Pam Laricchia's Blog, page 15
March 24, 2021
EU270: Supporting Our Partners with Anna Brown
This week Anna Brown and I talk about our theme in the Living Joyfully Network this month, Supporting Our Partners. We chose the word “partners” to represent any important adults in our family’s lives who have active relationships with our children—spouses, co-parents, significant others, grandparents, and so on. Our partners are an important part of our unschooling lives and taking the time to focus on and nurture those relationships benefits the whole family.
It was fun to see that so many of the tools and ideas we talk about are the same ones we have used to strengthen our relationships with our children. We can connect with our partner through their interests, intentionally seeing who they are as a person outside of their family “role.” We talk about developing trust in them and nurturing their trust in us, which in turn helps them build strong relationships with the kids and feel like a valuable part of the family. The ripples that emerge from supporting our partners bring even more joy to our family’s days!
Discussion areas
The first step in supporting our partner is strengthening our connection with them. We want them to feel truly seen and heard by us. Let’s talk about some tools for doing that.Ways we approach challenging moments or conversations that keep our connection at the forefront.As our connection with our partner strengthens, we can take the next step: extending trust.Ways we can support our partner as they develop their own relationships with the kids.Ways we can support our partner as they learn more about unschooling.Links to things mentioned in the episode
Check out the Living Joyfully Network
The Not Back to School episode of the podcast
Transcript
Video
Consider becoming a patron
I deeply appreciate all my patrons! Your generous support helps pay for the hosting and transcription, as well as my time spent creating new episodes each week. It’s instrumental in keeping the growing podcast archive freely available to anyone who’s curious and wants to explore the fascinating world of unschooling. If you’d like to join my community of patrons and scoop up some great rewards along the way, check out the Exploring Unschooling page on Patreon.
March 17, 2021
EU269: Unschooling Doesn’t Spoil Children
This week, we’re diving into a question that comes up pretty regularly, not just from people new to unschooling but also from extended family and friends when they see our parenting choices in action: Won’t unschooling spoil a child?
We look at four examples of parenting behaviours or actions, the typical conventional and unschooling motivations behind them, and what the child is likely learning along the way:
giving our children material thingsdoing what our children wantnot punishing “negative” behavioursresponding quickly to our children’s distressAudio clips taken from these episodes, in order …
EU094: A Muddy Life with Ellen Rowland
EU089: Ten Questions with Jan Hunt
Transcript
Video
Consider becoming a patron
I deeply appreciate all my patrons! Your generous support helps pay for the hosting and transcription, as well as my time spent creating new episodes each week. It’s instrumental in keeping the growing podcast archive freely available to anyone who’s curious and wants to explore the fascinating world of unschooling. If you’d like to join my community of patrons and scoop up some great rewards along the way, check out the Exploring Unschooling page on Patreon.
March 11, 2021
EU268: The Joy of Unschooling with Karen Matthews
Karen Matthews joins me this week! Karen and her grown son, Tyler, own a furniture and wood craft business together. We talk about how their unschooling journey began and how following Tyler’s interests has not only been a rewarding path for him, but also for her. Karen shares some of the big a-ha moments she had and paradigm shifts she made through the years. We also talk about questioning our cultural views around productivity and expectations. Karen’s focus on following her son’s joy and cultivating his passions has led them to the connected relationship and wonderful life they enjoy now. It’s so inspiring!
Questions for Karen
Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? What is everybody interested in right now?
How did you discover unschooling and what did your family’s move to unschooling look like?
One of the pieces of advice you received early on was to deeply value your child’s interests—no matter what. Can you share how that played out for you?
One of my most valuable unschooling paradigm shifts was around the importance of down time. Conventional society is apt to call this laziness, but it really isn’t, is it?
Tyler unschooled through the high school years. I’d love to hear more about what that looked like for you guys!
Looking back, what, for you, has been the most valuable outcome from choosing unschooling?
Things mentioned in the episode
Karen and Tyler’s business, Sawdust and Sage
Sawdust and Sage Facebook page
Karen was inspired by homeschooling speaker Cindy Gaddis, who was on the podcast in episode 40, Paradigm Shifts with Cindy Gaddis
Transcript
Video
Consider becoming a patron
I deeply appreciate all my patrons! Your generous support helps pay for the hosting and transcription, as well as my time spent creating new episodes each week. It’s instrumental in keeping the growing podcast archive freely available to anyone who’s curious and wants to explore the fascinating world of unschooling. If you’d like to join my community of patrons and scoop up some great rewards along the way, check out the Exploring Unschooling page on Patreon.
March 3, 2021
EU267: Growing Up Unschooling with Laura and Allen Ellis
Siblings Laura and Allen Ellis join me this week to talk about growing up unschooling. They share how their childhood interests and experiences connect to the work that they currently do and some of the realizations they made along the way. We talk about the role their mother played in supporting their interests and providing opportunities that fit their goals without controlling or adding weighty expectations. Laura and Allen also describe the benefits they see in retrospect of living an unschooling life as they were growing up. It’s wonderful to hear their perspective and to see how their two different journeys have unfolded so far!
Questions for Laura and Allen
Can you share with us a bit about you and your family?
What did your family’s move to unschooling look like?
What were some of your interests and passions growing up and how did you pursue them?
Let’s shift to your young adult years. What choices did you make and how did they unfold for you?
At this point, you’ve each ended up starting your own multi-passionate companies. What does that look like and how do you see your unschooling background continuing to weave into your lives?
What do you each appreciate most about growing up unschooling?
Things mentioned in the episode
Their website, Why Unschool?
Laura’s business Bridges Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine website
Allen’s business website
Transcript
Video
Consider becoming a patron
I deeply appreciate all my patrons! Your generous support helps pay for the hosting and transcription, as well as my time spent creating new episodes each week. It’s instrumental in keeping the growing podcast archive freely available to anyone who’s curious and wants to explore the fascinating world of unschooling. If you’d like to join my community of patrons and scoop up some great rewards along the way, check out the Exploring Unschooling page on Patreon.
February 24, 2021
EU266: Finding Our Guides with Anna Brown
Anna Brown joins me again this week! This month in the Living Joyfully Network, our theme is ‘Finding Our Guides.’ As I wrote about in The Unschooling Journey, our children can serve as our most valuable guides, helping us move through our fears towards joy and connection. Anna and I talk about how handing our children the weight of our worries and fears impacts them and erodes trust, how connecting with our children helps us navigate our fears, and how being part of a community of like-minded parents inspires us and enriches our unschooling lives. It was such a fun conversation and a great reminder of the value of being truly present in the moment with our families.
Discussion areas
What makes children such good guides?Connecting with our children helps us move through our unschooling-related worries and fears.Connecting with our children as guides also helps us build trust: our trust in our kids, their trust in us, and our trust in unschooling as a lifestyle.The opposite of trust is worry. The value of finding community.Links to things mentioned in the episode
Check out the Living Joyfully Network
my book, The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide
John Holt’s book, Escape from Childhood
Transcript
Consider becoming a patron
I deeply appreciate all my patrons! Your generous support helps pay for the hosting and transcription, as well as my time spent creating new episodes each week. It’s instrumental in keeping the growing podcast archive freely available to anyone who’s curious and wants to explore the fascinating world of unschooling. If you’d like to join my community of patrons and scoop up some great rewards along the way, check out the Exploring Unschooling page on Patreon.
February 17, 2021
EU265: Unschooling Passions
Pam shares her essay, Unschooling Passions.
Unschooling is about learning through living. As unschooling parents, we want to open up the world for our children to explore. But what if your child is passionately interested in just one thing? Doesn’t that close off his access to the world and limit his learning? I have two children who have discovered passionate interests. Instead of spending my time trying to convince them to try new things, I decided to explore their interests with them. I was amazed at how much of the world came to life when they were free, and encouraged, to immerse themselves in their deep, passionate interests.
Things mentioned in the episode
Transcript
Image credit
{ Photo by Khara Woods on Unsplash }
February 10, 2021
EU264: Unschooling Stories with Julia Triman
Julia Triman joins me to share her family’s unschooling journey. As a mom of two young children, Julia reflects on how her understanding of parenting and learning has changed through observation and being present with them. We talk about the incredible depth of her children’s play and how powerful it is that they can choose what they spend their time doing. Julia also shares about her ongoing process of deschooling and what led her to start posting photos of her children’s snack plates on Instagram! It was such a fun conversation!
Questions for Julia
Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? What is everybody interested in right now?
How did you discover unschooling and what did your family’s move to unschooling look like?
With younger kids, I’d love to hear more about how you’re seeing learning unfolding. Coming to unschooling, it can be a big paradigm shift to see and value all the learning that’s happening when we’ve grown up seeing it through the lens of curriculum and needing to be taught.
What have you found to be one of the more challenging aspects of deschooling? Can you share a bit about your journey through it?
You finished your PhD a year or so ago. I’d love to hear about that journey and how it wove together with your unschooling lives.
You post on Instagram as @snackplatemama. Can you share the story behind that?
What’s something fun you guys have done recently that you don’t think you’d have done before finding unschooling?
Things mentioned in the episode
Kids, Carrots, and Candy by Jane R. Hirschmann and Lela Zaphiropoulos
Julia is on Instagram as @SnackPlateMama
Transcript
Consider becoming a patron
I deeply appreciate all my patrons! Your generous support helps pay for the hosting and transcription, as well as my time spent creating new episodes each week. It’s instrumental in keeping the podcast archive growing and freely available to anyone who’s curious and wants to explore the fascinating world of unschooling. If you’d like to join my community of patrons and scoop up some great rewards along the way, check out the Exploring Unschooling page on Patreon.
February 3, 2021
EU263: Unschooling Paradigm Shifts with Susan Walker
Susan Walker, who lives in the Patagonia region of Argentina, joins me this week to talk about her family’s unschooling journey and the major paradigm shifts she made along the way. We talk about her discoveries about being highly sensitive and introverted, how diving into unschooling resulted in so much personal growth, and how her understanding of radical unschooling and radical self-love connected to help create the joyful family life and strong relationships she has now. Susan has thought deeply about these paradigm shifts and her perspective is inspiring!
Questions for Susan
Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? What is everybody interested in right now?
When we connected about our call, you shared that there were four big paradigm shifts that were instrumental for you on your unschooling journey. I’d love to dive into them! Let’s start with learning. What big paradigm shift around learning happened as you explored unschooling?
Another big paradigm shift you experienced was around the idea that it’s OK to be who you are. Can you share what that shift looked like for you?
A third paradigm shift you mentioned centered on the idea that everything changes. People change, circumstances change. How did that shift unfold and how has it helped?
The last big paradigm shift you mentioned was to seeing radical love as the foundation of your unschooling lives. I’d love to hear how that shift came about and the difference it has made.
What is your favourite thing about the flow of your unschooling days right now?
Things mentioned in the episode
Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration
The Highly Sensitive Child by Elaine Aron
Quiet by Susan Cain
The Unschooling Journey by Pam Laricchia
The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
The Childhood Redefined Unschooling Summit
Susan’s daughter, Jimena I. Novaro’s writing website
Transcript
Consider becoming a patron
I deeply appreciate all my patrons! Your generous support helps pay for the hosting and transcription, as well as my time spent creating new episodes each week. It’s instrumental in keeping the podcast archive growing and freely available to anyone who’s curious and wants to explore the fascinating world of unschooling. If you’d like to join my community of patrons and scoop up some great rewards along the way, check out the Exploring Unschooling page on Patreon.
January 27, 2021
EU262: Nurturing Our Children’s Learning with Anna Brown
Anna Brown joins me again this week! This month in the Living Joyfully Network our theme is Nurturing Our Children’s Learning. We are getting back to the basics of unschooling by observing how children learn through following their interests. Exploring learning through the lenses of curiosity and creativity, we talk about what to do when doubts creep in about whether we’re doing enough, when our children want to quit an activity they started, and when it seems like our child is “doing nothing.”
I love diving into this rich topic, which is so relevant no matter where you are on your unschooling journey!
Discussion areas
With unschooling, we replace curriculum with curiosity. Exploring the world by following their interests and passions creates a personally tailored web of learning connections and knowledge.As we navigate the shift from curriculum-based to interest-led learning, it can be challenging to shift to this new and very different way of supporting our kids’ learning. Sometimes we find ourselves asking, “Am I doing enough?”Another challenge that can bubble up as our children follow their curiosity is around the idea of quitting activities. Curiosity and creativity weave together so naturally in support of our children’s learning. An important paradigm shift is moving away from the idea of right and wrong.Another aspect of creativity is having the space and time to just be. It may look like they’re “doing nothing,” but it’s how seemingly disparate bits of information and understanding have a chance to connect in new and creative ways.Links to things mentioned in the episode
Check out the Living Joyfully Network
Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk, Do Schools Kill Creativity?
WIRED Magazine’s interview with Steve Jobs
Transcript
Consider becoming a patron
I deeply appreciate all my patrons! Your generous support helps pay for the hosting and transcription, as well as my time spent creating new episodes each week. It’s instrumental in keeping the growing podcast archive freely available to anyone who’s curious and wants to explore the fascinating world of unschooling. If you’d like to join my community of patrons and scoop up some great rewards along the way, check out the Exploring Unschooling page on Patreon.
January 20, 2021
EU261: Deschooling with Joss Goulden
Joss Goulden, who lives in Western Australia and is mom to two kids, joins me to talk about her family’s unschooling journey. We talk about how she was inspired by her son’s brief time in kindergarten to make the choice to try unschooling, what her deschooling process looked like, and how she sees learning happening naturally as her children pursue what interests them. Joss shares how unschooling has created strong family relationships and how trust plays such a big role in their lives: both learning to trust herself and to trust her children to make their own choices and follow the path that is right for them.
Questions for Joss
Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? What is everybody interested in right now?
How did you discover unschooling and what did your family’s move to unschooling look like?
When people first hear about unschooling, they often find it hard to imagine how learning happens without teaching and a curriculum. But it really does! How have you seen learning naturally unfold with your children?
Another thing that trips people up is the idea of children choosing what they do. They worry kids won’t do hard things if they don’t “have to.” That’s just not what unschooling parents see in action. Intrinsic motivation is so powerful, isn’t it?
What has been one of the more challenging aspects of deschooling for you? Can you share a bit about your journey through it?
What has surprised you most so far about your unschooling journey?
Things mentioned in the episode
The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff
Aware Parenting with Aletha Solter
Educating Your Child at Home by Alan Thomas
Joss is on Facebook and Instagram
Transcript
Consider becoming a patron
I deeply appreciate all my patrons! Your generous support helps pay for the hosting and transcription, as well as my time spent creating new episodes each week. It’s instrumental in keeping the podcast archive growing and freely available to anyone who’s curious and wants to explore the fascinating world of unschooling. If you’d like to join my community of patrons and scoop up some great rewards along the way, check out the Exploring Unschooling page on Patreon.
