Showing posts with label curiosity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label curiosity. Show all posts

Friday, December 1, 2023

Easier to get to yes

The other day Emma, 6, asked me a series of questions to which all of the answers were yes. She stopped and stared at my head for a bit and said "Yeah, ya sure got a lot of yesses in there."

I loved that.

I used to have a lot of "I can't" in there. Saying yes more often has helped me be more clear about the difference between can't, won't, and don't want to. When that all becomes clear, yesses are easier to get to.
—Amy Kidwell

SandraDodd.com/yes
photo by Molly Mulvaney

Monday, October 16, 2023

Days full of learning

We seek out interesting “scenic routes” in real and figurative ways.

Our days are full and our learning is unmeasured and immeasurable.


SandraDodd.com/sustainable
photo by CassKotrba

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Facilitation

Unschooling works best when parents let go of ownership of what kids know.

What a child notices on her own, or discovers, or figures out, will connect to other things in her that the parent wouldn't have predicted, or known about. That's good!

Connections are personal, and each web of knowledge is of and within that person.

To make it easier for a child to learn—to facilitate her learning—the parent can provide opportunities, materials, tools, and time. Answer questions. Maybe make suggestions, or play with the child, but don't take over, if you can manage to hang back.

You can learn about learning by watching your child learn.

What unschooling is about
photo by Roya Dedeaux

Monday, May 29, 2023

Rich lives, in the world

Unschoolers need to be actively involved in things that bring their children into the world, and the world into their children.

The best unschoolers are doing more with and for their children than school-at-home families are. Unschooling parents need to understand MORE about how learning works and keep their family lives rich.

SandraDodd.com/unschool/definition
photo by Cátia Maciel

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Big things happen

Something BIG happens when a person turns away from selfishness to service.

Something HUGE happens when a person can care about another person more than about himself.

SandraDodd.com/divorce
photo by Nicole Kenyon

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Keep looking

If you're traveling or if you're in a familiar place, the things you see are viewed through your own windows, or doors. You see through your own eyes, and experience. *You* see.

The world you see where you are today will not be what you could see ten years ago, or twenty.

What your child sees and what you see will probably be different, and continue to change.

Keep looking.

SandraDodd.com/awareness
photo by Ester Siroky

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Learning informally and naturally

the backs of two children in an English forest, with walking sticks
If budding unschoolers will look at how they learned things outside the classroom, and use that as a model and a goal, that helps. They don't really have to hunt down other unschooling families, although it doesn't hurt. A family isolated from other unschoolers might do well to brainstorm examples of things they've learned informally and naturally, and to look around for other people learning things in the same manner.

An Interview with Sandra Dodd by Emily Subler, 1998
photo by Rosie Moon

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Stunning desire to learn

"A lovely 'extra' has been realising that academics absolutely come naturally, in different ways for different kids. It's really stunned me, how much they *want* to learn. And it's something I wouldn't have believed without walking the unschooling path."
—Hannah Megan Canavan

more here SandraDodd.com/surprise (and sweet)
photo by Roya Dedeaux

Monday, November 7, 2022

Happier and wiser

If you start looking at choices instead of "have to's" you will be happier IMMEDIATELY. And wiser.

SandraDodd.com/haveto
photo by Roya Dedeaux

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


SandraDodd.com/positivity
photo by Kelly Halldorson

Monday, October 3, 2022

Chairs, mountains, puff-toys

Accept and admire beauty if you can, instead of dismissing things as "just..."
      Just a stump.
             Just a dandelion.

Can you see the beauty in the stump? It might be a safe place to stand after a rain. To a child you love, it might be a chair or a mountain.

Dandelions are flowers that make puff-toys for children to blow on. They grow without our help. They might be the only colorful flower you'll see, some days. If a child loves them, can you follow?

SandraDodd.com/just
photo by Sandra Dodd

Friday, May 27, 2022

Learning while laughing

People learn by playing, thinking and amazing themselves. They learn while they're laughing at something surprising, and they learn while they're wondering "What the heck is this!?"

Amusing confusion
photo by Cátia Maciel

Monday, April 18, 2022

Parental passion

When someone wrote "With younger kids, there is no opportunity to pursue my own passions," Pam Sorooshian responded:

Make becoming a fantastic mom your passion. Make learning all about those kids of yours, your passion. Make having a peaceful and joyful home your passion.

Then you can pursue that while still being fully present with your kids.
—Pam Sorooshian


some commentary on Facebook
or you could read about "Me Time"
photo by Kinsey Norris

Saturday, March 26, 2022

Acceptance and sharing

The more accepting you are when they share with you, the more they will share.

From a 2013 discussion of Focus, Hobbies, Obsessions
photo by Gail Higgins

Thursday, March 24, 2022

Invisible and personal

We cannot see what our children are learning, and to some extent it's none of our business.

Hobbies and interests lead to learning
photo by Roya Dedeaux

Thursday, December 2, 2021

Becoming confident

Tara Joe Farrell, on topics to inspire confidence in unschooling:

I think everything for me comes back to:

  • Deschool
  • Peaceful Nest
  • Principles
  • Sparkle
I think I'd be challenged to find an unschooling question that can't be traced back to one of those four.
—Tara Joe Farrell
August 2020
SandraDodd.com/confidence
photo by Sarah S.
__

Friday, November 12, 2021

Secret worlds

Parents new to unschooling often fear the responsibility of needing to discover things to show their children.

More experienced unschoolers discover the sweet joy of children finding wonderful things to show the parents.

Behind that bark is a little hidden world.

SandraDodd.com/discovery
photo by Rosie Moon

Thursday, October 14, 2021

Hope and joy

There are no guarantees, but we can always do a little better.

Live in hope and joy, not in fear and avoidance.

SandraDodd.com/guarantees
photo by Elaine Santana

Tuesday, September 14, 2021

To be nourished...

Rippy Dusseldorp described her intentions:

To be nourished from beautiful and interesting ideas, people, places and things.
       To learn from everywhere.
              To take time to reflect.
                     To be daring.
                             To have adventures.
—Rippy Dusseldorp
Benefits beyond just "be a better parent"
photo by Elise Lauterbach

Thursday, May 6, 2021

Be prepared for more or less

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.


from "Beginning to Unschool," page 36 or 39 of The Big Book of Unschooling
photo by Roya Dedeaux