Anna Brown and Erika Ellis join me again this week to dive into listener questions! We explore the idea of unschooling philosophy and strong beliefs, how gaming and unschooling might go together, and the idea of “self-directed” learning.

And, as always, our Q&A conversations aren’t focused on giving anyone the “right” answer, 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 comes from California. The listener wonders about how unschoolers view high academic achievement and whether unschoolers pursue advanced degrees, such as medical degrees or MBAs. [starts at 3:56]

Our second question from Jenn is concerning the idea of learning basic academic skills. Her children spend most of their time gaming and are not interested in reading and writing. She wonders if gaming can be a valuable part of an unschooling lifestyle. [starts at 21:38]

Our final question is another unschooling philosophy question, this time about physical activity and movement. The listener wonders if we are doing more sedentary children a disservice by not insisting on movement activities. [starts at 34:39]

Things mentioned in the episode

Submit your own question for a future Q&A episode

The Living Joyfully Network

College without High School: A Teenager’s Guide to Skipping High School and Going to College by Blake Boles

EU141: Growing Up Unschooling with Alec Traaseth

EU271: Our Unschooling Journey with the Beck Family

Connect with Courage: Practical ways to release fear and find joy in the places your children take you by Roya Dedeaux

Free to Learn and The Unschooling Journey books by Pam Laricchia

EU171: The Magic of Learning to Read Naturally

EU023: Learning to Read in Their Own Time with Anna Ohman

EU119: Gaming and Growing Up Unschooling with Xander MacSwan

EU182: Unschooling and Video Games

“I Can Read, You Know!” article by Pam Laricchia

Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Video Games article by Pam Laricchia

EU148: The Value of Relationships for Learning

Unschooling with Strong Beliefs blog post by Pam Laricchia

Episode transcript

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Video

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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 Four Pillars of Unschooling, loosely based on my book, Free to Learn. We’re focusing on one pillar each week: redefining learning, following their interests, making choices, and “Why not yes?”

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.