More than some

We can't know all of everything, but we can know more of everything.

More of everything
photo by Ester Siroky

Running or risking

If a parent runs frightened from too many things, they will lose dignity, the child's trust, and their ability to unschool as happily and effectively as they could have if they had been calmer and more accepting of risks.

SandraDodd.com/radiation
(In context the dignity and trust bit refers back to something, there.)
photo by Karen James

Confidently build more confidence

Each time you think of something to help them with what they're doing, needing, learning, you become more confident. Each success builds confidence, and makes it easier to have future success.

from a discussion of "Who Can Unschool?"
photo by Sarah Dickinson

Semantics

The words people use will make or break their understanding.

SandraDodd.com/semantics
photo by Lisa J Haugen

The mysteries of the world

Being new to the world, and you being his host (and partner), any light you can shed on the mysteries of the world, and any clues you can give him on what's likely to happen and what's expected of him would be good for all concerned. Advise him what might happen at a wedding reception, or a birthday party, or at a place he's never been to before. Show him how to eat a new food he hasn't seen. Help put him at ease if he's nervous. Provide him all the coaching and reassurance he wants, and no more than he wants.

SandraDodd.com/guest
photo by Karen James

Flowing, clear, refreshed and alive

Parents should keep life flowing, clear, refreshed and alive.



SandraDodd.com/change
photo by Ester Siroky

The abundance of possibilities

"Unschooling is about living in the abundance of possibilities, not in fear of somehow not fitting the mold. It's been remarkable to me to see where natural learning can take a person. For me, after ten years of unschooling our son, it has become a kind of celebration of human potential." —Karen James

SandraDodd.com/karenjames/abundance
photo by Ester Siroky

Rich and full

Karen James wrote:
The most wonderful thing (to me) about unschooling is that we can support our children's growth, development, and learning in ways that embrace and nurture who they are as whole people with all their strengths and limitations. Our children can learn to live a rich and full life not in spite of where they fall short, but in celebration of where they find meaning and purpose and useful practice of skills they've come to own through a deeper understanding of who they are and what they care to spend their time and energy doing.

—Karen James

SandraDodd.com/karenjames
photo by Hema Bharadwaj

Direction and balance

When you can, be at peace.

SandraDodd.com/direction
SandraDodd.com/balance
photo by Renee Cabatic

Things change

Being a child's partner rather than his adversary makes the balance of knowledge unimportant. Nowadays my children drive me around, help me out, read small print and get things off high shelves. For many years, I did those things for them.

SandraDodd.com/partners
SandraDodd.com/balance

Learning first, and partnership and being present close after, and all the other things flow in around it.


Part of a longer response to an odd question: The other things flow in around it.
See also "Snapshot" on this blog
photo by Karen James

To begin with...

Until a person stops doing the things that keep unschooling from working, unschooling can't begin to work.

SandraDodd.com/doit
photo by Sylvia Toyama

Hearing yourself think

Hearing what I say as a mom is crucial to mindfulness. If I don't notice what I say, if I don't even hear myself, how can I expect my kids to hear me? If I say things without having carefully chosen each word, am I really communicating?

SandraDodd.com/mindfulofwords
photo by Eileen Mahowald

Bigger, friendlier world

Karen James wrote:

Unschooling, done with too much attention on the one way of living being the only right way, can make the world seem smaller, scarier and full of confrontation. Unschooling done with the understanding it's one choice among many, makes the world a bigger, friendlier, more dynamic place. —Karen James

Find your options
photo by Hinano

A path around obstacles

A Joyce-quote today:

One thing that keeps me responding after all these years is because I understand. To me it makes perfect sense *why* parents get stuck on certain thought pathways. I understand why they can't see the view the child sees, why school colors their vision, why fear colors their vision. I enjoy helping them see the walls they thought trapped them are just obstacles. I enjoy helping them find a path around the obstacles.

But it can't work unless people see the obstacles aren't part of who they are, unless they can step back to observe the obstacles objectively so that they can let go and move around them.

—Joyce Fetteroll

SandraDodd.com/personal
photo by Karen James

Loving presence

Each child, in the moment, doing something interesting in the presence of a loving parent... that works the same for anyone.

SandraDodd.com/partners/child
Marta Venturini saved this and quoted me in 2012.
photo by Ester Siroky

Moonrise

Sometimes it's good to see cause and effect, connections, relationships. Other times, it might be best to gaze without speaking.

SandraDodd.com/light
photo by Amy Childs

Flowing thoughts

What you know can be added to, or amended, but rarely deleted. Some things are best not learned, which is why it's so important to be careful what you say and how you say it (and to drive carefully, and all that). Some people do try to encapsulate ideas or experiences and forget them. Sometimes other memories are shut off along with that. That’s a good reason for analyzing traumatic events and sorting through instead of trying to encase them. Too many "do not enter areas" in your mind will slow down connections, and also will inhibit the biochemicals that help make learning fun and easy.

SandraDodd.com/connections
photo by Ester Siroky

A side effect of unschooling

"The goal of unschooling is not education. It is to help a child be who she is and blossom into who she will become. Education happens as side effect." —Joyce Fetteroll

Waiting for proof?
photo by Cátia Maciel

Simple

"Create a rich environment. Support and feed their interests. Connect with them." That is what Joyce Fetteroll said my whole site could have said—one page, simple—if natural learning were easy to trust.

Read the rest: SandraDodd.com/simple
photo by Karen James

Stillness

Beatiful moments of stillness and calm are around us all the time. Sometimes we notice.

Look Quietly
photo by Annie Regan, who wrote "Possibly my favourite spot in the whole world.
Cradle Mountain, Tasmania, just on sunrise in this photo"