A Life Unschooled

Hello hello! I’ve renamed my pod and we’re embarking on a new season! The title, Unparenting, is somewhat provocative - this pod is aiming to do social commentary on parenting trends & discourses around childhood from a lens of children’s rights and child liberation. It’s going to be fun/harrowing - buckle up! In this episode, I talk to Caroline J Sumlin about the worrying tradwife movement and it...

I’m thrilled to be sharing this conversation with you. I am a long-time follower and fan of Adele’s writing, and in this podcast we discuss her piece Homeschool mum hustle culture is giving MLM vibes , and all of our many thoughts about it. It was a beautiful, rambly (in all the good ways!) conversation that went so many places. We talk about: * working while homeschooling and the very specific ch...

Hello friends! This is episode 2 of my new series that aims to challenge and critique some of the ways we view education, parenting and children’s autonomy. In this episode, I chat to Marni Kammersell. We talk about the Neurodiversity paradigm, moving away from a medical model, her own family’s journey discovering their neurodivergence, and how they moved into unschooling. It was such an honour an...

Hello friends! I’m excited to start another series of podcast conversations, focused on bringing you ideas and experiences of others who have chosen to challenge norms and assumptions around what it means to raise children, to mother and to live in ways that centre autonomy, consent and collective liberation. In this episode, I chat to Sara Sadek. I connected with Sara on Substack and have loved h...

You can read the full post here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alifeunschooled.substack.com

I’m so thrilled to be chatting to Sarah Casper about consent, why it’s so crucial and why it’s so much more expansive than we think! We spoke about how Sarah arrived at consent, what consent means, how it’s a practice, and why we shouldn’t over-use the word consent! We talked about power and how it impacts saying no, the role of “social coercion” - my new favorite term! - and the difference betwee...

This podcast episode was originally a written post which you can find here: I usually record my written posts as mini-podcasts for my paid subscribers, and this one is a little sneak preview for everyone! Please consider supporting my work here by signing up to my Substack and subscribing. Thank you so much for listening, sharing and being here! Fran x This is a public episode. If you would like t...

This was such a super fun chat! We had some great conversations and laughed a lot! Marta talks about unschooling her 3 young people (two of whom are now adults!) and about the most common questions she has received about unschooling and home education. This is a great convo for anyone starting out with unschooling and having all the absolutely normal doubts and wobbles that come with it. Marta Obi...

We belong to you and meeeee!! Okay enough with the Bee Gees, let’s get to it ;) I’m so excited to share this episode of the podcast! I chat to Sari González and Becka Koritz about the nuts and bolts of deschooling: what it is, what it looks like, the places we get stuck and the ways we get ourselves out of them! I absolutely love how real they are about their own struggles and process, and how exp...

I love Deena’s approach, and in this chat I spoke to her about how to process our own relationships with food, how to not project them onto our children, as well as about diet culture, anti-fat bias, whether food is really neutral and how to partner with our children around food. I am ALL for making food a joyful and connected experience, rather than one full of restriction, arbitrary rules and mo...

The transcript for this conversation is available here! Just be aware that I don’t edit it, so it probably won’t be fully accurate! I had such a great conversation with Susan Gray over the weekend, and I’m excited to share it with you! We talked about working full-time while unschooling, letting go of control, and how education doesn’t have to look one way only (and much much more!). Susan Gray (s...

I chat to Ieishah Clelland Lange, writer, unschooling parent and Masters student of Indigenous studies. We talk about Indigeneity, Indigenous ways of knowing, the impacts of Western culture on consent and relationships, and 'embodied relational learning' and so much more!! You can follow Ieishah @ieishah_on_earth on instagram. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod...

Fran chats to Iris Chen, author of the book Untigering, writer, and unschooled. They chat about building consent-based relationships with our children and our family members, creating a family culture, and cultural expectations and how we navigate them. They also speak about doing the inner work of parenting our children without coercion and domination, about unschooling and how to break free from...

Fran chats to Nikolai about centering literacy in our homes and taking back the tools to support our children with learning to read and write. We talk about perceptions around literacy in both unschooling and schooling spaces, and Nikolai speaks to literacy as a tool for liberation. We also talk about the importance of relationship and trust, of non-coercion, and of decentering school as a movemen...

Fran chats to John Wall about giving children the vote! We discuss barriers and preconceptions about children's suffrage, how it's actually not such a scary idea, and the sorts of repercussions it might have. We touch upon the potential shifts in politics and political engagement that expanding the suffrage to children might bring, and how it might all work in practice. We talk about children's ri...

Fran chats to Dr. Sophia Graham about all things Self-consent: what it is, why it matters and how do we even do it? We talk about all the various aspects of being in a consent-based relationship with ourselves, including interoception (what on earth is that? find out here!), sociocratic decision-making, healthy self-trust and healthy self-doubt, and so much more! A bit about Sophia: Dr Sophia Grah...

Fran chats to Sara about all things living and learning without school, including the ways we see children, how we respect consent when things need to get done, "non-negotiable", building community and of course the every-present question of: how will they learn if we don't force them? ;) Sara is a Mum of four girls from Brisbane, Australia. Her children have never been to school and instead live...

Fran chats to Rosalia Rivera about talking to children about consent as a way to educate them about their bodies and their right to safety and bodily autonomy. They chat about what this might look like, how it's a gradual process, how to chat to other adults in our lives about consent-based parenting and why creating a culture that is anti-abuse matters. They also talk about creating consent cultu...

Fran chats to Eloise Rickman about parenting rooted in children's rights and why research around children's rights and education can be so gatekeepy and obscure. They also talk about writing about adultism and how it shows up, about the way we see children, and what child liberation is and can look like! More about Eloise: Eloise Rickman is an author, home educating parent, and founder of  A Beaut...

Fran talks to Sherene Cauley about gentle parenting and how we can reframe it, about the role of presence in our lives and our relationships with our children and others, and why boundary work is not really what we think it is!  Sherene Cauley is a Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, the founder of The Nurtured Life, and the Associate Director of The Whole Health Center Bar Harbor. She prov...

In this episode Fran chats to Nadia Erlendson about creating and running a self-directed, consent-based community of young people in Pai, Thailand. They talk about how consent-based decisions are made, gathering as a group, respecting autonomy in our young people, the ways relationships can control and empower, and much more. Nadia is an International School Educator turned Unschooling parent and...

Fran chats to Erica Scott, creator of The Consent Culture Intro Workshop and co-author of the book "Creating Consent Culture: A Handbook for Educators". As a survivor of child sexual abuse, 20 plus years of working in a male dominated industry, and as a mother of young adult children, they feel the urgency to bring more effective consent education to a wider audience. She is the CEO of Creating Co...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alifeunschooled.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alifeunschooled.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alifeunschooled.substack.com