The Life Without School Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode, I spend some time examining three common perceptions that are unique to unschooling:

• That unschooling is 'unparenting'
• That unschooling will create lazy children
• And that unschooling means you have no rules or structure whatsoever

It’s a super interesting discussion that leads us through areas like life rhythms, autonomy and motivation, and regardless of whether you’re unschooling or not I think you’ll find this episode really useful!

For regular encouragement and support just like this, including weekly mini-episodes covering all sorts of helpful things, sign up to the full Life Without School Collection right here: https://www.starkravingdadblog.com/support-my-work-while-i-support-you/

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In this episode, I'm sharing six ways you can overcome any feelings you have about not being 'enough' as a home educating parent. Not smart enough, organised enough, social enough, qualified enough...

I wrote a post recently that started scratching at the surface of this. Today, we're digging deep.

For regular encouragement and support just like this, including weekly mini-episodes covering all sorts of helpful things, sign up to the full Life Without School Collection right here: https://www.starkravingdadblog.com/support-my-work-while-i-support-you/

The global home educating community has grown like crazy in 2021. More families are choosing a life without school than ever before, and it’s never been more important - as we go into the new year - to lift each other up, and encourage, and support, and inspire one another.

Which is why, in this very short but heartfelt episode, I want to say thank you to YOU. Because you have already spread the Life Without School Podcast further, and wider, than I ever imagined. You have made sure it has grown and become visible to those who need to see and hear it. And together, you and I will keep doing that as we go from 14 to 40 episodes…and then way beyond.

Thank you, truly, for being here with me. Let’s keep supporting this growing community together in 2022.

In this episode I want to help you build your de-schooling muscle. The process of taking everything you know about education, wiping your mental slate as clean as possible, and coming at the whole idea of how children learn as fresh as you can.

To do that, I want to take you through five commonly held beliefs about education and childhood. Through this conversation, you will grow progressively more aware of ideas you’ve probably held since you were a child. Ideas that have far less substance than you think.  And you will grow progressively more empowered to take hold of your own children’s education in a way that works for you as a family. Whether that’s by shedding the beliefs we talk through today, or the many others we often find ourselves holding onto.

My hope is that the way we talk through these things helps you apply it to any other worries that ever trouble you. This list is far from exhaustive, and there are many angles you can and should examine your own beliefs from. Today, I'll give you the spark to go deeper.

Articles mentioned throughout the episode (also linked from the show notes below):

• Literacy in the United States (Wikipedia)
• How do the skills of U.S. adults compare to their international peers? (National Center for Education Statistics)
• Testing Companies Mine for Gold (Rethinking Schools)
• The Business of Standardised Testing (Huffington Post)
• Do ACT and SAT scores really matter? New study says they shouldn’t (PBS News Hour)

For regular encouragement and support just like this, including weekly mini-episodes covering all sorts of helpful things, sign up to the full Life Without School Collection right here: https://www.starkravingdadblog.com/support-my-work-while-i-support-you/

Welcome back to another question and answer episode - where I take some time to dig into things you all want to hear more about it. They might be things you’re personally struggling with, or worried about, or planning for...and I really love having these conversations, because it’s always such a great reminder that we’re not alone on this road.

In this episode, I’m sharing my thoughts on these three questions:

1) What are some key phrases you can use here and there to help encourage your children, to help them find those interests and spend their time there?

2) How do you handle the fear that your children might be unhappy with you - when they grow up - for choosing such an unconventional path for them?

3) How do I work through the worry of no longer being able to home educate if our life circumstances change drastically - like, financially, or through health - and our children have to go back to school?

For regular encouragement and support just like this, including weekly mini-episodes covering all sorts of helpful things, sign up to the full Life Without School Collection right here: https://www.starkravingdadblog.com/support-my-work-while-i-support-you/

Home educating parents often put a huge amount of pressure on themselves to perform the role of being a teacher, and in this episode I want to talk through why I believe the stress, tension, and feelings of failure that so often come from that are unnecessary.

First, we’ll talk through four reasons why I believe it’s a mistake to try and be a teacher to your home educated child. Then, we’ll talk through some different ways of thinking about the role you can play instead.  

My hope is that by the end of this chat you’re able to free yourself of the pressure, expectation and tension that can come from trying to be both a parent and a teacher..

For regular encouragement and support just like this, including weekly mini-episodes covering all sorts of helpful things, sign up to the full Life Without School Collection right here: https://www.starkravingdadblog.com/support-my-work-while-i-support-you/

Asking our children to all learn the same things, at the same times, in the same groups, in the same spaces, with only the same ages…

…is effectively asking them to become the same as everyone else.

It’s asking them to think less about their true selves, and more about what the most accepted version of it might be. It’s asking them to see their uniqueness as a bad thing, and fitting in as good. No, more than that – critical.

And to me, this fundamentally undermines what being a human being is all about.

See, I believe every child has their own story. And in this episode of the Life Without School Podcast, I want to make a plea to let more of them tell it.

For regular encouragement and support just like this, including weekly mini-episodes covering all sorts of helpful things, sign up to the full Life Without School Collection right here: https://www.starkravingdadblog.com/support-my-work-while-i-support-you/

In this episode we're looking at a philosophy that underpins how Kate and I approach life with our kids, their education, and our relationships with them. It's very different to the way formal education is approached, and is based on the power of trust. We’ll talk about the process of letting go of that complete control over a child’s education that is so engrained in us. About why it’s so important, how we might navigate it all, and what the results can look like.

About how putting trust in our children has changed our lives. And, how I believe it can change yours, too.

The hole in the wall: self organising systems in education: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/50993473_The_hole_in_the_wall_self_organising_systems_in_education

The child-driven education (Sugata Mitra TED Talk): https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education/transcript?language=en

William's Youtube channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW4K1TBtSZ3EB6oeFJfuMTw

For regular encouragement and support just like this, including weekly mini-episodes covering all sorts of helpful things, sign up to the full Life Without School Collection right here: https://www.starkravingdadblog.com/support-my-work-while-i-support-you/

In this - the first of many episodes where I'll spend some time answering listener questions - I talk through:

1) How do you respond to people saying ‘life is hard - if you don’t force your child to do things they don’t want to do, how will they be prepared for life’?

2) How on earth do you ever find time for yourself, and your own interests?

3) How do I get my husband to see how beneficial home education can be?

For regular encouragement and support just like this, including weekly mini-episodes covering all sorts of helpful things, sign up to the full Life Without School Collection right here: https://www.starkravingdadblog.com/support-my-work-while-i-support-you/

A lot of you have asked for a day-in-the-life style episode, so...here it is! I think there's a stack of important context that should always be shared as part of this kind of conversation, though, so this episode is made up of three parts (if you listen in, *please* make sure you go right through - taking any of this in isolation just...won't be as useful):

Part 1 is some of the thinking we went through to arrive at the daily and weekly flow we have.

Part 2 takes you through what that flow looks like for our three older children - who are 6, 11 and 14.

And Part 3 is a few extra thoughts that I think should accompany any day-in-the-life style example. And yes - there is definitely some screen time chat in there.

If you’re struggling to find the right rhythm for your family, I really, really hope there are some things you can take from this!

For regular encouragement and support just like this, including weekly mini-episodes covering all sorts of helpful things, sign up to the full Life Without School Collection right here: https://www.starkravingdadblog.com/support-my-work-while-i-support-you/