The Unschool Space

Today I'm chatting with Melissa Crockett-Joyoue from New Zealand. Melissa was on the podcast about two years ago, so it’s great to catch up with her again. Melissa and her partner have two neurodivergent children, who are now 6 and 9 and they came to unschooling after their son had an extremely challenging time at school. We talk particularly about the challenges of learning beyond school when that is never how you expected life to look, the importance of being able to regulate our own nervous systems, particularly when we have a PDA child or one who struggles to self regulate, and how essential it is to have a supportive community. And we also talk about Weave, the wonderful online community that Melissa runs for unschooling parents of neurodivergent children. 

Weave community link 

Weave Instagram

Connect with Melissa on Instagram 

You can find my blog, workshops and courses at:
www.esther-jones.com

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: @_esther.jones
Facebook:@theunschoolspace

My guest today is Francine Wise. Francine lives in Kent in the UK with her husband and two daughters, who are 8 and 6. They chose this route when their eldest daughter was four years old and school just didn’t feel right. Francine tells us about how she imagined home education and learning would look and the process she went through of trying out lots of different things from Waldorf to Charlotte Mason, and all the frustration that came with that. Eventually she came to the realisation that this was really about living in a way that felt authentic and letting go of expectations, rather than piling on more. how deep our own conditioning goes, some of the ways we can become more aware of how it, and as Francine says, learn to keep shifting our lens and accepting that this is always a journey back to ourselves. 

Connect with Francine
Instagram: @wise_girls_at_home

You can find my blog, workshops and courses at:
www.esther-jones.com

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: @_esther.jones
Facebook:@theunschoolspace

I’m chatting today with Stacey Yates Sellar, a Conscious Parenting Coach and author of Conscious Parenting Your ADHD Child. Stacey and her husband have two boys, who are 13 and 10. Until four years ago, they lived and worked in California, but had many misgivings about the highly competitive schooling system. Eventually they decided to sell their house and travel, and have been worldschooling ever since, and are now in Scotland. Among many other things, we talk about how to let go of our social conditioning and our expectations, embrace our children for who they are and embrace our own imperfect selves.

Connect with Stacey
https://www.happierbytheminute.com

You can find my blog, workshops and courses at:
www.esther-jones.com

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: @_esther.jones
Facebook:@theunschoolspace

Today, my guest is Melissa Miles McCarter, who lives in Missouri with her husband and her 8-year-old daughter Willakate. Melissa worked as a college professor and chose not to put her daughter in school, realising that it wasn’t a system she would thrive in. She talks about what her own deschooling looked like and how she partners with her daughter to help facilitate her interests. And Melissa describes how her daughter’s passion for acting led her to explore script writing and then to producing a film, which they’re working on right now. We also talk about what boundaries are and why we should probably all be looking out for the default no, whilst also understanding what rest and balance looks like. 

Connect with Melissa
 https://linktr.ee/lissahoop

Details about the film
http://thehauntedbelldownschool.com

You can find my blog, workshops and courses at:
www.esther-jones.com

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: @_esther.jones
Facebook:@theunschoolspace

My guest today is Linsey, who lives in the UK with her partner and three children who are 10, 6 and 1 and a half. Her family’s journey to unschooling started when they decided to take their eldest son out of school after two years extremely difficult years. Linsey soon realised that a schooled approach wouldn’t work at home either, so began to lean in to what her son needed and how he was really learning.

Amongst lots of other things, we talk about the deschooling journey and how powerful it is when we start to unpick social expectations of ourselves and of our children, and to start unraveling all our old stories.

Connect with Linsey on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/unschoolingstanley/

You can find my blog, workshops and courses at:
www.esther-jones.com

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: @_esther.jones
Facebook:@theunschoolspace

Today I’m chatting with Claire Windmill who lives in Devon in the UK with her husband and two children, who are seven and nine. Claire was a social worker and early years teacher and is now a parenting mentor and coach. She shares how her family came to unschooling after taking some time out to travel and they realised how much happier and less stressed their children were out of school. We talk about the impact that messages around fitting in and what’s right and what’s wrong can have on children, and what it can look like when children are free to learn and explore. And, of course, we talk about how it all feels for the parent and the difficult work of finding our own balance in all of this, and the huge value of rest and self compassion.

Connect with Claire:
on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clairewindmill/
website: https://clairewindmill.com/

You can find my blog, workshops and courses at:
www.esther-jones.com

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: @_esther.jones
Facebook:@theunschoolspace

My guest today is Robyn Tamlin-Lea. Robyn is South African but now lives in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand, with her husband and two children who are seven and three and a half. Robyn took her daughter out of school when she saw that already at a very early age, there was a strong narrative around academic expectations and her daughter not doing well enough. We talk about how when we sit back and observe, there is so much learning happening all the time, and how beyond the academic learning, living in this way with our children allows us to value so many other things, such as rest, learning about our own rhythms, and recognising and meeting our own needs.

Connect with Robyn on Instagram 

You can find my blog, workshops and courses at:
www.esther-jones.com

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: @_esther.jones
Facebook:@theunschoolspace

This episode, I’m chatting with Danii Oliver, who lives in Texas with her husband and two children who are almost 6 and 11. Danii shares her story of leaving New York City behind in search of something new for and her and family, and to live a more gentle and connected life, which they now do on their permaculture farm in Texas. We talk about the deschooling process and how, even though Danii was clear from the start that they would unschool, it still took her a lot of work to unravel the deep conditioning she had from her Caribbean childhood and her own school experiences. There’s so much in this episode, but I think the main message is that we have to trust and let go in order to really see our children and allow them to be who they are. I hope you enjoy the conversation.

You can follow Danii here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kidofamilyranch
Website: http://www.unschooldiscoveries.com/

Danii's book. Unschool Discoveries is available on her website

You can find my blog, workshops and courses at:
www.esther-jones.com

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: @_esther.jones
Facebook:@theunschoolspace

In this episode. I’m delighted to chat with Heidi Steel who was first on the podcast in 2021. Heidi is a former teacher and has four children who are 16, 15, 12 and 9 and who have never been to school. Heidi shares what unschooling looks like for her family and we talk about the enormous value of play in children’s learning and development. And, amongst other things we also discuss how valuing our children’s voices and opinions over compliance is essential for them as they get older, and how living in this consensual way with our children can be far more joyful for everyone. I hope you enjoy the conversation.

Connect with Heidi
Website: https://liveplaylearn.org
Instagram: @liveplaylearn1
Podcast: unschooling conversations

You can find my blog, workshops and courses at:
www.esther-jones.com

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: @_esther.jones
Facebook:@theunschoolspace

Once in a while it felt like it could be helpful to take a moment to answer some of the most common questions that I get. Of course, every family is completely different, so if any of these questions or worries are relevant to you, you might want to take my thoughts as a hopefully useful starting point for your own reflections. 

Let me know if this is helpful for you and if you’ve any particular questions you’d like to hear discussed in the future.  You can drop me a line at [email protected]

So, today, I am going to dive into four questions that come up a lot

- What if my children don’t want to do anything?
- What about exams or if they want to go back to school?
- What if my partner isn’t on board?
-  What can I do if I'm feeling tired or lonely?

In this episode, I mention Peter Gray. You can find his blog on Psycology Today here and the link to his research about grown unschoolers here.

You can also find The Unschool Space episode in which Peter Gray was a guest here.

And, the episodes of The Unschool Space in which I talk with fathers are:
#10 Unschooling teens, the importance of mental health, and a father's perspective, with Anthony Eldridge-Rogers
 #17 The right environment and lots of trust - two essential ingredients for unschooling with autism/PDA, with Simon Crummay
#52 Intentional deschooling and lining up with our values, with Daniel Moeller in Pennsylvania

You can find my blog, workshops and courses at:
www.esther-jones.com

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: @_esther.jones
Facebook:@theunschoolspace