| I expected my children to learn, and they did. What surprised me was their ease at dealing with people of all ages, from younger children to adults. They made eye contact and shook hands from an early age. They're poised and confident. |  |
 | Help your children to be powerful. Let them have all of their power and some of yours. |
| Living means changing. Appreciate the good things, however plain and simple. Don't rush, don't stop, but live. |  |
| Everything counts. If school and grades form "the object" and life is the field, many things "don't count." Living without school or schoolishness, everything counts. In learning, in relationships, concerning integrity—everything counts. |  |
 | "The longer I live the more convinced I am that the way children are parented/raised has the greatest potential for changing the world. Raising whole, healthy people makes the world better." —Brie Jontry |
| "Everything in moderation… no. Not everything. Not very many things at all. Bad things at the minimum, good things to the maximum, and hopefully not much at all sitting sadly in the in-between." |  |
 | Here are three of mine: Kirby and his wife own a house (own a mortgage, anyway) and this is their beautiful walkway at night. Marty and his wife will have a son, in December or January. Lately and coming up, Holly has participated in several interesting and unrelated classes and workshops in dance, songwriting, burlesque, and yoga. |
| Karen James wrote: It might not seem like it now, but those early years pass fast. . . . I don't regret a single moment. If anything, I wish I'd given more. I still have time, thankfully. It did take a lot of my time, attention and energy, and there were times when I was really, really tired at the end of the day, and mornings when I was slow to want to embrace the day. But I see all that time and energy and attention as an investment—in my son, and in my own future. If I get to grow old, I hope these are some of the moments that bring colour to my winters. |  |
| If children are allowed to turn foods down, they're not forced to eat, and they're given choices, they will come to choose good foods, know when they're hungry and when they're not, and actually learn to listen to their bodies and know what they need. |  |
 | I don't care if people disagree with me. I wouldn't want anyone to agree with me blindly, nor disagree blindly. Nothing personal to me—I just want to present information for people to consider. —Sandra Dodd 1995 or 1996 |
| Unschooling is more than just the absence of school. As we change, our perceptions change, and the perceptions of others toward us changes. |  |
 | Do what will help your baby. Be the gentlest, sweetest, most attentive mother you can possibly be, and you will be putting peace in the bank for you and your whole family. |
 | On bonding with babies: "Sit still with them. And when they are still, sit still with yourself. Don't use so many moments of the day to do anything." —Schuyler Waynforth |
 | There is a difference between lack-of-mental-illness and mental health. What I mean is that one is not right on the edge of the other. There is a large land between being incapacitated and being really healthy and energetic and usful to other people. Don't settle for barely-back. Go for healthy. |
 | It helps a lot to try for better moments not days. Don't judge a day by one upset, judge it as a bad moment and move forward. A little bit better each moment. A little bit more aware. —Schuyler Waynforth |
 | "It was nice to be more quiet—to let things go unsaid. Not talking automatically and at length gave me more time to think about what I really wanted to say, if anything at all. I found I had fewer regrets—wishing I'd said something different or not at all. By talking less, I became a better listener too, I think." —Karen James |
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| Listen, feel, look. Something will be beautiful, even just for a moment, if you are present and open. How much beauty would make a beautiful moment? What could be set aside so that beauty could fill its place? Turn your face toward beauty. Turn your heart toward beauty. |  |
"Reading 'Just Add Light & Stir', then the link-following that follows has saved me from negative-mind-spiraling quite often recently." She wrote that after having quoted this: "The more local and personal peace there is, the more peace there will be in the world." —Sandra Dodd |  |
| Look for usefulness. Look for beauty. Hang out, you and your laundry. |  |
| I wrote "two things, two words" as a title but most things have more than one name, most words mean more than one thing, and "two" is too small a number for this. I've brought a photo by Lisa Jonick to help you consider this. If you try to say in one word, or two, what the photo shows, you will leave out three or four important parts.  What is the glass? Mirror. Window. Barrier. What is the cloth? Backdrop. Projection screen. Drapery. Is the tree touching the cat? Not really, but it envelopes him and his eyes turn to tree. Behind the cat is the reflection of mountains. It seems to be a continuation of his back. And as this is not "a photo of the mountains," the mountain seems to be inside the house, with the cat. Lisa saw this, photographed it, saved it, shared it. There will be many things in your life that you see, or fail to see. Seeing, thinking, naming, all have to do with thought, and categorization, and learning. Take a moment to see what you see richly, and deeply. |
| "Sometimes people just want to wonder, rather than *know*. Or maybe they will want to know in the future, but right now they're just thinking on it and wondering." —Tam Palmer  |
| "Don't look for 'behaviors.' Look for learning and thinking and pondering and excitement and happiness!" —Robin Bentley |  |
 | "The ONLY way I've learned how to be a more present, more caring, generous partner with my kids was by being with them, trying on choices closer and closer to radical unschooling, learning from those choices, then choosing again, better, each time (most times)." |
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