Pam Laricchia - Living Joyfully with Unschooling Box Set

LIVING JOYFULLY with Unschooling

eBook Box Set

PAM LARICCHIA

Copyright 2015 Pam Laricchia

All rights reserved.

Published by

Living Joyfully Enterprises

Erin, Ontario, Canada

livingjoyfully.ca

ISBN-13: 978-0-9940555-0-7

Cover design by Jane Dixon-Smith.

www.jdsmith-design.com

Summary

This box set brings together the best of both worlds: diving deep into the principles of unschooling and seeing how they play out in everyday situations.

It is for every parent who is contemplating unschooling, or has taken the leap and is thinking, now what? What does day-to-day life look like in an unschooling family? How can I create a thriving unschooling environment in my home, with my family?

Pam Laricchia and her family have been unschooling for more than a dozen years. Her three children are now young adults and she's definitely experienced the ups and downs of life. She shares her understanding of unschooling and her family's experiences through her books to help fellow travelers on their unschooling journeys.

She shares not only what she's found helpful along the way, but also why. Because understanding the perspective and principles behind the unschooling lifestyle will help you make the every day choices that will bring you closer to the parent you want to be. And that is a lifelong journey.

This box set contains three books:

Free to Learn: Five Ideas for a Joyful Unschooling Life

Pam shares the five paradigm-changing ideas about learning and living that freed her family from the school schedule: real learning, following interests, making choices, why not yes, and living together. These ideas were, and still are, key to their unschooling lives.

Free to Live: Create a Thriving Unschooling Home

Pam discusses the four characteristics that have had the most positive impact on their unschooling lifestyle: curiosity, patience, strong relationships, and trust. Understanding why these characteristics are so helpful makes it easier for parents to choose to respond in ways that support unschooling, rather than undermine it.

Life through the Lens of Unschooling: A Living Joyfully Companion

Drawn from her popular blog at livingjoyfully.ca, you'll find essays tackling everything from learning to read to visiting relatives, all organized around nine key words that have been woven into the fabric of their unschooling lives: deschooling, learning, days, parenting, relationships, family, lifestyle, unconventional, and perspective. Come dig deeper into your understanding of unschooling and what it might look like day-to-day in your family. The theme is life; the lensunschooling.

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If you're interested, you can sign up for my free intro to unschooling email series, Exploring Unschooling, designed to help you avoid some common and frustrating missteps as you begin your unschooling journey. You'll also receive my monthly newsletter, where we'll dig more into life through the lens of unschooling, plus I'll keep you in the loop about my new releases.

You can sign up here: livingjoyfully.ca/newsletter/

My next book, The Art of Parenting: What Unschooling Showed Me About the Value of Curiosity, Creativity, and Exploring Character, will hit shelves in late 2015.

When people meet unschooling children, teens, and young adults, they so often remark on their zest for lifehow they dive into their interests and actually seem to be enjoying themselves. They are interested and interesting! Why is that? What's so different about the unschooling lifestyle that it not only encourages learning, but also inspires such direct engagement with life?

We'll tackle these questions and many more as we explore new perspectives and parenting tools that will help you live your family's grand, unschooling adventure with gusto!

Book One: Free to Learn

Free to Learn

Five Ideas for a Joyful Unschooling Life

PAM LARICCHIA

Copyright 2012 Pam Laricchia

All rights reserved.

Published by

Living Joyfully Enterprises

Erin, Ontario, Canada

ISBN-13: 978-0-9877333-0-6

Edited by Alexandra Peace.

Cover design by Jane Dixon-Smith.

Cover photo by Lissy Laricchia.

I have been learning from my kids, Joseph, Lissy, and Michael, since they were born. We have been living together joyfully through laughter and tears, consternation and celebration, Harry Potter and Zelda. Each day is new and exciting, even if we stay in our pyjamas, and our conversations are always interesting and thought-provoking! They are shining examples to me of staying true to yourself, especially through the challenging times, and for that I dedicate this book to them.

I LOVE YOU!

Introduction

Hi, I'm Pam Laricchia. Our family is a wonderful web of three teenage children (Joseph, Lissy, and Michael), me, and my husband, Rocco. We've been happily unschooling in Ontario, Canada since 2002. Nice to meet you.

As background, I thought I'd share a bit about my life before, and my journey to, unschooling. Having earned an Engineering and Management degree through a unique five-year university program, I was firmly entrenched in the public and post-secondary education system, as were all my family and friends. Soon after, I was happily married and had children. But even as my parenting began veering from the mainstream, it didn't occur to me to question the system when my eldest reached school age. I do remember thinking it would be an interesting ride when we walked out of Joseph's junior kindergarten teacher interview, during which he didn't say a word to answer her questions. He smiled and explained to me that he didn't feel like talking to her today, but that he'd speak to her once he started school. I laughed and tousled his hair.

In those first years some teachers were more flexible, while others were quite determined to shave off his uniqueness. I researched, I left my career to stay home full-time, and I worked with his teachers and principals to try to help them better understand him. I even gave a presentation about spirited kids at a teacher's meeting and donated books to the library for other parents. Most of the teachers understood what I was talking about, but their feedback was that they don't have the time to work with kids outside the personalities and learning styles that mesh with the classroom setting. The kids have to fit the surroundings, not the other way around. It became clear to me that he would not thrive in public school. In my continued quest to find a learning environment that worked well for him, I found a specialized private school. The environment was betterthe teachers and staff are being paid to work outside the typical linesbut still not great.

Then, through still more research, I came across the concept of homeschooling and was thrilled to discover it was legal where we lived. Rocco and I discussed it at length over the next couple of weeks and realized that there seemed no downside to trying it out for a year; if it didn't work out they could return to school. It was March Break and none of the kids went back. They were ecstatic with their newly-found playtime and I was now happily researching homeschooling. I soon discovered the notion of unschooling and after a couple weeks of trying to entice them to do some workbooks, I realized I was hindering, not helping, their learning. We spent the next months deschooling and living and having a great time. We still are!