10 Home ed and Unschooling podcasts I love :)

Podcasts have played a pivotal role in our home education journey. Not only do they form the soundtrack to our home and car most days, but they introduced us to the very idea of home education, and unschooling in particular.

Over ten years ago now, working as a college lecturer, I was trawling the internet for lesson plan inspiration when I stumbled across a podcast – Humans Being by Sarah Parent*. You can read more about how that changed our lives in Home Education : Our story in 14 Star Wars quotes 🙂

And because I know what a difference these home ed and unschooling podcasts have made to our life, I want to share some of my favourites with you…

Exploring unschooling – Pam Laricchia

Choosing to live and learn without school isn’t as intimidating as you might imagine. Children really do love learning when it’s driven by curiosity rather than curriculum, and the strong and trusting relationships that develop in unschooling families are priceless.

With almost 250 episodes, Pam Laricchia’s Exploring Unschooling podcast is an amazing source of inspiration and information on living joyfully with our children.

Alongside interviews with many gorgeous unschooling parents and grown unschoolers, Pam shares some of her conference talks and the audiobook versions of two of her books.

Pam has also collated the most relevant aspects of many of her interviews into themed episodes, including the challenges, surprises and sparkles of unschooling. Along with shows devoted to learning to read (171) and video games (182).

There are transcripts available for many of the episodes and you can listen to the show directly from Pam’s website, packed full of yet more helpful info.

Episodes to explore

Recently – Exploring Race, Racism and Diversity in Unschooling with Erika Davis-Pitre (241)

And from the archives – All of Pam’s shows are wonderfully thought-provoking. And with such a large archive it was tough to pick out just a few, so I’m flagging up some of the older shows you might’ve missed…

The Q and A round tables with Anne Ohman and Anna Brown – 4, 8, 13, 21 and many more – answering listeners questions on a wide range of unschooling, natural learning and parenting issues.

Some interviews I love from way-back –

Ten Questions with Jennifer McGrail (18)

Deschooling with Luminara King (51)

Unschooled Master of Arts with Sophie Christophy (72).

Stories of an unschooling family – Sue Elvis

…ideas, stories, homeschool record-keeping tips and resources for living an unschooling life of unconditional love.

Along with being interviewed on Exploring Unschooling (EU 150), Sue Elvis has her own home ed podcast, Stories of an Unschooling Family. Sue’s been podcasting since 2014 and is well on her way to 200 episodes.

Sue’s warm, conversational style is comforting and soothing. Featuring many stories from her books, Curious Unschoolers and Radical Unschool Love, chats with various members of her family and her thoughts on all things unschooling, Stories of an Unschooling Family is a joy to listen to.

Sue also has the podcast available at her website here and has added chapters, and even images to some of her episodes.

Episodes to explore –

Recently – How Curious Unschooled Kids Learn (176)

And from the archives – Again, there are so many, but the episodes where Sue discusses record keeping and writing offer some great insights and ideas –

Record keeping – My Unschooler’s Homeschool Registration Visit (149), Registered Homeschoolers Who Unschool, Confidence, and Other Thoughts (161).

Writing – Our Writing Unrules for Unschoolers, (148), More Unschool Writing Ideas and Resources (153).

And if you’d like to know more about Sue’s book, Curious Unschoolers, you can read my review here.

Sage Family Podcast – Rachel Rainbolt

…meaningful conversations with inspiring and insightful friends around Gentle Parenting, Natural Homeschooling, and Simple Living.

Like Exploring Unschooling, the Sage Family podcast has interviews with some of my favourite bloggers and writers from the natural homeschooling and gentle parenting community.

Rachel Rainbolt has the most beautiful voice and delightful intro complete with a virtual campfire. Living “…wild and free in connection with my three wildlings and the papa bear in our fixer-upper on the beach…” How cool is that? 🙂

Rachel chatted Deschooling with Pam Laricchia (4) and has been featured on Exploring Unschooling (The value of relationships EU 102).

Episodes to explore –

Recently – Unschooling with Kerry McDonald (47)

And from the archives – Collaboration with Dr. Ross Greene (25), and Play with Peter Gray (27)

Honey I’m Homeschooling the Kids – Robyn Robertson.

A podcast that steps into alternative education, parenting, and living a fun, fuller family life.

Another great intro, this one featuring Robyn’s daughter asking why she’s chosen to speak to each of her guests. Love it 🙂

Episodes to explore –

Recently – Exploring different Homeschool Styles (80 – 83).

And from the archives – Conscious Educator with Missy Willis (32)

The Parenting Junkie – Avital Schreiber

…empowering intentional, imperfect parents (like you and me!) who face chaos, clutter, and conflict, through online tools to reclaim peace, presence and play for your family.

Avital also has a wonderful YouTube channel where she discusses all things parenting and home ed.

Episodes to explore –

Recently – Teaching Critical Thinking Skills (82)

And from the archives – How Your Children Actually Learn (Surprising & Uncomfortable) (14)

Fare of the Free Child – Akilah S. Richards

With a particular interest in unschooling and the Self-Directed Education movement, Akilah S. Richards and guests discuss the fears and the fares (costs) of raising free black and brown children in a world that tends to diminish, dehumanize, and disappear them.

Another podcast coming up to 200 wonderful episodes. Find listener favourites here. Akilah also has a book, Raising Free People : Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work. Looking forward to reading that one 🙂

Episodes to explore

Recently – Choosing Learning Over Schooling (183)

And from the archives – 3 Barriers to Raising Free People (135)

Revillaging- Adele Jarrett-Kerr

Conversations diving deep into our longing for meaningful community.

The newest podcast on this list. Not strictly a home ed podcast, but with it’s focus on creating community and presented by Adele, a home-edding mama herself, I couldn’t resist.

Episodes to explore –

Recently – Feel Together, Think Separately (6)

And from the archives – The Culture We’re Creating (1)

Brave Writer – Julie Bogart

…a big juicy conversation about how to bring learning to life for your kids!

Julie also has a book, The Brave Learner (another on my to-read-soon list!) and her website is packed full of useful info, inspiration and support for home-ed.

Episodes to explore –

Recently – A Starter Kit for Teaching at Home, featuring four podcasts linked here.

And from the archives – 6 episodes discussing the natural developmental stages of growth in writing (Series one, eps 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9)

Read Aloud Revival – Sarah MacKenzie

…inspiring interviews, tips, and booklists that will help your whole family fall in love with books.

As the name suggest, it’s all about reading aloud. And through that one topic Sarah explores so much, just like home ed 🙂

Episodes to explore –

Recently – When reading starts to feel like school (165)

And from the archives – How to Make Meaningful Connections with Your Kids in the Coming Year (between RAR 56 and RAR 57, a short 8 minute bonus episode to inspire more reading aloud)

The Unschooling Life – Amy Childs

Discover the innumerable wonders & challenges of the unschooling life. Featuring interviews with unschooling families …

Despite this podcast not being updated since 2015, it contains so many great insights I just had to include it. Well worth a listen –

56 episodes, all about 15 minutes. My recommendation – start at the beginning and listen to them all 🙂

*Back to the early days for a moment…

Along with Sarah Parent’s show Humans Being, there were were two other parenting podcasts that stand out in my mind from the early days of our home ed –

Parenting for Humanity with Amy Makice and Lisa Stroyan – again, sadly I can’t find any way to listen to old episodes 🙁

and

Leading Edge Parenting with Sandi Schwartz – exciting news for this one, just discovered it seems to have been revived here, looking forward to a listen to the new episodes.

I’d love to know if you’ve listened to any of these podcasts, back in the day or right now?

If not, I hope you’ll get a chance to check some, or even all of them out 🙂

Maybe your favourite home ed podcast isn’t on my list? Please share your favourites in the comments, I’d love to know what you’re listening to.