Unschooling Conversations Podcast - Episode: Doing Things Differently with Amanda Diekman In this thought provoking episode, I sit down with Amanda Diekman, author of "Low Demand Parenting," for a transformative conversation about radical acceptance, deschooling, and reimagining family dynamics. You will find: The power of radical acceptance in neurodivergent families How to drop demands on yourself and your children Reframing "challenging" behaviours as valuable communication The importance of ...
Jul 16, 2025•50 min•Season 3Ep. 5
In this powerful conversation, Heidi Steel and Alice Bramhill dive deep into the transformative world of self-compassion, unschooling, and neurodivergent family life. They explore how breaking free from traditional educational and societal expectations can lead to more authentic, compassionate living. Key Highlights: The challenges of unschooling neurodivergent children. Deconstructing, deschooling, and decolonising societal expectations about education and success. Practical strategies for deve...
Jul 02, 2025•54 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Heidi Steel talks with Iris Wong about her unschooling journey, neurodivergence, and supporting children's unique learning experiences. Highlights: Navigating Neurodivergent Unschooling: Challenges traditional educational models that don't support neurodivergent children Recognising and Healing from Educational Burnout: Iris's son experienced early school burnout, leading them to unschooling Gaming as a Learning Platform: Discusses gaming as a valuable learning and exploration tool Executive Fun...
Jun 18, 2025•53 min•Season 3Ep. 3
In this episode of Unschooling Conversations Essie Richards talks about the real journey of unschooling beyond the Instagram moments. Embracing the entire spectrum of experiences is key to a successful education approach and leaning into the complex, nuanced journey that includes both beautiful moments and challenging times. Key Highlights: Exploring the authentic challenges and experiences of unschooling Breaking down the myth of constant joy Navigating neurodivergence and family learning Main ...
Jun 04, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Unravelling in Unschooling - A Conversation with Makeba Garraway In this deeply personal and insightful conversation, Heidi Steel and Makeba Garraway explore the concept of "unravelling" - a metaphorical journey of questioning, discovering, and transforming personal beliefs and societal systems. This episode is accompanied by a sensitivity warning as we discuss the recent shooting and subsequent death of Victor Perez Key Themes: The Metaphor of Unravelling Compared to pulling a thread in a knitt...
May 21, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Season 3Ep. 1
The teenage years are undoubtedly a whole new phase even for unschooling parents. We come equipped with unschooling principles but they take on a whole new meaning as your young people naturally develop, grow, and change in new ways. Heidi Steel is joined in this episode by Esther Jones from Esther Jones | Mindful parenting and learning beyond school to explore unschooling through the teenage years. We share the importance of trusting teenagers' agency and allowing them to take ownership of thei...
Sep 16, 2024•36 min•Season 2Ep. 6
In this insightful episode, Heidi Steel sits down with conscious parenting and living coach Sarah Parkes to explore the transformative power of conscious parenting. Sarah shares how the foundations of unconditional love, radical acceptance, and emotional regulation can profoundly impact families. They discuss the practical ways conscious parenting looks in daily life, including allowing big emotions to run their course and repairing relationships after past mistakes. Sarah emphasizes that it's n...
Aug 15, 2024•36 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Are you worried about your child’s mental health and feel that they (and you) need a little extra support? Unschooling allows for you to prioritise your child’s mental health and your relationships, and whilst the principles of unschooling and the lifestyle are naturally therapeutic, they are not therapy. This episode of Unschooling Conversations introduces you to the work of NLP4Kids as I interview the lovely, and knowledgeable NLP4Kids practitioner, Naomi Emison. She shares with us the work th...
Jul 02, 2024•39 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Welcome to the first in a new series of episodes The Voices of Unschooling. We know that unschooling looks different in every family and that there is no curriculum, manual or blueprint for what unschooling looks like. Unschooling families are drawn together by their ideas on how learning happens and their focus on building and establishing a family culture based on shared principles. This series is a way of showcasing how those ideas are put into practice in unschooling homes and what unschooli...
Jun 20, 2024•31 min•Season 2Ep. 3
How essential is SALT and when should we seek their help? Many families leave the school system behind often wondering which elements of support they still need as they begin unschooling. With concepts such as 'being behind' (which your child is not) and 'early intervention' (which causes its own problems with neurodivergent children) it can be hard to know what to do for the best and when. As a Speech and Language Therapist and an unschooling parent Kate Appleby sits beautifully at the intersec...
May 25, 2024•35 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Screen Addiction: How to Support Your Teen's Healthy Relationship with Technology Tea and Guest Episodes are on 'Early Release' to LivePlayLearn Monthly members. You can find out more and join at https://ko-fi.com/liveplaylearn/tiers In this episode Dr Naomi Fisher and Heidi Steel discuss the complexities of Screen Addiction. So, pop the kettle on, grab a cup of tea, and listen in. We jump straight in with answering the question that we all need the answer to: How can we tell if our child is add...
Apr 09, 2024•39 min•Season 2Ep. 1
SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/liveplaylearn Lainie Liberti joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about her journey into radical unschooling and her recent book Seen, Heard and Understood. As a result of the 2008 California economy crash, Liberti closed her Los Angeles based branding agency. Liberti and her then 9-year-old Miro decided to “be the change” instead of victims and chose a life of adventure. After, selling all of their possessions, Lainie and her son hit the road for what wa...
Jun 16, 2022•49 min•Season 1Ep. 22
SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/liveplaylearn Tamsyn Fortune-Wood joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about her experiences as an unschooled person. We discuss: · Making the decision to Home Educate her own children and ditching those school registration forms in the bin 3:00 · What are the most common questions that Tamsyn is asked when people find out that she was home educated 7:00 · A listener question is answered: What did learning look like for you, including how it changed as yo...
May 16, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 21
SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/liveplaylearn Summer Jean Campbell joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about her experiences as an unschooled person We discuss: Introducing Summer Jean Campell and welcome to the podcast How Summer spends her days as a grown unschooler 2:00 Reflections on how life would have been different had Summer been in school 4:00 The value of exploring your own pursuits and in your own way 8:00 Seeing the development of skills and knowledge with hindsight 10:00 H...
Apr 16, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 20
SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/liveplaylearn Alice Khamisia joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about Creating Community We discuss: · How to begin finding the community that you need and the snowball effect 3:00 · The necessity of finding the right community for encouragement and support 10:00 · Dealing with discouragement, the reality of not having a ready made group given to us, and the effort required from us 12:00 · Our success stories and positive experiences of finding ...
Mar 16, 2022•48 min•Season 1Ep. 19
SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/liveplaylearn Rachel Evans joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about How our Children Learn without Curriculums We discuss: · Snapshot of our households 3:00 · What does learning look like? 8:10 · Move from discovery to mastery learning, unconscious and conscious learning · Web of learning and individual learning journeys 12:40 · Creating a rich and supportive environment 14:50 · Knowing our children well 15:30 · A reflective activity when it looks like ...
Feb 16, 2022•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 18
Angela Harders joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about Gentle Parenting, our journeys into unschooling, and the importance of community. Angela is a bilingual special education teacher near Washington DC, she has been teaching for over twelve years. She is a single mum to two children, Sophia aged 7, and Benjamin aged 3. SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/liveplaylearn We discuss: · What a typical unschooling day looks like in Angela’s household 4:00 · UK Guidelines for HE paren...
Jan 16, 2022•46 min•Season 1Ep. 17
SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON Ko-fi : Jyoti Imix joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about recording evidence, observing children, and research on Self-Directed Education in light of the Portsmouth Judicial Review. We discuss: · Children’s Rights and advocating for children as a minority group 2:30 · Heidi gives a detail outline of her background 7:30 · PCC Judicial Review 12:00 · What documenting learning could look like 12:50 · Paragraph 94: “As can readily be seen, in the present case the defendan...
Dec 16, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Tiersa McQueen joins Heidi Steel, in the first of a double bill, this month, to talk about Unschooling Ourselves. Tiersa is a parent to four unschooled children, living in Florida, and an active unschooling advocate on Twitter. SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/liveplaylearn We discuss: · How Tiersa came to unschooling 3:40 · How our teens transition to further education 6:50 · The challenging process of changing our mindset 8:00 · How children learn when they are free from school ...
Nov 16, 2021•41 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Tiersa McQueen joins Heidi Steel, in the first of a double bill, this month, to talk about Partnering Our Children Tiersa is a parent to four unschooled children, living in Florida, and an active unschooling advocate on Twitter. SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/liveplaylearn We discuss: · Respectfully and consciously parenting our children 1:00 · Partnering our children and over coming our inadequacy at not knowing everything 5:30 · What knowledge do we need to be able to support ...
Nov 16, 2021•49 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Krish Khimasia joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about Unschooling Maths. SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON KO-FI: https://ko-fi.com/liveplaylearn Krish has been a secondary maths teacher for over twenty years, and with his wife, Alice, an unschooling parent to his four sons now aged 19, 18, 15 and 9. He now teaches at the Secret Garden, an alternative educational provision in the West Midlands. We discuss: · How children will learn the maths that they need for adulthood without explicitly being taught...
Oct 16, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Esther Jones from the podcast Unschool Space joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about Unschooling Ourselves and our own Self Care. SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/liveplaylearn We discuss: · The return to authenticity and natural living 2.10 · The importance of community 5.00 · Enabling our children to thrive6.20 · Unschooling being the best fit for our neurodivergent children 8.40 · Unschooling being the best way for children to learn about themselves 9.40 · The benef...
Sep 16, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 12
“There is no perfect option but unschooling is as close to perfect as you’re going to get” Gina Riley joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about her academic book on Exploring Unschooling Beyond the Classroom. Gina Riley is an unschooling parent, educational psychologist, and Clinical Professor. She has worked alongside Peter Gray, and is known internationally for her research into Self Directed Learning and unschooling. Her unique perspective on learning as both academic and unschooling parent...
Sep 14, 2021•45 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Jenna Reich from Rogue Learner joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about our own path to unschooling. SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/liveplaylearn We discuss: · What drives teachers to unschool their own children 2:15 · Evaluating our life goals and values 5:30 · Taking back control over our own lives, freedom, flexibility and following our intuition 6:30 · The Path to unschool; where do we find out more? 8:15 · Tears and pain in home ed, finding an alternative, and co...
Jul 16, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 10
SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/liveplaylearn Sarah Beale joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about Ditching the Rules We discuss: · Making connections, friends and building community 0:50 · Ditching the rules and defining a pancake 4:10 · Fear based decision making and childism 10:15 · Introducing ourselves and the podcast 15:30 · Parenting success 17:30 · At what point do we need a rule? 21:30 · Drawing on the wall and unpacking our programming 26:00 · What it means t...
Jun 16, 2021•53 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Kelly Humphrey joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about the role of play beyond the Early Years. SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/liveplaylearn We discuss: · How children play and learn beyond the age of five. · Defining true play 3:00 -Deep immersion, intrinsically motivated, freely chosen, free flowing. · Why play is so important for children beyond the age of five 6:40 · How we know they are learning as they play 16:30 · Our role as adults in unschooling 25:00 · The ...
May 16, 2021•59 min•Season 1Ep. 8
SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/liveplaylearn Peter Gray joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about the role of play in our children’s natural learning journey. We discuss: · Learning through real play, natural human development, and the adult’s role in providing a rich environment. · Peter shares with us his own interest and personal journey into Self Directed Education 2:46 · The outcomes of young people who are self directed in their education, including unschoolers 9...
Apr 24, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 7
SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/liveplaylearn Adele Jarret-kerr joins Heidi Steel in the 6th episode of Unschooling Conversations, to talk about Anti-Racism work in Unschooling Families. Our discussion includes: · Unschooling as a powerful tool for decolonisation work. · The opportunity that we have to interact with the real world. · Embracing diversity of opinion and thought. · Making active choices for social justice. · How we “teach” our children anti-racism. · Our rol...
Apr 17, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 6
SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/liveplaylearn Harry Thompson – PDA Extraordinaire joins Heidi Steel this month, to talk about Unschooling Neurodivergent children. Harry introduces himself in his own unique style and goes on to give us an insight into what it is that our neurodiverse children truly need from us as their parents. This episode is jam packed full of goodies. We discuss: · How unschooling broadens children’s educational experience. · Operating from a place of ...
Apr 10, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 5
SUPPORT THE PODCAST ON PATREON: liveplaylearn Rachel Evans, unschooling parent and advocate from Connect and Respect, joins Heidi Steel this episode, to talk about Deschooling. We discuss: · The importance of deschooling, what it is and why we do it. · The practicalities of deschooling. · What deschooling looks like for parents, questioning schooled thinking, deconstructing our ideas of learning, and educating ourselves. · Rebuilding our parent:child relationships, connection and trust through q...
Apr 03, 2021•57 min•Season 1Ep. 4
