 | If you hold on to all your old ideas and fears and images of learning, every bit of that builds a curtain of "what should be" and you can't relax, see and appreciate what is. |
| Part of deschooling is to stop expecting anything of him. You can't bypass that. You can't test out. Lots of unschoolers think they can test out, or take an accelerated track to unschooling. It's not that way at all. It's something that has to be discovered, understood, created and maintained. |  |
| Deb Lewis wrote: Once you’re really listening to your kids and not your sense of injustice, you’ll find that answering them and interacting with them is intellectually rewarding and stimulating and fun. It’s not something you *have* to do. It’s something you *get* to do for a very little while. You can’t change this need your kids have right now. You can only change how you see it, how you think about it and meet it. And that’s good because that’s entirely in your power to do. —Deb Lewis |  |
 | "You can read all the books, you can talk to unschoolers, attend a conference and join some lists. But until you GET IT at the internal level, until there is trust and a willingness to extend that trust to your children, unschooling is just a nice idea or philosophy to discuss...nothing more. For those that decide to learn to trust themselves and their children, they soon find their lives a bubbly, interesting swirl of natural learning." —Ren Allen |
 | The sunset came into my yard this way for just a few moments. I could have missed it. I have missed most sunsets in my life. You will miss much of your child's life. Try not to miss too many moments. It only takes a second to do better. |
| "It's all about that mind shift isn't it? It applies to so much in how unschooling works or doesn't work. If you can't see the learning and the beauty, you will have a hard time unschooling. It seems to work best in all those small ways that add up to the bigger picture." |  |
You can attend a thousand Zen classes at a University and still not understand it because it is something that is internal. You can have a bunch of nice meditation products and still be angry. You can make a big deal out of living simply and still miss all the beauty around you.
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Sorta like unschooling.
You can read all the books, you can talk to unschoolers, attend a conference and join some lists. But until you GET IT at the internal level, until there is trust and a willingness to extend that trust to your children, unschooling is just a nice idea or philosophy to discuss...nothing more. For those that decide to learn to trust themselves and their children, they soon find their lives a bubbly, interesting swirl of natural learning.
 | Sometimes a day comes when the best thing to do is to eat leftovers and hang out. Don't feel bad about some slow days of rest and recovery. |
| "I tell people that I'm amazed every day by what my kids know and learn. It seems miraculous. It's not, really. It's normal. I see it as miraculous because I was indoctrinated to believe that none of this could happen outside of school and without teachers." |  |
| Sometimes a day comes when the best thing to do is to eat leftovers and hang out. Don't feel bad about some slow days of rest and recovery. |
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| The most rewarding benefits to our unschooling are the ones that are so much more difficult to describe. The soulful gazes, all the giggles, the joy, the "being in the moment," the connections, the love, the peace (very noisy peace), the flow of life (looks chaotic unless you're in it), and soooooooo much more. —a mom named Rachel |  |
 | Don't look at what can be learned. Look at what IS learned. If the parents can change their point of view and expectations and understanding well enough, they will see learning all the time.
There's no advantage in looking at what you wish or hope a child will learn. Look at what he learns. |
 | Sometimes there are deadlines and commitments. This week, for us, a baby shower, and a college graduation. If Keith misses his pain-clinic appointment, he might need to wait weeks. Much more often, though, life has more options, more leeway. A path or choice might be reconsidered. Be accepting, if you can, when you can, of surprises. We don't know for sure what is around the corner, no matter how familiar the road is. |
SandraDodd.com/change/ (Thoughts on Changing)Those three pages are an impressive collection of the powerful difference a deep understanding of unschooling, and its practice in a home, can make to parents as individuals.
SandraDodd.com/change.html (How Unschooling Changes People)
SandraDodd.com/gettingit (Unschooling: Getting It)
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