Holly made this with photos Marty took, sitting in a sculpture of broken carts Marty made (behind the store where he was working). I'm putting it here partly because I like it and it shows some of the things they do for fun, but partly to see if this blog format will accept wider images than the old one.
Each month for the past ten years, The Natural Child Project has named a resource of the month. Beginning tomorrow, my unschooling pages will be featured. The first resource named was La Leche League, in April 1997. Last year Rue Kream's book was featured in February, and Joyce Fetteroll was "Miss October" (as it were ). Last year the AlwaysUnschooled list and the magazine Live Free Learn Free were also featured. It was a big year for unschooling! I find myself in excellent company, and am glad Jan Hunt likes my site enough to share it out with her readers. Most of her letter is below. I don't know when her review will be up, but I'll put a link here when it is: http://sandradodd.com/unschooling
Sandra
===================================
Hi Sandra,
We have selected Radical Unschooling for our February 2007 "Parenting Resource of the Month" feature. A review will be posted at http://www.naturalchild.org/site_of_the_month/. Our site receives about 250,000 visitors per month.
We'll place a link on the Natural Child Project home page at http://www.naturalchild.org , and will note this selection in the February issue of our email newsletter, which currently over 5000 subscribers. Previous issues can be read at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naturalchildproject/ .
[then there was some stuff about how to link and get the graphics...]
Congratulations and thank you for providing such an inspiring and enlightened resource!
Best wishes,
Jan Hunt, M.Sc., Director
The Natural Child Project
http://www.naturalchild.org
"Change the world - nurture a child."
http://sandradodd.com/typical
http://sandradodd.com/day/danielle
The first link will lead to the second. Danielle had a beautiful day described on her blog and I added it to the "Typical Days" section, with a link back to the original.
http://sandradodd.com/eating/longterm
Two new accounts of the problems with controlling food, and the surprising benefits of freedom and choices.
The page existed. The two new accounts are in the middle, after Kelly's story of the restaurant. IIt was a good page, and now it's better.
There's a new account on the speed reading page by Ria.
http://sandradodd.com/r/speed
and I've added an image of part of what would be lost by reading too fast.
Health food and multiple intelligences—totally unrelated to one another:
http://sandradodd.com/eating/healthfood
Short new page on eating,
and the main food page is cleaned up and improved
http://sandradodd.com/food
I'm working on a page on Gardner's Multiple Intelligences. If you're interested, check back by Wednesday, by when I'll have added more.
http://sandradodd.com/intelligences
http://sandradodd.com/unschool/gettingit
Short new bit added to Unschooling: Getting It
http://sandradodd.com/game/reading
Hayden reads the back of the World of Warcraft expansion set box aloud—check it out.
http://sandradodd.com/bedtime
well... bedtime! choices, sleep...
One new math page and I cleaned up the others (larger margins, double-checked and update links).
http://sandradodd.com/math/think
Main math page: http://sandradodd.com/math
Updated pages:
My son knows Algebra (somehow!)
A Tale of Times Tables
An Unschooler does "Word Problems"
A letter from Wendy Petti at mathcats.com
Unschooling, Money and Math
Pam Sorooshian on Dice
Games and Math
Teens who didn't study math
Sandra in the early 21st Century
http://sandradodd.com/00s
New writings added here:
http://sandradodd.com/t/holly
http://sandradodd.com/t/peace
New from Schuyler (not newly written, but newly available online):
http://sandradodd.com/schuyler/rant
Some new photos and clarifications on the Morning Glories page, a page that's brought in a couple of readers who were looking for morning glory information and found unschooling and other things.
http://sandradodd.com/morningglories
Sandra
I wasn't going to announce this page, as it's not original writing,
nor about unschooling or the SCA.
Then I thought, all things being connected, that it might be just
the thing SOMEone needs this week, for some unknown reason, or it
might be something someone will need next week, so I might as well
put it out there.
http://sandradodd.com/theblindmenandtheelephant
Joyce found the poem a couple of years ago, and when I went today to find a text, I found slight variations, so I've tweaked this one to a matching set myself. If you find any errors, please let me know.
I should say that the quicker and more reliable way to see site news is to join this yahoogroup:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sandradodd/
My intent is to post here what I send there, but I'm slow sometimes.
http://sandradodd.com/howto
Precisely How to Unschool, with a graph and everything!
http://sandradodd.com/robyn/respect
Some general thoughts about Respect, by Robyn Coburn
http://sandradodd.com/lists/comments
There's something new and very nice there.
Being your Child's Partner, not his Adversary
http://sandradodd.com/partners
Not new, but newly spruced up and linked back and forth.
The note below is a few months old, but I've just added it to this page of feedback:
sandradodd.com/lists/comments
It's just one of many pages that people might never come across, so I thought I'd point it out to this list. I've received a couple of sweet Christmas cards with photos of kids I've never met whose lives are better because of unschooling. I wanted to thank Joyce, and Pam Sorooshian, and Deb Lewis, and others whose words have changed lives, and to thank those who come and read these ideas and try them out, and those who let others know it's working well.
As "Peace on Earth" goes, these are all very large and very real contributions.
Merry Christmas (or happy holiday of your choice).
Sandra
I just wanted to take a minute, also, to tell you how much I have appreciated the Unschooling list, and how much it really changed my life and the life of my kids. I used to be a mom who (many years ago) spanked, grounded, and did all that other stuff many "experts" in the homeschooling world proposed would help raise good kids. I'm so happy I finally figured out a better way, and I have you, Pam, and Joyce (and Ren!) to thank for it. I, in turn, have tried to pass these ideas and principles on to other people in my life, at homeschool meetings, 4H, foster parent classes, Church, etc.
It's actually been years since I've spanked, but only a few years (since joining the list) that I've learned to REALLY listen to my kids and be a much more mindful parent. Only a few years since I began saying "Yes" a lot more. My kids are happy, funny, outgoing, talented, friendly and especially thoughtful and kind to others.
http://sandradodd.com/unschoolingotherwise
Link to a new discussion list in Panama and one in Germany.
http://sandradodd.com/peace/noisy
A Loud Peaceful Home
(if you subscribe to Danielle's ezine Connections, you might have
seen this already. The current issue has something about my kids in
driver's ed, but this is from an older issue and was made more public
at the request of a particular local unschooling group who needed it!)
There are a few more links on the Help page, and I'm sorry not to
have kept a list of them.
http://sandradodd.com/help
http://parents.autrement.free.fr/article.php3?id_article=34
This is a translation of "Bored No More" which is:
https://sandradodd.com/BoredNoMore
(This and other French translations are linked here:
https://sandradodd.com/french )
(this was sent to the announcements list in November, but I forgot to put it here)