Léo's Insights

Léo's Insights

A place where issues related to the Christian walk and its application to home education is discussed. Topics are meant to challenge you to think differently, to make a difference in this world, starting with the children you have been blessed with.

Episodes

  1. 5d ago

    Know What You Are Getting Into

    So, you have decided to keep your children in the safety of the family home to train and educate them in keeping with what you understand as the truth. This is indeed a very good decision, as long as you remember that the truth you are holding today may change with greater knowledge, understanding and experience. This means that even though choosing to home educate will be one of the best decisions you will ever make, you WILL NOT make the journey without errors and misgivings. You WILL NOT reach perfection. You will make mistakes. That’s life. Learn from your experiences and carry on. Also important to consider is that the decision to home educate comes with a requirement for genuine commitment and a lot of work. The alternative —sending your children to school or bringing school home — comes with its own set of problems, no less difficult or demanding. In a way, it is as though we get to pick the source of our problems. However, the difference between a home-based or school-based education is who remains in control. To whom are we entrusting the education of our children? Another consideration should be what is ultimately in the best interest of the children. Realizing that out of a world population approaching nine billion souls no two people are alike begs the question of how we can advance or support the idea of meeting some kind of standard? This is the greatest of lies perpetuated by the existing status quo education industry and its supporters and advocates. As a consequence, this becomes the greatest stumbling block for the unschooling parent. Deeply seated in our psyche is this hidden belief that a standard actually exists and that it is the parents’ responsibility to meet this undefined and impossible expectation. I cannot count the number of times I have heard parents questioning their ability; wondering if they are doing a good job, doing enough, missing something, or failing. This especially happens as children reach puberty and the post-secondary arena comes into focus. Every one of these concerns is actually based on the unquestioned, intrinsic assumption of standards. Yet when asked where these standards exist or who reflects them, no one has an answer. That is because educational standards are a myth based on the unreasonable assumption of a homogeneous humanity. None of this makes sense. So we unschool, and in so doing celebrate the marvellous diversity of God’s creative powers and the uniqueness of each child. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/09/3-26.mp3

  2. Sep 15

    This Year’s Focus

    Those of you familiar with my work are already aware of the book I co-wrote with my late wife entitled 12 Rules For Marital Longevity. (If you are interested in obtaining a copy of either the softcover, hardcover, e-book or audiobook, please go to www.12rules.ca. And please be sure to comment on this effort by clicking on the Contact button.) After having completed this book, I determined to write another one. Although the title suggests it is a sequel to the first book, and while both books do advance the centrality of family, the second book focuses on the unschooling approach to educating children. Aptly titled 12 Rules For Unschooling, this book will describe how we arrive at our assumptions and how these assumptions affect our decisions regarding education. The book will also provide a list of “rules” or guidelines to free parents from outside pressures to conform to standard educational practices and expectations. I tell you these things because I will be presenting snippets of my upcoming book as the general theme for this year’s vlogs. I trust you will find this interesting, but first a warning: What I am going to include may be somewhat philosophical and at times a bit complex. The reason for my doing so is very simple. Unless we clearly understand what we are trying to escape, we have a tendency to bring with us the very thing we are wanting to leave behind when we go elsewhere. As an example, Christian parents have long known that public education includes educational offerings they do not agree with. In an attempt to leave this problem behind, parents sometimes create independent Christian schools, thinking everything will now be okay. The problem is that very little changes. These schools either outrightly follow government curriculum or they follow a Christian facsimile based entirely on secular educational dogmas. While it is an improvement, it is not the answer. Perhaps an analogy will assist you in understanding what I am saying. If the family vehicle breaks down 5 km from home, it is no longer working as expected. If the vehicle is dragged to another place, it is still broken. Should it be dragged to a church parking lot, it doesn’t change a thing. When you drag it home it remains steadfastly broken, even if you paint it a different colour. The moral of this analogy is that if any element of the existing broken education system is brought home, it does not improve it in any way; it remains broken, even if it is Christianized or delivered at home by parents. Understanding this is critical for unschooling. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/09/12-Rules-for-Unschooling.mp3

  3. Sep 8

    Welcome to a New Year

    Hello again and welcome to Léo’s Insights for the 2026-27 Academic Year. Most of you watching or reading this are enrolled with Education Unlimited Academy, as you are intent on educating your children at home and you are particularly interested in the unschooling approach we represent. Some of you may simply be interested in what I have to say regarding education in general; you may not be living in Alberta or Canada, or even be home educating at all. Some of you may be enrolled for home education with other agencies and you may be looking for information you’re not finding there. You may even be a competitor looking for new ideas you can incorporate within your agency. Regardless of the reason anyone may have for following my vlogs, I have but one objective in creating and providing this service: I desire to see as many people as possible freed from unquestioned, school-based approaches to education and come to the knowledge of the truth regarding the education of children as they grow to adulthood. As a firm believer in and proselytizer of unschooling, I really want to help separate you from status quo educational thinking, both in word and in deed. My reasons for doing so are straightforward: I believe God gave children to parents who are to provide a loving environment in which to raise and educate their children; I believe each child’s uniqueness demands an individual approach to training and learning; I believe parents are uniquely qualified to meet their children’s individual needs; plus I am a freedom fighter. I come from an understanding that God makes no mistakes and that while we do live in a world of woes, He is still in control, has each child’s best interests at heart and has given parents what they need to do the job He requires of them. I have come to understand that the foundation for truly educating our children is to have faith in God and His inerrant ways and directives. While imperfect parents cannot be expected to do a perfect job, putting our faith in the perfect God will direct us to do what is best for each of our children. No school can do this. Finally, I want to mention that this is my thirteenth year of blogging. I have nearly 550 videos on our YouTube channel, 350 of which are blogs covering most every question you may have regarding education. All of this material is based on my fifty-plus years of experience in the education industry, particularly in the field of home education. May your unschooling journey be blessed by this year’s vlogs. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/09/Leo-26b-1.mp3

  4. Jun 9

    #21 Unschooling – A Summary

    Concern regarding schools in the media usually has nothing or little to do with academics but something to do with it being a bad environment for students and teachers. There are two thoughts that should spring from that observation. The first is why are people so concerned about “socialization” issues when it comes to the home educated? Do they know that they are saying every child should be exposed to a self-esteem destroying, violent social environment? Do children really need to be subject to abuse, bullying and jungle warfare to develop normally? The second observation is that curricular concerns are rarely mentioned outside of the push to normalize deviant beliefs and behaviours. Perplexingly, no one has connected the deviance to the violence now found in many schools. One of the main reasons parents choose to home educate or unschool is their concern about their children’s exposure to bad social issues at school. However, most do not tie the bad social behaviours to the bad ideologies being advanced to normalize what God has not sanctioned. In fact, we are now judging the authenticity of the Bible against our desire to do as we wish. Should any part of the Bible condemn our deviant behaviour, it is deemed as hate speech, soon to be banned from the public square. God help us as we slide down that dark path to perdition. Also understand that a standardized program does not meet the individual needs of each child, nor does it take gifting into consideration. As a consequence, school is more likely to homogenize students to the lowest common denominator of mediocrity. Unschoolers encourage children to be the best they can be in keeping with the innate gifts and talents bestowed upon them by God. The important question then becomes: how dedicated are we to ensuring children receive a good education based on the supremacy of God rather than the claimed authority of man? We need to understand unschooling for what it is: Taking control of the education of our children, moving them away from a Godless system – including Christianized versions of a secular system, and restoring them to the family to which they were born. Let us be “homing” our children as directed by our Creator and let us avoid the “unhoming” tendencies of schools. Unschooling or “homing” is what we do here at Education Unlimited. In fact, it is our very heartbeat. Have a good summer. https://www.educationunlimited.ca/insights/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/21-summary.mp3

  5. May 26

    #20 Unschooling – Unschooling or Unhoming?

    Now that we have reviewed what unschooling is and isn’t, I would like to challenge you to think in a different way. Tell me what to do! This is what we have been trained to ask. We naturally avoid taking risks so it is easy to default to having someone or something direct our thinking and actions. The big question is: what is all this based on? What worldview premise are we establishing our thoughts and actions on? There really are only two options available as far as the Bible goes: We are either for Him or against Him. This is not to say people are cognizant of this choice, but in the end, either things are based on faith in God, complete with all that brings, or we find ourselves on the other side of street, whether we have made a conscience effort to be there or not. In fact, I would be willing to bet that most people have no idea they are on the wrong side, including professing Christians. To understand what this wrong side of the street is, let us consider a few self-evident truths. Only a mom and dad can create children. The environment in which they are to be raised is called family. Family has been around infinitely longer than compulsory schools. So what should be considered normal, a family at home or students in school? Having said that, should we not be considering that it is school that is undoing the home God created as the safe and caring environment in which to raise, train, teach and educate children? Families in homes were here first. When considering the directive of Mathew 19:5-6 where we are told not to separate families, it makes sense to see compulsory government schooling as “unhoming.” Instead we refer to escaping the secular school system, whether public, separate, charter, alternative, private or home schooling as “unschooling”. Does it not make more sense to see relatively new “schooling” as an affront to age old “homing”? Hopefully you see what I mean. If family is foundational, should we be unschooling or should we simply consider ourselves to be homing? The term unschooling actually establishes school as foundational, normal, even authoritative. Unschoolers inadvertently agree with government having an authority in education and we have determined to rebel by not doing as expected, hence the term unschooling. We determine to “un” what is in fact an imposition over what God has directed. Why should unschoolers be the weird ones? Should families at home not be the standard? If so, we should see ourselves as rightfully homing our children and schools as engaging in “unhoming.” Just a thought. https://www.educationunlimited.ca/insights/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/20-Unschooling-or-Unhoming.mp3

  6. May 12

    #19 Unschooling – Sending Them Off

    Life can and does throw us lots of curve balls to tempt us off the straight and narrow. One of the big temptations is doubt, and it is the reason why the fourth set of fears and concerns descends upon us. We mastered the first set at the beginning, got past the fears and concerns set at puberty and finally made peace with our post-secondary issues. Then it happens, especially with the first or “experimental” child. Having proven your love beyond what the world expects; having trained and taught them; unschooled them through all the stages of youth and growth; successfully brought them to their post-secondary options, convinced that they are fully and rightfully prepared to tackle obstacles in their way; and seen them mature to be faithful and responsible citizens of this world and God’s Kingdom, they show their appreciation for all that you have done and leave home, eventually for good. Then panic sets in! You will start to question if you have done a good job. Did you properly prepare? Did you fail at something? Did you handicap somehow? This doubt is most likely to occur with the firstborn and you will likely be much more confident with the younger siblings. After all, you were likely stricter and more “schooly” with the first child and increasingly more comfortable with unschooling with the next. This is natural. It happens within every loving family. Know this: You have done the best you could. You chose unschooling and that was the best choice. Guaranteed you did not do a perfect job, but know that it was much better than what would have transpired in school. Rest easy with the knowledge that since you’ve been successful with your first child, you will also be with the rest. Keep in mind that each unschooling program will take on a character befitting each child. Now that you have experienced the fourth set of fears and concerns, you are not likely to have to go through them again. Unschooling is no longer mysterious. Go forth with the rest of the children with confidence! You made it! Congratulations! https://www.educationunlimited.ca/insights/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/19-Sending-Them-Off.mp3

  7. Apr 28

    #18 Unschooling – The Post Secondary Level Pt. 2

    Although few people give the future of a newborn child much thought, as they grow and mature there is a greater temptation to want to assure that future. Worth repeating is that parents are not responsible for the children’s future other than to prepare them in a general way so as not to limit their possibilities. This is where unschooling has an enormous advantage over any kind of school. Understanding the homogenizing nature of school allows you to see how unschooling is so much better at preparing students for the future: we develop each child in keeping with who they are as compared to what schools do which is to move them toward what they “should” be. There is a very big difference between these two objectives. Considering that there is no faith involved in school-based approaches to education, it is easy to see that their aim is to develop children toward what man desires rather than what God has ordained. This is why the biggest outcome of a twelve-year school education is likely to be generally confusion. Not so with the unschooled who have been loved as they are, encouraged to learn what interests them, and entrusted with the responsibility for their lives. Making children comfortable with who they are and confident in themselves and their faith is the aim and purpose of unschooling. So why would any loving parent willingly sabotage their children’s well being by sending them to school or forcing them to post-secondary training? Truth is no loving parent would do that, but misinformed and misdirected parents could. The world has wholeheartedly adopted a government-knows-best attitude that is not boding well for the future. Most people have internalized this mindset, even going so far as to Christianize it in private schools. When the world is on this trajectory, it is extremely difficult to avoid falling into the vortex of unquestioning obedience to government fiat. Add peer pressure to that and you have a formula for delaying children’s God-given futures. Twenty years ago, an article I wrote for the provincial home education association was rejected by the board when I boldly stated that Christian home education boils down to a question of faith. Repeating what Joshua had asked of the Israelites, “Choose this day whom you will serve,” the article was deemed offensive and was never published. Twenty years later, I am more convinced than ever that the success of Christian unschooling is directly proportional to the level of faith involved. Those who love and trust God intrinsically know He has their children’s best interest at heart. After all, He picked mom and dad to be His vessels in preparing His children for their futures, something He happens to know about! This is Christian home education. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/01/18-Post-Secondary-2.mp3

  8. Apr 14

    #17 Unschooling – The Post Secondary Level Pt. 1

    Fears and concerns part three involves post-secondary training. After having negotiated parts one and two, this set of fears is largely based on monsters created by both parents and students regarding which post-secondary options exist and how they can be attained. These fears are rooted in the false assumption that parents must find the child’s place in the world. Not so, and to do so is likely going to set the child up for a life of misery. Have you ever been with a teacher, doctor, dentist, lawyer or other professional who obviously hates their job? This is usually due to parents pushing children to pursue higher education without regard for who the child is and what they are interested in. The world desires success which it measures by wealth, beauty and status. The school capitalizes on that by making itself the only avenue to worldly success. If this kind of success is your desire, your unschooling program is on shaky ground. What we should be desiring for our children is that they be happy with themselves and what they are doing. This can only be accomplished if our children are doing what is in keeping with the gifts, talents and interests placed in them by God. To try to make a musician of someone who has no musical ability is both hard on the child and on parents’ ears! Your job has never been to develop something of your children but to present opportunities for them to develop what God has given them. This allows children to be comfortable in their own skins and able to find their place. Remember, this may take several steps and some time, but I believe everyone eventually finds their place in this world. Unschooling minimizes the need for a child to first find themselves, as is common with public school graduates. Regarding post-secondary options, please know that everyone eventually transitions to post-secondary, which is anything beyond the secondary level of education. Unschoolers often transition in their early teens by finding part-time work and growing from there. Many are working before they’re old enough to have a driver’s license. Some post-secondary careers require attendance at a post-secondary institution. Parents should be warned that most of these places have become bastions of wickedness we do not want our children exposed to. Wait until children are mature enough to withstand the onslaught of secularism before allowing them to go, and definitely don’t let them go before they are fully cognizant of their end goal and are solid in their faith. In other words, send young adults to college only if they have to go and only when they are fully ready. And remember, it has to be their choice. That is what unschooling is about. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/01/17-post-secondary-1.mp3

  9. Mar 31

    #16 Unschooling – The Secondary Level, Pt. 2

    In the past, I have addressed what I call the four sets of fears and concerns in home education. The first set of fears is understandably in the beginning of the home education program, as it is new and filled with uncertainties. Once past this stage, home educators are generally on cruise control until the little boy or little girl starts to show signs of puberty. Suddenly, many parents start to question their ability to prepare their offspring for the real world. I imagine this is because parents no longer see children, but young adults, before them and for some reason, they confuse parenting with being God! By this I mean parents who have taken their responsibilities to educate their children seriously assume they are also responsible for placing their children in their futures. This is an error. While parents need to provide opportunities for academic development, where children end up is between them and God. Once parents have put this faith in God, the second set of fears and concerns are diminished. Regarding teaching the student high school (advanced) programming, please know that you are not the one who needs to learn this material. If you have properly raised your children to take responsibility for their education, which is a mainstay of unschooling, your job becomes easier than when you were instilling the basic skills. All you have to do is find appropriate material in keeping with your children’s gifts and interests and get out of the way. Let your children learn the material themselves and encourage them to teach you what they have learned. Both parent and child greatly benefit from this. It is really a form of testing, assuring the parents that things are going just fine, but understand that it is near impossible to predict exactly how this will end up, except that the entire exercise is toward fulfilling God’s will for the child. Do you remember the most important attitude necessary to successfully unschool? Reflect on that rule… relax! This is especially important at the post-puberty level of development. If you have your doubts about your ability to unschool well at this stage, your child will pick up on it and start to negotiate a return to school. This is likely to satisfy a curiosity about what they have not experienced, however understand that unschooling at this stage has not changed. Same parents. Same children. Same or greater concern regarding the failures of schools. And same requirement for faith in God and believing He has things under control. Unschooling is an exercise in faith in God rather than fear of man. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/01/16-Secondary-2.mp3

  10. Mar 17

    #15 Unschooling – The Secondary Level, Pt. 1

    Nothing scares home educators and unschoolers more than the possibility of ruining their children’s potential prospects for post-secondary advancement. The idea that government sets the standards for education and calls the shots regarding post-secondary admissions is so ingrained in the minds of the masses that it causes parents to capitulate to public programming far too often. It is not uncommon to see very successful unschoolers fully lose their resolve and faith once students reach high school age. I personally see this as having the student go backward in order to advance. Many parents will start questioning their ability to teach their children once they pass puberty and enter the senior levels. This is indicative of a major misunderstanding regarding learning and education. Perhaps the best way to explain this statement would be to share the secret to my public high school teaching success with you. Are you ready? I did not teach the students. I invited them to teach themselves. I provided help when needed, while constantly reminding my students that it was not me that had to learn the material in order to succeed. I understood that since the dawn of time, learning has always had two ubiquitous characteristics: everybody learns and it is individual. I believe everything we have learned is as a consequence of our having taught ourselves. Even when doing school, students may demonstrate they are intelligent and love their parents and/or teachers enough to temporarily memorize information in order to succeed on the test, but then they forever forget what they “learned”. If, on the other hand, what is presented is of interest, students will take the opportunity to teach themselves and the material will not be forgotten. Let me give you an example. Suppose I take a class of biology students on a field trip with the objective of learning the different trees that grow in Alberta. After showing the students the trees and informing them of the ecological characteristics and their scientific names, I give them an exam. How many students will pass the test? Most. If I surprise them with the same exam a week after having reviewed the test (so everyone knows the correct answers), what do you think will happen? You guessed it. There will be a major drop in scores. Now imagine a student took an interest in the trees of Alberta and taught him/herself to identify them along with their scientific names. Years, decades later, this student will still know this information. The difference? The student taught him/herself. This is how unschooling works. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/01/15-Secondary-1.mp3

  • 10 Episodes

About

A place where issues related to the Christian walk and its application to home education is discussed. Topics are meant to challenge you to think differently, to make a difference in this world, starting with the children you have been blessed with.

Information

  • Creator
    Léo's Insights
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    10
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    Léo's Insights