Warm wishes and gratitude

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.

links and an article

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

Another French translation, different site

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)

Connections

This note has been brought from an older blog in 2010, and the Connections e-zine is now freely available. There were nine issues, including the sample linked below. Issue #8 and the links to the archives: http://connections.organiclearning.org/archives.html

AWESOME!
“The piece by Sandra Dodd totally had me all welled up! ALONE it is
worth the price of subscription!”

---

Wow.

The subscription to which that reader referred is the $10
subscription to Connections, an e-zine created by Danielle Conger.

2016 note: It's all gone, but my articles and some other folks' were rescued and are on my site, various places.

There’s a sample issue here:
http://connections.organiclearning.org/Issue0/index.html

The second “real” issue will be out at the beginning of October. The
article by me last month included my Totally Scientific graph on how
much time to spend with a child at each stage of his life, and
accompanying inspirational text. The upcoming issue will have an
article based on my notes for the talk “Big Noisy Peace,” but it’s
not called that.

As you’ll see if you click on that sample, it’s an attractive set-up
with links back to all kinds of places, and there are quotes from
several unschooling mailing lists, so people can either just read the
highlights that way, or can shop for a list they might like based on
excerpts collected and provided by Danielle.

For people without the time or inclination to participate in a list
every day, this seems a great way to get various people’s opinions
without suffering through too much chit-chat. And it has photos.
Other regular contributors are Ren Allen, Deb Lewis, Ben Lovejoy and
Anne Ohman. Rue Kream has a question/answer spot.

$10 for ten issues (plus back issues) is a good deal. $1 per
carefully edited issue, and you can go back to it anytime during your
subscription period.

At first I was skeptical that it was worth doing, but I really do
like it.

Sandra

Teens, Mirrors, Art about Art

I've been waiting for these pages to feel more finished, and some have bits I have on hand to add, but before I lose track of what's unannounced, I'll put them out here. Besides, some of you might have great ideas to add.

https://sandradodd.com/teen There's another page that ends with "teens" plural, but Holly found a cool photo (she thinks Ren took it) and I thought a simpler kind of index page might be helpful.

I've been working on a set of artsy pages
https://sandradodd.com/artaboutart
https://sandradodd.com/mirrors
https://sandradodd.com/photographs

https://sandradodd.com/peace/mama I'm planning to add the photo of Kelly hugging Cameron, from 2005. Haven't yet. ←DONE.

divorce, chores/gifts, Schuyler and Dan

There have been a couple of discussions of divorce lately and I saved some good parts:
https://sandradodd.com/divorce

Schuyler Waynforth wrote something really nice about chores becoming gifts, and I’ve added it to an older page:
https://sandradodd.com/chores/gift

Others of Schuyler’s writings have been gathered (linkwise) here: https://sandradodd.com/schuylerwaynforth
and Schuyler has also become a moderator of the UnschoolingDiscussion list

I’ve made a page of links of Dan Vilter’s writings too: https://sandradodd.com/danvilter

Faith

a guy wrote:
-=-You have restored (somewhat) my faith in Humanity.
( or at least in you...)-=-

I responded:
Interesting idea, "Faith in Humanity."
Disappointment in all of humanity is as bad as "faith" in all of humanity.

I never thought of it before. Thanks for the new thought you didn't mean to plant!

---

The topic was my Dumbledore page. That one was announced at unschoolinginfo.com/forum, way back. Harry Potter speculation. Don't go read it. But someone came across it and was furious that I had said something right near the top that spoiled the book for him. I think that because the book had been out for six months or more that was his problem, but still I felt bad. I like to be surprised by the endings of movies others have seen already.

So I added a long silly intro to the page
http://sandradodd.com/dumbledore
and if you want to look at the intro, just don't read any more of it.
If you do read more of it, don't complain to me.

But for doing that, which I did months back (this guy doesn't check his e-mail much!), I restored someone's faith in humanity.

"Faith in humanity" is one of those idiomatic expressions people use without dissection. I know perfectly well what "You've restored my faith in humanity" means, and how it's used and what it's intended to mean, but not until today did I see it for what it REALLY means.

All of "faith" hinged on me. My action (putting up silly photos and spur-of-the-moment words) changed someone's faith in humanity (so someone said). I guess before I changed that webpage, faith in humanity had been lost. Gone. No faith in humanity.

That's crazy!

First, no one should have "faith" in humanity. In what, ALL OF THEM? ALL humans are worthy of faith? Faith in what way--trust? Support? Acceptance? Humanity robs banks and kills people. Humanity abuses children and steals stereos out of cars.

And we're not a team. And if we WERE a team, neither democracy nor consensus would cause us all to agree and act as a single unit without renegades or detractors.

So where SHOULD faith be?

I think now (as of about fifteen minutes ago) that faith is what some people come to unschooling discussions to find. They want to find some people in whom they can "put their faith." They have some faith and the urge to "put it," and they look at unschoolers.

IF they have faith, then they will... what?
Trust what EVERY unschooler says?

And when one unschooler says something unreliable or off, then the person's faith is broken? Dead? Betrayed? Lost?

Skepticism

a guy wrote: -=- I am genuinely interested (if skeptical).-=-

I wrote: Genuine interest is great. Expressing skepticism to me is a little irritating. Nothing else was irritating.
My kids are 20, 17 and 14 and your skepticism doesn't change their lives.

===================
That was from e-mail. It got me thinking.

Skepticism as the opposite of gullibility is a good, healthy thing.
When someone reads personal accounts of what has actually happened, and what is working so well that a mom will write about her children on the internet and writes "I'm skeptical," it gets personal!

This has been a problem for years, in and around unschooling discussions. It's related to other issues (probably to all other issues), and is probably a problem of the language itself.

"Skeptical" spoken of oneself isn't bad. "Skeptical" spoken in reference to a report isn't bad in the absence of the reporter

If two people are standing at a check-out stand looking at a headline about someone having Elvis's alien grandchild, one might say "I'm skeptical" and no one would be insulted. If I put up a website with a couple of hundred pages of reports of real-life successes of people, many of whom I know, more of whom I trust, none of whom I have reason to DIStrust, and I do it for free, and I do it out of a desire to give others an opportunity to try those things in their own families, and someone writes to me at my house and says "I'm skeptical," it just isn't the same neutral deal anymore.

The e-mail exchange from which the top quote came has been saved here: http://sandradodd.com/skepticism

While I would certainly hate for someone to write "love your site; I'm gullible" I don't much like "love your site but I'm skeptical" either. I assume that people will read things critically and thoughtfully.

Maybe I just hate e-mail.

I doubt it.

TV and Movies

http://sandradodd.com/movies
There are a couple of new things on that page, including a link to:
http://sandradodd.com/notsoscary
Movies that seemed very scary from the previews but weren’t so scary, and I noticed after I chose three by that criteria that they are also all fundamentally about parenting (though you would never guess it from the previews!)

http://sandradodd.com/t/whatif
New, bottom left, to this page about “what if little kids watch TV all day”
“I used to restrict how much time my kids spent on the computer and tv….I have to honestly admit that we are much happier and I have much more trust in my children the more control I give them.”
There’s a lot of good stuff in between that beginning and end. The writing is three years old, so some of the program and video game references are a bit dated, but it’s my fault for not putting it on the page sooner! I save more things faster than I can make them newly available. The principles and the happiness in it are still quite fresh, though, and comforting.

Pam Sorooshian discovered a report on a TV-viewing study with 300,000 subjects. It’s linked here
http://sandradodd.com/tv, bottom right.
The “Snobbishness vs. Godzilla” item that was there before has its own page now:
http://sandradodd.com/t/godzilla and links to some other monster reports.

Jacki’s daughter Hannah cooked a big fancy meal because of something she saw on TV. There is a fun report, and there are photos here: http://sandradodd.com/t/holly

There are a few new things on another of the TV pages:
http://sandradodd.com/t/learning
about unexpected learning.

It’s been a great idea-sharing season.

Elvis, Barbie and Rebellion

Two new pages and one with new parts
https://sandradodd.com/elvis

https://sandradodd.com/barbie

https://sandradodd.com/rebellion


I’m sure they’ll all have additions over the years, and suggestions are welcome!

connections; real reading, really fast

I received the following note, and was pleasantly surprised at the blog entry. Having been badmouthed on a couple of blogs lately, I was nervous to receive a cryptic note to check a blog, but it was great!

thought you might want to read this: http://of-five.blogspot.com/2006/07/taiwan-pipe-organ-and-stops-of-organ.html

Thank You.
Kristin

We corresponded a teensy bit about organs, which reminded me to look up more information about reed organs. One thing led to another, and that’s why I made the organ page(s). I already announced them, but there has been news since then about what kind of organ I have.
http://sandradodd.com/organ

Thoughts about “real reading” (something new at the bottom of that page)
http://sandradodd.com/r/real
and it has a link to a new-today page about speed reading
http://sandradodd.com/r/speed

Decisions, Reed Organ, Juggling

http://sandradodd.com/decisions
How often do you make decisions?
(I guess this is the shortest thing I’ve ever written.)

http://sandradodd.com/organ
In the area of collecting, strewing and making connections, here’s
information about a small reed organ.

http://sandradodd.com/juggling
Juggling, but art, and music, and ideas about more and better.

http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2006/07/three-teens-i-have-three-teens.html
This is not exactly on the site, but is exactly on the topics of unschooling and parenting. It’s a commemoration of the last day we had three teenagers, which was Friday July 28, the day before Kirby’s 20th birthday.