I have another graduated un/homeschooler on my show today, Michael Patterson, who will be talking to me from Central America. Growing up Michael was involved with community service and earned the Eagle Scout Award, at 16 he traveled to Japan as an Exchange Student, on college campus he was a newspaper reporter. He graduated from Texas State University, Magna Cum Laude with a major in journalism and a minor in Anthropology/Archaelogy. As an outgoing, social young man Michael parleyed his love of ...
Dec 06, 2013•1 hr
Many years ago when my children were still too young to mind about homeschooling a colleague brought me a cassette and picture book from down under called Lizard Gully. It became an instant hit for the munchkins. Years later when choosing a song to dance to with my son at his wedding my heart returned to those petal picking critters in the Aussie Outback! During my quest for a more digitally friendly version of the song, I met Rick Turk who composed this popular children’s musical. Rick agreed t...
Nov 29, 2013•59 min
My guest today is Janie Scanlan who talked with me last week about homeschooling and the lead up to her daughter’s winning of The Miss America crown in 2011! We will be continuing our conversation from where we left it on the stage in Las Vegas. Janie is a homeschooling mother of six ranging in age from 13-26. She lives in Gehring, Nebraska and has just bought a coffee shop in her small town, which she runs with one of her daughters. Her husband is a child and adult psychiatrist and Janie says h...
Nov 22, 2013•59 min
My guest today is Janie Scanlan homeschooling mother of six ranging in age from 13-26. Janie lives in Gehring, Nebraska. Janie's husband, Mark, is a child and adult psychiatrist who leaves his job at the office. Praise the Lord! We are going to be talking about good old fashioned homeschooling, how we responded to our children’s bursts of independence, the roller coaster ride of raising teenagers especially when we’ve never done it before and the changing face of our homeschool as the years pass...
Nov 15, 2013•1 hr
I’m thrilled to welcome back my Blue Eyed Cowboy this week to chat about the events that have been going on our life. Making the transition from hands on parents to empty nesters has been quite a ride as he’ll tell you! Father of the four children we homeschooled he brought his guitar, his imagination and his unique way of telling bedtime stories to the kitchen table. His glamourous life caught the children’s attention a whole lot quicker than anything I was trying to do with them! “What was it ...
Nov 08, 2013•56 min
This week my military homeschooling Mum, Aadel Bussinger, is returning as my guest. The last time we spoke Aadel was all set to pitch her temporary tent in Seoul, South Korea, where her husband is deployed. Today we are going to be talking about her move, with her three children, by herself, with a little help from her military friends. Aadel has been married to her career army man for twelve years and they have three children whom they unschool while moving at the army’s whim! She has a persona...
Nov 01, 2013•1 hr
My guest this week is fellow Brit Theodora Sutcliffe who describes herself as nomad, meaning she and her twelve-year-old son Zac, live anywhere, everywhere, and nowhere and have done so for three years! They travel pretty much all the time after finishing their first year and realizing they couldn’t see the world in 12 short months! Luckily Theodora is a writer which is totally portable and you can read what she writes about the apparent mundanity of leading a life less ordinary at www.escapeart...
Oct 25, 2013•58 min
I always like to have graduated homeschoolers on my show and my guest this week is returning to talk about how his life has taken a change in direction since he was last with me. Joshua Williams is an English, lifelong homeschooler, the oldest son in a family of five boys and one girl. He has taught and worked with children, mainstream home-educated and disabled, in Britain and Italy helping them to build a strong foundation for their futures. Today Joshua is going to be telling us about the way...
Oct 18, 2013•58 min
With me today are Tom and Julie Meekins who have a heart for parents, especially those who are raising challenging children. Julie has been a guest on my show a couple of times and you can go back and hear her story about her youngest daughter diagnosed with CHARGE Syndrome as an infant. They were told she would never function as a normal child. Julie and Tom knew that with God all things are possible and today all their children are young adults and doing fabulously! Because of their many bless...
Oct 11, 2013•58 min
My guest today is a graduated unschooler with an innovative outlook on life. Jessica Barker is 23-years-old, an autodidact with a great love for traveling anywhere and learning anything. After two highly successful years spent keeping a blog called Life Without College, Jessica started College Rebellion to reach a wider audience with a greater amount and variety of resources. Jessica also writes for The Unschooler Experiment and offers mentorship through Zero Tuition College. When she is not wri...
Oct 04, 2013•58 min
One of my guests this week is a homeschooled homeschooler the other was impressed by a homeschooler she met at college. Leah Shingleton is the mother of five children and the illustrator of two phonics books, A Pretty Girl was Alpha Bette and A Funny Boy was Prince River, both written by her sister and a regular guest on my show, Shannah Godfrey. Her friend and fellow guest with me today is Karianne Lisonbee who also homeschools her six children. She and Leah met at college and have remained fri...
Sep 27, 2013•58 min
I have one of my favourite people to chat to on my show today, my youngest child and daughter, Malia McNeny. Malia has been sailing the high seas since August 1st and has been to fourteen countries already! She is a graduated homeschooler, of course, who has wanted to be a performer ever since her first appearance on stage during a ballet recital when she was five. Making her dream come true has had its ups and downs but she has worked hard! From the community college in Texas, to a performance ...
Sep 20, 2013•59 min
I have a father on my show this week whose blog, The Way of the Passionate Warrior, tells it all from the male perspective! Hugh deBurgh writes about life, family, real men, love, relationships, unschooling and so much more! He has dedicated his life to the parenting style of living life intentionally and is on the second leg of a worldwide travel adventure with his wife and four young children. Hugh has also written a book, Families Without Limits, which you can pick up FREE from his website. T...
Sep 13, 2013•58 min
This week we’re going to take a break from extreme travel and welcome Jody Halsted to talk to us about how she inspires families to travel together, anywhere. I thought we’d come home as it were and find out how we can explore our own back yards and create lasting memories for everyone. Jody is a family travel authority and social media educator and has been rambling with her husband and two girls for many years. She has learned a thing or two about what makes a great family trip, how to spend d...
Sep 06, 2013•59 min
My guest this week is well known in the travelling homeschool circles, not to mention the bike riding community and as I was doing my research I realized she had given a TEDX Talk to boot which I watched while thinking, ‘I’m speaking to this amazing woman on Friday!” and indeed I am! I am honoured to welcome Nancy Sathre-Vogel of Family on Bikes fame to my show and I know you will be both motivated and delighted by this amazing woman. After 21 years as a classroom teacher, Nancy finally woke up ...
Aug 30, 2013•58 min
This week I am bringing you the second half of my conversation with Lainie Liberti and her son Miro who are living in Peru at the moment as they make their way slowly around the world. Lainie, with some help from Miro, authors a blog and podcast, Raising Miro on the Road of Life and she invites you to join them on their fascinating journey. As we heard last week their ever changing world has been transformed into a compelling classroom for both of them and Lainie is an advocate for “life learnin...
Aug 23, 2013•1 hr
Continuing with my series of travelling homeschooling families it is my pleasure to welcome both Lainie Liberti and her son Miro to my show this week. Lainie is the author of the blog and podcast Raising Miro on the Road of Life and she will be telling us the story of how she came to un-schooling accidentally while she and her son slow travel around the world. I will be talking to Miro first to get his perspective on living and adventuring with his Mum for the last four years and then I’ll let L...
Aug 16, 2013•1 hr 2 min
Twelve years ago my guest, Marina Villatoro, took a solo trip, overland, to Latin America from New York. She travelled through Mexico all the way down to Argentina and Chile. During this long trip she met a fascinating man who spoke flawless English while camping in the Tikal Mayan Ruins in Guatamala. They married and have two boys and have been living in Central America for over ten years and are a multi cultural and tri-lingual family. As Marina quips, "there’s never a dull moment in her house...
Aug 09, 2013•58 min
Renee Tougas is my guest again this week, we are going to be talking about creativity and ideals as she and her husband homeschool their three children on the side of a mountain in the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec in Canada. They both work from home wherever they are, a family lifestyle that suits all of them in their semi-nomadic state! Together they are outdoors enthusiasts, designers and artists, adventurers, programmers and homemakers, naturalists, sewists, idealists and followers in the way of...
Aug 02, 2013•1 hr 1 min
As promised I'm bringing you part 2 of the conversation I had with Behan Gifford, her husband Jamie and their three children aboard their sloop, Totem, which they have called home for five years. Behan and Jamie decided that living their dream could not be postponed for an amorphous retirement. When asked the big question, "Why?" they respond with "Why not?" They homeschool while sailing the oceans and we're going to be talking about education, their family culture and expectations. Come and lis...
Jul 26, 2013•55 min
Joining me today is Behan Gifford and family on board their sloop, Totem, in Malaysia. They school their three children on their sailing vessel and have been living on the seas for five years after deciding that “someday” needed a date and doing their dream shouldn’t be postponed for an amorphous retirement. Living on board Totem suits them perfectly although the lifestyle comes with its fair share of routine maintenance except in exotic locations. In the beginning when they first set sail folk ...
Jul 19, 2013•56 min
Are you into the full swing of long, hot summer days yet? How is reading fitting into your school’s out plans? Can well-written books be used as boredom busters for the whole family? This week I am welcoming back Sarita Holzmann, co-founder and president of Sonlight Curriculum, to share with us some books for the summer she and her daughter, Jonelle, have chosen. Sonlight is a literature based curriculum and Sarita has the pleasure of reading all the books that land on her desk before selecting ...
Jul 12, 2013•58 min
Today my on air friend, Gretchen Roe, and I are going to be talking about addiction, Digital Addiction! Gretchen has joined me for many a Friday chat and I think this one is going to hit home in many families. As Community Liaison for the Calvert School Gretchen fields a lot of questions from Mums, Dads and children in the homeschool trenches and she knows just what is going on in busy households similar to yours and mine, why? She has one of her own! Mother of two college graduates, one junior,...
Jul 05, 2013•57 min
With me this week is Sue Patterson a self confessed, highly involved, Mum of three who loves her children as if today is the only day she’s going to have with them. She knows she raised them differently from other people and she wanted them to unfold naturally without unnecessary peer pressure or authoritarian squashing. She went from soccer Mum in the suburbs to radical unschooler wherever she happened to be since she was a Air Force wife and they moved a lot. Sue wasn’t interested in establish...
Jun 28, 2013•58 min
This week I’m welcoming back Shannah Godfrey a scientist who has succeeded in a man’s world and still managed to raise and homeschool 14 children! Today we are going to be talking about good parenting practices, comparing ourselves to others, the value of rebellion and whether it is reasonable to expect your child to have left home by the time he or she turns thirty! Shannah was a gifted child who decided to wait to go to college and found herself cast in the role of stay at home mother of five ...
Jun 21, 2013•58 min
I am excited this week to be talking to Renee Tougas who lives on the side of a mountain in the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec in Canada. She and her husband homeschool their three children ages 14, 12 and 10. They are location independent, which means they can both work from home wherever they are. Together they are a family of outdoors enthusiasts, designers and artists, adventurers, programmers and homemakers, naturalists, sewists and idealists and followers in the way of Christ. So now you unders...
Jun 14, 2013•57 min
My guest this week is the oldest boy of three who were homeschooled ‘from the get go.’ Spencer Farris said his school books could follow him wherever he went. In his short life he has lived in Costa Rica and Mexico and taken frequent trips all over America in the family RV. His travels were both pleasurable and educational adventures where he visited numerous Historic sites and learned a great deal about a variety of subjects by interacting with the people. Spencer entered the community college ...
Jun 07, 2013•58 min
My guest this week is a contributing writer for the Wall Street Journal’s Small Business Report. Barbara Haislip covers a range of topics relevant to small business and start-ups, including public speaking and the bottom line, humor in sales pitches, how to write an effective business plan, money-saving tips, how to learn from your competitors and deriving inspiration from vacations. She holds a B.A. degree in English from Duke University and was a copy editor at The Wall Street Journal for over...
May 30, 2013•58 min
This week I am thrilled to have my very creative and artistic friend, Marcia Washburn, back on my show. Marcia holds a Master’s in Music Education and taught public school music for eight years prior to the birth of the oldest of her five sons, whom she and her husband homeschooled in rural Colorado for nineteen years. On past shows Marcia has talked about the Shuar Indians of Ecuador and her fabulous music book called, Beethoven Who? Today she is going to be introducing us to one of her e-books...
May 24, 2013•58 min
This week I am welcoming back Mariaemma Willis a Learning Success coach who oversees the home education of her grandchildren and works with homeschooling families in assessing their individual learning styles. She holds a Masters degree in Education, and California Life Teaching Credentials for Regular and Special Education. Mariaemma is a sought-after speaker, trainer, and consultant for parents and teachers. She has spent the last 16 years guiding children and their families in understanding a...
May 17, 2013•58 min
