by Lehla Eldridge in

Outside the Classroom: How Unschooling Redefines Learning

I am sitting here at my desk, it is grey outside and I am thinking back to my schooling, it was a long time ago. I struggled at school. That is where I used to think all learning happened. But as this unschooling journey has unfolded I have realised that schooling is not the only way.Kids just keep learning whether they are in school or not, they are designed to learn, they learn to walk, talk, eat, go to the toilet. They learn all these things naturally and when outside

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by Lehla Eldridge in

The First Step towards Unschooling is Unschooling yourself

Three sentences ring out when I think back on our journey of unschooling ‘Just let me live my life’ ‘Mum, the best thing you could do with my reading, is leave me alone’ ‘Mum, we are fine’ I used to lesson plan, I used to day plan, I used to lie awake at night thinking about what I could do with the kids the next day to broaden their learning. I made the perfect classroom, put loads of work up on the walls. I put the subjects in sections, art

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by Lehla Eldridge in

The First Step Toward Unschooling: Unschooling the Parents.

‘Just let me live my life’ were the words that came out of my sons mouth yesterday as I tried to teach him about following a recipe. He was furious. He was wanting to cook, I was wanting to help him cook. He was wanting to make biscuits, I was wanting him to follow a recipe. He didn’t want to. I wanted him to. We hit a stalemate. ‘Just let me live my life and let me learn how I want to learn’ I caught myself in that moment, caught

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by Lehla Eldridge in

Project based learning and Self-directed learning. Learning through what life is offering you…

 This is a story about when our children were younger and learning out of the box. 'Step away from the desks, grab your ideas children and fly beyond what you ever imagined could be possible.' By the fluke of the universe, the way magic works and sheer luck, if is there such a thing... we have landed a wonderful ‘Workaway’ person who is a script writer and a film maker. This week the kids decided to work on projects. One of our daughters ran with one of the ideas and has decided to

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by Lehla Eldridge in

Santa’s Children and how to say ‘No’ to an unschooler…

My children told me this morning that they were the children of Santa, they were split up at birth and that their mother is Mrs Christmas but also a spy that works for the British Army. Santa and Mrs Christmas met in an Olive tree whilst she was chasing butterflies and…er…spying… Unfortunately Santa became pregnant with the children as did Mrs Christmas and when they were giving out presents they dropped them (the babies) all over the world, and they have amnesia and now don’t remember any of it. (Mr

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by Lehla Eldridge in

How does a day play out in an unschooling household?

I have peppered this post with words that show what subjects are being learnt as the day goes on. But in truth who knows what is being learnt, who knows what goes in to a childs mind, ever. If one needs a label, then there are the labels… The day went like this we woke, we came down to breakfast. We talked over breakfast, I reminded myself that I am not so great in the morning and I put on a positive talk, on the internet. It made me feel

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by Lehla Eldridge in

5 Ways to Save Money with these Creative Ideas for Christmas.

I really think that there is a lot you can save money on at Christmas. I also think it is fun to step back and be creative and really do we all need more stuff? I often look around the house before buying because squirreled  away somewhere are things that I can use and that I may have just forgotten were there! So before you go and buy ribbon, glue etc, look and see what you already have, you may be surprised. If you do need to get stuff, just

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by Lehla Eldridge in

If Schooling Kills Creativity Does Unschooling Bring Creativity Back to Life?

I love Ken Robinson’s talk but do schools kill creativity… To me the answer to that is yes and no, to me creativity never went away in the first place. Do Schools Kill Creativity? I don’t really think so, as I don’t think you can kill creativity. It is like a heartbeat or the wind, to be alive is to be creative. Creativity doesn’t stop just because you go to school, you can’t kill it. It is always there, in the background waiting for you to step in to it.

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by Lehla Eldridge in

Dyslexia, Adhd and all those other wonderful things…

I asked my daughter Amari the question what do Pippi Longstocking and Will.I.Am have in common? And she said  ‘Erm, a sense of humour?’ I would say they are both hugely creative and are kinaesthetic and it seems to me that they both love to move when they think. This morning as I looked through a piece of work that one of my daughters had been working on I noticed that the 5 was the wrong way around. This 5 has been facing the wrong way for years now. When we were

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