Anna Brown joins me this week to dive into listener questions.
Question Summaries
The first question is about deschooling and moving to unschooling. She has two boys and they have always homeschooled. They’ve been looking at moving to unschooling. She’s been reading and researching and she’s feeling a little bit overwhelmed. The main focus of her question was around Deschooling. Do they need it? What does it look like? How does unschooling begin?
Our second question is about parent’s intuition. She’s listened to most of podcasts episodes and a number of Q&As and understands the perspective most the guests come from, but has left some of those talks feeling uncomfortable. She says that so many times she’s heard moms speak on the podcast that it was their intuition that guided them to attachment parenting or a different way of living with their children and how their intuition led them to unschooling. Yet, when they speak of their concerns around things like technology use or food choices, it feels in the podcast that their intuition is now being dismissed. She feels that there seems to be little respect for moms having a gut instinct about how their particular child is responding to video games, etc. And there seems to be a dismissal of the parent’s intuition, but it was praised when the parent trusted it way back when.
Question three was sent in by someone with a four-year-old who’s currently in a Waldorf pre-school, and she wants to know if it’s possible to unschool when both parents are working outside of the home.
Question four asks, “Do I have to choose between my aspirations and the needs of my children? Because I think I will be a better mom and role model if I can still pursue my calling in the arts at least part time while giving my kids what they need to thrive.” There is also another aspect about anxiety and not knowing whether it was school-related.
Things mentioned in the episode
Everything I need to know I learned from video games (article mentioned)
EU032: Choosing School with Alex Polikowsky
EU197: Choosing School, Part 2 with Alex Polikowsky
EU45: Unschooling on a Budget with Glenna McAulay
Blake Boles’ book, College without High School
EU201: Unschooling and Self-care with Erika Ellis
Episode transcript
Dear Pam & Anna,
Thank you so very much for diving into my question on intuition. Your thoughts were incredibly helpful. The fact that intuition is the starting point made so much sense, leading us to keep exploring, keep watching, keep engaging and seeing what works with my children.
You helped me to see I was honoring “my” intuition over that of my children’s intuition and to recognize one of our most vital roles as a parent is to support our children as they develop listening to themselves, their intuition. You spoke Anna, about peeling back the layers about what makes up our “intuition” and to notice perhaps what and where these messages are coming from. Are they my own family’s messages or are they coming from outside. Keeping the conversation going, especially if fear might be playing a role in my own feelings or sense of intuition is key to understanding and growing together.
I have also grown from these podcasts and am still growing in the exploration and validation of what it is my children are interested in – whether it be via video games/tv shows, etc. You are showing that by keeping connected and engaged, asking questions, leaving myself open to my children’s thoughts, I gain new insight into my children’s lives, thinking, actions, choices – ultimately, who they are. That is the path forward, that is where the answers lie, that is where life is lived together.
Again, thank you both for putting so much time and thought into my question as well as all of the Q & A episode questions. All of these podcasts are a beautiful life-line I regularly turn to in order to think and choose differently than what is so culturally normative as well as from my own background and at times from my own “intuition.” I am forever grateful for your generosity and gentle guidance.