School has already taken twelve or more years of your freedom and individuality. You don't have to let it take your adult life as well. You don't have to let it have your child.
photo by Sandra Dodd
There's no advantage in looking at what you wish or hope a child will learn. Look at what he learns.
When you look as far to the east as you can see, what is the view? Turn around and look the other way, too.
Where you are is exotic to most of the rest of the world. Most other people will never see it. Knowing that your plainness is someone else's curiosity can make your life richer.
Sometimes, when you look, listen, taste, feel, smell, close your eyes and rest, remember that you are in one special place.
When you look as far to the east as you can see, what is the view? Turn around and look the other way, too.
Where you are is exotic to most of the rest of the world. Most other people will never see it. Knowing that your plainness is someone else's curiosity can make your life richer.
Sometimes, when you look, listen, taste, feel, smell, close your eyes and rest, remember that you are in one special place.
I always had this visual for unschooling for me, I picture it being this big giant house and it’s got like a million rooms in it. And there’s closets and doors everywhere. And for me, I’m walking around this house with this lantern and the lantern is like unschooling for me. And I have to open up doors and shine the lantern and look under the beds and look in the closet and I’m finding all these new, dusty things that have come from my life and have created this uncomfortableness and this kind of scary eerie feeling for me. And the unschooling is the light, like walking through shining light on it, considering it, asking questions, and eventually more lights are on, and the closets aren’t as dusty anymore, and the rooms are more open and free to go in and out of.
I kind of see that—I've always pictured my unschooling journey like that—and then everybody’s house is different. Everyone has a different unschooling house, and I just love that visual for me, I’m always picturing it like that. Like, "Oh, I found another room that I have to look in," and "I haven’t been in this room yet. I’m going to just step my toe in this room and then step back out and maybe I’ll come back again later," and I just love that.—Nikki Zavitz
Look for the good parts of today.
Look for the value in this moment.
Look quietly. At least once a day, just look quietly. |
Look quietly. At least once a day, just look quietly. |
Look directly at your child without filters or labels.
In 2020, I was in here editing photo links. We still have that pan, and its lid—a bonus from a long-gone grocery store. Our oldest child is thirty-four.