Better

Don't anyone be mean to your kids today, please. There will be enough hurt without us adding to it.

SandraDodd.com/TinyMonsterscomment
photo by Sandra Dodd
of Holly, in England, June 2000

Being in the world

Sometimes people ask how homeschooled children will move out into the world. Our children were never anywhere but in the world. They were present with us as much as they wanted to be. We let them be other places, without us, when they wanted to be. The world was always all around them, and they were always in their place in the world.

SandraDodd.com/interviews/bloggingboutboys
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Sacrifices

I think forbidding toy guns is another instance of superstitious magic practiced unwittingly by parents.

The idea that one can make a sacrifice to assure future success is ancient among humans, isn't it?

Deprivation doesn't create appreciation. It creates some or all of desire, neediness, curiosity, fascination, resentment, obsession, anger...

Unfortunately the real sacrifice parents make too often is their child's happiness and their own hope of a full and healthy relationship with that child and future adult.

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The quote is from the page on Toy Guns.
The photo is of Marty and Holly, as zombie hunters, Halloween 2008.
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Strew their paths

Strew their paths with interesting things.

SandraDodd.com/strewing
photo by Sandra Dodd
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What is radical unschooling?

Unschooling is learning from the world around. Radical unschooling has to do with seeing that learning is much more than academics, and that learning happens all hours of the day and night, not just "during school hours." It's not radical in a revolutionary way. It's radical in that it is based in the root of the idea of natural learning.


From the MomLogic interview
The photo, by Sandra Dodd, is one of the images on the
original cover of The Big Book of Unschooling

Quietly, lovingly, now

Every day he is older. Be with him, where he is, quietly, lovingly, now.

SandraDodd.com/being
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Big shadow

I took this photo out of the window of Garcia's restaurant, at Juan Tabo and Comanche, in Albuquerque. Keith and I had gone there for breakfast. I saw the shadow on the side of the truck before I saw what was making it.

It's not very important.

Sometimes, though, a small thing can cast a large shadow. A small act can make a big difference. A small person can have a large presence.

photo by Sandra Dodd