Heidi

Robby was so pleased yesterday, when I came over and watched him play
some weird computer game starring Ed, Edd, and Eddie, and asking him
questions about it and being interested in what he was doing. It was
a new experience for both him and me: Mom? Not only letting him play,
but getting into it a bit?

And that's what I'm going to do: ask him about what he's doing. What
does he like about it? How many levels has he mastered?

I just got tired of being mildly irritated at my kids all the
time. "No, you can't play computer right now. Read this book." The
irritating part being when he'd roll his eyes, heave a sigh, and
settle in to read My Required Reading. Time to accept them and watch
them without judging.

At one point last night, I got a little panicked. "How will they
learn history?" LOL isn't that stupid? Math isn't a fear for me
anymore, but I want them (gulp) to know about America's roots. Why do
we have the system of gov't that we do? Why? Ultimately my goal is
for my kids to think for themselves, do for themselves, with
confidence and cheer. Do they HAVE to have history for that? I know
better.

I put a coin in my mental bank, for having that thought! hee

HeidiC who is beginning to get it

[email protected]

In a message dated 4/29/2003 10:10:45 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
bunsofaluminum60@... writes:

> At one point last night, I got a little panicked. "How will they
> learn history?" LOL isn't that stupid? Math isn't a fear for me
> anymore, but I want them (gulp) to know about America's roots. Why do
> we have the system of gov't that we do? Why? Ultimately my goal is
> for my kids to think for themselves, do for themselves, with
> confidence and cheer. Do they HAVE to have history for that? I know
> better.
>

Heidi,

Your post made me see how silly my worrying about math had been. I don't
worry at all about History. We live just outside DC and my children have
always been exposed to politics from the inside (sometimes wondering if
that's a really good thing) and there is tons of history on the East Coast
and it's basically just a way of life for us. I've never worried about them
knowing how the government works, we just experience it. We love the
battlefields and Williamsburg and Boston and Atlanta and so many places...

So... there is no need to worry about things, it will unfold and just be a
part of life, not something to try to find in the journey but to accept when
it is around.

Thanks for your post, isn't it odd how one person is worried about one part
of life while another finds it a breeze but has a hard time with something
completely different?

It helps to "hear" about others journeys and how you feel/do/accept/change.

Thank you for sharing with me.

glena


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Jana Eagle

just thought someone here might be able to recommend a place to start
for an adult wanting to learn about arthurian legend. i read The
Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and really liked it... more
for its beautiful vision of goddess culture and its writing. it was
also very easy to get lost in the story.

any suggestions about where to go next? while briefly looking around
i am astounded at how much stuff is out there.

jana

[email protected]

In a message dated 4/29/03 8:10:55 AM, bunsofaluminum60@... writes:

<< At one point last night, I got a little panicked. "How will they

learn history?" LOL isn't that stupid? Math isn't a fear for me

anymore, but I want them (gulp) to know about America's roots. Why do

we have the system of gov't that we do? Why? Ultimately my goal is

for my kids to think for themselves, do for themselves, with

confidence and cheer. Do they HAVE to have history for that? I know

better. >>

The Eddie Izzard DVD lives here now. We bought one.

I wanted to share it with a longtime friend. He has a son who's seven or
eight, and he asked if Josh could watch it. I said sure, but the guy uses
the word "Fuck." So Josh couldn't watch it.

My kids can. And the discussions which have ensued, the "dots which have
been connected," the facets added to things they already had some ideas about
are HUGE. More information than most kids ever get out of the purely best
day of school in their lives my kids could get out of this one two-hour
comedy routine.

It only could happen because I was interested (Marty kept telling me I would
really like Eddie Izzard, and Marty had only heard quotes from other kids who
had seen it), because I was not freaked out about them hearing "fuck."

If I eliminate that word, I limit them to input of people who also eliminate
that word. If I shelter them from a movie that might have that word, they
miss a lot of ideas and connections.

So when people say "How do your kids know so much? How have they learned all
this history?" I just say they have access to everything and they make
connections all the time.

I have a friend. (Kind of former friend now, because she's a teacher and
kept thinking I would come to my senses and send my kids to school.) She
loved my chocolate chip cookies. (Literally; I'm off that cookie analogy and
onto real toll-house cookies with pecans now.) She gushed and made a huge
deal. HOW do you get them to do this?

"Well, I use real butter, and..."

"Well I'm not going to use butter. I'm going to use margarine. And then
what?"

Then nothing. Or, then I refrigerate the dough, actually, so they start to
cook before they melt out flat. That part's important. But to say "I'm not
going to use butter, but I want mine to be just like yours"--that's a big
waste of my time and energy to deal with.

If her principles and priorities say "No butter," then that's fine. She can
live a butter-free life and get cookie recipes elsewhere. But for her to eat
my cookies and praise them is hypocritical. And for her to reject my advice
because it goes against her principles is fine, but took five minutes off my
life energy! <bwg> (I just ate another cookie and recovered.)

So when people admire my kids' attitudes and behavior and compassion and
humor and then they say "How can I get my kids to be like your kids?" I
will invariably say "lighten up, loosen up, let them watch TV, let them watch
movies." And every once in a while someone comes along and says, "Well,
yeah, as long as they're not R rated movies, there's no language, sex,
violence, guns, offensive views of women, and as long as the games they play
are wholesome and they turn it off by 10:00 and TV sucks so we're not going
to have one, but HOW can my kids be just like YOURS!???"


Very sad.

Holly as rented the first disk of The Family Guy and is watching it in the
next room, laughing by himself.

Sandra

[email protected]

In a message dated 4/29/03 12:57:17 PM, jana@... writes:

<< any suggestions about where to go next? while briefly looking around
i am astounded at how much stuff is out there. >>

I'd go to google.com and read and see what booklong versions (if any) you
want to go to next.

Definitely watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail!! The DVD is great. Lots
of extra stuff.

<<Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley>>

Yeah. That's not it. <g>

Le Morte d'Arthur is "the original" (if there can be really considered an
original).

Sandra

Heidi

>
> So when people admire my kids' attitudes and behavior and
compassion and
> humor and then they say "How can I get my kids to be like your
kids?" I
> will invariably say "lighten up, loosen up, let them watch TV, let
them watch
> movies." And every once in a while someone comes along and
says, "Well,
> yeah, as long as they're not R rated movies, there's no language,
sex,
> violence, guns, offensive views of women, and as long as the games
they play
> are wholesome and they turn it off by 10:00 and TV sucks so we're
not going
> to have one, but HOW can my kids be just like YOURS!???"

It's amazing how much my views on just this topic have loosened up,
even before finding unschooling. I never was a "no R rated movies"
type, but I had some strict guidelines when Abbie was littler, and
she was very good at knowing when a movie wasn't something I wanted
her to watch. But now that she's older, and we're watching whatever
strikes our fancy, together...well, the little kids come in and watch
with us if they want. It opens up SO MANY opportunities to talk about
things, apply our religious beliefs to things, or just laugh over
funny parts over again. The little kids know when something's going
to be too rough for them to watch, and hide their faces or leave the
room: Katie, the violent or ugly; Robby, sexy stuff. L

I never heard of Eddie Izzard. What's it about?

HeidiC

Shyrley

Jana Eagle wrote:

> just thought someone here might be able to recommend a place to start
> for an adult wanting to learn about arthurian legend. i read The
> Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and really liked it... more
> for its beautiful vision of goddess culture and its writing. it was
> also very easy to get lost in the story.
>
> any suggestions about where to go next? while briefly looking around
> i am astounded at how much stuff is out there.
>
> jana
>

Depends on what you're after. If you want all the myths and stories they are easy enought o find but if you want more serious historical research then someone like Hutton is a good place to start. He's
known for dispelling the starry-eyed Galstonbury myths as fabrication. Upset a whole bunch of new-agers :-)

Shyrley


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

In a message dated 4/29/03 3:08:26 PM, bunsofaluminum60@... writes:

<< I never heard of Eddie Izzard. What's it about?

>>

History, mostly. The European Union and the future of Europe some.
Military theory. Religion. Leonardo da Vinci (especially on the French
performance).
Star Wars (by that point he's referring back to the American Revolution,
history of movies, military theory...)

There's more than one video but the one I have and am liking is "Dress to
Kill." You can probably rent it.

Sandra

[email protected]

Landon wrote a paper on Authurian Legend, myth and fact.. It was a high
school research paper, but still, very good :-) I can send it to you if you
like. Im sure you can at least see what his sources were.. It was indeed very
interesting

Teresa


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Tia Leschke

>
> > just thought someone here might be able to recommend a place to start
> > for an adult wanting to learn about arthurian legend. i read The
> > Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and really liked it... more
> > for its beautiful vision of goddess culture and its writing. it was
> > also very easy to get lost in the story.
> >
If you liked the Mists of Avalon, are you aware that there's a prequel and
at least one sequel?
Tia

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
saftety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Ben Franklin
leschke@...

Barb Eaton

Jana,
Both my dh and ds really enjoyed Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy. It has
"The Crystal Cave', "The Hollow Hills", & "The Last Enchantment" all in one
volume. I'll be glad to see other recommendations too. :-)


Barb E
The best preparation for the future is a happy today :-)

-Sandra Dodd



on 4/29/03 3:00 PM, [email protected] at
[email protected] wrote:

>
> any suggestions about where to go next? while briefly looking around
> i am astounded at how much stuff is out there.
>
> jana

Jana Eagle

SandraDodd@... writes:

> <<Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley>>
>
> Yeah. That's not it. <g>


I don't catch your meaning here, Sandra.

I know that Mists of Avalon is a significantly different take on the
legend, but what I was saying was that I liked how it portrayed the
goddess cultures, that I have a hard time with Morgan Le Fay portrayed
as simply an evil sorceress.

Jana

Shyrley

Barb Eaton wrote:

> Jana,
> Both my dh and ds really enjoyed Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy. It has
> "The Crystal Cave', "The Hollow Hills", & "The Last Enchantment" all in one
> volume. I'll be glad to see other recommendations too. :-)

I liked the mini-series 'Merlin' with Sam Neill. And his feathered cloak was cooooooool.

Shyrley


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Rebecca DeLong

In a message dated 4/29/03 8:10:55 AM, bunsofaluminum60@... writes:

<<<At one point last night, I got a little panicked. "How will they learn history?">>>

Sunday, we were walking home from an Earthday fair and Jaiden(almost 5)was telling us all about gravity, and earths rotation, and the planets going on and on(some of it concepts, and discriptions much more indepth than I had ever gotten into with him), some of it I knew that he knew because we had talked about it before, but some of it I had no idea where he got it. I asked Jason if he had been talking to Jaiden about space recently, he said no, he was just as shocked as I was. So we asked Jaiden where he had heard this much about space, and to be honest I was thinking maybe the MAgic School Bus of something 'educational' he poped up with "Oh, learned it all from Ed, Edd, and Eddy. Double D is always talking about stuff like that.

Honestly, I was floored. I didn't know. I knew that he watched it, but it's on during the time I'm trying to get Avery settled in for the night so I never watched it with him, and right now we don't have cable, so I will have to wait to learn all sorts of things from Double D.

I wanted to share this with you, Heidi, especially, since you mentioned Ed, Edd, and Eddy. Who knows what words of wisdom Double D has to share on US history. ;-)

Rebecca


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Art Nouveau

Me too!

Cerridwen )O(





>From: Jana Eagle <jana@...>
>Reply-To: [email protected]
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] arthurian legend
>Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 08:50:52 -0600
>
>SandraDodd@... writes:
>
> > <<Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley>>
> >
> > Yeah. That's not it. <g>
>
>
>I don't catch your meaning here, Sandra.
>
>I know that Mists of Avalon is a significantly different take on the
>legend, but what I was saying was that I liked how it portrayed the
>goddess cultures, that I have a hard time with Morgan Le Fay portrayed
>as simply an evil sorceress.
>
>Jana
>
>


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[email protected]

In a message dated 4/30/03 9:09:45 AM, jana@... writes:

<< I know that Mists of Avalon is a significantly different take on the
legend, but what I was saying was that I liked how it portrayed the
goddess cultures, that I have a hard time with Morgan Le Fay portrayed
as simply an evil sorceress.
>>

Okay. If you start with feminist wiccan versions, that will be what you
like, I guess.

I'm personally as irritated with the wiccan reconstructed history as I am
with the right-wing conservative Christian reconstructions of history, but
that's just me.

The Arthurian legends have been a good part of my life since I was little, so
I'm a little more attached to the "real" stories than some people. I thought
you were asking about that, honestly.

Sandra

Heidi

Oh, EXCELLENT!!! I wish there were emoticons on this board, one with
a high five or a thumbs up! LOL

What made me catch myself about the history thing is...I learned all
about the French/Indian wars of (can't remember the date, just barely
before 1776) at the tender young age of...42 (my current age, btw) by
reading...The Last of the Mohicans. There is history PACKED IN
EVERYTHING. All I have to do is let my kids get into what they're
into.

thanks, Rebecca made my day! L


--- In [email protected], Rebecca DeLong
<elfmama@s...> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> In a message dated 4/29/03 8:10:55 AM, bunsofaluminum60@h... writes:
>
> <<<At one point last night, I got a little panicked. "How will they
learn history?">>>


"Oh, learned it all from Ed, Edd, and Eddy. Double D is always
talking about stuff like that.
>
> Honestly, I was floored. I didn't know. I knew that he watched it,
but it's on during the time I'm trying to get Avery settled in for
the night so I never watched it with him, and right now we don't have
cable, so I will have to wait to learn all sorts of things from
Double D.
>
> I wanted to share this with you, Heidi, especially, since you
mentioned Ed, Edd, and Eddy. Who knows what words of wisdom Double D
has to share on US history. ;-)
>
> Rebecca
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Barb Eaton

Four? I just posted this. What's the missing one please? TIA!


Barb E
"The heart is wiser than the intellect."

- Josiah Holland, Editor and Author




on 4/29/03 6:11 PM, [email protected] at
[email protected] wrote:

> I love Mary Stuart's set of 4 books based on the legends. Starts with the
> Crystal Cave, I believe.
>
> brenda

Tia Leschke

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
saftety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Ben Franklin
leschke@...


> Four? I just posted this. What's the missing one please? TIA!

Ok! Ok! You don't have to shout at me! <g>
She wrote another one about Mordred, The Wicked Day or something like that.
I didn't like it very much, not as good as the others.
Tia

unolist

--- In [email protected], "Heidi"
<bunsofaluminum60@h...> wrote:
> Oh, EXCELLENT!!! I wish there were emoticons on this board, one
with
> a high five or a thumbs up! LOL
>

^5

is how some people do a high five....trivial and useless, I know LOL

Barb Eaton

Tia,
Silly me. Sorry. ;-) I've never seen TIA! Thanks in Advance in lower
case. Thanks for the title Tia. <G>


Barb E
"The function of the child is to live his own life - not the life that his
anxious parents think he should live."
A S Neill




on 4/30/03 10:15 PM, [email protected] at
[email protected] wrote:

>> Four? I just posted this. What's the missing one please? TIA!
>
> Ok! Ok! You don't have to shout at me! <g>
> She wrote another one about Mordred, The Wicked Day or something like that.
> I didn't like it very much, not as good as the others.
> Tia