Possum Magic again, are you for real kid?! from www.shutterstock.com We often hear about the benefits of reading storybooks at bedtime for promoting vocabulary, early literacy skills, and a good relationship with your child. But the experts haven’t been in your home, and your child requests the same book every single night, sometimes […]
By Idzie Desmarais In every collection of unschooling skeptics I’ve come across–such as that found in the comments section any time unschooling is covered in a major outlet–you’ll always find the question of why people can’t just unschool part time. Why does it have to be a full-time gig? Can’t children just […]
It takes effort and imagination, but the benefits are many. from www.shutterstock.com Contrary to the belief we Aussies are a nature-loving outdoor nation, research suggestswe’re spending less and less time outdoors. This worrying trend is also becoming increasingly apparent in our educational settings. I have devoted the majority of my teaching and […]
Moral growth is promoted when we allow little ones to act on their instincts. By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn commons An all-too-common belief in our culture —often held implicitly rather than explicitly — is that babies come into the world as either asocial (the “blank slate” belief) or antisocial (the “original sin” […]
If allowed to help, toddlers become great work partners later in childhood. By Peter Gray Ph.D. Freedom to Learn Little toddler helping in kitchen with washing dishes We, in the United States and many other Western nations, more often think of children as sources of extra work than as sources […]
By Idzie Desmarais, I’m Unschooled. Yes, I can write This post originally appeared on my Patreon in March ’17. Occasionally I’ll share an older Patreon post on the main blog, but most of them remain accessible only to patrons. Join me there to see all of them! I talk a lot about ways that […]
Is this the real life? Or is this just fantasy? Nan Palmero/Flickr, CC BY-SA This is an article from Curious Kids, a series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome – serious, weird or wacky! You might also […]
By Idzie Desmarais of I’m unschooled. Yes, I can write There’s a complaint frequently voiced by a segment of life learners and self-directed education advocates, and it is that the term “unschooling” focuses too much on what isn’t happening instead of what is. That’s certainly the way that many mainstream news […]
Encouraging children to make and use a range of maps helps develop their spatial skills, great if they want to read an x-ray, design a building or put up flat-pack furniture later in life. jeshoots.com/Unsplash When we read maps, pack the car for holidays, assemble flat-pack furniture or cut cake […]
If we could stop the high levels of bullying that adolescents with a disability experience, we could make a big difference to their lives. from shutterstock Almost half of the poorer mental health we see in teenagers with a disability is due to bullying, our new research shows. If we could […]