photo by Janine Davies
Showing posts with label cat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cat. Show all posts
Monday, April 28, 2025
Exciting, or same old home
photo by Janine Davies
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Choices yes; "freedom," maybe not
Some unschoolers become confused on that, and they begin to frolic in the "freedom" that they are pretty sure some stranger online granted them, and that unschoolers have inalienably from God, bypassing all forms of government and the limitations of wallboard. And so if an unschooling family is up at 3:00 a.m. playing Guitar Hero, they seem mystified that the neighbors have called the landlord.
I'm exaggerating. I hope I'm exaggerating.
(where there's more of that)
photo by Roya Dedeaux
Thursday, February 27, 2025
Fun and interesting
My motivation for homeschooling was for learning to be fun and interesting whether first grade or twelfth grade.
As a learner I tend to absorb whatever runs by me whether it's from teachers droning or an engaging movie. That's why I did well in school. But it made no sense that school needed to be dull when outside of school was fascinating. I knew there had to be a better—funner—way to learn.
So that was my primary motivation for looking into homeschooling and ultimately choosing unschooling.
—Joyce Fetteroll
photo by Cátia Maciel
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Take joy in life
Unschooling requires you to take joy in life. It requires you to appreciate the wonders of the world. Every minute you spend being cynical and paranoid is a minute of your life with your children that you have wasted and can never get back again. During that minute, you could have had a relationship-building experience together, but you created negativity in your lives, instead.
—Pam Sorooshian
photo by Gail Higgins
Monday, February 3, 2025
Significant shifts
One of the things I have found so wonderful about learning about unschooling is that whatever I learn in relation to my family life carries over to the rest of my life. I cannot remember the last time I felt like I "deserved" anything—that is a significant shift in the way I experience life and it has created a different childhood for my children.
—Jen Keefe
photo by Holly Dodd
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Another view
Young children are not as tall, and what they see won't be what we see, though it's easy to forget.
Some point-of-view considerations are physical. Others have to do with what we already know about what we're seeing. I know where that bear came from. I know the cat's name. I know it's Albuquerque.
Where you saw it, and whatever you saw, is just as real. Either it interested you or it didn't, which is fine.
When two people are having a conversation, or comparing or defining things, there are dozens of factoring differences. Life is fun, and funny, and angles and perceptions vary.
photos by Sandra Dodd
Thursday, October 3, 2024
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 Julie Daniel
___
The link in yesterday's post didn't work, but it has been repaired here:
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Spiritual growth
At first it’s a practical consideration but later on, as the children are looking at the world through older eyes, they start to see that no matter whether the neighbour noticed or not, it made you a better person. No matter whether your cat would have done your stuff damage or not, it made you a better person. So I think there’s a spirituality there of respect given to the children being passed on.
SandraDodd.com/radiotranscript
photo by Brie Jontry
Friday, March 15, 2024
Be sweet and soft
I hate it, and feel like I'm missing out on so many sweet, little moments, but it is so hard for me to be fully present, almost like I can't control it.I responded:
Well don't hate it. Hate's no good. And you can't "control it." It might be easier to see it as a series of choices, with lots of chances to zone out, and lots of opportunities to focus back in.
People zone in and out all the time. It's not a sin. Live lightly. That's good for your children, if you can come back as easily as you slipped momentarily away, and if you're not hardened with self-recrimination and hate.
SandraDodd.com/negativity
Be sweet and soft, for your children.
SandraDodd.com/positivity
photo by Lydia Koltai
Saturday, December 30, 2023
Open up and out
Openness to experience is what it's called—interest and curiosity. Being willing to explore, to try new things, to open upwards and outwards.
photo by Roya Dedeaux
Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Warmly peaceful
SandraDodd.com/being
photo by Sarah S.
Sunday, August 20, 2023
Better than worrying...
Worrying feels like *doing something*, maybe because it is so time-consuming and exhausting.
Every moment we spend worrying about if we're doing "enough" is a moment in which we could be doing something to improve our relationships, even if it's nothing more than lifting our own mood.
—Virginia Warren
photo by Chris Cabatic
Wednesday, July 5, 2023
Children being themselves
The quote is from The Big Book of Unschooling
photo by Gail Higgins
Saturday, March 4, 2023
Safe and happy success
I can spend my energy on limiting my child's world so that he will be safe and happy or I can spend my energy on helping my child learn the skills to navigate our world himself so that he will be safe and happy. I think the latter has a better chance of success in the long term.
—Eva Witsel
photo by Roya Dedeaux
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Reading minds; thinking thoughts
When someone, or my cat, thinks about something I don't know anything about, the eyes, face or posture can't give me any clues, and my guesses are all wrong.
People can think thoughts, but they can't really read minds very well.
photo by Gail Higgins
Monday, November 21, 2022
Learn and share
Try not to worry. I know that's hard. I'm a worrier, myself. But when we worry about another person, it becomes a burden for them on top of what they are already experiencing. Just be with her, as fully as you can. If she's telling you she's bored, she's inviting you into her experience. Join her. Learn about her. Share yourself with her too. You'll likely learn a lot about her (and yourself) in the process, and I'm confident it will be enriching and rewarding for you both.
—Karen James
photo by Sandra Dodd
Thursday, October 6, 2022
More peaceful, more connected
A mom named Hannah wrote:
Unschooling has definitely changed my life for the better. Our family life is more peaceful and happy. I've stopped trying to control my husband (I had the best intentions at heart) and our marriage is more satisfying, we are much more connected and understanding of each other. I just let him be him and he lets me be me and we both work together for the good of the family.
—Hannah Brewin
photo by Kelly Halldorson
Monday, September 26, 2022
Attractions and fears
It seems what will cause a kid to watch a show he doesn't want to watch is parental disapproval. If he's been told it's too scary, too adult, or forbidden, his natural curiosity might cause him to want to learn WHY. My kids, with the freedom to turn things on or off, turned LOTS of things off, or colored or did Lego or played with dolls or action figures during "the boring parts" (often happening to be the adult parts—what did they care?) and only looked back up when happy music or light or dogs or kids got their attention again.
photo by Alex Polikowsky
Saturday, July 9, 2022
For now...
See it, love it, be grateful, and then accept the changes, with grace.
photo by Roya Dedeaux
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Be with your child

Jenny Cyphers wrote, of a parent getting up and going to do something with or for a child:
It feels infinitely better for my spirit when I do that too. It's easy to get caught up in one's own self thought. If I let a day go by, or hours, in that mode, at the end of the day, I find myself thinking that I should've, would've, could've, and once again, I'm in that mode. To just go and be with my kids as soon as I recognize that mindset, I avoid all the guilty afterthoughts of what I should have done better. So, I not only avoid the guilt complex, I get to relive all the fun and wonderful moments that I intentionally sought after.
It seems that unschooling, for me, is a compilation of all those moments of being with my kids instead of doing something else. It's fun to go out of your way to do cool things with your kids and seek out opportunities, but the real stuff seems to happen in those moments that could just go by within each and every day.
—Jenny Cyphers
photo by Sandra Dodd, at Alex Polikowsky's farm
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