Deschooling Through Challenge

What resistance can reveal about your own journey

Some parents assume they won’t need to deschool. Maybe they never fully bought into the system. Maybe they knew all along they’d homeschool or unschool. Maybe they left school early themselves or always felt like an outsider looking in.

But then something happens.

Their child pushes back.
Their rhythm falls apart.
Their days feel heavy or forced.

And suddenly, the “easy” transition into self-directed learning doesn’t feel so easy.

---

When a challenge becomes the invitation

A friend of mine unschooled her kids from the very beginning. She never sent them to school, never gave them a curriculum, never followed a conventional path. But one day, her daughter, who had always been joyful and curious, hit a wall. Every suggestion was met with resistance. Nothing felt exciting anymore. They were arguing more than connecting. It was a confusing season.

At first, my friend thought something was wrong with her daughter. But as she stepped back, she realized the discomfort wasn’t coming from her child. It was in her.

Even though she had never sent her kids to school, she had still grown up inside a school-shaped mindset. She still valued certain kinds of productivity. She still held unconscious ideas about what “real” learning looked like. She had internalized so many expectations she hadn’t even noticed, until they clashed with her daughter’s process.

That challenge? It cracked her wide open.
It became her deschooling.

---

Deschooling isn’t always a phase. Sometimes it’s a pattern.

Deschooling isn’t just something you do for a few months after pulling your kids out of school. It’s an ongoing practice of unlearning, noticing, and shifting. It’s something that happens in layers. And sometimes the deepest layers don’t reveal themselves until years down the line, when something stops working.

That’s not failure.
That’s growth.

The resistance you feel in a hard season is not a sign that deschooling didn’t work. It’s a clue that you’ve hit another layer.

---

What if the breakdown is part of the process?

Challenge invites us to notice:

• What am I still holding on to?

• What outdated beliefs are sneaking into our rhythm?

• Where am I pushing instead of following?

• What am I afraid will happen if we slow down?

These are not easy questions. But they are powerful ones.

Deschooling is rarely a straight line. It’s a spiral. You revisit old places with new awareness. And each time you do, you get freer.

---

You’re not behind. You’re becoming.

If things are feeling sticky, heavy, or off, take a breath. It might not be time to push forward. It might be time to pause and look inward. Your child’s resistance, or your own burnout, could be a gift. An invitation to notice. To let go. To deschool again.

Even if you thought you didn’t need to.

Even if you’ve done it before.

This work is alive.
And so are you.

---

Thank you for being here

Your presence and curiosity add so much to this growing community of families choosing freedom. If this article helped you feel more grounded or inspired, here’s how you can stay connected:

🌟 What’s Next? 🌟

• Share your insights: Reply to this post or leave a comment. I’d love to hear how this lands for you.

• Keep exploring: Visit the archives for more pieces on deschooling, parenting, and shifting your mindset.

• Invite others in: Forward this to a friend who’s struggling with a hard season. Let them know they’re not alone.

• Support the work: You can help me keep creating by contributing through my [Buy Me a Coffee link].

This journey is yours. One step at a time.

With you always,
Moira 🌱