"Being the mom I wish I'd had has been very healing. It's been the closest thing to having that mom I could achieve with the cards I was dealt."
—Jessica Hughes
Sydney Andersen's Guinea Pig
photo by Jen Keefe
Friday, September 6, 2019
The mom I wish I'd had
"Being the mom I wish I'd had has been very healing. It's been the closest thing to having that mom I could achieve with the cards I was dealt."
Sydney Andersen's Guinea Pig
photo by Jen Keefe
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Different and ever-changing needs
"'Unschooling' bed time and meals is about responding to each child's different and ever-changing needs."
The Holly Blossom quote is from writing newly added to the Bedtime page.
photo by Ester Siroky
—Holly Blossom
| Learning that children's needs are different and ever-changing is the path to mindful parenting. If a parent can be aware and responsive in one area, it's easy to expand into others. Some parents understand it first with "academic learning" (before they accept the connections in all learning). Some understand it first about food, or clothing. It will all connect, though, the same way the trivia children learn will coalesce into a body of knowledge. |  |
The Holly Blossom quote is from writing newly added to the Bedtime page.
photo by Ester Siroky
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Temporary elephant
Talia Bartoe:
This picture reminded me of all the interesting pictures in the "just add light and stir" posts. The kids had big smiles for the "elephant cloud."
Sandra Dodd:
Seems it would have a trumpeting sound! :-) It's very cool, and lit up!
Talia Bartoe
The lighting was perfect. It was funny to us as we had spotted elephant statues earlier at a new-to-us park.
photo by Talia Bartoe
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Informal and natural learning
I don't really know the magic words to get people to be calm and realistic about expectations and results. To proceed without looking into the school-windows-of-their-minds all the time.
There is no switch I can flip. Just as with other teaching/learning situations, all the learning takes place inside the learner. None can be inserted by a teacher.
If budding unschoolers will look at how they learned things outside the classroom, and use that as a model and a goal, that helps. They don't really have to hunt down other unschooling families, although it doesn't hurt. A family isolated from other unschoolers might do well to brainstorm examples of things they've learned informally and naturally, and to look around for other people learning things in the same manner.
photo by Ester Siroky
Monday, September 2, 2019
Nine Years of Adding Light
September 2 is Just Add Light and Stir's anniversary! Thank you for reading.
Nine was one of my favorite age, in childhood. I was able to do new and bigger things. I liked my teacher. I felt strong, and smart. If you have a nine-year-old child at your house, think of me. 😊
If your only or oldest child is younger than that, this blog will be filled with posts and photos you've never seen! Have fun. There is a randomizer, on the web version, upper right. If you usually read this on a phone, consider spending some time at a computer, where the format and colors are nicer, and there are resources in the sidebar.
I didn't make a cake this year. 😊 It would have been a good year for it. I have a granddaughter who spent a lot of the summer learning to decorate cakes, but I didn't plan ahead.
Last year, on the 8th anniversary, there was a cake photo and I wrote "May the richness and riches of this trove of words and photos seep into your soul and give you sweet dreams and good ideas."
At the end of Year 7, I posted from the Free to Be conference, in Phoenix. There's a photo of me and some others there. I wrote, in part, "I hope some of the posts have helped you be patient, and to smile. Thanks for reading!"
For the sixth anniversary, in 2016, I confessed to having not noticed the fifth.
Fourth anniversary, another homemade cake. My shared message that day is still good:
"Thank you for looking, for reading, for thinking. Thank you for being a conduit for peaceful ideas."
By then there were way over 1000 posts. Somehow I hadn't projected very far out into the future. I do think more in words than in numbers. 😊
I didn't remember the third anniversary, but I made a post worth remembering. When I went to get the link, I stabilized and repaired the photo a bit too, so good!How will you be?
Second anniversary, I wrote "Thank you for reading, for trying these ideas at home, and for sharing them with your friends." I set up a gift exchange. I should do that again for the 10th anniversary! Postage outside the U.S. has become very expensive, though. I might need only flat gifts outside the U.S. I could probably do well with that, if I plan ahead, though! This cake, I bought:
On the first anniversary, I wrote about my methodology and concerns, and everything there is still true.
And the first post ever, about having created the blog at someone's request: The Very First Post, and why, September 2, 2010.
Best wishes to all readers, and to those who will randomly come across this in the future!
About Unschooling (site news)
photos by Sandra Dodd (photos are links)
__
Nine was one of my favorite age, in childhood. I was able to do new and bigger things. I liked my teacher. I felt strong, and smart. If you have a nine-year-old child at your house, think of me. 😊
If your only or oldest child is younger than that, this blog will be filled with posts and photos you've never seen! Have fun. There is a randomizer, on the web version, upper right. If you usually read this on a phone, consider spending some time at a computer, where the format and colors are nicer, and there are resources in the sidebar.
| Having forgotten I had written and scheduled the tasteful, quiet note above, I came in and worked long on the following fizzy-whizzy post. The one above is better, but I hate to throw all this out. So, BONUS! I'm sending both as one. |
I didn't make a cake this year. 😊 It would have been a good year for it. I have a granddaughter who spent a lot of the summer learning to decorate cakes, but I didn't plan ahead.
 |
Last year, on the 8th anniversary, there was a cake photo and I wrote "May the richness and riches of this trove of words and photos seep into your soul and give you sweet dreams and good ideas."
At the end of Year 7, I posted from the Free to Be conference, in Phoenix. There's a photo of me and some others there. I wrote, in part, "I hope some of the posts have helped you be patient, and to smile. Thanks for reading!"
For the sixth anniversary, in 2016, I confessed to having not noticed the fifth.
 |
Fourth anniversary, another homemade cake. My shared message that day is still good:
"Thank you for looking, for reading, for thinking. Thank you for being a conduit for peaceful ideas."
By then there were way over 1000 posts. Somehow I hadn't projected very far out into the future. I do think more in words than in numbers. 😊
I didn't remember the third anniversary, but I made a post worth remembering. When I went to get the link, I stabilized and repaired the photo a bit too, so good!
Second anniversary, I wrote "Thank you for reading, for trying these ideas at home, and for sharing them with your friends." I set up a gift exchange. I should do that again for the 10th anniversary! Postage outside the U.S. has become very expensive, though. I might need only flat gifts outside the U.S. I could probably do well with that, if I plan ahead, though! This cake, I bought:
On the first anniversary, I wrote about my methodology and concerns, and everything there is still true.
And the first post ever, about having created the blog at someone's request: The Very First Post, and why, September 2, 2010.
Best wishes to all readers, and to those who will randomly come across this in the future!
photos by Sandra Dodd (photos are links)
__
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Peaceful communication
| Peace, in an exchange, has to do with tone of voice, eyes, posture, attitude, intention, compassion—all the non-verbal communications that go with words and actions. Don't underestimate your child's ability to read beneath and around and beyond your statements. You would do well to try to read behind his words, too. |  |
(Page 243 of new edition; 209 of older version)
photo by Sandra Dodd, at an old house in France
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Learning however and whenever
Learn however and whenever you can, and remember no one person has everything you need.
That's what I wrote about what I took from the film "Searching for Bobby Fischer," from 1993. If you haven't seen it, consider watching it with unschooling in mind. The image is a still from that movie.
It's based on a true story, and the actor (Max Pomeranc) was a highly-ranked chess player for his age. They cast a chess player so he wouldn't need to pretend to be playing chess in the film.
If you want to know more about the person he was playing, and what happened in later years, the real Josh Waitzkin wrote this: The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance. He tells some chess stories, but the book is largely how he became a martial arts champion in his twenties. He reads his own audiobook. I've heard it. His ideas about formal learning are not as unschooling-friendly as the story in the movie is, but hearing it (or reading it) from an unschooling point of view won't change your satisfaction about what you and your children are learning.
Just in case films and audiobooks make you feel guilty, there's a new page on my site:
What about Audiobooks?
That's what I wrote about what I took from the film "Searching for Bobby Fischer," from 1993. If you haven't seen it, consider watching it with unschooling in mind. The image is a still from that movie.
It's based on a true story, and the actor (Max Pomeranc) was a highly-ranked chess player for his age. They cast a chess player so he wouldn't need to pretend to be playing chess in the film.
If you want to know more about the person he was playing, and what happened in later years, the real Josh Waitzkin wrote this: The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance. He tells some chess stories, but the book is largely how he became a martial arts champion in his twenties. He reads his own audiobook. I've heard it. His ideas about formal learning are not as unschooling-friendly as the story in the movie is, but hearing it (or reading it) from an unschooling point of view won't change your satisfaction about what you and your children are learning.
What about Audiobooks?
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