photo by Cathy Koetsier
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
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.
photo by Cátia Maciel
Saturday, December 28, 2024
Being available during "school hours"
Responses to concerns posted by nervous parents:
Not having a high school diploma didn't keep my always unschooled daughter out of college, AND she got her first paid job BECAUSE she was unschooled - her dance studio needed someone to cover the afternoon classes of a teacher going on maternity leave, none of the regular teachers were available for that time and the older assistants were in school. She's been employed by them ever since.
It's an interesting twist. 🙂
Deborah in Illinois
Marty has worked "during school hours" since he turned fifteen, and was offered a fulltime job just before turning 17. None of this keeps him from learning, from doing lots of things with other people, nor will it keep him from the option of college. He's working 6:30a.m. to 3:00 M-F. Kinda like school hours, for the first time in his life. 🙂
Sandra in New Mexico
Both those former teens are grown now. Marty's oldest child turns seven today.
photo by Sandra Dodd
Friday, August 2, 2024
Generosity and appreciation
Schuyler Waynforth once drove me where she was pretty sure we would see kangaroos. There were many; I was in awe.
I have driven visitors to see prairie dogs, and to find tumbleweeds.
What is commonplace for one person might be a memorable moment of beauty for others.
photo by Sandra Dodd
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Pets
photo by Sandra Dodd, of a stile in England
for humans and dogs
(Officially, humans over and dogs through, though I'm sure young children love going through. This was not farmland.)
Saturday, June 8, 2024
If mathematics is easy for a person...
I wrote this before Marty got a degree in economics. They were 18 or older before taking any classes, and only needed to pay for the books.
My kids all caught up with formal math in a semester or two of community college. Marty did up to calculus. Kirby only took one class but makes use of math all the time in his work and play, and is good with money and loans and banking and all that practical life stuff.
Holly took three classes, I think. Maybe two. Liked it; it wasn't difficult. There were people in class with her bemoaning the difficulty, and they had been in school for twelve years or more, taking math classes.
That was written in 2014. Their paid employment and their hobbies, since then, have involved some or all of logistics, statistics, financial accounting, coding/programming, inventory and cash handling. What they learned in class was the notation used to communicate mathematical ideas "on paper" in our culture.
Some of their facility might have been inherited genetically from their mathish dad. That's fair, too.
photo by Shawn Smythe Haunschild
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Doing (not not-doing)
photo by Karen James
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Describing unschooling
If parents of school children ask, I usually say our homeschooling is pretty eclectic. I may give certain examples such as visiting interesting places, doing experiments, playing 'learning' games, reading stories, having conversations of events that happened in the past, talking about famous people, making things, hanging out with friends, etc. Sometimes I share with them a detailed description of an interesting day that we've had, especially if it has impressive signs of learning that they will recognize.
photo by Kelvin Dodd
Monday, April 1, 2024
Penguins and Saturn
I love the internet! For a family like ours, who couldn’t afford to travel much, the internet is wondrous. It lets us see, hear, and learn about anything we want. We can watch a volcano erupting in Costa Rica, penguins doing penguin things in Antarctica, and see Earth from Saturn’s orbit all without leaving town, or navigating the asteroid belt. I’m a fan!
SandraDodd.com/hsc/interviews/deblewis
photo by Theresa Larson
of a sunrise in southern New Mexico
Wednesday, November 1, 2023
Different in the dark
photo by Sandra Dodd
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Natural forces
When unschooling is working well, questions, conversations, jokes or songs bring powerful thoughts and profound changes.
With the right set-up everyday life can create power.
photo by Shawn Smythe Haunschild
Saturday, August 5, 2023
"Chair-o-planes"

Help children live playful lives by being a playful adult. Play with words, and ideas; play with shape, form, and color. Let children see you smile.
SandraDodd.com/playing
photo by Sandra Dodd
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Toys and tools
Tractors can be that, or combines, or just the truck to pull other tools, plows, trailers.
If a child, or an adult, can get excited about a piece of equipment, try to take time to watch those machines in action, if you get a chance. Not too close; from a safe distance, or from inside your car, if you can. When you're out, find people digging, building, repairing—replacing signs with a crane, or going up in a cherry-picker to change streetlight bulbs—do it for your kids or for yourself.
photo by Holly Dodd
Thursday, July 6, 2023
Options over rules
So here I have kids who can sleep as long as they want, who set their alarms and get up; who have all kinds of clothes and no rules, who dress well and appropriately to the situation; who don't have to come home but they DO come home.
Something important is happening.
photo by Karen James
Saturday, July 1, 2023
Stepping away from rules
To a question about how to move from rules to principles and choices:
Gradually, without fanfare, be more positive and more supportive of her desires and requests.
Here is an antidote to your no-speed-limits fear. It's called "The Beautiful Park" by Robyn Coburn. It's about people getting off bicycles to walk. I think it could replace your fearful background with something gentle and peaceful.
Read about why, and what others have seen.
Try it a little.
Don't expect her not to think you're crazy at first; wait a while.
Watch her reaction. Feel your own thoughts. Lay your fears out to dry in the air and sunshine.
photo by Cally Brown
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Using tools
Marty says he thinks maybe elephants will pick up a stick to knock something down that's higher than their trunks. If they haven't, they should.
So what, these days, are "tools"? My computer? Google? Wikipedia? Blogger.com? My new glasses? That electric teakettle I'm about to go and heat water with?
We talk about parenting tools, and people adding to their toolboxes, and those are all in the realm of thought (and action proceeding from thought, but without physical tools).
Little Tools for an Epic Life
photo by Amy Milstein
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
Passing real tests

Sandra Dodd, of Holly Dodd (Holly was 12 and told an older story, in 2003):
My husband's oldest brother came to visit and she and Marty discussed how to deal with his quizzy questions, usually math. She told me a story from when she was littler, maybe eight. Uncle Gerry had been here, and Holly was brushing her teeth. He stood watching her, and started in about how important it is to brush teeth and floss, because (as Holly reported, he said in a teacherly voice) "Do you know how many sets of teeth you have in this lifetime?"Update in 2021, Holly 29 years old, and Gerry having recently been in town when Holly was here, too. Holly was very helpful to her uncle, driving him to an auto parts store and helping him figure out what his plan might be to get back to Alamogordo, if his car couldn't be fixed easily. She's nearly 30 now, and he's in his mid-70s. After she left, he went on for a while about how helpful and good-hearted and wonderful she is. I appreciated hearing it, and passed it on to her later.Holly said, "Two?" (in a kind of "is this a trick question" tone) and she said he was already holding up his index finger as the "one" of the coming "right answer," and he added another finger and sheepishly said, "That's right. Two."
So Holly won a big point and never even told us about it at the time. Cool story. I don't think he quizzed them this time. It's getting to the point that they're likely to know something he doesn't know and he likes to maintain his semblance of superiority. LOL!
original (2/3 down that topic)
photo by Irene Adams (Holly's aunt; my sister)
Holly was seven in this photo, with more of her first set of teeth, casually preparing for Uncle Gerry's quiz-to-come the next year.
Monday, February 27, 2023
Relative sizes
If you feel that you're turning your back on your entire culture, take a deep breath and note that when you turn your back on school, all that's behind you is a school. What's not school is infinite. What is school is small.
photo by Roya Dedeaux
quote is from page 16, Big Book of Unschooling
Sunday, February 26, 2023
Light shows
There are other lights that can catch your eye, though. Candles, lamps and lanterns, maybe. Your home might have electric fixtures you especially like.
Sometimes we think of the light in someone's eyes, or their lightness of being. Some people live lightly, with springy steps and easy smiles.
When you have light inside you, others can see it.
photo by Cathy Koetsier
Friday, February 17, 2023
Rich, full lives
It's helpful to keep in mind that one of the big things grandparents want is a sense of connection with their grandchildren. When kids aren't in school, that can feel awkward - what the heck do you say to a child other than "what are you doing in school?" Especially if you only see him twice a year? It can leave extended family members stymied. So it helps a whoooole lot to feed them useful information and conversation starters in the form of something grandparents usually like anyway - pictures and stories of their grandkids. Keeping a blog or sending regular notes (via facebook or plain old snail mail) goes a long way in that regard. And! they get to see their beloved grandchildren happy and adventurous, which can help to reassure them on that score.
Unschooling can come across as some kind of weird cult if you try to explain it from a theoretical side first. Start with happy kids living rich, full lives and school starts to seem less of an issue.
photo by Cátia Maciel