Today’s conversation is with Emma Hosfeld from Illinois. Emma lives with her husband and three children, who are 7, 5 and 4. Emma traces the roots of her journey to unschooling back to when she was pregnant and the sense of disempowerment she felt within the medical system, and the choices she then made for a more empowered birth experience. 

She describes how unschooling has affected many areas of her life, and how it has given her the confidence to create a lifestyle that feels authentic to her, from leaving her 9-5 job to building a thriving community around her. Among many things, we talk about how children naturally learn, how to tend their needs and our own, and the huge importance of community. 

You can connect with Emma on Instagram: @emma_hosfeld

Emma also publishes her writing at: growwiththem.substack.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, I am beyond thrilled to be chatting with Pam Laricchia. Pam lives in Ontario, Canada and has three adult children, who are now 30, 28 and 25, and I came across her website about unschooling, which is called Living Joyfully,  early on in my own journey, when I was still a little shaky. I found her so incredibly warm and reassuring. So, it was such a huge delight to be able to invite her to The Unschool Space and to have this wonderful conversation with her.

Pam has written extensively about unschooling, both on her blog, and also in several published books. She also runs a podcast called Exploring Unschooling, and has just begun a new podcast called Living Joyfully. Today, we really talk about what it means to live joyfully and about how the way we live in relationship with others is at the heart of all of this.

You can find Pam's work at https://livingjoyfully.ca
Connect with Pam on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pamlaricchia/

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 Lainie Liberti. Lainie is originally from California, but, in 2008, decided to go travelling with her 9-year-old son for a year. She closed the business she had been running for some years and took her son out of school. He is 24 now and they never went back. They’ve travelled extensively, given a Ted talk together on worldschooling, and they now both live in Mexico.

Lainie has recently published a book about partnership parenting with teenagers, and she and her son run twice-yearly retreats for teenagers. Today, Lainie shares her experiences of travelling with her son, her realisations around learning and education, and how, as parents, we have the obligation to dig deep into our own conditioning in order to allow our children to be  free to be their authentic selves. And, of course, Lainie shares some of her insights around parenting teenagers.

Find out more about Lainie's work here: https://projectworldschool.com

TedX talk by Lainie and her son, Miro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH-kQJ10WWo

Contact Lainie on Instagram: @ilainie

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 Marni Kammersel from Boulder, Colorado. Marni lives with her husband and three children, who are 13, 10 and 6. She tells us about her family’s recent transition from an eclectic homeschool style to full-on unschooling, a move inspired by her oldest entering his teens, and her youngest having a huge need for autonomy. We talk about how nuanced some of this shift can be, and how so much of it is more about our intention than what we actually do. She also talks about how dropping time limits on screen use was a major part of this shift, and her observations on how that is playing out with her children. 

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

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

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 Katy, who lives in Connecticut with her husband, her five year old son and her two year old daughter. Katy and her family have just started out on their unschooling journey. As a teacher for many years, Katy had frequently felt uneasy about many aspects of mainstream education, but felt she had no other option for her children. When her son began preschool she realised how bad a fit for him school would be and that they had to look at alternatives.   

We talk today about how deeply conditioned we are by our time at school, how the school lens can negatively affect how we see and interact with our children, and how unschooling our children can lead us to rediscovering ourselves and living in a more connected way.

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 Emily Ghassempour. Emily has a son and a daughter, who are 8 and nearly 6, and they left mainstream school just six months ago. School had become a source of extreme stress for the whole family. Daily meltdowns and anxiety finally culminated in the children refusing to go to school and in the family’s decision that they had to try something else. The children now go to the self-directed East Kent Sudbury School three days a week. Emily describes the changes she’s seen as they have relaxed into living and learning naturally, and how she feels as though she has finally got her children back. We talk about deschooling, healing from school trauma, and how liberating it is for everyone to step off the treadmill. 

You can find Emily on Instagram at @home_ed_with_em_

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 Ann Hansen from Oregon. Ann has two sons, who are now 19 and 20. They went to an alternative school for a couple of years but decided to try out unschooling and were immediately hooked.

Besides teaching yoga, Ann now works as a coach with other families who choose not to take the mainstream route. Today Ann reflects on what she learned during those unschooling years and how having the freedom to choose their paths has given her sons the tools to navigate life according to their own needs and desires.
We also talk about what we need to support ourselves on this journey.

You can connect with Ann on Instagram @innerparentcoaching or at https://www.innerparentcoaching.com/

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

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

This week I’m chatting with Melissa Crockett-Joyoue from New Zealand. Melissa lives with her wife Doria and their two children, who are 7 and 4. Their journey to unschooling began about a year ago because their son, who is diagnosed dyslexic and gifted found school extremely difficult and stressful. Both Melissa and Doria have also had life-threatening health issues which have impacted the children and led to severe separation anxiety. We talk about Melissa’s deschooling experiences, how unschooling is helping her family to heal from their recent trauma and upheaval, and how learning about our children helps us to discover ourselves.

You can find Melissa on Instagram:
@mama.weaves
@weave_ND

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 Iris Chen, author of the wonderful book, Untigering: Peaceful Parenting for the Deconstructing Tiger Parent. Iris and her husband have two boys, who are 12 and 14, and in the book Iris charts her journey from strict, perfectionist mother to advocate of peaceful parenting and unschooling.

Iris is Chinese American, as is her husband, so her book addresses the cultural conditioning that she had to shed in order to parent in a way that felt truly coherent to her. Among other things, we talk about how we can go about untangling all our own conditioning, how to hold ourselves with compassion as we do the work, and the healing that naturally arises from the work. I hope you enjoy the conversation,

You can find out more about Iris' work at https://untigering.com
Iris' book is available on Amazon. 

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

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