Showing posts with label park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label park. Show all posts

Sunday, March 21, 2021

Patience, please

Be patient with your kids and with yourself, please!!
part of a longer facebook comment, about the effects of the pandemic on people in general, and unschoolers more particularly
photo by Daniel Moyer

Thursday, November 21, 2019

The cool thing is...

The cool thing about partners is, if they win you win.


Partnerships and Teams in the Family
photo by Tessa Onderwater
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Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Aiming the spotlight



Joyce Fetteroll wrote:

I once described the difference between teaching and learning as where you shine the spotlight. In teaching, the spotlight is on the teacher. There may or may not be a learner taking in what the teacher is doing.

With learning, the spotlight is on the learner. The source is unimportant. There might be a teacher. There might be a set of blocks. There might just be the learner's thoughts.

If that's called "teaching" then it pulls the spotlight away from the learner. The light shines on the source as if it were the actor in the process.

I think parents like to feel like a child's learning is their project. If the teacher isn't in the spotlight, then something they aren't in control of or directing is happening.

—Joyce Fetteroll


The photo is re-run from Clearer and larger
photo by Julie D.
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Saturday, July 20, 2019

Calmer and better


Very often, becoming a calmer and better parent can help a person be a calmer, better person. Unschooling itself can be extremely healing and therapeutic at times.



Calm

Thoughts about doing better
photo by Amy Milstein

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Thames and shadow


It was a sunny day, in England, to get a shadow like that.

Shadows prove sunshine.

SandraDodd.com/light
2011 photo by Sandra Dodd, from the Royal Windsor Wheel
which is hardly ever there

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Be more


I closed a talk recently with this:
Be brave, be calm, be happy.

Be braver, be calmer, be happier.
The first line was written on my paper. The second one, I added just then.

SandraDodd.com/being
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Sunday, February 14, 2016

Flexibility and change

"Be prepared to be flexible and willing to change as your child gets older."
—Emily Strength
SandraDodd.com/sleeping
photo by Janine

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Happier. Sparklier.

An ever-improving understanding of unschooling will, incrementally and gradually, create a life in which the parent is HAPPY to have done better, been more interested and interesting. Where "more" is the goal. Happier. Sparklier.

Fiene driving the car in autopia in Disneyland

SandraDodd.com/gratitude
photo by Eva Witsel
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Friday, February 5, 2016

Yourself and the world

People don't become really good at unschooling without changing the way they see themselves and the world.

To hear it: SandraDodd.com/radio
To read it: Living Unschooling
If you have the book Natural Born Learners, turn to page 199 for a longer version.
photo: Erika Ellis

Friday, July 31, 2015

Own your own

If parents retain ownership of their children's learning, the children cannot learn on their own.stone steps, up to an arch, at a state park in Texas
SandraDodd.com/parentalauthority
photo by Sandra Dodd

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Why unschool?

Amy: Here is Sandra Dodd with a simple definition of unschooling.

Sandra Dodd: Creating an environment where natural learning can flourish.

Amy: What’s natural learning?

Sandra Dodd: Learning from experience, learning from asking questions, following interests, being.

SandraDodd.com/whyunschool
photo by Rippy Dusseldorp

Friday, July 10, 2015

Bases and basics

"Base" means foundational—the heavy, bottom part of a structure. The basis of an idea is its underlying solidity. These ideas are literally basic.


Base your life in basic things. "Cover your bases." Don't let fantasy or "what if" pull you off base.

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/wonder
photo by Sandra Dodd, of unimportant things, in Tiguex Park
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Thursday, July 9, 2015

Clearer and better

Karen James wrote:

Be precise in the words you use to describe those you love, aim to support and care for. Be as generous as you can too. The clearer you see your child, the better you can respond to their needs. The better you learn to listen to them, see them, and be of useful service to them, the more they will have confidence in your ability to have their best interest in mind.
—Karen James

Karen James
photo by Sandra Dodd

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Critical thinking

"Just because there's more than one truth
doesn't mean there's no such thing as bullshit."
—Sandra Dodd



You can quote it but don't steal it.
In the dozen years since I first wrote it,
nothing has occurred to change my mind.


Balance and
How Parents can Learn
photo of Holly and Sandra and some fictional characters, by Kelli Traaseth

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Flowing play

One of my guiding principles is that I want my children's worlds to be sparkly.

There goes the dull and the darkness. Easily not chosen, not an option.


SandraDodd.com/unschool/sparkly
photo by Julie D, in Leiden, at a playground
also seen here: Clearer and larger

Friday, October 26, 2012

The family in the world


Unschooling is creating and maintaining an environment in which natural learning can thrive.

The environment isn't just the physical home. It's the relationships within the family, and their exploration of the world outside the home. The emotional environment is crucial.

Sandra Dodd, on Unschooling, at the Do Life Right Teleconference 2012
Their site is gone, but here is a video and transcript of my presentation
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Monday, June 11, 2012

Play with words


Playing with words makes them come to life.

The history of England, of math, of writing, of counting.... Any portal into the universe is as real as any other. If an interest in language or butterflies or patterns or water creates connections for that person to anything else in the world, that can lead to EVERYTHING else in the world.


A parent cannot decipher the whole world for her child, but she can help him begin to decipher it.

SandraDodd.com/etymology
photo by Sandra Dodd, in a park in Bangalore
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