The Ladies Fixing the World

Letting go runs through every stage of unschooling — from releasing control over what children learn, to accepting that family life changes shape without warning. The last run with all your daughters, the last night in a house you raised your children in, the last time a child needs you to put their shoes on. These moments pass without announcement. Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd, and Sue Elvis use t...

The two most common practical questions about unschooling are how much it costs and how much time it takes. Neither has a simple answer. One parent usually stops earning a full income. Some expenses disappear — uniforms, rain gear, processed food, school fees — while others appear: music lessons, sports equipment, a computer for a gamer. The budget shifts with the seasons. Cecilie Conrad, Sandra D...

Reading dominates how most people think about learning. Schools treat it as the first skill and the primary method. But children learn language, movement, culture, and complex ideas long before they read a word — and many things can never be learned from a book at all. Sandra Dodd, Cecilie Conrad, and Sue Elvis talk about what children and adults learn without reading: music by ear, cooking by doi...

Schools spend enormous amounts of time on repetition, testing, classroom management, and re-teaching material year after year. Unschooling skips all of that. When a child learns something because they wanted to know it, it stays. There is no surface learning, no forgotten curriculum — just real knowledge built from curiosity and experience. Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd, and Sue Elvis look at why un...

Unschooling is often framed as a choice made for the children, but the changes run deeper than that. Over time, parents find themselves questioning inherited habits, rethinking authority, and arriving at a different relationship with their own values and daily choices. Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd, and Sue Elvis talk about what it actually looks like when parents let go of the management mindset —...

Intensity, repetition, and long stretches of focus are common in unschooling families. Interests may look narrow, obsessive, or unbalanced when viewed through school-based expectations—patterns that can trigger parental fear. Worries about outcomes, careers, balance, and future security shape how adults interpret a child’s focus, sometimes turning support into pressure or ownership. Cecilie Conrad...

How does a typical day look in an unschooling family’s life? - This is one of the first questions people ask about unschooling. It often carries an unspoken hope for reassurance, structure, or a picture that makes the choice feel understandable. Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd, and Sue Elvis approach the question from different lives and contexts, letting it stay open rather than pinning it down. Thei...

Language keeps showing up in unschooling conversations: Parents ask about reading, writing, spelling, confidence, exposure, and whether children will “miss something” without lessons or requirements. Language can become the place where worries about competence, comparison, and readiness collect, especially for parents who did not enjoy language themselves. Underlying the whole conversation is a fa...

Food keeps showing up in parenting and unschooling conversations: Parents ask about sugar, rules, nutrition, fairness, parties, allergies, ethics, and what happens when children want something different from what the family values. Food can become the place where worries about health, control, and “doing it right” concentrate. Underlying the whole conversation is a familiar unschooling question: W...

How do you handle skeptical questions about unschooling without freezing, defending, or preaching? Cecilie, Sandra, and Sue share real-life stories and gentle scripts for staying kind, grounded, and clear when people don’t understand unschooling. 🗓️ Recorded July 1, 2025. 📍  Åmarksgård, Lille Skensved, Denmark  🔗 Links & Resources https://sandradodd.com/strewing https://storiesofanunschoolin...

How do unschooling families handle life when plans fall apart? Sandra Dodd, Cecilie Conrad, and Sue Elvis share real experiences—from illness, grief, and moving house to everyday disruptions like broken toilets and power cuts. They demonstrate how flexibility, trust, and connection transform uncertainty into learning, and how children raised without rigid schedules develop resilience, adaptability...

What counts as a resource when you don’t follow a school curriculum? Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd, and Sue Elvis discuss how unschooling families use communities, libraries, museums, clubs, work, online connections, and family gatherings as resources, showing that learning extends far beyond books and classes. 🗓️ Recorded June 17, 2025. 📍 Åmarksgård, Denmark  🔗 Links & Resources https://sandr...

In this episode, Cecilie, Sandra, and Sue unpack the popular—but often misleading—idea of freedom in unschooling. What does it really mean to live freely, and what’s the cost when freedom becomes the goal instead of a tool? They discuss how some families rush into radical unschooling, letting go of all structure without understanding the role of guidance, responsibility, and deschooling. Sandra sh...

What happens when unschooling parents trade control for genuine connection? In this deep and honest conversation, Cecilie Conrad (Denmark), Sandra Dodd (USA), and Sue Elvis (Australia) tackle the big questions of attachment, freedom, and how trust transforms the parent-child relationship. Many parents fear that giving their children more freedom will mean losing influence over values and choices—o...

Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd, and Sue Elvis discuss doubt and fear in unschooling—where they come from, how they spread, and how to move through them without defaulting to school-based thinking. They explore the pressure of responsibility, the impact of lingering fears, and why letting go of outcomes helps build trust in both learning and relationships. They talk about how fear can be reinforced th...

What if we abandoned the question "How do we know they're learning?" and trusted that they are? In this conversation, Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd, and Sue Elvis look closely at the fears that drive many unschooling parents to seek proof of learning—and why those fears may come from old conditioning rather than real concerns. They explore how learning in an unschooling context doesn’...

In this episode, we explore one of the most persistent questions in unschooling: What about math? Cecilie, Sandra, and Sue examine the widespread belief that children can’t learn math without formal instruction — and explain why that belief doesn’t hold up. Cecilie reflects on the early years of home education in her family, the pressure to “cover” math, and the quiet fear of doing too little. San...

Dinner tables, car rides, bedtime chats, café corners—this episode dives into the real places where unschooling lives and grows. Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd, and Sue Elvis examine how conversations—often unscheduled, informal, and unplanned—become the central structure of a learning life. They discuss the Danish tradition of the daily family dinner, the rigid rituals of American mealtime culture,...

What’s the value of doing the same thing more than once?  In this episode of Ladies Fixing the World , Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd and Sue Elvis unfold repetition—how it shows up in our lives, why it matters, and what it reveals. Together, they examine how children tend to gravitate toward watching the same films, reading the same stories, or playing the same games. Rather than dismissing these ha...

Sandra Dodd, Sue Elvis, and Cecilie Conrad come together to discuss their personal journeys into unschooling, focusing on natural learning, curiosity, and redefining educational expectations. Sandra shares her transition from a public-school teacher to embracing unschooling with her family, exploring how her upbringing influenced her parenting choices. Sue reflects on her experiences returning to...

Traditional education is built on judgment—constantly measuring children’s progress against rigid standards. Unschooling offers a different path, one that values curiosity over evaluation. In this episode, Cecilie Conrad , Sue Elvis , and Sandra Dodd discuss why letting go of expectations leads to deeper, more natural learning. Reading becomes a key theme, as they challenge the idea that children...

How do children learn math without lessons, textbooks, or worksheets? Sandra Dodd, Sue Elvis, and Cecilie Conrad talk about the ways kids pick up mathematical thinking—through games, shared meals, money management, and real-world problem-solving. They discuss what happens when learning is driven by curiosity rather than instruction, sharing stories of children who mastered math in unexpected ways....

What is unschooling? What is it not? And why defining it is so difficult? Sandra Dodd, Sue Elvis and Cecilie Conrad explore how unschooling is not just about rejecting school but fundamentally shifting how families approach learning, trust, and daily life. Sandra shares her decades of experience and the challenge of explaining unschooling in simple terms, emphasizing that true understanding takes...

What if education wasn’t confined to classrooms but instead flourished naturally through life’s experiences? In this episode of Ladies Fixing the World , renowned unschooling pioneers Sandra Dodd and Sue Elvis join Cecilie Conrad to redefine what learning can look like. We explore the philosophy and practicalities of unschooling—where curiosity, trust, and relationships replace rigid curricula. Sa...

In this final episode of the first season of "Da Ladies", Cecilie joins Luna, Sara, and Carla as they wrap up their journey. The group reflects on embracing change, honoring priorities, and staying true to their unschooling principles. From navigating life transitions to balancing personal aspirations and family commitments, this episode is a beautiful exploration of growth, authenticity...