Nandini is a full time homeschooler to a 7 and 9 year old. She has been homeschooling them right from the start!

Resources she recommends:

The Well Educated Mind, Why Don't Students Like Schools, Outsmart Your Brain, How to homeschool the kids you have, Make It Stick : The Science of Successful Learning, The Brave Learner, The Knowledge Gap

Kitchen Table Homeschool Podcast

Core knowledge

Nitya is a full time unschooler to her two children age 14 and 18.

Nitya wanted to add a disclaimer and an apology to those listening to her story:

1) I am not a mental health professional but I have benefited from years of therapy and having a scientific approach to relationships. That's what I came to share here.

2) I have current, live struggles where I feel lost so please understand that I am as weak, flawed, 'fail'y as any of you. We are in this humanity thing, together.

3) I'm on a journey of unmasking myself, to conserve ny energy. So you might find me a bit too raw for comfort, inaccurate in my words, incomplete in my understanding and not making an effort to hide it.

I'm really sorry for my mistakes and hurts I may have caused through this interview. 

Additional thoughts: 

Some of you may think What if I don't see the need for mental health approach?

Don't fix something that's not broken. If your family relationships are wonderful, great!

But if communication is broken, or you feel that your relationships can be better, then it's worthy to look into the mental health aspect.

My awareness of broken relationships in my family happened when we started to hang around other families, healthy comparisons, dialogue, realisation that we had (and have) miles to go.

Knowing our neurotype also depersonalises conflicts ina healthy way

For eg we can understand, "oh! My autism poked your adhd in the eye"

Rather than "why are YOU always doing this"

Doesn't remove the need for accountability but you can value the human and the relationship knowing that many conflicts are due to brain glitches and genuine deficits.

When we understand neurotypes, We will begin to understand that there are mostly can'ts (neurological inability) and not many won'ts (wilful defiance)

We are so compassionate towards physical disability but what if you realised that parts of some people's brain are also in a wheelchair 

Or in many cases, it's not even a disability, and some brains are very different from yours (like android and apple)? 

You would then have compassion and an intelligent approach to solving relational conflicts.

But that topic is for another day 😃

Anaha, a full-time homeschooler and founder of Arohan Learning Center, along with Gokul talk to me about raising their three children, ages 3, 5, and 8. They recommend investing in books, devices + apps, musical instruments, lots of magnetic cubes and a couple of molecule sets.

Books for kids: Usborne books (lift-the-flap, 100 Things, Understanding series, Academy series), Cartoon Guide series, science comics, DK books, Big Fat Notebooks, Beast Academy, National Geographic magazine and big books

Books for adults: How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen so Kids can Talk, The Montessori Toddler, The Importance of Being Little

Arun and Kanti have finished homeschooling their three children into adulthood. Working as a team, Kanti guided the children in their everyday work, whereas Arun provided the philosophical map to learning.

They recommend investing in the adult, and creating a space, mentally and physically for the children to explore their passions at their own pace.

Books authored by Arun can be found here: https://www.aslishiksha.com/books

Books recommended by Arun and Kanti: Asterix series, William Books, E. Nesbit books, Animal stories (Jatakas), Panchtantra (Amar Chitra Katha), Folk Tales (CBT Books)

Reach out to them at their website or directly at Arun's phone number (96339-83530) or Kanti's phone number (9108-043530)

Bindu is a full-time homeschooling parent to a 9-year-old neurodivergent child. After trying the mainstream school system and finding it unsupportive, she now focuses on creating a flexible, nurturing learning environment at home. She invests in 45–90 minutes each day to plan, and spending a few hours on weekends to do the same.. She also strongly recommends taking 30–45 minutes each morning for a walk to stay healthy and clear-headed.

Learning resources she recommends:

• Cambridge textbooks and workbooks
• Mindset Mathematics
• Discover India series
• StoryWeaver app
• Kindle stories
• The Big Book of Reading Comprehension Activities

Books she enjoys herself: R.K. Narayan, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Outliers

Books her son loves: Amar Chitra Katha, Sudha Murty and Ruskin Bond books

If you’d like to connect with Bindu, you can find her here: Bindu’s YouTube Channel or email her at bindu.sripad@gmail.com

Full-time unschooling parent of a 12 year old, and they’ve never attended school. She recommends investing in instropection into yourself as an adult, and understanding child development holistically. Books she recommends: Raising Free People, Free to Learn. Contact her here: thismumlife@gmail.com or thismum.life on Instagram

Full-time homeschooling parent. Her child is 5 years, 4 months old. Her child has never attended school. She recommends investing in Child of the Redwoods (Montessori courses) Books she recommends: Bharatnatyam in Ballet Shoes, Hands on Heritage (INTACH), People of the Indus Valley You can read more about her journey on her blog: https://medium.com/@pia.sukanya/

Full-time homeschooling parent. Her children are 10 and almost 7 years old, and they’ve been homeschooling for close to 4 years now. She recommends investing in finding gurus for your children, investing time as a parent and actively homeschooling—there is no substitute. Books she recommends: DK Definitive Visual History of Ancient Egypt, A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu and You, How Do they Evolve