photo by Sandra Dodd, of some ice cream in Leiden
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Sweetness
photo by Sandra Dodd, of some ice cream in Leiden
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Glad to be wrong
When I had been unschooling for several years, I still dreaded and joked about how different it would be when I had teens. I expected what I thought was "natural" and what was probably inevitable teenaged behavior.
It turns out that much of what is considered "normal teen behavior" is a normal reaction to many years of school, and to being controlled and treated as children and school kids and students rather than as full, thoughtful human beings.
Being wrong doesn't bother me one bit when the truth is so much better than my fears and predictions!
photo by Sandra Dodd, 2005 at a movie-character theme party
Kirby as Casey Jones from the first Ninja Turtle movie
Marty as Dr. Strangelove (←click there to see him in the chair with glasses)
and Holly as Addie Pray from Paper Moon
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Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Life at home is blooming
Sandra Dodd & Joyce Kurtak Fetteroll, I came to unschooling to provide a better way to learn for my kids. Then I came to radical unschooling because I discovered it was about more than school. Now I'm discovering my hang-ups about food / nutrition / healthy food obsessions / weekend "junk" binges and controlling the groceries in our home and now radically unschooling (and your wisdom!) is helping me to unravel these problems and live wholly in the area of food too! Radical unschooling has SO MUCH been about me discovering issues I didn't even know I had, and life at home is blooming. I can't thank you enough for sharing your knowledge!
photo by Sarah S, who took the photo in September 2023, of candy that's available for her kids anytime, and invites us to note there is still Easter candy in there
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Pleasant and safe
If home isn't pleasant and safe, a young adult will leave with just anybody. If "anything is better than home," that creates a dangerous situation.
but here's a cousin-link: SandraDodd.com/youngadults
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Friday, July 7, 2017
The clock is not hungry
Little children know nothing of the clock or "tomorrow" or "later."
It will help for parents to learn to live in the moment rather than by the clock, too. The clock is not sleepy. The clock is not hungry. Look at what your real, immediate child needs in the moment, and find ways to adjust your thinking so that it is not always too much for you. SOMEtimes maybe you can't. But if you never can feel the obligation or justification to take a breath and do what he wants instead of what you want, then school might be better for them than any sort of homeschooling—especially than unschooling, which is all about living in the immediate now.
SandraDodd.com/clock
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Monday, February 14, 2011
the developing souls and minds of children
I think if people divide their lives into academic and non-academic, they're not radical unschoolers. I think unschooling in the context of a traditional set of rules and parental requirements and expectations will work better than structured school-at-home, but I don't think it will work as well for the developing souls and minds of the children involved. And those who are not radical unschoolers would look at that and say "What do their souls have to do with unschooling?"
If you wish this post had been longer and you want to take a five-minute detour, there is a song by Tracy Chapman called "All that You Have is Your Soul" (or you could listen to Emmylou Harris sing it).
photo by Sandra Dodd
Friday, January 12, 2018
Souls and minds
SandraDodd.com/spirituality
photo by Lydia Koltai
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Friday, March 24, 2023
Another step; another
So the history of "radical unschooling" came from someone saying "Well we're not that radical," and me saying "well I am."
I think unschooling in the context of a traditional set of rules and parental requirements and expectations will work better than structured school-at-home, but I don't think it will work as well for the developing souls and minds of the children involved.
And those who are not radical unschoolers would look at that and say "What do their souls have to do with unschooling?"
It has to do with philosophy and priority.
What do you believe is the nature of man, and the duty of a parent?
What do you believe hinders a child, or harms the relationship between a parent and a child?
photo by Cathy Koetsier
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Where are you?
The world is all a-swirl with music and maps and photographs of interesting architecture, costumes and ancient weaponry and technology. Gypsy carts and camel caravans and steam locomotives have their places on the planet, and nobody has to memorize anything to sort them out into their times and cultures.
Some families travel. Some stay in one place, and come to know that place well. Consider your resources, histories, friends, relatives and where they live, and why. All those stories, images and artifacts, gradually gathered, will expand your child's view of his own personal world.
Photo of a Tapas bar I saw in Cardiff, in Wales. Click to enlarge.
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Saturday, January 22, 2022
Step thoughtfully
People can ruin their lives with unschooling if they don't know where they're going. If they just intend to make a bunch of wild decisions and mill around, it won't work. Their kids will end up needing to go back to school, and being clueless kids in school. So it's almost that big a project. You will have to take hundreds of thousands of steps. And so it's better to take a step thoughtfully, knowing what direction you're going, than to thunder around yelling, "I'm an unschooler! I'm an unschooler!" and not get anywhere.
So I think they need to understand the direction they're going, and why. And they can get there a lot faster and a lot more whole, and with a lot more peace and understanding, if they will Read a little, try a little, wait a while and watch.
I was speaking, not writing. You can listen (at 15:15), or read the transcript.
photo by Sandra Dodd, in Golden, New Mexico, March 2020
(the last time I left town)
Wednesday, October 4, 2023
Take a step thoughtfully
I was speaking, not writing. You can listen (at 15:27), or read the transcript.
photo by Brie Jontry
Thursday, September 16, 2021
Healing through actions
A ten year old boy was being unkind to his five year old brother. Their mom thought it was partly from the older boy having been treated badly when he was in school, and wrote, "Some of those memories and hurt feelings have carried over and he's still My response: You could tell him that he will help himself heal and feel better by being the kind of person he would like for his brother to become. (Nicer than the kids at school.) |
photo by Janine Davies
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Monday, March 27, 2017
Focus on the good
Jenny Cyphers wrote:
I wish things for our family had been different earlier than later, but it is what it is. Unschooling really helped make us better people. I can't even imagine, or rather I can, how different things would be with our relationships with our kids if they'd been in school all these years.
Kids absorb the good and the bad. Unschooling really focuses on the good, and that's, well, GOOD!
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Monday, November 26, 2012
Time, change, learning
Don't spend money at first. Read, meet other families, let your children have time to do what they're interested in, or what they weren't allowed to do before because of school.
While the children are recovering, the parents can learn about what they want to do and why, and how. There is more online about homeschooling than anyone could ever read. Find the writers and ideas that make sense to you, and pursue that. Don't rush into anything. Parents should learn to be calm and thoughtful instead of panicky and reactionary. It's better for health and decision-making, and it sets a good example for the children. Don't live in fear when you can live in joy.
photo by Sandra Dodd, of a fence my sister made
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Monday, February 3, 2014
Bring it
photo by Karen James
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Friday, January 6, 2017
While recovering
Don't spend money at first. Read, meet other families, let your children have time to do what they're interested in, or what they weren't allowed to do before because of school.
While the children are recovering, the parents can learn about what they want to do and why, and how. There is more online about homeschooling than anyone could ever read. Find the writers and ideas that make sense to you, and pursue that. Don't rush into anything. Parents should learn to be calm and thoughtful instead of panicky and reactionary. It's better for health and decision-making, and it sets a good example for the children. Don't live in fear when you can live in joy.
photo by Hannah North
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Friday, February 24, 2012
Wishes
I wish things for our family had been different earlier than later, but it is what it is. Unschooling really helped make us better people. I can't even imagine, or rather I can, how Kids absorb the good and the bad. Unschooling really focuses on the good, and that's, well, GOOD! —Jenny Cyphers |
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Real life science
While I'm a big fan of science and have a sciency degree, in terms of helping children I trust the real life experiences of unschoolers far more than I trust scientific studies done on (schooled) children (often with an eye towards getting kids to perform better in school!)
Offering a fear over experience as the basis of decision making isn't going to be helpful to unschooling.
photo by Nicole Kenyon