Today, now

If you want to change the way you're being or thinking, just do it. Don't wait for another year, another month, another day.

SandraDodd.com/morning
photo by Sandra Dodd

Braiding plastic ponies

A scientist who was not an unschooler wrote:

"Soon I was up to starting with twenty-seven pieces (nested down to nine braids, then to three and then one) and then on to eighty-one. All the while I was learning about math: I saw that division is the process of taking a large number of things and grouping them into a smaller number of groups. In order to end up with one even braid at the end, I had to be able to divide the initial number evenly by three, then by three, and then by three again, until I ended up with just one braid."

—Christine Alvarado
and there's more at the link below

SandraDodd.com/mylittlepony
photo by Sandra Dodd, of Holly demonstrating this, years ago
(click to enlarge)
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Choosing to have choices

A person can choose to have choices. A person can choose not to choose; still a choice, but they think of it as "no choice" or "have to."

Make the better choice
photo by Sandra Dodd

Look

Look directly at your child without filters or labels.

SandraDodd.com/look
photo by Chrissy Florence
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People they trust

Joyce Fetteroll wrote:

The best way for introverts to learn to socialize is with the people they're comfortable with: their family. And then whatever friends they feel comfortable with.

Then when they're older and their desire to get something from a group is greater than their discomfort of being in a group, they'll have the skills they picked up from people they trust.

—Joyce Fetteroll

SandraDodd.com/introvert
photo by Janine Davies
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Socializing?

What about socialization?
Schools "teach" children to get along in school. Children who live in the real world learn to get along with real people of all ages, in all kinds of situations.

When I was in elementary school, the lowest marks I got were C's (average) in conduct, or deportment. I talked too much. Way more than once I was shushed in class with the admonition, "You're not here to socialize."

SandraDodd.com/faq
photo by Polly G, with Julie D's camera

The language they hear and see

With unschooling, children will learn from the language you use and they use, from the words they see around them, from using games and computers, from signing greeting cards or playing with words. There's no need for any school-style structure at all. For those who have wondered about phonics and reading and spelling, please don't press that on your children.

SandraDodd.com/phonics
photo by Sandra Dodd, of a ghost sign in Texas
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