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The "Ouija-Book" method of getting unschooling help

In The Big Book of Unschooling I mentioned on one page that if someone had randomly opened the book to that page, that...

Well there are two such mentions:

If you've turned to this page in random Ouija-Book fashion, welcome! If you arrived here methodically, page-by-page, you won't be surprised at what I'm about to say.
and on another page
Or maybe you've turned randomly to this page without reading anything else and you don't know what I'm talking about. This wasn't a good first-random-page. Maybe flip again, and come back to this page later.
One of the moms who bought the book that first day said she had randomly turned to one of those pages, and was amused by seeing that note.

One of my favorite things on my website is the random page generator. The art's by my friend Bo, and the coding was lifted from someone else's freely-offered random generator, but I did all the filling in. That was so fun I made one for Joyce's page too. The cool thing about random pages there is that any page links to all the rest.

In The Big Book, most pages have a link. Every webpage links to others; some of them link to Joyce's, and with a couple of clicks, to everyone else's unschooling blogs and pages. So in a "six degrees of separation" way of thinking, probably anything in the world is six steps from unschooling information, but any of these random book pages or webpages is probably two steps from exactly the information one might be needing. Or it might be exactly what one needs.


An excellent Ouija-Book Example, in some detail, but the nicest part is this, about The Big Book of Unschooling.
"Life is lumpy: let it be." — Sandra Dodd.

. . . .

I flicked open Sandra's [book] first, and the above quote leapt off the page at me. Really at me. It got me right between the eyes...and thank god, it buried itself right in. (Yes, occasionally snippets of information do make it into the inner sanctum. Usually only once they have solved the infamous "two brothers" riddle and braved the labrynth, though...)

I can't quite describe the feeling. It was a combination of relief, embarrassment (at my self-centredness), calm, truth, peace, and a whole heap of "well, duh," aimed squarely in my own direction. I think, though I'm not entirely sure...but I think there was a slapping sound, as it connected.

Without wanting to wax too lyrical (oh, what the hell!), it was like a great big, warm, blankety hug for my soul. Ahhhhhhhhh!

Life is lumpy. Let it be. I'm going to type it again (for my own therapy...skip over it, if you think you've already got it!). "Life is lumpy; let it be."

Not every day is perfect. Not every moment is memorable. Perfection is never perfect. And you know what? That's okay! Fighting it only makes you miserable. You can choose to be miserable, of course. But that's your choice. Hard to feel victimised if you refuse to be the victim...

A lot of Sandra's book spoke to me today. And I'm grateful for it. It has helped ease my mind a little, and to clear a little of the fog from the path at my feet. I'm not saying it doesn't lead up to some pretty intimidating mountains...and it's kind of rocky and unkempt. But at least there is a path.


Big Book of Unschooling, order page

Joyfully Rejoycing

Connections


And another random connection, spotted by Sylvia Toyama, whose comments are in the image (and maybe still here, FB, June 2017):



There are other comments there. Someone expressed disappointment that the person didn't also support circumcision (completely unrelated to the topic of the video), and I responded: Sandra Dodd:
Don't change the subject! This is about my book being on the shelf. 🙂

Also, it might be worth considering not wanting any one person to provide everything for any other one person. By that I mean if you like something she does and benefit from watching a show she's on (or whatever it might be) it seems wrong to criticize her for not agreeing with everything.

It happens to me. People want me to support/do/be EVERYthing they themselves like/do/want, and complain if I am not vegan or protest-marching or religious or petitioning to change homeschooling laws in some particular country in another hemisphere. Maybe it should be enough that they like Just Add Light and Stir, without then telling me what I should think and do (and write and spend time on) about other issues.

Maybe there's something natural about it, but it's not logical or fair.

Kim...:
Sandra Dodd oh, I LOVE that her book is on her shelf! It eclipses everything else! 💚💙💚💙 It's true that expecting anyone to be everything is not realistic or helpful. 🙂

In an interview years back (2010 or so?) the actress had said they were unschooling their children. Not long after, though, she got very busy with work and divorced, and I think I read that the two boys were in school.
the original, "Why Is Everyone Getting Naked?"