Donations will be gratefully accepted!

Once upon a time, chatzy charged by usage, and because we don't use it much, it was only $36 every four or five months. They changed to months, instead, so I went to an annual fee to make it less expensive. The receipt looks bad for having a comma, but it wasn't $129,000. It's $129.00. Whew!!

That's about $3 per chat, as I didn't run chats while I was travelling in the summer, and another day or two were missed for holidays. That's pretty cheap for a meeting room with facilities (chat facilities, not toilet facilities), but still in one pile it was $129.

If anyone would like to help with that, here's "the hat" I'm passing, and thanks for contributing a bit if you can. If it goes over the chat amount, any extra can go toward SandraDodd.com's annual fee, which is $131.28. Assistance would be kind, generous and appreciated.

If PayPal spooks you, my address is

Sandra Dodd
2905 Tahiti Ct. NE
Albuquerque NM 87112
      And I LOVE Christmas cards!!

College and alternatives, for teens and young adults

October 30, 2013, chat on college and alternatives, pages 261-263, and maybe pages 259-260 (jobs).

Europe has daylight savings time in effect; North America doesn't yet. Maybe check a world clock or website to check the time at some point before Wednesday. People are welcome to leave definite times in comments below, if that would help. :-)

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.

Teens, October 23

Wednesday, Pam Sorooshian will be in on the chat (because I'm staying at her house, and it will be easy for her to do that). We don't have teens anymore, right now, but we used to, each of us, three.

Here's a chat from early 2009, with and about Pam Sorooshian: http://sandradodd.com/chats/pamsorooshian and there's more about teens at http://sandradodd.com/teens and http://sandradodd.com/teens

or in the book, pages 251-259 or so in the book. We can discuss whichever parts of that section chat attendees want to discuss.


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.

"Sex education" discussion October 16

http://sandradodd.com/sexadvice is a good starting place on the website.

Here is the entirety of page 250 from The Big Book of Unschooling

This was hard to place, so I've put it just before the section on teens.

Sex Education
Some families say "Abstain!" and if a pregnancy results, they see it as a punishment from God, the ultimate outing of sneaky, bad behavior.

There are more loving ways to handle teens and sexuality. There are more compassionate and sensible things to think and say and do.

Undoubtedly some of those reading here were the product of unintended pregnancy, and it is not the fashion for people to say "shouldn’t have been born" about themselves or anyone else. To be honest, though, with the world population approaching seven billion, helping your children only have babies they really want is good for you, them, and the hypothetical, potentially-unwanted children.

A girl can put a baby up for unseen adoption, and many parents have required teenaged girls to do that. There are risks to physical health and life, and certain effects on emotional health and life.

We can continue the tradition of the ages of punishing and shaming and controlling teenagers, or we can find better ways to help them learn what they need to know to make good decisions and to live a responsible, happy life.

That was all about pregnancy. There are other things to consider. It's easy to lie to kids or to create a cloud of fear and nonsense. What's not as easy is for parents to review and update their own knowledge so that what they're saying is helpful and current and true.

I was talking to Holly about "control," and of a family forbidding a 16-year-old to see her boyfriend (who attended the same school she did), which resulted in the murder of her family, house burned down, all the teens in prison…

I said: "Some families tell their boys never to look at dirty pictures and never to touch their penises."

Holly: "Ed Gein's mother told him that, hardcore."

Sandra: "Never to jack off?"

Holly: "Yes. And he dug his mother's body up, cut off her vagina and painted it silver."

SandraDodd.com/sex

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.

October 9 chat on Regrets

"Regrets" (pages 245 to 249).
Sometimes people express a wish that they had unschooled sooner, or been nicer to children earlier, or gone to conferences rather than stalling off.

I have a collection online with a few more than the book has. http://sandradodd.com/ifonly


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.