Our June Review

Hi! It’s Erika and I’m back to share what we’ve been up to in June.

I was lucky enough to travel around Iceland at the end of May and beginning of June. Since I had made it one of my big goals of the year to travel, my sister invited me to join the trip with her family. The landscape was so other-worldly. I loved the weather! And I feel like I really had an amazing adventure. It was fun to come back with Icelandic snacks and souvenirs to share with my family. And I felt so much gratitude for the flexibility and relationships that make traveling like this possible. We support each other in following our interests, which feels amazing!

And here’s what’s been happening at Living Joyfully!

For our June theme in the Living Joyfully Network, we continued with the next stage of the journey in Pam’s Unschooling Journey book, Accepting Our Nature.

As Pam shared, this stage is all about the temptations from our old life that may lead us to abandon or stray from our unschooling quest.

Chances are, there are times when our new reality doesn’t match what we first envisioned our unschooling lives would look like. We are far enough away from our old lives that we might feel a twinge of nostalgia for the relative ease of doing things the same way as pretty much everyone else–with parents in control and kids learning conventionally.

When things get challenging, sometimes we might experience the pull of temptation to step off the path. We are definitely not alone in these fears, because there’s literally a stage for it in the hero’s journey! This inner work is hard stuff. But rather than judge ourselves for our “imperfection,” over time, we can come to accept all facets of ourselves–the confident part, the fearful part, the tempted part–and not judge them as good or bad but accept them all as part of our nature.

This has been a really interesting theme with so many deep conversations! I love hearing how Network members engage with the themes and share their unique experiences.

We invite you to join us in the Living Joyfully Network, a warm and welcoming online community of like-hearted parents. It’s a non-judgmental space where you can steep in these unconventional ideas around parenting, relationships, and learning, and explore what they might look like day-to-day in your uniquely wonderful family.

We offer a free month trial so you can meet us there and see if it’s a good fit for you. Click here to join us.

“The Network has been so important in our unschooling journey. It has provided me with a safe haven of support and understanding, which I can then radiate out in to my family. It grounds me, calms me and always helps me to see any problems in a different light. It’s the only space where I don’t feel judged and I feel like I’m surrounded by people who genuinely care and want to celebrate our way of life. It helps me to be the kind of Mama I want to be for my children.” ~ Alicia Stanton

This past month, we shared two brand new On the Journey episodes. The first was with Ari Lambie. Ari is a mom of three young children and she spoke with us about the philosophy of learning, the fallibilism of humans, creativity, children’s social development as well as their capability, and a lot more.

It was a fascinating conversation and we hope you find it helpful!

Listen to the episode in your preferred podcast player or listen/read the transcript on our website here. Or watch on YouTube.

The second episode was our interview with unschooling dad Sam. Sam shared deeply about his journey with his daughter through autistic burnout. We talked about Sam’s experiences in both PDA and unschooling parent communities, the depth of the inner work that this journey involves, and some of the major paradigm shifts that he has made along the way.

It was a really meaningful conversation and we hope it resonates with you!

Listen to the episode in your preferred podcast player or listen/read the transcript on our website here. Or watch on YouTube.

We hope you enjoyed our episodes this month!

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In case you missed them, we shared three articles on Substack in June. Click below to check them out!

Time and the Wild Landscape of Unschooling by Pam Laricchia

The First Sign a System Isn’t Working by Pam Laricchia

Revisiting ‘House Rules’ by Anna Brown

We so appreciate you engaging with the ideas we share through all of our work. The changes we make in ourselves and in our families ripple out and change the world around us! We are so glad you’re here and hope to meet you soon in the Living Joyfully Network. Wishing you and your family a wonderful July! 💖

1:1 Business Mentoring with Pam: I help entrepreneurs cut through the noise, untangle messy systems, and get back to doing the work they love. Get support here.

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