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Our real-life family friend Edmund, who is a mathematician and artist, recently co-created a coloring book called Snowflake Seashell Star , and gifted us with a copy for Christmas. We've been playing around with it for a couple of days, and found some great extensions to some of the math concepts introduced within it. This Ted-ED video discusses the debate over whether mathematics were discovered or invented.  "So, is mathematics an invention or a discovery? an artificial construct or a universal truth? human product or natural--possibly divine--creation? These questions are so deep, the debate often becomes spiritual in nature." And that video led nicely into some activities taken from the UUA's new "Miracles" curriculum, specifically session 2 , which uses poet May Sarton's work to talk about looking at the natural world with close attention. "If one looks like enough at almost anything, looks with absolute attention at a flower, a sto...

Many UU families, for a variety of reasons, take a blended and eclectic approach to December, mixing secular and religious customs, as well as family-of-origin, borrowed, and newly created traditions. Susan Katz, Miller author of Being Both: Embracing Two Religions in One Interfaith Family , argues that there is great benefit in these blended and eclectic approaches to ritual, celebrations, shared belief systems, and observances. The families she interviewed conscientiously created rich and meaningful experiences where their children were doubly-blessed with two faith heritages rather than feeling pulled to one or the other, or removed entirely from a religions perspective that they could claim. (Katz Miller was the featured speaker at this year's national conference for UU religious educators, and found in that audience many with whom her ideas strongly resonated.) Within the framework of both/and, a UU homeschooler can go in a lot of directions this month, inspired by t...

Some families take to the road full time, selling homes and possessions and living in an RV or car camping for months or years at a stretch. Some families embrace it temporarily, making the rounds by couch surfing at the homes of far-flung friends and family members for a season or so. And some plan overnights and day trips on a regular basis or every so often, getting to know the places just outside their usual perimeter. Whatever road schooling or car schooling looks like for you, there are some big benefits to getting outside of one's routine and customary locale. Children can be energized and challenged by taking on new roles, such as that of the navigator, the camp manager, the budget minder, the itinerary planner, the food pack carrier, etc. They may also be inspired to muster some extra courage and try something new: horseback riding, a subway ride, ordering their own food at a restaurant, picking their own food on a farm, zip lining, attempting communication in a diff...

It's late summer where I am in the Northern Hemisphere, and more precisely, in the stretch of mountains and valleys that I call home, it's still tick season. Ticks attach themselves to people in warm, moist, dark places, and I'm glad to say that with both my older boys having Our Whole Lives (O.W.L.) Sexuality Education in the background--even at ages 6 and 9--they can communicate the very delicate location of the ticks without awkwardness or self-consciousness so we can get right to addressing the problem! Which brings me to the main topic: sexuality education. I'll readily admit my bias, but I think Unitarian Universalists lead the nation in doing sexuality education well . Before I was a UU, I was a classroom teacher. And my parents and students approached me asking for sexuality education to be added to the curriculum. I spent that summer researching programs, and knew immediately when I had the right one in my hands. OWL blew me away with its focus on self-...

Many UU's use guided meditations for relaxation, focusing, changing perspective, or shifting temporal states. There are a handful of guided meditation texts aimed specifically at kids in the Tapestry of Faith collection on the UUA website. You can record yourself speaking them using a smart phone's voice memo program or another audio recording app and play them for your child when the time is right. You might also enjoy writing your own, or helping your child write and record their own. Here's a sweet one imagining one's self as an acorn growing.

Bedtimes take on a special hue and hum this time of year Even as the yawns and stretches begin, fireflies may still be blinking on and off outside; the frogs, crickets, and cicadas may only just be beginning to call; and the colors of sunset may linger in a not-yet-inky sky.  You may already have a bedtime routine, and it may or may not include saying prayers. Some UU's pray, and some don't. Those who don't sometimes feel as if prayer doesn't move them, or that they don't need or want to be moved, or that they don't believe that there is a "beyond the self" to reach though prayer. But others would pray, want to pray, but are held up by feeling silly or unsure or clunky with it. UU minister Erik Wiksrom makes the case for praying like this:  "If you long to connect with the Sacred, if you desire to live a life that is more in touch with the Holy, stop listening for something and start simply listening. If you have given up on an anthropo...

The science is clear on this one: the human brain loves stories. The neurochemical most responsible for this affinity is oxytocin, the love hormone and moral molecule, which is released and processed when we hear and read stories. When our brains synthesize oxytocin, we act with more compassion, generosity, and kindness. But not all stories are equal. Good stories are the ones that affect us so powerfully, compelling stories with good dramatic arcs. Flat stories leave us flat, too, with no discernible change in brain chemistry or altruistic acts. The lesson here for us homeschoolers is: Tell good stories! Storytelling is a terrifically effective medium for engaging the mind and changing behavior for the better. I'm sure that storytelling already features prominently in your homeschool. Likely many of us read bedtime stories. And keep bookshelves for our independent readers. Make regular trips to the library, etc.  One other way that we can expand the reach and impact of our sto...

Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice. Theodore Parker, Unitarian minister, from "Of Justice and the Conscious," 1857. Sometimes, when bring children into our lives, we feel as if our radical and justice-seeking days are behind us. We can't envision bringing them to the march (Will there be violence?), or standing roadside with them holding signs (Will people shout slurs or throw things from their cars?), or risk going to jail ourselves and putting the care of our children in jeopardy (Will the whole experience just be too psychologically intense for them?) And yet, the people's history of the United States is one of justice--justice denying...

I know these stories have been making the rounds the past couple of years, but the first time I heard about the phenomenon of elderly nursing home patients with dementia responding so positively to the singing of hymns from their childhoods was from my friend Gini, who reported it from her sister who works in a nursing home in their hometown in Alabama. This story had stuck with Gini, and it was one of the reasons she wanted to make church part of her life. And that got me doing some poking around. The UU Church of Berkley, California, has a choir called "Luminsence" that recorded a nice medley of several hymns. Church music sounds like, well, church music! If this genre is new to you, know that it's not as polished or produced as pop music, or as gritty as folk, or as infectious as hip-hop. It has its own thing going on, and I challenge you to spend some time with it with an open mind and heart and let yourself be moved.  It turns out singing does some amazing...

The kitchen table is our hub, and the kids have other favorite spots here and there. The way we conceive of and share space in our house can be viewed through a UU lens, and can help us practice the values of fairness, compassion, respect, stewardship, and environmental awareness. We know that learning happens everywhere--on the subway, on the swings, in the library, at the seashore, and cuddled up at home. But we also know ourselves, as parents, that when we go to set up our own workspaces--whatever our work may be--we build in certain features that keep our needed resources handy, help us focus, minimize distractions, and otherwise allow for that magical-seeming "flow" state in which some of our best learning happens. That looks different for everyone! Pinterest has lots of images that are fun to look at, and that can offer ideas on how to set up spaces. But on a day-to-day basis, the reality is that most of us settle into a configuration (calling it an aesthetic or...

It's a special day in the fall of 2006, the first anniversary of the birth of my first child. There are no lights on in the large, colorful room where the baby and I sit cross-legged on the floor, but the afternoon sun is streaming in through the windows. Sitting in a great circle around us are two dozen friends--children, youth, and adults. Before us is a small blue chalice and a tiny, flickering flame. We wait for the sign. Then, the room begins to sing. Their song dances around in the air, and the baby is mesmerized. Voices high and low lift and waver, whisper and shout. The singing stops, and the silence gathers. Then, one by one, those in the circle make offerings to the baby, raising hands to share in turn wishes, compliments, and memories. The wishes are sweet and simple as well as humorous and elaborate, offered by 5 year olds and 15 year olds and 58 year olds. The compliments go to the core of who they understand this child to be. And the memories are of moments of shared...

"Sometimes God is flight as the songbird. And sometimes God seeps in with the steady rain." ~ Angela Herrera, UU minister, Reaching for the Sun: Meditations A spring ephemeral, one of the first flowers of the season. This one is Spring Beauty, Claytonia virginica. Do you do any citizen science programs? There are some good ones out there. FrogWatch USA, Monarch Larva Monitoring Project, Project Feederwatch. There's a good list  here,  from the National Wildlife Federation. The goal with these and other citizen science projects is for ordinary citizens (as opposed to the professional science superheroes) to apply scientific methods to observation of a certain phenomenon over time, and then entering their data into a large set with other citizens for the scientists to use. Citizen science projects are, to me, a perfect marriage of UU theology and culture. We are a people who claim wonder and awe, science and reason, and the circle of life and nature as core sou...

A Story: A while ago, during a three-day snowstorm for which we all stayed mostly bundled and toasty and indoors, the baby got a hair stuck around a toe on his right foot. It twisted and tightened over the course of the three days, digging into the skin which then got infected. Now before you judge (not that you would, but just in case), know that I was raised in Central Florida where people don't really wear socks, much less bundle, and this was my first cold-climate baby. Also, I somehow missed the parenting memo to look out for this sort of a thing, though I have since learned that there are circulating horror stories to warn (and chasten) parents like me about the dangers of hair tourniquets. Bear with me. We're getting to the prayer part. So, the infected toe was swollen and red. And there was a circle of blood around the base where the hair had been. Middle child, age 6,  was vexed about this once it was discovered and treated. He was agitated the whole day after...

This is the question that I hope to explore throughout the blog. What does Unitarian Universalism offer to homeschoolers? And what do homeschoolers bring to Unitarian Universalism as a faith movement? How can this model of education and this religion synthesize to make individuals, families, communities, and the world better? Along the way, I'd like to also offer support in the form of short pieces of writing--mine and others'--and by passing along great resources that I find in my own online quest for meaning. To that end, I'd like to offer you a favorite quote by seminal UU philosopher, Sophia Lyon Fahs. It's from her 1952 book, Today's Children and Yesterday's Heritage: One of the tragic ironies of history is that such original and creative geniuses as Buddha and Jesus have been extolled as perfect patterns for all to emulate. In the very struggle to be like someone else rather than to be one's own true self, or to do one's own best in one's o...

We light this flame for Unitarian Universalism. This is the faith of the loving heart. (Hands cross over heart.) This is the faith of the thinking mind . (Index fingers move to temples.) This is the faith of the helping hands . (Hands lay palm-up in front of you.) Hey, it's a first post! You found it. I'm not following any of the blogging advice and am jumping in rather without an end goal in mind. Certainly without a business plan. Maybe without the good sense to wait until morning and see if this still seems like a good idea. Well, the domain name has been purchased, so here we go! Two weeks ago, I was interviewed on our local NPR station about unschooling, which is the particular style of homeschooling that works best for me and my family, and which is unusual enough to warrant a short feature on the news every now and again. (The story is here , if you're curious.) As I was doing the interview, I realized I couldn't talk to the reporter without feeling the ...