Before we go any further, however, please take a moment and ask yourself this:

• Am I ready to embrace what it takes to truly embody a confident unschooling parent?

• Am I ready to liberate myself from hindering believes, debilitating (self-)doubt and paralyzing fear to become the best steward of my child’s educational journey I can possibly be?

• Am I ready to break free from conventional, one-size-fits-all schooling paradigms, even though they may have been my “normal” for most of my life?

• Am I ready to facilitate the development of my child’s full potential by looking at my own (schooling) patterns and conditioning, too?

• Am I ready to pave the way for a genuinely holistic and experience-based educational journey for my child, that is not always predictable, but as unique as my child’s personality, needs and talents?

Whether you’ve already left the traditional school system or are thinking about doing it.

Whether you’ve already started on your own journey of un-, home- or worldschooling your child or are considering it.

Whether you’re already a seasoned un-, home- or worldschooling parent or new to the game.

You don’t have to figure this out on your own. I’m here to help you.

And truth be told, I still find myself confronted with some of these questions from time to time on our own journey. Over the years, however, I’ve acquired many practical skills, implemented important mindset shifts, and learned to tap into both the internal and external resources needed to chaperone my children on their alternative educational journeys with confidence, clarity and joy.

Today I know that it’s not about eradicating moments of struggle and feelings of uncertainty that us parents inevitably will encounter on this journey. It’s not about “optimizing” our own or our child’s performance in this endeavour. It’s not about hoping to find ways to sidestep the unpleasant parts of this journey.

On the contrary, it’s about immersing ourselves in ALL aspects of this experience, embracing the unknown and learning to accept and work with all that is present at any given time along the road.

It’s about establishing a new mindset and outlook on our children’s development, that will truly empower us and them.

It’s about step by step becoming aware of and ideally transforming the old paradigm convictions and behavioural patterns, which many of us adults have learned and internalised for so long that they have become our second nature. Such as always wanting to classify everything we (and our kids) do into good and bad, right and wrong, effective and ineffective, etc.

It’s about cultivating an unswerving sense of trust and direction in our stewardship and ultimately in our children’s place in this world. It’s about embodying a new quality of confidence as unschooling parents, that will carry us through all the ups and downs, no matter what.

And it’s about the steadfast unschooling of ourselves. The perhaps most important and also most difficult step of all.

This day is dedicated to immersing ourselves in the ways of life in the co-housing project your host family has been a part of for many years now. Amongst other things we will gain hands-on experience on sustainable gardening and permaculture, as it is practised here, and learn about the innovative decision-making tools used by the community to pursue its common goals.

Self-empowerment begins with education. This day is dedicated to exploring how the homeschooling cooperative in our hometown of Oberwölbling has become one of the most successful grassroots projects in the region, and how it empowers the participating families to pursue their vision of a more self-determined education for their children. Oh, and of course there’s going to be lots of fun & play again! 🙂

None of the above projects and activities would be possible without access to ecologically sustainable, highly nutritious and wholesome food. This day is dedicated to understanding how the principles of sustainable agriculture work and applying this knowledge into practice. We will visit two regional, family run eco-farms, where we will learn hands-on about the pivotal role of sustainable soil management and food sovereignty for the future of our species.

Worldschooling Central Europe is organised by Family Freedom World – a family-run non-profit association: we are a family of 5, encompassing 3 nationalities and 5 cultural backgrounds. We – Nadescha & Christoph – enjoyed a very international upbringing. Nadescha is half German, half Korean and was raised in New Zealand & Germany, and Christoph was born in Austria to German and Hungarian parents. Combined, we pursued our education in 6 different countries – Austria, Germany, New Zealand, the UK, the Netherlands and Hungary!

When we had our three children we became more “settled”, however, one thing never changed: our keen interest in encounters with other cultures and ways of life. We also travelled the world with our kids extensively, from Europe to New Zealand, and from South-East Asia to the Middle East.

On our travels we met many other families, like us keen to explore other realities and new possibilities. It was then that we realised how our life back at home in Austria, being part of a co-housing project, a homeschooling cooperative, forest kindergarten, etc. was novel and intriguing to many families we spoke to. There was a keen interest to learn more about how in our communities back home we managed to live as “a village” again, with the principles of community, sustainability and alternative education as a foundation.