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When it comes to raising our children without school, without rules in place and without guided lessons, can we trust them enough to find there own learning path, to make good decisions and to become responsible young adults? When my children became school aged I sent them of to school just like I was taught- as soon as they started public school it just did not feel right, How can I be the parent I want to be, live the life I wanted for my children, filled with adventure and exploration if this was now how our life's where mapped out for us.- I began to question why, after I spent my own childhood attending public school, now as a adult to realise I have not needed any of it in todays world. I have taught myself everything I have needed to learn through research and curiosity. The question on my mind was Will that be enough for my children as well, can I trust them to learn all they need through their own curiosities on this unschooling journey? 3 UNSCHOOLing YEARS LATER.. If it is one thing I have learnt is that children do deserve our TRUST If you are a new unschooling parent , this takes time, its a crazy notion we where all born into a society that creates a barrier in our beliefs that children can not be trusted and that they are not capable of responsible decision making. Once you accept that this isn't the case.Unschooling will become the best decision you ever made for your family. Trust will not be a over night thing. Once you deschool yourself and stop trying to force learning.Your child will begin in believing they are cable of their own path. They will find things they are curious about and begin to " teach" themselves. They will discover independence and trust you will help guide them with their curiosities if they need. Unschooling and trust works 2 ways, its not just you as the parent who has to learn to trust- it is also your child. Once you start unschooling , more trust between you and your child begin to develop ONE Your child will become to TRUST trust - in themselves, that they are more clever then they ever thought possible, they will begin to realise they do not need to be told how to learn something, they do not need to be graded or have expectations because they begin to learn for the love of it and not to learn to pass a test or receive points. trust-they have100 % of their parents support and patience. Your child will begin to realise that you trust them enough and believe in them enough to follow their interests. You will begin to notice over time how much your child confines in you, asks more questions and the conversations yous develop are more real then ever before. Your child begins to trust you see them as a cable young adult and not as a small child trust- they will be allowed to follow things they find interesting (even if it is video games)- When you are completely onboard with the unschooling path and you do allow your child to do WHAT they want and not what you think they should be doing "learning"- Your child will begin to trust ,that no matter what they find interesting or whatever their curiosity may lead them you support them (because by doing this you are creating a motivated learner, passion leads to exploration, discovery and further knowledge- they may look like they are just playing video games, but Remember everything turns into learning- half a year they may be interested in video games and the next they are interested in cooking. trust- they will not be forced into learning (just like school)- Once you stop believing that learning can only happen by being forced , with curriculums, worksheets and what you think "learning" looks like - your child can begin to naturally learn, they will begin to trust you believe in them enough to not force their learning and trust in their natural learning ability trust- they are in fact cable and independent !! Two Unschooling teaches you as a parent to also TRUST trust- your child will learn when the time is right, maybe not " when others who attend school do, but when they are naturally ready"- just remember some kids may learn to write at 6 some at 8 or some at 12, there is no rush to learning. trust- your child will learn all that THEY require, -your child may not remember calculus they are taught at school because it has no real value in their daily lifes, but just know what they need in their lifes today,tomorrow or 10 years for now, they will LEARN themselves trust- that over time your child will become responsible and independent, filled with alot of different knowledge as they have been allowed the time to pursue their own interests trust- that the education system(school) is not needed and that your child , just like every child was born naturally curious and with the ability to learn from their environment, just as they did when they learnt to walk and talk as toddlers. trust - that the bond between child and parent who trust each other lasts a lifetime Unschooling just like alot of things, takes time but only works by one simple thing and that is TRUST As john holt states: To trust children we must first learn to trust ourselves .-and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted.

One of the most common issues surrounding unschooling is people just do not understand how a child who is unschooled could learn maths! It seems such a crazy thing to think a child can naturally come to experience maths out here in the real world , without the need for a school or workbooks and Without forced lessons and piles of worksheets, but the truth is yes! simple maths comes so naturally to children,just like learning to walk or talk as a toddler did. Maths is everywhere out here and its unavoidable . Natural learning can not be rushed, its happening without you knowing and it will happen, if not straight away- then when your child feels they need it. Will there be gaps in their maths? YES -but that does not matter because it is irrelevant in their lives , most students who go to school, do not use Geometry, Algebra ,Trigonometry, Pre-Calc, Calculus, pi or any of those other so called "important" maths lessons forced by teachers in their adult lives anyway and if your child does for some reason need or even want to learn it, then just trust in them that they will learn all the maths they require -guided by their curiosity.You need to remind yourself exactly how much of all that maths we were taught in the over a decade of our school life's ,that we actually use today in this advancing society. My Unschooling children I like to think are quite good at maths for a 10, almost 9 and a 7 year old ..We have learnt maths so simple, so natural and free. They have never read a textbook, done any online maths apps/lessons or any maths worksheets ,yet over the last 3 years they all have learnt their small additions and large additions 1030+200+30 etc , 2x, 5x and 10x tables, 10% & 50% ,divided by 2's ,ml,cup,time,cm,m and money skills and are beginning to pick up on other maths concepts ! the way they have learnt this is from 2 ways As mentioned in my previous post Top 4 free unschooling methods we use to teach , we use conversations and daily life as the way to teach my children and maths is no exception,this is the only way we have done it since we started our unschooling journey. Down below explains how each work for our maths. 1) mental maths (conversations) (mental maths means mathematical calculation that is performed mentally, without the aid of a calculator, abacus , pen and paper or textbook ) So every now and then if I get one on one time with one of my children(say my youngest is sitting with me at the beach, while my eldest 2 are running around climbing sand dunes and it feels like a good time to naturally discuss "maths" - meaning he is not preoccupied with something else and he has some spare time - I will ask if he wants to learn "more" maths as we call it. -this mental maths session usually lasts no longer then 5 minutes, and happens on occasions (about 5 times a month) To do this I always start with explaining it simpler, for instance if we are learning 2x tables, when I start saying 2 times ,I will remind them that 2 x means " double" when we were learning divide by 2s I, would remind them it means "half" just like 50%, for 10% we say take away a zero or add a decimal. eg 10% of 50 (minus the zero you have 5) 10% of 55 (add a decimal and you have 5.5) we always finding a simpler way for them to remember - I always start of with saying even numbers for the first few months or until I know they understand - like what is 10% of 88 , 50% of 240 etc- once they have learnt the easier side of it we will advance to odds and harder ones. I only ever teach what I think is relevant or what they have asked about like percentages as they noticed the shop sale tags and asked about it , Will we learn 3,4 6,8 time tables? I must admit ,I do not know them as I forgot from school,(actually I just never paid attention as school wasnt for me) have I ever needed them in my adult life? NO. if I need them I have a phone calculator. So I will not teach them this, if they need it for some reason or want to learn them- then we will learn together. That is what natural learning is about, its about learning what is needed for the now, what is relevant for daily life and learning in the moment if the time comes. It really doesn't take long for them to click on and begin to understand these maths concepts. They begin understanding that you add 32+14 by adding the 4+2 side first then the 1+3 side so right to left and they remind themselves with this for minus's and their larger 2 x tables, etc , sometimes they just surprise me because they understand so well. these are my favourite 3 tips for mental maths 1) Soon as they start showing a lose of interest I will change the subject right away- and forget that math lesson 2) Be silly and make it fun with jokes, and enthusiasm ( by making them laugh and thinking of it as more fun games then a maths lessons) IT ALWAYS WORKS. - if I had 50 cupcakes and I ate them all up to my self and I was still hungry so I brought another 120 how many cupcakes would be in my now big belly 3) Funny praises with lots of enthusiasm to make them enjoy it - like omg I cant believe you got that answer right,you have the biggest smartest brain ever - or omg how did you know that are you reading my mind or my youngest sons favourite, I will sing -(you are a genius, genius, genius ). (yes if you have ever watched Mr deeds) slideshow & 2) Daily Living As well as these short bursts of mental maths lessons, they learn maths from daily living , they use maths all the time without thinking about it, maths is unavoidable and it is everywhere, your children will sink it in. This is some ways we use maths through out daily life and gradually the kids have naturally learn "maths concepts" Asking them to check the clock and over time discussed ( am/pm , 24hr in a day, quarter pass,half past, quarter to,clock goes up by 5's(5xtables) ) baking cakes/making food and reading measurements on packaging themselves with help if required (discussed how many ml in a cup, tsp,tbsp ,set oven timer,( 60sec = a min) 60mins=1hr) set microwave/blender, volume,fractions,observing temp,heat,read kitchen scale- discuss gram/kg tell them share the food/drink evenly between them (discuss halves/quarters/ratios, adding and dividing by) shopping and having a allowance, (discuss about money,100c = $1,adding,subtracting ,percentages,cost of living,budgeting) playing Roblox games, fortnite and other games they download on their phones (adding,measurments,percentage,distance,timestables,subtracting,coding) A few other natural maths we have came by using tools and appliances , set stop watches when they are doing workouts/timing each other on xbox,building toys-lego,blocks,diy and science ones, use the measuring tape when they are building and tinkering, going metal detecting,asking how to use the calculator on their phones ,reading weather reports,counting things out in nature ,reading signs around them, writing lists ,counting various things ,doing art and craft ,going golfing ,hiking ,fishing/sorting out tackle,helping in house renovations and playing games together to name a few. Some maths problems are coming up each day and they are figuring it out, they are learning new strategies and each day is teaching so much naturally. Its so surprising as they have just absorb so much maths from their environment and doing things they find interesting, and I'm not even aware some times. My youngest son I remember when my son he was 6 at the time , he was counting all his 10 cent coins by his 10s timetables he got to 100c and said okay 100c is $1 and started over again, when he got to the end he counting his piles, it was amazing as I had no idea he knew his 10 times tables nor that he knew 100c = $1 .He just figured it out and learnt it himself. These are the only 2 ways we learn maths in our household and they work so well. Arbitrary problems with no real connection to our child's lives aren’t going to cut it. The brain does not store what it considers unimportant pieces of information... unless it’s actually used. So when my unschooled kids are using natural math- it’s useful to them. And so their brains remember the concepts more, then as if the where in a traditional school.

When we started this Unschooling journey 3 years ago I was not sure on what I should have for my children to learn, should I go out and buy all the best books and have read outlouds with them ,should I create all those beautiful nature tables or small world play tables , I see on Pinterest , should I set up invitations to play or unit studies for them and what about tinker stations and makerspaces I need to set up areas like that, otherwise how else will my children "learn" ? Thats what i thought ! and oh was I silly. Yes they look beautiful and you feel envy when you see them all over social media, but the fact is you do not need any of that. Natural learning is all about your child's OWN curiosity, not what you try put in front of them. This list is my top 4 free unschooling methods that i use to teach my children, it works well for my family, my children have learnt so much already on this unschooling journey because of them. We embrace unschooling how it truly is - natural, spontaneous, in the moment learning! 1) Top of the list is Conversations Talking with children as if they are young adults and not small children, I think is one of the greatest natural learning resources there is. By answering their questions truthly and with patience is teaching them so much. By included them in your conversations and asking them questions. By laughing, by joking and by being silly with them. By choosing to listen and to see them as smart growing young adults is one of the greatest things a parent or unschooler can do. Since unschooling my children have become confident in confiding with me, if they have any questions or problems they will come straight over to seek my knowledge. We are always having deep conversations and they are shown the same respect in our conversations as if they were young adults. Unschooling and enjoying our new life by always being together has made us a tight family unit. If we are out and about my children will ask questions, if we are on a adventure amongst nature my children will ask questions, if we are at home my children will ask questions, all these questions turn into great conversations, where they feel as though they belong, they are listen to, they are appreciated and they are heard. My children have gain a lot of learning just by our conversations alone. 2) Next on the list is Daily life A lot of people are confused with what daily life actually means in a unschooling family. It simply means , whatever is going on that day, you do not have to have it planned out. Your children are learning something one way or another. (simply just think of say a weekend) Why ? because when its the weekend you are not thinking of acting like your child should be at school, you do not try to make them "learn" or think they should be learning something, you are simply going about whatever needs to be done for the day. If that means going to the shops , or maybe a day at the park or maybe a lazy day at home , then so be it. Your child learns from the environment they are in - at the shops there are signs and tags to be read, products to be calculated, subtracted and weighed, they are money handling ,budgeting and learning about food and harvesting. You might not see them "learning" - , but I assure you they are quietly learning and it keeps adding to their knowledge the more they go, the more they remember and the more they ask. At the park their researching, analysing, communicating, and making decisions, all of this is moulding them .They observe others and explore new concepts. They challenge themselves. At home the learning opportunities are waiting to be explored if you have read our unschooling classroom post you will notice that your home is a perfect unschooling/natural learning space for your child. Remember everyday something different is going on ,things pop up, schedules change, your child one day at home may be learning about cool science facts on YouTube and the next day they may be learning about fractions while baking. One way or another no matter what is happening in your daily life today- your child is absorbing new skills. 3) Our next top resources is WIFI I have discussed a lot about WIFI on my blog , and that is because everything and anything your child wants to learn about is at the touch of a finger, this new age with our advancing technology has provided online courses ,lessons, information, and anything your child wants to become - all easily available because of the internet .My children have learnt a lot from using the internet and all of this they have taught themselves, asked for help or came across while browsing, My daughter has taught herself how to spell, read, simple code, use video editing software, how to create, record and edit her own YouTube videos, how to make her own YouTube channel, discord server, Roblox game, how to draw anime, how to make fruit smoothie bowls , made friends from all over the world, she has learnt that there are different languages ,different countries, different time zones .She has learnt names of animals ,world facts, science facts, adding ,subtracting, percentages, and money skills and loads more she just turned 10 and all this she has taught herself from her own curiosity and using her online games. 4) last is Nature We have always been a outdoorsy nature loving family ever since the kids were born, nature has so much to teach , that might sound silly but a day trip to the beach, you never know what you'll find or what questions your child will ask, once we found a biodegradable golf ball, and this led to a big natural learning conversation on what biodegradable means, the benefits to the environment and what pollution means . A look in some rock pools lead to learning facts about starfish (from a quick google search) and underwater ecosystems. Watching sail boats lead to discussions about wind and direction and how a sail boat moves, Finding a plastic water tank floating in the shore lead to discussions about what a water tank was used for, which lead to further discussions about sustainability and self sufficiency , as well as the effects of natural disasters (storms) .Finding a poor diseased whale on a remote beach taught us some whale facts, natural discussions on migrations and different whale species. A walk in the bush leads to great maths skills, by navigating, measuring distance ,time ,counting the age of a tree by the rings ,spotting echinus and learning about their spikes, finding wallabies and wombats, discussing bird nests and different trees. A swim in a waterhole lead to discussions about fresh and salt water, how waterholes are made, animal habitats and so on. You never know what you will find and learn by being out in nature, I always bring my phone - (for a quick google search if I'm not sure about something ) nature has taught my children and myself so much already, and there is more waiting to be discovered. slideshow Unschooling By choosing to unschool your child you are following the path of nature. It is a child’s personal journey of discovering themselves and the world around them. Unschooling fosters rather than stunts natural curiosity and inspires a love of learning that will last a life time.Learning cannot be rushed. There is no expiry date. Children want to learn. Curiosity drives them.When a child is allowed to explore new knowledge at their own pace, things that they find useful and relevant, then you are creating a motivated child.You are creating a natural learner.

As a unschooling parent , filling your home with materials and resources is a great way to support your childs natural curiosity, for when they feel like creating, exploring and researching. You do not need to create a school like at home atmosphere with desks,folders and posters all over the walls or a classroom like setting, natural learning should entwine with your home and your family,If you are having doubts to what your home should look like , you are over thinking what unschooling is all about, Unschooling means no school, so stop thinking like a teacher. Natural Learning weaves through daily activities so Trying to confine it to a particular space is artificial . Our home (unschooling classroom) looks like a regular house, you will not see learning posters all over the walls or see a dedicated space for "learning" as for us, natural learning is just living in our family home . You will open up our kitchen cupboards and see measuring jugs, measuring cups,scales,blenders,mortar and pestles,and jars for collecting specimens,you will look over and see our oven and microwave and coffee machine these are all our natural "maths" materials for when the children want to make and bake slideshow You will go into our sunroom where our old dining table turned art table / bottle flip table is , you will notice 2 cupboards , which hold all our art supplies and recycled cardboard packaging , waiting for when the kids want to paint and create, You notice half the sunroom is set up as a gym and one wall has a dart board , waiting for the kids to challenge themselves . slideshow You go into our loungeroom in the corner you'll see our computer and printer , set up for when the kids want to research, print and play, you walk over to our loungeroom cube storage, where you'll find games, books and other bits and pieces, that promote curiosity and exploration- I have found most from second hand shops their waiting for when the kids want to explore and read. Slideshow In the other corner is our bluetooth speaker waiting for our children to embrace music,above that is our shelf with our wooden instruments and guitar You go into my daughters room, where she has a sewing machine set up ,a mini fashion designing doll kit , some of her artworks she has created are on display , more books, notepads and pencils and a hanging chair where she can read and play her phone in, You go into my sons shared room and you will find their bow and arrows and metal detectors hanging up, their slingshots,pocket knives,lego builds and power tools on their bookshelfs ,their gemstones and other things they have foung on display , You will notice their xbox and tv set up and their beds are pulled close to it. Slideshow You walk throughout our home and find all our specimens and nature finds we have collected on our outings on display everywhere, waiting to strike new conversations and observations. Outside you will find our shed full of wood,nails and tools waiting to be turned into something when the kids feel like tinkering Unschooling is about just having the resources, around for whenever your child may feel like exploring, it doesn't matter what your home is filled with, letting your child naturally learn life skills, problem solving skills and giving them a chance to have hands on opportunities throughout your home is teaching them SOOO much. Slideshow Our bikes, scooters and skateboards are waiting for new adventures, our basketball hoop ,soccer,cricket and tennis balls waiting for a family match Im sure if you look around your home , you will discover that it is a perfect natural learning space for your child just the way it is, A learning place should be warm,cosy and full of great learning opportunities waiting for your child. It doesn't matter if they do not get used everyday because natural learning is happening one way or another even if you can not see it. If you look around your home now, you will see that it is most likely full of great materials,appliances,tools and things your child can use.Dont be afraid to let them explore all these amazing natural learning resources. No 2 families are the same, how our home is set up, may be completely different to yours, But our home ( unschooling classroom ) is full of things we all love, wanted or are interested in , like the gym and music area are dads passions, the computer area was for me and this blog, the art area was for my daughter, as she loves art ,and the shed is for the boys as they love to tinker, but we all share these spaces together , with each other .Our learning space will forever be changing and added to as we grow and new curiosities arise. As well as all the learning opportunities our home provides We use all the learning opportuinites wifi provides The kids are constantly watching something new and intriguing on youtube, covering a science, history ,creative arts or a geography topic .That they watch in their own time They are researching their problems and questions on google, and learning more maths, english , creative arts and science things on their online gaming. Whenever we are out and about at say the beach, we always find and see something we talk naturally about that turns into learning something new from a quick google search like yesterday for instincts ,the beach was covered in foam the kids played in and then wanted to know what the foam was from , a quick google search taught us that Large amounts of algal often wash ashore and the Foam forms when the algae particles are churned up by the big surf and the wind , this then lead to further conversations as to what algae was. As well as all the learning opportunities our home and wifi provides We use all the learning opportunities nature provides,view some of our other how we unschool post to see how nature helps us learn . slideshow My children are indeed learning They are learning from their own curiosities They are learning from asking questions They are learning from having a go They are learning from conversations They are learning from each other They are learning from our home They are learning from playing They are learning from wifi They are learning from apps They are learning from Nature They are learning naturally Im sure if you look around your home , you will discover that it is a perfect natural learning space for your child just the way it is, A learning place should be warm,cosy and full of great learning opportunities waiting for your child. It doesn't matter if they do not get used everyday because natural learning is happening one way or another even if you can not see it. Ill be adding a list of our unschooling supplies like books, apps,art materials ,tools,subscriptions that the kids like to use etc and the ways we have been covering subjects like maths, english,science lately - in my next post in the next few days so stay tuned :)

Grab a cuppa, pull up a chair & get comfy while you get to know us - believe me I've had 3 already! Who are we you ask ? , well we are a family of five embracing the bliss of life as free spirits We unschool our three primary aged children where we embark on some crazy adventures together, in our new life flipping our first house in Tasmania. Where life just happens, with no rhythm , no schedule , no time constraints just good old , going with the flow oh and being able to keep a open mind at all times helps , ha ! - where no two days are the same but everyday is worth living. So as you now know from the above mentions I LOVE COFFEE - nooo , well that is true! but we are here to talk about why we unschool the kids , yes ! It wasn't much of a surprise there, you know to our families and all, - when we told them we are pulling the kids out of school and going surfing everyday ha' - that is half true! as we have always been abit of the so called " unconventional bohemian " type parents.- where we were never good at following the how to "parent guides "- instead have always chosen to follow our instincts and the trust we have in our kids abilities in our own parenting style - barefoot parenting. Embracing Unschooling, alternative living and simple parenting But It all started.. A few years ago, we had enough , of living in a routine ,and following the mainstream education system,and all that went with it like the packing & the super messy unpacking of the lunchboxes everyday,where your child gets lunchbox envy and you become a sous chef -the worst! ,not being able to travel to far as school finishes at 3 and kids can get sick -bummer ! ,trying to get to school half n hour early to get the VIP parking-only to realise that's what everyone else was thinking that day too ,and to me by far the worst was having to say goodbye to our children more then having to say hello , just knowing their childhood was flashing before my eyes and I'm missing out on it- you know, that type of routine eh, We knew there had to be another way that allows us to continue on our adventures together everyday of the week not just on a Saturday and Sunday. Then I came across the world of unschooling and fell in love with the thought of my children learning naturally, just through living and emerging themselves with things they found curious and interesting, and better yet this will teach them all they need to know , when they need to know it , cha ching ! So that was that, we have all learnt so much together and have been on some great adventures , living each day as they come ever since and that all happened nearly 3 years ago. A lot has happened since then ! Last year in the midst of the pandemic, we packed up every thing we could fit into a trailer uprooted from our lifes in New South Wales and brought our first home -( lets say a fixer upper ) in Tasmania , a house we brought sight unseen , in a state we had never once visited beforehand. It was all about the adventure for us ! doing something different and trying a new change of scenery - and what a amazing change of scenery it has been.We ditched the city life with the over populated beaches and streets, to a much slower pace of living in a very small town nestled between mountains and national parks where the closest maccas is a 2 hours drive away , yep we are rural guys ! - but our beaches are secluded , our views are natural , and the locals are great. So here we now are! Embracing a simple life in Tassie , while learning how nature intended , naturally ! - We provide real life unschooling, alternative living and simple parenting posts, through our website and blog BarefootChild in hopes it will encourage other families to chill out and try a different approach to living and parenting . We bring you first hand down to earth parenting and unschooling posts each week,we have homeschool / unschool resources to help you begin your journey. We are a new blog and website, launched this year 2022 so keep checking in while we keep posting out.

I have always been curious of unschooling every since I heard about it on the news years ago, when my daughter was 3 but like most media news they over exaggerated the title - it went something like this - These kids are raised with no tests, no books, no bedtime , and no school they are even allowed to eat pasta with peanut butter sauce if they want to- but what caught my eye was the son in the background hammering at some some metal in a forge he built himself , he was a very talented self taught blacksmith using knowledge he learned himself - I think he said that YouTube was like university , everything he needed to learn and had learnt he found on there in the one place.The other children on the program all had learnt English and maths skills naturally at their own pace, and other various cool things. But what it was - was they all looked happy and connected as a family, who embraced unconventional living without fear of others judgements. So that was the first time I heard about unschooling, and it had always been on my mind ever since, then - I thought that's how I wanted to raise my children ,them to learn from what they were passionate about, ! But just like everyone caught in the mainstream trap I willingly sent my children of to school, of to the unknown I dreaded the days of my children attending public school, not just all the nonsense that school required, but all the baggage it came with - all those hard laboured lunchbox packing hours-when nothing gets eaten, but still comes back with yogurt open and everywhere! all the teacher meetings- where they like to tell you your child needs to do speech therapy on the second day of kindergarten,or your 7 year old needs to practice his sight words more because he says cat for car all them early nights because you have to get up early in the morning - no Netflix bingeing there ,All the heartbreaking tears and the I don't want to's, The thought of this will last the next 10 plus years, having to live by a routine which is something I can not do and send my children off for literally half of the day more times a week then having them at home with me and their father just did not feel right or natural. It didn't feel what being a parent should be like or what parenting should be about. Taking away a childhood in exchange for 4 walls and a desk. 2020 then came covid19 So 2020 came, covid spread to Australia - NSW went into lockdown and parents were given the opportunity to home educate .We were given learning packs for each week, from the kids class teachers. I remember thinking while looking at these huge bundle of pointless paperwork, what the heck, why is my 6 year old learning what coins are on a piece of paper, 10c 50 c $5 . etc, why is my 8 year old daughter learning bee anatomy also from a piece of paper. Why is my 7 year old son learning distance of a pool to a house also on a piece of paper. All these real world things my children were being forced to learn from a textbook instead of real life experiences, felt unnatural, what better way to prepare my kids for the real world than having them actually spend time in it I thought School learning felt so forced and was it really necessary to learn all these huge piles of paperwork, when you are 6, 7 and 8 years old. So of we went trying to fit and complete these lessons designed by the teachers into our day, Lets just say we failed. - and purposely only completed the ones we had to send through to the teacher for the day , to get our marks or better yet get that awesome well done sticker. Its funny now to think how the school system bribes children into having to learn for rewards, with grade marks, shiny stickers ,a student of the week wall picture and those silly merit awards at school assembly's. I now see how this was dismissing my children's ability to love and want to learn for the reward of learning itself Anyways 3 weeks in And hundreds of loose papers everywhere , 3 children who just wanted to play and enjoy their time at home and 2 exhausted parents, we called it quits - " the trying to learn school- like at home " kinda quits. Forgot about trying to do all the paperwork , trying to please the teacher, and trying to force the children to learn. - It was time we embraced this opportunity of no school and no work .I blocked the teachers number, put all the papers back into a folder in the loungeroom cupboard - that was it out of sight , out of mind ! We were in lockdown but could leave for exercise purposes. So that's what we did we "exercised "we went to the beach , the kids went surfing all day, we explored the beach caves, rockpools , went on 2 hour hikes, went beach combing, bush walking , kayaking, we hung out like a family and enjoyed having longer discussions then ever before. It was awesome . My youngest son learnt to swim by learning to surf and being in the ocean everyday within this time. We had all learnt so much from each other, out on our adventures and from natural daily living , there were maths, science, English, history, geography topics coming up naturally every day it was great . Even my son ended up learning his money skills as well within 2 weeks, from having pocket money to go into the shop and buy a lolly after every surf - he did not need to do hours of filling out worksheets. I knew we were onto something great, something real.. School was returning The 2 -3 months of home educating was coming to a end and we were being forced to send the kids back to school ! - I was not letting " the once in a lifetime home educating (covid lockdown ) be for nothing. It was a sign -a nudge for me to embrace something I have always felt passionate about but was always to lazy and afraid to take the leap .I believe everything happens for a reason and that was for us as a family to embark on a unschooling journey, to get of the mainstream education train once and for all so that's what we did.- I quickly researched and done all my home-school registration paperwork, following the Unschool - natural learning philosophy, the process takes time in NSW ( 12 weeks )so unfortunately the kids had to go back to school until I was approved with my registration certificate, believe me I tried every trick and trade I could to get a exemption from them attending but the school were being doofas's and the kids had to go for another whole term ,but here we are a couple years later ,embracing The Unschooling life and loving every day of it, there is no two days the same, Each day comes and goes and the kids do and learn what they want. We are together as a family. We are learning side by side. They get to live a childhood they deserve and learn how nature intended - naturally..

Since we have been on this unschooling journey now for over 2 years , This is what I some up being a unschooling parent as . Being a super-human. That might sound strange but if you are a unschooling parent you will understand this. It means there is no more shrugging of when your child comes and asks a question or asks for your help. You have to have super patience and super truth telling "abilities ", You have to shape shift into a opportunist at any given time and never give in to your villain -( fear) - fear of others judgements and fear from yourself - thinking that you are doing it all wrong! You have to use your x-ray vision and see past the myth that learning can only happen through "a formal education approach "and see the fact that learning is happening all the time, and truly believe it is ! - you have to turn invisible the feeling you have were you want to and have to control and force your child into learning through textbooks and lessons, and trust in them that they are learning without these !- you have to let go and fly onboard with the natural design of unschooling letting it take full force of your child's education path. - hence why you become a superhuman. That being said before being a unschooling parent If my child came to me and asked me a question , I now realise I was barely actually paying attention to the question itself and would give a quick easy answer , Yes I know, no best parent awards there ! - like for instance my daughter asked how to spell the word island one time - I spelt it out to her and she didn't understand I became impatient so I had taken the phone from her and I quickly wrote it out. - now that I am a unschooling parent, I realise patience is virtue . Next time she came to me and asked how to spell King island, I slowly spelt out every letter for her to type in, (with patience ) when it came to the " island " part - we discussed how the "is " is a silent letter just like the words ballet and write and a few other silent letter words . We discussed why she needed to spell the word King island ( - she was watching YouTube shipwrecks and apparently wanted to know more about the ones from king island ) - funny thing was I actually knew abit about king island as before we planned to moved to Tasmania I did a whole lot-a research. I thought this was a great learning opportunity - Out came my opportunist abilities so we got discussing how local legends tell of a tale , how it is believed in the early 19th century straw beds washed ashore onto king island from a shipwreck. Seeds from the straw mattresses quickly germinated in the island's rich soils, and now the island is covered with a unique variety of grasses which the cow love to eat, and that's why king island produce some of the best beef and diary in the world I explained how the cows also eat the big seaweed while they roam up and down the beach !.- I explained that unlike most cows they eat a grass fed diet, not grain like other cows elsewhere. We discussed how there is over 60 shipwrecks around the island and also how great the surf was -world class ! - I covered about every subject in that one opportunists moment with my daughter by being patient, telling the truth and realising natural learning is about moments like that ! Unschooling is not the easy way of home educating or even parenting it is like - the complete opposite. You have to be willing to take the time to embrace every moment as a learning opportunity. Let go of trying to force subjects, force planned lessons and un-natural learning, let your child discover new things on their own and be their to guide teach when they need you. Unschooling is about having the messy kitchens -when your child discovers they want to be a chef, having the messy floors -when they discover they want to create Having the messy hair- when they discover they want to be a hairdresser. Its about always being their to help clean that mess up.

When I think back to my childhood I remember always being outside Most of the memories I have of being a child is being outside and being abit of a wildchild . I remember being 6 and running amuck, and exploring the caravan park in cairns with my cousins where we lived for a while, we'd climb the frangipani trees where we were constantly warned not to eat the sap , - like seriously why would we wanna lick the tree anyway ! I remember climbing the tree house there and my cousin told me to try how good green ants butts taste.- Yes we were weird and yes we did eat them ! I remember swimming under the crystal cascade waterfalls- and sliding down the waterfall rocks in my floaties with my mum ! I remember driving on the back of quads around the caravan park with the owners kids and along the beach were my cousin got stung by a blue bottle .I remember pretending rocks around a pool were my office computers and going camping in the rain, where we would play in the muddy puddles for hours. Each one of these memories are special because they made me feel something real - true happiness ! I have tons of memories like this and so does my husband and one thing they all have in common ? Each memory was created and remembered to this day by experiencing a real childhood outdoors using my 5 senses I think a lot of us as grow adults think back to our childhood memories and the ones we truly remember are the ones we had while adventuring outdoors and being like children of the wild. We do not hold onto the memories of sitting inside watching cartoons or those other "boring" ones, of being inside playing video games and on our phones building virtual houses in roblox because They are not real life experiences and they do not stay with us when we grow up ,we instead remember the real life ones . - like building the forts in the backyard out of sticks and sheets , the camping trips with the family and playing with the camp fire, the trying to make traps unsuccessfully , the bike riding ,the tree climbing and the hanging by the tree from your pants upside down ! - yes me, the learning to surf and the hiking trips, the waterfall swimming and the ninja stick weapon collecting , the mud sliding ,the fairy house building and the hanging with the kids from around the block on your bikes, we hold onto all these memories not only because they were real life experiences using our 5 senses but because they were truly fun and made us happy enough to keep them in our memories 20 + years later. When I look back onto my childhood memories, I was very privilege to have got to spend most of my time amongst nature and the great outdoors. Embracing new generations of wild child's In our home we have embraced adventuring the wild and been amongst nature with the kids since as long as I can remember , they were all catching waves before they could swim and chasing butterflies before they could walk - as I like to say ! - I want my children as grown adults to look back at their childhoods and have it full of great memories, just like mine. You know the ones that truly made them happy enough to keep with them through the years.The ones were being outdoors as a family , going on the adventures and having real life experiences that involves using their 5 senses ,those real ones that embrace a childhood worth remembering , the ones that make them laugh and feel happy talking about it with their children when they become adults. I believe parenting comes for being Intune with your child, trusting they are cable enough to climb the tree, to walk the hiking trails ,to hang from the monkey bars and to let them become the Wild Childs of the new generation. Over the years technology has advanced, WIFI and YouTube have turned our children into little robot humans watching the world through a window. With our urban jungles, indoor culture and never-ending stream of new technology .It seems inevitable that our children and even ourselves are slowly being removed from nature and all the positive benefits being outdoors and nature play bring with it. The question is will this generations of kids have real enough experiences worth keeping as childhood memories ? The amount of research on the benefits of outside play and being amongst nature for children's development is huge ! Children don’t just play for fun ,they play to learn. Research shows that playing in any way helps develop core cognitive, social and creative skills, but the benefits of outdoor play for children’s development are infinite. -Outdoor play is any activity or interaction that a child has with nature out in the open air. It’s what they see, hear, feel smell and even taste ( like eating those ants! ) - out there. Some of the benefits of raising a wild child, and even just letting your child have unstructured nature - based play outside, everyday ,show that: Children are more creative when exposed to nature; they can use all their senses rather than just sight and sound; they can use their imaginations. Children in nature-based playgrounds engaged in more creative play than children in structured - based playgrounds -They were more alert, better at using their bodies and more likely to create their own games,because in nature based play the child had natural open ended toys instead of tradition one use only ones like that in structured play. Children who spend more time in nature have more friendships that are based upon inventiveness and resourcefulness rather than physical prowess. Children are less likely to engage in bullying when they play in natural environments Both children and adults, but especially children, with ADHD can focus better after spending time exposed to nature. The effect has been shown to carry over to school. Children who play outside are more physically active, which helps prevent obesity, heart disease, diabetes , they are also sick less often because they have higher levels of vitamin D, which in turn strengthens their bones and immune systems .Getting the recommended dose of sunlight also help you and your child feel refreshed and relaxed by helping your body’s melatonin production. Melatonin is a hormone that controls your body’s internal clock. And the right amount of it ensures you have a good night’s sleep. Children who play regularly in natural environments have more advanced motor skills, such as agility, balance and coordination, Children who grow up having regular contact with the natural world are more likely to develop a lifelong love for nature and care to preserve it.When exposed to the natural world children develop a stronger awareness, reasoning and observation skills. Unstructured outdoor play helps kids learn to take turns, share and develop other positive behavioural skills. These interactions help improve communication, cooperation and organizational skills. Additionally, fresh air and free play reduce stress levels An optometry and vision science study showed children who play outside regularly have better distance vision than children who are always indoors. Children who play outside suffer less near-sightedness and are less likely to need eyeglasses Children who play outdoors use all 5 senses which helps them learn and helps with their development Preschoolers, in particular, learn new things through their senses. Think of a toddler’s delight at seeing and patting new animals (sight and feel), stopping at a bed of fragrant flowers to smell and pick (smell and touch), hearing the birds call out to each other while picking up a rock to throw (hearing and touch) or eating a tomato they picked from the garden they helped to grow (taste,touch,sight). On the other hand, children glued to television and electronic devices use only two senses (hearing and sight). This can negatively affect development of perceptual abilities. lastly but defiantly not all the positive benefits outdoor and nature play have is Being outdoors makes you more happier ! Outdoor light stimulates the pineal gland. This part of the brain is vital to keeping our immune system strong and making us feel happier. Spending time in nature is also associated with improving mood and happiness. Scientists believe that we evolved to be more relaxed in natural spaces,somehow nature relieves stress and soothes our minds also levels of oxygen in our brain are tied to levels of serotonin, the neurotransmitter that affects your mood, appetite, memory and social behaviour. Too little serotonin and you can feel depressed – breathing in fresh air can help regulate serotonin levels and promote happiness and wellbeing not only for children but for us to. Its time you let your little one embrace their wild side- and not try to tame it. contains amazon affiliate links Great books on how to embrace a natural childhood include: You can purchase this from amazon by clicking on the links: How to Raise a Wild Child: The Art and Science of Falling in Love with Nature Nature Play at Home: Creating Outdoor Spaces that Connect Children with the Natural World Nature Play Workshop for Families: A Guide to 40+ Outdoor Learning Experiences in all Seasons Grow Wild: The Whole-Child, Whole-Family, Nature-Rich Guide to Moving More

First of all What is radical Unschooling you ask ? Radical unschooling extends the philosophy of unschooling into all aspects of life not just how you let your child pursue the way they learn but the way they live, its more about letting your child take control of choices that effect them .Just like as adults we make choices for ourselves not by someone else making those choices for us, Have you ever thought why we think a childs duty- well atleast in theory - is to obey the orders we and other adults give them ? ... Have you ever questioned . Why? Well thats what radical unschooling parents do they question the why. Well believe it or not,the development of agriculture thousands of years ago triggered such a change in society and the way we parent and view children. With the development of , agriculture became the development of labour and With all this came the breakdown of the hunter-gatherer ideals of equality and freedom. While hunting and gathering required personal initiative, skill, intelligence, creativity, and a playful spirit, Much of the work of agriculture was routine and could be done by unskilled laborers and while hunter-gatherers needed to be independent and assertive in order to survive, most post-hunter-gatherers needed to be obedient in order to survive. And so, the goal of parenting for most people became that of producing obedient and subservient children. While many hunter-gatherers tribes still parent to this day in ways designed to enhance independence and willfulness .The new age " mainstream parenting" does not. The bedrock of radical unschooling is trust and equality Radical unschooling is a belief that our children possess an inner wisdom far beyond what we have been raised to believe, its about giving them that trust. Radical unschoolers view raising their children with the same values as themselves. Here are sets of questions to ask yourselves Why is it okay for us adults to stay up late ? but our children are made to go to bed by a certain time? We know if we are tired we will either sleep in, go to bed earlier the next night or take a nanna nap. Why is It okay for us adults to choose what we eat? but our children can only eat what we say, or no dessert ? I'm sure most of us veggie eating adults , hated eating our greens when we were children,but look out us know , we are not forced into eating healthy but we choose to. Why is it okay for us adults to chose what we wear each day? but our children must wear what we see as sociable acceptable? I was a tomboy as a young child and wasn't allowed to wear what I wanted out in public, many tears and tantrums trying to force me into a skirt Why is it okay for us adults to say no to many things our children ask,want or do ? but we expect our children to become independent capable young adults? Do we ever say no you cant do that to ourselves,? or do we learn new things by giving it ago. radical unschoolers believe children should be treated with the same respect as adults Radical unschoolers believe that children should be treated with the same respect as adults are treated , in that they shouldn’t be coerced or forced into living their lives in any particular way other then how they chose to live it. After all it is them who walks their shoes Rather than enforcing strict rules, unschoolers use principles. Instead of imposing limits, unschoolers work with their children to help them live in a balanced and healthy way. Instead of a strict schedule, unschoolers follow the natural flow of their lifes as a family People may confuse radical unschooling with neglectful parenting. This is not the case. Unschooling is not “un-parenting”. Parents who live the radical unschooling life are very involved, mindful and intentional. It is not a free-for-all, or utter chaos, or children raising themselves, although mainstream media has tended to portray it as such . Radical unschooling is parenting as a partnership instead of an authoritative relationship Questions & answers on radical unschooling How does a child get enough sleep ? Radical unschoolers see their child, who stays up late everynight getting the recommended amount of sleep as the wake up later,take naps or go to bed earlier when they are tired. Can a child eat what they want? Yes a child is free to eat what they do or do not want,the family lunch and dinner is chosen together and based on what everyone wants , They also can eat when they want to. late night snack at 10pm sure.- afterall if us parents were hungry at that time we would eat right? What if a child only wants to eat junk food? I think as a parent it is important to only buy healthy and wholesome food for your family in the first place or understand trusting your child to make good choices is part of the radical unschool process. - my children will go grab a apple or healthy food if their are no other junk food options What if my child wants to wear a batman costume to the shops? Radical unschoolers allow their children to embrace their individuality and free spirits. After all who are they hurting by wearing what the choose.? who cares what a few weird looks you may get, its about your child being who they want to be and not caring of others judgments What if my child hates going to certain things? Well if your child does not enjoy going to say.. soccer practise? you have to think is that what they really wanted to do in the first place? The top two radical unschooling quotes are Put them where they shine, don’t put them where they don’t shine. Live and let live. Radical Unschooling is about forgetting all the What if's, Its about living a fulfilling life with your child , trusting their choices and believing they know when the time comes to make the best choices for them.Forget what you have been taught a childs duty is not to obey it is time to give your child the same freedom and trust you give yourself as a adult. " The radical " Is it so radical to live how hunter- gathers and even our primal ancestors raised their children.

Letting your child take age appropriate risks, doesn't make you a bad parent,its all about a Unschooling learning path for them, as I can see now. Allowing your children to experience the real world and all those real world consequences. When ever we are out and about and my children decide they want to go all ninja and try their skills like balancing or flipping or even climbing over everything .I had always been quick to say no stop. ! Not only no because the possibilities they might hurt themselves(which I usually thought was true ) but no to the fact that their may be some other parent watching and judging how bad of a mother I must be, by letting my kids run around all wild and stuff . The thought of them thinking I do not care for my childs safety. - which is just nonsense used to be in control of how I went about parenting. But Since being on this unschooling journey as a whole family I have now learnt to embrace my children's wild sides. I have learnt to trust in them, as they know best when it comes to their own capabilities and limits. - Like my daughter believed she could walk along a jetties beam, she seen this as a opportunity to practise her balancing skills, - if that were 2 years ago, I would have been quick to say get down you will fall.- now knowing the only real danger was falling into water, as she knows how to swim and I am their to quickly jump in if she did,- does not make sense to hamper her curiosity and her own learning path.She understood the risks involved but she wanted to give it a shot anyway. Her brothers followed her as well but they stuck to their own limits and capabilities they felt comfortable with, like balancing on the beam closer to the shore, I knew they believed in themselves enough at that time and the reward outweighed the risk to them. You have to understand unschooling is all about trustful parenting and not given a damn what others think Hunter -Gather tribes embrace Trustful Parenting Everyday, why shouldn't we ? In hunter- gather cultures they embrace trustful parenting everyday, they understand their children are growing adults who need to learn about the world around them and where they fit in.They are not surrounded by judging eyes or finger pointers. They give their children one of the greatest rewards which is trust and freedom . Freedom to use that trust to experience and learn new things for which they realise is expanding their child's own capabilities and moulding them into capable young adults. By allowing the child to help handle and gather food, to cook over the fire , to give them sharp tools and teach them the proper ways to use them, by allowing their child to climb trees and adventure the nearby environment unsupervised .This style of trust is creating a balance between parent and child. The child is learning to be independent and learn that infact they are capable, and the parent is learning that when the time comes the child has all the tools required to be able to navigate through adulthood independently. Trustful Parenting and Unschooling is when you stop seeing a child as a clumsy, incapable little person and start seeing them as a smart, capable young adult. Since starting Unschooling and stepping away from the mainstream way of parenting, I have opened up to the idea that maybe my children were not these little people who need me to hold their hand on the balancing beam , that maybe they will not fall into the water if I do not intervene , and maybe , just maybe they knew this all along, and I was just to delusional to see that this was about a learning path for them , they wanted to learn from real life experiences and real life consequences.. - and I let my fear and others judgments hold them back.. post contains amazon affiliates Well not anymore I now embrace those situations that make you think twice. Yes I have come along way and fully embrace a more free range style of parenting, I let my children challenge themselves and put their own knowing of their capabilities and limits to the test whenever they feel like exploring them. As I understand this now as a learning path . I always remind them of safety guidelines, and the consequences before hand, I guide them if they need it and lend a hand when such help is required. Its all about great real life learning experience now, and as unschoolers curiosity is the only lesson they will ever need. For instance my son today had the urge to build a skateboard out of cardboard box and old wheels - he done this all himself His curiosity was his only lesson and he was his own teacher These were his steps : He climbed into back of ute to pull out box from rubbish ( we were taking away rubbish tomorrow ) He ran around the house like a chicken lost its head looking everywhere for his pocketknife, this is where he needed my help ( yes both my boys have real pocket knives and have since they were around 6 years old ) He found a permanent marker to draw the shape he then used his pocket knife to cut the box into shape of a skateboard deck. He used his own drill to screw the wholes for the ( old skateboard tracks ) onto the cardboard- yes my boys have their own real power tools, they wanted these for Christmas's and birthdays instead of toys each year since they were toddlers Lastly he found some old screws that he screwed into both the box and tracks ( it was flimsy as it was carboard but it was bloody awesome, and the best thing was seeing how proud he was of himself, -he is 7 years old and a master box troll )

This is a post of a 4 part post collection of how we unschooled subjects- naturally last year in 2021, check out our other related posts, How we Unschooled 2021 , Unschooling adventures 2021 and learning portfolios 2021 Okay so here it is I get a lot of messages asking how we turn our unschooling days into subjects for home-school registration records , There's a false lie that just because children are unschooled and free to do whatever they like,all day- that they must not be learning the required subjects (english,maths,creative arts ect ) then their fellow formal schooligans- but it is the complete opposite, unschooling children actually learn more in-depth and above their age on particular subjects and topics because they have been given the freedom to explore things curious to them at their own pace and for however much time they like ,unlike traditional school systems were a child is only allowed to learn what is put in front of them,they do not get a choice to learn and engage in things they find interesting and want to learn about ! they get taught a topic over and over again through planned lessons and textbooks for a short period of time not allowing the child to experience first hand accounts engaging their 5 senses , until the next topic is needed to be learned and then its repeated over again ! Children in mainstream education system usually forget the information they have just learned about, once the test is over or that unit is complete, why ? because it did not interest them, it did not spark their curiosity, and without curiosity learning is not fun and not rememberable. I'm not a organised person when it comes to trying to document my child's learning every day As a unschooler and embracing a carefree way to life its annoying when you have to " stop life to take notes" - but the law is law I guess and a requirement for homeschooling no matter what style of home educating you chose to use whether, formal, Reggio Emilia, waldorf stiener,classical, and so on, is you gotta record your childs learning and those subjects! So when I see a " learning opportunity that is covering subjects happening at home or out and about- I think this is great for my learning records " - I whip out my camera ( or should I say old iPhone ) and take a quick picture or 2 . This way at the end of the week , I can go through the photo library and actually remember what went down for that week. I make photo collages of these using free pic app and write a short sentence of what happened and what subjects it covered .I print these of and add them to a photo album / yearly learning reflection portfolio ( a plastic sleeve folder to be more blunt ) - I usually jolt down in a daily planner book anything "special" that happened, that I can not take a picture of , and save any pictures.artwork,writing work, anything that have done on loose papers in a seperate portfolio.(plastic sleeve folder ). how to categorise daily life into subjects For instance , Today my son asked how to spell the word - (month) - for something he was doing on his online gaming, That covers english ! my youngest son cracked salt and pepper on a plate and told me to separate it, -I thought this was a science experiment he watched on YouTube , so here I was blowing the salt from the pepper and trying to lick the salt of - little did I know it was a prank he seen! He cracked up laughing while separating the salt from the pepper shakers ! that covers creative arts, english All my kids played either Roblox or fortnight today , now online gaming covers so many topics you have english,maths,tech,science,creative arts subjects - left right and centre- happening there. My children played a few games of hangman with dad - English, and we all went swimming in the pool, ( our little pool ) where we ran around in a circle and created a whirlpool - we discussed what a whirl pool is as well , we reflected mine and dads childhoods of us in my pool , were we learnt to hold our breaths longer under water from holding a heavy rock and all laughed about the other funny memories me and dad had ! we covered (english,pdhpe,geography ,science,history ) , my daughter is sitting next to me as I write this, creating a Roblox game in Roblox studio - she didn't know how to add a water element to her game so she looked up a how to video on youtube, she watched it and followed instructions - now she has realistic water , that covers english,creative arts,technology,science -a lot more went on today but they were the few that stuck out ! see once you start unschooling or even just categorizing what you done for the day into subjects, you will be surprised how much learning is going on. Natural learning is a continues thing and it is always happening Everything that your child does can be labelled into a " subject" category even 2,3 or more subject categories ! and here we are , I'm finally posting some of my previous photo learning reflections we had last year 2021 that i used as my homeschool / unschool learning records. Each of these learning moments were spontaneous , they just happened while out living our life's and exploring. Its easy to turn something that is fun and enjoyable into subjects for your homeschool / unschool learning records. Learning shouldn't be describe from coming from textbooks and lessons, after all how are our children meant to learn about real world experiences, from behind a desk all day ?

My honest review and account when my unschooling kids had unlimited use of technology . Is it Technology that = no outside play or no real life experiences? Did you know that children in todays modern society spend less then half the time outside as their parents did ? Yes it is true the advance of technology for our children's generation has turned our children's childhoods into virtual ones,like a child robot watching the world through a window -there is no more playing real life games with physical friends, instead they do all these real life experiences through screens and not in reality , they do not get to use any of their 5 senses and learn about life through hands on opportunities like we did as young children before YouTube ,before the social network and before online gaming was widespread and readily available. So The question is will their childhood be worth remembering,if their childhoods are spent mainly on screen? what research says The research shows that 71 per cent of Australian kids spend less than an hour a day outdoors, and one in two families do not spend time outdoors with their kids more than twice a week.The research also states that Australian kids between 8-16 years old are spending more than 30 hours a week glued to their screens. - that is like a casual job ! And the stats from around the world ? It’s estimated that kids and teens between the ages of 8 to 28 spend about 44.5 hours each week in front of digital screens.- how crazy is that ! honest behaviour problems I noticed when my Children had unlimited internet access If your child spends too much time on the Internet, compulsive behaviour may develop. This can lead to an internet addiction, which just like any other type of addiction, can destroy a healthy balance of interests and activities in your childs life. Here are some signs that my children developed when having as much free time to use their technologies as they liked and why we had to set some rules stayed in bed rooms all day playing laptop / xbox Yes when we were at home and not out adventuring , they would go straight on their laptop,iphone or Xbox and stay on it until either they went to sleep , had to use the bathroom or we had to go out .- this could sometimes be all day if we didnt go places ! did not play outside somedays there were a few days they wouldnt even go outside at all , did not play in real life for more then several minutes or so at a time new Christmas toys weren't being played with , drawing , painting ,riding or really anything that they had to do in real life " couldnt be done for more then several minutes at a time, before they needed to go back on their technology. i will have a shower tomorrow I will have a shower tomorrow became the new norm i will eat dinner in here wanting to Eat lunch, dinner and snacks in their rooms or wherever they were playing their tech became the new norm. Emotional fallouts left right and centre Became angry and/or agitated when interrupted while online, like trying to vacuum ! became irritable when access to the Web was denied or slow , constant sibling fighting , when on and off line , leaving one child out of games incredibly moody and irritable when not able to play online for a day or two lost creativity when my children would draw or paint , they didnt try to be creative, they rushed to finish , they would draw something and not even be bothered to colour it in,. when before they were very creative, took time and had pure joy in creating Pre-occupied with online life when offline day dreaming about roblox even when riding scooter ( yes !) When offline,constantly remained preoccupied with getting back online Sacrificed doing new fun things, in order to hurry up and get back online lost all interest in activities previously enjoyed before becoming obsessed with being online late nights , early mornings played until late- , late at night,11pm / woke up extra early to play didn't have time to talk to relatives on phone we live in another state from our relatives, so children were either to occupied and couldn't be bothered to call / facetime with grandparents, as they were to involved in whatever they were doing online constantly saying im hungry constantly saying they , were hungry and want food all of the time , even when they just ate. turned into real life karens, my children would always pick out negative points of things, before any positive ones , especially if it didnt involve them playing on phones, like going for a bike ride - this is boring - lets go home (so they could play on tech) where they went , so did the phone If you asked them to do something like take out the rubbish , the phone would remain in one hand if my son went to the toilet he would sometimes still be holding the phone in the other hand alot of things they had to do, they done quickly so they wouldnt have to put down the phone! Yes at one point it got really bad and tech crazy around our house for a few months , when me and their father were pre occupied with renovations for our house flip! That was it, we had to put up limits As radical unschoolers ,i believe my children should be allowed the same values as myself, but this internet addiction became way to much. So almost a month ago we had enough of the unlimited internet access, and the way they were living , we stopped the use of technology throughout the day and the kids can now only go on after 5:30pm most days! - with weekends being still unlimited, as we are usually out and about anyways . I think the use of technology is a great learning tool and I know how much the use of them has been in my childrens learning paths, especially as unschoolers. But if a child who does not go to school is truly allowed as much time as they want on their technology, - the reality is they will become addicted and just chose that above all else I think when children have unlimited access for a long period of time on their technology , major behavioural problems develop. So it is our responsibility as parents to remind them of the no wifi childhoods we all had when we were younger that we have great memories about, from time to time and reinforce some limits , if they are spending all of their time on it.