The Unschool Space

Today I am chatting with Iidala, a breathwork teacher and parenting guide who is originally from Estonia but now lives in Ireland with her husband and two sons. We talk about how her family moved from Estonia to Ireland in search of community, and why they decided to enrol their children in self-directed learning spaces. And, we talk about what it means to undo our own conditioning whilst accompan...

Today, I am with Alex O’Neill, who lives with her daughter and husband in Essex in the UK. Alex was a teacher and had considered home education for many years, and finally dived in a couple of years ago when her daughter decided that she didn’t want to continue with secondary school. Alex shares her long journey of exploration into learning and alternatives to school, and what she is learning at h...

In this episode, I am with Alex Kons. Alex is originally from Germany, but is currently living in Peru and has spent many years travelling the world with her now-13 year old son. Alex tells us why she chose initially not to send her son to school, and the isolation from friends and family that came with that decision. And she shares what life has looked like for her and her son and why she has nev...

In this episode, I am joined by Sharon and Heidi, two unschooling mothers from North Yorkshire. Both have neurodivergent children who eventually burned out at school. They describe how incredibly depleting it was to try get their children in to school each day and to advocate for the support they needed. We talk about how the transition was from school to home and the relief of stepping away from...

Today I am chatting with Ruth Rinaldi, a former maths teacher now unschooling parent of two. We talk about what led Ruth not only to home educate her children but also to leave her career as a maths teacher and head of department, which she had worked so hard at. Ruth shares how the experience has looked for her and her family, and what it felt like to make such a huge change. We also talk about m...

My guest today is Olivia Roff who lives in Sussex with her husband and two children, who are 10 and 5, and both neurodivergent. Olivia had wanted to try home educating some years ago, but wasn’t able to. She talks about how it feels to finally jump into it, the joy of seeing her daughter start to flourish again, and the realisation that she has always been an unschooling parent. I hope you enjoy t...

My guest in this episode is May Ling Thomas. May Ling lives in London with her husband and two daughters, who are 13 and 10, and who have always been unschooled. May Ling came across the idea of unschooling when her oldest was still a baby, and it felt a natural fit with how she and her husband wanted to raise their children. We talk about what this all looks like and, of course, all the unlearnin...

Today I am joined by Naomi Fisher, a child psychologist and parent of two unschooled teenagers. So, we are talking about the teenage years and how hard it can be particularly for those young people who have left the school system after some stress and difficult experiences. Naomi tells us about her soon-to-be-published book, The Teenager's Guide to Taking Control of Your Education: Learning B...

In this episode I am joined by Meghan Suniga-Davies. Meghan has three unschooled children who are now all teens and young adults and she also has extensive experience working with young people in self-directed learning spaces. We talk about her family’s journey to unschooling and her particular deschooling journey. And we talk about what it means to live in partnership with our young people and pr...

In this episode, I am chatting with Megan Arevalo, who lives in Michigan with her husband and two children, who are three and eight. After initially homeschooling, Megan came to unschooling after her daughter’s burnout, when she realised she needed to focus entirely on connection and wellbeing. Megan talks about the subsequent autism diagnoses and her own path from feeling like she had to hold eve...

In this episode, I am chatting with Carey Kirkella who lives with her husband and eight-year-old son in New York City. They came to unschooling after her son had many struggles at pre-K then in Kindergarten. Though on the outside he seemed to be doing fine, Carey saw how he was becoming more anxious and stressed and had increasing sensory issues.  Carey shares how her son is doing now and how thei...

Today’s episode is a little different as I am chatting with Victor and Eitan, who are 16 and 15 and attend Alcove Learning, a self-directed learning space in LA. They both came to Alcove after many years in public school, and after some mental health struggles. It was really such a joy to talk with them about what it has meant to them to have choice and agency over what they do in their days, and...

In this episode I am chatting with Munira Adenwalla, who is an occupational therapist and lives in London with her 14-year-old son. Munira realised when her son was young that school would not be a good fit for him. We talk about how our school conditioning runs deep and the worries that can come when we step away from it. And Munira tells us what unschooling looks like for her son, and how in hin...

This episode, I am with Zahra Lightway and Patricia Sprenger of Light Way Learning. Both came to alternative education through feeling disilusioned with the education system, Zahra as a teacher whose son had found the system difficult, and Patricia as a parent whose children were struggling at school. We talk about learning looks when it doesn’t look like school, the power of just observing our ch...

In this episode, I am talking with Sue Patterson, who lives in Austin Texas. Sue is an unschooling coach, author, and the founder and voice behind Unschooling Mom2Mom. Sue has three adult children, who are now in their thirties, and who were all unschooled. Sue tells of how she came to unschooling when her children were young, after seeing how they were failing to thrive in traditional school. We...

In this episode I’m chatting with Jenny Mainwaring who lives near Oxford in the UK. Jenny took her oldest son out of school while still in primary school and suffering from burnout. Jenny describes the slow process of helping him feel safe again and how they have seen him come back to his interests and the things he naturally wants to explore. In fact, Jenny’s son who is now 12 encouraged Jenny to...

To mark the podcast's 100 conversations, this episode is a little different. I am in conversation with Melissa Crockett-Joyoue who runs the Weave online community  and is also an unschooling mother. She and I co-founded The Unschooling Summit with last year and we are currently working on this year’s event. It is free, online and takes place on March 20th-22nd, with recordings available. You...

My guest this episode is Cassie Emmott from East Sussex in the UK. Cassie lives with her husband and four children, who are all neurodivergent, and two of her children have additional needs.  We talk about how unschooling looks in Cassie’s family and how she and her husband manage everyone’s different needs and interests. We talk about the deep learning that she sees happening in its own time, and...

In this episode, I am talking with Stephanie McDowell. Stephanie lives in the US with her husband and five-year old daughter and is a former high-school teacher. Burnt out from her teaching career, she and her husband chose to homeschool their daughter, but Stephanie found the structure and school-focused ways of the homeschooling community an uncomfortable mismatch. She realised that she needed t...

In this episode I am chatting with Linda Velwest, who lives in New Jersey and has three adult son, now aged 26, 28 and 31, who were all unschooled for many years. It’s always lovely to talk with parents of adult unschoolers, and Linda reflects on their journey, the very different paths each child took and the many things that she and her family all took from the experience. Linda also recently pub...

Today I am chatting with Ash Winton. Ash has lived in Queensland, Australia for the last 12 years, but is originally from Alaska, and is of the indigenous Tlingit people. She and her husband, who run a trail building company , have a four and half year old son, who they unschool and plan to continue doing so. Among lots of things, we talk about what natural learning looks like, how social norms ca...

I’m delighted to be chatting today with Maddy, who is a doctor and lives in Somerset with her husband and son who is 13 and daughter who is 14. Maddy’s daughter left school two years ago after beginning secondary school and not coping at all. Maddy talks about what burnout looked like for her daughter and how her daughter was able to slowly reconnect with the things she loved and is now thriving....

I’m really happy to be talking today with Holly from South Wales, who I first spoke to two years ago. We talk in depth about Holly’s experiences of accompanying her children through burnout and emotional distress. We talk about how unschooling can offer us the time and space to do this in a far more compassionate way than our society preaches, and how as adults we are often programmed to just keep...

I’m delighted to welcome back Claire Gillespie, who was a guest on the podcast almost two years ago. Claire lives in the UK with her husband and two sons, who are 15 and 17, and who left the school system around six years ago. Claire now works as a coach and also runs a creative business called The Cardboard Shed. Today we talk about why it takes so much courage to leave mainstream school, even wh...

Today I’m with Mariam Carter who lives in Southern California with her husband and two sons, who are 12 and 9. Their oldest son is autistic and the family’s jouney to unschooling journey began during the pandemic. Mariam describes the shift she had to make from equating life success with academic achievement, what it means to trust the journey when your child learns differently, and how her job as...