uuhomeschooler.org

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...