Detoxing from Church

As I was cleaning out my email inbox yesterday I came across an article that someone had posted on UGJ. I'm definitely in that detox stage. I've just recently run screaming from church. There's so much hypocrisy there. I've been closer to God since leaving church because there's none of that mess clouding my relationship with him. I've even been looking online for more information about leaving the Church. There's some very interesting reads out there. I haven't given up my faith but I'll take it without the religion, please!

Link to 'Detoxing from Church' Article

You might also want to read Prayer Is Not a Weapon Against Another Believer, and Other Rantings just in case you're wanting to pray for me that my eyes will be opened. Believe me, baby, my eyes get more open everyday! Open to the truth and the hypocrisy.

So your kids haven't won the spelling bee...

This voice came through the Unschooling Basics group a few days ago and I really like it. (Reposted with permission.)

So your kids haven't won the spelling bee, enrolled in college at 12 and found a cure for cancer? You are not hosting cow milking lessons while wearing your denim jumper? You and the kids did not build your home from the plans on the back of a cereal box?

And, yet, some of us manage to unschool. :)

A dear unschooling friend and I joke that nobody really suspects what we are up to. We look so white bread suburban it is ridiculous. She's driving around in her minivan and me in my (very used :) ) Volvo station wagon. The kids are being carted to this event or that activity. DH's both go to work and we Moms stay home. How "Leave It To Beaver" could we look?? :)

But the secret is that what things look like from the outside is not what matters.

My kids are being carted to things they chose! For instance.

When we are at home, we are not sitting around the kitchen table crunching math worksheets. We are online or DS is gaming or DH and DD are puttering in the yard or we are lounging with whatever book we picked up at the library or. . . etc. . . just glorious everyday life. In a loving home with mutual support.

We have not built any rocket ships in the kitchen sink but we do what we want to do and are happily unschooling. And you can too! :)

-Nance Confer

Homemade Tattoo Paint!

Joanne at An Unschooling Life posted this yesterday: Homemade Tattoo Paint.

That looks like so much fun! We'll be trying it soon and I'll post pictures of our creations. :)

Fasting... Day 8

I've been juice fasting for 8 days now. My summer cold was the catalyst for it, as having a cold in the summer really sucks. Because I had been sick for almost 2 weeks and hadn't eaten much, I thought it would be a good time to go right into the fast because my hunger pangs wouldn't be so bad. Usually the first 3 days of a fast are the toughest but because I hadn't eaten much over the past few weeks, it wasn't too bad.

I don't recommend fasting for anyone unless you've done some good reading on it. You'll get many differences of opinions on styles of fasting and how to fast... being it with water or juice... or ways to help with the colon elimination or not. I've read many things on the internet and in books. Two books I would recommend are "How to Keep Slim, Health & Young with Juice Fasting" by Dr. Paavo Airola and "The Miracle of Fasting" by Paul and Patricia Bragg.

I haven't had to use any artificial means to clean my colon... my system is still working... although many people will lose that urge when they fast. Some of the best advice on this is in Dr. Airola's book.

I used my juicer for the first time yesterday. I've had it for years but never used it. My DH picked up some collared greens and turnip greens the other day at the store... so I juiced some of those and added it to the veggie juice I had. Strong but very good.

I have so much more energy now. I feel lighter on my feet. My head is clear and even my vision seems brighter. My constant back pain has lessoned to the point where it's almost pain-free. I have lost a few pounds... assuming that some of those pounds were lost during the weeks when I was sick. It's at 5.5 lbs so far. I don't own a scale, but they weigh me when I donate plasma (which I did yesterday). So between 6/8 and 6/26, I've lost those lbs... not bad and not too fast either. I'll know the fast is ready to be completed when the fuzz on my tongue goes away.

After I complete this fast, I will be focusing on staying to a healthy (as we know... vegetarians can be unhealthy if they are eating junk in place of meat) vegetarian diet... with fish every now and then. I'd like to eventually go vegan... with fish. I don't believe animal dairy should be in our diets. It just causes too many problems.

For Goodness Sakes, Relax!

One of the questions for the July edition of Unschooling Voices is: what advice would you have given to yourself early in your unschooling journey?

My answer is... RELAX!

Sure is easy to say and much harder to do. There's so many questions and unknowns. So many worries about whether or not we're doing the right thing. Will they learn what they need to learn without a curriculum... without being forced to learn it. It takes a lot of trust and faith to let go of the "school" mentality.

If your kids have been in the school system give yourselves lots and lots of time to deschool. Yes, you, too! You need time to let go of those old ideas of what schooling and education is. It's time to take a perminant vacation from school.

Embrace the freedom! Just let go! Relax!

AND get mentored by other unschoolers! Yahoo and Facebook groups are a great way to do that. You will find people who will help you to challenge your long held beliefs about the way things *should be* when it comes to life and learning.

Unschooling Works

Now, I know I don't have to convince any unschoolers of this but it's still fabulous to hear and see it working. I've been meaning to blog about this for some time but haven't gotten around to it. This happened a few month ago...

Just to give you a background first... Dancer went to public school from K-3 grade and after leaving the system (2005) she HATED reading and she didn't think she was any good at reading. She still had her own books of things that interested her, like animals, weather, and the human body. When we would go to the library, she would only check out books about those things. She wouldn't have anything to do with me suggesting books about other things that she was interested in and a fiction book... well, forget it, there was no way.

So a few months ago, as we were heading to the checkout counter at the library, she looked at me and said, "I'm a really good reader if I can read stuff I'm interested in." Man, she just had a "light bulb" moment! WooHoo! I just said, "Yes, you're right."

The next week we went back and as she headed to the animal section (mainly the big cats and wolves section), I mentioned to her that she had lots of interests and that it was ok to branch out and see what else was there that she would like to read or get a video about. I could just see the light grow in her eyes. She brought home so much stuff that day that I had to tell her that she couldn't bring the whole library home... that we could come back and get more. :)

Now I can make suggestions to her on topics that may interest her and she doesn't "fight" me on it. I can reminder her about things she's told me she wants to know more about and she doesn't get mad.

Ever since then, when we go to the library, she finds the most amazing things. She never really needs my help to find it either. We go at least once a week... sometimes more. She's even checked out fiction books and joined a book discussion group. She's fallen in-love with this series of books about warrior cats (given to her as a gift for Christmas). These are pretty big books for her and she gets through them in 2 days. She's hoping to get the next installments in the series for her birthday which is coming up next month.

It took Dancer almost 2 years to deschool! 2 years! 2 years of deschooling for 4 years of public school. That's really, really sad to me. Thank you God for leading me to unschooling! Thank you to all of my unschooling mentors, who helped me to see that you can't just tip-toe into unschooling.... jumping in is the only way. I haven't forced anything on Dancer since we started unschooling... but it took her almost 2 years to trust that I wasn't going to... 2 years to trust the freedom. And the freedom is truly amazing!

Religion as a prerequisite

We went to our hope-to-be annual end of the year homeschool park day yesterday. I had a great time talking to the other moms. I got to catch up with a few that I already know and met quite a few new people, too.

I got talking to one mom about TJEd (A Thomas Jefferson Education), which is something that I've recently been introduced to. I tried to explain it in as plain of terms as I could without going overboard (as it really is very similar to unschooling). My point here is not to discuss TJEd but to mention what came to me last night at work as I was thinking about the small conversation that I had with this other mom.

Is it right to say you don't like someone because their "religion"? When I first mentioned TJEd in this conversation, the first thing that was said was "I don't like Thomas Jefferson, he was a humanist". Well, OK, but the book isn't about TJ and whether or not he was a humanist... it's about leadership education... it's about believing that everyone is born with genius and how to bring that out in them. Then there was something said to the effect of "TJ was a humanist but he agreed with Christian morals and views". Again, the book isn't about TJ, but about self-education and getting off the conveyer-belt.

So, as I was thinking at work last night about this conversation, I ended up being focused on the oddity of not liking someone just because of their "religion" or lack there of. Is someone's "religion" a prerequisite for being their friend or foe? Is this the first thing you ask someone when you meet them? Do you just assume that they are going to agree with you? I found it very odd to say "I don't like TJ because he's a humanist". What about all of his other qualities? What about the man he was? What about the leader he was?

And now, as I'm thinking about the comment, "TJ was a humanist but he agreed with Christian morals and views". Well, as I know, those morals and views run through as a foundation of many, many "religions". They began before Christianity did. Many people who are not Christians believe in moral integrity, goodness, family values, etc. These values didn't begin with or end with Christ. Many "religions" study and follow Jesus' teachings but don't believe he is the begotten son of God.

I guess I just find this prerequisite so strange and limiting. Although, I have my "religious" foundation and belief system... I don't put God in a box like that. I don't put myself or my child in a box like that. I believe goodness is of God and God will use all of his children (as we are all his children), Christian beliefs or not, to the better good of humanity. These ideas and "beliefs" of mine are where I tend to butt heads with many people around me (as I am gratefully and sometimes not so gratefully in an area much of the Bible belt). God is way more than I could ever know or comprehend and I refuse to put him in some nice little box of conformity. I refuse to limit my world and my mind to ideas that are outside of the box. I seek knowledge and ideas of all areas of thought and philosophy and then break that against the God that I know and love.

I may come across ideas and views that do not mesh with who I am or what I believe but that doesn't mean I should not study them. I should for the purpose of knowing why I don't agree with them. Should we not study Marx, Stalin, Hitler and Hussien because of the evil they brought into this world? Absolutely not! We SHOULD study them not only to see how their minds worked but to try to grasp how these men managed to bring whole nations of people to their way of thinking and to destroy large groups of people who opposed them! We cannot ignore evil and ignorance! It was ignored in Germany by many people and look what happened, a man like Hitler took over and spread evil wherever he went.

So, I guess, once again, I am frustrated with the "religious" box.

Summer Activities are Here

I sure did enjoy my few weeks off from my Dancer's activities but alas, the summer one's have started. She's taking tennis lessons a few mornings a week and the swim lessons four evenings a week. Those are just the few she's signed up for... there are also the intermittent ones here and there.

I have so much to blog about, I've been introduced to new people and new concepts over the past few weeks and I really need to find time to sit down, collect my thoughts and then blog them.

My wrist has started to heal. It still starts throbbing when I overuse it or when I put too much pressure on it. But I can type with two hands again, so that's a plus.

We had a pretty relaxed day. Dancer spent most of the day reading and watching Grease for the first time. I went to donate plasma and I suspect that Dancer played on the computer a bit while I was gone. We'll be heading out here shortly to go to swim lessons... I know I wouldn't want to be in that water, It's only 75 degrees out there now.