Friday, June 12, 2015

Attentive and sweet

Be attentive and sweet to your children. That might be one of your best healing tools.


SandraDodd.com/issues
photo by Janine Davies

Thursday, June 11, 2015

The peace path

"Unschooling helped us both to really walk the peace path, and not just talk about it."
—Janine Davies

SandraDodd.com/peace
words and photo by Janine

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Light it up

Sometimes, part of a room can light up and glow for a little while. Try to provide that light, when you can.

Try to be that light, in a dark moment, when you can be.
"This little light of mine..."
photo by Sandra Dodd

Monday, June 8, 2015

Emotional well-being

amusement park tower with spinning swing seats, with flags

Emotional health and emotional well-being are as important, if not more so, as physical health.
—Jenny Cyphers

Moving Toward Less Control, Concerning Food
photo by Janine Davies
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Sunday, June 7, 2015

More tortoise

Step by step is usually more effective than trying to leap across. More tortoise, less hare.
—Debbie Regan
Gradual Change
video by Sandra Dodd, May 2008, Alamogordo
with Holly (16) and Sandra speaking, softly, a bit

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Deciphering written language


Only the reader can decipher it.
. . . .
Cipher is from the Arabic word for zero, and has been in English for a long, long time. "To cipher," meaning to do arithmetic, is a word even my grandfather used, who was born in 1898 and lived in Texas. But why a "ph" and not an "f"? Because it came through Greek. Some Greek mathematician discovered the idea from Arabic, wrote it down in Greek, and it came to other European languages from that. "Ph" words in English are always from Greek.

To decipher something (like reading) means to figure out the patterns.

A parent cannot decipher words for a child. Only the child can decipher written language. You can help! You can help LOTS of ways. One way would be to gain an interest in the words you use yourself, and stop once in a while to examine one, its history, why it means what it means.

SandraDodd.com/etymology
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Friday, June 5, 2015

Their unique needs

It helps unschooling and mindful parenting to be aware of your kids and their unique needs rather than treating them as generic kids with all the worst possible traits.
—Joyce Fetteroll
SandraDodd.com/mindfulparenting
photo by Colleen Prieto