Offbeat Theology and Volcano Eggs

Due to financial constraints, we haven't celebrated Easter yet. We're hoping Mr. Bunny will visit on Thursday. ;-) So while everyone else who celebrated Easter or Passover is recuperating from the holiday festivities, we're just gearing up. Which is just as well, since I spent the weekend drinking massive amounts of hot tea, sleeping too much, and complaining about my head cold. (The term "suffer in silence" means nothing to me. :-P) Meanwhile, the hubby and kids loafed around and played insane amounts of Diablo. Because nothing speaks to the season of resurrection and rebirth quite like a video game where you get to kill a bunch of stuff.



On Sunday,  I had an interesting conversation with Patricia about Easter. We're a secular family. (It's been 8 years since we "fell away" from the church -- how time flies). However, when she told me Easter "is about The Bunny," I realized there were a few big gaps in her education. :-) When I explained the belief that Jesus was the son of God and rose from the dead three days after he was cruelly executed, she was puzzled.  She said things like "How could GOD come to Earth?" and "Nobody rises from the dead unless they have CPR!" *LOL*

I tried to explain the story in a different context. In keeping with the fact that I'm definitely one of those "spiritual but not religious people," I explained it from a spiritual standpoint. For the faithful, belief in the deity of Christ and his resurrection, as well as the guidance offered by his teachings, gives them hope. The coming of Spring gives people hope. Imagine what it was like when there were no furnaces and no Martin's. When spring began to blossom, animals ventured from their dens, and new life was emerging everywhere, you'd survived the winter. Easter is a celebration of all that.

She listened politely, but her mind was already on a different track. This kid, who found Christian theology so implausible, was on about how Santa can make it all the way around the world in one night when he'd need more than a supersonic jet. Gotta love the way logic and magic are so fluid at this age.

Today Patricia and I had a typical "school" day -- We basically just played. This is our basket of things we gathered that we wanted to do today -- we haven't finished it all, so we'll pick up where we left off tomorrow. While there is plenty of educational fodder here, including the 10 Days In ... games, which we LOVE (Geography, Strategy, Problem-Solving), Sherlock (Visual Memory), North American Animals Concentration (Visual Memory, Geography, Zoology), and Rat-a-Tat-Cat (Visual Memory, Strategy, Math Computation), there is no scope and sequence. We're mostly just having fun.

At almost eight-and-a-half, she's had little "formal" academics -- at this age, that seems about right to me. In general, I think formal learning is pushed much too young in this country. I think we may do more curriculum-y stuff soon, because I have a sense it might be a good fit for her in the near future. However, we've spent eight years mostly "just playing." Somehow, without the essential guidance of curricula and standards of learning, she's literate, is an avid writer, has basic math literacy, and is a good problem solver.

I was reminded, last week, how blessed we are.  We went to Patricia's first soccer practice, and I wound up talking to other moms about public school. One of them is a Kindergarten teacher -- she seems pretty frustrated. They are in the midst of massive budget cuts and are losing teaching positions, while academic pressure linked to standardized testing continues to escalate. She said she can't let her Kindergartners paint. According to the academic standards to which they're tethered, that's "preschool." Kindies are too busy to waste time on painting. Seriously -- I don't make this stuff up.

I know public schools need to level the playing field, so to speak -- not all families have the luxury of spending lots of time playing with their kids, talking and reading with them, and strewing so many books, games, and other learning materials it looks like a Rainbow Resource warehouse exploded in their home. That's why public schools -- to paraphrase Jefferson -- are the cornerstone of a Democracy. But they're sacrificing so much that is vital to children's growth -- developmentally appropriate learning, hands-on play, the arts, and so much more -- and what are they gaining in return? From what I can glean from friends and acquaintances who teach college students, we're still graduating students who are lacking in basic maturity and unprepared academically. What's going on here?

Returning to our Procrastinator's Easter, today Patricia and I made volcano eggs, using instructions at Toddler Approved. This was super fun!