Roundtable: Accompanying Our Self-Directed Teens
How does unschooling change as our children get older and start to think about their futures? How can we best accompany them through these years?
Fran Liberatore is a writer, mother, unschooler and researcher. She writes A Life Unschooled, a Substack about challenging cultural norms around young people's autonomy, consent, education, carework and mothering. She is currently working on a dissertation looking at children’s rights in self-directed education, while unschooling her two young people. Fran is originally from Italy, and now lives with her family on an island in Maine.
Leslie W. Bray is an Advisor & Guide at Mosaic and a community mentor who supports families in building connected, values-aligned relationships with their young people. A former classroom teacher turned unschooling mother of three, who are now continuing their own development through work, internships and higher education. Leslie works alongside parents, educators, and leaders to cultivate trust-centered, curiosity-led learning communities and spaces. She writes and speaks about connection, conscious parenting, and education rooted in relationship and liberation.
Lainie Liberti is the founder and creator of the Transformative Mentoring for Teens program. She is an author, speaker, community leader, teen coach, adolescent behavioral specialist, and alternative education advocate, widely recognized as a pioneer in the worldschooling movement. Lainie specialises in confidence-building and mental health support for teens and young people. In 2012, she co-founded Project World School alongside her son, helping to redefine education through experiential, self-directed learning. In 2022, Lainie released her first book, Seen, Heard & Understood: Parenting and Partnering with Teens for Greater Mental Health. Her work continues to bridge mental health, education, and conscious parenting through a partnership-based approach.
Erin Rosemond, a long-time home educating mum in Ontario, Canada, writes at Ever Learning, co-hosts the Virtual Kitchen Table Podcast and Community, and co-facilitates conscious parenting round-table chats for parents of teens and young adults. She also offers mentorship from a whole life learning/unschooling perspective for home educating parents.
Heidi Steel is the founder of Live Play Learn and the Unschooling Village Hub, and author of the book ‘School Isn’t for Everyone and What You Can Do Instead: A Practical and Neuro-Affirming Guide to Unschooling’. She has over 14 years of hands-on experience as an unschooling parent of four always-unschooled children. Heidi shares a practical, down-to-earth approach that builds connection, trust, and a lifelong love of learning. Through her resources and community, you can find support to step away from traditional education systems, and guidance and reassurance to create learning environments that truly work for their families. Heidi’s work is rooted in the belief that children learn best when they are trusted and given the space to follow their natural curiosity.
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