Video Interview by Lee Stranahan

Video, part one, of an interview with me. This is on the blog of the UnConvention to be held in Albuquerque in June, and which might also be held later in Los Angeles, I hear. It's small and inexpensive! If you watch it there, maybe leave a note so the organizer will know someone's looking. Lee Stranahan, who's created the conference, also made the video.

Toddlers, Infants, and The Chewbacca Defense

Thanks, Tammy in Australia, for the new title art for the toddler page:
http://sandradodd.com/toddlers

It also appears here, in the righthand column:
http://sandradodd.com/youngchildren

Joyce shared a hundred-year-old poem on the treatment of infants:
http://sandradodd.com/culture/infants

To Get More Jokes
The Chewbacca Defense video has disappeared. I have another one.
This one will someday disappear. Watch it before it too is a bad link.
http://sandradodd.com/connections/jokes


I wish to thank Brad Holcomb for generating a report on my site that shows broken links. About four percent of my links were broken, but many of them are fixed now. Nancy Wooton also sent a list of broken links, some of which are still broken because some people just don't keep their sites up forever. Those are on my list to repair or to drop from the video games page. If any of you find bad formatting, typos or broken links, please let me know. I'd rather fix them than let them stay there. Typos or informalities in quotes from online discussions can stay, but if they make something confusing or scatological, please send a note with a link to the page it was on. Thanks!

cleaning up seen as replacing a canvas; being

"Now I think of cleaning up after my kids as replacing a canvas."
Not new, but new on my site, and one of the best quotes ever.
Third item here:
http://sandradodd.com/chores/shift

This little exchange was posted at the Always Learning List, so I'm sharing it and the link it rode in on:

I just wanted to jump in and say that this link is exactly what I needed right now in this moment. Thank you for posting it.

I have been needing that link too, Maisha. That's why I posted it.

So let's just keep posting it. :D It really is very good.

~Katherine

http://sandradodd.com/being

Speaking in June, How To Unschool, and live chats

I'm speaking in Albuquerque in June.
Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 10:00 AM
http://unconvention-abq.eventbrite.com/

Several "how to unschool" posts have been gathered together. There's a new directory page for them here:
http://sandradodd.com/howto

Online chats continue. There are regular text chats early in the week (Monday afternoon at my house) and late (Friday morning at my house) and times for regular chatters are listed here:
http://sandradodd.com/chats/regular

Hema Bharadwaj and I are working on a time for a chat that will work for her in India. It might be Sunday mornings at my house, Sunday evenings at hers. It's not a good time for New Zealand, but with enough regular chats, everyone should be able to get in on one.

The advertisement-free chat room, passworded so trollers don't find us, is $15 per month, and if anyone would like to contribute to this, funds would be gratefully accepted though my regular e-mail address, at PayPal.

UNESCO report, chores, BEing with children

An UNESCO report places the UK an the US on the lowest places of a list of countries, looking to the well-being of children, and places the Netherlands on the top of the same list.
http://unschooling.blogspot.com/2009/04/britain-and-us-worst-places-for.html

Deb Lewis on how a parent can overcome feeling "taken advantage of."
http://sandradodd.com/chores/unfair

Transcript of chat on *being* with kids
from Wednesday, April 1, 2008
http://sandradodd.com/chats/being

abundance, changing the world, Joyce, "educational stuff"

Abundance
http://sandradodd.com/abundance

"New Improved" page. This writing has been published under two different titles, "Thoughts About Unschooling," and "Changing the World." It's written for people who don't know much about homeschooling, and so might be useful for sharing with relatives.
http://sandradodd.com/thoughts

I made a random page search for Joyce Fetteroll's page. It's on my own Joyce index page and also in the upper right corner of her page now:

http://sandradodd.com/joycefetteroll
http://joyfullyrejoycing.com/

Thought on the use of intentional/professional "educational materials" by unschoolers:
http://sandradodd.com/stages/materials

I hadn't shared the new art
for "the randomizer" here.
My friend Bo King did it,
who also did the trees
for my unschooling page.

A child's interests, food, and quotes

New story on the Focus, Hobbies, Obsessions page, lower left:
http://sandradodd.com/focus,
and below that, a link to a Pam Laricchia article (created from a 2007 conference presentation), with graphics.

Transcript of the second food chat, with some good links and a great little video:
http://sandradodd.com/chats/food2

Messy full version of the chat on ideas, quotes, affirmations (or maybe the edited chat, depending when you read this)
http://sandradodd.com/chats/affirmations

Two upcoming chats are listed at
http://sandradodd.com/chat

New title art by Jack and Lauren Stranahan at
http://sandradodd.com/peace/guns

Sandra Speaking (and travelling lots and a little)

My next four speaking engagements are detailed on my own blog. They are Albuquerque, London, San Diego and Santa Fe. That is one cool set of places!!!!!

Monkey Platters, Winning Images

           

Every person who has come into the house since yesterday has been recruited to choose a favorite and second favorite of 17 photos. I will contact the creators of those winning images separately. The names have been separated from the pictures, so I'll need to go through the notes to see whose is whose, but the three at top are the first, second and third place winners in that order.

I'm grateful to everyone who participated. Thanks!

These also have special mentions:
Marty's favorite:

Keith liked the colors on the one at the left, and said he would be like to taste the one at the right, more than the others. (But Keith's an old guy, and monkey platters are for kids to have variety, so it's just a comment. )

    
I really like this one myself, for the perspective and the colors:

Ideas index, "Random" portal

An index to the "Playing with Ideas" blog. Not alphabetical, because few of the topics lend themselves to that, but it's easily searchable, and fun for browsing.
http://sandradodd.com/blogs/thinkingsticks

Site transporter:
http://sandradodd.com/random
You don't need to remember the link. There's a "Randomize me" link at both of these:
http://sandradodd.com/unschooling
http://sandradodd.com
There are 200 URLS in it now and if I keep working on it without flagging, there will be five or six hundred in a few days.
No more pesky decision-making about which unschooling page to read!

Video game design and discussion

Two new links on video games (top two links):
http://sandradodd.com/videogames


I usually wait until I have three items to declare, but I'm trying to get ready to go to the HENA conference in Arizona, and don't want this to wait until next week.

I'll see some of you soon.

Randomization, food and "About a Boy"

NEW! Random link option on the food section (and others will likely pop up other places on the site).
http://sandradodd.com/food
upper right

Food Chat the second, March 4 in the U.S., which is March 5 early in Australia.
http://sandradodd.com/chats/food2

There are additions to the Monkey Platters page:
http://sandradodd.com/eating/monkeyplatter

Transcript of a chat on "About a Boy," with links and excerpts:
http://sandradodd.com/chats/aboutaboy