"When I think about the food I make for my daughter (if it's different from what I've made for my husband and myself), I think ahead to when she might be making me food because I am unable to."
I do my best to be the best mom and unschooler I can be - for myself, for my son and for my husband - with the knowledge that my example might give someone some ideas on how to see and try things a bit differently themselves. I am constantly looking for examples to grow myself. I absolutely love it when I see someone do something that I think I'd like to try. Sometimes it's a sweet gesture or phrase. Sometimes it's a cool project or idea.
on Always Learning, in 2014 photo by Nina Haley (documenting the way things were, for a while, when her kids were a bit younger, and also a cool pumpkin-patch outing)
Given a choice between something funny and something somber, go with funny if your goal is peace and learning. Very few things need to be still and serious.
A mom who's going to help a child learn from the whole wide world should herself become ever increasingly comfortable with what all is IN the whole wide world, and how she can help bring her child to the world and the world to her child.
Unschooling should and can be bigger and better than school.
If it's smaller and quieter than school, the mom should do more to make life sparkly.
Me, in a discussion of what was okay for a young child to mess up, in a public park, and how to explain it to him:
If you can't explain something to a four or five year old, just say
no. Part of being partners, and being on the same team, is that what
he does you're doing too. It's not okay for a mother and child to be
doing something others don't want them to do (namely, the owners or
managers of a place) and for the mom to shrug wide-eyed and point to
the kid and say "He did it."