Limited kinds of unschooling will have limited benefits.
which leads in to SandraDodd.com/unschool/vsRelaxedHomeschooling
and SandraDodd.com/unschool/marginal
photo by Sandra Dodd
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![]() | Travel can be small or large. The younger the children, the shorter a trip needs to be to provide them with an experience from when their world will be enlarged. Take them where they will see, hear, touch, smell or taste something new. |
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Don't anyone be mean to your kids today, please. There will be enough hurt without us adding to it. | ![]() |
![]() | Sometimes people ask how homeschooled children will move out into the world. Our children were never anywhere but in the world. They were present with us as much as they wanted to be. We let them be other places, without us, when they wanted to be. The world was always all around them, and they were always in their place in the world. |
![]() | Strew their paths with interesting things. |
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Every day he is older. Be with him, where he is, quietly, lovingly, now. | ![]() |
![]() | Curious, happy kids will learn a lot from whatever they do. Frustrated, unhappy kids won't learn much no matter what they do. So the first step is to create a happy, rich environment. |
You don't know exactly what your children need. They won't know either, if they're never allowed to live in such a way that they will learn to pay more attention to their bodies than to a book or a menu, calendar or clock. | ![]() |
Even when it's not as clear as you're used to, the sun is as bright as can be behind the clouds. It's the same sun. Even when it's not as clear as you're used to, love is as bright as can be behind fear and frustration. It's the same love. Today, be present and patient. | ![]() |
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Since unschooling is a lifestyle, how can a family wanting to embrace these ideals begin the process? What encouragement would you offer?
Play. Joke. Sing. Instead of turning inward and looking for the answer within the family, within the self, turn it all inside out. Get out of the house. Go somewhere you've never been, even a city park you're unfamiliar with, or a construction site, or a different grocery store. Try just being calm and happy together. For some families, that's simple. For others it's a frightening thought.
Try not to learn. Don't try to learn. Those two aren't the same thing but they're close enough for beginners. If you see something *educational* don't say a word. Practice letting exciting opportunities go by, or at least letting the kids get the first word about something interesting you're all seeing.
SandraDodd.com/eyecontact
photo by Sandra Dodd
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On patience: Learning to think of two choices and make the better one is the best tool I've found and it works every time. If the two choices are "what was done to me" and "what I wish had been done to me instead," it's healing every time, too. | ![]() |
![]() | I'm an unschooler. Lessons are never over. On the other hand, lessons never really begin. Children's questions are answered and an atmosphere of learning is created so that questions are constant and answers are never far away. |
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Deschooling is needed much more by parents than by children. I still have subconscious school-stuff to slough off; it surfaces when I least expect it and I wrestle it, encapsulate it, and try to forget it. | ![]() |
![]() | I'm happy to know I'm not the sole source of information for my kids. Last night I came to use my computer and there was a dialog on the desktop, a leftover instant message between my thirteen-year-old son Marty and an older homeschooler. This was the entirety of that dialog: Marty: You coming down? Other kid: yeah. Marty: Did you know Canada has Prime Ministers? Other kid: yeah Marty: dude Now I will never have to explain to Marty that Canada has a prime minister. I don't know why he cared, on a Friday night in New Mexico, but it doesn't matter. |
[About feeling stuck in negativity:] You can climb incrementally up out of the hole where all looks dark and small, to the high ground where you can see in all directions | ![]() |
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