I just want to thank you for the time, effort, and love you put into these snippets and your blog. (And your humor as you justify a repeat now and then!). Each morning I find great joy in reading what you have to say, and it helps me to connect with and remember what I want to experience in this journey of life. Everyday I feel such deep gratitude for our family experiences and dynamics and our method of "unschooling", and I continue to stay open to new ways and new adventures that could offer even more diversity to our sort of quiet life. I have had my moments of panic, wondering if I'm doing enough, doing it "right", if I've ruined their chances for a quality education, and then beautiful people like you pop up on my email giving me a reminder to look around, look at what my children do and who they are, and instantly any and all doubt dissipates into the nothingness from which it came.
Today's blog post, from the Deschooling section of The Big Book--YES, YES, YES! I think some Buddhists call a concept similar to this beginner's mind. It's a good place to be. I had the great luck to move to a new city and state, when my oldest son was 5. We WERE tourists for a while, and we approached the year like a great adventure, soaking in as much as we could, relaxing into the knowledge that we could do it all again tomorrow since we LIVED here! It was splendid, and I couldn't have asked for more serendipitous timing for our entry into unschooling.
Thanks, again but not for the last time, for this lovely blog and email-inbox encouragement.
I have been reading your very cool stuff for many years. You have impacted my life greatly. We started homeschooling our two daughters about 12 years ago and we gradually worked our way into unschooling 7 years ago. They are now almost 20 and 18 years old. How fabulous it has been and how wonderful they are! And my marriage of 26 years is much better because of wonderful advice like you shared today.
We've been unschooling for 9 years and I've been receiving your daily quotes for only a month. I'm finding them so enriching and nourishing. Thank you for reminding me what's important, it eases my fears and oozes love into our moments as a family.
I must share with you that I have benefited so much from Just Add Light and Stir. We are one of very few unschooling families here..., so it is very refreshing to receive your daily words of wisdom and encouragement. Thank you for taking the time to publish your blog. It is truly a blessing to us in our unschooling journey. I finally feel "free" after several years of trying to "do school at home." Our whole family is living a much more peaceful existence. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I am living in Italy and I can not thank you enough for the breath of fresh air your blog is to me every day! Thanks so much for helping me to unschool myself in time to help my kids! I really appreciate you!
Over the years, I have developed certain habits for helping myself over
those transition moments from *focused on kids* to *focused on writing* and
vice versa. I usually transition from kids-to-writing by writing *about* the
kids for 15 or 20 minutes—that's how my blog came into being 6 years ago.
The writing-to-kids transition takes more mental effort, if I've been deep
into the work—it can be a bit like when you wake up from a vivid dream and
you're groggy and distracted for a few minutes. Lately my favorite way to
make the transition is to visit your Just Add Light and Stir blog. It's like
a little shot of mental mom-espresso for my brain, a stimulant for the part
of me that wants to be present and attentive and cheerful when I walk back
out into this houseful of kids. So I wanted to thank you for those posts.
They make me eager to zoom back out into the "big noisy peace," to borrow
your excellent phrase, and join in the fun.
