| Pam Sorooshian described what she called "a very basic tenet of unschooling": Surround the child with a swirling, wonderful, exciting, stimulating and rich environment and the child is naturally capable of learning from it. —Pam Sorooshian |  |
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In the midst of some bad ideas, someone contributed this to an unschooling discussion once: "Children (under the age of five) are like scientists from an alien world." I responded: No, they are natural parts of their OWN world. |  |
 | Each child, in the moment, doing something interesting in the presence of a loving parent... that works the same for anyone. |
What you should always know is "You never know."
 | Q: Is unschooling the path of least resistance? A: It depends what you're trying to resist. |
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Any parent with unresolved childhood trauma might want to gradually start untangling those memories for the benefit of your children, of yourself, of your partner, of your family, and in order for unschooling to work well.
There are men here, too.What I think is that every bit of energy and thought spent on anything other than your own child(ren) takes away from your time with them. What I know for absolute certain is that a calm, accepting mother is better for life and learning than a fearful, controlling mother ready to yank things away and yell and give up friendships over sweets or snacks.
 | I recall when I was beginning unschooling, my days were typically a mix of learning about how natural learning works and starting to question a lot of the conventional wisdom I’d absorbed growing up. There are many ways that preconceived ideas and prejudices can limit people’s thinking and get in the way of moving to unschooling... —Pam Laricchia |
You can't be everything.
Limitations are real, and some limitations are time, patience, focus, knowledge, weather, health...
Knowing you can't be perfect, be better than you would have been if you were not aiming to be a better parent, better partner, and better person.
You can't see everything, but you can slow down and try to see more.
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One mindful step in a better direction can be joyous. You don't need to reach a destination to have joy.
The Big Book of Unschooling
page 318 (or 275, if it's yellow)
photo by Sandra Dodd
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| Shadows can be fun to play with, and to notice. I've always liked it if a bird or an airplane made a shadow on me. Be a light, when you can be. Practice thinking about what you might be overshadowing. If you're in the desert, remember that it can be courteous to stand where you will shade someone who's tired or overheated, or is trying to read something. Be a courteous light. |  |
Each little experience, every idea, is helping your child build his internal model of the universe. He will not have the government-recommended blueprint for the internal model of the universe, which can look surprisingly like a school, and a
Unschooled children can organize their knowledge in free and better ways. They never need to feel they are through learning, or past the point that they can begin something new. Each thing they discover can be useful eventually. If we help provide them with ever-changing opportunities to see, hear, smell, taste, feel, move and discuss, what they know will exceed in breadth and depth what any school's curriculum would have covered. It won't be the same set of materials—it will be clearer and larger but different. |
| The more you give them the less they need. Messages about deprivation are in most people's heads, passed down from parents and grandparents. I was told once, "You need to frustrate them." No, that was NOT a need I had. |  |
 | Stop doing the thing that stops you from doing what you need to do. —Sandra Dodd Prioritize your children. —Holly Dodd |
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They help people who need help. The people who need help ask for it. These are good things. —Deb Lewis |
| Sleep is crucial and peace is good. We don't know what experiences and ideas our children are processing, but the more often they go to sleep gently and wake up sweetly, the better their lives will be. |  |
| Go gradually. Read some, do some, read some more, do some more; repeat. If you find yourself tempted to present a lesson, or to teach, feel that feeling and refrain from it. If your child asks a question, just answer the question. Answer it in an interesting way if you can. Look it up if you need to. Don't turn it into "a lesson." If a child asks a question he might ask another one. Be prepared for one question to turn into fifteen of them. Be prepared for it not to. |  |
Live lightly, in various ways
photo by Nina Haley
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If you practice finding abundance, if it's not one thing, it will be another.
 | The fewer things you say or do to make things worse, the better things will be. |
