Facts are all around us, all the time. The difference between school and unschooling is that the facts are not always stated as facts, they are simply a part of life. The facts are not simply "known", they are felt and lived in. I think most unschoolers know as many, or more, facts as schooled kids, they just don't know them AS facts. They know them as part of life.—Lyle Perry
unschooling.info archive, bottom
photo by Rosie Moon
Friday, July 5, 2024
Part of life? Fact.
Saturday, March 30, 2024
Replacing a canvas
Ok, I think I'll share my newly-thought-of philosophy of housework here. It started when my sister was over and chasing the kids around. I was straightening up the livingroom and had just finished piling up blocks (big cardboard ones; we have, in all, ten or eleven different kinds of wood, plastic and cardboard blocks. I feel so wealthy. 🙂) when my son (2) ran into the room, saw the blocks and immediately tore down the pile. I smiled and shook my head. My sister, who'd arrived in time to see this, sternly said, "Harry! Your mother just finished putting those away!" When she said that I felt offended. Didn't she know I only pile those blocks so that Harry can knock them down? And there was the Aha! I looked around the room at the clean living room and realized that was why I did any cleaning.
We don't clean up messes to have a clean house. We clean up messes so there is room for more mess!
Now I think of cleaning up after my kids as replacing a canvas. I do it with the thought that by giving them room again and a bare floor and organized toys to pick from, I'm handing them the tools to write another mess onto our house. It's meant that at the end of a day, or sometimes a few days in a row, I just let the mess stay, because really, it's a work of art or a story. Maybe it isn't finished. Maybe it's too interesting to be gotten rid of so soon. It also clears up my feelings of resentment about doing the bulk of it. I like being the one to reset the house so that we all can live another, different mess the next day.
Anyway, thought I'd share since it's really helped me bring more joy into the housework!
photo by Sarah S.
Sunday, November 12, 2023
Passing a passion on
photo by Roya Dedeaux
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Children see it
Again and again my kids can catch me when I am falling, and help me see the wonder of the small things.I feel so blessed to have this time with them.
photo by Nicole Ní Néill.
Sunday, April 2, 2023
What you have
photo by Cátia Maciel
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Quirky learning
photo by Phoebe Wyllyamz
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Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Snowbanks and socks
I was thinking the other day about husbands and chores and how many people I've heard say that it shouldn't be their job to pick up after their husband. I never thought of picking up my husband's things as being my cleaning up after him - I've only thought of it as cleaning our house. Does it matter whose laundry or dishes they are? Does he shovel only his own side of the driveway and leave me to climb snowbanks to get to my side of the car? Dividing things yours-and-mine, even socks, in one's internal thoughts doesn't seem to add much happiness.
but another good link would be
Why 50/50 is a problem
photo by SandraDodd
of Ester Siroky's kitchen, one day
Monday, March 20, 2023
One special place
What are walls and fences made of where you are? Some other places, it is very different. How does the air feel and smell when it's cold? What's the first plant that might volunteer to grow in a bare spot? What little animals might you see, and what birds do you hear? What do people throw away that a tourist might pick up and keep? What food is readily available, that everyone knows how to make, and has the ingredients for on hand nearly always?
When you look as far to the east as you can see, what is the view? Turn around and look the other way, too.
Where you are is exotic to most of the rest of the world. Most other people will never see it. Knowing that your plainness is someone else's curiosity can make your life richer.
Sometimes, when you look, listen, taste, feel, smell, close your eyes and rest, remember that you are in one special place.
or Your House as a Museum
photo by Oshan in Sri Lanka
(click for a slightly wider view)
Sunday, February 12, 2023
Gradually, but hurry
Stalling and hesitation take time away from your future unschooling peace and success!
photo by Diane Marcengill
Thursday, January 19, 2023
Simple needs
Joyce Fetteroll, in helping others untangle ideas and prejudices about what children think they "need":If someone needs three glasses of water a day and only gets two, they'll spend the rest of the day trying to get that third glass. So it will seem to others like this person's constantly thirsty and can never get enough. But if he gets three glasses and can have as many as he wants, he won't seem thirsty at all.
photo by Karen James
Sunday, July 31, 2022
More and more moments
If something is good for a moment, it doesn't take a bunch of planning, and it doesn't need to be reported or documented. It can just be a good moment.
And when people get more and more practice doing what it takes to create or accept or recognize those moments, they can have more and more of them.
photo by Sandra Dodd,
candid moment of Much Green
Saturday, June 18, 2022
Being nicer
The further I got from cynicism and pessimism, the more they jumped out at me when I heard them.
It's easy to be mean.
It's harder to be nice.
photo by Keith Dodd
Thursday, February 24, 2022
Oh, wait!
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Tuesday, December 14, 2021
Thoughts about stability
The birds we feed in front don't stay all year. Because there are lizards, a roadrunner visits sometimes.
There are worms in the compost bins. Some are descendants of worms I bought, from Florida, by mail, but other bigger ones voluntarily come up from the New-Mexico ground into the compost each summer.
For many years, there were three kids growing up here. Many of their friends visited, and ate, and slept. Now they're all off in other houses.
Is there no stability in the world?
I try to be a stable, solid factor, but I'm changing, too. Keith, that father of my children, that friend of so many years, is still here. I will be kind to him while he is, while I can.
photo by Sandra Dodd
Tuesday, December 7, 2021
Three or four of them
photo by Rippy Dusseldorp (or maybe a Graham-Dusseldorp selfie)
Saturday, October 23, 2021
Live as a learner
photo by Karen James, of her work in progress
Monday, March 8, 2021
As-much-of-yourself-as-you-can
If parents wonder whether they should be more generous with their children, I would say yes. The more the better. Not in a give-them-everything-they-want kind of way. More in a give-them-as-much-of-yourself-as-you-can kind of way. Be open. Be generous. Be understanding. Be trusting and trustworthy. Be present. Be loving. Be compassionate. Be patient. Be helpful. Be kind.
You will be amazed at what you see.
photo by Kinsey Norris
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Monday, December 28, 2020
Forgotten roofs of the world
I'm sure there are things on my roof that would be interesting to someone else, but I don't go up there, and I don't look. When I've visted other places, though rooflines seem exotic, and the chimneys and birds and all are not what I'm used to and I get excited. |
perhaps,
look up.
It can help in more ways than one.
photo by Sandra Dodd, in Chichester, in England
Friday, November 20, 2020
More or less
(When your choice is "more or less," go with more.)
SandraDodd.com/partners/child
photo by Sarah Elizabeth
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Friday, October 23, 2020
RV, or home, or cabin...
Try to look at and accept them for being exactly who they are right now, not how you think they should be.
There is a whole world outside the RV AND a whole world inside their iPad. Whatever they choose, be there with them! It’s hard to truly be with another person when you’re wishing they were something else.
"RV" stands for "recreational vehicle." They can be used for travel and for sleeping and living. In other places they might be called motorhomes, campervans or caravans. While I was looking, I found some new designs from India, and The Netherlands.
photo by Sarah S.
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