Chat reminder

Learning from our kids, February 26

(Sending this because I had forgotten! Usually the note goes out on Sunday. This time, Thursday and overnight-Tuesday.)

Wednesday, February 26 chat will be on things we learned because of our kids–through their interests, or from things they knew that we didn't! Not the esoteric stuff like "how to love." The practical things, like Flight of the Conchords or Minecraft or how to make a whistle out of grass.

Here's a page I've started to store the good stuff, and if anyone has a story who can't come to the chat, you could just mail it to me. A response to this e-mail comes to my mail, I think.

http://sandradodd.com/learningfromourkids

Learning from our kids, February 26

Wednesday, February 26 chat will be on things we learned because of our kids–through their interests, or from things they knew that we didn't! Not the esoteric stuff like "how to love." The practical things, like Flight of the Conchords or Minecraft or how to make a whistle out of grass.

Here's a page I've started to store the good stuff, and if anyone has a story who can't come to the chat, you could just mail it to me. A response to this e-mail comes to my mail, I think.

http://sandradodd.com/learningfromourkids

If you're reading this by e-mail and you need a path to the chatroom, click on the title to get to the blog, which has a tab up to the left with the link and password.

Openness to Experience

Openness to experience, February 19 chat

Although it's a "heritable trait" (something people inherit genetically), it can also be nurtured and fostered, to some extent.

I think school can create a "closed-to-experience" condition in some people.
Some families do, too.

There's nothing on my site about it, excapt pages on wonder and connections, I guess.

Maybe think of a fictional character who seems to have that trait. Rippy suggests the character of Phil, on Modern Family. I say Tigger.

Here's a description:
Openness to experience: (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious). Appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, curiosity, and variety of experience. Openness reflects the degree of intellectual curiosity, creativity and a preference for novelty and variety a person has. It is also described as the extent to which a person is imaginative or independent, and depicts a personal preference for a variety of activities over a strict routine. Some disagreement remains about how to interpret the openness factor, which is sometimes called "intellect" rather than openness to experience.

Read about openness to experience here if you want more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openness_to_experience
http://cambridgepersonality.com/index.php/science-menu22/77-trait-description-openness








If you're reading this by e-mail and you need a path to the chatroom, click on the title to get to the blog, which has a tab up to the left with the link and password.

Guests! and chats coming up in the next few weeks

Every Wednesday in March, I'll be in Australia. Australia has an assortment of time zones, and I'll be staying with different people or travelling the middle three weeks, so here is the Special Schedule for March 2014:

March 5, me from Schuyler's house (5:30 in the morning or some such for me, but regular time for all of you)

March 12, Pam Sorooshian will answer questions, from 11:00 California time (same old chat time)

March 19, Alex Polikowsky will be the guest, and maybe there will be a certain topic, and I'll let you know

March 26, Deb Lewis will be the star of the chatroom show.

April 2 (which I was also counting as March, sorry) I'll be back, at Schuyler's, maybe with Schuyler. No promising she'll want to get up early with me. :-)



To read what our upcoming guests have written before, or if you're unfamiliar with them, here:

http://sandradodd.com/pamsorooshian

http://sandradodd.com/alex/ (page in progress, but has things you didn't know)

http://sandradodd.com/deblewis/



If you're reading this by e-mail and you need a path to the chatroom, click on the title to get to the blog, which has a tab up to the left with the link and password.

Mental Health, February 12

I wrote 11th, rather than 12th, and nobody corrected me. Maybe nobody's reading.
Wednesday the 12th, chat on mental health!




Wednesday, February 12, chat on how to promote and maintain mental health in an unschooling family, and how unschooling can contribute to mental health!

Think some about what "mental health" would look like, before the chat. Bringing links and quotes is fair. :-)

If you're reading this by e-mail and you need a path to the chatroom, click on the title to get to the blog, which has a tab up to the left with the link and password.

Supporting Your Child's Interests, February 5

Supporting Your Child's Interests, Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Robin Bentley will be speaking at Life is Good in late May, and wants to run some ideas by the group and through the group this Wednesday.

She said she wants to provide ideas about how and why and what, but also what a parent can learn from supporting their kids. Not just about the child's interests, but maybe about themselves, too.

If you're reading this by e-mail and you need a path to the chatroom, click on the title to get to the blog, which has a tab up to the left with the link and password.