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.
"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.
Two topics in the book will be covered, one in the first half, and the other in the second half. The first is about individuals and their choices. The second is about interpretation of information of all sorts.
Truth/Honesty/Lies, page 242 of The Big Book of Unschooling, corresponds to http://sandradodd.com/integrity
Fact/Fallacy/Opinion, pages 243-244 of The Big Book of Unschooling, or if you don't have the book, this might help: http://sandradodd.com/logic
Both topics contain ideas that can help an unschooling parent be more trustworthy, improving relationships and learning at home!
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 I Let Him" and other fear-based assumptions parents can learn to relax about.
Pages 236-241 in The Big Book of Unschooling, which expands on http://sandradodd.com/ifilet
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.
Clarity, a great topic! In the book, page 235. On the website, http://sandradodd.com/clarity
I love this topic!
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.
Spanking should have been the topic, by book contents in order, but I don't want to talk about that, so I've been stalling.
I want to talk about what is better now, about parenting and unschooling, than twenty years and more ago.
I want to talk just a little about what might be worse now.
Noon! Soon!
September 4 Chat Topic: "Toy Guns and Violence"
Pages from The Big Book of Unschooling: 229 to 231
Advance reading with pictures:
http://sandradodd.com/peace/guns
http://sandradodd.com/violence
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.
