uuhomeschooler.org

"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 ...