by Lehla Eldridge in

Community, Parenting and Reaching Out to your Tribe

My husband tells me that according to a book that he has just read that monkeys raise their young not always knowing who is who, they look after each child like it was their child. That years ago before the age of agriculture patriarchy and that the need for one’s own child was irrelevant, that men looked after other children as if they were their own.That children were raised in troupes or flocks and that every child was everyone’s child. I am not entirely sure how I would feel about

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by Lehla Eldridge in

Letting go of Perfect

This is a post I am writing in seven parts, so my aim is to do one a day for a week, as a reminder to myself as well as to other homeschooling/unschooling parents who are out there doing their best to raise their kids at home. Right now some of you have been thrown in to this crazy but beautiful world. It isn't always easy, so here is day one!! This is for me as much as it is for all of you!These are short snippets, so feel free

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by Lehla Eldridge in

Unschooling and Homeschooling: The Power of Connecting with Like-Minded Parents

If you are totally overwhelmed with homeschooling or unschooling and what is going on in the news right now, connect up with others. I hear this a lot from parents who are isolated and who are not in connection with other people. I think community is so very important, even if you are physically a long way from any one else. Use the phone, the internet, zoom, whatsapp. Don’t tough it out and isolate yourself, connect up with others and make time to chat. Even if it is for twenty

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by Lehla Eldridge in

Be Nice to Yourself

This applies to everybody. If I am not nice to myself as a mother I am not really nice to anyone else around me. So this means listening to what I need to do for myself. So this can  be anything as simple as making time to jump into a candlelit bath at night, to going for a walk at some point in the day to taking time to meet a friend or cooking something really lovely for myself. Carve out time for yourself and give yourself permission to enjoy

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by Lehla Eldridge in

Enjoy What You Have

Sometimes, having one or both parents at home means that your finances can run extremely low, resources can totally deplete and this can be stressful. Make use of what you have, this sounds simple but it is true, that the less I have in life, the more I make use of what I do have. You don’t have to spend a fortune to feel good, so even if it means buying something small to pepper up your day or your mood, a nice soap, a candle, a really good book,

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by Lehla Eldridge in

Unschooling, parenting and getting help.

I cannot raise my kids on my own. So I don’t. I open up the doors, and let other people in. I have an in-built hero habit, where I try to do it all which ultimately serves no one, least of all the kids. So, when I find myself trying to do too much, I get help. I have signed up to a great website called WorkAway and I reply to requests from there. Through opening up the doors we have had the most incredible people come and help us. These people are part

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by Lehla Eldridge in

Four Points to Fearless Living…

Fear and I have been really good mates, the fearful lady has lived rent free in my head for a long time, in fact the fearful lady over the years has entertained my inner gremlins and had a party in my head almost way back since I can remember. I am not sure when she first joined me, maybe I was a teenager, or maybe it was the day my parents’ marriage fell apart when I was a kid. Or maybe not, it could have been school…who knows, or even

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by Lehla Eldridge in

When our children are not our children and the fine art of letting go…

It is still a learning journey for me around this one, intellectually I know it but deep down I have to wrestle the control freak in me to the ground. The one that thinks, well as I like to go out and plant things, or do large paintings, or write books, or talk about novels, don’t all my kids want to too? The truth is they don’t, sometimes they do but often they don’t, they are who they are and who they are is not me. So in wanting them

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by Lehla Eldridge in

Why we didn’t bring traditional schooling in to our home

We didn't have curriculums, piles of books, exams etc because traditional schooling did not work in our household.(But when they were older two of our girls did want to take exams, see below!) We chose another route and the route we chose was completely different to bringing school in to our kitchen. There were no piles of exercise books that they had to get through by a certain date. I did not pace up and down behind them checking the clock and waiting for them to finish things by a certain

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