Monday, April 18, 2016

Soft


Sometimes children are soft, in soft surroundings, and a mother's heart is soft.

Sometimes they're loud, sticky, and stinky. Sometimes moms are frazzled.

Remember the quieter times will be there, too. Help to soften their lives.

SandraDodd.com/calm
photo by Lydia Koltai
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Sunday, April 17, 2016

Normal

"I sometimes look back and see how far my thoughts and actions had shifted from where I started and it was (and is) dizzying and exhilarating. Things that made me feel panicky five years ago are now so accepted and normal and joyful in our house. And I am still moving forward and trying to choose from more and better choices every day."
—Anna Black
SandraDodd.com/change/stories
photo by Megan Valnes

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Aware of words


Heather Booth wrote:

One of the things that helped when I started unschooling was becoming aware of the words I used. The clearer I became in my thoughts and the more aware of the impact of my words, the better I was at being an unschooling parent.
. . . .
"Read a little, try a little, wait a while, watch" and "Say yes more" are great phrases to get you going in the right direction but if you are still saying "have to" or "junk food " or "screen time" then you're stuck in negative thoughts.
—Heather Booth

Weed Away Words
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Friday, April 15, 2016

Stop time

Cameras can stop time. Memories can try. But really, the moment is gone and new moments are coming.

Keep your balance, live lightly, be sweet.
SandraDodd.com/moments
photo by Parvine Shahid
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Thursday, April 14, 2016

This planet


"Unschooling requires you to take joy in life. It requires you to appreciate the wonders of the world."
—Pam Sorooshian

SandraDodd.com/negativity
photo by Becky Sekeres
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Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Stop and hush

Meredith Novak wrote:

Ultimately, what helps most to do first was not set myself up to yell—and that meant going back a few more minutes and noticing how things went wrong in the first place and changing those dynamics. Most of them were about expectations I had—kids should or shouldn't do some thing. As I worked through expectations like that, there was less to yell about.

So basically I worked the problem from both ends—I found ways for life to flow more smoothly for my family on the one end, and learned to stop and hush and start over on the other.
—Meredith Novak
New at the bottom of SandraDodd.com/parentingpeacefully
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Monday, April 11, 2016

Health and contentment

I think learning happened better here when our focus changed to their mental health and feelings of contentment.
Sandra Dodd, quoted by Joyce Fetteroll at
The Unschooling Philosophy
photo by Celeste Burke
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