photo by Karen James
Showing posts with label water. Show all posts
Showing posts with label water. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Moments pass
photo by Karen James
Saturday, January 27, 2024
Connections coming and going
Football has been a big connector lately. Hayden loves claw machines and on our trip won (bought) a KC Chiefs window hangie thingamabobber. He thought we should send it to the "unschoolers who sing the Kansas City Song" (Ken & Amy Briggs). When we were at Burger King the other day, the kids' prizes were NFL related. He first found KC Chiefs and reiterated his connection to the team, which led to a talk of the Briggs' actually living in NY -- "NY has TWO teams!!" As he browsed the other teams, he happened upon Cleveland Browns -- "Oh! Now I get the joke on Family Guy!! Cleveland's last name is Brown, I thought it was because of his skin color, well it is! Both!" I didn't realize how many football jokes have been on that series, but Hayden knew of a few others and it is just now that they're connecting and beginning to make sense.
I never knew how multi-layered most movies and television shows are, until I lived the freedom of no censorship with my kids. I'm excited to watch Shrek again with Hayden... we've not seen it in over a year and I know his sense of humor has drastically changed, he's more aware of innuendo, it will most likely be a whole new movie for him. I will miss his *younger* perspective as much as I look forward to this *older* one.
—Diana Jenner
also consider SandraDodd.com/again, about watching things again
Hayden playing in a fountain,
photo by Gail Higgins, I think,
or maybe by Diana Jenner
Thursday, January 18, 2024
Listening, observing, exploring, helping...
I'm grateful for this forum that is helping me learn that it (unschooling, parenting, relationships, life) is not about perfection, right vs. wrong, a formulaic way of doing something, or a specific outcome—but rather, it's about listening, observing, exploring, helping, growing, awareness, choices—getting better at those things—little by little.
—Rebecca Creighton
photo by Jesper Conrad
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
More peaceful, with practice
—Diana Jenner
2008
2008
photo by Jihong Tang
Thursday, November 23, 2023
Soothing soothes.
Be sweet; be well.
photo by Amy Milstein
Thursday, November 16, 2023
Other possibilities
—Alex Arnott
(a.k.a. Alex Wildrising)
(a.k.a. Alex Wildrising)
photo by Brie Jontry
Friday, October 27, 2023
Releasing expectations
Expectations can get in the way of seeing what is really happening.
—Robyn Coburn
photo by Irene Adams
Sunday, October 15, 2023
Happy and safe
Some of the same relatives and friends who were greatly in favor of my partnership with Keith seemed critical of our kindness to our children. There is a wide stripe of anti-child tradition in the world. I didn't treat my child as a real person. I acknowledged from the beginning that he WAS a real person. I recognized and nurtured his wholeness and tried not to screw him up. I became his partner, rather than acting like his partner or "treating him" as a partner. It's not just semantics, though it is semantics. It's about the power of words to show, affect and clarify thought and belief.
An idea, expressed in words, changed my life. "Be your child's partner, not his adversary."
photo by Julie D
Thursday, October 5, 2023
More and better
- More.
- Better than school
- Making memories
SandraDodd.com/hsc/unschoolingwell
photo by Rosie Moon
Wednesday, October 4, 2023
Take a step thoughtfully
I was speaking, not writing. You can listen (at 15:27), or read the transcript.
photo by Brie Jontry
Something looks like this:
birds,
forest,
reflection,
water
Sunday, October 1, 2023
Be gentle
—Sandra Dodd
Marta saved that quote and shared it in 2011. I don't know where it came from.
photo by Gail Higgins
Saturday, September 30, 2023
In a drop of water
Can one intense interest come to represent or lead to all others? A mom once complained that her son was interested in nothing but World War II. There are college professors and historians who are interested in nothing but World War II. It can become a life’s work. But even a passing interest can touch just about everything—geography, politics, the history and current events of Europe and parts of the Pacific, social history of the 20th century in the United States, military technology, tactics, recruitment and propaganda, poster art/production/distribution, advances in communications, transport of troops and food and supplies, espionage, prejudices, interment camps, segregation, patriotism, music, uniforms, insignia, religion....
photo by Roya Dedeaux
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Unscheduled togetherness
This is my 15 year old son with his dog.
I was looking at this picture and thinking about how one of the most beautiful parts (and unexpected effects) of unschooling is the time it allows to live life. You can’t schedule moments like these. This is true for questions asked, discussions had, problems solved together, laughing together and being sad together. Life happens and to be able to enjoy it in the moment is magical.
—Sabine Mellinger
photo by Sabine Mellinger
Something looks like this:
dog,
mountains,
reflection,
water
Sunday, September 24, 2023
The value of input
I value input, information and learning. I've seen immeasurable learning in my kids and others from things they have seen in movies, on TV, in online videos, heard on the radio, read in magazines, picked up in conversations with others, heard in public presentations or from tour guides or from books. To eliminate some part of that input out of fear would have made my children's world smaller.
photo by Karen James
Friday, September 22, 2023
Thinking more clearly
'How do "we"' is a problem. The person is asking (I think) whether WE will support HER limiting her child. Each of us acts after consideration of what we know and believe, what our priorities are, what other factors (partners, grandparents, home-owner/landlord, religion, local laws)... But I acted with and toward my children as a partner in the way, in each moment, that seemed sensible and helpful to me, as much as was in my power in that moment. If I didn't do great, I would plan to do better in future moments. If I was happy with my actions, I'd try to remember what I was thinking so I could do that again in the future. But there wasn't a "we" except me and the child I was dealing with.
photo by Colleen Prieto
Thursday, September 21, 2023
Seeing unschooling more clearly
Perhaps it’s more process than component. Parents must deschool themselves. Gradually, but not TOO gradually, they should examine the schoolish ideas and assumptions that come up in them, and see if they can lay them out to dry. They can file them away as school memories, and as outdated assumptions, or as tools that could hamper unschooling’s success.
Even if parents were to create the richest physical environment and a schedule for their kids that involved being home plenty, and going out into the interesting world often, if the parents are looking at the children through school-colored glasses, it will not become unschooling.
photo by Linda Wyatt
Sunday, September 3, 2023
Concentrate (a bit)
Making choices about being more peaceful is like making other choices.
photo by Karen James
Saturday, September 2, 2023
Thirteen Light Years
The parts of the post are a photo (usually by an unschooler), a quote (or some new writing by me), a link (to the quote's context, or to something related) and sometimes a bonus link. That will look like this:
A "bonus link" usually indicates that a post is working from a phone. I leave them there as a marker for myself, and an easter egg for others. There are still posts I haven't tweaked, but I work on some just about every day. It's fun to see photos and ideas and stories that have gone by but are still as sweet as when they were new.
Please do view the blog from a computer sometimes, if you usually use a phone, so you can use the big randomizer, and the photo tags. If you want to see all the photos by one person, use the search at the blog.
Thanks for reading!
—Sandra Dodd
photo by Renee Cabatic
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Something looks like this:
mountains,
reflection,
sunrise,
water
Saturday, July 29, 2023
When choices come easily
SandraDodd.com/control
photo by Roya Dedeaux
Monday, June 26, 2023
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