Pam Laricchia's Blog, page 18

EU240: Kids Are Capable with Anna Brown

Anna Brown joins me this week to dive into the topic, Kids Are Capable. It’s a foundational principle of unschooling, and seems simple enough, but it’s about so much more than meets the eye!

Questions for Anna

Choice is a great lens through which to start looking at the idea that ‘kids are capable.’ Paying attention to the choices our children are making helps us become more aware of who our children are—the things they like and dislike, their strengths and challenges, their personality style, their learning style, and so on. And from there, we better see the many things they are capable of doing, don’t we?

We also want to be careful not to fall into the “independence agenda” trap. I know that’s something near and dear to your heart, so can you explain what you mean by that?

So often we see things as black and white: yes or no, they do ‘the thing’ or we do ‘the thing.’ But there’s a whole world to explore between those two ends of the spectrum, isn’t there? You called it the “meaty middle” and I love that!

We soon discover that the idea of ‘kids are capable’ is not only about “doing” things, is it? It’s also so much about their self-awareness, that they are capable of knowing what they want and what doesn’t feel good.

Peeling back another layer, holding space for our children to make choices on their timetable and in the directions they are drawn to, while also being involved and engaged so we can help and support them, is the fertile soil in which trust grows, isn’t it?

And now we’re getting to the REAL magic of unschooling. When our children feel seen and heard for who they are, when they see that we trust them to make choices and follow their joy, their trust in themselves grows—they feel empowered and capable. How great is that?

Things mentioned in the episode

Check out the Living Joyfully Network

Transcript

Read the transcript

Consider becoming a patron

I deeply appreciate all my patrons! Your generous support allows me to spend time creating episodes each week, and to keep the 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.

EU239: Unschooling Dads with Roop Bhadury

This week I’m joined by unschooling dad, Roop Bhadury. Roop’s wife Susan joined me earlier this year in episode 220. It was such a treat to get to hear about their family from Roop’s perspective but more than that we had an amazing conversation about the philosophies of unschooling and entrepreneurship, life, relationships, we covered it all.

Questions for Roop

Can you share with us a bit about you and your family?

When we connected, you shared some topics you’d be interested in touching on and I was struck by the language you used, so I want to stay with your lovely wording! I’d love to hear your thoughts on your first point about curiosity and guardrails. Do they complement or compete?

Next you mentioned positive and negative empathy. Can you describe what you mean and share how you see them playing out?

You used the phrase “creative chaos in play.” I love the image that conveys! How have you seen that unfold in your lives?

And the last point you mentioned: “Knowledge is free, pedagogy isn’t, and its ongoing relevance.” What are your thoughts around that?

What is your favourite thing about your unschooling days right now?

As an unschooling dad, what piece of advice would you like to share with dads who are just starting out on this journey?

Things mentioned in the episode

Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk, Do schools kill creativity?

Contact Roop via email, roop@engag3d.com

Pam’s book, The Unschooling Journey

Transcript

Read the transcript

Consider becoming a patron

I deeply appreciate all my patrons! Your generous support allows me to spend time creating episodes each week, and to keep the 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.

EU238: Deschooling with Jessica Kane

This week, I have a lovely conversation with Jessica Kane. Jessica and her husband live in Ireland, and have three children. Her oldest attended school through high school, her middle son left school in grade 4, and her youngest son has never been to school. This gives her such a unique perspective to share! We also dive into her deschooling journey and challenges, what has surprised her most so far, and lots more.

Questions for Jessica

Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? What is everyone into right now?

How did you discover unschooling and what did your family’s move to unschooling look like?

What has been one of the more challenging aspects of deschooling so far? And can you share a bit about your journey through it?

What has surprised you most about your journey so far?

There are pretty big age gaps between your three children, which puts you in distinctly different seasons with each of them, all at the same time. I’d love to hear more about that!

What is your favourite thing about the flow of your unschooling days right now?

Things mentioned in the episode

Check out the Childhood Redefined Unschooling Summit! It’s an online workshop that focuses on the deep, personal work needed to peel away the layers of conventional ideas about learning and parenting that can get in the way of cultivating a thriving unschooling spirit in your family.

Jessica’s vegan food blog, The Diamond Cookbook

You can find Jessica on Instagram

Transcript

Read the transcript

Consider becoming a patron

I deeply appreciate all my patrons! Your generous support allows me to spend time creating episodes each week, and to keep the 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.

EU237: The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide, Part Six

This week I’m sharing part six of the audiobook edition of my book, The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide.

Last week, we covered stages ten, eleven, and twelve, ultimately reaching the holy grail of our quest: unschooling with confidence and grace.

Let’s do a quick review to set the stage for the final leg of our journey.

In Stage Ten, Accepting Others Where They Are, we ask ourselves, who still holds power over us? Why do we continue to engage with them on the see-saw of resisting their control and seeking their approval? What grows out of this deep, personal exploration around our need for approval is a feeling of freedom to show up openly as ourselves, mistakes and all, doing our best. As we continue to embrace this new level of self-awareness, we no longer feel the need to hide or apologize for our choices, nor are we drawn to flaunt them—we just live them.

In Stage Eleven, Cultivating Kindness and Compassion, we reach the apotheosis of our journey, which, for me, was all about finding the magic in the mess. As we contemplate what we’ve learned about judgement, temptation, and power over the last three stages of our journey, our understanding continues to grow, and in this stage, we glimpse the true nature of life. As we continue to heal from our past, old fears and hurts fall away, and their influence on our choices fades. As that weight lifts, we feel lighter and more open, able to find more creative and fun ways to navigate our days. As our self-awareness grows, we bring more of our true selves into our days. And as we learn more about our children, our connection with them deepens, and our trust grows.These revelations feed off each other, bringing an increasing lightness and depth to our days and in time we realize we are approaching the summit of our journey. We find ourselves able to reach for kindness and compassion more often. And, in my experience, so often when we choose to reach for kindness and compassion in the moment, we discover magic. The moment turns, and we find ourselves going places more interesting, more fun, and more meaningful than we could have predicted or even imagined.

In Stage Twelve, Unschooling with Confidence and Grace, we obtain the holy grail of our quest: we are truly and deeply unschooling. In myths and stories, the reward at the end of the journey is often represented by an object: fire, magical trinkets, priceless treasure, or elixirs of health or immortality. But after the trials and tribulations of our journey, the real reward isn’t material. We have journeyed to attain the grace of the gods and goddesses. Not to steal it from them, nor to trick them into giving it to us—it’s not a fixed commodity. But to come to understand, and therefore share, their perspective and their spirit. Their grace. The real prize we’ve gained is the knowledge of our indestructibility in life. It’s that understanding, deep in our bones, that enables us to move through whatever challenges life throws at us. Grace is the kindness and compassion that comes from knowing that we will endure. That there is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if we can’t quite see it yet. And remember, having grace doesn’t mean we are perfect. There will be challenges that seem insurmountable. There will be temptations. In fact, understanding that we aren’t perfect is an integral part of our journey. We learn, ever more deeply, that unschooling—that life—is a practice. Each day, each moment, we can choose to reach for love, kindness, and compassion. To live gracefully with others.

And that’s where we left off last week! At the summit of our journey. And in this final episode, we enter the last phase of our journey: living unschooling. The unknown world we set out to discover now feels like home. And with our quest accomplished, we’re enjoying the fruits of our labour. Maybe for a while we think we’re done, but there is so much more to explore and learn! And at some point, we’ll choose to begin our journey back to the ordinary world.

And as we wrap up, I want to make special mention of the incredible illustrations included in the book, by the amazing Hema Bharadwaj. I love them so much, and Hema, an unschooling mom herself, joined me on the podcast when the book first came out to talk about the inspiration behind the images and share some delightful stories about her own unschooling journey. Our conversation ended up being almost two hours so I broke it into two episodes, 114 (Part 1) and 115 (Part 2). I encourage you to listen to them! And if you’d like to see the illustrations we’re talking about, I included them in the episode transcripts, 114 (Part 1) and 115 (Part 2).

I hope you’ve enjoyed this podcast side quest, diving into the unschooling journey through the lens of the hero’s journey.

***

Inspired by Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey framework, ‘The Unschooling Journey’ is a weave of myths, contemporary stories, and tales from my journey. It’s not a “how to” book—no two paths through the world of unschooling have the same twists and turns—yet having a general sense of where you are on your journey can bring valuable insight as you navigate the challenges that will inevitably appear. I share this book as a field guide to the stages and characters you are likely to encounter in some form on your unschooling journey.

You can buy the ebook direct from me or from your favourite online retailer.

And the print edition is also a journal! In the print edition, you’ll also find plenty of room to document your journey along the way. Hema Bharadwaj’s illustrations are printed full page for you to colour as you contemplate your journey, there are journal pages for writing down your experiences and clarifying your thoughts, and even blank pages for doodling and sketching.

You can purchase the print edition on Amazon, or find it on most other online print book retailers.

And for listeners who prefer interview-style episodes, for this last week I’ve selected episode 27, Ten Questions with Teresa Graham Brett, first released in July of 2016. Teresa is an unschooling mom with two kids, and she’s the author of a wonderful book, Parenting for Social Change. Teresa’s background as a social justice educator brings a unique and interesting slant to her journey to unschooling. In this episode, she shares some great stories and the fascinating insights she has gleaned along the way. Of course, the journey never ends, we’re always learning. And in that vein, we talk about adultism, the conventional obsession with control over children, ways to move to more supportive parenting, and much more.

Such a wonderful conversation!

This is the thing about control: when I controlled his access to everything—food, media, whatever it was—I was uninvolved because I had deemed everything he had access to, to be safe. So there was no partnership.

Teresa Graham Brett

EU236: The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide, Part Five

This week I’m sharing part five of the audiobook edition of my book, The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide.

Last week, we covered stages eight and nine. And while our deschooling story to that point was working through much of the nuts and bolts of unschooling, in stages eight and nine we begin the personal growth and transformation aspects of our journey in earnest.

In Stage Eight, Accepting the Value of All Experiences, we come to recognize the connections between the ups and downs of life and truly understand that we gain valuable insights from both kinds of moments. Judging them as “good” or “bad” adds no value. In fact, it can get in the way of valuable learning. And it hits us: life isn’t about trying to avoid “bad” moments so we can finally live our “good” lives. We’ve been living our full lives all along.

In Stage Nine, Accepting Our Nature, we do battle with idea of temptation. We learn to accept, rather than fight, our nature. To accept all facets of ourselves—confident, fearful, tempted—and no longer judged them as “good” and “bad,” but to see and accept them all as part of our nature.We move beyond judging ourselves so that we can mindfully move through these moments of temptation, learn what we can, release what isn’t working, and continue on our journey.

And this week, we’re covering stages ten, eleven, and twelve to reach the holy grail of our quest: unschooling with confidence and grace!

***

Inspired by Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey framework, ‘The Unschooling Journey’ is a weave of myths, contemporary stories, and tales from my journey. It’s not a “how to” book—no two paths through the world of unschooling have the same twists and turns—yet having a general sense of where you are on your journey can bring valuable insight as you navigate the challenges that will inevitably appear. I share this book as a field guide to the stages and characters you are likely to encounter in some form on your unschooling journey.

You can buy the ebook direct from me or from your favourite online retailer.

And the print edition is also a journal! In the print edition, you’ll also find plenty of room to document your journey along the way. Hema Bharadwaj’s illustrations are printed full page for you to colour as you contemplate your journey, there are journal pages for writing down your experiences and clarifying your thoughts, and even blank pages for doodling and sketching.

You can purchase the print edition on Amazon, or find it on most other online print book retailers.

And for listeners who prefer interview-style episodes, this week I’ve selected episode 37, Ten Questions with Carol Black, first released in September of 2016. Carol Black unschooled her two daughters, after dropping out of a teacher education program, sparked by reading John Holt’s How Children Fail. She has written some wonderfully insightful essays about unschooling, which you can read on her website, carolblack.org, and she directed the fascinating documentary film, Schooling the World.

I really enjoyed our conversation!

The goal of life is not to be better than other people. It’s really important to remember that and make sure that our kids understand that as best as possible because this society is so competitive.

Carol Black

EU235: The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide, Part Four

This week I’m sharing part four of the audiobook edition of my book, The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide.

Last week, we entered the deschooling phase of our journey and found ourselves on the aptly named road of trials: a series of tests and challenges that the hero faces as they begin this personal transformation in earnest. On our unschooling journey, this is when we find ourselves challenging so many of our existing beliefs around learning and parenting. And these areas are distinct and meaty enough that I created a separate stage for each.

In Stage Six, Challenging Our Beliefs About Learning, we confront some fundamental truths about learning. Depending on where you are on your journey, some of them may seem a bit “out there,” but just begin where you are, with the openness of beginner’s mind, and start asking yourself questions.

In Stage Seven, Shifting From Control to Connection, we explore some truths about parenting. The parenting truths that are so valuable for unschooling to thrive are those that see the child as a unique and whole person. It’s about moving away from control tactics and toward the rich soil of connection that nourishes a trusting relationship between parent and child. Between two human beings.

Be sure to give yourself time to ponder these truths. To see what they look like through the lens of your lives. If you try to race through these stages, you’ll miss so much of the value of the journey.

This week, we’re diving into stages eight and nine. You can think of your deschooling story to this point as working through much of the nuts and bolts of unschooling, the hands-on details of living unschooling day-to-day.

And now things are going to get really interesting!

***

Inspired by Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey framework, ‘The Unschooling Journey’ is a weave of myths, contemporary stories, and tales from my journey. It’s not a “how to” book—no two paths through the world of unschooling have the same twists and turns—yet having a general sense of where you are on your journey can bring valuable insight as you navigate the challenges that will inevitably appear. I share this book as a field guide to the stages and characters you are likely to encounter in some form on your unschooling journey.

You can buy the ebook direct from me or from your favourite online retailer.

And the print edition is also a journal! In the print edition, you’ll also find plenty of room to document your journey along the way. Hema Bharadwaj’s illustrations are printed full page for you to colour as you contemplate your journey, there are journal pages for writing down your experiences and clarifying your thoughts, and even blank pages for doodling and sketching.

You can purchase the print edition on Amazon, or find it on most other online print book retailers.

And for listeners who prefer interview-style episodes, this week I’ve selected episode 154, Unschooling Dads and Documentaries with Jeremy Stuart, first released in December 2018. Jeremy is an unschooling dad and video editor who also directed and co-produced the documentary films, Class Dismissed and Self-Taught, which looks at the question, “What happens when they become adults?”

I really enjoyed our conversation, which included this gem from Jeremy:

“I think as we go through this journey of life, things tend to get narrower and narrower—or they can. We are forced into these little funnels. To me, the challenge is to break that funnel down and actually get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and let more and more of the world in. Let more of the world in, not less. The more of the world you let in, the richer your life becomes.”

EU234: The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide, Part Three

This week I’m sharing part 3 of the audiobook edition of my book, The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide.

One thing I love about looking at our unschooling lives through this lens is how intimately it connects us to the human journey, which can help us feel less alone. Recognizing that yes, other people really do go through these stages and struggles and they come out the other side. We will too, even if we don’t yet know how our particular path may unfold. It’s fascinating how universally human the journey is. How, through the journey, we find our connection to humanity. But that’s getting a bit ahead of ourselves.

So, last week, we dove into stages three, four, and five. Here’s a brief recap to remind us where we are:

As we enter Stage Three, Finding Our Guides, we’ve chosen to accept the call and embarked on our unschooling adventure. And, as with many tales, when we begin our journey in earnest, a guide appears. Mythologically speaking, guides tend to be elderly—think Dumbledore and Obi-Wan Kenobi. But in a fun unschooling twist, I discovered the most important guides on my unschooling journey were my children. I came to see that, for me, fear often began to take root in my thoughts when I had become a disconnected from my child. I would get stuck in my head, leading to more disconnection and more misunderstanding, which then fertilized my growing worry and a downward spiral ensued. Eventually, I’d remember to look at my kids again. My guides. I’d see them playing with such determination. As we engaged more, I’d see their joy and enthusiasm. I’d notice the new things they’d learned since I got pulled into my head and away from them. They brought me back to what I already knew: unschooling rocks!

In Stage Four, Crossing the Threshold to Unschooling, we find ourselves matching wits with the threshold guardians. I noticed I felt challenged in three different areas, which so interestingly aligns with the three heads of Cerberus, the three-headed dog of Greek mythology who stood guard at the entrance to the Underworld. Head #1 tests our our resolve to leave the ordinary world. Often it’s family and/or friends questioning our choice to not send our kids to school. Head #2 tests our worthiness to enter the new world. As we engage with more experienced unschoolers—online or in person—chances are we are going to feel challenged by new ideas. We can feel like we’re being rejected by the new community we so excitedly want to join. And head #3 is more recognizable: securing permission to homeschool. It can be tempting to approach these gatekeepers adversarially, but they serve a useful purpose: to ensure we understand the applicable education laws/policies and legal implications of our choice to homeschool.

Stage Five, Embracing Beginner’s Mind, is all about transitioning to a learning mindset. As we begin this stage, for all our excitement about entering this new world, we’re also still fearful of letting go of the old one. We want the two worlds to mesh. We seek out compromises. We sign our kids up for classes, just not in school subjects. We encourage our kids to engage in skills that schools prize (say, writing), but in non-schooly ways (“Why don’t you write in your journal today?”). What we need is to find the courage to left up that second foot and leave the ordinary world behind once and for all. This is our metaphorical point of no return. This the last stage of the departure phase of our journey symbolizes this transition: it describes the hero’s figurative death in the ordinary world and their rebirth in the new one.

This week, we enter the Deschooling phase of our journey and find ourselves on the aptly named Road of Trials. In stages six and seven, we are asked to confront some fundamental truths about learning and parenting—and they look very different than they did in the ordinary world.

Remember to bring the fresh eyes and child-like curiosity of beginner’s mind with you!

***

Inspired by Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey framework, ‘The Unschooling Journey’ is a weave of myths, contemporary stories, and tales from my journey. It’s not a “how to” book—no two paths through the world of unschooling have the same twists and turns—yet having a general sense of where you are on your journey can bring valuable insight as you navigate the challenges that will inevitably appear. I share this book as a field guide to the stages and characters you are likely to encounter in some form on your unschooling journey.

You can buy the ebook direct from me or from your favourite online retailer.

And the print edition is also a journal! In the print edition, you’ll also find plenty of room to document your journey along the way. Hema’s illustrations are printed full page for you to colour as you contemplate your journey, there are journal pages for writing down your experiences and clarifying your thoughts, and even blank pages for doodling and sketching.

You can purchase the print edition on Amazon, or find it on most other online print book retailers.

And for listeners who prefer interview-style episodes, this week I’ve selected episode 96, Ordinary Unschooling with Anna Brown and Pat Robinson, first released in November 2017. Anna and Pat have both always unschooled their children—we talk about the idea of “unschooling success stories,” the impact of the conventional “independence agenda” which starts very young in our culture, the incredible value of ordinary unschooling days, and lots more.

I think it’s so valuable to consider what extra-ordinary goals we might be contemplating for our children and why. There is much kindness, grace, and contentment to be found in the ordinary.

EU233: The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide, Part Two

This week, I’m sharing part two of the audiobook edition of my book, The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide.

Inspired by Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey framework, The Unschooling Journey is a weave of myths, contemporary stories, and tales from my journey. It’s not a “how to” book—no two paths through the world of unschooling have the same twists and turns—yet having a general sense of where you are on your journey can bring valuable insight as you navigate the challenges that will inevitably appear. I share this book as a field guide to the stages and characters you are likely to encounter in some form on your unschooling journey.

Last week, we dove into the introduction and the first two stages, answering the call to unschooling and refusing the call.

In the intro, we set the stage. Choosing to accept this quest to create a thriving unschooling learning environment for your children is to embark on your own hero’s journey to appreciate, understand, and, in the end, integrate, these unschooling truths—that learning is everywhere and that humans are wired to learn—into your lives. I also touch on why I chose to call this a field guide and the value of having a general sense of where we are on the journey, being careful not to see the stages as tick boxes to race through, and the difference between understanding a stage intellectually and experiencing it enough times to believe its truth.

In Stage One, The Call to Unschooling, we begin in our ordinary world. Often, we’re reasonably comfortable with how things are. We know the general rules and expectations and, for the most part, are happy to go with the flow. Then, something happens. Something that gives us a glimpse of a new and previously unsuspected world: the world of unschooling. This is our call to unschooling. Often, this call is delivered by a herald, whether it be a person or an event. The fascinating thing is, when the hero is ready, the herald appears. That’s because the change that sparks the call happens within us.

And in Stage Two, Refusing the Call, the realization hits us that choosing to answer the call to unschooling isn’t a simple question of yes or no and moving on. Those first weeks—even months—can feel like a see-saw. One day we’re gleeful and thrilled by the possibilities. The next, fear looms large and we waver in our resolve. This is such a common aspect of the journey that it has its own stage. Contemplating refusing the call shows that we are starting to understand the commitment involved in choosing to undertake the journey. If you want to develop a thriving unschooling environment for your family, be sure to take the journey. Don’t look for a shortcut. Engage with your questions as they arise, rather than pushing them away because they don’t fit a preconceived idea you have about unschooling. This doesn’t mean you need to understand everything about unschooling before getting started. It does mean that choosing unschooling with your family is the beginning of the journey, not the end.

And here we are.

This week, we’re diving into stages three, four, and five—finishing up the departure phase of our journey, which I’ve called the ‘Choosing Unschooling’ phase. We’re going to find our guides, match wits with threshold guardians, and spend some introspective and valuable time in the belly of the whale.

It’s going to be a wild ride!

You can buy the ebook direct from me or from your favourite online retailer.

And the print edition is also a journal! In the print edition, you’ll also find plenty of room to document your journey along the way. Hema’s illustrations are printed full page for you to colour as you contemplate your journey, there are journal pages for writing down your experiences and clarifying your thoughts, and even blank pages for doodling and sketching.

You can purchase the print edition on Amazon, or find it on most other online print book retailers.

For listeners who prefer interview-style episodes, I’ve curated a wonderful collection of amazing back list episodes for you to listen to.

This week I’ve selected episode 57, Ten Questions with Akilah S. Richards, to share with you, which aired in February 2017.

Akilah is an unschooling mom with two lovely daughters. She’s also an author, a podcast host, and is on the organizing team of the Alliance for Self-Directed Education. She answers my ten questions about her unschooling experience with candor and enthusiasm, and I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did!

EU232: The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide, Part One

This week, I’m sharing part one of the audiobook edition of my book, The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide.

Published in 2018, here’s a bit of the description:

Inspired by Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey framework, The Unschooling Journey is a weave of myths, contemporary stories, and tales from Pam’s journey. It’s not a “how to” book—no two paths through the world of unschooling have the same twists and turns—yet having a general sense of where you are on your journey can bring valuable insight as you navigate the challenges that will inevitably appear. She shares this book as a field guide to the stages and characters you are likely to encounter in some form on your unschooling journey.

Characters such as the heralds and guides who call us forward and help us choose our next step. The tricksters and monsters who are determined to confuse and scare us at every turn. And the gods and goddesses who shake us to the core and inspire our inner journey until, at last, we capture the holy grail of our quest: unschooling with confidence and grace.

I am so excited to share these ideas with you!

And I think it could be fun to discuss the book as we work our way through it, so please feel welcome to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide also includes ten beautiful illustrations by Hema Bharadwaj—an unschooling parent herself—created specifically to visually reflect the inner journey we are taking as we embrace unschooling.

You can buy the ebook direct from me or from your favourite online retailer.

And the print edition is also a journal! In the print edition, you’ll also find plenty of room to document your journey along the way. Hema’s illustrations are printed full page for you to colour as you contemplate your journey, there are journal pages for writing down your experiences and clarifying your thoughts, and even blank pages for doodling and sketching.

You can purchase the print edition on Amazon, or find it on most other online print book retailers.

For listeners who prefer interview-style episodes, I don’t want to leave you feeling neglected! So I’ve curated a wonderful collection of amazing back list episodes for you to listen to.

This week, I’ve selected episode 90, Growing Up Unschooling with Phoebe Wahl, first released in September 2017.

Phoebe is an artist whose beautiful work focuses on the themes of comfort, nostalgia, and intimacy. She left school entirely after first grade and dove into unschooling. Eventually she chose to go to college, graduating from Rhode Island School of Design in 2013 with a BFA in Illustration. We have a lot of fun talking about her passion for drawing, the idea of “knowledge gaps,” what she found valuable in her college experience, how unschooling has influenced her art, and lots more!

EU231: Growing up Unschooling with Michael Laricchia

My son Michael joins me this week to talk about his experience growing up unschooling! We had a lot of fun diving into his varied interests, the threads that weave through them, and how they have helped shape the person he is today. We also talk about his experience with type 1 diabetes and our unschooling approach, he shares what he appreciates about growing up unschooling, and lots more!

Questions for Michael

Can you share with us a bit of an introduction?

As you were growing up unschooling, what were some of your interests, and how did you pursue them?

What was it that caught your interest with karate, and how did that interest grow and change over the years?

I think diving into any passion can be a wonderful way to learn so much about ourselves. And that understanding applies everywhere in our lives. Can you share your experience with that?

When you were 11, you developed type 1 diabetes. When it comes to our kids health, it can be super tempting for parents to control things even more closely. I chose to continue with our unschooling approach to food, and to actively support you making choices around your care, like medical devices. It did make for some interesting appointments at the diabetes clinic
though, didn’t it? Though they were always supportive, even when they didn’t understand our crazy ways. What are your thoughts about how those different approaches (top-down control vs bottom-up support) tend to play out?

You have quite a few interests: martial arts, parkour, music, programming, philosophy, spirituality. Have I missed any big ones? Is there a thread or two you see that connects them?

At this point, what do you appreciate about living an unschooling lifestyle growing up?

As a grown unschooler, what piece of advice would you like to share with unschooling parents who are just starting out on this journey?

Things mentioned in the episode

Find Michael on Instagram

Watch his stunt demo reel

Check out the The Living Joyfully Network

Episode transcript

Read the transcript