Think of a scent

I like the way my hair conditioner smells. I don't know what scent it is, but I try to remember to take a deep breath with it in my hands. Sometimes realtors recommend baking cookies before a prospective buyer is coming to view the house. I don't know what bluebells smell like, but I do have lilacs blooming in my yard this week.

Breathing will calm you down, and help center you.
Breathing in a lovely scent might calm and help transport you.

The scent of life
photo by Janine Davies

Loving actions

Robyn C. wrote about some things you might consider doing if a child is having more emotions than she can handle, and shared this discovery:

"Choosing these loving actions helps my anger (at whatever level) to melt away also. The immediate result is a mother who is thinking clearly and logically, and so able to make better decisions."

—Robyn Coburn

Mothering during a Melt-Down
photo by Janine Davies
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'Tis not the season

I'm posting a photo of blueberries. You may or may not live where blueberries grow. It may or may not be time to pick blueberries where you live.

Some people don't even like blueberries. Others might be gathering them to dye yarn, or cloth, or their hair.

Try to live so that you can be calm and happy with all of that.

Praceice acceptance
photo by Lydia Koltai

The whole language

Because phonics treats written English as a simple code when it is not, many children are frustrated very early on.

Whole language involves language as communication, rather than separate parts (writing/reading/spelling). First language; details later.

With unschooling, children will learn from the language you use and they use, from the words they see around them, from using games and computers, from signing greeting cards or playing with words. There's no need for any school-style structure at all. For those who have worried about phonics and reading and spelling, please don't press that on your children.



Play with words
photo by Caroline Lieber

Something else

About "un," the term came out in the season of 7-Up, the Uncola. Commercials, billboards, cute campaign, not a big deal. So as 7-Up wasn't a cola, unschooling was something other than schooling.


from a 2003 discussion, lately discovered
photo by Elizabeth Anne
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Admirable and attractive

Perspectives do change, if people want to learn.

Different perspectives will affect what you respect, too. What is admirable, that you want to head toward? What is attractive, and pulls you nearer? What is disturbing or embarrassing, that you want to step away from?

The origin of that, or a link to
Getting warm
or to other posts on perspective
photo by Karen James

Sunrise and family

Those who went to school (and that's over 99% of those reading this) have based half their lives, give or take a decade, on school's rhythm and labels and categorizations. When things like "the school year" are as much a part of a culture as "family" and "sunrise," it's a radical departure to consider that maybe one of those three is unnatural. For many people, it disturbs the fabric of their lives. Some people's life-fabric is already kind of rumply, or they hated school and are glad to consider alternatives, but for those orderly folks who have life all neatly arranged in their heads, who do more accepting than questioning, unschooling is a disturbing thing.

SandraDodd.com/interview
photo by Sandra Dodd