photo by Sandra Dodd
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Mysterious everything
If you don't know what something is, another person probably does know.
SandraDodd.com/focus
photo by Sandra Dodd
photo by Sandra Dodd
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Comforted and loved
SandraDodd.com/quiet
photo by Holly Dodd
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Bigger, better life
Chrissy Florence
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Sunday, October 2, 2016
Bright clouds
SandraDodd.com/surprise/
photo by Robert Gottlieb
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Saturday, October 1, 2016
Reading and watermelons
The quote is from page 86 (page 95, in 2019 edition)
of The Big Book of Unschooling
photo by Amber Stippy
Friday, September 30, 2016
Zippy and otherwise
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Thursday, September 29, 2016
Be more
I closed a talk recently with this:
Be brave, be calm, be happy.The first line was written on my paper. The second one, I added just then.
Be braver, be calmer, be happier.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Wednesday, September 28, 2016
On a peaceful day...
Watching the news on TV, or following too many news sites, can harm the peace of an unschooling home. Some moms, especially when their children are young, have found more peace if they focus inward on their children than outward far away.
If someone WANTS to be afraid and pissed off, even on a fairly peaceful day, all it takes is to turn the news on and let it affect your entire nervous system, your digestive system, your adrenal glands and hormones, your chance of trusting your neighbors, or of sleeping peacefully.
SandraDodd.com/news
photo by Sandra Dodd, of someone else's puppet
If someone WANTS to be afraid and pissed off, even on a fairly peaceful day, all it takes is to turn the news on and let it affect your entire nervous system, your digestive system, your adrenal glands and hormones, your chance of trusting your neighbors, or of sleeping peacefully.
photo by Sandra Dodd, of someone else's puppet
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Light and shadows
"Light" can refer to levity, in English, and also to illumination. So it can be sweetness, humor, and clarity all. One of the best places to live lightly is in the kitchen, with and around food.
Avoid shading or shadowing what works best when bathed in light and lightness.
SandraDodd.com/eating/peace
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Monday, September 26, 2016
Don't measure.
I've given this advice to newlyweds, and to my children about roommates:
Don't aim for 50/50.
If 50% is right, then 49% is wrong, and 65% would be something get angry about.
If you both aim for more than half, you'll meet around the middle, around half the time. If you want the other person to stick around, "around" is the goal,
SandraDodd.com/peace/mama
photo by Sandra Dodd
Don't aim for 50/50.
If 50% is right, then 49% is wrong, and 65% would be something get angry about.
If you both aim for more than half, you'll meet around the middle, around half the time. If you want the other person to stick around, "around" is the goal,
photo by Sandra Dodd
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Sometimes yes
photo by Sandra Dodd
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Strewing might ring a bell
Once Colleen Prieto wrote:
Yesterday, a neighbor offered me something that looks sort of like a cross between a bell and a gong, a stand to hang it from, and a mallet. It was interesting and I figured we'd find some sort of use for it, so...
In the less than 24 hours it's been in the house, my 9 year old has:
- Experimented with the different sounds it can make (soft hits, hard hits, hit in different places)
- Used it to call us all to attention so he could announce important things (like "I'm hungry" 🙂)
- Told our elderly friend about it, and in turn checked out the links she sent to websites that have photos of gongs that are bigger than people, Tibetan singing bowls, etc.
- Added The King and I to our Netflix queue after my mother said she thinks they use gongs to summon dancing maidens in the movie
- Looked for other things in the house to bring into the living room to make it look "even more Avatar air temple and less ordinary living room" 🙂
- Put Avatar episodes on in the background and made up his own air-bending moves while they were on
- Wondered why a mallet is called a mallet and is not called a hammer
- Asked me to find the bell collection we used to have out, so he can play with the bells again
The fun (and learning, and connections) that can come from exploring one simple item can be amazing.
—Colleen Prieto
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Friday, September 23, 2016
Protection
For unschooling to flourish, parents might need to find ways to protect their children from the parents’ own fears and prejudices. The easiest way to do that is for the parents to let go of those fears and prejudices and see the world, and their children, through new eyes.
Protection can backfire
photo by Sandra Dodd
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photo by Sandra Dodd
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Thursday, September 22, 2016
What's the question?
photo by Sandra Dodd
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
A better choice
Pam Sorooshian wrote:
My suggestion to you is to focus on making a "better" choice each time you can. I think that was the most helpful advice I got as a parent of younger kids—it was surprisingly practical and encouraging to simply consider at least two choices and pick the better one. The next time, try to think of the one you did choose and then one other—pick the better one. If you make a choice you're unhappy with, after the fact, think then about what would have been a better choice—have that one 'on hand' for next time.
Don't expect to be perfect, but expect yourself to be improving all the time.
—Pam Sorooshian
photo by Sandra Dodd, of something Keith Dodd carved
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Shared joy
Happy memories are good glue. |
The quote is from SandraDodd.com/betterpartner,
but it applies to kids' friendships, and to family memories.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Monday, September 19, 2016
Wonderfulness
The wonderfulness of others will not diminish you. Your realization of the wonderfulness of others will enlarge you.
photo by Sandra Dodd, of Holly Dodd
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This post is a repeat from 2012. I was happy and lucky to find it, because both the boat and the webpage were mentioned, separately, by me in a talk in London yesterday.
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Whole self in a whole way
If you're living in the past, that's a problem for now.
If you're living in the future too much,
In the future that you're imagining,
in the future that you're predicting,
in the future that you would like to imagine you can control,
in the future that you would like to imagine that you can even imagine, that's a problem.
So it's good to aim for living in the moment in a whole way—your whole self, not separated from your past or your future, but also not really over-focussed on it.
SandraDodd.com/listen/london2011
photo by Sandra Dodd
If you're living in the future too much,
In the future that you're imagining,
in the future that you're predicting,
in the future that you would like to imagine you can control,
in the future that you would like to imagine that you can even imagine, that's a problem.
So it's good to aim for living in the moment in a whole way—your whole self, not separated from your past or your future, but also not really over-focussed on it.
SandraDodd.com/listen/london2011
photo by Sandra Dodd
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Softly consider
Sometimes a hard thing can be beautiful, while a soft thing might be less so. Peace isn't always quiet. Reconsider prejudices! |
photo by Sandra Dodd
Friday, September 16, 2016
Wondering, questioning, answering
During a drought, what is lacking? The recommended answer: rain Marty's answer: a boat ride |
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Thursday, September 15, 2016
A peaceful, homey home
photo by Sandra Dodd
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Richer, meaningful, lasting
"As I became happier with myself and the world around me, I would say that real learning started to happen. From my experience, when trauma heals, learning begins to become more fluid again. Richer. More meaningful. More lasting."
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Giving up, gaining strength
De Smith wrote:
At one point in my early struggles to grasp the concept, I "threw in the towel", thinking that it wasn't "working", and decided I was going back to traditional parenting! Within a day, I knew I could never be that parent, again—if I ever had totally been that parent. I found that once you learned how to respect someone, you couldn't ignore that and treat them with less value, with less honor just because you decided so. For a day or so, that had me desperate and flailing. Eventually, I found it strengthening—it backed up the ideas I so loved and wanted for my family.
SandraDodd.com/unexpected
photo by Sandra Dodd
—De Smith
photo by Sandra Dodd
Monday, September 12, 2016
Convenience foods
Life was harder, not long ago. Food preparation and availability are easier than ever. Appreciate the advantages of living where you live, when you live! Rejoice at convenience.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Something looks like this:
collection,
equipment,
museum
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Beyond the door
A computer, a hand held game, an iPod are doors that lead to a vast world of experiences. Just as your front door leads to a vast world of many different things you can do. Would you refer to all the things your family does by going through your front door—walks, shopping, visiting friends, mowing the lawn, vacations—as "door stuff"?
—Joyce Fetteroll
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Saturday, September 10, 2016
Questions and curiosity
photo by Sandra Dodd
Friday, September 9, 2016
Slight, subtle change
photo by Colleen Prieto, who wrote
"Fantastic little snake—he was watching us watching him.
Newburyport, Massachusetts"
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Thursday, September 8, 2016
Canada... dude!
I'm happy to know I'm not the sole source of information for my kids.
Last night I came to use my computer and there was a dialog on the desktop, a leftover instant message between my thirteen-year-old son Marty and an older homeschooler. This was the entirety of that dialog:
Marty: You coming down?
Other kid: yeah.
Marty: Did you know Canada has Prime Ministers?
Other kid: yeah
Marty: dude
Now I will never have to explain to Marty that Canada has a prime minister. I don't know why he cared, on a Friday night in New Mexico, but it doesn't matter.
For the record, "last night" was in late 2002, and the other kid was Brett Henry, also unschooled, who is now a firefighter in the Los Alamos Fire Department.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Helpful and kind
The idea of doing what is kind to do, whether it's bringing food to someone who is engaged in something interesting, or hanging around a long time just in case help is needed did not get dusty. That's the way our kids think others should be, and it has made countless differences in all directions in our lives.
Radical Unschooling Info post by Sandra Dodd; September 6, 2016
photo by Megan Valnes
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Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Unfurling
Look at that curled up leaf:
Something that will be big, and full, sometimes starts small, and in another form. If conditions remain good for that leaf, it will open up like the others. It won't happen sooner from wishing or pressure. The leaf won't be bigger from speeches or promises. It will open gently to be itself, if it is allowed to unfurl in its own way.
SandraDodd.com/unschool/definition.html
photo by Holly Dodd
Something that will be big, and full, sometimes starts small, and in another form. If conditions remain good for that leaf, it will open up like the others. It won't happen sooner from wishing or pressure. The leaf won't be bigger from speeches or promises. It will open gently to be itself, if it is allowed to unfurl in its own way.
photo by Holly Dodd
Monday, September 5, 2016
What happens is...
What happens when you see other people differently is that you cannot help but see yourself differently. When you choose to find opportunities to give other people choices, you yourself have begun to make more choices. |
which links to SandraDodd.com/change
photo by Rippy Dusseldorp (her kids and Adam's family)
Sunday, September 4, 2016
A thousand to one
photo by Chrissy Florence
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Organic learning
photo by Sandra Dodd
Friday, September 2, 2016
Sixth Anniversary, Just Add Light and Stir
I missed announcing the fifth anniversary, in 2015. By the time I noticed, six weeks had passed. Happy anniversary to us all, 2016.
Sometimes it's hard to find a quote that hasn't been used. Other times I don't have a great photo to match the quote. But occasionally it's poetically magical, and I'm inspired, again, to continue.
Thank you for reading and sharing.
photo by Sandra Dodd, of someone else's good idea
Sometimes it's hard to find a quote that hasn't been used. Other times I don't have a great photo to match the quote. But occasionally it's poetically magical, and I'm inspired, again, to continue.
Thank you for reading and sharing.
photo by Sandra Dodd, of someone else's good idea
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Same but different
Some things are the same at a distance, or when the details are unimportant.
Up close, even things that are "the same" can be very different.
What you're doing, what people think you're doing, what you wish you were doing, all might be very different. By careful comparison and contrast, we can clarify our vision. Save the effort for things you care about, though.
photo by Sandra Dodd
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
One tiny step
Until you drop the idea of teaching, you won't see the learning all around you.
One tiny step opens up a new world of learning.
photo by Eva Witsel
(Okay, maybe it's not a tiny step, but even if it's a series of awkward steps, get over there!)
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Criss-cross trails
Do the best you can to survive the bumps and unexpected turns of the trails through the unschooling world, which will necessarily cross back over and through themselves, which is how learning works–a little now, a little more later to connect to what you've learned since, and detours that end up being short cuts.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Monday, August 29, 2016
A mysterious little door
Sometimes a litle door might be literal, or sometimes figurative, but little doors can lead to many wonderful things! All the doors you've ever seen are connected in you. They open into all different places and spaces in your memory and your imagination.
Hidden secret rooms...
photo by Sandra Dodd
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photo by Sandra Dodd
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Something looks like this:
architecture,
stonework,
woodwork
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Cleaning the future
I had been unschooling for years before a few people suggested on a message board that requiring kids to do chores could be as bad as making them do schoolwork. I perked up immediately, and everything they said has proven true at our house. The first principle was "If a mess is bothering you, YOU clean it up." Another one was "Do things for your family because you *want* to!"
It was new to me to consider housework a fun thing to be done with a happy attitude, but as it has changed my life and because it fit in so well with the other unschooling issues, I've collected things to help others consider this change as well.
In the same way that food controls can create food issues, forcing housework on children can cause resentments and avoidances which neither get houses clean nor improve the relationships between children and parents.
Also, studies of separated identical twins have shown that the desire and ability to clean and organize has more to do with genetics than "training."
photo by Sandra Dodd
"That's a rad picture; I think I was eleven." —Holly
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Inside, outside
It reminded me of every good thing about learning and parenting.
photo by Sandra Dodd
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