Sue Patterson, a long-time unschooling mom with three now-adult children, joins me to talk about unschooling intentions. I love the energy of a new year, but I’m not so keen on making resolutions. For lasting change, I need something meatier. I’ve found that when I think about the kinds of changes I’d like to see in my life through the lens of intention, it encourages me to remember my WHY. What, in the bigger picture, I am trying to move toward. This connects me with the person I want to become. It changes ME; not just my behaviour.

I hope you enjoy our conversation!

Discussion Points for Sue

What kinds of intentions might be helpful for someone who’s recently started learning about unschooling, but hasn’t yet taken the plunge? Maybe their kids aren’t school age yet, or they’re contemplating taking their kids out of school.

How about some intentions that might be particularly helpful for those parents in their first year of unschooling? They are deep into deschooling and there are challenges that often come with shifting their parenting style from control to connection.

What about unschooling parents with a few years experience? Sometimes things can be going pretty smoothly for a while and we think, “We’re done. We’ve got this unschooling thing down.” But then things change, don’t they? Always. As the saying goes, the only constant in life is change. If unschooling parents find themselves here, what kinds of intentions might be helpful as they start the new year?

What kinds of fresh intentions might be helpful when you’re unschooling with teens?

Often in unschooling families there’s one adult who does the bulk of the parenting and unschooling while their partner focuses on earning a family income. We don’t want to forget about them! What kinds of new year’s intentions might help them on their unschooling journey?

What are a couple of your intentions for 2019?

Links to things mentioned in the show

Sue’s ealier podcast episodes, EU146: Common First Questions About Unschooling with Sue Patterson and EU003: Unschooling Teens with Sue Patterson

Parent/Teen Breakthrough: The Relationship Approach by Mira Kirshenbaum and Charles Foster

Sue’s UnschoolingMom2Mom website, Facebook page, Facebook group, and Instagram

Episode Transcript

Read the episode transcript