Pagan Homeschoolers: Curriculum Thread - Page 3

[umami_mommy]

i am in the middle of working on a "pixie path" curriculum. (i say pixie path, but it's really a exploration of elemental and seasonal energies)

it's modeled after the path work we did with the little ones at the vermont reclaiming witchcamp several years ago. i came home and was inspired to do it with my kids. so, i have all my notes and outlines and everything and i just need to put it all together. (easier said than done!) i will likely sell it as a download.. an ebook on a website.

i don't know if this is what some of you are looking for or not, but it will at least all be in one place, KWIM?

we are unschoolers, so i don't know how it will translate into to the three Rs, but i'm sure some of you more creative mamas won't have any troubling doing that.

[sofysmommy]

Originally Posted by umami_mommy

i am in the middle of working on a "pixie path" curriculum. (i say pixie path, but it's really a exploration of elemental and seasonal energies)

it's modeled after the path work we did with the little ones at the vermont reclaiming witchcamp several years ago. i came home and was inspired to do it with my kids. so, i have all my notes and outlines and everything and i just need to put it all together. (easier said than done!) i will likely sell it as a download.. an ebook on a website.

i don't know if this is what some of you are looking for or not, but it will at least all be in one place, KWIM?

we are unschoolers, so i don't know how it will translate into to the three Rs, but i'm sure some of you more creative mamas won't have any troubling doing that.

That sounds cool! I would buy that.

[jrabbit]

hi - I'm new to all of this - only been "actively" schooling for a few months. really, we are unschoolers, but there is an underlying fear of not teaching enough, so we're including workbooks for reading, math, history & math - even though, I'm not actually following any curriculum or routine.

Anyway, this thread inspired me - and we made this today!
http://philhyde.smugmug.com/Family/C...10345378_kFxXC

thanks to Aubergine for the original idea! I've always wanted to incorporate more nature into our learning journey, and we've struggled with the concept of time in general. I think this will be helpful ... I decided it looked too boring, though, so we used the opportunity to work on the Color Wheel, as well.


A friend suggested a weather chart idea that we might use: color a leaf every day to represent the weather. I need to mull that one over to see what makes the most sense with two very competitive daughters, though.

--janis

[Aeress]

I am so happy to see that two women have been working on a pagan curriculum.

Given the above, i am happy to let these women develop the curriculum and use this thread as a resource for parents.

What does everyone think about that?

I will continue to work on an earth centered approach to infants and toddlers though, cause it is something I am feeling compelled to do.

[Aubergine68]

Your plan is fine by me on all counts, Aeress I think this thread is really needed as a resource here, and who knows what wonderful places the conversation will go in the future?

So, do you want to go ahead with a website for the infant/toddler earth-centered curriculum or keep on developing it in this thread?

One thing that is really important to me in that regard is to have a plan that can be developed and adapted according to the weather and seasons where I am. I have a shelf full of preschool curriculum made in the continental US that goes by weekly themes. Things like autumn leaf time and harvest are weeks earlier here and planting seeds in spring comes weeks later in this cold northern climate and there are amazing things like northern lights that aren't spoken of at all in the books I have.

And then there you are Cari, having to flip the Wheel entirely and adapt so much more to the standard American seasonal pattern!

jrabbit, your Wheel is lovely! Please share how you use it as it goes. The adding-leaves-every-day idea is intriguing. Love the color wheel addition: I think it really fits. And did you paint it? How did you get the lovely colors?

Enjoyed seeing your other crafty objects, too!

[saphire]

Thank you Aeress and Aubergine for your input and dedication to this topic. I think a resource such as this for Pagan parents is really needed. And maybe there is enough for a website? There are so many great hs'ing ideas on the web, it would be neat to have a site to share on.

I'd like to see lessons organized by season instead of dates too, in order to make more sense globally, that was a fantastic idea Aubergine.

Now that my girls are past the early stuff ( ages 8 and 10) it is getting a lot harder for me to pick through the mountain of information and create a curriculum. I'd like something of a scope and sequence that I could refer to year to year. I created one back in 2005, but the advanced years need to be fleshed out more. That is one thing I could contribute to either this thread or a website. Make it kind of a jumping off point we could tweak and add to.
I just searched for that file on this computer and it seems dh didn't keep it. I suppose it was several years ago. At least I have a printed copy, all is not lost.

Weather tree- I drew a tree with 31 leaves on it, so each month had it's own tree. Then the girls colored a leaf for each day's weather. Grey for rain, green for sunny, etc. That's something else I could share too, provided I get the scanner to work.

[slinden]

i am completely intrigued by this topic and i'm subbing to this thread. my little one is only 10.5 months old now, but i'm really wanting to HS in the future, with a pagan/earth based focus. i've been doing some searching myself, but i'm really happy to see this thread forming.

thank you, ladies!

[sofysmommy]

Originally Posted by Aeress

I am so happy to see that two women have been working on a pagan curriculum.

Given the above, i am happy to let these women develop the curriculum and use this thread as a resource for parents.

What does everyone think about that?

I will continue to work on an earth centered approach to infants and toddlers though, cause it is something I am feeling compelled to do.

My children are 2,4 and 5 and I am excited to see what you will come up with

[jrabbit]

I should have taken pictures of the painting part, but here is what we did:

the circle is mylar (I happen to have a ginormous roll of it, that I've had for 14+ years, and I'm finally using it for crafts)

The rainbow was made with finger paints & paint brushes & white paper (thicker paper). The kids painted sheets of paper with red, blue, and yellow. then we mixed them to make the secondary & tertiary colors. The tertiary colors didn't turn out as obvious as I'd hoped, but the overall effect was about what I wanted. We ended up with 12 sheets of paper in a rainbow of colors. Annie wanted December to be blue, and she was right! That puts the rainbow in a logical order, IMO.

I taped the pages to the back of the mylar after they went to bed - I am too much of a perfectionist to let the kids do that part After the pages were taped, the pinwheel effect is striking, so I didn't cut the edges off - but I originally was going to do that.

we're going to collect some flowers to press today, I think.

saphire: I like that idea for the weather tree. I'll see what I can come up with today!

[umami_mommy]

this looks amazingly cool. you could come up with one for where you live.

http://www.vitalcommunities.org/Vall...alleyQuest.htm

http://www.vitalcommunities.org/vall...s/Odzihozo.pdf

[mary3mama]

awesome, awesome, awesome!

[Marimami]

We're going to try to focus on herbs a lot this Spring and Summer. I've already bought most of the back issues for the Herbal Roots Zine, and they look awesome. We haven't started using them yet, but it's on our list for April!

http://www.lunaherbco.com/herbal_roots/

Holli

[umami_mommy]

have you seen the wildcraft game?

http://www.learningherbs.com/wildcraft.html

my DS adores it!

[Marimami]

Originally Posted by umami_mommy

have you seen the wildcraft game?

http://www.learningherbs.com/wildcraft.html

my DS adores it!

Yep! DH and DD played it just the other night.

[CCJWGM]

It's funny. I actually dreamt about this thread. My inner ra sun was shining in my dream and I decided it was time to think about pagan homeschooling.

My kidlets are only 3 and 4 so we aren't schooling yet. We probably will be in the realm of "waldorf unschoolers" in the end though. Waldorf really sings to my heart. The good thing is that Waldorf is very tailorable to your own needs if you make your own curriculum. You can add more multi-cultural stories to it and add age appropriate pagan stories/verses/chants/info. The yearly rhythm in Waldorf is about what holidays/celebrations you choose to celebrate.

What I think would be interesting is to have a book of holidays. Most holidays we celebrate have pagan roots and I personally am not always sure of them. I find it infinitely fascinating the ties between christian and pagan holidays. Then we can take the holidays that our culture makes the children heavily aware of (Christmas, Easter, etc) and put the pagan spin on them so we can be aware of what the holiday really means.

My DH is breathing down my neck so I'll type more later.

ETA - EarthSchooling has ebooks on herbs. She also has children's classes and books for healing here is the link to the ebooks page

[wombatclay]

Love the weather tree!

I'm planning a "day book" that is similar... I can't remember where I first heard about them, but basically each child has a book of blank pages. Each night they color a page to represent how that day was (can include images, or just be a single color wash) and select one or two words to describe the day (parent or older child writes the words on the page). You end up with a sort of "flip book" of the emotional year.

[craft_media_hero]

Originally Posted by Marimami

We're going to try to focus on herbs a lot this Spring and Summer. I've already bought most of the back issues for the Herbal Roots Zine, and they look awesome. We haven't started using them yet, but it's on our list for April!

http://www.lunaherbco.com/herbal_roots/

Holli

Oooh, cool! I've been thinking about incorporating that and the wildcrafts game here and there, too.

[Spookygirl]

I am subbing! This is a great thread

I noticed as I was skimming someone mentioned SpiralScouts I am a Circle leader for, wow, 3 years now, and am happy to help anyone out who's getting started

I am sure that the books Pagan Homeschooling and Raising Witches have been mentioned? I didn't get a change to read in depth, my kids are calling me to come and watch Ponyo

[onyxravnos]

circle round: raising children in the goddess tradition is also a great book. there are also a few waldorfy books about "irish holoidays / norse holidays / india's holidays etc etc I bought the irish one which of course is pagan /catholic.

Originally Posted by Spookygirl

I noticed as I was skimming someone mentioned SpiralScouts I am a Circle leader for, wow, 3 years now, and am happy to help anyone out who's getting started

Nice! i just sent in money and info for a hearth i'm really psyched to get started as it will fed alot of that pagan stuff i want to get into my kids lives and it works like a homeschool coop

[bwdiaz]

Originally Posted by witchygrrl

My DH feels very strongly that science would need to be an integral part of the curriculum, and while I agree with him, how to do that while keeping the wonder of it all, e.g. the moon phases, what happens scientifically and spiritually? Any thoughts?

I don't know. In my mind, the science of it seems to enhance the wonder. My own baby is too young yet, but a few years ago I taught a neighbor's 9 year old son about how a sundial worked and just last winter he was still trying to see the Newgrange Yule sunrise.