If parents retain ownership of their children's learning, the children cannot learn on their own. | ![]() |
photo by Sandra Dodd
If parents retain ownership of their children's learning, the children cannot learn on their own. | ![]() |
![]() | Parents get pretty good at noticing when a child is tired, hungry or frustrated. It's important to see those things in yourself. Keep your family safe from your more dangerous moods and states. If you're too hungry or too tired to be kind and safe, ask for help. Or admit you're feeling stressed, and be more careful. Don't use your mood as an excuse to be harsh or dangerous. Learn to do what you need to do to stay in a workable, safe zone. |
Museums and historical markers can be fun, but most of the history around us is unmarked and undocumented. Every little bit of trivia gives you a hook to hang more history on. |
"For unschooling to flourish it means taking out our fears and examining them. It means looking at unschooled children to find out what really happens rather than what seems like would happen (from knowledge of schooled, controlled kids). It means shutting off the expert voices that tell parents what they should be seeing and looking at our real kids." –Joyce Fetteroll | ![]() |
Don't click anything. It's Learn Nothing Day. | ![]() |
Amy: Here is Sandra Dodd with a simple definition of unschooling. Sandra Dodd: Creating an environment where natural learning can flourish. Amy: What’s natural learning? Sandra Dodd: Learning from experience, learning from asking questions, following interests, being. | ![]() |
Ultimately, "better" and "good" will be seen in retrospect, or in realizations that things are WAY better than they used to be. That "better" is between children and parents, and happens when it happens, not because of anything anyone here says or thinks. | ![]() |
![]() | There is probably not an idea about how to be with kids that you have that we haven't seen and turned over. (Sounds a bit snooty!) What I mean is, that 1000's of people have wandered by us with the ideas they have. We've held them up for examination to see "Is this respectful? How does this help a child? How does this hurt a child? Is there a better way that will nurture him *and* help him?" —Joyce Fetteroll |
Good people make better parents. Better parents make better unschoolers. If some of your transitional energy is spent being a better person, your child's working model of the universe, which only he or she can build, will have a better foundation. It will be built in a better neighborhood, with cleaner air and purer water. | ![]() |
![]() | An attitude of abundance and gratitude can be as good as a nap. SandraDodd.com/abundance SandraDodd.com/gratitude SandraDodd.com/change |
![]() | "Be precise in the words you use to describe those you love, aim to support and care for. Be as generous as you can too. The clearer you see your child, the better you can respond to their needs. The better you learn to listen to them, see them, and be of useful service to them, the more they will have confidence in your ability to have their best interest in mind." —Karen James |
Integrity is a strong wholeness. The fabric of the being of a thing can't be broken. A bucket with one hole in it is lacking integrity. It's not a good bucket. A frayed rope lacks integrity. No matter how long or strong the rest of the rope is, that frayed part keeps it from being a good rope. | ![]() |
There are arbitrary limits that parents just make up, or copy from the neighbors. Then there are limits that have to do with laws, rules, courtesy, tact, circumstances, traditions and etiquette. | ![]() |
We always have ice cream in the freezer—he rarely eats it, but an apple or watermelon will be gone in no time. A mom named Kris wrote that ten years ago, of a child who is probably grown now. |
![]() | "Children will flourish if their needs are joyfully met as they explore the world. Creatively support your child in what he's genuinely interested in." —Debbie Regan |
![]() | It can be healing for parents to think back to their own sorrows and then to their own children's freedom from those experiences. |
![]() | In an attempt to "be fair," parents can be very UNfair. Children don't all need the same things for the same amount of time. Measuring with rulers and timers and charts is often shortchanging one child or another. What they could use more than that is the opportunity to decide when they're finished for their own reasons. |