photo by Sandra Dodd
Friday, September 30, 2016
Zippy and otherwise
photo by Sandra Dodd
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Be more
I closed a talk recently with this:
Be brave, be calm, be happy.The first line was written on my paper. The second one, I added just then.
Be braver, be calmer, be happier.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Wednesday, September 28, 2016
On a peaceful day...
Watching the news on TV, or following too many news sites, can harm the peace of an unschooling home. Some moms, especially when their children are young, have found more peace if they focus inward on their children than outward far away.
If someone WANTS to be afraid and pissed off, even on a fairly peaceful day, all it takes is to turn the news on and let it affect your entire nervous system, your digestive system, your adrenal glands and hormones, your chance of trusting your neighbors, or of sleeping peacefully.
SandraDodd.com/news
photo by Sandra Dodd, of someone else's puppet
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If someone WANTS to be afraid and pissed off, even on a fairly peaceful day, all it takes is to turn the news on and let it affect your entire nervous system, your digestive system, your adrenal glands and hormones, your chance of trusting your neighbors, or of sleeping peacefully.
photo by Sandra Dodd, of someone else's puppet
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Light and shadows
Avoid shading or shadowing what works best when bathed in light and lightness.
SandraDodd.com/eating/peace
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Monday, September 26, 2016
Don't measure.
I've given this advice to newlyweds, and to my children about roommates:

Don't aim for 50/50.
If 50% is right, then 49% is wrong, and 65% would be something get angry about.
If you both aim for more than half, you'll meet around the middle, around half the time. If you want the other person to stick around, "around" is the goal,
SandraDodd.com/peace/mama
photo by Sandra Dodd
Don't aim for 50/50.
If 50% is right, then 49% is wrong, and 65% would be something get angry about.
If you both aim for more than half, you'll meet around the middle, around half the time. If you want the other person to stick around, "around" is the goal,
photo by Sandra Dodd
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Sometimes yes
photo by Sandra Dodd
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Strewing might ring a bell
Not the same bells as I saw in a museum in Avebury, but bells... 
Once Colleen Prieto wrote:
Yesterday, a neighbor offered me something that looks sort of like a cross between a bell and a gong, a stand to hang it from, and a mallet. It was interesting and I figured we'd find some sort of use for it, so...
In the less than 24 hours it's been in the house, my 9 year old has:
SandraDodd.com/strew/strew
photo by Sandra Dodd
Once Colleen Prieto wrote:
Yesterday, a neighbor offered me something that looks sort of like a cross between a bell and a gong, a stand to hang it from, and a mallet. It was interesting and I figured we'd find some sort of use for it, so...
In the less than 24 hours it's been in the house, my 9 year old has:
- Experimented with the different sounds it can make (soft hits, hard hits, hit in different places)
- Used it to call us all to attention so he could announce important things (like "I'm hungry" :-))
- Told our elderly friend about it, and in turn checked out the links she sent to websites that have photos of gongs that are bigger than people, Tibetan singing bowls, etc.
- Added The King and I to our Netflix queue after my mother said she thinks they use gongs to summon dancing maidens in the movie
- Looked for other things in the house to bring into the living room to make it look "even more Avatar air temple and less ordinary living room" :-)
- Put Avatar episodes on in the background and made up his own air-bending moves while they were on
- Wondered why a mallet is called a mallet and is not called a hammer
- Asked me to find the bell collection we used to have out, so he can play with the bells again
The fun (and learning, and connections) that can come from exploring one simple item can be amazing.
—Colleen Prieto
photo by Sandra Dodd
Friday, September 23, 2016
Protection
For unschooling to flourish, parents might need to find ways to protect their children from the parents’ own fears and prejudices. The easiest way to do that is for the parents to let go of those fears and prejudices and see the world, and their children, through new eyes.
Protection can backfire
photo by Sandra Dodd
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photo by Sandra Dodd
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Thursday, September 22, 2016
What's the question?
photo by Sandra Dodd
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
A better choice
"My suggestion to you is to focus on making a "better" choice each time you can. I think that was the most helpful advice I got as a parent of younger kids—it was surprisingly practical and
encouraging to simply consider at least two choices and pick the better one. The next time, try to think of the one you did choose and then one other—pick the better one. If you make a choice you're unhappy with, after the fact, think then about what would have been a better choice—have that one 'on hand' for next time.
"Don't expect to be perfect, but expect yourself to be improving all the time."
SandraDodd.com/betterchoice
photo by Sandra Dodd, of something Keith Dodd carved
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"Don't expect to be perfect, but expect yourself to be improving all the time."
—Pam Sorooshian
photo by Sandra Dodd, of something Keith Dodd carved
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Shared joy
Happy memories are good glue. |
The quote is from SandraDodd.com/betterpartner,
but it applies to kids' friendships, and to family memories.
photo by Sandra Dodd
Monday, September 19, 2016
Wonderfulness
The wonderfulness of others will not diminish you. Your realization of the wonderfulness of others will enlarge you.
photo by Sandra Dodd, of Holly Dodd
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This post is a repeat from 2012. I was happy and lucky to find it, because both the boat and the webpage were mentioned, separately, by me in a talk in London yesterday.
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Whole self in a whole way
If you're living in the past, that's a problem for now.
If you're living in the future too much,
In the future that you're imagining,
in the future that you're predicting,
in the future that you would like to imagine you can control,
in the future that you would like to imagine that you can even imagine, that's a problem.
So it's good to aim for living in the moment in a whole way—your whole self, not separated from your past or your future, but also not really over-focussed on it.

SandraDodd.com/listen/london2011
photo by Sandra Dodd
If you're living in the future too much,
In the future that you're imagining,
in the future that you're predicting,
in the future that you would like to imagine you can control,
in the future that you would like to imagine that you can even imagine, that's a problem.
So it's good to aim for living in the moment in a whole way—your whole self, not separated from your past or your future, but also not really over-focussed on it.
SandraDodd.com/listen/london2011
photo by Sandra Dodd
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Softly consider
Sometimes a hard thing can be beautiful, while a soft thing might be less so. Peace isn't always quiet. Reconsider prejudices! | ![]() |
photo by Sandra Dodd
Friday, September 16, 2016
Wondering, questioning, answering
During a drought, what is lacking? The recommended answer: rain Marty's answer: a boat ride |
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Thursday, September 15, 2016
A peaceful, homey home
photo by Sandra Dodd
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Richer, meaningful, lasting
photo by Sandra Dodd
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Giving up, gaining strength
De Smith wrote:
At one point in my early struggles to grasp the concept, I "threw in the towel", thinking that it wasn't "working", and decided I was going back to traditional parenting! Within a day, I knew I could never be that parent, again—if I ever had totally been that parent. I found that once you learned how to respect someone, you couldn't ignore that and treat them with less value, with less honor just because you decided so. For a day or so, that had me desperate and flailing. Eventually, I found it strengthening—it backed up the ideas I so loved and wanted for my family.
SandraDodd.com/unexpected
photo by Sandra Dodd
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—De Smith
photo by Sandra Dodd
Monday, September 12, 2016
Convenience foods
Life was harder, not long ago. Food preparation and availability are easier than ever. Appreciate the advantages of living where you live, when you live! Rejoice at convenience. |
photo by Sandra Dodd
Something looks like this:
collection,
equipment,
museum
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Beyond the door
A computer, a hand held game, an iPod are doors that lead to a vast world of experiences. Just as your front door leads to a vast world of many different things you can do. Would you refer to all the things your family does by going through your front door—walks, shopping, visiting friends, mowing the lawn, vacations—as "door stuff"?
—Joyce Fetteroll
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Saturday, September 10, 2016
Questions and curiosity
photo by Sandra Dodd
Friday, September 9, 2016
Slight, subtle change
Slow, careful little changes make eventual big differences. Learn to see in different ways. | ![]() |
photo by Colleen Prieto, who wrote
"Fantastic little snake—he was watching us watching him.
Newburyport, Massachusetts"
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Canada... dude!
![]() | 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. |
For the record, "last night" was in late 2002, and the other kid was Brett Henry, also unschooled, who is now a firefighter in the Los Alamos Fire Department.
photo by Sandra Dodd
P.S. Since writing this, since taking that photo, I went to France and discovered that their stop signs say "Stop." Why, I asked my French host-mom, do they say "Arrêt" in Quebec? She said Quebec wants to be more French than France. One more bit of information that won't be on the test. Trivia.
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Helpful and kind
Radical Unschooling Info post by Sandra Dodd; September 6, 2016
photo by Megan Valnes
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Unfurling
Look at that curled up leaf:

Something that will be big, and full, sometimes starts small, and in another form. If conditions remain good for that leaf, it will open up like the others. It won't happen sooner from wishing or pressure. The leaf won't be bigger from speeches or promises. It will open gently to be itself, if it is allowed to unfurl in its own way.
SandraDodd.com/unschool/definition.html
photo by Holly Dodd

Something that will be big, and full, sometimes starts small, and in another form. If conditions remain good for that leaf, it will open up like the others. It won't happen sooner from wishing or pressure. The leaf won't be bigger from speeches or promises. It will open gently to be itself, if it is allowed to unfurl in its own way.
photo by Holly Dodd
Monday, September 5, 2016
What happens is...
![]() | What happens when you see other people differently is that you cannot help but see yourself differently. When you choose to find opportunities to give other people choices, you yourself have begun to make more choices. |
which links to SandraDodd.com/change
photo by Rippy Dusseldorp (her kids and Adam's family)
Sunday, September 4, 2016
A thousand to one
![]() |
photo by Chrissy Florence
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Organic learning
![]() | Learning happens all on its own when the parents stop looking at life in a schoolish way, and can appreciate and encourage that sort of organic, constant addition to a personal body of knowledge. |
photo by Sandra Dodd
Friday, September 2, 2016
Sixth Anniversary, Just Add Light and Stir
I missed announcing the fifth anniversary, in 2015. By the time I noticed, six weeks had passed. Happy anniversary to us all, 2016.
Sometimes it's hard to find a quote that hasn't been used. Other times I don't have a great photo to match the quote. But occasionally it's poetically magical, and I'm inspired, again, to continue.
Thank you for reading and sharing.

photo by Sandra Dodd, of someone else's good idea
Sometimes it's hard to find a quote that hasn't been used. Other times I don't have a great photo to match the quote. But occasionally it's poetically magical, and I'm inspired, again, to continue.
Thank you for reading and sharing.
photo by Sandra Dodd, of someone else's good idea
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Same but different
photo by Sandra Dodd
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