Fun Monday Submission

I decided to take part Fun Monday this week. The question for this week is:

I would like to know, or see, what’s on, in or under your bedside table! So open those draws and bare your soul to us! Is there anything special there that has a story or a memory that you can tell us about? Books that you keep there to delve into from time to time? Trinkets that you don’t know where else to put? Let’s see!

On both sides of our king size bed, my husband & I have two black, glass top tables. The one on my side has my middle-of-the-night must haves. My skin tends to dry out more when it’s winter and the heat is on and I need my Lubriderm and chapstick nearby. Tissues are a must because I’m a sneezer. There’s also an alarm clock that I hardly use. lol

My husband Billy doesn’t really use his table. Our phone is there and a bear in a wicker chair that he gave me before we got married. That little orange notebook is something that we started over ten years ago. We’ll write love notes to each other in it and leave the book in a place where the other will find it. Each entry is dated and it’s been really nice to go back and read some of the things we wrote years ago. We keep it on that table until we want to write in it. That white basket underneath holds all the things that have to do with my mothers recent death. It has all the mass cards, sympathy cards, extra prayer cards, etc. Eventually it’ll be boxed away but I’m not ready yet.

And for those who may wonder…yes, our walls are red. Our bedroom is done in black, red and mirrors and is, shall we say, somewhat x-rated. lol

New Award and Some Sidebar Additions

Silvia over at Po Moyemu gave us this very cool award! It’s new home will be in the right sidebar along with some other awards we’ve recieved from fellow bloggers. Thanks so much Silvia.

I’m supposed to pass it on to other bloggers. I decided to look for some of my favorite blogs that didn’t have one yet, instead of giving it to someone who already had one. In no particular order…

1) Doc’s Sunrise Rants
2) Wired For Noise
3) Phat Mommy
4) Vegan Momma
5) Another Roadside Attraction
6) Warts And All
7) Relaxed Homeschool
Meanderings of a Gentle Gull
9) Second to the Right
10) Throwing Marshmellows
11) Learning in Freedom

There’s a few other additions to our sidebar…

1) I linked to my post about Rewarding Children To Learn in the left sidebar under “Posts Of Interest”.
2) I added the link my my sk*rt and Blogging Zoom profiles in the right sidebar under “Also Find Me Here”.
3) My girls and are are taking part in the Creative Everyday Challenge and we’ve added the button in the right sidebar. I’ll try to do a recap on the weekends of the creative things we’ve done each week. We’re looking forward to doing this!

Oh My God: Girl Scouts And Religion

If you read this blog with any frequency, you know that both of my daughters really enjoy Girl Scouts. As a matter of fact, Jacqueline (my youngest, pictured below) is a five year girl scout, starting when she was a daisy, she’s now a junior.

One thing I appreciate about the Girl Scouts is they don’t affiliate themselves with any one religion. Although the word god is in their promise, their policy is “Since the Girl Scout organization makes no attempt to interpret or define the word ‘God’ but encourages members to establish for themselves the nature of their spiritual beliefs, it is the policy of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. that individuals when making the Girl Scout Promise may substitute wording appropriate to their own spiritual beliefs for the word ‘God’.”

They go on to say “The Girl Scout organization does not endorse or promote any particular philosophy or religious belief. Our movement is secular and is founded on American democratic principles, one of which is freedom of religion”.

Jacqueline and Shawna attended summer camp with the girl scouts this past July and had a really great time. A couple of weeks ago, we were discussing camp for this coming year and Jacqueline told me something she had forgotten about from this past camp.

It seems that Jacqueline, while talking to some of the girls, exclaimed “Oh my god” to something that was said. So what’s the problem you may wonder. Nothing, as far as I can see. Except one of the camp leaders didn’t approve.

Let me share my letter to our local Girl Scout Council about this matter.

My two daughters are both long time girls scouts who are very active within their community. My nine year old is a five year scout, starting when she was a daisy and is now a junior girl scout.

I feel that the camp leader forced her own religious beliefs on my daughter by censoring and correcting her. Those are her own personal beliefs and not beliefs held by my family. Personally, I wonder of she would have done that to me, as another adult but I doubt it. Will this be a problem for this years camp? Are camp leaders going to impose their own personal religious views on my children?

And the reply I got.

Hi Joanne,
I received your email regarding your concern for your daughter and her camp experience from last summer. I appreciate you bringing your concerns to me and I am sorry that your daughter was just now able to share her experience with you. You are correct in your information that you shared about having the right to have her own personal religious beliefs. I appreciate the lesson you shared with her regarding this topic and encouraging her to speak up when a situation like this happens. Particularly if the information is being shared by adults in a impressionable role like a camp counselor or a leader volunteering for Girl Scouts. It is important that all our beliefs are respected. I am really sorry that your daughter had a negative experience. The issue is a training issue with my staff and though I cannot promise that a situation like that will not come up again, I can assure you that the staff will have training on this subject area and will be expected to adhere to the policies of Girl Scouts. I do hope that your daughter attends camp again this summer. If I can assist you in anyway in the future please do not hesitate to let me know. Thank you again for bringing this to my attention.

I’m satisfied with their reply and we looked upon this whole situation as a learning experience. My girls and I had several interesting discussions because of this on topics such as censorship, religion, tolerance and authority. I want my daughters to understand that just because someone is an adult who may be in a position of authority (coach, troop leader, etc), that doesn’t mean that everything they say or do is correct and to be followed. It’s also important to me to be a role model for my children and by standing up for what I believe in.

Because my children spent a long time in foster care before we adopted them, they had been raised to listen to and not question adults. While some parents may want this type of behavior, I don’t want them to blindly follow what someone tells them, just because that person happens to be an adult.

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girl scouts

Homeschooling And Socialization

I have to laugh when someone, after finding out our kids don’t go to school, asks about socialization. I’ll never understand what one has to do with the other.

Are they saying that when their children are not in school (like weekends or summer breaks) they’re isolated from other children? That when they’re children are not in school, they have no social opportunities. How sad that they have to depend on a government institution for their children to have friends.

I mean, why else would they be asking?

It certainly can’t be because they’re concerned for my children. Just talk to any of my unschooled children and they’ll tell you about their girl scout troop, gymnastics classes, homeschool classes, neighborhood friends, homeschool play groups and sleepovers, not to mention the time they spend playing with each other.

All that socialization…without school.
Imagine that!

And they do these things with children of all ages.

Yes, it’s true.

My youngest child has friends who are teenagers, one of my teenager’s friends is nine years old and my preteen age child loves to read to the little ones in our homeschool group. Age never seems to be a factor when determining if someone is a potential friend.

And if that wasn’t enough, the really cool thing is…they actually have a choice!

Suppose one of my children doesn’t feel like being around other kids. We all have those times when cocooning in our cozy home and being able to think and dream and just be alone in our own head, is what we need. They have the freedom to do that. They don’t have to push those feelings aside and spend seven straight hours with other kids (the same age as them) when they don’t feel like it. They get to decide when, and how they socialize, and with who. Just like I do. Cool, huh?

And let’s not forget the battle cry of teachers across the country…”You’re not here to socialize!” I know we all heard a teacher say that at one time or another. So, if school is not for socializing, why are parents of schooled children asking us how our children socialize? We should be asking them.

Yup…when someone asks me the infamous socialization question, I have to laugh. And then a part of me feels sorry for their kids.

*originally written in 2005. updated in 2008*
homeschooling socialization
homeschooling
unschooling

Some Of The Posts I Enjoyed This Week

Some great posts have been turning up in my feed reader and I wanted to share a few of the ones that I really enjoyed.

Colleen’s retrospective post about the first 100 days of her unschooling was fabulous! She shares the ups and down and doesn’t sugar coat it. Here’s to the next 100!

Laura posted about a topic that is always being discussed at the unschooling lists; unschooling and screen time. She talks about how, at one time she gave screen time to much power by limiting it and I love her whole thought process on going from point A to point B.

Lisa at Do Life Right has some great suggestions for recycling certain items. There were a few new ones to me like donating fur coats to PETA. Her whole blog has a lot of useful information.

Hueina Su at Intensive Care for the Nurturer’s Soul hosts the Carnival of Healing. This is the first time I came across this blog carnival although it seems to have been around for a while. Lots of good stuff to read there.