Nothing else

Nothing has ever made me feel better about me
than the feeling that I was being a good mom.



The quote is from page 214 (or 248) of The Big Book of Unschooling
photo by Sandra Dodd

How will they learn everything they need to know?

"How will they learn everything they need to know?"

Do the best of the high school graduates know everything they need to know? No, and at some point, ideally, they start learning on their own. Some fail to get to that point, though. Unschooled kids have a head start. They know how to find what they need to know, and they have not been trained to ignore things that won't be on the test.


SandraDodd.com/seeingit
photo by Sandra Dodd
__

18 years old

How did reading the title "18 years old" make you feel? For some, there might have been an emotional response. I've had friends and relatives whose 18 year olds were required to either move out or start paying rent.

Some 18 year olds celebrate the occasion by doing things their parents had prevented for their whole lives up to that point.

It turns out that a person is just about the very same on the day of his 18th birthday as he was the day before. Unschoolers can live toward helping a child stay whole so that 18 is no particular landmark in his life, nor something to be feared or dreaded


The notes above were all new in 2011.
The page closest to it for linking purposes
was written seven years ago:
SandraDodd.com/teen/kirby
photo by Holly Dodd

Life

When school is gone, life will be left.

SandraDodd.com/deschooling
photo by Sandra Dodd

Getting warm

If every conscious decision is taken with the intention of getting closer to the way one wants to be, then in a "getting warm / getting cold" way, it's not nearly as distant as one might have thought. You never even have to leave your regular house, car, family. It's right where you are, only the thoughts are different.


May you have warm relationships, warm feelings, a warm home, warm food and a warm bed.

The top paragraph is a quote from SandraDodd.com/factors
photo by Sandra Dodd

Music where it lives and breaths

A parent doesn't need to be a musician to bring more music into the house, or to take the family out to more music. Start finding music where it lives and breathes, and share stories about what you're hearing with your child just conversationally. Walk more slowly when you're around live musicians. Watch them. Listen.

The Big Book of Unschooling, page 83 (or 92)
photo by Holly Dodd

Be where you are

Parents complain about children living in fantasy worlds sometimes, and not growing up and facing reality. I think probably in every single one of those cases, it was the parental fantasy of what the child ought to be doing that was really the problem.


Make each moment the best moment it can be. Be where you are with your body, mind and soul. It's the only place you can be, anyway. The rest is fantasy.

The Big Book of Unschooling, pages 72 and 73
(79 and 80 of the 2019 edition)
photo by Holly Dodd