![]() | "A lot of learning about unschooling is unlearning what we're sure we know about learning." —Joyce Fetteroll |
photo by Sandra Dodd
outside a kitchen shop in Chichester
click to enlarge
![]() | "A lot of learning about unschooling is unlearning what we're sure we know about learning." —Joyce Fetteroll |
![]() | Our lives are peaceful, our pressures are self-inflicted and mostly optional, we’re free to visit historical sites when there are no crowds, to leave town during the week, to sleep late or have guests whenever it’s convenient for us, without regard to school’s schedule. |
Lean, one choice at a time, one conscious thought at a time, until your choices and thoughts are solidly in the range where you want to be, and you no longer lean that other way so much. Your new range of balance will involve better choices and options than your first attempts did. | ![]() |
"Expect imagination and interest and excitement and passion."
![]() | "If you wait to do unschooling *after* you understand it, it's unlikely you'll ever understand it. Learning itself works through experience. Unschooling is the same way. It's largely grasped by experiencing it." —Katherine Anderson |
If learning for fun creates more connections than "serious learning" did, I can no longer look at "serious learning" seriously. | ![]() |
"I don't need to stuff him full of who I need him to be, because he's already full of who he is." —Schuyler Waynforth March 29, 2014 Gold Coast symposium | ![]() |
![]() | Exploring the world (including food) needs to be done in a supported and supportive way, in an open and non-fearful way, in a sensible and sensitive way. |
Things don't need to be colorful to be fun. Ordinary can be colorful. Plain can be exotic. | ![]() |
"Your perspective will change when you've experienced new things, seen the world from a different place." —Debbie Regan |
Learning to live better with children makes one a better person. Being patient with a child creates more patience. Being kind to a child makes one a kinder person. |
"If you want to establish good habits, be gentle with your kids' feelings. Make their lives warmer and softer and easier so the habits they develop are those of warmth and joy, comfort and care." —Meredith Novak April 13, 2014 | ![]() |
"The most important word in unschooling is 'with'." —Sue Patterson April 12, 2014 |
"A lot of learning about unschooling is unlearning a lot of stuff that you're sure is true about learning." —Joyce Fetteroll | ![]() |
![]() | "Unschooling involves recognizing that fighting against human nature doesn't make better people." —Meredith Novak |
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If every day you help a child gently, generously, directly, personally, that's hundreds of times a year. By the time that child is fifteen, then you will have helped him, or her, thousands of times. | ![]() |
Being a child's partner in exploring the world is valuable in more ways than people can imagine, if they haven't done it. |
![]() | See learning as your priority, and you will begin to see it more and more. |
Deb Lewis, about unschoolers' difficulty with parental disapproval: "What I discovered is that the people who love *you* will love you even if they think you're crazy. Sometimes their concern is an indication of their love for you and your children. And who couldn't use more love? Helping those people feel easier about your choices, if you can, is worth the time and effort. Do what you think is right for your kids, help your parents feel easier about it, if you can. In time, your children will be so cool and smart, your parents won't have any choice but to agree you did everything right!" —Deb Lewis |
"Teenagers are just your babies grown big." —Schuyler Waynforth March 29, 2014 Gold Coast symposium |
![]() | "It's not about being great or reaching lofty goals. If that happens—awesome! To me though, a life well lived is one where our motivation for doing what we do is clear in our own minds and hearts." —Karen James |