Tuesday, February 28, 2017

That voice

"Be their support system. I want so much for my kids to grow up and hear that mommy voice in their head saying positive supportive things, not tearing them down, but encouraging them—and especially not a voice to be resisted."
—Pam Sorooshian
SandraDodd.com/choice
photo by Sandra Dodd

Monday, February 27, 2017

Ease up, to help

Try to ease guilt and expectation and pressure. Those don't help the family unit.
SandraDodd.com/eating/dinner
photo by Hannah North

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Lovely things

Ren Allen wrote:

Plato said: "The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things."

While I agree wholeheartedly, I think he should have said "The most effective kind of education is that PEOPLE should play amongst lovely things." Learning is for always. Playing amongst lovely things has the power to heal lives, heal families and liberate people. That's really what unschooling is in a nutshell—playing with lovely things, ideas, people and places. We say "living is learning" but "playing is learning" too.
—Ren Allen
SandraDodd.com/rentalk


photo by Janine

Saturday, February 25, 2017

When children choose foods

A mom named Evie wrote:
"Everything I've read about has really happened. The first couple of days, my youngest ate nothing but Twinkies and Spider-Man snacks. Then, amazingly enough, he got up the next morning and asked me for grapes for breakfast. You could have knocked me over with a feather! It truly didn't seem possible until I experienced it for myself."
—Evie
How does it balance out?
photo by Julie van der Wekken

Friday, February 24, 2017

Easy steps

Thinking of "better choices" instead of "RIGHT choices" is an easy step to a world of other easy steps.

SandraDodd.com/readalittle
photo by Karen James
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Thursday, February 23, 2017

Seeing peace

Words and photo by Belinda Dutch:



My teenagers who don’t always find it easy to ‘hang out’ together, sharing the fire. Dog is just out of shot. Louis is watching an instructional video on a game made by a friend and Olly is watching real people jumping horses. I ealised that this would normally be interpreted grumpily as ‘today’s teenagers always plugged in, should participate in the real world more,’ and instead I relish it as ‘my teenagers peacefully hanging out together and with me, while following their passions and engaging with the world.’

Thank you for helping me see that! And if you ever want to use the pic you are welcome :-) it’s nice and wintery….

Learning to See Differently
photo by Belinda Dutch

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Make the world better

If by "change the world" a person means "make the world better," then step #1 must be to decide right then not to make the world worse.
SandraDodd.com/philosophy
photo by Lisa Jonick