Chat on March 28, "Special Ed"

March 28
Special Education, seeing children directly (pages 68-70)
How might unschooling work differently with "special-needs" children?

These links aren't the same text as the book. Reading those pages in the book would be best, but they link to
http://sandradodd.com/specialunschooling
http://sandradodd.com/unschool/difference
http://sandradodd.com/words/without


April 4
Giftedness and Howard Gardner's Intelligences (71-75)

March 21 chat, toddlers and young children

March 21,
Toddlers and young children (pages 63-67)


Toddlers page
The title art was sent by Tammy in Australia (greenjellysnakes) in April, 2009. Her three-year-old helped.



March 28
Special Education, seeing children directly (pages 68-70)

April 4
Giftedness and Howard Gardner's Intelligences (71-75)

Chat time earlier (for some)

I'm sorry I forgot to mention last week that we went to daylight savings time here. The chat seemed to have started an hour early (well, it DID, in some time zones).

So if you're using an online clock translator of some sort, please note the daylight savings time problem. Noon in New Mexico has gone back an hour. Arizona and Europe, Hawaii... I don't know who else needs to note this.

March 21,
Toddlers and young children (pages 63-67 of The Big Book of Unschooling)


The regular notice should go out tomorrow/Monday, still.

March 14 chat on communicating with infants

March 14
infants (pages 57-62, being partners with babies, communicating with them)
http://sandradodd.com/babies/


March 21,
Toddlers and young children (pages 63-67)

March 28
Special Education, seeing children directly (pages 68-70)

April 4
Giftedness and Howard Gardner's Intelligences (71-75)

March 7, general chat and books about unschooling

I forgot to prepare for a chat today, or to announce one, so let's do it, but more generally. There's a new book about unschooling. And we can talk about general questions and issues.

If you have this by e-mail, you can get to the chatroom by clicking on the title, which should be a link to the blog, and has the link and password.

Next week, March 14
infants (pages 57-62, being partners with babies, communicating with them)

March 21,
Toddlers and young children (pages 63-67)

March 28
Special Education, seeing children directly (pages 68-70)

April 4
Giftedness and Howard Gardner's Intelligences (71-75)

February 29, Leapday chat!

"Have to," self-regulation, and self-control
Pages 53-56, The Big Book of Unschooling

If you're reading e-mail and need a trail to get to the chat, click on the title.
If you're reading at the blog, when-where-and-how is up above.

February 22, 2012 chat: CHOICES

If you're reading this by e-mail, and you click on the title, it should take you to the blog where links are to the chatroom and the password.
February 22 chat on Choices,
Page 51 of The Big Book of Unschooling

---

Choices

In May, 1987, when Kirby was a baby, I was at an SCA/medievalist campout. A friend was being knighted the next day, and I went to his vigil. He told me that he was worried about his duty, as a knight, to set a good example, and that his camp wasn't very nice, nor very authentic to period. I told him it had taken years for our camp to become more elaborate and more period, and that he could improve his gradually, too.

We talked about replacing dishes, or benches, or lanterns, as better ones were found, and not try to replace everything at once.

I suggested that when he got a new tent, if his choices were nylon or canvas, to get canvas; if the choice was brown or orange, choose brown. "Always make the more medieval choice," I said.
I went back to my own camp and shared this idea with Keith and my friend Jeff (who were in that context Gunwaldt and Artan), and it was passed on to all my husband's squires and my students from then on.

Meanwhile, back in my regular life, I had two more children and as they started making their own choices, the idea of making the better choice was a good tool. I added to that the idea that until one has thought of at least two options, it's impossible to make a choice.

The concept has been helpful with unschooling and with mindful parenting, and first came forth in that area of thought in August 2002, at the HSC conference when Richard Prystowsky and I did a joint talk called "Peaceful Parenting." I recommended that people think of two things to do and make the more peaceful choice.

Although this tool is useful in the moment, its best use is for incremental change. If my best choice used to be to yell or hit, and I yelled, then the next time I thought about it, hitting wasn't even going to begin to be one of my choices. Would I yell or wait? Or yell or speak quietly? Yell or leave the room? Maybe leave out the yelling, and choose between "speak quietly" or "breathe before speaking."

Some critics of this advice say children will never decide if they have unlimited choices. No one has "unlimited choices," but compared to children in traditional culture, a parent has a huge range of choices. More often than not they don't choose, because they don't even stop to think. They just react in familiar ways, thoughtlessly. They do the first thing they think of and say "I had to do that, because…" and they fill in the blank with something justifiable. It's not mindful parenting.

A person can choose to have choices. A person can choose not to choose; still a choice, but they think of it as "no choice" or "have to."

SandraDodd.com/choices