photo by Jihong Tang
Showing posts with label apple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apple. Show all posts
Friday, August 8, 2025
Traditional "truths"
photo by Jihong Tang
Friday, January 13, 2023
What you can't see
It's easy to think of what I might have done if I hadn't had kids when I did, or at all. It was even easier when they were little and moist and sticky and grabby. It's better for your soul, and for theirs, if you don't see them as pesky kids keeping you from getting away with whatever you were imagining.
Look past the momentary downside. Wipe off the stickiness and give them something good to grab. Maybe an apple. Don't worry if they don't eat it "right," or at all. Let it be a ball, an attribute block, or a visual aid that can block out a mountain.
photo by Sandra Dodd
Donovan wrote (and sang):
First there is a mountain
Then there is no mountain
Then there is
The apple is long gone; Mount Taylor is still there. My kids have moved out, but I've seen each of them this week.
Thursday, January 12, 2023
"Wrong place"
Live loosely, for learning to flow.
Inflexibility makes fewer connections. Stiffness opens fewer conversations.
photo by Sandra Dodd
Thursday, December 1, 2022
Doing real things
That's true whether the child is a toddler, or any age. There are useful things that older people do all through life, that younger people watch, think about, and might eventually try.
photo by Roya Dedeaux
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Mysteries and things
There are amusing mysteries, spooky mysteries, beautiful mysteries and sacred mysteries.
Sometimes a thing is just a thing, and sometimes it's a mystery.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Tuesday, October 11, 2022
Happy apple trees
photo by Roya Dedeaux
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Tuesday, September 28, 2021
The benefit of providing choices
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.
—Jenny Cyphers
photo by Cathy Koetsier
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Sunday, August 8, 2021
Don't worry.
Don't worry if kids don't eat much. Don't worry if kids eat lots. Try to give them lots of choices in small amounts, and try not to worry! |
photo by Sandra Dodd, of apples drying
Monday, August 2, 2021
Be prepared to seem patient.
Planning for snacks and having them handy can seem like patience. Planning for clothing and having extra with you can seem like patience. Having a map and directions and having the phone charged up and a flashlight and an umbrella can seem like patience. Impatience is often the beacon of unpreparedness and the resulting embarrassment. Be prepared! |
but this link has some other ideas: SandraDodd.com/patience
photo by Sandra Dodd
Monday, December 21, 2020
Life, living and being
It means to live as though school didn't exist. It means live outside of, far from, without thought of school.
Learn in ways that work naturally and holistically, where the learning has to do with life, and is living, and being.
—Sandra Dodd
2011
2011
photo by Sarah Dickinson
Sunday, December 13, 2020
A little trust, one step
Someone had written, of unschooling: "It sounds like it takes an enormous amount of trust in everything to allow this process to happen." I responded: "It takes a little trust, and desire, and willingness, to take one step. It gets easier as you go. No one can take all of the steps at once." No one can, or should, have trust in everything. Try things out. Think carefully, and observe directly. Practice! |
photo by Sarah Dickinson
Monday, October 7, 2019
Tree appreciation
Trees need...
photo by Gina Trujillo
some other "Add Light" trees
Thursday, November 8, 2018
Memories and peace

Sometimes a peaceful time is still confusing and noisy. Experiences and perceptions differ, and your memory might not match your child's about one thing or another. Something one found stressful might be a memory of joy for another.
Do your best to find the peace and joy.
A Loud Peaceful Home
photo by Sarah Dickinson
Friday, October 19, 2018
Special

Wherever you live, most of the rest of the world will never visit there, never see or touch the things you see every day.
Sometimes, when you look, listen, taste, feel, smell, close your eyes and rest, remember that you are in one special place.
Normal or exotic?
photo by Carolyn Pihl, of an apple in Sweden
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Near and far
This apple was in yesterday's post. I didn't move it, I moved the camera.
That's my sister, on stage, singing and playing guitar. She isn't doing that all the time, but she was then.
It seems there are no people listening. There were a hundred of them, but mostly behind me, and outside the tent.
What any one of us sees isn't everything there is to see.
photo by Sandra Dodd
Something looks like this:
apple,
instruments,
perspective
Monday, September 17, 2018
Unexpected thoughts
Juxtapositions, surprising connections, odd pairings—these make jokes, or frighten cats, or confuse us long enough for our brains to reach out for explanations we hadn't thought anything about before.
The connections might be visual, historical, linguistic, musical, real or imaginary. None of that matters, when your mind builds a new idea, and it's yours to keep.
photo by Sandra Dodd
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Trees need...
A good analogy for helping children grow in their own ways is the growth of trees from seed. An apple seed cannot grow an oak tree. Each seed has within it all it needs to know what kind of roots and leaves it will make. What young trees need is good soil, enough water, and protection from damage.
photo by Janine Davies
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Saturday, June 17, 2017
A better friend
—Lyla Wolfenstein
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Divergence
It's cool when something can be more than one thing. When you think of how to categorize an object, an idea, or an action, if you can give it more than one designation, it will have more "relatives"—more connections in the world.
Art? Apple? Fruit. Food. Gift. Inspiration, memory, photo-op!
Most things are many things.
photo by Brandie Hadfield
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Trust and faith
Trust and faith are the most powerful tools parents of teens have. Too many parents squander those trying to control toddlers and young children.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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