Just Add Light and Stir

About how to help kids follow their interests: Sometimes help is just encouragement or acknowledgment, but sometimes it might need t...

Someone asked: When kids get sneaky, what might that signal to a parent? Joyce responded: Don't see his behavior through adu...

Someone wrote: As a new unschooler, I am working toward being less of a "helicopter parent" and more of a watch-from-a-distance...

A skeptical mom asked: Can you tell me how it can serve a child if they say spend hours a day watching Scooby-Doo ? Deb Lewis respond...

Someone wrote that learning about unschooling felt like learning a new language. I responded It's like learning a new everything, b...

My kids were always the most exhausted not after a day of physical activity, but after a day of intense learning. If they saw things the...

"I think to do unschooling well, it is a fundamental element to have an examined life. To be mindful of our choices and understan...

Paula wrote: I WANTED to be a thoughtful, respectful parent. .... I wanted to say yes as much as possible, and respect and enjoy m...

Below is part of a response by Robyn Coburn to a doubtful mom saying if ALL her kids wanted to do ALL day EVERY day was..., that she woul...

School schedules give the illusion that life should be divided into 50-minute increments. It's nonsense. Our culture has this ...

Everything counts, and every connection made increases the depth and breadth of the map of the universe each person is building. It makes i...

Me, in a discussion of what was okay for a young child to mess up, in a public park, and how to explain it to him: If you can't expl...

If you just play all the time, how will you know the kids are learning? I knew my boys had learned all the swimming safety rules when th...

Each person knows when she's happier and when she wishes things were a little better. If small changes of attitude can make more hap...

Stay at the playground. Play with sand and water. Find seeds. Sit in the shade, and in the sun. Set ice in the shade and in the sun. Wr...

You don't need to control yourself to keep yourself from being controlling. 🙂 Make generous, kind choices, over and over, ...

Nancy Wooton wrote: My husband wasn't too sure about unschooling at first, and was also adamant the kids be in bed and stay there at a...

When unschooling is working really well, learning will be happening, for kids and parents, without effort. The Fabric of Life photo by J...

Unschooling can help relationships in all kinds of ways. Broken relationships can harm unschooling in all kinds of ways. Benefits o...

Joyce Fetteroll wrote: I once described the difference between teaching and learning as where you shine the spotlight. In teaching, ...