Robin Clevenger

We have a few things planned as rites of passage in the next few years. My
son has declared himself officially weaned, so I'm going to take him out for
dinner just the two of us. And I'm planning on buying him one of those
Italian Charm bracelets. I'd like to get some kind of special charm, maybe
just a heart or something to commemorate this special time in our lives.
Looking ahead, for his 10th birthday, he says he wants to ride in a
limousine, so I promised him we would rent one and he could invite all the
friends he could cram into it and ride around town. For puberty/maybe 13
years old, I'd like to give each of my kids some kind of Blessingway
ceremony, or maybe a special outdoor experience or both. We'll have to see
what they want to do for that when it comes. At some point, I'd like to
climb a mountain with each of them, if they are open to that idea. It was a
very pivotal experience for DH and I to tackle a big mountain together, we
learned a lot of things about ourselves and each other.

Blue Skies!
-Robin-

Tim and Maureen

Wow! I got a suitcase set - from Mom. Dad was in the bush!

I applaud you! Here! Here!

Tim Thomas

----- Original Message -----
From: Robin Clevenger
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 10:32 PM
Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] Re: rite of passage


We have a few things planned as rites of passage in the next few years. My
son has declared himself officially weaned, so I'm going to take him out for
dinner just the two of us. And I'm planning on buying him one of those
Italian Charm bracelets. I'd like to get some kind of special charm, maybe
just a heart or something to commemorate this special time in our lives.
Looking ahead, for his 10th birthday, he says he wants to ride in a
limousine, so I promised him we would rent one and he could invite all the
friends he could cram into it and ride around town. For puberty/maybe 13
years old, I'd like to give each of my kids some kind of Blessingway
ceremony, or maybe a special outdoor experience or both. We'll have to see
what they want to do for that when it comes. At some point, I'd like to
climb a mountain with each of them, if they are open to that idea. It was a
very pivotal experience for DH and I to tackle a big mountain together, we
learned a lot of things about ourselves and each other.

Blue Skies!
-Robin-

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The Bucknums

Robin wrote:
<<And I'm planning on buying him one of those
Italian Charm bracelets. I'd like to get some kind of special charm, maybe
just a heart or something to commemorate this special time in our lives.>>

Just a note to everyone. While selling jewelry at an antique show recently I had a woman come and buy several charms from me. Her daughter leaves them under her pillow instead of money. I thought that was such a neat idea. Much more memorable then cash. I would have liked to have done that instead of money or books which is what we do now.

Teresa in Canada



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

cheryl

Oooh, oooh, Robin (waving hand frantically in the air)!
My son will be thirteen in a couple of weeks, and I so wanted to do
something special for him. What kind of blessingway ceremony? It sounds
like a wonderful idea, but I have absolutely no idea about what to do.
He's a very kind and thoughtful person, and I know it would mean so much to
him. He helps teach the beginning students in martial arts class,
loves gaming and video games (thanks to you, Sandra. From your sharing I
know that it's okay to be so very interested in the games. I could go on and
on about the benefits to reading skills from playing those games!), and I
am rambling on a bit...
Anyway, any ideas? Anyone?
Besides hookers and booze?
Cheryl N (one of two Cheryls on this list)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Clevenger" <diamondair@...>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 1:32 AM
Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] Re: rite of passage


> We have a few things planned as rites of passage in the next few years. My
> son has declared himself officially weaned, so I'm going to take him out
for
> dinner just the two of us. And I'm planning on buying him one of those
> Italian Charm bracelets. I'd like to get some kind of special charm, maybe
> just a heart or something to commemorate this special time in our lives.
> Looking ahead, for his 10th birthday, he says he wants to ride in a
> limousine, so I promised him we would rent one and he could invite all the
> friends he could cram into it and ride around town. For puberty/maybe 13
> years old, I'd like to give each of my kids some kind of Blessingway
> ceremony, or maybe a special outdoor experience or both. We'll have to see
> what they want to do for that when it comes. At some point, I'd like to
> climb a mountain with each of them, if they are open to that idea. It was
a
> very pivotal experience for DH and I to tackle a big mountain together, we
> learned a lot of things about ourselves and each other.
>
> Blue Skies!
> -Robin-
>
>
> ~~~~ Don't forget! If you change topics, change the subject line! ~~~~
>
> If you have questions, concerns or problems with this list, please email
the moderator, Joyce Fetteroll (fetteroll@...), or the list owner,
Helen Hegener (HEM-Editor@...).
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, click on the following link or address an
email to:
> [email protected]
>
> Visit the Unschooling website: http://www.unschooling.com
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

[email protected]

In a message dated 5/24/03 1:59:20 PM, cnorthey@... writes:

<< loves gaming and video games (thanks to you, Sandra. From your sharing I

know that it's okay to be so very interested in the games. I could go on and

on about the benefits to reading skills from playing those games!), >>

If you ever would like to go on and on about that, I'd be thrilled to add it
to my online collection! (Thanks for the thanks; please consider writing
something up!)

(Anyone else who wants to write how video games have helped your kids?)

http://sandradodd.com/games/page

<A HREF="http://sandradodd.com/games/page">Benefits of Video Games</A>


Sandra

liza sabater

Hi Sandra,

I'm going to have to make a list of some of the digital artists that
are using gaming engines. One of them is a good friend of ours, John
Klima http://www.cityarts.com/earth/ and http://www.glassbead.com He's
like *the* gamer-artist of the NYC digital art scene.

There's other stuff like pdPAL http://www.pdpal.com/dev/index.htm and
even some of my husband's earlier projects like p-Soup (a multiuser
sound and color environment) or his "paper doll maker" c-Bots,
http://www.potatoland.org They are all real fun to play with.

There's much more like this at Rhizome (http://rhizome.org/) and the
Whitney Museum's Artport (http://www.whitney.org/artport/). Oh! And for
anybody into the Sims, there are people out there making whole novels
and movies with them. I'll dig for those urls.

Best,
l i z a
====================================
www.culturekitchen.com

Robin Clevenger

From: The Bucknums <ctbucknum@...>
>>>Just a note to everyone. While selling jewelry at an antique show
recently I had a woman come and buy several charms from me. Her daughter
leaves them under her pillow instead of money. I thought that was such a
neat idea.>>>>

I don't suppose you sell, or know where I could get, a charm with some kind
of mother/baby thing on it (NOT a baby bottle or pacifier, or baby buggy,
which seems to be all I can find). I would like to find something that looks
like the LLL logo (mom cradling baby). If you have anything similar or know
where I could find it, please let me know! As it stands now, I'm going to
have to look for someone to custom engrave one if I can't find one, if it's
not horrifyingly expensive to do so.

Blue Skies!
-Robin-

Robin Clevenger

From: "cheryl" <cnorthey@...>
>Oooh, oooh, Robin (waving hand frantically in the air)!
>My son will be thirteen in a couple of weeks, and I so wanted to do
>something special for him. What kind of blessingway ceremony?

Well, my sister and friends had a Blessingway for me when I was pregnant
with my daughter. They each brought gifts to the ceremony that had a
personal connection to me. My sister wrote a poem, some brought readings or
poems that they thought were fitting, some brought stones or feathers or
things from our past. I sat in the center of the circle and they each went
around and discussed what they had brought and why. It was very, very
moving. It was like deepening the connection to each of these friends
through remembrance and by seeing aspects of myself through their eyes. It
was very honoring. Also very hard for me to do. There's very few times in
our society when we sit still and listen to someone say nice things about us
without socially trying to brush them aside. All your defenses are down in
such a ceremony, and you accept each gift for what it is, from the heart
that it is given. There were many, many tears.
My friends also brought food, and we had planned to do henna tattoos around
each of our wrists but we ran out of time. Still, I think that would be a
nice addition. In some Blessingways the friends wash the person's feet,
braid flowers into their hair, etc. as well.
I think you can make the ceremony what you want to. I think the big
difference from the types of things we do in our culture (baby showers,
birthday parties) is that the Blessingway focuses on emotional ties and not
on physical gifts. It puts the relationships and the person being honored
into the center, it does not attempt to deflect attention from what is
important by less meaningful rituals (the playing of birthday or baby shower
games, the opening of presents all serve to put a comfortable barrier
between the emotions about the event and the people involved).
If a child was open to something like this, I think it could be a very
powerful and meaningful way to honor the transition of puberty.

Blue Skies!
-Robin-

cheryl

Thank you so much, Robin. It sounds beautiful.
Cheryl N


> Well, my sister and friends had a Blessingway for me when I was pregnant
> with my daughter. They each brought gifts to the ceremony that had a
> personal connection to me. My sister wrote a poem, some brought readings
or
> poems that they thought were fitting, some brought stones or feathers or
> things from our past. I sat in the center of the circle and they each went
> around and discussed what they had brought and why. It was very, very
> moving. It was like deepening the connection to each of these friends
> through remembrance and by seeing aspects of myself through their eyes. It
> was very honoring. Also very hard for me to do. There's very few times in
> our society when we sit still and listen to someone say nice things about
us
> without socially trying to brush them aside. All your defenses are down in
> such a ceremony, and you accept each gift for what it is, from the heart
> that it is given. There were many, many tears.
> My friends also brought food, and we had planned to do henna tattoos
around
> each of our wrists but we ran out of time. Still, I think that would be a
> nice addition. In some Blessingways the friends wash the person's feet,
> braid flowers into their hair, etc. as well.
> I think you can make the ceremony what you want to. I think the big
> difference from the types of things we do in our culture (baby showers,
> birthday parties) is that the Blessingway focuses on emotional ties and
not
> on physical gifts. It puts the relationships and the person being honored
> into the center, it does not attempt to deflect attention from what is
> important by less meaningful rituals (the playing of birthday or baby
shower
> games, the opening of presents all serve to put a comfortable barrier
> between the emotions about the event and the people involved).
> If a child was open to something like this, I think it could be a very
> powerful and meaningful way to honor the transition of puberty.
>
> Blue Skies!
> -Robin-

Tim and Maureen

Cool, We had a blessingway for our friends birth to be. One with very close friends and the midwife and one with a group of the rest of friends. The close friends was more intimate with the feet washing, etc.The focus was on what we wished for mom and baby. The other one was for going away and wishes for the baby as well.It was a great new experience for me and bonded me in a new way to this friend and her baby.
Maureen

----- Original Message -----
From: Robin Clevenger
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 10:57 PM
Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] Re: rite of passage


From: "cheryl" <cnorthey@...>
>Oooh, oooh, Robin (waving hand frantically in the air)!
>My son will be thirteen in a couple of weeks, and I so wanted to do
>something special for him. What kind of blessingway ceremony?

Well, my sister and friends had a Blessingway for me when I was pregnant
with my daughter. They each brought gifts to the ceremony that had a
personal connection to me. My sister wrote a poem, some brought readings or
poems that they thought were fitting, some brought stones or feathers or
things from our past. I sat in the center of the circle and they each went
around and discussed what they had brought and why. It was very, very
moving. It was like deepening the connection to each of these friends
through remembrance and by seeing aspects of myself through their eyes. It
was very honoring. Also very hard for me to do. There's very few times in
our society when we sit still and listen to someone say nice things about us
without socially trying to brush them aside. All your defenses are down in
such a ceremony, and you accept each gift for what it is, from the heart
that it is given. There were many, many tears.
My friends also brought food, and we had planned to do henna tattoos around
each of our wrists but we ran out of time. Still, I think that would be a
nice addition. In some Blessingways the friends wash the person's feet,
braid flowers into their hair, etc. as well.
I think you can make the ceremony what you want to. I think the big
difference from the types of things we do in our culture (baby showers,
birthday parties) is that the Blessingway focuses on emotional ties and not
on physical gifts. It puts the relationships and the person being honored
into the center, it does not attempt to deflect attention from what is
important by less meaningful rituals (the playing of birthday or baby shower
games, the opening of presents all serve to put a comfortable barrier
between the emotions about the event and the people involved).
If a child was open to something like this, I think it could be a very
powerful and meaningful way to honor the transition of puberty.

Blue Skies!
-Robin-


Yahoo! Groups Sponsor



~~~~ Don't forget! If you change topics, change the subject line! ~~~~

If you have questions, concerns or problems with this list, please email the moderator, Joyce Fetteroll (fetteroll@...), or the list owner, Helen Hegener (HEM-Editor@...).

To unsubscribe from this group, click on the following link or address an email to:
[email protected]

Visit the Unschooling website: http://www.unschooling.com

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.


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