Here’s a curated list of Q&A episodes.
Our Q&A conversations aren’t focused on giving anyone the “right” answer, because there isn’t a universal “right” answer for any situation that will work for everyone. Instead, our focus is on exploring different aspects of the situation and playing with the kinds of questions we might ask ourselves to better understand what’s up. We’re sharing food for thought through the lens of unschooling and cultivating strong and connected relationships.
We encourage you to listen with an open and curious mind. Let the ideas bubble away in the back of your mind for a while. Play with them. See what happens. You might make a new connection. And then another. 🙂
We wish you all the best as you explore your unschooling questions!
Q&A Episode Listing
Click on the episode link to read the question in full, listen to the episode, and read the transcript. (Older episodes have the transcript on a separate page, so click that link.)
EU348: Q&A Deep Dive
I’m so curious how unschooling parents protect their kids online without having strict parental controls.
EU344: Q&A Deep Dive
How would you encourage parents to best unschool themselves?
EU339: Q&A Deep Dive
Is unschooling a poor fit for folks who are introverted or neurodivergent in a way that makes socializing hard?
EU334: Q&A Deep Dive
How can I convince my spouse that unschooling is right or good while I myself feel I am conducting a big experiment?
EU333: Exploring Unschooling Q&A with Anna and Erika [transcript]
Anna Brown and Erika Ellis join me to explore listener questions. We talk about the fears and doubts that come up at the start of the unschooling journey, the idea of wanting to measure success, and what to do when a child is interested in a topic that seems too grown up for them (in this case, an interest in war).
EU328: Exploring Unschooling Q&A with Anna and Erika [transcript]
Anna Brown and Erika Ellis join me to discuss listener questions. We talk about navigating sibling and friend relationships, the idea of self-regulation when it comes to technology, and the journey of finding community and connection for ourselves and our children.
EU327: Exploring Unschooling Q&A with Anna and Erika [transcript]
Anna Brown and Erika Ellis join me to dive into listener questions. We talk about navigating a dyslexia/dysgraphia diagnosis, sharing unschooling information and parenting ideas with grandparent caregivers, and the mental overwhelm that can occur at the beginning of the deschooling journey.
EU322: Exploring Unschooling Q&A with Anna and Erika [transcript]
Anna Brown and Erika Ellis join me to dive into listener questions. We talk about cocooning and connecting with young teens, the mainstream concept of productivity and how we get curious about external messages of judgment, and the idea of an “ideal unschooler.”
EU318: Exploring Unschooling Q&A with Anna and Erika [transcript]
Anna Brown and Erika Ellis join me to dive into listener questions. We explore how unschoolers view high academic achievement and whether unschoolers pursue advanced degrees, learning basic academic skills, and whether we are doing more sedentary children a disservice by not insisting on movement activities.
EU314: Exploring Unschooling Q&A with Anna and Erika [transcript]
Anna Brown and Erika Ellis join me to dive into listener questions. We explore technology and “screen time,” deschooling, connection, and validation.
EU277: Unschooling Q&A with Sue Patterson, Part 2 [transcript]
We dive into whether we should be finding friends for our kids, trying to convince a child to leave school, and feeling overwhelmed.
EU276: Unschooling Q&A with Sue Patterson, Part 1 [transcript]
We dive into keeping track of activities for reporting requirements, discomfort with “radical” unschooling, and struggling with control issues.
EU222: Living Joyfully Network and Q&A with Anna Brown [transcript]
After sharing an overview of the new Living Joyfully Network, we dive into the challenge of family relationships with four young children and wondering if there are any ‘must have’ things for unschooling with young children.
EU204: Q&A with Anna and Pam [transcript]
We dive into deschooling after homeschooling, following our intuition, unschooling with both parents working outside the home, and if we need to choose between our aspirations and our children’s needs.
EU191: Q&A with Anna and Pam [transcript]
We explore missing our kids when they’re immersed in their interests, whether a parent’s laid-back personality might help or hinder unschooling, starting unschooling with an older child, and struggling with falling back on old beliefs and fears.
EU178: Q&A with Anna and Pam [transcript]
We talk about finding ways to live together when we have different styles and needs, considering diplomas and next steps, allowances and family money, and how learning looks different in unschooling families.
EU164: Q&A with Anna and Pam [transcript]
We talk about the time and effort of unschooling, finding friends, letting go of worry and fear of the future, and the teen years.
EU139: Questions from the Inbox [transcript]
I gathered a handful of questions from my inbox, heavily summarized and anonymized them, and then edited and expanded my answers.
EU126: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month, Anna Brown and I treat you to an extra long Q&A episode as we finish up the remaining questions! We dive into questions around the challenge of deschooling while holding tight to your fears, engaging with the unschooling community before having kids of your own, the decision to unschool, the transformational impact of shifting our mindset from balance to flow, the ideas of talent and practice, homeschooling regulations, deschooling around weight and physical activity, and the back and forth of being in the moment vs planning ahead with three little ones.
EU121: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we dive into questions around managing the environment when a parent works at home, when we’re not a “perfect mom,” helping our kids learn about diversity, when you’re not into your child’s passion, and helping your children process their emotions without taking them on yourself.
EU117: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we dive into questions around meeting the needs of multiple children with diverse personalities and needs, shifting and reconnecting with the children after challenging times, shifting away from control as a parenting tool, and what to do about children who often interrupt.
EU112: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we tackle helping a child who feels powerless and defeated, how to support a child who left school six months ago, personal hygiene choices, and the challenge of different personalities and meeting their needs.
EU108: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we dig into questions around the challenge of meeting the needs of everyone in the family, the conventional idea that you shouldn’t do things for your children that they can do for themselves, the interplay of releasing control over food and the real constraints of a food budget, and ways to help our children deal with negative comments.
EU104: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we dig into questions around when parents are at odds over parenting choices, ways to share information with more conventional parents, teens making connections and considering school, and ways to handle when a child calls themself “stupid.”
EU100: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we talk about when to share our perspectives on stereotypes etc, supporting a young adult while moving to unschooling, anxiety around technology, and helping a partner understand unschooling.
EU095: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we talk about radical validation and what’s so radical about it, sibling conflicts, unhappy temperaments, and how the three of us have worked through challenges to get to epiphanies and personal growth.
EU091: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we answer questions around buying toys, negotiating boundaries, supporting a highly sensitive child, and feeling stuck around food and health concerns.
EU087: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we discuss the seeming transition from following their interests to earning a living, how passionate kids engage with the world, partnering with our children around chores, and helping a child learn something that’s challenging for us.
EU082: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we talk about penmanship and writing, when our past experiences may be clouding our vision—in this case with group dynamics, whether some kids may need TV limits, and when a child is feeling bad about themselves.
EU078: Q&A Round Table with Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we tackle questions around boredom and busyness, kids getting themselves dressed, when a child’s desires intersects with a parent’s challenges, and helping a child through deep disappointment.
EU073: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we dive into the deeper roots we sometimes see underneath people’s questions, what it really means to release control, the idea of boredom, unschooling in the early years, and grumpy moments.
EU069: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we talk about power struggles, navigating relationships, math and moments of panic, and unschooling and autism.
EU065: Q&A Round Table with Anna Brown [transcript]
In this episode, we dig into questions around staying mindful of our environment and choices, being uncomfortable when a child says no to activities, challenges with anxiety and friendships, monitoring what our kids are watching, and our fears when a child watches lots of TV.
EU060: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
In this episode, we dig into questions around supporting people when they don’t feel good about themselves, sibling relationships and bringing peace to the family, and bringing unschooling into the picture before having children.
EU056: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
In this episode, we dig into questions around moving away from controlling relationships to ones based on connection and trust, balancing providing rich resources without being rich, when we hit our limits, sleep challenges with an 18-month-old, and balancing time with a child and housework.
EU052: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
In this episode, we dig into questions around the challenge of needing to create a portfolio of work, extended time playing computer games, living with strong principles around food, struggling with big emotions, and needing reassurance.
EU047: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
In this episode, we dig into questions around unschooling ideas vs expectations, talking with kids about Santa, developing an unschooling budget, the challenges of releasing control over food, and developing handwriting skills.
EU043: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
We talk about ways to move away from control over “stuff” while meeting our own needs, the idea of “free rein” as it relates to unschooling, fear and the pull between our idealized vision of childhood and the reality we’re living, can you “not do enough” as an unschooling parent, pondering our role as our children get older, and the deschooling shift to seeing all the learning our children are doing—it can be hard to remove our school-ish filters.
EU039: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
We talk about ways to approach those times when we wonder whether we are supporting our children well, the challenge of interpreting unschooling ideas as rules, the bumpy road of deschooling, applying to college, and ways to move forward when a spouse doesn’t want to try unschooling.
EU034: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
We talk about doubts that creep back in as school starts up, doubts that creep in as children get closer to age 18, wishing a teen would leave school, and the lure of school for younger kids.
EU030: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
It was interesting how a theme seemed to run through our answers this month as we talk about food, challenging times, high needs children, and getting stuck.
EU026: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
The topics we cover this month include what’s up when children say they’re bored, can you unschool well in a small living environment, deschooling food, decompressing from traumatic school experiences, cocooning in the early teen years, and helping a spouse learn about unschooling principles.
EU021: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
The topics we cover this month include contemplating taking a child out of school, unschooling and depression, saying yes more while not wanting their children to grow up spoiled, unschooling a child with disabilities, and a couple of questions digging into different aspects of “screen time.”
EU017: Q&A Round Table with Anna Brown [transcript]
Anne Ohman wasn’t able to join us this month, but Anna and I valiantly soldiered on. The topics we cover include the challenges of extended family visits, moving away from tightly controlling a child’s diet, and unschooling an only child.
EU013: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we talk about power struggles, growing independence, strewing, going back to work, finding friends, society’s hyperfocus on age 18, what unschooling poorly looks like, and our favourite aspects of unschooling.
EU008: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we talk about helping our children deal with questions from school friends, video games and creativity, ways to describe the unschooling lifestyle, is being “bored” okay, and when a child focuses on only one or two interests.
EU004: Q&A Round Table with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown [transcript]
This month we talk about unschooling older kids with younger kids around, when family and friends won’t understand unschooling, and games unschooling families enjoy.