If you’re new here, hi I’m Emily!

 

 

 

I’m a 27 year old Michigan mama to 3 boys, living life against societal norms and parenting against the grain.

A few things that make me “not your normal” parent:

I unschool my kids. Which, in simple terms, is homeschooling without a curriculum or structure. It’s more child led and based around your children’s interests.

You can learn more in depth about unschooling here.

I love to use plant medicine and teach my children about the healing properties of mother nature’s beautiful creations such as flowers, plants, and mushrooms.

In our family, we prefer experiences over material things.

I birthed my third baby at home, outside of the medical system. After my first two hospital labors, my home birth was an extremely redeeming and powerful experience.

My husband and I had our first child when we were teenagers (I was 17, he was 18).

We’ve basically done everything backwards.

And within the last 10 years of us being together, we’ve moved states in a travel trailer as our home, worked on a dairy farm in the dead of winter in Wisconsin, came back home to Michigan, got a house, got married, and had two more kids. And now here we are, dreaming and planning our future homestead adventure.

I’m very open with my children about my struggles with my mental health and how I use cannabis & mushrooms as a means of medicine.

They know it’s no different than any other plant growing in the garden.

I’m an extremely open book so feel free to reach out if you ever have a question or are curious about anything!

You can read my LoveWhatMatters story here.

Backstory

A little backstory about why we choose to unschool is that we want the freedom to be together as a family, to travel and build a strong family dynamic, which isn’t typical in todays “societal standards”.

We want to focus more on what our children genuinely want to learn about, and by doing that, we’re also able to build stronger relationships with them, getting to know their interests (and them) on a deeper level.

I like to describe our way of schooling as a balanced mix between unschooling and “nature schooling”. 

I wholeheartedly believe learning should be fun. It should include being outside, it should include exploring and getting dirty, it should absolutely include laughter and joy.

Children’s imaginations are so vibrant and full of life, however, school diminishes that imagination and forces children to learn things they could already learn naturally outside those four walls.

Children should be able to learn in their own time, as every child is different and learn at different paces.

I’m going to base this blog around how we eat, how we school, how we research, and overall how we live outside of the matrix of normal society.

I’ll provide as much information as I can on the subjects discussed, as well as resources and links within each post.

If you ever have questions, or a subject you’d like me to touch on, please feel free to e-mail me at notyournormalparent@gmail.com or fill out the form below!