I love this time of year, not just the holidays, but the feeling of transition that accompanies turning the calendar to a fresh year. It inspires me to take some time to look back in appreciation, and forward in anticipation. Delicious! This year I made time to dive into something that’s intrigued me for a […]
Fun and Games in Our Unschooling Lives
I love this time of year because there’s an extra focus on fun! Granted, as we dove deeply into the unschooling lifestyle, we didn’t wait for holidays to pick up things the kids were interested in because we wanted them to be able to continue pursuing fun and learning when their interest was high, rather […]
Book review: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Creative Living Beyond Fear As we dive more and more deeply into our unschooling lives, we come to treasure creativity. And to see it everywhere! Not only in the creative arts themselves, but also in our children’s fresh way of thinking and their approach to even seemingly mundane tasks—it’s a way of looking at life. […]
Joy is a Beacon for Community and Growth
So far we’ve looked at the value of using joy as a beacon for learning, relationships, and work. Now let’s look at joy as a guide for finding community. What do I mean by community? Basically, finding like-minded people who will inspire us to continue to learn and grow as a person. And the people […]
Joy is a Beacon for Building a Personal Body of Work
We’ve been talking about the “joy” in living joyfully, so let’s dive right into why I find joy such a useful guide for building a personal body of work. I love Pamela Slim’s description of a body of work—a bigger concept than a job or even a career—from her book, Body of Work: Finding the […]
Joy is a Beacon for Building Strong Family Relationships
I chose Living Joyfully as the name of my website because I found that joy was, and is, an unerring compass for all aspects of our unschooling lifestyle. Last time we looked at learning, so now let’s look at why joy is such a valuable touchstone for building strong and connected relationships with our children (or […]
Seeing Learning in the Quiet Moments
When our children are younger, their energy levels are often breathtaking! They seem to go nonstop all day, jumping from activity to activity, leaving toys, games, crafts, and experiments in their wake. But as they get older, we start to glimpse quieter moments. Often just as focused, but less physical swirl, more internal contemplation. These […]
The Search for Meaningful Work
meaningful, purposeful, substantial, essential, significant, worthwhile, relevant, important, consequential, valid As we’ve looked at this month, coming to unschooling as adults is a fascinating journey. Chances are we’ll revisit our childhood and realize that play isn’t “just for kids.” We’ll discover that learning isn’t something you do in preparation for adulthood—at its best, it’s a […]
Excavating Our Curiosity
I touched on this a bit last week, in the childhood we wish we had, discussing a couple of solid reasons to play with our children now, as adults. But that’s just a start at excavating our buried curiosity. How did it get buried? Most of us grew up enmeshed in conventional schooling and parenting, […]
The Childhood We Wish We Had
As part of exploring and understanding unschooling, we think long and hard about our own childhood: our learning experiences (in which situations did we learn more? remember more?); our school experiences (how much long-term learning? how much stress? did we use what we learned?); the atmosphere in our home growing up (rules? punishments? pressure? control?); […]
... a home for engaged parents choosing 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!