Radical Unschooling - A Revolution Has Begun-Revised Edition

Many parts of this book were such a huge turn off I could barely read it and I am usually one for just taking in whatever resonates. She makes some great points relating to education but should have stuck with that topic. She strongly advocates for raising children with zero rules, zero boundaries, and zero guidance... including letting them eat as much garbage and watch as much tv or play video games as much as they want for example which are all highly addictive and severely damaging. This is very sad and disturbing to me and does not have to be part of unschooling at all. Your kids don’t want to join the family for dinner?? No problem, just make them whatever they feel like eating and bring it to them while they watch tv! She lumps together parents with some healthy boundaries who offer their kids necessary guidance and many other important parenting practices with those who just toss their kids to the mainstream/conventional education system, put their infants in a room to cry themselves to sleep, raise their kids in ways that are solely based on their own needs, and motivating their kids with fear. She makes demeaning comments about those “traditional parents” all lumped into a whole which often aren’t the same type of parents at all. Totally inaccurate. I do not do a single one of those things I listed or so many of the other parenting practices she lumps into the “traditional parents” label yet in her eyes any parent that isn’t like her is essentially lumped into the category of bad traditional parent doing it wrong while she seems to believe she holds the only truth that all must follow for the children of our world to live a life of happiness and health and to create a better world. Don’t worry she says, you can cry and forgive yourself for ruining your children and doing everything wrong, just follow my guidance to save your children. She is very judgmental, exaggerates hugely, blowing things way out of proportion on literally every page, and reeks of inauthenticity. Children crave and need some solid boundaries and guidance to feel safe and to develop properly. I know many families who have or do practice this type of no rules no boundaries parenting model and always every time without fail their home environments are nightmarish and they end up with extremely disrespectful spoiled children that nobody can stand, who lack common curtesy and any manners, that think the world revolves around them. Plus a gigantic mess and a stressed out mom-slave. I literally had a disgusted look on my face at least half of the time while reading this book. The countless grammatical errors and missing or double words were also a big turn off. There is something funny going on with all the positive reviews too. I have reason to believe they are not legitimate and I don’t see how they could be.

The book is poorly published and full of grammatical errors, which can be a little challenging to get past. I also feel that the authors tone could be more well-thought-out. The tone seems to place her as a creator or pioneer of the concept of unschooling. I also feel, while reading it, that I’m constantly asking what families who don’t have the same privileges are supposed to do. I wish the book offered more accessibility for more marginalized or challenged families who have to survive in different ways.However, if you are able to be open to the message, it is actually fantastic and the intention is pure.Hopefully the author can do more research to make this information accessible to more types of lifestyles!

The book achieves its goal of explaining what radical unschooling is and how it is done. But even thoug I homeschool, this book did not convince me that radical unschooling is a better option. In fact, I'm more doubtful about it after reading the book.

This helped me so much while I was transitioning my child from school to unschooling. Dayna’s dedication to giving children their full autonomy and freedom of expression is truly inspiring!

This is a must-read for all parents and future parents. I'm a future parent and it will be valuable to me while I'm a parent. Make sure you buy the 2nd edition of this book. It is a fabulous read and it is the best book on unschooling out there. It is the most comprehensive book on unschooling out there. You will learn a lot and I highly suggest this book to any parent with children and anyone who is going to be a parent. There needs to be a lot of parents to read this book and I know there will be. They will not have to put their kids through places that force learning on children. Not only does it go into the truth about schools, it tells the truth about parenting and even life itself! I know this book will persuade parents on not dropping their children in schools and I'm sure it will persuade parents to take their children out of school for good. This book is promising and I know it will change the physical plane in an ultra positive way.

A friend told my husband about this book and he really enjoyed it! I’m halfway through and liking it as well! He wanted to make sure I put a review so people would know

I began my homeschooling journey ten years ago, when my oldest child was born. My journey into attachment parenting came a few months after my sons birth. I was so set on following a schedule and forcing my son to bend to my needs that I was neglecting his needs and we were both tired and unhappy. At that point, I said ENOUGH! I decided that since I needed sleep and he needed nourishment he would sleep with me and I would make provisions for him to nurse. I had no idea that this was the beginning step into attachment parenting, I was just listening to my heart and asking God to guide me and that's where it led. Ever since, I have worn my babies and co-slept with them and feel so attached. Sadly, this didn't carry over into homeschooling. I got myself set on a belief that unless we had strict discipline, a set schedule, and hundreds of dollars worth of curriculum we were doing it wrong. To top it all off, our family has faced great trials in the last five years. I was so depressed, discouraged and resentful. I was ready to throw in the towel and cry "uncle!" After many tears and much prayer, I found this book on Audible and remembered I owned the Kindle version too. I decided to get the audio book and to read along to get the most out of the book. In this book I found renewed hope, strength and a kindred spirit in Dayna Martin. Now my family will embark on a new journey of life, learning, respect, trust and connection.Dayna, thank you for being God's messenger to me at this time of great need. Much love to you and your family.

I have read several unschooling books but there is something special about this book. It provokes thoughts and makes you rethink many things. It gave me fresh ideas and inspiration.it is clearly written and very understandable.if you only plan to read one book on unschooling then this book is worth a go

Prepare to feel guilty about your most of your previous parenting choices,then embrace the changes to create a happier home environment and calmer kids who will feel they are being treated more fairly and will respond respectfully. Even if your kids are schooled,you can still apply these ideas and make them work for your family dynamic. Dayna is a genius!she encourages us to take a more humane and natural approach to parenting,rather than focusing on managing our children's behaviour. She talks about meeting the need behind the behaviour,and not controlling our kids with punishments. I've done the supernanny thing,I've even done Gina Ford,and yes they worked,in terms of controlling and training my kids to behave the way I wanted them to. But they didn't make me or my kids happy, probably because in my heart it felt wrong leaving them to cry or leaving them on a step..I was desperate and I trusted these techniques as they achieved 'successful' results so I thought they must be right. I wish I had read this book first,as the result is happy kids and parents and a feeling of mutual respect and fairness in our family :-)Thankyou Dayna for opening my eyes.

This book is a real eye opener and amazing to read. Very well written and straigh to the point. Everyone on the planet should read this book..

Good points in the book

Radical unschooling is niet zozeer een handleiding voor een 'nieuwe manier van omgaan met kinderen '. Het is een boek dat je aan het denken zet en je wereld groter maakt door het presenteren van een liefdevollere benadering van je kinderen en het leven an sich. Het is het boek dat ik oppak op momenten dat ik me laat leiden door negatieve emoties en het geeft me vertrouwen in mezelf en mijn dochter. Dankjewel dayna!