Gaining Confidence
Sandra Dodd
"I can see the sense in the advice I’ve been given here but I can't
implement it with a great amount of assurance or confidence."
After years of muddling around with a lot of words about how people
can get from desire and intent to the point where they're actually
DOING it, this arose last summer when I was preparing to speak in
Montreal. So for me, it looks like Montreal; just sayin'. :-)
"Read a little, try a little, wait a while, watch."
Some people read about unschooling and then turn the computer off or
put the books and magazines away, and they live with their kids in a
way they think they understood, and then come back and complain that
their initial understanding didn't work.
Some people read and write online for hours, weeks, one person even
YEARS, before changing anything about the way they are interacting
with their children.
Some people take a suggestion, go and try it once or twice, and come
back and say "That didn't work; now what?"
If you read a little, put a toe in the water of trying it out, think
about it, sleep on it, try it some more, listen to your kids and watch
them and hold them (you can feel when a child is tense or relaxed by
holding or hugging; I hope all the parents here can do that, and if
not, practice that--WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT IT TO THEM), then come back
and ask another question if you have one, or read more online, or talk
to other unschoolers... that is how confidence comes.
It's one thing to do something because you read that other people's
kids responded well to it. Taking children out of school on the basis
of faith that other people's kids did well without school is fine, but
that's still about other people. Little by little you will start to
see your own child learn without being taught, and be there when your
own child asks very cool questions and makes connections between ideas
that you yourself never considered. And soon you'll be one of the
people other people are basing their own initial faith on.
It's gradual.
http://sandradodd.com/confidence
Sandra
implement it with a great amount of assurance or confidence."
After years of muddling around with a lot of words about how people
can get from desire and intent to the point where they're actually
DOING it, this arose last summer when I was preparing to speak in
Montreal. So for me, it looks like Montreal; just sayin'. :-)
"Read a little, try a little, wait a while, watch."
Some people read about unschooling and then turn the computer off or
put the books and magazines away, and they live with their kids in a
way they think they understood, and then come back and complain that
their initial understanding didn't work.
Some people read and write online for hours, weeks, one person even
YEARS, before changing anything about the way they are interacting
with their children.
Some people take a suggestion, go and try it once or twice, and come
back and say "That didn't work; now what?"
If you read a little, put a toe in the water of trying it out, think
about it, sleep on it, try it some more, listen to your kids and watch
them and hold them (you can feel when a child is tense or relaxed by
holding or hugging; I hope all the parents here can do that, and if
not, practice that--WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT IT TO THEM), then come back
and ask another question if you have one, or read more online, or talk
to other unschoolers... that is how confidence comes.
It's one thing to do something because you read that other people's
kids responded well to it. Taking children out of school on the basis
of faith that other people's kids did well without school is fine, but
that's still about other people. Little by little you will start to
see your own child learn without being taught, and be there when your
own child asks very cool questions and makes connections between ideas
that you yourself never considered. And soon you'll be one of the
people other people are basing their own initial faith on.
It's gradual.
http://sandradodd.com/confidence
Sandra