Friday, July 30, 2010

"responsibility"; abundance; breathing

Added another good new story, at the bottom, by Pam Sorooshian.
http://sandradodd.com/chores/tales

Jenny Cyphers, on finding abundance in simple ways
http://SandraDodd.com/abundance

Breathing (and abundance), right side halfway down, Glenda and Leah Rose:
http://sandradodd.com/breathing

A quote from that:

I took a deep breath, and as I inhaled I felt my whole being kind of slide into place—it was weird, almost a tangible sensation—and suddenly I felt completely peaceful.

The bunny image is a link to a site with lots of bubble-blowing recipes and ideas.
(I'd ignore the one about bubble blowing and early language,
unless you turn it around...)

Sunday, July 18, 2010

"chores," TV-watching and health, some more Yes

Several new accounts of kids helping with housework, for fun, to be nice! http://sandradodd.com/chores/tales "House" fan gets mom a new diagnosis:
http://sandradodd.com/t/learning

New writing about saying yes, by Jenny Cyphers. http://sandradodd.com/yes.html

And below that is a story of when Kirby was little and "cross pollinated" some piles of armor, and tripped over a string. The story builds up to other things. The nice young man about 30 who is mentioned in that writing was my friend Leif Ivarson (Bill Hammond) who died last week and so for my friends who knew him, I'm noting that.
(an SCA memorial page for him—on my site, but not about unschooling)

The photo is a link to Jenny Cyphers' blog.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Sacramento conference, teens, "same and different"

HSC advance-registration time has been extended (JULY 18! Do it today if you've been stalling), and there's a cute video preview/advertisement for the conference. I have it here, with a list of my own presentations:
http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2010/07/kirby-and-i-will-be-here.html

Teens who came later to unschooling
http://sandradodd.com/teen/latertounschooling
Not new, but spruced up.

Same and Different: Easy answers and second looks
A HREF="http://thinkingsticks.blogspot.com/2010/07/same-and-different-easy-answers-and.html
Many answers that seemed obvious to us in childhood look different in the light of years and experience.

Monday, July 5, 2010

HSC schedule, Kids KNOWing, and TV in Spain

These things are not "on my site" directly, thought what's quoted below will be at some point.

The schedule for the HSC conference in Sacramento is online. Kirby and have been added in to a discussion on video games (Rose Sorooshian is the organizer; her boyfriend Daniel is the assistant organizer, and then Kirby, Pam Sorooshian and I have been invited as add-ons. That's at 4:00 Friday afternoon.

My 2:00 Friday talk is "Partnerships" (in case the typo confused you).

I'm presenting something every day, sometimes two or three things.



There was a piece on TV in Spain on the evening of July 4, and it's linked here:
http://unschooling.blogspot.com/2010/07/spanish-tv-coverage-of-homeschooling.html




Renee Cabatic is the mother of nine-year-old twins and has two new stories about their bodily awareness:


2 sweet stories about sweets

First one:

We were at a bar-b-q party and a 5 yr old friend dug into the cooler, pulled out a coke-a-cola and asked his Ma could he have it.
She said, "Heavens no, especially with that chocolate cake on your plate."
She then looked at me asking, "How do you do it?"
I told her, "I don't restrict what my kids eat," and pointed to their plates. XuMei had watermelon, strawberries, green beans and chocolate cake on her plate. Xander had chosen salmon, corn on the cob, watermelon, strawberries and a root beer to drink.
Later I was telling Chris (my spouse) the story and Xander, who I thought was asleep in the back of the van, perked up and said, "The trick is, there is no trick."

Second one:
At a second party the next day a Mom friend was having an upset tummy and she asked XuMei what she might do to feel better. XuMei said whenever her tummy hurts it's one of two things: either she is hungry or she needs to poop. The Mom friend was impressed because she felt the cause of her upset tummy was having over eaten the desserts at the potluck. She commented to me how great it was that XuMei had such a healthy relationship to food. XuMei has no need to over eat.

Renee Cabatic
Ma to Xander and XuMei (9)
That was sent to the Always Learning list, and I'll quote it on my pages about eating, later, sometime. I thought it was too valuable to risk losing though, so I'm putting it here.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Dads, Getting Appreciation, monkey platter, cake


a new link on the dads page:
http://sandradodd.com/dads
Living and Learning as a Father in an Unschooling Family
Drew, unschooling father of three, writes about unschooling from the point of view of a teacher (and more).

"Getting kids (and spouses!) to appreciate what you do," by Joyce Fetteroll
http://sandradodd.com/chores/appreciation
(Originally on Family RUNning; link is on the page there.)

Image and text in the area of Monkey Platters ("We call it a rat plate.")
http://sandradodd.com/eating/ratplate

Another beautiful image added to the Cake page, from Melinda Gates (top righthand column):
http://sandradodd.com/cake

Notes on my planned events and activities:
http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2010/06/back-home-back-to-business.html

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Movies, teens, service, ACE Festival

More movies that remind an unschooler of unschooling:
http://sandradodd.com/t/movies
Anne Mills list, at the bottom (and other lists you might not have seen lately, or ever)

Something by Lyla Wolfenstein:
"a message to parents of teens: the illusion of control - a fairy tale of truthful proportions"
http://sandradodd.com/teen/control

This isn't new, but it is obscure and still interesting. When I put Lyla's piece up, I cleaned up a few corners and bits of the teen pages. What I did mention in a discussion at the time, but didn't mention on the page, is that someone who professionally worked with teenaged employees through a school program was very impressed with Kirby (not knowing he hadn't ever gone to school; that would have made a difference to her opinion, I think, but I don't know what kind of difference).
http://sandradodd.com/kirbyatdions

Something about service, by Vanessa, right-hand column here:
http://sandradodd.com/service

In early 2011, January 7-10, a home-ed family with a five year old boy will be visiting in Albuquerque, and others are invited to come and hang out. The first of the details are here:
http://sandradodd.com/ace
It won't be a conference with a site and speakers, but an opportunity to meet others informally.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Teens helping, physicality, Big Book review

Alysia woke up to several clean rooms "as if the cleaning fairies had come last night."
http://sandradodd.com/chores/tales
(second item)

Physicality; when kids need more activity
A collection of ideas from Pat Robinson (aka wuweimama)
http://sandradodd.com/physicality

Review of The Big Book of Unschooling (with comments on the web page, as well)
http://kelly.halldorson.com/blog/?p=678

Friday, April 30, 2010

Dads, eating in peace, abundance, benefits

Lefthand, halfway down, James on formal education and unschooling
http://sandradodd.com/dads

New (third item) on eating in peace:
http://sandradodd.com/eating/peace
I wasn't sure where to put it. I don't have a page on sad stories (nor do I want one), and there's a joy to it to, in a way.

New (second item) on abundance:
http://sandradodd.com/abundance/

Unexpected Benefits
New article, 4/30/10 in Life Learning Magazine (online magazine)
http://www.lifelearningmagazine.com/1006/index.htm (by subscription)
A sound file of a presentation of similar material will be added to the site soon.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Online chats in French, and in English



chatzy.com/unschooling
Password/le mot de passe: goodidea

Upcoming chats:

en français

Discussions en ligne en français sur le thème du unschooling
les lundi de 9h à 10h heure du Québéc (15h à 16h heure de France)
et les mercredi de midi à 13h (18h à 19h heure de France)
Beatrice Mantovani


In English:

Monday 3:00-5:00 Mountain Daylight time
Friday 10:00-noon Mountain Daylight time
SandraDodd.com/chats/regular

Saturday, April 24, 2010

New Interview, Sugar, Deb Lewis, TV, Connections

Deb Lewis comments on whether people can or cannot choose freely to eat something sweet:
http://sandradodd.com/eating/sugar
and so a link to that page was added to the Deb Lewis page
http://sandradodd.com/deblewis

Unexpected learning from TV, longterm report
http://sandradodd.com/t/learning

New Interview:
To make up for a wildly unfair commentary on this site, one of the editors spoke with me by phone for half an hour, and then gave me a list of questions based on that conversation. Except for the intro, title and questions, it's my writing.
http://www.momlogic.com/2010/04/why_i_unschooled_my_three_kids.php

On the Thinking Sticks blog the format has been changed so that each article has suggestions for other links within the site, and the left sidebar starts off with the blogs of unschoolers. I've added some other blogs. If you know of a good blog by a radical unschooler that's not there, let me know. Thanks!
http://thinkingsticks.blogspot.com

Coming in May, an article-version of a talk I've given two and a half times called variously Unforeseen Benefits of Unschooling or Unexpected Benefits of Unchooling. I wrote it for Life Learning Magazine, which isn't published on paper anymore, but is a subscription online (or printable PDF) magazine. Click the advance-cover image for a table of contents for the upcoming issue.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

"If only..."; divorce; new quote; Kirby

A new bit here:
http://sandradodd.com/ifonly

Some adjustment here:
http://sandradodd.com/divorce

New quote added to random quote generator here:
http://sandradodd.com/unschooling


The quote:
I can spend my energy on limiting my child's world so that he will be safe and happy or I can spend my energy on helping my child learn the skills to navigate our world himself so that he will be safe and happy. I think the latter has a better chance of success in the long term.
—Eva Witsel

http://sandradodd.com/quotes
(It's in there, too.)

Two new things on the Kirby page to back up all of the above:
http://sandradodd.com/kirby
http://sandradodd.com/kirby/review
The first has notes on a comic for which Kirby's appearance and name are lifted (changed a bit, but based on Kirby).
The second is a place to collect unschooling-related notes, starting with something I wrote about a presentation he gave in Arizona last year. He'll be at the HSC conference in Sacramento in August, helping me with a workshop or two, and being on the young adult panel.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Protection, Nest, Chat


People protect their children from what? How?
http://sandradodd.com/protect

Addition to Building an Unschooling Nest, by Joanna Murphy
http://sandradodd.com/nest

Improved Chat Room Entry:
http://sandradodd.com/room

The chat topic on Friday, April 15, 2010 will be helping our older teen/young adult unschoolers with their traveling and adventures.