![]() | Unschooling isn't "just" doing anything. It's stepping mindfully toward more and greater peace and partnership—toward an easy environment for learning to happen all the time. |
SandraDodd.com/pam/howto
photo by Jihong Tang, of Orion and Sandra
![]() | Unschooling isn't "just" doing anything. It's stepping mindfully toward more and greater peace and partnership—toward an easy environment for learning to happen all the time. |
"Be responsible for your own thoughts and feelings, and notice when your thoughts are borrowed." —Cheri Tilford
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![]() | Good things build up gradually into great things. Bad things erode faith and trust. |
Learning to be kind and gentle to a child will make you a kinder and gentler person. Learning to make choices that make you kinder and gentler to a child—more generous, softer, more patient—will help you be a better partner, adult child, neighbor, customer at the grocery store. | ![]() |
![]() | Health, sunshine and opportunities can be the best parts of life. Children's blessings are parents' blessings. |
![]() | "I sometimes look back and see how far my thoughts and actions had shifted from where I started and it was (and is) dizzying and exhilarating. Things that made me feel panicky five years ago are now so accepted and normal and joyful in our house. And I am still moving forward and trying to choose from more and better choices every day." —Anna Black |
![]() | Cameras can stop time. Memories can try. But really, the moment is gone and new moments are coming. Keep your balance, live lightly, be sweet. |
![]() | "Unschooling requires you to take joy in life. It requires you to appreciate the wonders of the world." —Pam Sorooshian |
Meredith Novak wrote:
Ultimately, what helps most to do first was not set myself up to yell—and that meant going back a few more minutes and noticing how things went wrong in the first place and changing those dynamics. Most of them were about expectations I had—kids should or shouldn't do some thing. As I worked through expectations like that, there was less to yell about. So basically I worked the problem from both ends—I found ways for life to flow more smoothly for my family on the one end, and learned to stop and hush and start over on the other. —Meredith Novak |
These quotes were about unschoolers helping other unschoolers, but the ideas work with parents and children, too.SandraDodd.com/rulebound
![]() | "Don't let fear and worry drive your decisions and interactions with your kids, though. If you focus on joy and partnership, dark corners won't seem dark. You and your kids will be able to illuminate them together through open dialogue and trust." —Jo Isaac |
One wonderful thing in unschooling is realizing you don't know whether it's a school day or not. It is evidence of deschooling. Don't forget school days completely, though, because you can plan outings when the museums and playgrounds are empty. There won't be a crowd at the cinema. Old information has new purposes. | ![]() |
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It will help you heal from your childhood, to be a good mother. Seeing your own child's bright eyes when you do something sweet can heal the child inside you who would have loved to have had someone do that to, for, with her, years ago. | ![]() |
So what do we need besides seeing things in a new light, trying to be more understanding about noise and mess, and being our children's partners? I mean tools for moving toward being with children in new ways? Maybe LOVE the mess See it as evidence of health and joy and learning, and then it's not "mess," it's proof. | ![]() |