we end up believing what we do is that we don’t question or test what we have come to believe or why we believe it is true. We just act in accordance with the way we were raised and the things we have been taught and have experienced. While we individually have the capacity to think independently, we usually unquestioningly continue with the established narrative and status quo we have come to, even if we don’t understand how or why. While we all desire the easiest path to accomplishments, there is an assumption of saving time and/or energy by simply going with the flow. We should actually consider the inherent danger of taking this path of least resistance, knowing that things can only flow downhill. We inadvertently and unquestioningly end up as part of the problem until we stop and ask ourselves where we are going and why. This is the first and most important question we can ask regarding anything and it should come at the beginning of any unschooling journey, although most people will learn along the way. Now, let me ask you a few more questions to challenge you in your thinking. What did parents do before the advent of public education? If a child cannot fit the school mold, is it fair to deem them as learning deficient? Can a learning challenge be fixed or should it be accommodated? If every child is unique, is it healthy to compare or grade them? Should children be made to fit a standardized program or should the program fit the child? Is there only one way to transition to the post-secondary arena? Have you ever been asked to produce your diploma or transcript when applying for a job? What does it mean to be accredited? Is it necessary to have man accredit what God has created? There are certainly many more questions that need to be asked and answered, but by now I am sure you are getting the message. School is designed to have you think in a certain way in order to participate in man’s world. Desiring to be and to raise independent critical thinkers is to serve notice that you will not be told what to do or allow yourself or your children to be indoctrinated. This is what unschooling is. Not a removal from school, but an escape from school secular ideology and a return to faith in God, with a focus on the family and the freedom unschooling brings. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/09/The-Big-Questin5.mp3

Pontius Pilot is famous for having asked a question likely everyone has asked at some time in their life: “What is Truth?” Avoiding a long dissertation on what truth is, we need only point out two things. While the word truth is most often used in a singular context, the opposite can be said of untruths commonly known as lies. The other thing of note is that truth is the only way that lies can be exposed as such. Also know that what we believe, whether true of false, will ultimately default as truth in our minds. We are who we are and believe what we believe as a consequence of everything we have experienced in life. We are given the choice between freely acknowledging God or willingly succumbing to a particular narrative leading us away from Him. Because most individuals have experienced some form of school, we naturally accept, normalize and even Christianize its tenets. However, if school-based approaches to education are based on a secular, humanistic premise, does employing school methodologies in alternate, Christian or home schools really change anything? To illustrate, if your van is broken, is it less broken if dragged to a service station, church parking lot, or home? Of course not, but this is precisely what happens with education. While the school system is becoming increasingly famous for its dysfunctions, many folks think employing it in a different place or in a different way will make it better; but as previously mentioned, is it really an improvement or simply a better place to continue with bad pedagogy? Moving venues does not change anything. The van is still broken. More questions: Who invented grades? Are they an accurate reflection of reality? Who has determined that children can only learn by being at a desk? Can a surrogate parent or teacher have a greater influence in a child’s life than a parent? If so, is this an improvement or a liability? Schools are often presented as being religiously neutral. Is this possible? Can curricular programs be neutral? Is a Christianized version of school programming actually Christian? Are there indications of schools taking authority and/or undermining parental responsibilities? Are schools mostly seen as bastions of knowledge or babysitting services? The biggest question is, who is ultimately responsible for a child’s well-being, and should this responsibility be abdicated to another? https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/09/4-more-questions.mp3

Having established the importance of having a faith foundation, it is important to understand how this actually looks within an unschooling program. If faith in God is the main reason for unschooling, then it should go without saying that the first requirement is to relax. If you believe in God and that He gave you the creative ability to produce His children, then we can trust that He will not need man’s education methodologies and pedagogical techniques to accomplish His will in their lives. I repeat, trust God and relax. You need to take responsibility, but you should not fret. Perhaps the best way to undo the school mentality ingrained in your educational mindset is to ask a series of questions which I will leave you to ponder. As you do, keep in mind that there are two pathways provided to all of us: The first is the broad, straight way adopted by the majority that ultimately leads to second best. We will refer to this road as man’s way.  The other, God’s way, is the narrow, winding road taken by risk takers and believers with the ultimate destination of greater temporal and eternal fulfilment. As you read the following questions, ask yourself whether the answer is man, God, you as the parent, or simply yes or no. Let’s begin. Who gave us the ability to create children? Who should or will have the greatest impact in a child’s life? Are all children alike? Who is responsible for the diversity of children? Who desires to homogenize this diversity? Who has invented programming to enable this homogenization? Who said education starts at a certain age? Who has said a child should be reading at age six, seven or eight? Does everyone have the same abilities? Can every child be treated or educated the same way? Is every child ready to learn a concept at the same time? Who determines which concepts should be learned? Who should determine the worldview foundation a child should be exposed to? Who invented curriculum? What premise is curriculum based on? Who has determined that a basic education takes twelve years? Is dividing life into subjects realistic? There are many more questions that can and should be asked. More next time. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/09/3-Undoing-School.mp3

You have probably already discovered that schooling doesn’t deliver as promised or that what is being accomplished at school is not in keeping with the goals and aspirations you have regarding your children’s education. This is likely why you have determined to keep your children home and why you are watching this vlog. While unschooling is often advanced as simply keeping children home rather than sending them to school, it is much more than that. If all you do is replace a school environment with a school mindset at home, you haven’t really changed much other than being intimately involved with systemic failures. Put another way, repeating what you intrinsically know is not working only makes for a better bad. To fully comprehend what unschooling is, we have to dig deep into our subconscious and understand the foundation upon which we base our decisions. It should be obvious that we have lost faith in the school system because it is most likely based on a premise that you disagree with in the first place. That is, the foundation of school-based approaches to home education is training our children to be good, productive citizens of a world in which there is nothing other than man and his accomplishments. Not that this is necessarily wrong but it reflects a short-term, temporal vision. Although not everyone will fully comprehend the importance of seeking an ultimate destination beyond this world, all practitioners of unschooling are unknowingly putting faith in a child’s inherent capacity for learning. In other words, we are all putting greater innate faith in God’s creative abilities than in man’s claim to knowing what children need and the processes by which they are programmed into serving man rather than God. The first verse of the first chapter of the first book of the Bible is: “In the beginning, God.” Therefore, having faith in God is a very good place to start in life. It is the same with an unschooling program. Having faith in God means working with Him and using His directives to develop what He has created in order to enable His children to find their place in this temporal world. We do this with a vision for each child’s eternal destiny. Placing your faith in God is where you should start your unschooling. Stop believing man knows what to do with God’s creation and put an end to encapsulating children in man’s temporal, God-less world. Start by desiring to set your children free from man’s expectations so they can be what God has created and what He expects. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/09/2-in-the-Beginning.mp3

Welcome to the 2025-26 academic year. For those of you already subscribed to this channel, thank you for your support. If you are not yet subscribed, may I suggest you do that so you catch all the editions of this series. I believe I am also supposed to ask that you “Like” what you see here, but you wouldn’t likely be subscribed if you didn’t! There seems to be a new, or shall I say renewed interest in unschooling of late. As more people are exploring this educational option, more misunderstandings as to what unschooling really is or how it is conducted are also rising to the surface. This can be expected, as whenever something outside of standard accepted practices is brought forth, there are objections to it. My focus this year will be to address some of the fears, concerns and confusions surrounding unschooling with the hope of helping each of you to relax and trust that unschooling is not only what was done before the advent of compulsory schooling, but truly is the best and most common-sense option for rearing and preparing children for life. While the future may be hard for us to fathom, there is One who can and does see it, and I can assure you it is not the government, unless of course your understandings are confused or your intentions are bad. Before getting started on this journey of discovery, let’s get one thing straight: Your children are fine just as they are, where they are. No need to fix anything. No need to worry about programming; when or how to start; what approach to use; what expectations to have; or for that matter, starting at all – because your unschooling educational journey actually got its start the day your child was born. Just because they are now a few years older doesn’t mean you need to change your educational approach. Keeping them home rather than sending them to school is not only wise but beneficial to both parents and children. “Homing” beats “schooling” or better yet, unschooling is really nothing more than breaking free of school-based approaches so that every child’s education can be truly unlimited. Welcome to Education Unlimited Academy and to its sister organization, Activities Unlimited. Welcome to unschooling. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/08/Welcome-25-26.mp3

An interesting series of movies from the 1980s entitled Back To The Future ends with a noteworthy remark. After having experienced a futuristic vision and returning to reality, the young lady asks the inventor of the time machine why a document taken from the future seems to have been erased. The answer is simple. It’s because the future has not yet been written, as it depends on what decisions are made in the present. The inventor then admonishes the young couple to make sure today’s decisions are good ones so the future provides good things. I would like to end this year’s vlog series with the same advice. Our many years of experience in home education have taught us there are generally two main issues at work in determining our future and that of our children. The first is how often we fail to question the information being presented to us. For instance, when challenged with the need to have a government approved high school diploma, few ask why. If the question is asked, families are usually provided with an exaggerated example of ignorance by those who see themselves as experts. Hardly the kind of information upon which anyone should base potentially life-changing decisions. Many decisions are ill-informed. The other problem is a general lack of foresight. Most decisions are based on the immediate. A good example of this is when parents decide to put their children back in school after discovering that trying to replicate school at home doesn’t work.  Rather than questioning why school-based approaches to education don’t work, families try and then fail to make the same approach work at home – something akin to trying to fit Chev parts into a Ford car. The stories I shared with you this year were intended to do two things: I trust you were entertained, and I pray you were informed regarding how to work with God in developing what He has already created in each child. Question everything and think about your decisions because your future and that of your children is at stake. Have a great summer. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/02/38-Good-Decisions.mp3

I would be remiss if I neglected to tell the truth about unschooling. While it is, in my opinion, absolutely the best way to raise and train children in a fallen and decaying world, it is not an antidote to the troubles, trials and tribulations that will come our way whether we home educate or not. My stories have been of a positive nature all year long, but I really do not want to leave you with the idea that if you choose to unschool, all your troubles will go away. You’ll never be entirely free of problems, not even regarding your education program and most certainly not regarding your marriage, children and family. We do have an enemy of our souls and his job is to make our job as difficult as possible, unless of course we have somehow chosen to work on his team. We have witnessed pretty well every bad thing that could possibly come. Many families we have ministered to have blown apart, some for reasons we are still completely mystified about. They seemed to be doing everything right. Was it just a show? Mothers, fathers and children have passed away or been killed, some even at their own hands. Children have rebelled so extremely that there has been no communication for decades, and in some cases there is no cognizance of their whereabouts or if they are even alive. Many families have given up and sent their children back to school. This is rarely a good solution and we feel a general sense of having failed a family when this happens, which of course is ridiculous, yet still does not prevent us from thinking we could have done more. The greatest heartbreak is the loss of a child, something we are unfortunately familiar with. Our family stuck together during our time of tragedy but not all families do, adding an even greater level of calamity to an already awful experience. Unschooling is not the reason for these disastrous events, and it does mitigate the multiplication of failures and stressors which can arise when children are sent to school. I most highly recommend unschooling your children, which I believe will at least somewhat reduce the possibility of some things going wrong. Unschooling is the best choice even if it only reduces problems rather than eliminating them. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/02/37-In-this-world.mp3

While our favourite story is not so much a story, it must be told because it represents the single most important observation we have had the privilege of making in our thirty plus years as facilitators. This “story” is about our own family. Even though we didn’t decide to home educate our own children until … Continue reading "Our Favourite Story"

My family is a bit strange. I suppose most people think the same thing about their family and likely it is true, but in different ways. Most families have a go-to person who seems to have a bit more intuition regarding computers and phones than the rest. Normally, it is not a parent who is … Continue reading "Restart"

Last time, I left you hanging regarding what transpired with the student I had busted when his backpack fell over revealing his dad’s hunting knife. I had given him the option of telling his dad or I would. After dealing with me, he announced his imminent death as he went home to tell his father … Continue reading "The Knife Story (Part 2)"

The classroom was very quiet as the students focused on an exam I was administering. I was walking around, keeping an eye on things, when I was suddenly shocked into emergency mode. As I was walking past a particular student, his backpack fell over and out came an 8-inch hunting knife. Not wanting to cause … Continue reading "The Knife Story (Part 1)"