photo by Brie Jontry
Friday, May 6, 2022
With and for, not against
photo by Brie Jontry
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Imagining
Play with words, with ideas, with thoughts.
Play with music.
Play in the rain.
Play in the dark.
Play with your food.
But play safely. Play is only play when no one involved is objecting. It's only playing if everyone is playing.
SandraDodd.com/playing
photo by Sandra Dodd
Friday, April 15, 2022
Dance, sing, listen, play
photo by Cátia Maciel
Friday, March 25, 2022
Helping as a good partner
Joanna Murphy wrote:
Think of yourself as creating a partnership with your son. See your son as whole and healthy and desirous of being in a state of rest and vibrancy but maybe just not knowing at this moment how to get there on his own.
If he's not able to make certain decisions for himself yet (like reading his tired signals), then you can be the part of the team that can make that decision and explain it to the other half—it's not him or you—it's both of you working together to make a healthy and happy child.
This is the moment when his bed is made, the lights are low, the music is on (or whatever he has identified as aids to his sleep). Your certainty about what he's needing at that moment (sleep), combined with the quality of the connection and trust you have with him will determine what will happen next.
(I added some paragraph breaks for today.)
photo by Cátia Maciel
Friday, February 25, 2022
Depth and breadth
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.
photo by Roya Dedeaux
Saturday, February 12, 2022
Music as healing
[T]his little ukulele has done for me what none of the stuff that I did as a child ever did, nor what my ranting and raving about my school experiences did. It has let me see how much I enjoy making music. And I enjoy the intellectual pursuit of the skill of making music. ...
So that's part of how I heal from school damage. I enjoy my life doing things that I couldn't do through school.
photo by Sandra Dodd (of Schuyler, with a different ukelele)
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
Math without numbers
screenshot by Holly Dodd, of the game FlipPix
Saturday, December 25, 2021
Gifts, boxed
Within that little library box are books. Each book is like a box of stories and ideas. Each scene within could be a gift to one reader or another. Some books have pictures.
Video (on tapes, discs, YouTube, streaming services) is all made up of pictures, and probably voices, and maybe music. Those, too, are boxes of gifts of stories and ideas.
If you feel stuck, remember the gift of escape into stories of other times and places.
... sharing movies with our kids
photo by Gail Higgins
Sunday, November 28, 2021
Opportunities for expansion
Make sure your child has opportunities to expand her interests. Have books, videos, kits, games, puzzles, music tapes, puppets, nature collections, and other cool things available for her to pick up when she chooses. (Think library, yard sales, and attic treasures.) Take her places as a way to spark an interest. Wander about museums and just look at the cool stuff that interests either of you. (And resist the urge to force an interest in the things you think would be good for her.) Read a book or do a kit even if you're certain it won't lead anywhere. Let her say no thanks if she's not interested in pursuing something right now, or in pursuing something to the degree you think she "should."
photo by Sandra Dodd
Sunday, October 24, 2021
Everyday patterns
Kids learn because they are observant. I don't only mean modelling, I mean the human brain is designed to notice patterns and there are patterns everywhere - in speech, in social interactions, in shapes of things, in the relationships between physical characteristics. Some sets of related patterns we call "language" some we call "mathematics" some we call "music" etc. Kids can't help but notice those patterns and think about them because that's what our big convoluted brains do best.
SandraDodd.com/patterns
photo by Hema Bharadwaj
Thursday, October 21, 2021
Differences and similarities
Those considerations work with visual arts, music, puzzles, sports, politics—just about anything involving thoughts and decision making.
Who am I similar to? Who am I glad to avoid? How does my child see me? How would I like to be seen and remembered?
photo by Holly Dodd
Sunday, May 2, 2021
Abundance and gratitude
"If it's not one thing, it's another."
People usually say that of problems or frustrations. But what about gourds, and little girls, and music, and humor?
If you practice finding abundance, if it's not one thing, it will be another.
photo by Cátia Maciel
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
More than one thing
A sweet shortcut to more peace at your house is to allow things, and people, to have many facets and designations. I'm a mom, a wife, a sister, a writer, a mender, a joker, and sometimes I sing. Not so long ago, I became a grandmother. I maintain a webpage, and this blog. You, too, and each person you know, is more than one thing. Let your imagination and calmness extend that to chairs, tables, and blankets.
This post might be soothing or irritating, helpful or long. Same with lunch, or the next story someone tells me.
Find ways to be happy through all those words and thoughts.
photo by Cátia Maciel
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Monday, March 15, 2021
Lighter light
It's not just sunshine that's light. There is firelight, candlelight, the glow of an iPad on a happy face, a flashlight under the covers, moonlight.
There can also be light from within—bright eyes, and a warm smile.
Light as in not heavy or ponderous—lighten up in that way, too.
Light humor. A light step. Light music, with a light lunch.
I hope this will bring to light some ways for you to light up your own life and some of the lives around you.
photo by Hannah North
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Thursday, February 25, 2021
Brain food in abundance
Some kind of learning is happening all the time — but not all learning is good. Learning how to sneak food, learning that parents can't be trusted and counted on, learning to think of oneself in negative ways, all sad. Learning that life is boring, hard work, sucks, hurts, is unfair, also sad. Not what unschoolers are trying for.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Friday, December 25, 2020
Joyous excitement
(original is here, but the page above is better)
photo by Elise Lauterbach
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Thursday, October 29, 2020
Being home
Turns out, we're all really happy staying home lately. We're enjoying our yard, cold as it's been. And we are really enjoying re-watching movies we've already seen, playing computer games and board games we haven't played in awhile, listening to books on tape, making lots of messes, cooking and rearranging furniture. I'm emailing to touch base with a community I don't have in real life, and my girls are playing with each other a lot. And arguing a little.
Sandra's 2020 comment:
Audio books and communicating online used to be different, but new terms don't change the activities. What is better now is there is more available, with photos, and music, and video! If people could unschool in the days of dial-up, and even before, you can do it now.
photo by Cass Kotrba
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Wednesday, October 28, 2020
In every moment
We learn through all five senses, frequently the sixth, and through connection with each other. We learn from books, from magazines, from movies and TV and You Tube Poop. We learn from Barbies, from guns and swords and Bionicles and Legos. We learn through talking, through watching and asking, or waiting. We learn through cooking, shopping, eating, eliminating. We learn from driving or riding the bus or walking or biking. We learn by listening to music, or playing an instrument or singing or banging a rhythm on the table. We learn through living, whatever life looks like that day, whether it's a trip to Discovery Place and the library or a day of not getting off the couch because we're so hooked by David Tennant as Dr. Who we watch all the episodes on the XBox.
There are as many ways to learn as there are... people. Multiplied by infinite ways to learn. Learning's not an event, it's in every moment.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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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, October 16, 2020
Angels
Two religions are involved already, in that 19th century steam-powered music machine. Also, it having been made in the late 19th century, it was an engineering situation involving the latest technologies. I couldn't decide whether to link this to Connections or to Mechanical Music, so here are both links. The green and flowery French Calliope down on that page is a video I made, and I went around the back to show the punch card that plays the particular song. The one pictured above works that way, too. You can go exploring from home! |