teen photos, choices, leaning on a truck

I've added photo links here:

http://sandradodd.com/teen/kirby
http://sandradodd.com/teen/people
http://sandradodd.com/teen/brenna
http://sandradodd.com/teens

There's an addition to
http://sandradodd.com/choice

Addition and page improvements:
http://sandradodd.com/truckcomments

New page, older writing—Joyce on choices and TV
http://sandradodd.com/tvchoice

Logic, presence and deschooling

http://sandradodd.com/joyce/logic
TV discussion added to one of the Joyce Fetteroll pages. She's so clear.

http://sandradodd.com/logic
Link to the above, and something by Pam, and a cartoon that was on the wall in our bathroom for a long time. I don't have the original date, but it's been several years.



http://sandradodd.com/peacefulparenting
"There is no substitute for being authentically "there" for them..."
Something new by Pam Sorooshian (new to me; maybe new to some of your), at the bottom of that page.

http://sandradodd.com/sandylubert
Sandy Lubert on Unschooling and deschooling, and changes...
(Notes for her presentation at the recent unschooling conference in Toronto, and photos she let me use.)

TV, tone of voice, UD, writing, podcast link

Learning from TV has been expanded.
http://sandradodd.com/t/learning

Tone of voice (the mom's):
http://sandradodd.com/tone

Reorganized the information relating to the UnschoolingDiscussion list, which was moved last month from yahoogroups to google groups.
http://sandradodd.com/unschoolingdiscussion

Writing:
http://sandradodd.com/writing

A link has been added at
http://sandradodd.com/help
to someone's new podcast collection that's here:
http://unbridledlearning.podomatic.com/

I was quoted in the first one. There are two now, and more intended. If unbridled learning is hard to remember, sandradodd.com/help might not be.

New and Better site search tools

The simple, free search function I was using became increasingly unreliable and then quit working altogether.

http://sandradodd.com/search
I used Google's free search, and have it in a few places there now. If you come across any of the old plain non-functioning search boxes, please let me know. Google doesn't search within code, so I can't find them that way.

The 404/bad link page has been spiffed up to match that too, so try a bad link of your own device, or this one:

http://sandradodd.com/sufferingsuccotash
Holly helped me with a photoshop trick I didn't know, and Joyce Fetteroll's advice that making an image file the size you want it to finally be made the whole thing work better, so I'm grateful to Holly, Joyce and Google, and to Danielle Conger for reminding me Google had free web-search links.

Search WWW Search SandraDodd.com

Robyn Coburn, reading and vegetables

http://sandradodd.com/robyncoburn
Links to some of Robyn Coburn's writings

http://sandradodd.com/r/sandra
Two illustrations and an link added to a page about my kids learning to read

http://sandradodd.com/etymology
Also about reading, sort of (spelling, word histories), there are additions on the etymology page at the bottom.

http://sandradodd.com/eating/balance
New story there:

Holly has had braces since she was twelve years old. She's fourteen and they come off next month. On her Myspace page she has posted this:
Things to do when I get my braces off:
1. Have corn on the cob like all the time
2. Go to Shoney's and get like a ton of gum from their really cool 25¢ gum machine
3. Eat carrots until my skin turns orange
She doesn't chew gum much at all; never has. But she's frugal, and to spend a quarter to see that big gumball roller coaster work when she can't even eat the gum seems wrong to her. She has definitely been missing carrots, and grated carrots just aren't the same for her.—Sandra

Certificate of Empowerment, 10th Anniversary!

I have one from the first batch of The Certificate of Empowerment
here. I thought they would be used just that one time, the first
time I spoke at a conference. It was a local conference here in
Albuquerque. I think I had 50 copies, and I signed and dated each
one with "real ink" (a Speedball pen and a blue ink). It says
3/23/96. (Apologies to Europeans—March 23, 1996.)

Since then I've had them photocopied and printed by offset with
colored ink on colored paper, and have passed out thousands of copies
by now and I don't date them, because I pass the extras out at the
next conference.

It's been TEN YEARS since I first spoke and passed those out. Seems
like... ten years.

Kirby was nine, and someone on a homeschooling discussion board
(there was no such thing in those days as a separate unschooling
forum) told other readers that they could disregard me
entirely because my oldest was only nine years old. I didn't know
what I was talking about, she assured everyone. I wonder if her
kids are as happy now, ten years later, as mine are?

Computers, Progress and Bribery

http://sandradodd.com/sex
Bit added, lower right, written by Deb Lewis and saved by me but only mounted this weekend! It's cute, and links back to the index page of Deb-stuff.

http://sandradodd.com/unschool/gettingit
Susan McGlohn whose e-mail looks like "wifetovegman" wrote something encouraging someone NOT to take her time getting to unschooling but to just get there directly. I added it to the collection called "getting it."

http://sandradodd.com/bribery
Someone asked whether offering kids an incentive wasn't bribery. This will be added, to, I'm sure. It's another of those things that makes me wish I had saved every good piece of others' writings on a topic.

Pam Sorooshian links, Deb Lewis lists, Strewing

I added some links to my Pam Sorooshian page. The writing was out there, but now will be more easily found: http://sandradodd.com/pamsorooshian Not a new page, but a reminder (and it has been linked another place or two): Economics of Restricting TV Watching of Children http://sandradodd.com/t/economics.html I also added to the Deb Lewis lists. Sometimes someone's writing speaks easily to a particular reader, and its nice to be able to give them more of the voice they like. http://sandradodd.com/deblewis My writing, from a post on unschooling discussion, added to http://sandradodd.com/strew/how There have been a couple of discussions in which people said strewing was manipulative and sneaky. I don't see it that way at all. If I know what kinds of things my children could use being exposed to to be more well rounded, or to "fill in gaps" in what they know, or to take them to another level of understanding, bringing those things up in physical or conversational ways is no more "manipulative" than bringing more fruit into the house if there hasn't been much fruit consumption lately, or bringing them bottles of water on hot summer days. I don't need to force them to eat oranges or drink water, but I can notice it might be good for them and make it appealing.

New TV love note

The following addition, with three links for biographical and photo-
reminder purposes, appears on "the Gilligan's Island page" and also
on its own page, though that one won't be linked unless other Star
Trek stuff presents itself down the line.

Star Trek leads to Science and Astronautics

LaVar Burton directed an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation,
on which astronaut Mae Jemison played the transporter operator. In
the commentary following the 6th season on DVD (interview November 8,
2001, on disc 7, "Communications: Bold New Directions"), he said:

Mae Jemison was really thrilling for me because May and Whoopi and I are all fans of the show and have had the conversation among
ourselves that Star Trek was hugely important to us as kids when we were growing up.

I read a lot of science fiction books, as a child. Science fiction was pretty much my body of literature of choice and it was rare, it was not very often, that I encountered heroes in the pages of those novels who looked like me.

So in Mae’s case, Mae Carol Jemison, first African-American woman in space, flew a shuttle mission— became first a scientist and then an astronaut because she watched Star Trek, and one of the messages that she received was that “This is a job that’s possible for you, too, little girl.” And so, to be able to bring Mae on Star Trek in an episode that I directed and just have her be transporter chief, but even more than that, to have Nichelle come by that day and to have the two meet was huge… huge.

For those who aren't Star Trek Fans, Whoopi is Whoopi Goldberg, who played the wise Guinan in TNG (The Next Generation), and Nichelle is Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura, the communications officer, in the original series.

If anyone here doesn't know why it would go with Gilligan's Island,
maybe you haven't been to that page for a while! Check it out—
http://sandradodd.com/t/gilligan
http://sandradodd.com/t/startrek

Chores, ElleGirl article, Dinner fears and joys

Addition to the true tales of children helping with chores when they don't have to:
http://sandradodd.com/chores/tales

Holly is in an article in the April 2006 issue ElleGirl, a fashion magazine for teens. The article is on unschooling, and also quotes Brenna and Gail, and Roya Sorooshian. It mentions Kirby and Marty and quotes me. I've been quoted better. So in my frustration I wrote something that's not on the site proper, but some of you might want to read. It's here:
http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2006/03/first-flower-of-2006-and-other-little_02.html.
link to scan of article
What about Dinner?
Someone asked a good question and got some good answers at Always Learning. I saved some here:
http://sandradodd.com/eating/dinner

Contents, Housework, Hannah Jenner

I've been working on the contents page. It will always be woefully
lacking, but it might lead you to some areas you hadn't seen lately
(or ever):
http://sandradodd.com/contents
I plan to work on it some more later today.

There's something new and inspiring about housework and chores, at
the bottom of this page, written today by CelticFrau/Nancy B.
http://sandradodd.com/chores/intro

That's Hannah on the left.

Diana Jenner's daughter Hannah died this morning, February 24. She
was nine and a half and had leukemia. Her dad died five years ago,
of cancer.

There is a new page concerning the coordination of family assistance,
because it was thought there would be a couple of years of
chemotherapy. The page will remain for a while, as Diana and Hayden
will need support. There are photos of Hannah, in case some of you
met her at Live and Learn conferences near Boston or St. Louis.
http://sandradodd.com/dianahelp the page is no longer up

Even those who don't know the family can benefit by remembering and
appreciating that we are with our children more than we might be in
other circumstances.

young kids, language, obsession, books

I'm sure all of these will be added to as time goes by.

http://sandradodd.com/language
Fun and Games with Language Arts

http://sandradodd.com/toddlers
A place to send people who ask about "pre-school" and toddler aged kids.

http://sandradodd.com/focus
This came up today, and gave me an excuse to link a couple of older bits.
What of a narrowly-focussed obsession or hobby? (I'd love additions for this.)

http://sandradodd.com//babytalk
From a conversation a week or two back, about whether it hurts or helps to avoid babytalk, or to use more than one word for an object or idea.

http://sandradodd.com/substance
I've saved a little file called "compost" for a long time, and got a reason to use it. There are links to other pages on "getting it."

http://sandradodd.com/bookbio
Stories about the power and importance of books. A couple of the stories I've told repeatedly are written down. Partly bio, partly evidence for book worship and such.