Episode 3: Elena

This week is with my friend Elena, who lives in Colorado and is mom to two boys. In this conversation we cover everything from the windiness of parenting littles, to public school in post soviet Russia, patchwork quilting curriculum, the balance between discipline and play, the pressure we put on ourselves and the projection of that onto our kids, how it feels to actively build community vs. just being a part of one, and more. I will admit, I can be defiant about parenting books/theories/advice/etc. but there are a lot of little gems in here, too, for how homeschooling and parenting inform each other. Are they different things? Or one and the same? She is so intentional and thoughtful, and I feel like those qualities come through in this interview in spades. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed chatting with her. Resources for things that came up > Early on, with her first baby, she was inspired by Waldorf philosophy, and read books like: You are your Child’s First Teacher: Encouraging your Child’s Natural Development from Birth to Age Six by Rahima Baldwin Dancy. (Her favorite piece of this was the “Head, Heart, Hands” idea)*In terms of schooly stuff, they’re currently big fans of Blossom and Root. P.S. Windy days writing, from the archives, from the first part of this conversation :)Housekeeping notes: *I do get a little kickback from books linked through bookshop.org if you decide to shop. I officially linked to Apple Podcasts, too, and with the RSS you should be able to listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Video is also available on YouTube.Thanks for listening & reading. To support my work, give it a ♥️, share it, dialogue with me in the comments, and/or consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I appreciate you. Get full access to Peace Mail at peacemail.substack.com/subscribe