Journey to Unschooling In my continued conversation with Tanya and her 16 year old son Gavin about their educational choices, you’ll hear a refreshing perspective on following your intuition and trusting yourself. Tanya calls on parents to turn trust we’ve traditionally given to societal systems back to ourselves and our children – whether kids are in schools or not. Gavin
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Journey to Unschooling I’d like to introduce you to Tanya and her 16-year-old son, Gavin. They currently live in New York, but I met them when they were living in St. Petersburg, Florida several years ago. I also had the privilege of hosting Gavin for a month in Mexico with my son, so I got to see firsthand what Gavin
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Love, Respect, and Boundaries When I became a parent, I had an idea of how I wanted to be in relationship to my son. But I didn’t understand just how much I was carrying around from my own experiences growing up in my own family and in this culture. The Old Story of human development and family life is all
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Love, Respect, and Boundaries What are the origins of your concepts of love and respect? Can you separate the way you desire to parent from unhelpful past models? Much of traditional parenting rests on a hierarchy of power and control. Love is a reward, based on meeting certain conditions. Respect is born of fear. If children fear their parents, they
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Educating Our Kids Consciously parenting runs through all areas of life, including learning environments. Instead of pushing through life, rolling over and shutting down emotional responses – both in ourselves and with our children – consciously parenting takes a different route. Children’s emotions are allowed, valued, and approached with care. The totality of each individual’s temperament and perspective is welcomed
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Educating Our Kids How do you know when it’s time to leap into the unknown and take a new educational path? Can happiness really be the touchstone we turn to when making family decisions? Most of us grew up without the opportunity to choose our own educational path. Once on a particular path, our culture promotes commitment and follow through.
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Educating Our Kids What did school look like when you were growing up? If you’re like most, you probably went to either a public or private school and you probably had no input into that decision. With the current school climate of testing and lots of homework, many families are really looking at what makes the most sense for their
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Attachment and Healthy Development What is a “normal parent”? Can conscious parents look to others in our culture for attached parent models? Studies are showing the number of children experiencing healthy emotional attachment are “abysmally low” for a modern and “advanced” society. Is parenting keeping pace with progress? Parents today need courage to step away from the mainstream practices that
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Attachment and Healthy Development Maybe you’ve seen the articles and memes, or heard the jokes that portray attachment parenting as extreme, unattainable, and actually harmful to the parents that attempt it. Is attachment parenting realistic? Is it desirable? Is it only for privileged parents? Or is it attainable for all? Must we meet the many “requirements” of attachment parenting for
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Attachment and Healthy Development When I had my first child, I had been studying attachment theory (John Bowlby) and wanted to create a relationship with my child that created a secure base for him. I found attachment parenting and wondered if it would create the “secure attachment” I wanted my son to have – the kind of attachment that would allow
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