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.

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]

Watch the YouTube video

EU141: Growing Up Unschooling with Alec Traaseth

EU271: Our Unschooling Journey with the Beck Family

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

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Read the transcript