Karla Marie Williams is back joining Annie Friday and Candis Ogilvie once again to bust some of the myths and traps commonly surrounding unschooling. There are seven common pitfalls that Karla the Unschooling Mama reminds us look out for in our practice with young people. Sometimes the grownups in the unschooling relationship can forget who and what it is all about. Allowing your young person's experiences to unfold without adding your expectations, hopes, and dreams to the mix is key to finding the right way for you to unschool.

Candis Ogilvie and Annie Friday are joined this week by Dan and Kai from the Unschooling with Kai podcast. Dan and Kai share about some of their favorite video games to play. They also dive into the various ways they to learn to play - using YouTube, playing along with friends, and finding their intersecting interests. To parents and caregivers who have a hard time understanding what all the screen time is about, this is a great listen. You'll learn about ways to connect with the young people in your life even if you yourself aren't a gamer.

Kisa Marx is back to talk more about moving her program from a playful space to a genuine space. Relying on her intuition, experience, and awareness, Kisa leaned into the deprogramming she had to do within herself and her program to truly center children. In deconstructing and reconstructing, Kisa has now made space for all humans in her program to show each other authenticity and genuine emotions. Find more from Kisa at Kid Crew Adventures.

Kisa Marx of Kid Crew Adventures joins the show to talk about what's normal and what's not normal about after school overwhelm and what has come to be known as "after-school restraint collapse." For many young people these days, they are simply happy to be reunited with their safe people at the end of a long day although they express that relief in the form of big shows of emotions. It can be frustrating to be the parent receiving those big emotions. Just how normal is this kind of experience? What questions can we ask as parents to support our young people? What actions can we take as educators to reduce the pressure on kids in school? Hear this and so much more from Kisa!

Host Annie Friday invites her 92-year-old grandmother-in-law to join the show and share some golden nuggets of parenting. "Adventure Grandma" - as she is known for always promoting play and adventure - tells us about how she centered core values while her children were young to serve as a guide to raising kids. Not worrying about being permissive allowed Grandma to see each child's individuals needs and give them each what they needed when possible. The biggest piece of advice is the simplest - listen to your kids.

Ben and Genevieve are two unschooling teenagers who are setting out on a new project dedicated to youth liberation. The two will embark on a journey to explore various styles of unschooling and self-directed education. Ben and Genevieve plan to start at Not Back to School Camp in Oregon this summer and then hit the road to cross the country gather stories along the way on the many lifestyles that families are living without school. They'll then turn their findings into a multi-episode documentary series that explores the themes and stories of Learning and Liberation. Find out more and donate to their crowdsourcing: https://seedandspark.com/fund/learning-and-liberation#story

Sometimes self-directed learning seems like something for the privileged who have nothing but time on their hands to wander through the woods and slowly cook meals together in the family kitchen with freshly foraged ingredients. Raquel Knack returns to talk to Annie about how her family made specific choices to allow them to find an alternative to conventional schools. Self-directed learning will be a unique experience for every family. The one commonality is that it places the power of choice in the hands of the learner rather than some pre-determined set of information uniformly applied to young people based on age.

Raquel Knack joins Annie this week to share how after raising two children in conventional schooling, she took a different route for the second time around with her youngest child. Raquel shares how she was a rebel parent in the schools opting out of parent-teacher conferences and PTA meetings. In raising all three of her children, she honored and centered their humanity first. Raquels shares that the subject of math is what nearly broke her and led her into her unschooling experience.

Troy Salazar joins again to troubleshoot some sticky areas in his first few months of running a self-directed learning space. Annie, Candis, and Troy talk out the schoolish need to be constantly improving and doing better and how to release that. Bringing awareness to the deschooling process within your community can be a main guiding force as you settle into new routines and rhythms.

Troy Salazar, founder, director and facilitator of Liberty Self Directed Learning Center in Des Moines, Iowa, shares with us about his experience leaving his 22-year public school career behind. Liberty opened this fall to create a space that centers children, consent, and fun in learning. Troy shares some of the excitement and challenges of opening a center. Troy's experience of growing in his comfort as he begins to deschool mirrors closely to Annie and Candis' own experiences of shedding the programming of school.