Mar 23, 2021

✂️She Didn't Brush Her Hair For A Year!

We are Radical Unschoolers.

Unschooling is passion led, self directed learning. Radical Unschooling is passion led, self directed living.

Hope has the freedom to direct her life with all the support, example and guidance required from Jaze and I, no rules necessary. She chooses her bedtime, her screentime, her meals and her body care. This has led to some experimentation over the years that many might find worrisome, but what we've discovered is there is more fear than fact surrounding giving children the reigns in their life.

Over the course of the last year and all it's changes, we stayed home a lot. So much so that this affected Hope's perspective on her appearance. She chose not to brush her hair day after day until days turned to months and months turned to a year. We would often open dialogue about her hair and keep an eye on it to make sure she was safe, but did not pressure her at all. We offered solutions, ideas and support. This past February, Hope decided that she was ready for a change.

We have supported Hope's hair locking up before. At 3 she choose to keep the locks that were already forming and had me wrap them with embroidery floss and beads. She kept this till 4 when she lopped it all off and we gave her a pixie cut, at her request. Hope decided to trust me to unlock all her hair as painlessly as possible. It took me a month and a half of daily hour brushing sessions. There were some tears as the lock up was very intricate in some places, but mostly Hope was appreciative that every session freed a bit more of her head up. I'm happy to report, she's all unlocked, hair back to normal and she's been brushing her hair every day since. I didn't find one bug, any dirt, foreign objects or issues with her scalp, things I was honestly worried about.

She didn't brush her hair for a year and nothing bad happened.

But here's what we learned...

SUBJECTS

Body Autonomy, Body Care, Biology, Cause and Effect, Decision Making, Time Management, Goal Setting, Social Studies, Science, Hygiene, Self Regulation, Respectful Relationships, Bonding, Work Ethic, Energy Regulation, Perspective, Perseverance, Dedication, Responsibility, Endurance, So Much More...

This Week

We had friends visit and had fun showing them our new chicks that we wrote about last week.

Construction has begun on our "chicken litter", the flock's future home. Hope has been especially curious as to how we are going to assemble this building we've been talking about and I'm excited to show her how to put ideas into action. We celebrated my birthday this week with an organic chocolate pie and a quiet, relaxing day of self reflection and gratitude. I was surprised by a lovely hand crafted of essential oil products from one of the sweetest friends ever. Hope loved the pie so much she decided to make the pudding part again with Jaze's help. It was amazing! There was youtube, minecraft, wildcraft, science discussions, looking up words, drawing, working on a paint project and getting outside into the lovely warm spring sunshine. The chicks take up alot of our attention, not because they are a lot of work, but because their fluff butts are too cute to leave alone for long. They follow us around the house and Hope loves drawing and chilling out with at least one in her lap for company. Our chicks are becoming very well socialized and Hope is basking in the happiness of her dreams come true. #nevernotlearning

Video

EXCLUSIVE! NOT ON YOUTUBE!

(but here's our Youtube Channel if you're interested)

Hope & The Chicks

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Much Love, Wendy BOOKS, CLOTHING & MORE

About the Author

Wendy Elizabeth Hart - Author, Illustrator, is a radical unschooling, homesteading Mom of 2 amazing kids and wife of more than 10 years to her bff, Jaze. Together with their daughter Hope, 10, they live a life of daily discovery in rural Ontario, Canada and share it with the world to connect with other families in the unschooling community.