Parenting can be a truly radical act. The way in which we raise our children can have a profound positive impact on our families, our communities, and our world. At its heart, peaceful parenting is a social justice issue: as adults, we have more power than our children. How we choose to use our power matters. If we want a just society, we must move from traditional models of parental control and coercion towards new models of connection, collaboration and freedom. It’s not just about social change though; peaceful parenting is better for our children, seeking to truly honour and pro ..read more

I’m so delighted to finally be able to share with you a workshop which my dear friend Jodi (@mama_sangha_) and I have been developing over the past few months. What Is Good Enough? The past year has been hard. With less support, more opportunities for worry and anxiety, and separation from our loved ones and communities, many of us are struggling to locate a sense of being OK amidst the chaos and grief of the pandemic. In our first ever live workshop together, we will be guiding you to explore the question “what is good enough?”. Over an afternoon, we will be diving deep into how we ..read more

There are shoots in all of the beds. Pots filled with purple crocuses have opened up all in unison, as if a code word had been mentioned. We’ve started seeing bees (bees!) and I have seen my first frog. The birds are singing loudly, sweetly, and my daughter is suddenly drawn to our scruffy garden for hours on end. Sunshine is meeting us at our breakfast table each morning. Spring is coming. We are so, so happy about it. It’s been a hard winter. Our Spring learning plans I’m currently not doing a huge amount of home education planning, as Frida is at the stage where she is really enjoying crea ..read more

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What a year this has been. I am so tired. Are you exhausted too? But I am also craving December festivities like never before. We’re only two-thirds through November, but the advent calendar is ready to be hung, final gifts are trickling through the door, and I’m just about ready to wrap up “normal” life – whatever that means these days, with a deadly pandemic and another lockdown – and give into the treacle-slow days of crafting, baking, and playing, our favourite Winter songs playing in the background on repeat. I suppose this is the beauty of rhythms; when all else is chaos and uncertainty ..read more

Yesterday I posted on Instagram about why we have decided not to use punishments with our daughter (we don’t do praise or rewards either, you can read an old post about that here). A few of you commented something along the lines of “this is all well and good when you have just one child, but what happens when you have a bigger family and the kids are fighting? How do you keep everyone safe (and sane)?”. So, I wanted to talk a bit today about what happens instead of punishments, because you can still keep everyone safe without punishments, time outs, or taking away tablet time. The bad ne ..read more

Parenting can be a truly radical act. The way in which we raise our children can have a profound positive impact on our families, our communities, and our world. At its heart, peaceful parenting is a social justice issue: as adults, we have more power than our children. How we choose to use our power matters. If we want a just society, we must move from traditional models of parental control and coercion towards new models of connection, collaboration and freedom. It’s not just about social change though; peaceful parenting is better for our children. Research has shown time and agai ..read more

I recently had a conversation with home educator and Charlotte Mason education expert Leah Boden for her wonderful podcast Modern Miss Mason. We chatted about the joy of the quiet growing time, my home education influences, building an eclectic approach to home education, book writing in a pandemic, and so much more. I loved chatting to Leah, and was genuinely disappointed when it was time to say goodbye. Listen in on our conversation here, or anywhere you listen to your podcasts (Apple, Spotify, etc): https://anchor.fm/modernmissmason/episodes/The-Mighty-Mother—With-Eloise-Rickman-ekgrci Than ..read more

Welcome to a brand new workshop – Parenting From Joy Parenting is hard. This, we know. But it can also be beautiful, and connect us with ourselves in ways we didn’t know were possible. We deserve to feel joy and delight in our daily lives. And when we are lit up with happiness, it radiates out to our families. Yet it can feel as though so much gets in the way of that joy: chores, guilt, comparison, exhaustion, a lack of time to even pee alone… Parenting From Joy can’t make all the bad bits go away. But it can help you to find the magic and beauty amongst the chaos. You can listen to me t ..read more

Autumn is my favourite time of year, and I think I love the shift from summer to autumn most of all. The days are warm and mild but the mornings and evenings are darker and colder; I feel justified in wearing snuggly slippers and lighting candles, and called to bed earlier each night. I’ve found that my energy, which takes a dip over the hazy, melty summer months, suddenly comes back to me, all new ideas and crisp blank pages to match the crisp leaves outside. I talk about rhythm a lot, and it’s been interesting for me to note my own seasonal rhythms. At the end of each summer, I observe myse ..read more