Just Add Light and Stir

Things change. Even in the best of peaceful circumstances, things change. Keep your balance, find gratitude and abundance, and accept ...

Many of the things we routinely recommend to help unschooling families are also helpful to anyone's mental health and wellbeing. G...

Cynicism feels like intelligence. Pessimism can feel like energy conservation. Eeyore never jumps up and runs. Eeyore never bothers t...

More people talk about peace than think about it. Many people are full of peaceful platitudes, and fury that others aren't...

Common sense among unschoolers is (and should be, needs to be) more particular and rarified than everyday "common sense." ...

Alex Polikowsky wrote: Surround yourself with optimistic happy people. Do not engage in conversation when people are complainin...

"Yesterday" in 2004: I still see "subject areas" everywhere, but I haven't taught those categories and prej...

Light can come from you, today, in small ways. If you are gentle and patient when you help a child, that creates peace and comfort. If yo...

Focus on fun and togetherness, and see the learning start to show itself. SandraDodd.com/simple photo by Sandra Dodd

A reader named Eleanor wrote: I was very grateful to discover your writings on ‘struggle’ and the compilation on your website relating to ‘s...

Trying a little and waiting and watching will give you a chance to see the effects of these ideas. Don't just read until you'r...

Jo Isaac wrote: [Benton] explores the evolutionary basis behind children's food choices—for example, babies and toddlers have ...

See how that cut-out affected the table, and the light? It's in Wales, but we can see it wherever we are today. See how that lit...

When a rules-based environment causes rule-breaking, and failure, or balking and resistance, those things are not safe—not physically nor...

Allow children to reject food they don’t like, or that doesn’t smell like something they should eat, or doesn’t look good to them. Don’t ext...

The really good thing about happiness is that it’s portable. It’s cheap. It doesn’t need a safety deposit box or an inheritance. Yo...

Pam Sorooshian wrote, of soothing a frustrated child: YOU have to figure this out—you are like a detective in a way, or a psychiatrist...

Some people homeschool because they think schools teach too much and aren't controlling the kids well enough. Some people hom...

Unschooling parents who have spent years giving their children freedom and options have learned that limitations create need while freedom...

Make the better choice. SandraDodd.com/betterchoice photo by Lisa Jonick, of her chickens avoiding snow __