Last Chat of 2014

Wednesday January DECEMBER 31, not a serious topic, just a chat of whatever.

(Thanks, Dena, for "Sandra, I think you mean December 31, instead of January."


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.

Christmas Eve Chat, December 24

I meant Christmas EVE, not "Christmas Even." That doesn't EVEN make sense... Sorry. :-)

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.

Christmas Eve, chat is on

I'll be in the chatroom December 24, and will totally understand if most of you are too busy to be there.

Rather than have a topic, we're leaving last week's chat on what's "natural" in there, and we'll just visit or answer questions or tell stories.

THE ROOM COSTS MONEY. A couple of years back, they charged by usage, and when I got the notification to deposit $30 I'd let people know. :-) Now it's $129 a year. Last year I didn't ask for help; this year I am. http://sandradodd.com/2014/request

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.

What is "Natural"? (December 17 chat topic)

What, in life, is "natural"? People talk about natural learning, and natural foods, and natural instincts. Human "nature." It's all words.

Are words natural? Where's the edge of "natural"?

Recently I've read that it might be that all the heavy metals are here from meteors and meteorites. If they're not from this planet, are the "natural"? But aren't meteors natural?

Is this too simple a question? Too complex?

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.

Religion (learning about religions) December 10

Wednesday, December 10, Let's talk a bit about religion, religious differences, navigating friends and relatives at holidays, making connections regarding religions in geography, history, art... Whatever connections come up.

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.

Success! (Success?) December 3

Let's talk about the idea of "success," in life. http://sandradodd.com/success


We talked about how to think about whether we were doing enough, a few weeks ago. The transcript is here: http://chattranscripts.blogspot.com/2014/11/enough.html

But this week, let's talk about how we might rethink "success" when looking at a child's progress, a teen's "readiness" or an adult's activities.

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.

Principles of Unschooling, November 26 chat

Principles of Unschooling is a list of principles Pam Sorooshian made. I would like to discuss those.

It's not every possible principle a radical unschooler might need, but it's a great list to help people understand learning in natural ways.

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.

FOOD chat, November 19

This Wednesday's chat will be on food! So maybe eat before you come, or have a snack at hand. :-)

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.

"Enough"? chat on November 12

How can you respond to the voice in your head when it asks "Is this enough?"

http://sandradodd.com/enough


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.

I can't chat November 5 (but you can!)

My sister is coming to town (Albuquerque has "the airport") from Chama (100 miles NW of here), leaving her car with me, and needing a ride to the airport to go to Florida. She has never gone on a vacation by herself. This is big. :-)

So I'm going to take her and hang out a while, and that'a all starting before chat time and ending afterwards.

The room is always there, so if people want to go and just chat about anything at all, that's fine. If you want to leave ideas for some future chat topics, that's cool.

We went through The Big Book of Unschooling, topic by topic. We could do that with pages new to the site, or with my earlier essays (in Moving a Puddle, and most are linked here: http://sandradodd.com/articles
and pages new to the site are listed here: http://aboutunschooling.blogspot.com/
Maybe by looking randomly, there, you might find a topic we haven't done.


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.

29 October chat on "me time"

This might be a hard one.

It seems harsh to suggest that the more a parent is with a child, the more time she will have to herself, ultimately. It would be harsher to say "Yeah, whatever; you deserve lots of private time," at the risk of breaking some of the bond and trust unschooling needs.

Examples and links to prior discussions might be helpful.

Sorry the notice is late. I forgot! :-)

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.

Surprise! (October 22 chat)

Think of something that has surprised you in a good way about unschooling, or maybe something your child did or said, asked, drew or built that shocked you in a happy way.

Sometimes we don't need to wait until kids are grown to see big benefits of unschooling.

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.

Weed Away Words, October 15 Chat

Sandra Dodd and Heather Booth—an exchange:

Sandra:

Heather, I'm sorry we didn't get to your question on words last week.
I forgot to bring it up. Could you describe what would help you with
your project?

Heather:

One of the things that helped when I started unschooling was becoming
aware of the words I used. The clearer I became in my thoughts and the
more aware of the impact of my words, the better I was at being an
unschooling parent. I want to discuss with my group the power of
words. "Read a little, try a little, wait a while, watch" and "Say yes
more" are great phrases to get you going in the right direction but if
you are still saying "have to" or "junk food " or "screen time" then
you're stuck in negative thoughts.

Let’s make a list of words and phrases that hinder unschooling – and a
list of alternatives phrases or thoughts. If we have time at the end
let's end on a high note and make a list of words that help.

Sandra Dodd:

Okay!

I want to talk about illogical phrases, then, if there's time. Sometimes something sounds good but makes no sense. It's good for people to be on the lookout for those, too. :-)

Wednesday October 15, two hours beginning:
8:30 am Pacific
9:30 am Mountain
10:30 am Central
11:30 am Eastern
4:30 pm Lisbon/UK
5:30 pm Netherlands

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.

Which words are harmful to clarity?

I'll send another note on Sunday with more details, but the October 15 chat will be about avoiding words that harm peace or unschooling or the attitude needed for those.

In a discussion I was just in, I wrote

As to who "deserves" to be treated how and who is "sacrificing," those terms can do damage. If you "deserve" something, where do you appeal to make sure you get it? If you have "sacrificed…" what are you sacrificing?

That made me think of Heather Booths' request to discuss words (and it might've come up last week, but last week's chat got going and didn't pause, after a while).

If you have a story of changed thinking that involves words or phrases, bring it Wednesday!

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 8 chat on chats

I would like to discuss the value of discussions themselves. There seem to times and places and conditions that make group discussion work well.

If you have stories of things you have learned from participation in these chats, or Radical Unschooling Info, or Always Learning, or a discussion at a converence (formal or informal), please share.

Unschooling is quite about how learning works and this is about a look at how learning works for unschooling parents.

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.

Pressure and competition, October 1 chat

What about pressure or competition? Should they be encouraged? Avoided? Depends on the family? Depends where you live? What?

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.

September 24—is being nice better than being mean?

September 24, I will chat with you all from Colleen Prieto's house in New Hampshire. That's pretty cool!!!

Here's my topic: Is being nice better than being mean?
What IS "being nice"?

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.

Last week, this week and next week

Last week's chat on all kinds of science was good. It seemed short! Below is proof that I did indeed make a fried baloney sandwich afterwards.

This week, September 17, I will be in an airplane somewhere between Dallas and Philadelphia. I hope some of the rest of you will be in the chatroom being helpful to one another somehow. (By nighttime, Keith and I should be in Maine, trying to find Laurie Wolfrum's house.)

NEXT week, September 24, I will chat with you all from Colleen Prieto's house in New Hampshire. That's pretty cool!!!

October 1, I'll be back in plain old Albuquerque, and boring again.

     That was my first fried-baloney sandwich in over 30 years. Except for using homemade bread instead of cheap white bread, it was authentic. I'm good for another 30 years now. Maybe Keith will eat the rest of the baloney.



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.

September 10 chat on all kinds of science

What IS "science"? If it can be learned without lessons, what is "it"? Bring stories, or questions, or links.

If you own Thinking Sticks, "science" is not one of them. I diluted the idea with lots of topics. Connections to some of those might help you think a new thought or ten. Science and ______ (one of those sticks, or any other idea :-)).

There's not a public list of English words but if you want to see them in Dutch or French, here: http://sandradodd.com/french/thinkingstickswords (Even if you can't read French, you can read twenty or thirty of those words.)

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.

Movies, TV and little videos, September 3

YouTube, Hulu, Network TV on demand, all kinds of new gadgets and streaming this'n'that.

Bingeing on series from TV, or series of movies!

What will become of us and our children!?

Come and share fears and giggles.

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.

Getting it (August 27 topic)

Like a bicycle not quite catching the sprocket, sometimes people are moving along, roughly, and they're unschooling, but something isn't quite smooth, and then ZOOM! The chain catches and they're really going.

Did your own unschooling ever change gears that way? Do you remember something that caused a leap in your knowledge or comfort?



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.

August 20 chat: Writing! (Parental)

Writing: blogging, discussions, facebook, letters to parents and in-laws, Chat rooms. Considering the purpose and the audiences and the benefits to the children of the parent(s) writing sometimes.

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.

Deschooling—"Like what?!" August 13 chat

Think of some specific things that changed in you, about you, when you were deschooling. Think of a time when you hit a snag, a lump, an un-deschooled part of you. What happened? What did you do?

Deschooling is a process that can't be sped up, I think. I could be wrong.

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.

August 6 chat on Privilege

What about "Privilege"—the advantages some people have?

I have been privileged to get to go to conferences by being a speaker. I know some families can't ever afford a conference. Others can afford any conference they want. How important is that? What can people who can't go to conferences do instead?

There are other levels of privilege, in families, in homes, in abilities and resources. Think about that, and come and share ideas.

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.

Perspective, July 30 chat

I'll be in the chat from Heather Booth's house in Oakland, California. At the HSC conference, one of my presentations is a new topic called "Perspective," and I will have been thinking about that. You can help me!

From the conference schedule:

Where were you before (intellectually, emotionally, philosophically)? Where are you now? Where might you be next year, or in five years?

Ideas for reading might be the TV pages or about food, if you don't have other ideas. There are two pages where I collect people's tales of personal change:

Thoughts on Changing
and
How Unschooling Changes People

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.

Etiquette, manners, customs (July 23)

July 23, the day before Learn Nothing Day, we will discuss the WHY (mostly) of etiquette, manners and customs. Partly that might be about expectations. Who gets to say how things go in a public place? How can a mother set a good example for a child?

There was a discussion just this January about etiquette and manners. The transcript is here: Etiquette, and Manners and Courtesy. I'll try to go another direction with this one.



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.

Math and geography

Geography and math—differences, measurements, terminology, surprises, oddities.

A few things to consider: Metric system, counting in 12s (dozen, gross, 360-degree circles (180, 90 degrees. Crore and lakh. One billion people in India. They went with the American numbers on that. Britain gave up their definition of "a billion" when I was already an adult.

Rs. 16 Crore Bugatti India’s Most Expensive Car Say HOW much? But you can get a Tata for just 1,96,141 rs. (That comma IS in the right place, for Indian numbers.) That's less than two Lakh!

One favorite project of U.S. homeschoolers used to be to collect post cards from every U.S. state. Because of the extreme differences in the populations of states and the number of unschooling families, the lists of participants would have maybe 200 or 250 families in California and Texas, and two in New Mexico, and one in Wyoming. (I'm using a real memory for this one). Many states had fifteen or twenty participants!

The rule was to send a postcard when you got a postcard. When I pointed out that I would go broke if I answered every postcard, the organizer explained condescendingly to me that no family would send more than 49 post cards. I tried to explain, but she said if I didn't return a card I would be removed from the project. Well, then! The families organizing such things were thinking only of geography, and not of mathematics.


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.

Connections galore

This connects last week's chat with this week's.


What's the connection? :-)

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.

July 9, Word Origins

Wednesday, July 9, for the benefit of Karen James and anyone else who thinks it might be interesting to know whether a word came from medieval French, or ancient Germanic tribes, or somewhere else, and why…

A game. A game with dictionaries (online or otherwise). If you like words and you have a dictionary that has etymologies, have it handy. Oxford English Dictionary is a bonus (IF it's an edition with word histories). American Heritage Dictionary is perfect, if (as above) it has at the ends of words something that looks like <ME <OE (which would mean (from Middle English, from Old English) or <Fr (from French). Any dictionary might have that.

If this is making your eyes roll back, never mind. You can play without a book, too. Just a few people need books. Or if you have two internet portals, keep your best-keyboard option open to the chat, and with the other you can find words for the game, or look up to see if the plays are correct.

Karen James has developed a curiosity (perhaps temporary) and I want to stop filling up her facebook page. I would rather fill up two hours of chat.

9:30 my time and Jill's (Mountain Savings Time) Wednesday morning. Yours… maybe the same or different. Time notes

The discussion, on Karen's page, for anyone not already spooked by the whole topic: https://www.facebook.com/karen.james.1023/posts/652456298157523

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.

Connections, July 2 Chat, NEW TIME

Connections (specifically with Thinking Sticks), July 2 at the new time. (You don't need to own Thinking Sticks to play; if someone has some for an honest throw, that might be good. I would need to make a set here.)

About the new time: Time Change for Wednesday Chats (2.5 hours earlier!)

About this idea/topic: Topics, Ideas (Marty's idea, years ago.)

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.

TIME CHANGE for Wednesday chats

We're moving the chat to an earlier time, so that Jill Parmer can participate, and because it's nicer earlier for me, and if it doesn't work we can move it back someday.

With apologies for the west-coast earliness,

Wednesdays for two hours, beginning at 9:30 a.m. mountain savings time at my house in New Mexico which (depending on daylight savings time match-up) is also
8:30 am Pacific
10:30 am Central
11:30 am Eastern
4:30 pm Lisbon/UK

http://www.timeanddate.com/time/ Might help if you want to check your local time, but Siri or Google can probably tell you, 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.

History chat, June 25

We haven't discussed history for a while. If you have stories or questions about what seems important about history, what has surprised you, what you remember fondly from school, what your kids know, how history can be learned now… Bring it!!

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.

June 18 chat is stupid.

How stupid is "stupid"?

Come and tell us what you think is stupid, or what you used to think was stupid and what might have changed your mind about that.

Gratuitous art, just because I really like this. It has nothing to do with the chat topic. Or it might, but I'm sending it because I received it this morning.

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.

June 11, 2014 ART, around the edges.

June 11, 2014 ART, around the edges.
Art underneath, between, on the surface, in the structure.
Art and dirt.
Art and air.
Art and light.

Why are you thinking of flat things (if you are). Lots of people think of flat art. Why?

Bring a link or two to something artsy and I don't care what. Artsy or artistic or art. What do those words even mean? What is "artisan bread"? What is "artisanal cheese"? What's with "artiste," always pronounced in that condescending way?

"Artificial" was a huge compliment, I've read, when it was a new word.

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.

June 4 chat

Wednesday I will be home and shouldn't have conference problems to deal with so…
Let's chat about changes—small changes and big changes in thought, behavior, life direction, habits, stages and ages.

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.

May 28, come on down!

I forgot to post. Yes, chat today, Wednesday May 28.

Topic might be reviews of the Life is Good conference (Jenny Cyphers spoke, and will be here at the beginning of the chat; maybe Robin Bentley will be here and share some stories), and maybe others could share a good memory or favorite aspect of a gathering, symposium or conference.

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.

May 21 chat, Your House as a Museum

There might be something in your house that's very interesting. Or you might have visited someone else's house and seen something exciting. Things in museums used to belong to people, generally. So what makes a "museum-quality" object? Age? Rarity? Quality?

Plan A: think about the questions above and bring us some stories.

Plan B: Read this article I wrote years ago, if you can't think of anything. It will give you ideas.

THIS article! (which didn't go out in the e-mail) http://sandradodd.com/museum


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.

Chat suspended, stalled, to-be-ignored for one week

No chat this week. I have a friend's midweek wedding, Marta has her daughter's birthday, have a week off.

If anyone has a request for a topic for May 21, send me a note by e-mail (or comment at the blog) before Sunday. Otherwise I'll think something up.

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.

May 7 Chat on Choosing to be Happy

May 7 Chat on Choosing to be Happy

I don't want to talk about choosing to tell our children to be happy, but choosing, for ourselves, happiness over grunty, grumpy negativity.

It occurred to me this morning (May 5, 2014) that *maybe* too-often recurring depression might be an addiction to negativity. I want to show people what I'm thinking about that and let them dismantle it as false, or add evidence if I might be on a trail to something useful.

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.

April 23 chat on fears and concerns

It can be scary! When people ask other unschoolers for help, often the help they want is not being afraid of laws, failure, lacks, "gaps," of getting so far from the academic assembly line that they can't get back if they need to.

Let's look at those concerns and what would be good things to pass on to worried new unschoolers.

Maybe some who are in the chat will be those worried newer unschoolers. Let's not dwell on the fears, but on the reassurances!

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.

Skepticism (add-on for this week's chat

For those in the April 16 chat on ideas, theories and convictions, I want to add a bit of commentary on skepticism. We touched on some people (moms, especially) being susceptible to believe things without critical examination of the veracity or logic of the claims. I thought of this page but failed to link it there:

http://sandradodd.com/skepticism

April 16 chat, on ideas, theories, convictions

I'm in Dallas as I write this, hoping to be in Albuquerque soon and for many quiet weeks!

Wednesday, please come and chat! I want to talk about ideas (cheap and easy), theories (rarer, and take a while to test) and convictions (very solid). It's a little like the geology of ideas, maybe. :-)

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.

April 9 chat on traveling to meet unschoolers

I'll tell some stories in retrospect of my trip to Australia, but I would like to enlarge it to include the idea of anyone travelling just to share about unschooling—either to speak, or to meet other unschoolers, or to visit a family you already know.

I think there are advantages and slight disadvantages. -)

Think of other interests or hobbies or "lifestyles" that cause people to travel to visit others in that group.

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.

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.

Sandra back to chat, from Australia

Wednesday, April 2, I will be in the chat to tell some Australia stories.

If I'm late, have sympathy, and don't try to call me. My phone won't work until I'm back in the U.S. It will be 4:00 a.m. Thursday morning in Queensland, when the chat starts. I will try to be up for it. :-)



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.

Special guest, Deb Lewis

March 26 chat, Deb Lewis will come and answer questions you might have of her. (Thank you, Deb!) So you'll need to read up on some of her experiences and her knowledge so you'll have ideas about what to ask her!

http://sandradodd.com/deblewis/

Marta will be the host, I'll be asleep somewhere in Australia and will wake up and read the transcript later.

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.

Special chat, Alex Polikowsky

March 19, Alex Polikowsky stars in the chat!

I know, she's always there, but this time the chat will be about her! Maybe about the conference in Rochester and the one in Minneapolis last year, or maybe about her exciting life, or maybe about her creative storage and play ideas.

I won't be there, so the participants will decide. Read here for ideas: http://sandradodd.com/alex

And here's her blog: http://polykow.blogspot.com

Marta will host, and I'll read the transcript later! That day I'll be in an automobile with Jo Isaac, driving from Adelaide to Melbourne! I could fly, but I wanted to see some normal Australians who didn't see a foreigner coming. Catch them unawares, in their natural rural habitat. I hope. We're staying in a motel. That's exciting for me—everyday foreigness away from tourist towns and big cities.

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.

Special guest: Pam Sorooshian

Wednesday, March 12, Pam Sorooshian will be in the chat. You can interview her, as a group, if you want to! Marta will host; I'll be in Cairns, in northern Australia, being a tourist.

Pam did another chat in February 2009, if you want to read that for ideas for follow-up questions or clarifications, and you can read her writing from links here: http://sandradodd.com/pamsorooshian

Chat with Pam Sorooshian: http://sandradodd.com/chats/pamsorooshian



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.

March 5, cultural differences

March 5

Cultural differences.

I'll be in Australia. I've been some other places. Many of you are in one country and have lived in another. What kinds of cultural differences affect learning, unschooling, expectations? What traditions should we tread lightly around, depending where the children's grandparents are from?

And what will help me be a good guest in Australia? Schuyler's American and I've stayed with her before, so that's not something to worry about.

Sometimes cultural expectations vary within a culture, by class or region. I was in Texas in January, where people say "sir" and "ma'am" a lot, and women don't tend to hold doors open for men, but men do for women. (In New Mexico, anyone holds a door for anyone, especially if they're old or carrying a box.)

Bring stories and ideas.

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.

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.

Socialization chat

This notification went out over a week ago. Sorry. :-)
I'm in Texas, and fairly confused about what day it is. So… January 29, chat:

Socialization.

"What about socialization?" people used to ask homeschoolers. Maybe some still do.

Well, what about it? What IS it?

Maybe "socializing" is a better goal. When I was in school I was told many times, by many teachers, "You're not here to socialize." So once schools "socialize" a kid he's not supposed to "socialize" with others?

So outside of school, then, what is it in the normal, everyday world? Do we want some?

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.

January 22, Siblings: attending to very young children and their siblings

Siblings: attending to very young children and their siblings

Some ideas are here: http://sandradodd.com/siblings


Next week, January 29, Socialization

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How to get into the chatroom (click).

Siblings: attending to very young children and their siblings

The next two chats:

January 22: Siblings. Balancing needs with very young kids.

January 29: Socialization. What about it? What IS it? It's not the same as socializing, is it?




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.

Chat transcripts, new and improved

I fixed a couple of problems in a nicely edited chat with Ren Allen from 2009, and linked it on my Ren Allen page.
A Chat with Ren Allen
Ren Allen

Is it "too late" to have done this? The chat has been up, but wasn't so easy to find. It has some sweet things in it, and links to photos of Ren and to her blogs. No one else could have written what she wrote. :-) Not everyone has the ability to answer in writing in real time, and I'm glad when it happens!

There are many chats like that. Marta Pires is helping me organize them so they're more easily available.

Here is a newer one: Regrets

We're working on putting them in better order.

January 15 Chat on Etiquette, and manners, and courtesy

I've begun a page on etiquette to which I will addd things, and if this discussion is a good one, the transcript can be linked there.

sandradodd.com/etiquette

My thoughts for topics within that topic are:

• What's the difference in "etiquette," "manners" and "courtesy"?
  
• What principles are at play?
  
• What "manners" are important?
  
• Time and place—what's changeable and how can we consider that?

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, and click the "When, Where and How?" tab for the link and password.

January 8, Doing and Being Better!

January 8, Parents' Hurts can Heal

Parenting our own children can be healing to our childhood hurts. Don't let your inner child hurt current, modern children. Turn the energy the other direction!

Be a better parent, a better person, have a more content inner child! You can do it, with unschooling. :-)


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.