Episode #9: Deschooling Through the Lens of The Unschool Challenge – Part One
When people first hear the word “deschooling,” they might assume it is all about the children, but they soon realize it can have a whole lot to do with parents as well!
We were so happy to have Sue Elvis join us as we discussed deschooling alongside an overview of her newest book, The Unschool Challenge. Sue has a blog and podcast at Stories of an Unschooling Family. She is also the author of unschooling books: Curious Unschoolers and Radical Unschool Love.
We Discuss:
An overview of The Unschool Challenge and the various ways it can be helpful
The challenges as an invitation to do the work of deschooling, not necessarily in a linear way, but in whatever order and pace works best for an individual parent
How deschooling and Sue’s book aren’t just about kids, but about our own processes as parents as well
Moving forward courageously in endeavours even when we know we’re imperfect, and how deschooling helps us peel back the right answer/wrong answer mentality
How unschooling isn’t quantitative; we can’t deem how successful it is or not using some universal standard
How children are curious and will learn regardless, but the role of deschooling for parents is so substantial
Relationships and connections, and the overflow of this work into our interactions with others, even beyond our children
Differences between what deschooling means when moving toward homeschooling of various styles versus moving toward unschooling – the idea of unravelling and dismantling rather than just decompressing
Getting to a place where we enjoy and delight in life and learning without thinking of them as separate subjects
That unschooling isn’t just about taking rules and other things away, but also adding things in – more of the beautiful things in life that bring connection, joy and curiosity to our particular family
Being gentle with ourselves – deschooling is slow, individual work
The wonderful thing about questions
The goodness of circling back to things we might have read earlier in our deschooling process to ponder and strengthen or renew our growth
Continue on to Part Two here.