NEW to unschooling? Help is here!
Art
Attitude
Balance
en français
Being
Beginning
Books
Boredom
Bribery
Change
Checklists
Choices
Chores
Communicating
Confidence
Connect • the • Dots
Control
Curriculum
Dads
Definitions
Deschooling
en français
Economics
Empowerment
Fallacies
Fighting
Focus
Food Issues
Freedom
Games
Geography
Giftedness
Gilligan
Help
"Have to"?
History
Holt Quotes
How?
How much time?
"If I let him..."
"If only...sooner"
Imagination
John Holt
Joy
en français
Language Arts
Late nights
Learn vs. Teach
en français
Learning
Math
Mom Happiness
Movies
Museum-house
Music
Myths
Nest
Noisy Peace
Parenting Peacefully
Parenting Topics
Partners
Phonics
Playing
en français
Principles
Priorities
Reading
Rebellion
Relatives
Respect
en español
Rules
Shakespeare
Seeing it
Sleeping
Spanking
Special Needs
Spelling
Spirituality
Spoiled Children
Stages of Unschooling
Stress
Strewing
Subjects
Substance
Teens
Test avoidance
Thinking Sticks
Time
Times Tables
Tiny Monsters
Toddlers
To Be Fascinating
To Get Jokes
Transition
Triviality
TV/Video
Typical Days
Video Games
Violence
Toy Guns
Siblings
Video Games
TV
Parents
Wishlist
Wise children
Wonder
Words & power
Writing
"Yes!"
"You could grow up to be President!"
not applicable in the U.K., Canada, NZ or Australia
No WAIT! It is!
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post-conference exhaustion; lights, trees, electricity, paper (unrelated); Synchronicity: Diwali and Data (you know, from Star Trek...) |
Coins, video games, phrases to avoid, dishes, gradual change, partnership, "responsibility," abundance, breathing |
Same and different: easy answers and second looks; old age; optimism and gratitude |
I had the distinct pleasure of attending my first HSC conference last weekend and attending two of your talks. I consider you the “rock star of unschooling” and I was cracking up at how my heart was all a-flutter to be there with you in person! It was a joy and an inspiration to hear you speak and I hung on every word. My husband and I are still laughing about... |
LEARNING ALL THE TIME
People learn by playing, thinking and amazing themselves. They learn while they're laughing at something surprising, and they learn while they're wondering "What the heck is this!?"I have a discussion group called AlwaysLearning, where the principles underlying unschooling are discussed. There are live text chats at least twice a week at SandraDodd.com/room.
CAN IT WORK IN THE REAL WORLD?
If unschooling can't work in the real world, nothing at all can. People will say "How will they learn algebra in the real world?" Is there algebra in the real world? If not, why should it be learned? If so, why should it be separated artificially from its actual uses? "Why?" should always be the question that comes before "What?" and "How?" There is a Sesame Street book called
Grover and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum. There is a "things under the sea" room and "things in the sky" room, but still each room is just a room in a museum, no windows, everything out of context. Then he opens a big door marked "everything else in the whole wide world" and goes out into the sunshine. There is unschooling. NOT JUST FOR KIDS!
The way adults tend to learn things is the way people best learn—by asking questions, looking things up, trying things out, and getting help when it's needed. That's the way pre-school kids learn too (maybe minus the looking things up), and it is the way "school-age" kids can/should learn as well. Learning is internal. Teachers are lovely assistants at best, and detrimental at worst. "Teaching" is just presentation of material. It doesn't create learning. Artificial divisions of what is "educational" from what is considered NOT educational, and things which are "for kids" from things which are NOT for kids don't benefit kids or adults. Finding learning in play is like the sun coming out on a dank, dark day. [Playing ]ARTICLES BY SANDRA
Descriptions and links to essays and articles are here. Some are linked in the list to the left, but others defy short description, and those are probably the best ones!
VIDEO AND SOUND FILES
Videos on unschooling topics, and recorded interviews are here:LINKS TO OTHERS' WRITINGS
UNSCHOOLING ORGANIZATIONS
Regional groups, lists and resources(by language, nation, state, religious or special focus)
$25 plus shipping
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Speaking
Saturday, June 5, from 2:00 - 5:00 pm
Great Big Happy Life
HSC Conference BooksThe Big Book of UnschoolingMoving a Puddle and other essays by Sandra Dodd Game/Toy:Thinking Sticks
InterviewsWhy I Unschooled my Three Kids [Julie Taylor talked on the phone to me for a long time and then sent me questions based on that exchange. Besides the little intro, she published what I sent her, with the addition of links to some pages on my site (the blue text, not the underlines).] An Interview with Sandra Dodd, by Emily Subler, originally in Home Education Magazine in 1998 Living Unschooling with Sandra Dodd, interview by Beatrice Ekwa Ekoko (PDF file), which is a transcript of most of this Radio Interview. Unschooling: What It's Really All About, September 30, 2009 interview by Sandi Schwartz (sound file to listen to on that page or to download)
Sound Files, freeNEWLY AVAILABLE:Connections, from September 2009 Transformations, September 2009
Relaxed Homeschooler Podcast from September 8, 2008 Mindful Parenting, a 2005 talk with Ren Allen Relaxed Homeschooler Interview, September 2008 podcast Peaceful Parenting, a talk given in 2002 with Richard Prystowsky Improving Unschooling, radio interview by Beatrice Ekwa Ekoko Introduction to Unschooling, Sandra Dodd in 1997 (coming soon, free:
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