Wednesday, December 7, 2022
Stunning desire to learn
Tuesday, December 6, 2022
Happy to be where he is
What is peace, then, in a home with children? Contentment is peace.
Is a child happy to be where he is? That is a kind of peace. If he wakes up disappointed, that is not peace, no matter how quiet the house is or how clean and "feng shuid" his room is.
Peace, like learning, is largely internal.
drawing by a younger Kes; photo by Janine Davies
Monday, December 5, 2022
Slack and choice
Feeling like a good parent is huge. The opportunity to be successful every day at something with immediate feedback (hugs and smiles and the little-kid happy dance) is rare in the world. But giving children more slack and choices creates more slack and choice for the parent, too.
If it's okay for a child not to finish everything on his plate, might it be okay if the mom only cooks what he likes next time? Or makes the best parts in new ways? Not every meal has to look like the centerfold of a cookbook. If children can sleep late, maybe the mom can too. If children can watch a silly movie twice, maybe the mom gets to be in on that. If a child (or a seventeen-year-old) wants to watch a butterfly for a long time, perhaps the parent will have the priceless experience of watching her own child watch a butterfly.From "Changes in the Parents," page 268 (or 309), The Big Book of Unschooling
which links to SandraDodd.com/change
photo by Sandra Dodd
photo by Sandra Dodd
Sunday, December 4, 2022
Individualized learning
Unschooling is the ultimate individualized learning situation, and comparisons are unnecessary.
photo by Holly Dodd
Saturday, December 3, 2022
How Learning Works
Unschoolers do not preplan a curriculum and we don't have predetermined lesson plans. What we have instead is an extremely rich environment for learning in which, for example, the globe sits on the living room coffee table and is regularly handled and part of our everyday life (not pulled out for a specific lesson). Learning is valued and constant. Connections are looked for everywhere and the whole family is involved and loves to explore ideas and gain new information and knowledge. Learning happens inside the learner's own head and is not always apparent to outside observers, but the proof, for me, is in the pudding. My kids think learning is what life is for. And I agree with them.
photo by Sandra Dodd
Friday, December 2, 2022
Level up!
Once Heather Booth joked to me, at a symposium, that she was there to "level up," in unschooling. 🙂
Renee Cabatic was there, too, and I remember smiles and a realization that it was a legitimate plan and goal.
People do it, all the time. I guess she wasn't joking.
photos by Sandra Dodd, of Raghu, who is also mentioned at that link
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Thursday, December 1, 2022
Doing real things
That's true whether the child is a toddler, or any age. There are useful things that older people do all through life, that younger people watch, think about, and might eventually try.
photo by Roya Dedeaux
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