photo by Sandra Dodd
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Natural learning flows
photo by Sandra Dodd
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Kindness and creativity
"Homeschoolers think a lot about learning—but they often focus on learning to read, write, do math, or learning science or history, etc.
"Unschoolers tend to take that kind of learning for granted, it happens along the way. Instead, as we get more and more into unschooling, we tend to focus on things like kindness and creativity and honesty—all those character traits that will determine *how* their learning will be used in their lives."
photo by Jamie Lee
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Learning so many things
Parents who are unschooling as a whole way of life, can discover what no school can find, and the core aspect of it is the family as a base for learning—for learning about family, for learning about relationships, and resources, money, food and sleep, and learning about laughter.
photo by Cátia Maciel
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
What proof do you have?
What proof do you have that it is working? How would you suggest parents reassure themselves that this path is providing everything their children need?
Well starting at the end, there is no path that will provide everything for a child. There are some [paths] that don't even begin to intend to provide everything their children need. Maybe first parents should consider what it is they think their children really need.
As to proof of whether unschooling is working, if the question is whether kids are learning, parents can tell when they're learning because they're there with them. How did you know when your child could ride a bike? You were able to let go, quit running, and watch him ride away. You know they can tell time when they tell you what time it is. You know they're learning to read when you spell something out to your husband and the kid speaks the secret word right in front of the younger siblings. In real-life practical ways children begin to use what they're learning, and as they're not off at school, the parents see the evidence of their learning constantly.
photo of a kaleidoscope (and Holly) by Holly
Holly was six when the response above was written,
and nineteen when she took the photo.
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Monday, March 18, 2019
What proof do you have?
A response to this question:
What proof do you have that it is working? How would you suggest parents reassure themselves that this path is providing everything their children need?
Well starting at the end, there is no path that will provide everything for a child. There are some [paths] that don't even begin to intend to provide everything their children need. Maybe first parents should consider what it is they think their children really need.
As to proof of whether unschooling is working, if the question is whether kids are learning, parents can tell when they're learning because they're there with them. How did you know when your child could ride a bike? You were able to let go, quit running, and watch him ride away. You know they can tell time when they tell you what time it is. You know they're learning to read when you spell something out to your husband and the kid speaks the secret word right in front of the younger siblings. In real-life practical ways children begin to use what they're learning, and as they're not off at school, the parents see the evidence of their learning constantly.
photo of a kaleidoscope (and Holly) by Holly
Holly was six when the response above was written,
and nineteen when she took the photo.
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Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Learning much more
Sometimes you will understand what your kids *could* be learning from something. Always they'll be learning much more, making connections with ideas that seems to have no relation to what they're doing, learning thousands of little bits about peripheral things like music, social interactions, history, math, who they are, who you are and so much much more.
photo by Janine Davies
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Friday, May 13, 2016
Processes
When learning starts to show, in its natural state, you will see that children are processing what they do and what they think about what they've done. They'll be making connections to everything else in their history and surroundings, to other experiences and imaginings.
When unschooling begins to really flow, the process of learning is the processing of experiences and connections.
photo by Chrissy Florence
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Character traits
Homeschoolers think a lot about learning—but they often focus on learning to read, write, do math, or learning science or history, etc. Unschoolers tend to take that kind of learning for granted, it happens along the way. Instead, as we get more and more into unschooling, we tend to focus on things like kindness and creativity and honesty—all those character traits that will determine "how" their learning will be used in their lives. —Pam Sorooshian |
SandraDodd.com/nest
photo by Sandra Dodd
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Learning curves aren't smooth
There's a learning curve that I see with unschooled kids and that is that they seem to be ahead [of their peers in school] for the first few years and then there's a period of time, roughly from about nine to 12 years of age, when they can seem behind. And then after they are 12 or 13, zoom! They look ahead! They seem to be ahead again.
If families can make it through that rough hump of "Oh, my kid doesn't know anything. He doesn't have cursive, he doesn't know the times tables and he's 12 and starting to get whiskers,"... Because it's just before a lot of the kids in school are saying, "This is crazy. Why am I doing this?"
photo by Amber Ivey
The quotes above are the beginning and end of something longer that's here:
The Learning Curve of Unschoolers
Friday, December 28, 2012
Happy and humming
If a child is bored and agitated, she's not learning. If she's happy and smiling and humming and engaged with what she's thinking, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching or smelling, then she's learning.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Saturday, December 3, 2022
How Learning Works
Unschoolers do not preplan a curriculum and we don't have predetermined lesson plans. What we have instead is an extremely rich environment for learning in which, for example, the globe sits on the living room coffee table and is regularly handled and part of our everyday life (not pulled out for a specific lesson). Learning is valued and constant. Connections are looked for everywhere and the whole family is involved and loves to explore ideas and gain new information and knowledge. Learning happens inside the learner's own head and is not always apparent to outside observers, but the proof, for me, is in the pudding. My kids think learning is what life is for. And I agree with them.
photo by Sandra Dodd
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
Learning is...
Nothing on paper is learning. Nothing recited is learning. Nothing in a conversation is learning....
Learning is putting information together in one's own head so that it makes new and different sense. It always and only happens inside the learner.
photo by Lydia Koltai
Friday, March 2, 2018
Happy and humming
If a child is bored and agitated, she's not learning. If she's happy and smiling and humming and engaged with what she's thinking, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching or smelling, then she's learning.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
Not learning
If a person's life is compartmentalized into learning and not learning, then they have a part of them that is "not-learning."
The phrase came up in a chat, but this page is a good match: SandraDodd.com/substance
photo by Sandra Dodd, of a beautiful Sheffield wall with delicate flowers
unfairly drafted to portray a harsh wall for the purposes of this post
Saturday, September 11, 2021
Shapes and meanings
Some adults might think about materials or purposes, and others about what plant is portrayed and why.
Things are seen at different levels and depths by different people in different circumstances. Connections are made to prior imagery and knowledge in each viewer. Thoughts of what something is or isn't, and ideas about what it is like or unlike, are the thoughts learning is made of.
That's how learning works.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Monday, June 8, 2020
Every leaf is for real
Sometimes a person will use the word "practice" when it would be better to use "experiment" or "drill" or "train." In that "experiment" or "work until it's right" way, trees never "practice" making leaves. Every leaf is for real.
And so it is with learning. "The practice of learning" is actually doing it.
Each bit of learning is real learning.
Holly Dodd photo
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Learning and peace
Peace and calm help learning. Stress and pressure never help learning. If you set your priority on learning and peace, it makes other questions easier. |
photo by Sandra Dodd
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Practice
Sometimes a person will use the word "practice" when it would be better to use "experiment" or "drill" or "train." In that "experiment" or "work until it's right" way, trees never "practice" making leaves. Every leaf is for real.
And so it is with learning. "The practice of learning" is actually doing it.
Each bit of learning is real learning.
Holly Dodd photo
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Learning about learning
photo by Colleen Prieto
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Looks like playing
Real learning looks very different from schoolish learning. Real learning looks like playing. Even when it matches something kids do in school (learning the names of the different clouds for instance) it still looks more like goofing around because it stops as soon as their interest is satisfied. They don't push on like they're "supposed" to. No, what they do is revisit it when the feel the need to build on it and they draw on it (though not necessarily making it obvious to us) to help them understand more of the world. *Everything* connects to everything else.
photo by Cátia Maciel