As I lie here in bed with my laptop on my knees, my 17 year old daughter to my right snoozing, she is feeling unwell, it’s nearly 10am and yes I am still in bed. I feel inclined to pretend I am up, awake, having done a run and meditation, had breakfast, got dressed but none of that would be true. I am here in my jammies and the thought of walking down the corridor to the bathroom and doing my teeth right now seems a bit of an epic.
How do kids learn things that connect with their souls and set their imagination on fire?How do the fireflies of inspiration spark their spirits? Can I help keep those iridescent lights of creativity shining?I ask myself these questions...they are big questions.I know that for me putting the kids in a schooling environment stopped being an option when I saw them shrinking and the sparkle diminishing from their eyes.I also know that this may not be easy to read, especially if in your heart you feel through my words that there is
How we show up is so important for our children and we are shaping who they are to become. I was struck by this thought the other day. I am raising children that will most likely go on to have children and I am modelling for them how to be as a parent. We as parents have a choice as to how we show up and we can change script for future generations. If you stop and think about it that is an amazing thought! I was brought up in
‘Please put your shoes on’ were the words that came out of my mouth, we were about to walk to the beach. My son in his pyjama trousers, bare footed, free spirited. There are days when I just want him to put his shoes on, it is simple. But the shoe less days are there to teach me something. ‘Mum, I was born without shoes, shoes were invented after feet were, I don’t want to wear them’ In Spain or Italy, not wearing shoes socially is a thing. In South
Perhaps it is time to jump? Whilst sending our children to school I had a nagging feeling that I wasn’t telling the truth, to them or to myself. Do I have to go to school? Conditioned me; Yes Real Me; (No) Do I have to wear this uniform? CM; Yes RM; (No) Why Do I have to learn this stuff if it doesn’t interest me? CM; You Just do RM; Actually you don’t… I had this feeling that I was lying, that I was dumbing myself and my kids down
Simply put, if you talk to them with respect, they flourish. I don’t want to go for a long walk. Yes but you have to. Why. Because I said so. If you said that to me you might piss me off. Finish everything that is on your plate. That also might irritate me. Just do as I say. At that point, I would grab my coat and I probably would not come back and visit you. This is the way a lot of children get talked to and I get
This is what I would I have told my worried self about reading and my children about three years ago. One of children was diagnosed with Irlen’s syndrome and so I was very stressed about whether she would be able to read or not. As time went by she did. But here is a letter that I would have liked to have read as worrying  served nothing for me. Dear Lehla, Please stop it, stop worrying about the children’s ability to read. Have more faith in them. You have been
Why am I doing it? I didn’t plan to be an unschooling parent, I was the one who said “I wouldn’t have the patience to unschool my kids, I am not that parent.” We are doing it, from my perspective because I believe that learning is not linear and that intelligence, creativity and curiosity are all interlinked and because I believe that the world is changing faster than school systems are.  I also want my children to be able to look an adult in the eye and not feel undermined,
As the three of our children walk around Italy most people think that we are tourists as we look typically English. However when our children speak and order ice cream, it is clear that we are not…quite. We find ourselves at this moment in our lives living on a hill in the centre of Italy, with many cats and we are surrounded by olive trees. We have been very lucky to have rented a beautiful place and for the last three years and this has been our home. (the girls
I read to our daughters till they were eleven. I sat up at night, read books, tantalized them with stories. There was always that nagging feeling, that school-like gremlin of mine that would tap me on the shoulder and say ‘Ha, they are a little old for you to be reading to them don’t you think?’ I would push it away. Like the fear witch this gremlin knows me well… So I would carry on, I LOVED reading to our girls. There were even those that said ‘Don’t you think