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

Unschooling vs. Homeschooling: What’s the Real Difference?

This is a question I get asked a lot and there is a very big difference between the two. Have a look below as here is an excerpt from our book that breaks it down from our persepective. Home schoolingHome schooling is teaching school subjects and following a curriculum outside of a learning institution such as a school, usually at home. Home schooling parents may collaborate with other home-schooling families. A home-schooling family can have widely varying approaches to learning but the core principle is the teaching of children to a

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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

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

Breaking the Mold: When Our Unschoolers Took Exams

A quick story about when our girls took their first exams. This morning I woke up at 6am in an Airbnb room, the girls were asleep and I was convinced that I had left the lights on in the car and that the battery would be flat and that I wouldn’t be able to get to the exam room on time. Like in a bad dream. In a panic, I stepped outside and checked the car, the car was fine. I wasn’t, I was anxious, knowing that the girls were

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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

What Unschooling Really Looks Like; Key Insights from an Older Unschooler.

Why does Marissa have a tattoo of a hat and a bunch of tulips on her arm? I had been wanting to ask her from the moment I saw her arm. Then I did. So I know the story. Marissa is here as a Workaway with us, it is no surprise that she found us, or that we found her. She is twenty two and from America and was/is a self directed learner from the age of fourteen. She is ten years on from what we are doing now, considering

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by Lehla Eldridge in

Self Directed Learners on a Mission: Creative Project Ideas for Hands-On Learning

So last night as I tucked the kids in to bed one of my daughters said. ‘Mummy, I want homework. Could you give me a project, make me do it and if I don’t do it be really mean to me?’ We both laughed. Then the other two chimed in ‘Yeah, me too, me too!’ What I gleaned from this is that they are hungry to learn, they want something to do and they want to be challenged. They also want me to stick to a boundary to make sure

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by Lehla Eldridge in

No Walls, No Limits: The Freedom of Unschooling

  Our kids classroom has no walls, as they have no classroom, they have no subjects that they have to study, they have no tests that they have to pass, they are doing it by themselves with me and other adults around the place to use as a resource. They are in effect self directed learners.  It is a huge leap of faith you could say. How can kids learn by themselves when it is counter to everything we have ever been told about how kids learn? How did you

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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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