More Stores, Geography, Transcription of Holly

There are some new photos of kids in stores, and a few links at "Stories of Stores" https://sandradodd.com/stores

Newly famous places: Pop Culture sites (ties movies and music to geography, with photos!) has been added to the geography page
https://sandradodd.com/geography (Joyce Fetteroll sent that link to the Always Learning list)

Katherine Anderson transcribed Holly's little video for adreanaline who comes to the chats and is deaf.
https://sandradodd.com/video/holly

Katherine is going to transcribe one or some of the youtube videos of me, too, so if you have friends who can't see video on their computers or can't get youtube or who are hard of hearing, links will be on the videos page to transcripts as they come up.

Seeing without labels, natural reading, "chop wood"

Michelle Thedaker wrote about the change unschooling is making in the way she sees her son.
http://sandradodd.com/words/without
http://sandradodd.com/labels

The reading page has been cleaned up a bit. The older the page, the more likely it is to have no margins or other formatting left over from when I was just first learning. I still have a lot to learn about web pages, but this one is "new improved."
http://sandradodd.com/reading

I guess the definition of "my site" needs to be expanded to include some of my blogs, which makes sense. They're just more interactive pages where you can leave messages directly! The video I've put here reminds me of the wood splitting opportunity there will be at the Santa Fe symposium (SUSS). (Keith will provide hatchets and axes, and will advise and serve as safety officer.) There's a new post there, too:
http://santafeunschoolingsymposium.blogspot.com/

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I changed the videos on my main page
http://sandradodd.com/unschooling
and started a videos page here:
http://sandradodd.com/videos

THANK YOU again, Lee Stranahan, for your interest in these ideas and for what you're able to do with artistry and technology!
(http://leestranahan.com/)

pressure, gradual change, sleep

A flash player once embedded here is gone, but click for a slide show!

Pressure: pushing vs. allowing interest https://sandradodd.com/joyce/pressure

Coming to unschooling gradually: https://sandradodd.com/gradualchange I'm starting to wish I had pushed this page sooner and harder, to help people prevent problems.

There's something new by Joanna Murphy, which links to that plus some more, on the sleeping page: https://sandradodd.com/sleeping (1/3 of the way down or so) and some new photos

Stories of Stores (well, I have one so far...) https://sandradodd.com/stores

Right up top, a new description of deschooling by Robyn Coburn. Short and strong: https://sandradodd.com/deschooling

"cheese and crackers," me on others' blogs

Something new by Lissa in San Diego, on simple, practical ways to show love:
http://www.sandradodd.com/peace/becoming.html
(lower left)

Me on other blogs:
http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/

It's my writing, but not new on my own site, so this is a borderline announcement. :-)
I'm featured on one blog today, and was on another last week, and there are another couple of cool things there.

comparisons, and a speaking schedule change

Chat transcript for Monday's "comparisons and judgments" chat:
http://sandradodd.com/chats/comparisons

The June 13 "unconvention" is being postponed until some time in the fall. There might be one in Los Angeles in addition to the one in Albuquerque; I'll let you know as I learn more.

In November or maybe October (or maybe early December), we're having guests from India—Ravi and Hema Bharadwaj and their children Raghu and Zoya. I promised to invite some other unschoolers with young children over, and now it's turning into a three day opportunity to meet other unschoolers. Because the January symposium isn't really geared toward beginning families or younger kids, this is an partner-plan.

It's still unformed, but in my head I'm calling it The Monkeyplatter Festival, and I'm hoping to have three days—one at Explora, one swimming/water play and one at my house and the park near me. When the date's known, I'll arrange good days and opportunities for those other activities. Conference fees? Nothing. Out-of-towners might get a conference rate at the new water park hotel if I can arrange that (all still to be determined), and we might have a room there for a gathering with a couple of speakers, or we just might not even bother. But somewhere there will be inexpensive lodging suitable for little kids, and I'll get a group rate at the museum, and we can have a monkey platter feast and work party at my house one day (with playground opportunities for anyone who wants to walk two blocks to the playground!). I need to do a couple of things before the Santa Fe Symposium that will be easier and more fun with other people. Nothing difficult at all...

children's food choices, changing, speaking

There's a new account at the bottom of True Tales of Kids Turning Down Sweets
http://sandradodd.com/eating/sweets
and a photo.

The full version of that account is here:
http://sandradodd.com/eating/susanmay

There's been a page on "getting it" for a long time, but I've just made a new one about the first glimmers of getting it, which is another state of being worth considering.
http://sandradodd.com/change/

At the request and urging of some of my readers, I'm including videos on my front page now. I think it can help people read my words better to see how they're presented in person. With apologies to those who wish I had a different accent or was better looking, they're here:
http://sandradodd.com/unschooling

Mystery art, another random generator, new quotes

http://sandradodd.com/mystery
The new image in the upper left leads to a couple of new pages. Follow the trail.

I'm never sure whether to include my family blog as part of the site, but for those who would vote yes, I've put a random generator there, in the upper left. It has 2005-2007 in, and I'm half finished with 2008.
http://sandradodd.blogspot.com

The quotes collection has some new items at the bottom:
http://sandradodd.com/quotes/

Thanks, all, for reading!

Joy, Gratitude, Service and Gifts

"Maybe dishes make other people joyful. Maybe that's why they think I should be joyful while doing dishes. Hmmm . . . maybe I am OK not being joyful every minute. Maybe this isn't a problem for me. Maybe I don't need someone to tell me it's OK not to be ceaselessly joyful."

Yep, someone actually wrote that on an unschooling list. But luckily, I saved Ren's response!
It's been a while, but that page is all spruced up now and connected to the one below it.
http://sandradodd.com/gratitude

In Friday's chat, the topic turned to older kids jumping up to help bring in groceries and put them away. Then it turned to service, and that idea at a pretty deep level, so I saved all that.
http://sandradodd.com/service

Good URLs, huh? Easy to remember or to guess. This one, not so much. An oldie but goldie I've linked back and forth with the two above.
http://sandradodd.com/chores/gift

Cleaned up, and image added to the index page of the chores section:
http://sandradodd.com/chores
(That used to be chore without an "s" and I changed it, so if you had it bookmarked or linked anywhere, if the link doesn't work, just add the "s".)

Tone of Voice, Jenny, Jill

Tone of Voice and Joy
http://sandradodd.com/tone
(not new, but spruced up with notes of improved access to information, and a talk you can hear freely that used to cost money)

A page to link to things Jenny Cyphers has written, with two sub-pages:
http://sandradodd.com/jennycyphers
http://sandradodd.com/jennycyphers/dance
http://sandradodd.com/jennycyphers/tv

There are photos on the page about Jill's 7th Anniversary of Unschooling now. Puppies. Seriously...
http://sandradodd.com/milestones/jill

Reading without hearing well, Seven Years Unschooling

Something new from Ruth, in Yorkshire, on Encouragement and Confidence about Reading
http://sandradodd.com/r/encouragement
(there at the top)

Because Jill Parmer wrote something very sweet about their Seventh Anniversary of Unschooling, I created a new section.
http://sandradodd.com/milestones

If any of you have similar times of note in your lives and would like to write, or if you've already written or blogged and would like to have your special event or time linked or included, please let me know.

Another newly finished and deposited for your reading enjoyment:
http://sandradodd.com/chats/bilingualfamilies
That turned into a discussion on ASL (American Sign Language), and other things, so although it ties in to the hard of hearing and deaf, Ruth is in the U.K. so some of those resources might not be good, though Four Weddings and a Funeral has a deaf Englishman signing.

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!