Moving to Bali for a certain amount of time may require some flexibility when it comes to educating your children.
You might wish to consider unschooling, world schooling or home schooling. In this issue, we are looking at self-directed learning or unschooling.
Back in 2017, I interviewed Jeneen in her lovely home in Pererenan and in our chat, she told me her children were home schooling through an online program from Canada called ‘Self Design’. It involved the children meeting with an online learning consultant every two weeks. They start the term with a learning plan which they have created and based on what they like to learn for the term. Fast forward to today, and her children have been now unschooling or self-directed learning for the last 6 years and use her own program and business she has created called Remindful Life. Click here to find out more about the next parenting course.
Please enjoy today’s catch up with Jeneen, a long term Bali expat, as she talks about her educational journey as she unschools and raises her two children in Bali.
Hi, I’m Jeneen.
An entrepreneur, a fun loving adventurer, house building obsessed, Unschooling Mama of 2 teenagers living in Bali, Indonesia.
With a life woven together by living in a foreign country, an inter-cultural marriage, multiple businesses and two beautiful children, 6 years ago our family landed upon Self Directed Learning. This awe-inspiring, eye opening experience transformed our family. The journey began with an Online Self Directed Program.
What is self-directed learning?
This basically means children guide their learning and the curriculum would be mostly interest led. As we dove into this new approach to learning, it seemed to challenge everything we had been taught to believe as right. It really tore us all down to our most basic selves. We asked ourselves every question, we challenged every theory, we struggled with schedules and structure. This was the part of the journey called Unschooling, where we unlearned and unraveled the conditioning of traditional education & societal expectations and found our own individual, personalized way of learning.
In the end, it was a fundamental building block for developing each of us individually as our most authentic selves.
We learnt about how we work best, what we value, and what energizes us. We learned to be curious, to explore interests, what motivates us and how we can thrive as a family.
“IT TRULY WAS AN EPIC ADVENTURE.”
how did self directed learning change your family in bali?
The year we began Self Directed learning ended up being one of the BEST YEARS to connect deeply with our children and find out what lights their souls on fire. In the process though, we also began to re-examine what lit ours on fire too!
Through my own personal experience, numerous interviews, extensive reading, endless conversations and lengthy research into parenting principles & transformative learning, I have now started a business called Remindful Life to help families navigate this path.
tell us more about your business ‘remindful life’.
Imagine feeling a deep connection with your child, intentionally & intuitively guiding their learning to prepare them for life, and empowering them to become their true selves.
Remindful Life is based on these life principles;
- we need to re-set and remind ourselves of our inner core so that we can design our lives with intention and according to our true values and beliefs.
- We, as parents, can guide our children to self-direct and can support and nurture them as they explore with their innate curiosity to find ways of being in the world that work and feel good for them.
We are offering a four Week Parenting Intensive which is playfully centred around the idea of taking a flight or a trip. If you are coming to Bali and wondering what to do for school for your kids, you are worried about your child’s future, you are intrigued by personalized, child led learning or the idea of traditional school doesn’t feel quite right for you or your kids, you can jump aboard this adventure to discover another way.
In the 4 Week Intensive, we explore conscious parenting to connect more deeply, uncover the trust in ourselves to make intentional learning decisions & joyfully experiment with self direction.
is there a self-directed community in BALI?
We also have a small community of other Self Directed Families here in Bali. We organize outings for the kids and get togethers for the parents. It’s currently a closed Whatsapp group, but we are happy to invite new Self Directed families when they arrive in Bali.
You can contact me for more details on both the 4 Week Intensive, working 1-on-1 with me or joining our Self Directed group here in Bali.
please share more details about how we can get in touch and found out more.
You can learn more about me and the 4 Week Intensive at www.remindfullife.com or contact me directly at jeneen@remindfullife.com
Click here to find out more about the next parenting course.
If you want to learn more about Conscious Parenting, Self Directed Learning & Unschooling, follow us on:
IG: instagram.com/remindful_life
FB: facebook.com/remindfullife