Preserving Childhood
On Preserving Childhood and Togetherness 🌿
One of the beauties of unschooling is simply this: we get more time together.
We aren’t rushing out the door each morning to go our separate ways. Instead, we live our days alongside our children. The ordinary moments stretch longer — we get to live unhurried, to linger in the warmth of childhood.
People often ask, “But how will they be ready for the real world?”
And I understand that question. The world is fast. It’s demanding. It’s loud. It can feel like our children need to be trained for it early —shaped into something efficient, prepared, productive.
But what if the greatest preparation isn’t pressure — but presence? What if the real world needs more people who were allowed to be children?
Who weren’t rushed through their early years. Who were given time to play, to imagine, to feel deeply, to rest often.
The Reality 🍂
Because the truth is: once childhood is gone, it’s gone. It is such a fleeting, sacred time.
Unschooling gives us the gift of slowing down — of letting our kids grow at a pace that honours their nature. It gives us the chance to preserve childhood just a little longer.
Children grow. They will learn to stand on their own. They’ll take on more — responsibility, independence, challenges. But that doesn’t need to happen all at once. Not yet. Not now.
Right now, they’re still little. Still finding out who they are. And I get to be here for it — not just at the bookends of the day, but for all of it: the slow mornings, the big questions, the everyday magic.
And what a privilege that is.
What We’re Gaining Back ⏳
Typical school schedule (where we live):
Hours per day: ~6 hours (usually 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., with breaks)
Days per year: ~190 days
Total per year: ~1,000 hours
Over 12 years of schooling: ~12,000 hours
And that doesn’t include:
Commutes 🚌
Homework 📚
Extracurriculars 🏀
A Different Kind of Time 🌱
Unschooling allows us to reclaim so many of those hours — to be together, to follow curiosity, to tend to connection, to protect the rhythm of childhood for just a little while longer.
✨ Want to keep walking this path together?
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💌 And feel free to reply — I’d love to know what brought you here.