Kids need to play. It seems like an obvious statement, as central to childhood as eating peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches and chasing fireflies. For generations, parents have known that a play-filled childhood is essential for healthy physical and mental development. They didn’t need to read the latest research findings on play. They didn’t need experts to…
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Why Unschoolers Grow Up to Be Entrepreneurs
Almost by definition, entrepreneurs are creative thinkers and experimental doers. They reject the status quo and devise new approaches and better inventions. They are risk-takers and dreamers, valuing ingenuity over convention. They get things done. It shouldn’t be surprising to learn that many unschoolers become entrepreneurs.
In the Wake of Mass Shootings, Parents Reconsider Mass Schooling
Instead of overreacting, parents who decide to remove their children from school to homeschool them may be acknowledging the disconnect between the inherent coercion of compulsory mass schooling and the freedom to live in the genuine world around us. Rather than sheltering their children, parents who select the homeschooling option may be endeavoring to widen their child’s community, broaden their experiences, and restore their emotional well-being.
Walk Out and Don’t Go Back
Today, students across America will join in a national school walkout day to memorialize the 17 people tragically killed in the recent Parkland, Florida school shooting and to advocate for stricter gun control laws. But what if they don’t go back?
Factory-Like Schools Are the Child Labor Crisis of Today
There is mounting evidence that increasingly restrictive schooling, quickly consuming the majority of childhood, is damaging children. Rates of childhood anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and other mental illness are surging.
Jessica’s Journey (1h20m) – Episode 084
Episode 084 welcomes Jessica Burden to the podcast for a chat with Skyler. Topics include: books, living in Washington State, Facebook diplomacy, free range childhood, public school to homeschool to unschool, and back to public school, raising her younger brother, learning responsibility from a young age, meeting her husband through an online dating website, practicing several different parenting philosophies at once, the benefits of multi-generational households, unschoolers considering school, parental displays of affection, our growing children and the forthcoming teen years, !Kung san bushmen parenting, her availability for anyone, especially women, for counseling on having babies and body image.
Letter To a Prospective Homeschooling Parent
Welcome to the exciting world of learning without schooling! You have already taken the important first step in redefining your child’s education by acknowledging the limitations of mass schooling, recognizing the ways it can dull a child’s curiosity and exuberance, and seeking alternatives to school. Now it’s time to take a deep breath, exhale, and explore.
Brent’s Journey (1h14m) – Episode 081
Episode 081 welcomes Brent Mayberry to the podcast for a chat with Skyler. Topics covered include: growing up in Arizona, his father’s medical doctor credentials from Mexico, public school, three different college majors including economics, LDS mission to Argentina, serving in the Army National Guard as a staunch Conservative, being deployed in Africa near Somalia (Djibouti), journey to voluntaryism, his wife and kids, being a stay-at-home unschooling dad, screen time, influencing others, Utah Patients Coalition, and more.
There Are Consequences for Eliminating Free Play
Mammals are innately playful. Our large brains and complex social structures require that we learn vast amounts of information in childhood to help us thrive in adulthood. How do mammal children learn all of this? They play.
Bully-Proofing Won’t Work Until We Give Kids More Freedom
Children who are bullied in school have very few choices and very little recourse. Required by law to attend an assigned public school, many children and their parents have minimal agency to withdraw from a bullying scenario. Some parents will look for alternative schooling options for their bullied children, like private schools, charter schools, online schools, or homeschooling. But for many families, these choices are not available or accessible.