The Life Without School Podcast is your grounded, research-backed companion for homeschooling, unschooling, and raising your kids outside the system.
Hosted by Issy (aka Stark Raving Dad), a home educating dad of four, each episode offers clear, honest guidance to help you build a life that works - for your child, and for you.
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This episode details the unique journey of a 9-year-old unschooler, Florence, as she attempts formal schooling for the first time to access team sports. Her parents recount the careful preparation, her swift social adaptation but also the challenges of navigating schoolyard dynamics and the often-uninspiring academic environment. Ultimately, Florence chose to leave, with the family's conviction in unschooling deepened by the experience.
Home educators often undervalue their role, viewing it as less significant than traditional careers due to a lack of societal recognition, titles, or salary. This episode asserts that home education is a complex, 24/7 responsibility encompassing numerous professional skills, from curriculum design to emotional support, with an economic value often exceeding $100k annually. By truly recognizing this as a career-level commitment, individuals can transform their self-perception, gain confidence, and appreciate the immense, life-shaping impact they have on their children and the world.
The podcast explores how artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the future of work, making traditional career paths and formal education increasingly irrelevant. It details AI's current capabilities, its evolution into autonomous agents, and how this will lead to the dismantling of entire job sectors and the demise of the 40-hour work week. Parents are urged to prepare their children by fostering crucial human-centric skills like self-management, critical thinking, real-world capabilities, collaboration, and strong identity, rather than relying on an outdated educational model.
In this episode, I’m unpacking one of the biggest questions home educating families face: how do I know this whole thing is actually working? I explore: Why the “gaps” in your child’s learning might be their greatest strength. How traditional benchmarks can (no, will) hold your child back. What real signs of growth and progress look like, and how to spot them. If you’ve ever found yourself second-guessing your approach, or wondering if your child is learning enough without all the usual school s...
In this episode, I'm digging deep into what could be the most important commitments we make as home educators this year. I explore: How to confidently reject any and all expectations that don't serve your family Building genuine confidence as your child's primary educator Breaking free from the pressure to make learning look "educational" Setting goals that actually matter to your family Protecting your own energy to create a sustainable journey Whether you're feeling the weight of expectations ...
In this episode, I’m digging deep into one of the biggest challenges facing homeschooling families today: finding balance with tech and screen time. I explore: What the latest research really says about the impact of screens on our kids (it's not as simple as 'good or bad'). How to create screen-free boundaries that actually stick. How my family found our own balance with technology, and what you might want to borrow for your own. If you’re struggling to make screens a positive part of your life...
In this episode, I spend some time examining three common perceptions that are unique to unschooling: That unschooling is 'unparenting' That unschooling will create lazy children And that unschooling means you have no rules or structure whatsoever It’s a super interesting discussion that leads us through areas like life rhythms, autonomy and motivation, and regardless of whether you’re unschooling or not I think you’ll find this episode really useful! For regular encouragement and support just l...
In this episode, I'm sharing six ways you can overcome any feelings you have about not being 'enough' as a home educating parent. Not smart enough, organised enough, social enough, qualified enough... I wrote a post recently that started scratching at the surface of this. Today, we're digging deep. For regular encouragement and support just like this, including weekly mini-episodes covering all sorts of helpful things, sign up to the full Life Without School Collection right here : https://www.s...
In this episode I'm talking more about something this podcast was literally born from: the idea of children falling behind where they should be. First, I talk about how the world generally views progress in childhood, and why it’s so problematic and broken. And then second, I present a different view of that. A different idea of measurement and benchmarking and progress for our children. Wherever you are in your journey right now, I hope this way of looking at things brings you and your children...
In this episode I'm going to do something that might feel a bit uncomfortable. But if we want to move education forward in any real meaningful way, the kind of thinking I’m about to take you through is incredibly important. I’m going to take some of the main questions that home educators are traditionally asked - some of the main worries people express when they hear you’re a home educating family - and then I’m very simply going to turn them around. I’m going to ask them of the formal education...
With so many families making the decision to leave the formal education system and take their own path through life, it also means there are a whole lot of grandparents out there going... Hold on, what’s happening here?! We have a comprehensive, effective school system designed specifically to educate us in all the areas we’ll need to fully prepare for life. Why on earth would anyone walk away from that? And...what’s going to happen to my grandchildren now that they’ve had the opportunity to go ...
The definition of education is being taught, and the learning that results from it. A process that happens, for a child, in a classroom. But if you read that a couple of times, does it sound interesting and inspiring? Does it really sound like it’s centered on our children, designed to help them become independent, life-long learners, who know how to get the best out of themselves? I don’t think it does. So today, together, we’re going to give education a new definition. We’re going to take the ...
Will your children be sheltered? How will you educate them properly if you're not a qualified teacher? How will they get a good job when they grow up? Everyone who chooses a life without school will be asked these kinds of questions at some point. In this episode, we chat through the nine most common ones a home educating family will hear, with the goal of empowering you to confidently frame your own answers to them, in your own ways. I hope revisiting this episode from time to time will give yo...
We're back with another question and answer episode, where I take a few of your questions and talk my way through them. I really love working on this episode each month, because your questions always reflect the struggles, the worries, and the hopes and dreams, of so many of us. A big thank you to Amy, Jacqui and Kate for taking the time to send in their recordings so we can hear, directly, from this wonderful community. In this episode we talk about: How to avoid comparing our children to other...
Today, I want to talk about why I believe it’s so important that we - as home educating parents - play the role of coach, and mentor, and guide to our children. I want to take you through the simple, but powerful, framework Kate and I have used to help our children discover, explore, and run with their passions. And I want to talk about some related things, like perseverance and failure. I’m SO excited to have this conversation. I’ve been sent a lot of messages about this kind of thing over the ...
Happy New Year, everyone! The Life Without School Podcast is BACK. For the very first episode of 2022, I’m taking you through seven things that will help set your family up for the best possible home educating year. These are all things that, through years of experience and reflection, I’ve found contribute the most to balance, personal growth, and fulfilment in our home. From the importance of time, trust and personal space, to the management of screens, technology and other people’s expectatio...
The global home educating community has grown like crazy in 2021. More families are choosing a life without school than ever before, and it’s never been more important - as we go into the new year - to lift each other up, and encourage, and support, and inspire one another. Which is why, in this very short but heartfelt episode, I want to say thank you to YOU. Because you have already spread the Life Without School Podcast further, and wider, than I ever imagined. You have made sure it has grown...
In this episode I want to help you build your de-schooling muscle. The process of taking everything you know about education, wiping your mental slate as clean as possible, and coming at the whole idea of how children learn as fresh as you can. To do that, I want to take you through five commonly held beliefs about education and childhood. Through this conversation, you will grow progressively more aware of ideas you’ve probably held since you were a child. Ideas that have far less substance tha...
Welcome back to another question and answer episode - where I take some time to dig into things you all want to hear more about it. They might be things you’re personally struggling with, or worried about, or planning for...and I really love having these conversations, because it’s always such a great reminder that we’re not alone on this road. In this episode, I’m sharing my thoughts on these three questions: 1) What are some key phrases you can use here and there to help encourage your childre...
Home educating parents often put a huge amount of pressure on themselves to perform the role of being a teacher, and in this episode I want to talk through why I believe the stress, tension, and feelings of failure that so often come from that are unnecessary. First, we’ll talk through four reasons why I believe it’s a mistake to try and be a teacher to your home educated child. Then, we’ll talk through some different ways of thinking about the role you can play instead. My hope is that by the e...
Asking our children to all learn the same things, at the same times, in the same groups, in the same spaces, with only the same ages… …is effectively asking them to become the same as everyone else. It’s asking them to think less about their true selves, and more about what the most accepted version of it might be. It’s asking them to see their uniqueness as a bad thing, and fitting in as good. No, more than that – critical. And to me, this fundamentally undermines what being a human being is al...
In this episode we're looking at a philosophy that underpins how Kate and I approach life with our kids, their education, and our relationships with them. It's very different to the way formal education is approached, and is based on the power of trust . We’ll talk about the process of letting go of that complete control over a child’s education that is so engrained in us. About why it’s so important, how we might navigate it all, and what the results can look like. About how putting trust in ou...
In this - the first of many episodes where I'll spend some time answering listener questions - I talk through: 1) How do you respond to people saying ‘life is hard - if you don’t force your child to do things they don’t want to do, how will they be prepared for life’? 2) How on earth do you ever find time for yourself, and your own interests? 3) How do I get my husband to see how beneficial home education can be? For regular encouragement and support just like this, including weekly mini-episode...
A lot of you have asked for a day-in-the-life style episode, so...here it is! I think there's a stack of important context that should always be shared as part of this kind of conversation, though, so this episode is made up of three parts (if you listen in, *please* make sure you go right through - taking any of this in isolation just...won't be as useful): Part 1 is some of the thinking we went through to arrive at the daily and weekly flow we have. Part 2 takes you through what that flow look...
This week I want to talk about what to do when this home education path starts feeling hard, because what we’re doing here isn’t easy. As parents, we’re taking on a huge responsibility by choosing to live a life without school, and there’s not always the support we need, or would like. Either practically, or emotionally. There’s no...set playbook for this stuff. Today, I’m going to talk through four things that have helped me when the journey has felt tough. Hopefully they bring you some comfort...
One of the things we often underestimate when we decide to live a life without school - regardless of how excited about it we are - is how our family and friends will respond to it. How we’ll talk to them about it, and answer the questions that they’ll probably have. Because despite the growth and awareness in home education recently, we are still very much in the minority, and this path is still very misunderstood. With so many families joining to this path, I want spend some time today buildin...
In this week’s episode I want to talk about how a good home education lifestyle doesn’t just happen...it needs to be designed. Because it’s one thing to decide that a life without school is the right thing for your family, and the path you’re going to take...but it’s a whole other thing to work out, practically, what your days and weeks will actually look like. The beauty of home education, of course, is that you get to decide how you want to approach it. But, that’s also one of its biggest chal...
For this episode I want to dig into two of the biggest misconceptions about home education that I, personally, have experienced over the years that I’ve been an unschooling dad. Despite it being a rapidly growing form of education, especially over the past year or two, homeschooling (or unschooling, hack schooling, home education, world schooling - whatever your personal flavour or term happens to be) - is still a widely misunderstood world. The reasons for choosing to opt out of school and the ...
The very, very squiggly story of how we became a home educating family, including: • How we ended up at financial rock-bottom as 30 year olds (with two young children). • How despite that we’ve made it possible to always have at least one of us not working and at home with the children. • How we found the experience of attending three different schools across two different countries. • How a serious chronic illness threatened to derail our life plans, but actually helped keep us on the right pat...
In this very first episode of the Life Without School podcast, I'm talking about why it even needs to exist. Why I’m so passionate about shining a light on life paths for children that don’t involve the normal school thing. Why there are millions of children around the world who wake up each day feeling broken, not enough, and believing that the things that come most naturally to them are not important. Thank you for listening - I hope you're as excited as I am about this podcast becoming a thin...
