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.

The system of schooling in the US is failing not just students, but also teachers.Teacher shortages are high, morale is low. According to the Washington Post, K-12 education lost more than 21,000 workers in September. Teachers, parents, school administrators, politicians are all pointing fingers at each other. Could this be a sign that it's time for a bigger shift?

There is a pervasive myth that homeschoolers don't socialize outside of their home. Annie and Candis are once again joined by Carol Kohl to bust that myth. Together they talk about the authentic socialization opportunities that can be such a beautiful - and essential - part of the unschooling experience.

Carol Kohl joins Annie and Candis this week to talk about how stepping away from schoolish, productivity-based mindsets, we can learn how to balance out our natural need for rest. As adults going through a deschooling process, we can have a hard time remembering to allow for those slower moments, days, periods of our lives. Together they explore how to make more space for noticing when rest is needed.

In this episode Annie and Candis talk Childism and Adultism in parenting, society, and SDE environments with special guest Iris Chen of Untigering. What is adultism? How does it present in society? And how can we support our children through adultist situations?

Annie and Candis share their background story of how they met and connected over the realization that the system wasn't working. They delve into the risk involved with leaving a crumbling system behind. They share the fears and insights that came along with leaning into the world of unschooling. They discuss some of the work that has gotten them to this point, walking through deschooling steps they've taken to allow them to dive in head first.

Annie and Candis are back after a summer of rest and reflection. They share with you some of their inward explorations; talk briefly about the move of their business that helps support unschoolers; and dive into some of the feelings associated with not sending kids back to school for the first time.

Annie and Candis continue the conversation on power and weapon play. This time they are joined by Samuel Broaden of Honoring Childhood who shares his views on the importance of consent and collaboration when engaging in weapon-based play. Samuel also highlights some of the benefits that come along with this type of power play.

Annie and Candis are joined once again by Ashley Jefferson. This is the first part of a multi-episode series on Weapon and Power Play. Ashley shares more about the values of her Pan-African Program in Georgia and her way of supporting healthy gun play. Keys include establishing consent, finding a yes space, supporting difficult conversations, and recognizing that children are fully capable of understanding the difference between play and reality. In light of recent events of gun violence in our country, we wanted to highlight the importance of young people discovering power dynamics safely through play.

One of the most daunting pieces of unschooling for many is figuring out how your kids will learn. Karla the Unschooling Mama joins Annie and Candis once again. This time they are exploring how to engage in activities along the path to self-directed learning in order to find the interests of your children. Karla tells the story about how a birthday outing to an Air Zoo to look at planes turned into a field of study and now career for one of her oldest. 10 years into unschooling with now 6 teenagers, Karla is full of ideas to spark learning and build community along the way.