Showing posts with label stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stuff. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Important fun

The separation of learning and fun is the only thing that keeps learning from BEING fun.

SandraDodd.com/sustainable
photo by Sandra Dodd

Saturday, May 6, 2023

Simple but gigantic

One of the best first steps a family can take toward moving a giant step toward being more positive is to note and back off about anyone or anything they've called "dumb" or "stupid."

It's simple but gigantic.

If things (music, ideas, jokes) are allowed the dignity of being potentially accepted as perhaps good in someone's estimation, lights come on all over that world.

Sandra, on Always Learning, in 2008
photo by Holly Dodd

Friday, November 25, 2022

Learning, exploration, peace & love

It's worth looking into the concept of process vs. product. People learn from figuring out how things work. One doesn't need to build a computer just to mess with computer repair or examine parts. Someone can play with yarn and needles and do a simple scarf without being made to feel like a failure for having no interest in making sweaters and socks.

Unschooling is about learning, exploration, peace and love.

SandraDodd.com/flitting
photo by Sandra Dodd

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Inside choices

Someone wrote, of a six-year-old, once:
She's currently refusing to go outside.
I responded:
She can't refuse if no one is pressuring or demanding.
SandraDodd.com/rebellion
photo by Deb Lewis

Monday, April 26, 2021

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Words and pictures, sent to you!

When I was in first grade I decided I wanted to be a teacher. All through school I paid attention to what teachers did and how, and why (when I could figure that out, which was pretty often). And I asked the other kids what they liked about teachers and what they didn’t. So I learned LOTS and lots about how learning works and what factors work for different kinds of people.

When I was older, 13/14 or so, I wanted to become a missionary (still teaching-related), or to work at a magazine. And it seems all those rolled together are what I’ve become. I write, and I help people have happier more peaceful lives, and it’s all about learning. So in a natural-learning way I’ve been working up to this always.
I wrote the above in an online exchange for Mothering Magazine in 2007.
Recently, I remembered another writing-related profession I had seriously considered for a short while in my late 20's. I had read that the Hallmark Cards company was hiring writers, in Kansas City. I thought I could do that! I knew nothing about Kansas City, and decided I didn't want to move, but while I thought about applying, writing mushy or funny or inspiring words to go with an image sounded easy and fun.

Then, with this blog already ten years old, when I remembered that, I saw that Just Add Light and Stir is much like a greeting card collection. Some are funny, or mushy, and many are inspiring. Some are seasonal, and some are about babies. This is post #3744. I guess I have inadvertently written some greeting cards.

Sunday, September 27, 2020

Work at playing

Usually it looks like we're just playing around. When it doesn't look like we're playing, I work on it. Unschooling works best when we're playing around.

Jubilation and Triangulation
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Thursday, May 28, 2020

Things

I love this photo of Karen Lundy's kitchen utensils, laid out artfully and photographed.
I like things. I like tools. The similarities and differences in things has always interested me—the patterns and departures, in objects, people, games, songs, foods, trees, and ideas.

Some people think "I have too many things." Some want things they don't have. Few think "I have the perfect number of things."

I miss things I used to have, sometimes. Attachments are not ideal, but things can be art, comfort, tools, toys, and portals to history, stories, science, exploration and possibilities.

Be at peace with things, when you can be.

SandraDodd.com/abundance
photo by Karen Lundy
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Sunday, May 24, 2020

Listen, advise, love, laugh

Marina DeLuca-Howard wrote, regarding a teenager:

In the past when someone with a younger child in tow has asked for "the secret" to all this respect I seem to receive I notice they can't *hear* the answer. I gave a lot of respect, choices and did a lot of trusting. I didn't ignore him. I was the resource. I listened, advised, and loved and laughed and supported.
—Marina DeLuca-Howard

A teen boy out with his mom—what's "the secret"?
photo by Tara Joe Farrell
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Tuesday, May 5, 2020

What I think

People are always asking me what I think. 🙂


I think if someone reads what's at Joyce's page, and mine, and if that seems true and useful, cool!

Those who read those things and think it's crazy, and can't begin to understand it, will miss out on a fantastic opportunity.

That's what I think.

From a 2006 discussion of the range of, and differentiation of, radical unschooling
photo by Nina Haley
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Monday, April 27, 2020

The whole language

Because phonics treats written English as a simple code when it is not, many children are frustrated very early on.

Whole language involves language as communication, rather than separate parts (writing/reading/spelling). First language; details later.

With unschooling, children will learn from the language you use and they use, from the words they see around them, from using games and computers, from signing greeting cards or playing with words. There's no need for any school-style structure at all. For those who have worried about phonics and reading and spelling, please don't press that on your children.



Play with words
photo by Caroline Lieber

Friday, April 24, 2020

Admirable and attractive

Perspectives do change, if people want to learn.

Different perspectives will affect what you respect, too. What is admirable, that you want to head toward? What is attractive, and pulls you nearer? What is disturbing or embarrassing, that you want to step away from?
The origin of that, or a link to
Getting warm
or to other posts on perspective
photo by Karen James

Friday, April 10, 2020

No exceptions


Parents should not think that unschoolers are exempt from any expectations of courtesy or etiquette.

The original is from "Food Rules", but this matches, too:
SandraDodd.com/etiquette

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Friday, February 21, 2020

It's a good thing.

"Joy really is infectious, so it's a good thing to grab and share whenever you can."
—Sylvia Toyama
Still cheerful
photo by Cass Kotrba

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Approaching solidity


There is a danger when someone's own understanding and practice of unschooling is shaky, and she wants the approval of others more than the solid joyful everyday life of her family. I've seen a few of those.

Another problem comes when someone's reasons for unschooling are not about learning and family relationships, but about being way cool and out there, and cutting edge, and anti-this'n'that. But that sets the stage for lots of problems in insecure people, when they want to glom onto something that's wild and new and shocking.

Unschooling is...
photo by Alex Polikowsky
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Friday, January 24, 2020

Hooks to hang ideas on

You have to know a lot to learn more, and if you know nothing, you can't learn anything.
SandraDodd.com/connections
photo by Dawn Todd

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Seeing in an unschooling light

Before you can see anything in an unschooling light, you must have an unschooling light to see by.
from an Always Learning post, 29Jan2016
photo by Karen James

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Juxtaposition

I like the word "juxtaposition." I like the look of it, the sound of it, and the meaning. It's not a matched set, and it's not about opposites. When things are together (by design or by happenstance) and there's something surprising or quirky about it, thoughts twirl and leap.

New combinations
photo by Holly Dodd, of lily pads, in the desert
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Friday, May 24, 2019

Creating history


Remember you don't need a museum to find things your kids will be fascinated by and learn from. You probably have things right in your home that would not only connect to history, but it might be their history. And will be from then on, anyway. Things we have from thrift stores aren't from my family, but for my grandchildren they will be from their family.

Marta Venturini shared that in 2014, from
Your House as a Museum (chat transcript)
and facebook shared it back to both of us this week.
photo by Sandra Dodd

Saturday, May 11, 2019

Old and new

It's good to see old things in new ways.

There is creativity in doing something unexpected with materials already on hand.

Learning can come from novel combinations.
Aging beauty
photo by Holly Dodd (long ago; I'm using it anew)