In this episode, I am talking with Stephanie McDowell. Stephanie lives in the US with her husband and five-year old daughter and is a former high-school teacher. Burnt out from her teaching career, she and her husband chose to homeschool their daughter, but Stephanie found the structure and school-focused ways of the homeschooling community an uncomfortable mismatch. She realised that she needed to focus first on herself and began to unpick some trauma from her childhood and her relationship with food. Stephanie shares how a large part of the healing work came from realising that there is no one way to live, as she had been told as a child and how this helps her to live in a more authentic way with her daughter. 

Stephanie's website: https://www.mamabearyourself.com/

Weave online community: https://weave-community.mn.co/

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

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estherjones.unschooling
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUnschoolSpace

In this episode I am chatting with Linda Velwest, who lives in New Jersey and has three adult son, now aged 26, 28 and 31, who were all unschooled for many years. It’s always lovely to talk with parents of adult unschoolers, and Linda reflects on their journey, the very different paths each child took and the many things that she and her family all took from the experience.

Linda also recently published a fiction book called City Rescue Pets: Second Chances for Love and Hope featuring an unschooling family, and inspired by her own family’s fostering adventures. You can find the link to that in the notes. I hope you enjoy the conversation!

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

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estherjones.unschooling
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUnschoolSpace

Today I am chatting with Ash Winton. Ash has lived in Queensland, Australia for the last 12 years, but is originally from Alaska, and is of the indigenous Tlingit people. She and her husband, who run a trail building company, have a four and half year old son, who they unschool and plan to continue doing so. Among lots of things, we talk about what natural learning looks like, how social norms can often be in direct opposition to our intuition, and the importance in all this of being in touch with our own nervous systems, and what it means to be our true selves. I hope you enjoy the conversation.

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

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estherjones.unschooling
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUnschoolSpace

I’m delighted to be chatting today with Maddy, who is a doctor and lives in Somerset with her husband and son who is 13 and daughter who is 14. Maddy’s daughter left school two years ago after beginning secondary school and not coping at all. Maddy talks about what burnout looked like for her daughter and how her daughter was able to slowly reconnect with the things she loved and is now thriving. And Maddy talks about letting go of the “shoulds” of school and learning has been life changing for her too. I hope you enjoy the conversation. 

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

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estherjones.unschooling
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUnschoolSpace

I’m really happy to be talking today with Holly from South Wales, who I first spoke to two years ago. We talk in depth about Holly’s experiences of accompanying her children through burnout and emotional distress. We talk about how unschooling can offer us the time and space to do this in a far more compassionate way than our society preaches, and how as adults we are often programmed to just keep rushing and pushing through. Holly shares how her own recent experiences also offered her a deeper understanding of her children. And, we talk about the importance of community and support to help us through the challenging times.

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

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estherjones.unschooling
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUnschoolSpace

I’m delighted to welcome back Claire Gillespie, who was a guest on the podcast almost two years ago. Claire lives in the UK with her husband and two sons, who are 15 and 17, and who left the school system around six years ago. Claire now works as a coach and also runs a creative business called The Cardboard Shed. Today we talk about why it takes so much courage to leave mainstream school, even when it isn’t working, and how taking that step caused such a huge shift in her own life. We also talk about the importance of nurturing our relationships and looking after ourselves, and of seeing all the things that can flourish when we give them the space.

Connect with Claire on Instagram

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

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estherjones.unschooling
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUnschoolSpace

Today I’m with Mariam Carter who lives in Southern California with her husband and two sons, who are 12 and 9. Their oldest son is autistic and the family’s jouney to unschooling journey began during the pandemic. Mariam describes the shift she had to make from equating life success with academic achievement, what it means to trust the journey when your child learns differently, and how her job as a mental health therapist is such a parallel journey. And we talk about what it means to create a place of safety where our children can explore their autonomy and agency.   I hope you enjoy the conversation. 

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

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estherjones.unschooling
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUnschoolSpace

My guest today is Makeba Garraway. Originally from the UK, Makeba moved to Silicon Valley with her husband and two children who are now 12 and 9, seven years ago. They came to unschooling after realising that mainstream school did not feel like a good fit for their eldest and not finding any alternative either. Makeba worked as a doctor in the UK and we talk about that shift to no longer working, and what it meant to take a new look at an education system that she had outwardly thrived in. And amongst lots of other things, we talk about autonomy and our children’s hygiene, how a deep dive into gaming came to its natural end, and how we handle the heartbreak in the world in our conversations with our children.

Connect with Makeba on Instagram

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

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estherjones.unschooling
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUnschoolSpace

My guest in this episode is Nicola Leyland. Nicola has two children who are now 19 and 17. Her journey to unschooling began when her son was just eight years old and had an accident that resulted in a brain injury. Nicola talks about her experience of seeing everything fall apart, and her son’s traumatic return to school, and the consequences of following what others said she should do rather than what she felt was right. And she shares the journey of taking her children out of school and slowly building something new that’s based on choice and agency. We talk about the freedom that Nicola has also found as she has unpicked the social conditioning she grew up with, and her rediscovered creativity that she now channels into making short films about her family’s experience. 

Connect with Nicola

https://www.youtube.com/@WildlyCompassionate

[email protected]

https://www.instagram.com/wildlycompassionate_

https://www.facebook.com/wildlycompassionate

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

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estherjones.unschooling
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUnschoolSpace

My guest this episode is Ivana Petersen, who is from Croatia and her husband is from Denmark. They have three children who are 13, 10 and 7. They took their eldest two children out of school six years ago, feeling burnt out by the stress and lack of connection of modern life. Ivana describes the healing journey that took place as they searched for a more authentic and aligned way to live. From there it became a natural progression to unschooling and then finally to worldschooling. The family has been travelling now for several years, and Ivana explains how that lifestyle looks and how it has been a healing experience for them all. I hope you enjoy the conversation. 

Connect with Ivana:

Worldschooling blog: www.ivanapetersen.dk

Instagram: ivanapetersen.dk and barefeet.around.the.world

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

Or, connect with me on
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estherjones.unschooling
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheUnschoolSpace