photo by Karen James
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Moments pass
photo by Karen James
Thursday, August 3, 2023
Examine ideas yourself
If a parent has found something that works for their family without understanding why it worked and how much personality played in it, then for others it's little better than rolling dice and picking some technique at random.
On the other hand, those who are living examined lives. thinking about and discussing why something works in the context of growing relationships, that's way better than dice! And no one should swallow what's said uncritically. They should take it in, turn it over, ask questions and examine it for themselves.
Critical examination is better for reaching clear goals than pretty sentiments of "following the heart" and "mom knows best."
photo by Vlad Gurdiga
Sunday, June 18, 2023
Discovering resources
Sometimes the money question is about fears of not having enough to make home rich and joyful - can we really afford to unschool? Is it expensive? And the answer is yes and no. It takes a lot of resources, but money is just one kind of resource. Time is another—and a big one. If you don't have time to spend with your kids, then unschooling might not be a good choice. Creativity is a useful resource, especially if you're short on money and/or time - you can get by with less creativity if you have more money, though. Adaptability is one of the most vital resources for unschooling - if you don't adapt well to new circumstances, then all the time, money and creativity in the world won't help if you have a child who can't meet all your expectations.
photo by Holly Dodd
Saturday, September 17, 2022
Pretending to think could turn to...
Once a mom was being argumentative and defensive. She deleted a long discussion out of spite or frustration, but some of us rescued it. Here's a peek (some of my response), and a link.Pretending to think about suggestions for a few days before rejecting them would be more courteous, and you *might* find that pretending to think about something could turn to actually considering it.
Read a little, try a little, wait a while, watch.
photo by Sandra Dodd, of Ester Siroky's kitchen window view, years ago
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
Be a soft place
photo by Sandra Dodd
Thursday, December 16, 2021
Learning feels good.
photo by Dan Vilter (who originally preserved Pam's writing)
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
Impermanence AGAIN!?
It's true; the subscription provider has changed. Feedburner is closing at the end of June, and another company offered to import five blogs for me, so if you want to add any of the others to your feed, they are
There are TWO ways to get to the blog from e-mail now—clicking the post's title, or "read more" at the bottom. A new option is to get a push notification on your phone, so for those who didn't like the e-mail's appearance on a phone, I hope this is way better. Changes do not thrill me, and I'm getting old. But Vlad Gurdiga is still young and enthusiastic. He helped with this move as he has helped with many other things involving my collections— moving thousands of photos from photobucket (which kept on changing and losing things and charging more money) to SandraDodd.com (which he moved from yahoo to another host company). Thank you Vlad, again. |
Monday, June 7, 2021
If ideas are scary
I’m not trying to be scary. I’m trying to pick ideas up and turn them over and see if they work, how they work, how they might be tweaked to work better. |
photo by Jo Isaac
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Friday, May 24, 2019
Creating history
Remember you don't need a museum to find things your kids will be fascinated by and learn from. You probably have things right in your home that would not only connect to history, but it might be their history. And will be from then on, anyway. Things we have from thrift stores aren't from my family, but for my grandchildren they will be from their family.
Your House as a Museum (chat transcript)
and facebook shared it back to both of us this week.
photo by Sandra Dodd
Monday, April 1, 2019
Ages and stages
Yesterday I bent over and picked an inch-tall tumbleweed sprout from a crack in a sidewalk. It was a tiny bit of community service.
The wind is blowing here, and all the big tumbleweeds will pass through chain link fences, or barbed wire, and scatter themselves into thousands of seeds. It happens every year.
A tiny baby hardly resembles adult forms, or the changes that take place in old folks. Where you are now is young compared to where you'll be later. Those changed old folks are always saying you will miss having those young children, and I found it to be true. It also irritated me for someone who was sleeping in a quiet, clean home to tell the baby-sticky, frazzled younger me that these were good days I would miss.
"Truth" is irritating, when we're sprouts, sprigs, teens, new parents, but just as the winds blow, people express the wisdom they gained as they aged and discovered that they missed having children in the house, as those other older older-folks had told them that they would.
tumbleweed photo by Holly Dodd
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Wednesday, November 7, 2018
A fun, new song
The separation of learning and fun is the only thing that keeps learning from BEING fun.
Perhaps this will be seen as preaching to the choir, but I prefer to think of it as teaching a new song to an experienced, enthusiastic choir.
Living becomes learning
photo by Holly Dodd
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Beauty and softness
It's such a big part of our culture to get it done now, fix it all now, make it happen now, do, do, do, do. Sometimes what life really requires is calm and patience. A very valuable thing to learn in life is to how to take care of ourselves and others during times of stress and times that aren't ideal and wonderful.
I think that's part of "stopping and smelling the roses." If you don't take that time, you miss some pretty wonderful bits of life. When there is stress and other negative influences happening around us, it's even MORE important to take that time to seek out the beauty and the softness and the sweet and light and happy things.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Friday, August 25, 2017
More "more," less in between
photo by Colleen Prieto
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Thursday, February 9, 2017
Teaching gets in the way
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Saturday, August 27, 2016
Inside, outside
It reminded me of every good thing about learning and parenting.
photo by Sandra Dodd
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Softer words
If you can find softer words, you will experience softer emotions.
photo by Sandra Dodd, of a flowering plant
growing out of a rain spout
on a castle
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Wednesday, August 5, 2015
What if, what if, what if
When you don't know what to do, try not to do anything. Wait a bit. Think. Breathe. Smile. |
photo by Sandra Dodd
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Be careful
Be careful. Be sweet. |
SandraDodd.com/listen
photo by Sandra Dodd
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Changes happen.
Changes happen in us and around us. Our children grow. We grow. Old things fall away. New things appear. |
photo by Sandra Dodd
Friday, January 4, 2013
Cocoon
Sometimes I get still. That's good, because sometimes I don't, and can't. If I were that zippy all the time, my body, mind and soul would probably wear out. ...
When I was younger and I would change, I thought something was wrong with me. I was under the mistaken impression that personality and mood should be constants. Life is better when I think of those fluctuations as tides, or as the weather of the soul.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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