Living Joyfully

Helping parents cultivate a thriving unschooling lifestyle in their family.

  • Start Here
  • Deschooling
  • Unschooling
  • Parenting
  • About
  • Contact
  • Podcast
    • Q&A Episodes
    • Ten Questions Episodes
    • Interviews I’ve done …
    • TUC Talks
  • Books
    • Book Clubs
  • Network
  • Summit
  • Questions?
  • Articles
    • Spanish Translations
  • Blog
  • Resources
You are here: Home / Unschooling / EU012: Growing up Unschooling with Idzie Desmarais

EU012: Growing up Unschooling with Idzie Desmarais

March 24, 2016 By Pam Laricchia 4 Comments

EU012: Growing up Unschooling with Idzie DesmaraisIdzie Desmarais is a 25 year old grown unschooler and author of the blog, I’m Unschooled. Yes, I Can Write. I’ve know Idzie’s mom online for many years, and watched from a distance as Idzie became interested in the process of unschooling itself and started her blog, way back in 2008. In 2010, I was hosting the Toronto Unschooling Conference and asked if she’d be interested in speaking. I was thrilled when she agreed, and she spoke in both 2010 and 2011. The TUC Talks are available free on my website.

Idzie and I had a wonderful chat, talking about unschooling days, her relationship with her parents, college, the advice she has for unschooling parents just starting out on this journey, and more!

Quote of the Week

“The act of placing the power over learning and life into the individual’s hands is both empowering and motivating. The “motivation” people see in unschoolers is really a joy in learning that is seen far less often among the masses in school.” ~ Idzie Desmarais

Questions for Idzie

1. Can you share with us a bit about you and your family?

2. What did your family’s move to unschooling look like?

3. And then a few years in, when your family was very comfortable with unschooling, what did your days generally look like?

4. For many years I’ve wondered why everyone just seems to accept that a strained parent-child dynamic is normal. What was your relationship with your parents like growing up? And now?

5. You summed up your most recent blog post, “Fun is More Important Than “Education”,” in your last line: “Have fun, and the learning will take care of itself.” I loved that. I remember when I eventually I stopped looking for the learning altogether and just looked for the fun. Do you see this step as an essential part of moving to unschooling?

6. You haven’t gone to college or university, and none of my three kids at this point have chosen to go, so let’s talk about that for a moment, because even unschooling parents can have a hard time with the idea of their kids not going to college. I see college as a tool that some might choose if it aligns with their goals, say a career that requires a degree, but it’s just as fine if they don’t. What are your thoughts on college or university?

7. You wrote a blog post I loved, titled, “In Praise of The Unexceptional: Because Unschooling Doesn’t Have to Be Impressive.” It’s true that unschooling young adults can be doing things that look impressive from the outside, but the difference is they’re doing them because they want to, not because they want to impress others. Unschooling is definitely not about being a different path to raising a conventionally successful adult. How important do you think it is to revisit our definition of success as we embark on the unschooling journey?

8. Along those lines, you gave a talk at the Northeast Unschooling Conference in Boston in 2015, which you posted on your blog as a series titled, “Unexceptionally Exceptional.” On my unschooling journey I came to value the quiet times and small, everyday moments in our lives, just as much as the bigger ones, yet that’s also a journey our children need to make on their own. Can you share a bit about your journey to seeing past the conventional noise to the profound value in downtime and being true to yourself?

9. You’ve talked online a bit about your challenges with depression. Do you think the perspective on living and learning that you’ve developed through growing up unschooling, that deeper level of self-awareness and understanding how you tick, helps you through these times?

10. When you look back over your childhood, can you see a thread or two that weaves through your interests over the years? A common theme that it uniquely you, even if the interests themselves varied widely?

11. As someone who’s grown up unschooling, is there a piece of advice you could share with unschooling parents who are just starting out on this journey?

Links to things mentioned in the show

Idzie’s blog: I’m Unschooled. Yes, I Can Write

Her Facebook page: I’m Unschooled. Yes, I Can Write. FB page

Idzie’s blog post: Fun is More Important Than “Education”

Idzie’s blog post: In Praise of The Unexceptional: Because Unschooling Doesn’t Have to Be Impressive

Idzie’s Unexceptionally Exceptional series ~
Part 1: The Meaning of Success
Part 2: Time for Struggle, Time for Joy
Part 3: A Gateway to Learning

Idzie’s TUC Talks: 2010 Talk: Unschooling is Forever and 2011 Talk: Against the Current (just scroll down a bit to find hers)

Transcript

Read the transcript

Filed Under: Unschooling Tagged With: college, grown unschoolers, learning, life

Comments

  1. Megan Valnes says

    April 2, 2016 at 12:53 pm

    This episode resonated with me because I still find myself being hardest on myself. Am I doing enough? Am I providing enough? Are we doing the right thing? Less and less these days, but some days the feeling gnaws at me. While I’ve let go of expectations for my children, I’m still learning to let go for myself. Some level of expectation for one’s self is beneficial, but the constant questioning that plagues me in certain moments is not helpful! But I’m always learning!!

    Thanks Pam and Idzie!

    Reply
    • Pam Laricchia says

      April 6, 2016 at 7:44 pm

      That’s a great point, Megan, digging into the expectations we place on ourselves is so valuable. Always learning is right! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Marcella says

    April 7, 2016 at 5:12 pm

    Thanks Idzie and Pam! This was very reassuring, as the mom of teenagers, and also a great reminder of the priority of Fun, as I’m also the mom of a 5 year old! Love these podcasts!

    Reply
    • Pam Laricchia says

      April 7, 2016 at 6:23 pm

      Glad you enjoyed it, Marcella! And I’m happy you’re finding them helpful. 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The Living Joyfully Network community

The Living Joyfully Network

We bring together unschooling parents to support and learn from each other as we question and explore many of the conventional beliefs around learning and parenting so that we can more gracefully navigate our personal unschooling journeys, develop strong and connected relationships with our children, and cultivate a thriving unschooling lifestyle in our families.

Learn more about the Network here!

free intro to unschooling ebook

Click the book cover to get the book from your favourite online retailer, or click the link below to join my mailing list and download the book directly!

What is Unschooling? A book about living and learning without school.

Exploring Unschooling podcast

click to listen to the archive of all Exploring Unschooling podcast episodes

Choosing to live and learn without school isn’t as intimidating as you might imagine!

The podcast archive is now home to more than 250 episodes, filled with unschooling goodness.

support the podcast on Patreon

Have you read my books?

Free-to-Learn-Cover Free-to-Live-Cover Life-Through-the-Lens-of-Unschooling-Cover Living-Joyfully-with-Unschooling-Box-Set-Cover The Unschooling Journey Libre d'Apprendre cover Libre para Aprender cover Szabadon Tanulni cover

Journey with us to a new way of seeing your child

icon-logo

Join Anne Ohman, Anna Brown, and I in our online Summit where we share the experiences, insights, and tools that we found most helpful on our unschooling journeys. We will walk with you from where you are now, to where you want to be.

Looking for something?

I've been exploring unschooling for many years now and there's a lot of content here! I've been working to tag things to help you more easily find information about the questions you're curious about right now. I'll continue to work on this.

Click a topic to explore:

college

dads

deschooling

food

grown unschoolers

learning

life

math

reading

relationships

relatives

technology

teens

work

Welcome to Living Joyfully

Pam ... an online resource for parents wanting to live joyfully with their children through unschooling. If you're passionate about exploring the world with your children, this site is for you. I'm Pam Laricchia, the author and owner of this site. Thanks for inviting me along on your unschooling journey!

MEET A NEW UNSCHOOLING PARENT EVERY WEEK!

Pam Check out the Exploring Unschooling podcast, with more than 200 episodes in the archive.

SEARCH LIVING JOYFULLY

Living Joyfully participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and the iTunes Affiliate Program. This allows me to earn a small commission, at no cost to you. I appreciate your support!

Read my Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.

Copyright © 2022 · Living Joyfully Enterprises

By using this website, you agree to the use of cookies. I use cookies to provide you with a great experience and to help my website run effectively. OK READ MORE
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT