The very, very squiggly story of how we became a home educating family, including:

• How we ended up at financial rock-bottom as 30 year olds (with two young children). • How despite that we’ve made it possible to always have at least one of us not working and at home with the children. • How we found the experience of attending three different schools across two different countries. • How a serious chronic illness threatened to derail our life plans, but actually helped keep us on the right path. • How our first attempt at homeschooling was an exhausting mess. • How we started de-schooling ourselves, and eventually settled into unschooling. You know how you look at those families online and say ‘wow, life has been so easy for them - no wonder they can make a lifestyle like that work’? Yeah, that's not us.

How We Became A Home Educating Family

Heyyyy, welcome to the Life Without School podcast by Stark Raving Dad! Here to help you and your children live the life *you* want to, not just the one you’re told you should.

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Parenting

In this episode, I spend some time examining three common perceptions that are unique to unschooling:That unschooling is 'unparenting'That unschooling will create lazy childrenAnd that unschooling means you have no rules or structure whatsoeverIt’s a super interesting discussion that leads us through areas like life rhythms, autonomy and motivation, and regardless of whether you’re unschooling or not I think you’ll find this episode really useful!

Don't Believe These Unschooling Myths

In this episode, I'm sharing six ways you can overcome any feelings you have about not being 'enough' as a home educating parent. Not smart enough, organised enough, social enough, qualified enough... I wrote a post recently that started scratching at the surface of this. Today, we're digging deep.

You Are Enough

In this episode I'm talking more about something this podcast was literally born from: the idea of children falling behind where they should be.

First, I talk about how the world generally views progress in childhood, and why it’s so problematic and broken. And then second, I present a different view of that. A different idea of measurement and benchmarking and progress for our children.

Wherever you are in your journey right now, I hope this way of looking at things brings you and your children some comfort, some reassurance, and some *confidence*.

Your Child Is Falling Behind

In this episode I'm going to do something that might feel a bit uncomfortable. But if we want to move education forward in any real meaningful way, the kind of thinking I’m about to take you through is incredibly important. I’m going to take some of the main questions that home educators are traditionally asked - some of the main worries people express when they hear you’re a home educating family - and then I’m very simply going to turn them around. I’m going to ask them of the formal education system that’s currently in place almost globally. And I’m going to put some pressure on that system to give us honest answers to those questions. I think you’ll find this conversation, and the questions it asks, both interesting and challenging - whether you’re home educating or not!

(my coaching, course and community resources: https://starkravingdadblog.com/shop/)

Turning Around The "Ohhhh, You Homeschool?" Questions

With so many families making the decision to leave the formal education system and take their own path through life, it also means there are a whole lot of grandparents out there going... Hold on, what’s happening here?! We have a comprehensive, effective school system designed specifically to educate us in all the areas we’ll need to fully prepare for life. Why on earth would anyone walk away from that? And...what’s going to happen to my grandchildren now that they’ve had the opportunity to go through that system taken away? It...just seems a bit crazy. Grandparents, I hear you. So today, in this episode, I’m sitting down to have a chat with *you*.

p.s. if you enjoy this episode, I've written a guide on this topic called The Home Schooling Guide for Grandparents. There’s lot of the same material covered, but the process of reading and reflection is quite different to listening. Take a look :-)

How We Became A Home Educating Family

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