EU169: Deschooling with Alicia Gonzales-Lopez

Alicia Gonzales-Lopez joins me this week to talk about her deschooling journey. We dive into how she discovered unschooling, the emotional healing that’s happened for her, what she’s found challenging along the way, connecting with our kids, what has surprised her most, and lots more.

Questions for Alicia

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

How did you discover unschooling and what did your family’s move to unschooling look like?

For many parents, deschooling and shifting away from conventional parenting can bring up a lot of emotions as we revisit memories of our own childhood. It can be really hard but that emotional processing and healing is so important, isn’t it?

What was the most challenging area of deschooling for you? How did you work through it?

In unschooling circles, we often talk about connecting with our kids. What does that look like for you guys?

As I was deschooling, I discovered that my vision of being a parent and the kind of parent my kids actually needed me to be were different in many ways. In fact, what my kids needed from me as a parent was sometimes even different for each child. Has that been your experience as well? How do you figure out what they need from you?

What has surprised you most about your journey so far?

Links to things mentioned in the show

Check out the Childhood Redefined Unschooling Summit

Alicia’s Facebook group, Radical Unschooling en Español

You can find Alicia’s Spanish-language podcast, “Voces del Radical Unschooling” on iTunes and Facebook

My first book has been translated into Spanish, Libre para Aprender: Cinco Ideas para una Vida Unschooling Alegre, and a number of my articles have been translated as well

Alicia mention the book, Maternity, coming face to face with our own shadow by Laura Gutman

And also, Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn

Sandra Dodd’s website

Episode Transcript

Read the transcript here