Just Add Light and Stir

Find the light moments, and the laughter, with your child. Be as soothing as you can be, because soothing them will also soothe you. Be ...

Marta Venturini, in an interview in 2020: I see deschooling much more than just that process of replacing school with no school. Beca...

I wish I could tell everyone that if there's some part of Sandra's site they think they "don't need" to read, RE...

When a young adult has been making real decisions for years, and what their parents want is to help them think clearly and to make caref...

No volume of parental talk will help as much as it will help for the parent to be closer, sooner, sweeter. Practice being quiet photo by...

Lighten up. Live Lightly. Real Learning photo by Sandra Dodd See also: Light on light; Sources of light; and Sun, or Moon, or Fire

Children sometimes see things "wrong," or from the perspective of someone small and looking up, or just new to the world. Rather ...

Which is better—a bridge, or a photo of a bridge? It depends. Lots of little bridges to "It depends....

Quote & reply quote: Trust is a more useful word. Over time, kids develop a sense of whether or not parents are trustwor...

We do not "school," but, instead, we concentrate on living a life filled with opportunities and possibilities and experiences. H...

Look for light, literally and figuratively. Early, in the kitchen, a basket of light: One side is white with dark holes. The other si...

Once school is behind and life is in front, learning becomes self-perpetuating. SandraDodd.com/connections photo by Elise Lauterbach

It seems that once unschooling is going that it covers everything, and there are no wasted moments, or wasted thoughts. but you d...

What about structure? People ask how, if a child is not pressed to live a structured school life, will he cope with "the re...

When people are very cynical, they seem to imagine that if all the things they think are stupid are eliminated, what's left will be no...

Pam Sorooshian wrote: Unschoolers focus on living a rich and stimulating life together. Seriously, that's it. We do not "school,...

If a child is peacefully asleep and doesn't have to be somewhere at a certain time, let him sleep! If he stayed up late playing vide...

Sometimes there's secondary beauty, in shadows and reflections. SandraDodd.com/joy (not a quote, but similar enough) ...

Unschoolers don't "just live." They live large. They live expansively, and richly and joyfully. Those are the things that m...

words patterns balance art light shadow peaceful heart orange peel message by Addi Davidson photo by Jill Parmer, her mom ...