Anna Brown and Erika Ellis join me this week to dive into listener questions! We explore technology and “screen time,” deschooling, connection, and validation. And as I mention at the beginning of our conversation, our Q&A conversations aren’t focused on giving anyone the “right” answer. That’s because there isn’t a universal “right” answer for any given situation that will work for everyone.

Instead, our focus is on exploring different aspects of the situation and playing with the kinds of questions we might ask ourselves to better understand what’s up. We’re sharing food for thought through the lens of unschooling.

Click here to submit your question for a future Q&A episode

Question Summaries

Our first question is from Ella, a new unschooling mom with three young children. As the family is deschooling, she’s noticing that the children are choosing to watch TV for a lot of the day. Her partner is uncomfortable with the situation and she wants to know about setting boundaries around TV time or how to find a balance of how her children are spending their free time. [starts at 3:51]

Our second question from Tara is concerning avid video-gaming kids who used to spend more time playing outside. Tara feels stuck in a rut and like her children no longer want to do the things that they used to do. Often, when they do go outside, they love their time there, but it’s hard to get them out the door. [starts at 20:20]

Our final question is from Nadia, who is trying to figure out how to support her children as they attend school at her ex-husband’s insistence. She’s wondering what her options are as she believes unschooling would be a better path for them, though it feels like she doesn’t have a choice given the circumstances. [starts at 43:21]

Things mentioned in the episode

Pam’s interview on Clubhouse, hosted by Galileo, How to Invigorate Your Unschooling Journey

Submit your own question for a future Q&A episode

The Living Joyfully Network

Blog post: “You Have to Limit Screen Time”

EU182: Unschooling and Video Games

EU119: Gaming and Growing Up Unschooling

EU068: Unschooling and Technology

Roya Dedeaux’s book, Connect with Courage

EU286: Connect with Courage with Roya Dedeaux

EU305: In Celebration of Unschooling Part 7

EU240: Kids are Capable with Anna Brown

Episode transcript

Read the transcript

Video

Watch the YouTube video

The Living Joyfully Network community

The Network is a wonderful online community for parents to connect and engage in candid conversations about living and learning through the lens of unschooling. Our shared goals are to embrace lifelong learning, develop strong and connected relationships with our children, and cultivate a thriving unschooling lifestyle in our families.

This month, our theme is Cultivating Self Awareness and we’re exploring it through the lenses of curiosity and acceptance.

If you’re curious to learn more, click here!

Consider becoming a podcast patron

I deeply appreciate all my patrons. Your generous support helps pay for the hosting and transcription, as well as my time spent creating new episodes each week. It’s instrumental in keeping the growing podcast archive freely available to anyone who’s curious and wants to explore the fascinating world of unschooling. If you’d like to join my community of patrons and scoop up some great rewards along the way, check out the Exploring Unschooling page on Patreon.