Oh, The Bumpy Road

When I last wrote about homeschooling it was more about how I had decided to take this road. Well the road got bumpy. Like a winding dirt road full of pot holes after a hard winter. It's turned into a very daunting task. 

I'll share some of the things I've found out while researching this life decision. First and foremost you need to be aware of what you plan to teach and how you plan to do it. Most people turn to homeschooling because of religious reasons. The fact that public schools don't incorporate religion into schooling bothers a lot of people and they remedy that by taking charge of what their kids learn. Others are bothered that there is even a hint of religion being taught like the words "one nation under God" in the pledge of elegance. [That is a whole other post] My decision had the same religious weight seeing that most schools don't willingly teach about Pagan beliefs and even more are less knowledgeably tolerant. So I knew what we wanted to teach The Kid. Of course the normal reading, writing and arithmetic. I also wanted her to be aware of my religion and learn for her self as many other religions as we can research. Just like teaching her math and science and proper grammar will help her future decisions of money, jobs and every day living, so will teaching her to be just as knowledgeable about the worlds beliefs to help aid her decisions on a spiritual path of her own. And a bonus from that is that she will just as much respect all others as she respects her self.


So now that I knew what I wanted her to learn, I had to figure out how to teach it to her. ..... Have you met my kid??? I'm not quite sure if she's got one of those hyper active disorders yet. I would not be surprised. The doctor just keeps telling me, "She's a kid." Like that's excuse for her to act like a wild animal half the time. .... Okay, so maybe it is. THAT'S besides the point. What matters is I need to try and figure out how to keep her interested and wanting to do school work. It's sort of a hit and miss thing with her. Some days she's all over it and excited and wanting to do more. Other days, most days she's .. well, a typical kid and just wants to play and do anything but sit still. And in researching homeschooling methods I realized it's possible that not one single curriculum will do the trick. Many parents have mentioned using multiple methods of teaching to accommodate the learning style of their kids. One of them being unschooling. If you've never heard of it (and even if you have) you may think how is that good for any one. Let me give you the quick one, two here. Unschooling is the method of teaching the kids what they choose, when they choose and some times in the form that they choose. Seems like a great idea. Let the kids do what ever they want. Well, that's just about what I thought too. Until I started reading more peoples testimonies about this "unschooling". The idea is to give the learning control to the one that is learning. What better to get their interest than to let them work on what interests them? In theory the kid learns more in depth and with a better understanding if he/she chooses to learn it. 'They' say that children will strive to finish what interests them and this gives them the opportunity to stay interested till they feel they have achieved what they were seeking or have finished the task. It sounds very logical. To be honest, a lot of what I've read is that when some do this unschooling they incorporate a scheduled time or a certain task, but give the kids freedom to do it in their own way.  In other words they have combined two different styles of teaching to fit with their kids needs. Which sounds wonderful and I've realized that's a similar path we will probably take. Because of the variety and the amount of schooling methods and curriculums it seems very common to combine maybe even a few of these styles. But there's two issues I have with this path of teaching. One being I could not just let my kid decide what, when, how and where she's going to learn because she would learn about bubbles, NOW, with The Dog, outside. ... All. The. Time. But the thought of trying to get her to sit and do school work on a regular basses I know will wear her thin and me. The other problem I have is that it does sound like a great idea and even a better idea if I can combine a couple styles like I've read about, ....but have you seen the price of curriculums?? Essentially I'm sending her to the best private school money can buy ... But to buy a curriculum (that I know I could write on my own just by having a year or two under my belt doing this) is not something I want to spend that sort of money on only to use it partly or for a vague guide. 


Well, here's what I've decided to do. Thankfully she will only be 4 this August and I think I have found a FREE =) curriculum of sorts that can let us sort of wonder through what we think is interesting. Use it how you will, but how I have anticipated using this 36 week Smorgasbord found on Homeschooling-Ideas.com is to find topics that I know she will be interested in and will be fun to learn. I think most of these topics can be adapted for her young age as they would for any age I would imagine. Through the summer we're going to try out some different settings and times for learning to see what works best. Since summer is so busy for us we will have to fit in "learning time" when we can. Lately we have been doing an hour of it before bed which seems to work good. I needed something to calm her down and keep her that way before bed because every thing else always turns into a big production with her and she gets hyper and riled over just about any thing. I would like to get more in the habit of schooling earlier in the day. I guess that will have to be something we discover in this trial period. Because come fall when camping and folfing and the days of summer are at an end, we are starting right from the top of the 36 week Smorgasbord with smiles and bells on. We'll see how many smiles are left and where the bells are at the end of the year.

Pagan and Proud

For many years I have struggled with my religious views. I was raised Christian, although we rarely attended church. Usually only when the grandparents were in town for a holiday like Christmas or Easter would we go to a service. When I was small I would go to the Sunday school room and I even had a picture Bible (that the rest of the kids made fun of because it wasn't "a real Bible because real Bibles don't have all those pictures"). Like in high school many years later, I felt like I was an outcast and just didn't quite fit in with the other kids. In other words it wasn't my favorite place to be. Maybe that's what started it, but as I got older I started to wonder who this "God" is. 

I'm a very scientific minded person. If I can't see it or feel it and/or see how it works, I have a hard time understanding it. I like to experiment and see the results to learn more about what it is I'm interested in. So when I was in my teens I started attending church again with my sister who is very devout Christian. I wanted to get a better view than what I had in Sunday school where I was always so uncomfortable. I was older and therefore wiser to maybe understand better. I went with her for about a month I think going to every Sunday service or Wednesday night (which was better, because that's when most of the younger people went). I learned a lot about Christian belief. ..But I still was not convinced that this was my path. I admire the values Christians have. I understood that this was the teaching they were trying to get across. What I still didn't understand was who is "God" and why did some people hear him or speak with him, but not me. Why were bad things happening to some people and good happening to others. And not even always was it good happening to good and bad happening to bad. Why would God choose to punish good people? And why would "he" give good fortune to very bad people? I started to really question what religion was all about and started, at one point, identifying with Atheism. I couldn't fathom that this 'great being' created the Earth in 7 days among other far fetched myths. And I think that's when it hit me. The word 'myth' that is. I started to associate this word to the stories in the  Bible, just like one would associate this word to stories of the ancient world and things/places like Atlantis and such. You can't see it, no one has found it, but yet the story still lives on from thousands of years ago. I started to wonder about the origins of these myths and wanted to learn more. 

In my early 20's I moved north from Southern California and met a girl at a place I worked at. She was the one that introduced me to Wicca and that lead me to research lots of the Pagan beliefs. In doing so I realized that Paganism is a very controversial religion. After all if you are Pagan you are considered a witch and if you haven't looked up the definition of the word "witch" it's not very attractive. Lots about how they practice magic, mostly dark or black magic. Witches are ugly and deceitful people not to be trusted. Why would any one WANT to follow this path. Well, mostly because people don't want to educate them selves about what they are not familiar with if it doesn't concern them. And some make it their concern with out educating them selves first and that's where the bullying and hatred starts. I, on the other hand, was very curious about all of this and wanted to know more about where and how it started. This is what I learned:

The definition of the word pagan means [basically] one who is of no religion, one who lives off the land and uses that of nature to guide, heal and inspire. In other words it was all the people that lived in the country out of the reach of their kingdom and [new] religious views. People that truly lived off the land using herbs (natural remedies, something we could use a lot more of in this day and age) and any thing else that aided their living and health. Who else would you thank for the growths that heal and feed, the dirt that made the growth possible and the sun, rain and animals that aided in that growth? Earth! Or in other words, the Goddess within that gave birth to all of the wonderful, helpful, healing aspects of our world. I know, far fetched, right? But how far fetched is it to think that an unseen being created the Earth in a mere seven days??

Today is Pagan Coming Out Day and I am taking advantage of this because for many years I have become a stronger believer of the Pagan path, but scared of the repercussions of being open about it because of societies outlook on Pagans, or witches if you will. I've come to realize that this is probably a very similar feeling for most gays. (I have very close friends/family that are.) It's a scary feeling to think that some one may hurt you or even try or want to hurt you because of who you are (physically or mentally. It's all just as bad). It's not an attack on what you believe or your sexual preference, It's a direct action toward you as a person. No one should ever feel afraid of who they are!!! But I am curbing that fear today to let you all know that I am Pagan and I am proud of it. And I encourage you to inquire more about it today (I'll be more than happy to answer questions). If not for your own curiosity, than for someone you may know that you may not have known is Pagan because of their same insecurities a lot of us have. Be knowledgeable, not judgmental.