Exploring Unschooling Podcast: Ten Questions Episodes

Ten Questions Episode Listing

If you click on the episode link you can read the questions in full.

EU311: Ten Questions with Erika Ellis     [transcript]
Erika Ellis joins me again on the podcast this week! On previous episodes, Erika and I have talked about unschooling book clubs and self care, but she’s back to share more about her unschooling journey. We talk about the paradigm shifts that she made during deschooling and how her and her husband’s teaching work influenced their path. Erika also shares her experiences moving through the fears and discomfort that pop up as her kids grow older. We talk about the exciting energy of the new year and how her self-care practices have changed over time. Through the whole conversation, the joy of her family’s unschooling life shines through!

EU212: Ten Questions with Nisa & Jewel Deeves     [transcript]
Nisa Deeves and her daughter Jewel join me this week to answer ten questions about their unschooling lives. This was a lovely chat that felt like sharing a cup of tea with old friends. I love the rich tapestry of lives created by all of the unschoolers who so generously share their time with me.

EU189: Ten Questions with Amy Martinez     [transcript]
Amy Martinez joins me to talk about her family’s move to unschooling. Amy is a mother of five, who range in age from 15-29. They had time in public school, homeschooling, and ultimately moved to unschooling. Her insights on those transitions, on living in a big family, and on the connections and amazing relationships that have developed with unschooling are inspiring!

EU162: Ten Questions with Alex Peace     [transcript]
Alex Peace has been one of my unschooling inspirations for many years! She has three adult children and I’m so excited that she agreed to come on the podcast to talk about her family’s unschooling experiences. We dive into what she found to be the most challenging aspect of deschooling, building trust, stretching comfort zones, how her relationships with her kids have changed now that they’re adults, and lots more.

EU160: Ten Questions with Kirsten Fredericks     [transcript]
Kirsten Fredericks and her husband Carl have three boys—now young adults—who pretty much grew up unschooling. We have a wonderful conversation as we touch on how she found unschooling, the most challenging aspect of deschooling, supporting our children’s passions, moving from control to trust, what has surprised her most about how their unschooling lives have unfolded, and lots more.

EU152: Ten Questions with Vicky Bennison     [transcript]
Vicky Bennison and her husband always unschooled their two children—now young adults. I met Vicky years ago and we’ve stayed connected online ever since. We have a wonderful conversation diving into her unschooling journey, including what she found to be most challenging, the importance of being curious ourselves, what has surprised her most along the way, stretching her comfort zones, and lots more!

EU135: Ten Questions with Anna Brown     [transcript]
Anna Brown is back! We have so much fun diving into her family’s move to unschooling, how she developed trust in the process, what she found to be the most challenging aspect, tips for moving from conventional parenting to consensual living, stretching our comfort zones, and lots more.

EU111: Ten Questions with Jan Fortune     [transcript]
Jan Fortune home educated her four now adult children in the UK and wrote many articles and five books on unschooling and parenting. Her last book on the topic, Winning Parent, Winning Child, focuses on living with children in ways that respect their autonomy. Jan is also a blogger, novelist, poet, editor, and runs Cinnamon Press, now in its twelfth year. We explore her family’s journey to unschooling, the value of focusing on the present moment, what Jan found most challenging about moving to unschooling, how the transition to consent-based parenting opens up creativity, what she sees as the most valuable outcome from choosing unschooling, and lots more.

EU089: Ten Questions with Jan Hunt     [transcript]
Jan is the founder of The Natural Child Project, a website that houses a wonderful collection of unschooling and parenting articles. She also has two unschooling books out, The Natural Child: Parenting From the Heart and The Unschooling Unmanual, plus a children’s book, A Gift for Baby. Her unschooled son, Jason, is now in his thirties. We chat about how her website began back in 1996, how she developed trust in unschooling, empathic parenting, the problems with testing, how to tell when guidance tips over into manipulation, and lots more.

EU074: Ten Questions with Robyn Coburn     [transcript]
Robyn Coburn is an unschooling mom and her 17 year-old daughter has never been to school. I’ve known Robyn for many years online and have always enjoyed her perspective. We dive into deschooling fears, sleeping patterns, tips for handling meltdowns, the differing needs of kids and teens, unschooling conferences, and much more. Her resume review website is workinproduction.com, and her creativity blast website is iggyjingles.com.

EU066: Ten Questions with Pushpa Ramachandran     [transcript]
Pushpa is an unschooling mom of two in India. We have a fascinating conversation that ranges from how she discovered unschooling, to natural learning and how everything is connected, to a snapshot of unschooling in India, touching on her husband’s journey to unschooling, as well as her part-time work as a speech pathologist.

EU057: Ten Questions with Akilah S. Richards     [transcript]
Akilah S. Richards is an unschooling mom to two lovely daughters. She’s written a book about the beginning of her journey to unschooling, Our Transition Into Unschooling, with the lovely subtitle, Raising independent thinking, information seeking, self-directed lovers of learning and life all through school-free living. She also hosts a podcast, Fare of the Free Child, where she and her guests discuss the fears and the fares (costs) of raising free black and brown children in a world that tends to diminish, dehumanize, and disappear them. And she’s on the organizing team of the Alliance for Self-Directed Education. She answers my ten questions about her unschooling experience with candor and enthusiasm!

EU044: Ten Questions with Jennifer Andersen     [transcript]
Jennifer Andersen is an unschooling mom of two and the founder of ourmuddyboots.com and it’s related Facebook page. Jennifer says, looking at who she was 15-20 years ago, she was a very unlikely homeschooler and even less likely unschooler. Her journey to unschooling, led by her eldest child, may strike familiar chord—it did for me. We touch on many things during our conversation, like how we continue to learn, over and over, more deeply each time, that learning happens everywhere, the difference between natural and contrived consequences, and how unschooling isn’t about having all the answers.

EU037: Ten Questions with Carol Black     [transcript]
Carol Black unschooled her two daughters, now 22 and 26. Years ago she was in a teacher education program, but when she read John Holt’s How Children Fail the light bulb went off and she dropped out. Since then she has written some wonderfully insightful essays about unschooling, which you can read on her website, carolblack.org, and she directed the fascinating documentary film, Schooling the World.

EU031: Ten Questions with Emma Marie Forde        [transcript]
Emma Marie Forde is unschooling mom to two girls, Lily and Rosa. She’s also the founder of the website, rethinkingparenting.co.uk. Before having children, Emma was a clinical psychologist, a career that informed her choice to stay home with her own children and which eventually led her and her husband John to choose unschooling for their family. Emma shares her attachment parenting perspective throughout our wide-ranging conversation, and gives us a glimpse of unschooling in England!

EU027: Ten Questions with Teresa Graham Brett
Teresa Graham Brett is an unschooling mom to two boys, Martel and Greyson. She’s also author of the book, Parenting for Social Change. Teresa’s background as a social justice educator brings a unique and interesting slant to her journey to unschooling. In this episode, she shares some great stories and the fascinating insights she has gleaned along the way. Of course, the journey never ends, we’re always learning. And in that vein, we talk about adultism, the conventional obsession with control over children, ways to move to more supportive parenting, and much more.

EU022: Ten Questions with Lainie Liberti
Lainie Liberti is mom to 16 year-old Miro. They backed into unschooling in 2009 through what was meant to be a one-year mother-and-son backpacking trip. Now in their seventh year of travelling, Lainie is co-producer and host of the weekly online show, For the Love of Learning: Voices of the Alternative Education Movement, and she and Miro host Project World School, inspiring temporary learning communities / retreats around the world for teens and young adults. They also recently gave a talk at TEDx Amsterdam, an independently organized TED event focused on education, whose theme this year was “born to learn.”

EU018: Ten Questions with Jennifer McGrail
Jennifer McGrail is a long-time unschooling mom to four lovely children, blogger at The Path Less Taken, and host of the Free to Be unschooling conference. This week I had a wonderful conversation with her, touching on the topics of burnout and self-care, the disconnect between how adults treat other adults and how they treat children, the concept of natural consequences, hosting the Free to Be unschooling conference, and more!

EU014: Ten Questions with Joyce Fetteroll
Joyce is a long-time unschooling mom, and creator of the wonderful unschooling website, joyfullyrejoycing.com. She has been answering unschooling questions online for many years, in fact, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t looking forward to reading her responses!

EU009: Ten Questions with Amy Childs
Amy Childs is an unschooling mom to three lovable, and now adult, children. She’s also the producer of The Unschooling Life Podcast and a happiness consultant.

EU005: Ten Questions with Sandra Dodd
Sandra is a long-time unschooling mom of three—Kirby, Marty, and Holly—who are now adults. She’s also the creator of the awesome unschooling resource, sandradodd.com.

EU002: Ten Questions with Pam Sorooshian
Pam Sorooshian is a long-time unschooling mom of three, now adult, children, who continues to stay actively involved in the unschooling community. She’s also a college professor of economics and statistics.