I was concerned about all the above. I loved being with my children, and home education was great. We had time and opportunity to enjoy a rich family life. I was a Christian, and it was important to me to share the beauty and the depth of the faith with my children. I also wanted a rich and full and happy educational experience for them. I wanted us to enjoy the strong sweet season of sharing life together – I was always aware that it would not be long before the children were ready to spread their wings beyond the secure confines of home and family. And there was a sense that we could go further, and experience more. We were motivated by our longing to find a way of life that worked, but one that was also satisfying and meaningful.

We found answers to some of our questions, and we were provoked into asking more questions. Sometimes it was the answer itself that provoked the next question. And, as each stage of parenting and life with our children began to make sense, we would find ourselves hovering on the brink of a new stage; different paradigms, different challenges, new implications for questions we thought were answered.

This website grew out of my efforts to reflect upon, and to share with others, our experiences and discoveries. I wrote because I have such a deep longing to see parents and children enjoying satisfying and meaningful relationships; because people are so unique and special, and I want to encourage parents to treasure and celebrate that uniqueness in their children; and because I have become fully and personally convinced that the only true education is self directed and self motivated.

Mary Oliver, in her profound poem 'The Summer Day', asks a fundamental question: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

What is it you plan to do? I find it tragic that we are not encouraging our children, almost from birth – at least as soon as they understand language – to explore answers to this question and to others like them. Instead, we are prescriptive and directive, telling them what to do, and making decisions for them.

I am not saying that parents do not have a vital role to play in their children’s growth and development. Rather, I suggest a different, more respectful, more thoughtful, more sensitive approach in the carrying out of that role. These children after all are ultimately not our children – they are God’s children, and we raise them as a sacred trust. It is His plans and purposes for their lives that matter, not ours.

Life is such a gift. It is our privilege to be alive in this time, this place. Like Esther, we can ask ourselves why we were born in such a time as this, and know that there is a reason; that God had purpose in creating us, and that there is a plan for our lives. And the same is true for our children. How tragic that for many, life is a heavy burden. It should not be. Life can be hard, challenging, difficult. But it is also awesome, wonderful, incredible. Jesus claimed that He came to give “life in all its fullness” . John Holt said that “a life worth living and a work worth doing” was what he wanted for all people, including children.

Our ongoing determination to develop and define a philosophy and methodology of Christian unschooling has led us, and continues to lead us, day by day, into a deep and rich expression of this fullness.

The overriding objective of this website is to help people to understand that:

- learning, like breathing, happens all the time

- there are many alternatives in education

- Christianity and unschooling are not incompatible philosophies

- Christianity and unschooling both have power to release us to seek and discover answers to the biggest questions of life, namely who we really are (identity), and what we are here for (purpose)

- freedom of choice really matters to all people, including children

- the foundation for all interpersonal learning is mutual respect

- children are persons as much as adults – they are not inferior in any way

- although adults have more experience of life than the children in their circle, there are many areas in which the child may know more, understand more, and be able to take the lead and impart to people older than himself

- parents are however responsible to give covering, training and guidance to their children.

Home education does not have to be expensive to be successful. Freedom to pursue interests, the sustained interest of significant adults and having the world as a classroom gives the home educated child a very rich learning experience, and this is before one adds in any obviously academic resources.

There is a discussion list associated with this website. Contributions to discussion, thoughts, questions and points of view are welcomed. You can join it here:

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Defining terms:

Christian:

‘There in Antioch the Lord’s followers were first called Christians’. (Acts 11:26)

Simply, a Christian is one who follows Christ, one who emulates His teachings. The word ‘Christian’ actually means ‘little Christ’. One would therefore expect a Christian to be very similar — and growing in similarity — in thought, word, and deed to the Person of Jesus Christ revealed in the Bible.

Unschooling:

The term 'unschooling' was originally coined by John Holt. Today there are many other terms roughly synonymous with the nuances of its meaning - At the time when John Holt coined the term, it simply meant 'not schooled', as in, educated elsewhere than at a school. Today, the term ‘unschooling’ has come to refer to a specific type of home education, i.e. education that is in the full control of the one doing the learning. Thus there is autonomy and self-direction, and it becomes quite obvious that unschooling is not just an educational approach devised for children, but a definition of how learning happens for all people. In the Unschooling Handbook, Mary Griffith uses a wonderful quote:

“Unschooling… means learning what one wants, when one wants, in the way one wants, where one wants, for one’s own reasons."

Unschooling is self-education. And self-education is simply the practice of freedom. Learning is freed from an artificial, externally controlled context to become again what it has in actual fact always been — a natural, spontaneous process; part of the whole experience of being alive.

Christian Unschooling:

One would expect that although Christian unschooling would be similar to unschooling, it would also be different. Unschooling practised within the parameters of a robust Christian faith would not be the same as unschooling happening without a specific moral context. In the same way, Christian unschooling might look different to what is assumed to be a Christian view of education and training.

Because I wanted to explore this particular educational approach within the context of my life and faith, it became clear to me that I would be challenged to explore the actual meaning of both Christianity and unschooling as opposed to the accepted meaning of each. In this way, unschooling became a challenge to my Christianity, and vice versa. In short, there was no comfortable sitting back in this process – I was required to think, to read, to pray. Overall, I asked for the guidance and protection of the Holy Spirit.

The process is ongoing. And subsequently I have seen that this type of intellectual and spiritual challenge is common in unschooling. When one casts off accepted norms and customs, and begins to ask questions about those norms, it becomes an inevitable opportunity for growth or retreat. To go the way of faith and trust, or the way of fear and mistrust. Either way, a choice is made, and direction is determined by that choice.