Unschooling can make life better. Really, fully unschooling becomes more philosophical and spiritual than people expect it to.
photo by Gail Higgins
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Unschooling can make life better. Really, fully unschooling becomes more philosophical and spiritual than people expect it to.
Principles of unschooling, once well understood and practiced, can be extended beyond the children. |
My kids grew up being able to do a lot more things than other kids they knew because their parents allowed for it to be so. We didn't have to, we chose to do that because we saw the benefit in doing that.
I really suggest reading reading reading — Sandra and Joyce have so much on their sites that we could spend a lifetime pondering it all. Let it wash over you.
You'll be glad you did. |
As we had been talking about natural learning, naturally I responded:
"The power to decide what to learn" makes a pretzel of the straight line between experience and knowing.
My children don't "decide what to learn, how to learn, and when to
learn it."
They learn all the time. They learn from dreams, from
eating, from walking, from singing, from conversations, from watching plants grow and storms roll.
When parents are not honest and fair-minded, the children can come to disregard their information and advice. For unschooling, I think that's the greatest danger. |
![]() | 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. |
The main idea is about seeing everything we do as a choice.
What locks people in "have to" thinking is they close the doors of choices they will not for various reasons take. They often end up with only one door open and it feels like they have to take it. And they feel trapped.
Caren Knox wrote:
I've come to realize that my kids need ME—not just in the same room, not just nearby, but by my attention and interaction—my full self.. . . . Awareness that you're making these choices is very powerful.—Caren Knox
(dharmamama)
Sometimes the solution is to forget about the larger problem and be physically comforting to your
child right then, that moment, and smile and sit in a rocking chair or something. Enough sweet little moments like that, and "the big problems" don't seem so big. |
The patterns you and your children see are worth exploring and expanding. The connections you make are your model of the moment, and ultimately part of your model of the universe—past, present, future, imagined, revised, spooky and sweet. |
"I'm amazed at not only the change in me but also how the little changes in our family form random, occasional pockets of warmth and peace. Hopefully, those little pockets will get larger and more frequent until we are fairly awash in it!" |
A ten year old boy was being unkind to his five year old brother. Their mom thought it was partly from the older boy having been treated badly when he was in school, and wrote, "Some of those memories and hurt feelings have carried over and he's still My response: You could tell him that he will help himself heal and feel better by being the kind of person he would like for his brother to become. (Nicer than the kids at school.) |
Saying "Yes" more than you might have brings sunshine to your life. |
I believe that if children learn happily, without pressure and without shame, that they will continue to do so for the rest of their lives. |
If parents become complacent and don’t think that they need to do better and could do better, then they can’t do better, and they won’t do better. And if they’re ever going to get to be the unschooling parents that their future children need—their bigger, older children with bigger questions and problems—they need to keep getting better. |
Harmony makes many things easier. When there is disharmony, everyone is affected. When there is harmony, everyone is affected, too.
The damage done by negativity is a knowable thing. If the mother can't find contentment, she has none to share with her children.
But don’t underestimate how wonderful your happy presence can be for your kids. Be sweet and playful and optimistic and involved. Give them lots of your time.
I've been saying "why not?" more often and it feels good! I think it's rubbing off on my husband. —Tara |
Periodically we evaluate how things are going.
Nothing is written in stone.
For now, this works for us.
We’ll see how things go.—Laurie Wolfrum
My attitude is a big shaper of my childrens' attitude toward work AND toward me. |