![]() | Smiles and laughter involve safety and trust. Those emotions are good for families, for relationships, and for learning. |
photo by Sandra Dodd
![]() | Smiles and laughter involve safety and trust. Those emotions are good for families, for relationships, and for learning. |
When pretend violence exists without the other issues (parenting, school, neglect)
![]() |
Learning and life CAN be separated, with enough enforced separation and schooling, but that improves neither on learning nor on life. | ![]() |
|
Some people say "no" before they even think, and then they justify it by all kinds of child-belittling means. You don't have to be one of those people.
Some people seem terrified of a monster they have imagined called "Screen Time." I don't see them trying to put limits on paper time, or cloth time, or time with other people. I've never heard anyone say "That's enough 'imagination time' now." |
Get witnesses.That's one reason people join support groups and confess to their friends what they're doing, because you've told somebody what your intention is.
You've told them what your problem is and what your intention is and now you have witnesses and for some people that helps. Sometimes it needs to be an imaginary witness, sometimes it needs to be a real witness. But maybe, if it will help you, imagine that the friend that you most want to impress is there and would you do it if they were there.
![]() |
![]() | Find things that make your children's lives better and that make you and your family feel more calmly alive in the world. |
![]() | The world is big. Your life is big. Your child is as big as you help him to be, or as small as you make him feel. |
![]() |
If I were to say unschooling looks like laying on a quilt at night, looking at the stars and talking about constellations or it looks like taking long car drives just for the sole purpose of having long winded discussions about every single US war in history, there would be 30 people who popped in and said that's not what it looks like at all, because their kids aren't interested in those things.
Unschooling isn't about where or how you learn something, it isn't about doing what everyone else is doing. It's about creating a rich environment for your naturally curious child to learn things that spark their interest. If you can do that, you'll be headed in the right direction.
LOTS of parents create stimulating environments and give lots of support for their kids' interests; this is not unique to unschoolers. What makes it unschooling is that unschoolers give up the rest of the schooling and trust that their kids will learn what they need to learn by being immersed in the rich and stimulating environment and with parental support of kids' interests.
If you don't think before you act, if you don't consider two options, then you haven't made a choice. If you don't think before you act, you have acted thoughtlessly. | ![]() |
This is important for everyone: Do not do what you don't understand.
If you get a bad suggestion, and it doesn't seem to be helping, don't do it! Read a little, try a little, wait a while, watch. If you're going the wrong direction, don't keep going. |
![]() |
![]() | The books that have helped us with unschooling have been things that amused or intrigued or provided answers to questions. How-to and trivia books have been popular here. Real-life combined with humor makes for easy learning. |
If you're going to unschool, it needs to be better than school. If that involves getting mental, emotional or physical therapy for the parents, then do it! The house doesn't work if the roof is leaking and there's no heat. Parents don't work if they're in an emotional fog and can't pay sweet attention to their kids. | ![]() |
Did you do something to make a child's life better and richer? Be grateful that you thought to do that, or know how to do that. Did your child look at you with affection? Can you tweak your life enough that those affectionate looks come even more often? | ![]() |
![]() | The more one's reaction to "food" (the word, the idea, the substance) is strong and emotional, the more evidence there is that the way in which that person was raised to see and deal with food should not be repeated. |
Choose to make choices. | |
![]() |
Find wonder. Let the world be full of wonder. Wonderful. | ![]() |