Just Add Light and Stir

If beginners don't go through a phase in which they REALLY focus on seeing learning outside of academic formalities, they wil...

The words of Pam Sorooshian: People should shush the tapes in their heads and think for themselves. Be brave. The VERY firs...

Karen James wrote: I've climbed big hills (physically and metaphorically) like this for a couple of decades now. I don't ...

I think Holly takes the world for granted. And why not? The world is hers. The world wasn't mine when I was little. It belon...

If every day you help a child gently, generously, directly, personally, that's hundreds of times a year. By the time that child ...

One wonderful thing in unschooling is realizing you don't know whether it's a school day or not. It is evidence of deschoo...

I do love clocks and calendars and the history of time measurement, but it is good to remember that we are not clocks, and our children are ...

"Unschooling seems to be able to move through the teen years that are so difficult for most parents with fewer difficult moments....

The connection between humor and learning is well known. Unexpected juxtaposition is the basis of a lot of humor, and even more lea...

Every ghost town used to be alive. Every "haunted house" was once new. An abandoned car started with good tires, a runni...

For fun, today, maybe think about the nature of cats. There are pet cats, acting-and-modelling cats, folklore and humor about cats, fa...

Pam Sorooshian, in 2012 (pared down from the original): Unschooling is a profoundly optimistic decision, and it involves a huge commitment...

Part of becoming a good unschooling parent does involve self-reflection, a review of one's own childhood (gradually, in the ba...

Some people confuse respect and courtesy. Some people confuse nicey-niceness with respect. But real respect changes action and affects...

People need to start and go, but they don't have to race at breakneck speed or never look back. "Going" sometimes just ...

See learning as your priority, and you will begin to see it more and more. SandraDodd.com/cairns photo by Sandra Dodd ___

Be open to input from all directions. Be willing to go in different directions, over the years—with your feet, and with your thoughts....

Rather than look at labels that try to pigeonhole people into being this sort of parent or that sort of parent, be the parent that is...

Suspicion and cynicism prevent wonder. Unschooling requires wonder. SandraDodd.com/wonder photo by Chrissy Florence ___

Karen James wrote: Cultivating an attitude of gratitude for the many gifts in my life has taken me from a place of hopelessness in my...