Monday, December 24, 2007

Mary's diaper bag, a miraculous pog, and more grapes

Mary's diaper bag
sandradodd.com/art/basket

a miraculous pog (okay, maybe "remarkable" pog)
sandradodd.blogspot.com/2007/12/nativity-pog.html

and more grapes
sandradodd.com/eating/grapes

It's not about unschooling, except for being about art, history, religion, fruit, the wonders of the internet and parenting. Pretty close.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

self-regulation, South Africa, wood, art, songs



Self-regulation
http://sandradodd.com/self-regulation
there are very good things by Pam and Joyce here, and some by me; others will be added.

New link, contacts in South Africa
http://sandradodd.com/world

Topic chats:
Outgoing (but you can post indefinitely):
Wood http://thinkingsticks.blogspot.com/2007/12/wood.html
Everyday Art http://thinkingsticks.blogspot.com coming soon

Lyrics game had a "wood" day too
http://lyricsgame.blogspot.com/2007/12/wood.html
and there's a cool photo there

then "last"
http://lyricsgame.blogspot.com/2007/12/last.html
and "pain"
http://lyricsgame.blogspot.com/2007/12/pain.html

If I don't see you here before then, Merry Christmas! The lights on our back gate are here: http://sandradodd.blogspot.com

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Jesus eating grapes, and research on kids' eating

The grapes background is restored to the food section!
http://sandradodd.com/food

I found another Renaissance portrait of Mary and Jesus with a bunch of grapes. This time they're green.
http://sandradodd.com/eating/grapes

Intro and link to an article by an anthropologist on "Adaptiveness of food learning and food aversions in children"
http://sandradodd.com/eating/research

Holidays and relatives can induce stress in moms, concerning children and cookies and candy. You might find something in these to help you create a more peaceful holiday for your children.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

writing, "Wet Paint," Kelly Lovejoy, wood

Holly made a title and background for
http://sandradodd.com/writing
(one and the same art, but she resized it for me)
and I've added her current MySpace "About Me" with her permission.

Kelly Lovejoy has let me provide her "Wet Paint!" article which appeared in the last issue of Connections (now that the new issue is out).
http://sandradodd.com/kellylovejoy/wetpaint
This page is updated too:
http://sandradodd.com/kellylovejoy

There's something new on my blog, concerning Kirby and some anxiety of mine.
http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2007/12/stress-i-should-not-complain-about.html

The lyrics game continues. The current word is "candy" and the one before was "policeman" (or terms therefor).
http://lyricsgame.blogspot.com/

Blogspot has made it easier for people to post, so if you had trouble before this week, please try again.

There's a new topics blog, and this week's topic will be wood. If you have stories, ideas, photos or links, please post!
http://thinkingsticks.blogspot.com/

Saturday, December 8, 2007

wonder and the world

http://sandradodd.com/wonder
I lifted a photo and song list from the lyrics game, when the word was "wonder," and added it to the page on "wonder." (lower right—Sadie as Wonder Woman, Kirby as a dog dressed as a banana)

http://sandradodd.com/world
Two pages have been combined and redirected to one new page. They used to be "/local" and "/unschoolingotherwise." If you have either of those linked on your own sites, you don't have to change anything! The redirect is quick and quiet.

Topics—Explorations for Unschoolers

I've been thinking about "topic chats" again for a while, and this might work. I'm thinking of having a topic each week, and anyone can come by and add links, suggestions, trivia or personal stories here: http://thinkingsticks.blogspot.com/

The ideas I have so far are


fairness [using, in part, "Harrison Bergeron" (a short story)]
wood
bass lines (in music—instrumental, vocal—bass guitar discussion?)

Marty suggested we could use thinking sticks sometimes—throw two topics and run connections. I think we might try to connect everything to whatever item, movie, story, or concept that's used. I couldn't get the blog names that would make the simplest sense, so I went with "thinking sticks." There will be links to this on my unschooling page and my blog, in case you can't remember where it is.

If it flies, it will be fun, and if it flops no problem. I think it could help people understand unschooling better and enrich their homes if they're lagging. Kind of like strewing for the parents, maybe.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

quotes generator and radio interview

Thanks to the research assistance of Schuyler Waynforth, I have a random quotes generator here now (left, under the random post generator):
http://sandradodd.com/unschooling

Tuesday night, December 11, I'm scheduled to be on The Alan Colmes Show, a syndicated radio talk show out of New York, on Fox Radio. It's 11:00 eastern time, 9:00 Mountain time. There will be someone to refute me (person not yet chosen), and after an exchange (with Alan Colmes moderating) of at least 20 minutes, they'll start taking callers. I won't be on the phone over an hour, I'm told, and they'll keep taking callers after they disconnect from the guests. Three hours altogether, the show lasts.

I don't know how it will go, but I don't see that it can be worse than the Unschooling Discussion list or the forum at unschooling.info. I'll write about it the next day (December 12) here: http://sandradodd.blogspot.com



The associate producer who's my contact wrote:

Unfortunately we don't have an Albuquerque station. We're on about 85
stations across the country. All hope is not lost, though. People can
listen live on www.alancolmesradio.com or thru Sirius 145 or XM 168.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

routine repairs, pages you might've missed

Lauren Stranahan has sent me some broken links, and every page I open I think "I should remind people of this page."
They're not new, but they have some "new improved" aspect:

Television, Children and Making Decisions Rationally
http://sandradodd.com/t/vijay.html

Hangman
http://sandradodd.com/game/hangman

Joyce Fetteroll on Deschooling
http://sandradodd.com/joyce/deschooling

Holly and the Bible
http://sandradodd.com/dot/hollybible
where you can learn how Genesis is like Lord of the Rings

Books and Saxophones
http://sandradodd.com/bookandsax

Music
http://sandradodd.com/music/
(the Yiddish music link is working--the page had moved--but there have been a few other small unannounced bits)

Monday, November 26, 2007

teen video, English, water, movies

A video by Andrew and some friends, in Maryland, showing a comparison between some aspects of life between schooled and homeschooled kids has been added to the benefits of unschooling teens page:
http://sandradodd.com/teen/benefits

New page on the history of the English language
http://sandradodd.com/englishlanguage
and a new index page because there are more than I'd expected to have on language-related topics.
http://sandradodd.com/english
and additions to the Small Words page (one of my favorites, yet obscure, which is fine)
http://sandradodd.com/smallwords
including a playlist with several of the songs mentioned and quoted.

Reformatted: Grasping Water
http://sandradodd.com/graspingwater

Movies for Unschoolers
New link and the repair of Joyce's link and the formatting
http://sandradodd.com/t/movies

Some new feedback (pro and con):
http://sandradodd.com/feedback

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

what parents say, and having more peace

"There's more to unschooling than just not doing school. To make it flourish we need to look at ourselves, our relationship, the way we look at the world in a new way to clear out the thinking that's holding us back." -Joyce Fetteroll

The danger of "Lazy" and other thoughts
http://sandradodd.com/lazy

The recording of the Peaceful Parenting presentation from 2002 is now available to listen to here:
http://sandradodd.com/parentingpeacefully#tape

There are some new comments here:
http://sandradodd.com/feedback

Although my blog isn't really part of the SandraDodd.com site, there are some comments and photos of Marty at the "non con" in Oregon recently in the top entry (or something around November 15, if you're reading this later).
http://sandradodd.blogspot.com

Monday, November 12, 2007

two videos

Two videos, each with a story, both worth a look. One is on autonomous learning (what "unschooling" is generally called in the U.K.) and one of Elimar Clemens Buschmann, a juggler, and the father of Robyn Coburn who is featured on my site.



The second one has no sound:







The background:

http://sandradodd.com/internet/love

http://sandradodd.com/learningallthetime

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Art about Art

Art about Art, Cartoons about Cartoons, Plays about Plays, Paintings about Paintings...

There's a new link there, to Songs about Singing, which is a playlist based on Lyrics Game topic from a few days ago.

All of that will be added to as time goes on and more suggestions are sent or stumbled upon.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Monday, November 5, 2007

calm, cake and announcements

"For the first time, in what seems like my entire life, I am not terrified."
http://sandradodd.com/unschool/gettingit

What is the purpose of making a cake?
http://sandradodd.com/chores
linked on the lower righthand side
http://sandradodd.com/chore/cake

The announcements link is improved:
http://sandradodd.com/announcements

Saturday, November 3, 2007

toy guns

"Powerlessness is what causes people to shoot others, not guns. (And
using one's power to prevent kids from playing with guns is pretty
disempowering!...)"   —Joyce Fetteroll

New page on guns: SandraDodd.com/peace/guns

Friday, November 2, 2007

nest building

"Unschooling works well when parents are interesting, positive, thoughtful, considerate, generous, passionate, honest, respectful individuals." —Deb Lewis



I think we should carve that over our virtual entryway here.
Further I hope that as everyone walks in they read it and think
"Yeah, I can be that." It's a great vision. —Betsy



Those are up at the top of the "Building an Unschooling Nest" page, which has something new at the bottom.
http://sandradodd.com/nest

http://sandradodd.com/deblewis

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Halloween and other spooky things



Halloween used to be more fun when all the homeschoolers were in one discussion pool.
After shunning psychology for years, some of Halloween's detractors have adopted it (an outdated form), and plan to condition their children to think about Jesus (and other Biblical figures) when they eat certain candy and see jack-o-lanterns.
http://sandradodd.com/halloween
Wait... only click that link if your kids' Halloween costumes are ready, because you might be in there a while.


Scary, but amusing, about "Peaceful Parenting"
http://sandradodd.com/peace/lawsuit

Monday, October 29, 2007

wishlists, teens, lyrics link

Unschoolers' Coming-Out Parties:
Wishlists for Unschoolers, by Sandra Dodd
http://sandradodd.com/wishlist
New title by Holly, re-formatted. This was one my oldest pages and wasn't so easy to read.

Teens, a new title by Holly
http://sandradodd.com/teen
http://sandradodd.com/teens

Lyrics Game, new link/art on a few pages
http://sandradodd.blogspot.com (top left)
http://sandradodd.com (top right)
http://sandradodd.com/music
http://sandradodd.com/connections (near the bottom)
(my art on that one, with some tricks Holly taught me)

I've updated the speaking page (conferences) some. It was also one of the first few pages I ever made, and I know more now.
http://sandradodd.com/speaking
It's not pretty, but it's more for reference than reading. Mostly it's my own record of where I've spoken. I have a scrap book, kind of, where I keep my speaker's badge and the program, but it filled up and now it's a notebook and a little pile.

Sandra, Monday morning, Halloween week!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

computer games, Beatles, fun, English

New:

Learning from Computer Games
http://sandradodd.com/game/learning

Beatles (originals of most of the songs used in "Across the Universe")
http://sandradodd.com/acrosstheuniverse

Newish:
another Beatles page, which will be added to, as will the one above
http://sandradodd.com/beatles

Spruced up:
Deb Lewis's List of Things to do in the Winter
http://sandradodd.com/strew/deblist

Bored No More
http://sandradodd.com/BoredNoMore

Tweaked and spruced:
"Language Arts"
http://sandradodd.com/language

English
http://sandradodd.com/english

Saturday, October 20, 2007

principles, negativity, cartoons

Something new from Joyce, on principles
http://sandradodd.com/nest
at the bottom

New from Deb on negativity
http://sandradodd.com/negativity
at the top (and it's new to the page, but not newly written)

Cartoons! Defense of kids watching cartoons, a page I don't guess I had ever announced. It wasn't linked anywhere, and was sitting there with a big formatting error. So I added to it, spruced it up, and here it is, with illustrations and its own links
http://sandradodd.com/t/cartoons
That "t" in the middle is for tv. When I first started my site I didn't know at all what I was doing. Now I kinda know what I'm doing, but the old urls are still sometimes mysterious. If you forget how to get there in the future, go to sandradodd.com/tv and you should be able to find it again.

Creating webpages this way is like making quilts from materials other people have donated, but each scrap has life-changing power and sparkle. THANK YOU to those who write these wonderful bits, and to those who send them to me and say "Use this one!"

Real children's lives are made better all over the world when their parents can relax and smile and say "okay, let's do that!"

Thursday, October 18, 2007

New favicon

To those using Internet Explorer, this will mean little to nothing, but I have a note at the end...

I've changed favicons for the unschooling pages. There used to be a little duck. Now there's a tree—the smallest of the four trees Bo made for me. That's what should show to the left of the URL in the address box on a browser. Eventually the SCA pages will all have the duck.

At the moment, it's on some. These two should have a tree and a duck, respectively:
http://sandradodd.com/unschooling
http://sandradodd.com/sca

I lost the background on the unschooling page while dinking around with this change. I deleted my backgrounds folder. That's probably a good thing. That background was left over from when my unschooling page was on expage.com and they counted the characters and the fanciest art I could have was this:

I have read (yesterday) that if one on Internet Explorer saves a link to a site, the favicon will show. I read it on the internet, so it must be true. (eeep)

I like those trees Bo made me. They're to represent me and my three children, and I like the symbolism of big strong trees that grow from such small seeds.

Monday, October 15, 2007

pages I've tweaked lately

Things have been added or repaired on these pages. Maybe some of them are new to some of you, and new is new, right?

Negativity
http://sandradodd.com/negativity

Breathing
http://sandradodd.com/breathing (this is a page I've never announced before because it was too small; it's still too small...)

Children and Parents as Adversaries
http://sandradodd.com/adversaries

Being your child's PARTNER, not his adversary
http://sandradodd.com/partners
There's nothing new there but a link, but I hate to put the adversary page up without the partner page.

Late-Night Learning
http://sandradodd.com/latenightlearning
Cleanup, replaced a background that had gone missing, added a photo

And I fixed it so that the new tree art replaces the old tree art on the error and search pages
http://sandradodd.com/search
If you use my search boxes you should get the four trees Bo King made me, instead of the one tree on a book I used to use, which only appears now (I hope) at
http://sandradodd.com/bookmotif

Friday, October 12, 2007

teens, chores, video game music, Minnesota

New link on the teens page, to something Kelli Traaseth wrote:
https://sandradodd.com/teen/

Something new by Pam Sorooshian on chores, bottom of the page:
http://sandradodd.com/chores

/shift

Video game music (NOT midi-file stuff anymore!)
https://sandradodd.com/game/music

A not-quite-finished follow-up page for the keynote I gave for the Minnesota Homeschoolers Alliance conference two weeks ago.
http://sandradodd.com/mha

I'm still tired from that and a week of fun in Minnesota. Some photos here:
https://sandradodd.blogspot.com

(There are photos in the fourth link there too, of me and Holly in Minnesota, and Holly's best photoshop art.)

Friday, October 5, 2007

Halloween candy worries? (and Holly in MN)

Halloween isn't spread equally over the English-speaking world, but if Halloween worries are applicable to your family, here are collected comments concerning Halloween candy and how a family might handle it:

http://sandradodd.com/eating/halloween

There's nothing new there right now, but I'm willing to add accounts of successes with loosening up, and if anyone has photos of Halloween costumes or candy or parties that don't have a home on the web, I'm willing to host those too. We can have a happy Halloween page for others to see in years to come.


There are some photos of Holly in Minneapolis (and Kelly Traaseth's daughters Abbi and Kyra) here, and more will be up to see within a few days:
http://sandradodd.blogspot.com (posts in early October, 2007--for those who see this later)

There's Holly with Paul Bunyon, and not the real Paul Bunyon, we understand. This is some kind of department-store Paul Bunyon for the kids, but the real Paul Bunyon is in Bemidji and we'll see him later.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

new art

Bo King, a young adult friend of our family, has done new art work for the unschooling section of the website. We need to tweak it a bit to put it on the main unschooling page, and Holly and I are in Minnesota for a week, but it's in a couple of places now, in two forms:
http://sandradodd.com
http://sandradodd.com/whateveryouenter (404 error page)

I requested a tree with three baby dancing trees, artistically kinda like The Flame in the Animaniacs cartoon about the Declaration of Indepence and Sideshow Bob's hair, and look how well he did it.

I love those trees. Thanks, Bo!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

strewing, guarantees, Gilligan...

Something new from Pam Sorooshian, on strewing (second item):
http://sandradodd.com/strew/sandra

Me, on risks and guarantees...
People on the AlwaysLearning list have seen it:
http://sandradodd.com/guarantee

Phrases to Hear and Avoid
http://sandradodd.com/phrases
Something new in the box to the right.

I've added a link to this page to my unschooling page (under other voices) and my blog (other unschooling sites):
http://www.freewebs.com/ohthethinksyoucanthink/radicalunschooling.htm
It belongs to a mom in New Zealand, and I really like it.

There's a new story on the Gilligan's Island page:
http://sandradodd.com/t/gilligan

In a week and a half I'm speaking in Minnesota. Holly's going with me.
Information is here:
http://www.homeschoolers.org/annual_conference

American postage rates and policies changed recently, and it's made it harder and more expensive for me to mail books, so I raised the shipping rates closer to the new rates. Canada's is worst. Sorry. I'm hoping it won't need to be changed for a long time now, though.
http://sandradodd.com/bookorder

Thursday, September 6, 2007

a few odd changes

For those who would prefer a checklist-style directory, here it is:
http://sandradodd.com/contents
Maybe you can read my whole website after all! (Nah, not really—but you might feel a greater sense of a accomplishment if you print it out and check things off, if you like that sort of thing...)

If you think you've missed some new pages, check back in this blog!

The ordering page for Moving a Puddle has been amended. The price is up a bit on every category of shipping. I was collecting $4 and spending $4.60 for the stamp.
http://sandradodd.com/bookorder


There are a few new things on the anti-TV page (yeah, I have an anti-TV page—a gallery of illogic and booga-booga, including now a new one that says TV triggers autism). The additions are the box on the right halfway down, and the three images, lower left (which lead to outside sites).
http://sandradodd.com/t/anti

I spent most of the afternoon sifting through my site changing all the "Peaceful Parenting" to the phrase "Parenting Peacefully." Unfortunately and inexplicably, someone has trademarked the term "Peaceful Parenting," and has threatened to make me pay legal fees because I didn't roll and say "sorry" the first time she told me I couldn't use those two words together anymore. Interesting, huh? I guess if I'm giving it away she can't make as much money trying to sell it.

Recent photos of my wonderful children are here:
http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2007/09/internet-warning.html

Thanks for your interest, and I hope September is full of fun for your family.

Sandra

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

alphabet, unschooling panel, Kirby

https://sandradodd.com/alphabet.html
More content to come, but it's pretty.

https://sandradodd.com/panel
A follow-up of the Unschooling panel from the HSC conference in Sacramento, California a week and a half ago. If anyone has photos I'd love to use a couple from that day. I saw some cameras being used!

http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2007/08/kirbys-gone-to-austin-now.html

http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2007/08/kirby-internet-phones.html
Recent updates on Kirby's now-completed move to Austin. He's 21 and he's gone into the world.


You'll probably hear from me again soon. I have some pages roughed in, and Marty and Holly are leaving tomorrow for twelve days. Working on webpages seems a good plan.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

cake, paradigm shifts and Joyce-logic

Ratings of Things you Put on a Birthday Cake (fun site; once you're there, poke around a bit).

I added that to my cake site:
https://sandradodd.com/cake

More on "Getting It" and making the shift to unschooling is here:
https://sandradodd.com/unschool/gettingit

and more of Joyce's refreshingly stunning logic, in response to some more-clever-than-usual anti-TV arguments:
https://sandradodd.com/joyce/logic

Thanks, Kelly Lovejoy, for sending those last two exchanges. They're great.

The word on the lyrics game at the moment is drum (drum/drums/drumming).
https://lyricsgame.blogspot.com

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

rules, nations, lyrics


Some thoughts about rules:
http://sandradodd.com/rules
New piece at the bottom of that, about 14 year old girls and rules in different families

Nations of the World
http://sandradodd.com/geography/nations
just the beginnings of something, but kinda fun

The Lyrics Game continues; current word is "Party."

Perhaps I have mentioned how much I love the internet. I just adore the opportunity to share photos and music and ideas with people around the world, so quickly, without having to dress up or leave home. Thanks for being part of my fun internet experience.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Playing Encore online

I've set up a lyrics game.

Some of you have played Encore before (some of you have played it with me!)

I'm making an attempt to play a version of it online, just for fun.

http://lyricsgame.blogspot.com/

If you want to come and play, the current word is "farm."

If that sounds fun and if you can think (THINK, not google) of eight words of a song that contain "farm" (or farming or farmer), go and put it in as a comment.

Sandra

Sunday, June 24, 2007

expectations, video games, science

New page: Expectations
Robyn Coburn, on expectations, and lots of links.
http://sandradodd.com/expectations

Existing page: Tales of Happy Video Gamers
http://sandradodd.com/game/tales
The second entry there is new to the site.

New page just a minute ago (as I'm writing this): Science
http://sandradodd.com/science
That will grow, but it's got enough for a beginning.

(Gratuitous Photo of Holly, who is in Rhode Island this week.)

Friday, June 15, 2007

oops... wrong blog

"Flowers, compost, patience, trees" is here:
http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2007/06/flowers-compost-patience-trees.html

That was yard news, not site news. Very sorry.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

change, attitude, subjects and respect

Susan, on UnschoolingBasics reported very clearly a day on which she
changed, and her perspective changed.
http://sandradodd.com/change (fourth thing down, I think)

Attitude and Unschooling
http://sandradodd.com/attitude
This is another of those pages I made and forgot about, and didn't
link to my main page (I have now), so I added the third column of
links (including "change," the one above this one) and ta-daa!

Subjects
http://sandradodd.com/subjects
The page isn't new, but some of the links had been put in blank, on
speculation and hope I would eventually create them all. They've
existed for a while, but I had forgotten to go and fill in the
blanks. All workable now!

Respect (and kids who are aggressive and seem difficult)
http://sandradodd.com/robyn/respect
I've added some very wise advice Robyn Coburn gave to a mom who said
her five-year-old son was becoming "aggressive and mean."

Monday, June 11, 2007

music, "Yes", connections

Something beautiful and new about saying YES
http://sandradodd.com/yesagain

Connections, and The Day the Universe Changed,
both James Burke series largely about the history of science, and how one development leads to another...
Jocelyn Vilter found much online information and links to YouTube videos.
I've put the links here:
http://sandradodd.com/connections, in the box on the right.

Addition of music to the music page:
http://sandradodd.com/music/
and that will change from time to time

This is not the one that's at the link above; this is the one I made for MySpace, after Holly showed me how to do it. You can make one too (you can make several; I also have one at http://sandradodd.com/strew/simpsons)


You can make your own, or look through other people's, at
ProjectPlaylist.com
(or click "create a playlist" on anyone else's player).

Thursday, June 7, 2007

changes, driver's ed and research

Seeing changes in ourselves and our children:

A report by Kerryn in Australia, and a good quote from Pam Sorooshian:
"As we get older and our kids grow up, we eventually come to realize that all the big things in our lives are really the direct result of how we've handled all the little things."
http://sandradodd.com/change

"A Mom's-Eye View of Driver's Ed" written when Holly became a driver, with photos of Kirby, Marty, Holly and of Brett Henry's first truck.
http://sandradodd.com/driversed

Two things have been added at the bottom of this page, about what people want to know and why. (Hard to describe briefly, but worth a read!)
http://sandradodd.com/research

Monday, June 4, 2007

history songs, and powers of ten

Today's links both involve sound and video, so with apologies to anyone with a dial-up connection, here's the news:

Powers of Ten videos, four of them:
http://sandradodd.com/m/ten
Hear Japanese and Catalan while you're traveling through theoretical space and theoretical-sub-atomic-land.


"When I was a Lad" from H.M.S. Pinafore
Because the Pinky and the Brain parody is based on it, and because I couldn't find a page that had words and music together, nor a set of lyrics formatted to my satisfaction, I made my own page:

http://sandradodd.com/history/alad

That page links back to the Pinky and the Brain version, "A Meticulous Analysis of History"

These aren't new writings on unschooling, they're strewing opportunities and doors to exploration.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Elvis, Battle of New Orleans, Pinky and the Brain, Cavemen

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Today in
Elvis Presley History

1949 - Elvis Presley received a school report card on which he was given an "A" in English and a "C" in Music.

1982 - Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion in Memphis, TN, opened as a tourist attraction.

========================
http://sandradodd.com/elvis

Maybe I never announced my Elvis page. It could use some more links. Anyone here have a favorite Elvis link or want to hunt one up? I added something to the "How Elvis Appears to Unschoolers" page too.

I came to that by following and working on links from a really new page (with a couple of addenda pages and lots of links):
http://sandradodd.com/history/songs

Be warned that it opens with music.

So far, it includes
The Battle of New Orleans (Johnny Horton)
We Didn't Start the Fire (Billy Joel)
American Pie (Don McLean)
Abraham, Martin & John (Dion)
The Meticulous Analysis of History (Pinky and the Brain)

===============================

Deb Lewis was inspired by Kelly Lovejoy saying "Even Neanderthals learned!" and her response is well worth a read:
http://sandradodd.com/deblewis/cavemen

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Getting it, and the state comes to call

There's a new piece, short but sweet, on the "Getting It" page, and I
thought it would be a good page to bring to light in general:

http://sandradodd.com/unschool/gettingit

Last week when I was super-busy with other things anyway, I got a
letter (left on the wrong house, but I got it) from the State of New
Mexico department of Children Youth and Families. You might imagine
how thrilled I was not. I figured I was finally going to be called
on to defend my homeschooling or something along those lines. It was
something completely different, though, and I documented it here:

http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2007/05/control-and-jealous- craziness.html


The background post is here:
http://sandradodd.blogspot.com/2007/05/holly-news-sandra-muse.html
and
http://sandradodd.com/blogcomments/license

Although it's not at all a classic unschooling essay or anything, I
think there are things there to make one consider the benefits of
living a life of open trustfulness (or of fearful negativity, but why
spread it around more than necessary?).

Sandra

Friday, May 18, 2007

Limits and page names

Limits

http://sandradodd.com/limits.html

Deb Lewis wrote something great on a list I'm not on. Kelly Lovejoy forwarded it to me, and it needed a home. I went to name a file "limits" and found I already had one, with a good bit from Deb Cunefare I had saved but not formatted. I guess I knew someday I'd come back there and fix it up. Today is that day.

I wrote an introduction, threw in five reasonable links.

Pam Sorooshian's daughter, Rose, discovered one day that she could guess URL extensions for my site and lots of them were there. That's been my plan for a while. You might try it, and if you find there's a perfect keyword that's not opening a page, send me a note and I might make a redirect page to the closest existing page, or a directory page, or just build the page.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

additions and updates (boring title, but I only tweaked)

"if there is junk in the house my 3 yo will eat that and nothing else if i let him"

Another edition to the "If I let him..." page. I am attracted and repulsed by that page, but I think it's important to have. It's here:
http://sandradodd.com/ifilet

If you've never seen it, you might want to start from the bottom.
If you haven't seen it for a while, maybe read it with your own family's improvements in mind. Many of the parents who wrote those things went on to change, and their children very wonderfully proved them wrong.


http://sandradodd.com/help
This page for people curious or new to unschooling might be a good one to pass on to people who inquire, who are considering it for next year, etc. It has links to other unschooling sites, lists, podcasts, recent news articles, local contacts, the flickr photo pool, Typical Days posts, blogs, and Unschooling Voices.

And it's possible it's a page some of you didn't know about. I keep finding pages I had forgotten about. I don't mind, as long as the links are still good.

I added two links to sandradodd.com/unschooling (my main page). Neither page is new, but they hadn't been put in the alphabetical listing on the main page.

When Siblings Fight
http://sandradodd.com/peace/fighting

It's linked as "transition" on a couple of pages. The page is titled "Learning to See Differently" but I used "Transition" on the list.
http://sandradodd.com/peace/newview

If you find any bad links, please let me know!

Thanks for reading,

Sandra

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Ren, Marty, sex

http://sandradodd.com/renallen

This page isn't new, but I had failed to link it from my main unschooling page, so I wanted to make sure people were aware of it. It has links to various Ren Allen items and her blog and unschooling pages.

As usual, I make pages or add to them and forget to tell people, but I have two:

http://sandradodd.com/marty/thatmarty
Started off about the good job Marty did as MC of the talent show at Mary Gold's recent conference, and expanded a bit. And because of that (indirectly) I got another testimonial for the page about what about kids looking at internet porn (vaguely it's about that, mostly it's about... you know, the whole trusting kids thing): http://sandradodd.com/sex (down under the Marty story, I think the second item there is new, and the whole page might be new to some of you).

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

New Blog Layouts



Holly made this with photos Marty took, sitting in a sculpture of broken carts Marty made (behind the store where he was working). I'm putting it here partly because I like it and it shows some of the things they do for fun, but partly to see if this blog format will accept wider images than the old one.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

"Parenting Resource of the Month"

The Natural Child Project Parenting Site of the MonthEach month for the past ten years, The Natural Child Project has named a resource of the month. Beginning tomorrow, my unschooling pages will be featured. The first resource named was La Leche League, in April 1997. Last year Rue Kream's book was featured in February, and Joyce Fetteroll was "Miss October" (as it were ). Last year the AlwaysUnschooled list and the magazine Live Free Learn Free were also featured. It was a big year for unschooling! I find myself in excellent company, and am glad Jan Hunt likes my site enough to share it out with her readers. Most of her letter is below. I don't know when her review will be up, but I'll put a link here when it is: http://sandradodd.com/unschooling

Sandra
===================================

Hi Sandra,

We have selected Radical Unschooling for our February 2007 "Parenting Resource of the Month" feature. A review will be posted at http://www.naturalchild.org/site_of_the_month/. Our site receives about 250,000 visitors per month.

We'll place a link on the Natural Child Project home page at http://www.naturalchild.org , and will note this selection in the February issue of our email newsletter, which currently over 5000 subscribers. Previous issues can be read at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naturalchildproject/ .

[then there was some stuff about how to link and get the graphics...]

Congratulations and thank you for providing such an inspiring and enlightened resource!

Best wishes,

Jan Hunt, M.Sc., Director
The Natural Child Project
http://www.naturalchild.org

"Change the world - nurture a child."

Monday, January 22, 2007

magical day, food controls and speed reading

http://sandradodd.com/typical
http://sandradodd.com/day/danielle

The first link will lead to the second. Danielle had a beautiful day described on her blog and I added it to the "Typical Days" section, with a link back to the original.

http://sandradodd.com/eating/longterm
Two new accounts of the problems with controlling food, and the surprising benefits of freedom and choices.

The page existed. The two new accounts are in the middle, after Kelly's story of the restaurant. IIt was a good page, and now it's better.

There's a new account on the speed reading page by Ria.
http://sandradodd.com/r/speed
and I've added an image of part of what would be lost by reading too fast.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

health food and multiple intelligences

Health food and multiple intelligences—totally unrelated to one another:

http://sandradodd.com/eating/healthfood
Short new page on eating,
and the main food page is cleaned up and improved
http://sandradodd.com/food

I'm working on a page on Gardner's Multiple Intelligences. If you're interested, check back by Wednesday, by when I'll have added more.
http://sandradodd.com/intelligences

the heart of it; WoW reading; bedtime

http://sandradodd.com/unschool/gettingit
Short new bit added to Unschooling: Getting It

http://sandradodd.com/game/reading
Hayden reads the back of the World of Warcraft expansion set box aloud—check it out.

http://sandradodd.com/bedtime
well... bedtime! choices, sleep...

Sunday, January 7, 2007

Peace and Flowers (and a rant and stuff)

Sandra in the early 21st Century
http://sandradodd.com/00s

New writings added here:
http://sandradodd.com/t/holly
http://sandradodd.com/t/peace

New from Schuyler (not newly written, but newly available online):
http://sandradodd.com/schuyler/rant

Some new photos and clarifications on the Morning Glories page, a page that's brought in a couple of readers who were looking for morning glory information and found unschooling and other things.
http://sandradodd.com/morningglories

Sandra

The Blindmen and the Elephant

I wasn't going to announce this page, as it's not original writing,
nor about unschooling or the SCA.

Then I thought, all things being connected, that it might be just
the thing SOMEone needs this week, for some unknown reason, or it
might be something someone will need next week, so I might as well
put it out there.


http://sandradodd.com/theblindmenandtheelephant


Joyce found the poem a couple of years ago, and when I went today to find a text, I found slight variations, so I've tweaked this one to a matching set myself. If you find any errors, please let me know.

Quicker news, and some catch-up

I should say that the quicker and more reliable way to see site news is to join this yahoogroup:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sandradodd/

My intent is to post here what I send there, but I'm slow sometimes.

http://sandradodd.com/howto
Precisely How to Unschool, with a graph and everything!

http://sandradodd.com/robyn/respect
Some general thoughts about Respect, by Robyn Coburn

http://sandradodd.com/lists/comments
There's something new and very nice there.

Being your Child's Partner, not his Adversary
http://sandradodd.com/partners
Not new, but newly spruced up and linked back and forth.