Send him mail. “One Improved Unit” is an original bi-weekly column appearing every other Monday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by the founder and editor Skyler J. Collins. Archived columns can be found here. OIU-only RSS feed available here. I will own this interpretation, but I think that all voluntaryism really comes down to is a system of…
Tag: behavior
Natural Consequences
Writes Matt Stocks: My wife and I recently went through a Love and Logic course. It was interesting because it was presented through the filters of statists with a belief in social contract, etc. We took the parts we felt were simply dealing with addressing a child not following the NAP and how do we…
Children Are People
Writes Kicking it Unschool: Children are people. Whole people. People with rights. People with likes and dislikes. People with wants and needs. People with opinions and perspectives unique to themselves. When we bring a child into our home, we are bringing a younger, less experienced person home, but a person nonetheless. A person who deserves…
What Do Peaceful Parenting Homes Look Like?
Writes Free Your Kids: What does a peaceful-parenting home look like? I won’t presume to speak for all such homes, but, at first glance, ours doesn’t appear to be “peaceful”, at least in the ways many might suppose. Our home is loud. It is raucous. The children often scream. They often shriek and squeal. Towers…
How to Teach Children to Manage Their Own Behavior
Written by Kelly Bartlett for Parenting From Scratch. As with any “big picture concept” in parenting, the follow-up question is always how? I love this idea, but how does it work? I agree with this, but how am I supposed to put it into practice? I’m on board with this philosophy; can you give some…
Becoming a Man of the World
Send him mail. “Insight for the Young and Unrestrained” is an original weekly column appearing every Thursday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Gregory V. Diehl. Gregory is a writer, musician, educator, and coach for young people at EnabledYouth.com. Archived columns can be found here. IYU-only RSS feed available here. A few months ago, I was living in…
Stop Walking Into the Abyss
Writes Free Your Kids: The first step is the toughest… Mama told me things had to change. We couldn’t continue this way. We had ceased spanking years before. We were still using a combination of yelling, isolation (in the form of a “naughty step”), and shaming to control the children’s behavior. We were drowning. Our…
Play and (Don’t) Walk Away
Written by Nicole Olson for Unschoolers.org. Back in my mainstream days, I was an avid fan of the nanny shows. There were several on at the time, and they all boasted the same thing – that by using their techniques even the most wild of children could be tamed, that houses filled with chaos and…
Control is War
Send him mail. “One Voluntaryist’s Perspective” is an original bi-weekly column appearing every other Monday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by the founder and editor Skyler J. Collins. Archived columns can be found here. OVP-only RSS feed available here. War is clearly destructive. Even war fought totally in self-defense is destructive; destructive to life, liberty, and property. Murray…
Can You “Enforce” Your Limits Without Force?
Written by Laura Markham for Aha! Parenting. This is a terrific question: How can we “enforce” our limits? The short answer is, we can’t force anyone to do anything. All we can do is help our child WANT to meet our expectations and help him develop the emotional regulation so he’s able to do so.…