Learning about Learning, and House Concerts

Madeline wrote something wonderful a few days ago at http://barn-raising.blogspot.com/2008/07/trying-to-take-break-from-learning.html
It's not technically on my site, but a link to it is.

Trying to Take a Break From Learning

Sandra Dodd's Learn Nothing Day has arrived! Unschoolers everywhere are finally taking a break. Kids who go to school get many breaks. Now we get one too.

So... how is it going? Well, my kids are at a fort-building camp this week and are staying with their cousin so I can tell you that they are not participating. Gillen told me on the phone that he is taking notes about this fort they are building so that he can come home and build one here. I am hoping he will then teach me to build a studio in the yard.

As for me, I have failed, as I knew I would, and am learning about all of the back-logged thoughts in my head that are having room to be heard in this quiet house.

There is no such thing as not learning. I challenge you to try! That is what makes our chosen path - unschooling - so delicious. We are learning all the time, even when we are "just" having fun, doing what people might term extra-curricular activities and even when we are quietly doing nothing—just letting what we have learned marinate and giving it space and time to morph into something new.

Six years ago, when I was reading about unschooling on discussion lists for the first time, I was intrigued by the idea that kids' natural curiosity, accompanied by committed parental support of their passions, could start them on a journey that would teach them everything they would ever need to know. Having embraced this philosophy for over five years now, I see that it is true. The more I trust that they know what they need, the more they thrive.

I expose them to a lot of possibilities and they pick and choose. They expose me to new ideas and pursuits as well. They talk and I listen. Sometimes I talk too much, and they don't listen and that's always a sure fire way to create a road block to relationship and joyful learning. Things go much better when I shut up more and really listen.

Sorry to talk so much on learn nothing day. I am embracing my failure to not learn and am recommitting to trust this process even more completely from here on out.

And a different thing:

http://sandradodd.com/kellylovejoy/houseconcerts

Dads, Obsession, Sleeping

I've added some blogs of unschooling dads here:
http://sandradodd.com/dads
If any of you know of others that might be added, please let me know. Thanks.

Focus, Obsessions, Hobbies
http://sandradodd.com/focus
Page updated, new title art by Holly (not hand done this time, but something she knows how to do that I don't.)

Because of KT's Learn Nothing Day post, I added photos of her kids to this page:
http://sandradodd.com/sleeping
If you click them you can see her original post, which leads to Learn Nothing Day, which leads to a long list...

Well here:
http://sandradodd.com/learnnothingday
which has a growing list of sites and blogs with a link to Learn Nothing Day, which is only two or three days away (two and a half at my house while I write this, and maybe two if you read it Tuesday morning). There's a lot of reading to be had on those links!

The Learn Nothing Day contest has some entries in, and I figure other images will be made on the day itself and sent afterwards. My plan is to have the entries gathered and available for viewing by the 28th, and winners announced by the 31st.

Thank you all for your interest in my own personal obsession!

Messes coming and going; Attentive Parenting

http://sandradodd.com/day/amandaflour

Children picking things up for others
http://sandradodd.com/chore/shift
(new story at the top)

"Attentive Parenting," with links to similar things
http://sandradodd.com/attentiveparenting

The first Learn Nothing Day images are in:
http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2008/07/images-arriving.html


FEEDBACK:

"When I move thru your site, I feel like a child in a candy store, or like I'm in a fantastic meandering castle with hidden secret rooms and magic doors to new realities."

Melissa Dietrick wrote that. She's the translator of the Italian Learn Nothing Day page:
http://sandradodd.com/learnnothingday/italian

Photo/Image Contest for Learn Nothing Day

Learn Nothing Day Photo/Image contest with four categories:

Animal, Mineral, Vegetable or Video

Each image submitted should include the Learn Nothing Day logo/art. If you buy a t-shirt or magnet or notebook or something, that could be in the photo. Time is running out, so order soon to get things by the 24th!)
http://www.cafepress.com/LearnNothingDay

Alternatively, the image in a variety of sizes may be lifted freely for use:
http://sandradodd.com/learnnothingday/images

• Animal: The photo/image should have at least one animal of some sort, and the logo.
  
• Mineral: The mineral is... a mirror. Silicon as in glass. Or silicon as represented by a computer. Mirror or computer (not pottery or bricks or sand or rocks, though they can be there secondarily, of course, in any of the photos). And the logo.
  
• Vegetable: Plant(s) and the logo. The photo can also have people, animals, whatever... but having a botanical element is the ticket.
  
• Video: The logo in a video or animated gif or flash cartoon or something. An image that moves, and that I can put on a webpage.

More details (contest rules and suggestions and pep-talk and disclaimers) are here: http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2008/07/contest.html

Thanks for reading!!

"Common knowledge"

This was posted on AlwaysLearning by DaBreeze21/susanmay15. The first part is something I wrote:

-==It goes against "common knowledge," but if common
knowledge were worth a damn, wouldn't this culture be a paradise of
mental health and joy, with empty prisons and long-lasting marriages?
Sandra=--

This quote is GREAT! Made me smile, laugh inwardly and outwardly and I
think that it should be posted somewhere, anywhere, carved into a
granite mountain, or flown in the sky, maybe cut into a cornfield by
aliens... somewhere where lots of people can read it! :-) And I think
that it is a pretty gosh-darn good argument to have at my fingertips
whenever someone is questioning parenting methods that are counter to
popular beliefs... thanks Sandra!

---

This is as close as I can come to carving it into a mountain.