Virtual Kitchen Table

We welcomed Sue Elvis of Stories of an Unschooling Family to discuss Part Two of Hayley’s What is Unschooling?  series. It was another rich opportunity to dig deeply into the nuts and bolts of the practical side of unschooling, with concrete examples and shared experiences. We hope you’ll have a listen and learn something new. Resources: What is Unschooling, Part 2: What Does Unschooling Like? Tak...

Do you ever wonder what unschooling is really about? Or maybe you have a sense of it yourself but wonder how to describe it if asked? This ended up being a very full and nuanced conversation based on the first part of  Hayley’s blog post series  by the same name. What a joy to speak with  Sue Elvis  from  Stories of an Unschooling Family  and reflect about the framework of unschooling in detail ba...

Resources: Episode 54: Parents Can’t Teach Their Children Everything and That’s Okay  Episode 16: Lists or Not: How Do We and Those We Love Keep Organized?

This isn’t a criticism of the abilities of home educating parents, but instead reassurance for all parents that there is no need to take all of the things on. Children being taught everything ahead of time isn’t how deep and meaningful learning usually happens. At the same time, it’s not a conversation about “hands-off” parenting — far from it! Instead it’s a reminder of the roles that our presenc...

We happily welcomed Pam Laricchia, Anna Brown and Erika Ellis from  www.livingjoyfully.ca  to discuss the topic of Stories. Pam, Anna and Erika have spoken in depth about the nuances and choices within the stories we tell both ourselves and others.  In this conversation we explore what it is about looking at things through the lens of stories, and the flexibility within those stories, that is so p...

We read a Substack article by Esther Jones, Unschooling and the Magic of Teaching and were inspired to peel back the role that teaching might play within self-directed learning and a number of aspects that are related. It turned out to be a very interesting topic and we’d love you to have a listen! Resources:   Unschooling and the Magic of Learning – Esther Jones Substack Unschooling – What’s in a...

It was really an honour to speak with Linsey Briggs of  @unschoolingstanley  about a topic she shares so generously about. Her insights were both beautiful and practical. It’s always amazing to see the different angles and experiences each person has and so this was another full conversation. In listening back through our discussion, I was reminded of how closely it fit with what Hayley has always...

Oof. This is hard.  This episode is one in which we give the sad news that our wonderful Hayley has passed on.  We also attempt to honour her as best we can by discussing her post, My Journey to Taking a Kinder Path. We’re not sure we’ve ever known someone whose blog name is so perfectly reflective of who they are.  Hayley has endured cancer and cancer treatment for the past year and a half and di...

Resources:   7 Reasons to Talk to Yourself Out Loud | Psychology Today Canada  On Chores, Learning Respect and Such … Is There a Gentler Way? – Ever Learning Homeschooling High School and Socialization: Not all Teen Community has to be Homeschool Community  – Ever Learning  Basil and Honey Newsletter, The weaving together of our stories – by Anna Hewitt 

Based on a core section of Hayley’s blog post, Taking a Kinder Path to the Festivities: For You, Your Children and the Planet, we discuss kind and collaborative approaches we can take to the holiday season  With two holiday season discussions behind us, we weren’t sure how much there was left to talk about. It turns out that was no problem!  We had some in-depth conversation about planning WITH ou...

Anne from Eclectic Kids ,  Bird Bound  and  @obytheby  and April Scully from  Modern Homeschoolers  join for a conversation about the many faces of whole life learning. The conversation is as vibrant, messy, wonderful and meaningful as whole life learning itself is. We talk not only about the “academic” side of learning but also about including children in real life experiences  — even hard or unc...

We Discuss:   Kindergarten in the past in comparison to now (each sharing memories of our own start of school) Sharing stories of our child’s start to the school years  The awareness of making a mistake being unacceptable and when/how that begins The longing to belong and not be rejected as a subconscious survival mechanism  The normalization of separation of young children from their families  Th...

We say “yes” there is! Missy Willis from  Let ‘em Go Barefoot  and I connected this summer to have a conversation based on one of Missy’s Substack essays, Make the High School Diploma mean something again. In this conversation, we dive into thoughts about the high school, diploma itself, and changes over the years, discuss post- secondary education such as colleges, universities and the trades, an...

We talk about beginning the “school year,” either as a new homeschool family or a continuing family from the perspective of both connection and practical ideas. It can be an exciting time of year, but it can also be daunting! Even a new age of stage our child has reached can make this time of year full of feelings and concerns. We base the bulk of the conversation on Hayley’s blog post,  New to Ho...

We dive into a deep exploration of different perspectives about nature study and outdoor time and where those things are both similar and different. We discuss what this looks like at different ages, including the teenage years, and also bring the temperature down a bit as far as parental pressure to “get kids outside” and/or doing formal nature study. We’d love you to join us for a listen! Resour...

Does homeschooling have to cost a lot of money?  We tap into this topic with Anne from @obytheby and Eclectic Kids and come to the conclusion that living richly and abundantly is indeed possible without expensive classes, outings and materials. We agree that sometimes we might choose those things but that as we slow down, observe and integrate other things into our days, they don’t seem as necessa...

Sometimes we all feel we’ve missed the mark with our kids and it’s not a great feeling. What might be helpful during those times? In this conversation, we return to follow up on the discussion from Episode #40: Feel Like a Rubbish Parent? Nine Things to Remember When You Feel Like a Rubbish Parent and weave in some action steps as well as explore many related thoughts. We invite you to join us! Bo...

We came back to chat about creativity and creative practice again with Cyrielle from  Unschooling and Thriving , and Kendel from  spark.to.flame.homelearning  joined in and added her perspective. We shared insights about our children’s creativity and our own, and ways we consider and support them and ourselves, both practically and thoughtfully.  This was a really interesting conversation with a l...

“Do you feel like a rubbish parent? Scared of letting your children down? Convinced you’re not good enough …?” We dug into Hayley’s blog post of the same name and discussed those moments or maybe seasons when we feel utterly lost as a parent, and also the ones where we just aren’t quite sure. We talk about changes in parenting trends and the evolving role and expectations of parenthood, share chal...

We were joined by Bex Tobin Fine , author of the picture book You Are Home and thoroughly enjoyed a conversation with her about the many aspects of home. We tapped into how we define home, where we feel at home, considerations within our home educating lives, how we collaborate with our children in relation to home and, woven into all of that, is how we nurture in ourselves and our children that i...

Episode 38: What a delight to have Sue Elvis from Stories of an Unschooling Family and April from Modern Homeschoolers join again to talk about mathematics and the various and interesting ways that skills and knowledge are developed. This is a good addition to Episode 36: Unschooling Math – What Does Learning Math/s Naturally Look Like? There was more to discuss so here we are! If you enjoy these...

It was so, so interesting to meet with Cyrielle from Unschooling and Thriving to talk about the way creative practices support our well-being. We explored various ideas and understandings of creativity and discussed what it can look like in our own lives as well as in our children’s. We’d love you to join us for a listen! We discuss: Curating and creating themes (with books, sensory kits, etc) Cyc...

What a delight to have Sue Elvis from Stories of an Unschooling Family and April from Modern Homeschoolers join to talk about mathematics and the various and interesting ways that skills and knowledge are developed. We cover a lot – this might be the longest Virtual Kitchen Table episode we’ve had and we are likely going to have a second discussion. If you enjoy these discussions feel free to be i...

*Virtual Kitchen Table is now an online community as well as a podcast. 😊 Check the link above and listen here for our thoughts. In this conversation, Anne from @obytheby and Eclectic Kids and Kendel from @spark.to.flame.homelearning , join in to discuss how interesting and authentic online connections can be. We Discuss: Connecting with people based on interests versus being in our physical live...

The Virtual Kitchen Table now includes a COMMUNITY as well as a podcast. 😃 We’d love for you to read on … Some time ago Hayley had the idea of discussing online community as an episode topic and at first we wondered if it might be part of a Community conversation, but we had far too much to talk about relating to in-person community so we’ve recorded not one, but two (next one coming soon) conver...