The Unschool Space

My guest today is Sarah Rose. Sarah lives in Maine with her husband and her 11-year old daughter. Her family’s journey to unschooling stemmed from their daughter’s illness, which resulted in her leaving school and embarking on a long healing journey at home. We talk today about providing a judgment-free space in which our children feel seen and supported, and the deep inner work we need to undertake in order to do this. We also chat about how uncomfortable a child with their own voice can make people feel, and Sarah shares how she has embraced her daughter’s natural activism and self-advocacy.

You can connect with Sarah on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/magic.of.unschooling/

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

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

I’m so delighted to be talking today with Peter Gray, author and research professor at Boston College. Many of you will have read his wonderful book, Free to Learn, or his regular writing for Psychology Today about children, play and learning.

Among many things, we talk today about his experience of self-directed education through his son, what self-directed children are doing that makes their learning so different from what happens in schools, what he learned through his research into unschooled children, and his inspiring vision for learning in the future. 

You can find Peter Gray's writing at: Peter Gray Ph.D. | Psychology Today

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

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

My guest today is Lou Westall, who lives in Brighton, in the UK, (though she was travelling in South Africa when we recorded this episode). Lou and her husband have two daughters, who are 6 and 8. They had never considered home education until their eldest daughter began school, and things just didn’t feel quite, particularly regarding the early approach to academic subjects. After deregistering her from school, they spent a while finding their feet, first trying some school at home, then finally reaching an unschooling way of life. We talk today about the importance of community, how living in partnership with our children is a far more joyful approach to life, and how learning naturally occurs. We also talk about the inevitable challenges and triggers that are likely to come up in anyone’s journey. 

Connect with Lou on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/discovering.wonder/

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

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

Today, I’m chatting with Ashley Short. who lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband and two sons, who are 6 and 9. Ashley is a former teacher, and her family came to unschooling during the pandemic, when her son, who had always found the school environment difficult, refused to engage in any school-like work.

Among other things, we talk about prioritising relationships above everything, living a slower, more intentional life, and how we can meet everyone’s needs, including of course, our own. I hope you enjoy the conversation.

You can connect with Ashley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleyasmama/

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

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

My guest this episode is Amanda Diekman. Amanda lives in North Carolina with her husband and three sons, who are 6, 8 and 10. Amanda’s journey to unschooling started with her 8 year-old who is autistic, PDA and the reality that school was a difficult and traumatic experience for him. Her 10 year old son, who is also autistic later chose also to leave school. We talk about how we can meet the needs of a PDA child, and how essential it is that we leave behind any mainstream ideas about parenting and education that are unlikely to serve us.

Amanda talks us through how adopting low demand parenting has helped both her and her son heal, and about how unschooling looks very different according to each child.

You can find out more about Amanda's work at https://www.amandadiekman.net
Connect with Amanda on Instagram: @lowdemandamanda

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

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

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, workshop 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, workshop 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, workshop 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, workshop and courses at:
www.esther-jones.com

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

You can find my blog, workshop 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, workshop 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, workshop 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, workshop 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, Tumana, who is 7 and Hine who is 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 and her children on Instagram:
@mama.on.the.legogram
@tumanalegomaster
@hinecreates

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

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

A few people have asked me to talk about my journey so, in this episode, my good friend Nicola Corcoran is taking over as host, and is interviewing me : ) Nicola has two children, who are 19 and 16, and she and I often enjoy long conversations pondering our experiences as mothers, and as people in the world, so it's a delight to have this conversation with her today.

We talk about how my family came to unschooling and all the unraveling I've had to do of my own beliefs around children and education. We also talk about the things we need in order to sustain and nurture ourselves as we hold space for our children to be and grow.

If you’d like to hear more about Nicola’s story you can hear her in Episode #2 of The Unschool Space. I hope you enjoy the conversation.

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

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

Today, I’m chatting with Jane Evans from New Zealand. Jane has three adult children, who are now 23, 21 and 18. We talk about how important it is to trust our children and the choices they make, and how learning can just take so many forms. And, we reflect on how vastly different each person’s path will be if it comes from their own deep knowing. As always we dip into the topic of tending ourselves too, and the importance of investing time in our own happiness, not just to strengthen our capacities, but also because whether we like it or not, we are always an example for our children. 

Jane has recently written a book about her family’s unschooling journey, called Natural Learning. The Unschooling Life, and we also talk about what motivated her to share her family’s story.

You can connect with Jane on Instagram 
You can find Natural Learning. The Unschooling Life on Amazon.com

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

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

My guest today is Eliza Fricker. Eliza has a 14-year old daughter who is autistic, PDA, and who struggled hugely with school. Eliza spent many years attempting to navigate the education system and advocate for her daughter, but after much frustration and despair, finally decided that leaving mainstream education was the only option. Eliza has published a book called Missing the Mark, in which, through her illustrations, she shows her process of trying to navigate a confusing, system which often fails to embrace neurodivergent children for who they are, focusing instead on the fixing of the child. She has also published The Family Experience of PDA, and a four-part podcast on her family's experiences, and now works to help families who are in a similar position. 

Today, Eliza shares how life has looked since her daughter left school, and how they embarked on the slow process of healing. Among other things, we chat about the enormous importance of being in the right environment, and how our own deschooling is key to accepting our children just as they are. And, we dream a little about how effective, inclusive learning environments could actually look. I hope you enjoy the conversation. 

If you'd like to find out more about Eliza or connect with her, you can find her at https://missingthemark.blog/

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

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

My guest today is Arielle Nobile. Arielle is an artist, musician and filmmaker who lives with her husband and 11-year-old daughter. They moved recently from Illinois to Argentina, where her husband, who is also an artist, is from.

Arielle and her family came to unschooling mid-pandemic after a number of years struggling with the school system, and in particular with their daughter being bullied. They made several school changes, and even moved from Colorado to Arielle's native Illinois in search of a better environment. Finally, after witnessing their daughter's stress on returning to school after lockdown they made the choice to deregister her.

Among other things, we talk today about how life flows differently when external expectations are removed, finding space for ourselves in our relationships with our children, and how it all always comes back to trust. I hope you enjoy the conversation.

Arielle's podcast: https://www.belongingintheusa.com/podcast

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

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

In this episode, I chat with Bria Bloom, from Portland, Oregon. Bria lives with her husband and her 11-year-old stepson, who attends a self-directed education project. I've known Bria for some time through her work as Community Manager for The Alliance for Self-Directed Education (ASDE), but only recently found out that she was unschooled herself.

Today, we talk about her experience as an unschooler who went on to university, and how her upbringing has influenced the choices she has made in her life and her parenting. Bria and her husband are expecting a baby this summer, so we also talk about how unschooling starts at birth. From letting go of expectations, creating boundaries for ourselves, asking for help, and trusting the process, we see the same threads weaving their way through childbirth, the baby and toddler years, through to being parents of teenagers. And we talk about the evolution that Bria has seen in unschooling in the US through her work at the Alliance. I hope you enjoy the conversation.

You can follow Bria on Twitter: @BriaBlooms
Find out more about the ASDE here: https://www.self-directed.org

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

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