Positives (look around)

"Looking for the positives really makes the negatives fall back into the background so far that they drop out of the picture."

—Schuyler Waynforth

Positivity
photo by Gail Higgins

Children learn

If an experience is new and different, children learn.

SandraDodd.com/beginning
photo by Nina Haley

More "yes"

About food...

If you're moving from rules and measurements and prohibitions, let them eat more. Let them eat less.

If they ask for another cookie you could say "Okay! Do you want milk, too?"

Don't say "Yes, but only one more" and don't say "Yes, as many as you want."

Say "yes."

"Gradual Change" chat transcript
photo by Sarah S.

Depth and breadth

Pam Sorooshian wrote:

Unschoolers should be offering interesting experiences, ideas, stimulation, music, logic, conversation, images, movement, discovery, beauty, etc. Brain food in abundance. It requires effort. It requires attention to qualitative and quantitative aspects of learning. Depth and breadth—creating a lifestyle in which kids are offered the opportunity to learn a lot about some things and a little about a lot of things.

—Pam Sorooshian

at Always Learning; quote revived by Marta Venturini
photo by Roya Dedeaux

Oh, wait!

Same boring, stupid, same-old...

Oh, wait! A Quonset hut, back there, with a side building. Look at the tumbleweed. That attachment looks very cool, whatever it does.

Curiosity
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Nurture and encourage

Can a person create negativity?
If so, a person should be able to create positivity.

Nurture and encourage and enable happiness.

Happiness Inside and Out
photo by Sadie Brown

Being present with kids

Joyce Fetteroll wrote:

They won't be three forever! Their understanding and needs will grow and change as they get older.

Conventional parenting is not about being present with kids. It's about giving kids rules as a replacement for being there. Same can go for information. Information shouldn't be a substitute for being there and being aware. We should let kids know that cars can hurt them, which is why we steer them clear of the street. But we shouldn't then depend on kids understanding. We need to be there. We need to be aware of our child's tendencies to run to the street when in that type of situation. We need to avoid as much as we can places where they can run into the street until they can understand.

—Joyce Fetteroll

Mindful Parenting and unschooling
photo by Sandra Dodd