Christmas with a Dalek

Ross and Ryan wanted money for Christmas, but Daxton got lots of toys! Our dear friends Patty and Arthur agreed to accept packages from Amazon UK and to cart them back on the boat so that Dax could get some Dr Who and Pocoyo goodies. What ensued was a very merry holiday!

   

Watching Shrek

Ethan, Ryan, Mimi, and I were watching Shrek. Sadly, the disk from Netflix froze. While Mimi was trying to get the movie to play again, the following conversation took place:

Ryan: Why did Shrek put on that helmet? He shouldn't have put that on and then she (the princess) wouldn't have yelled at him to take it off.

Ba: Shrek didn't want the princess to know he was an ogre. He didn't want her to be afraid of him.

Ryan: Why are people afraid of ogres?

Ba: In most fairy tales ogres are monsters who eat people -

Ethan (cutting in): Yeah! And drink their body fluids!

Ryan: What are body fluids?

Ethan: Honestly, I have no idea.

My guys crack me up.

Superoheroes, Heaven, and Hell

Ethan has been interested in religions for a while. It started when his friend Kyle found out that I don't believe in god. Ethan decided that because Kyle believes in god, he would also. I asked him what that meant, and Ethan's answer was that he just believed that there was a god. When I asked him what that god was like, he couldn't answer. When I asked him why he believed in god, he said he just did. He said he just knew there was a god.

After a few weeks, he asked me if god was a good guy. "What do you mean?"

"You know. Like Superman or the Fantastic Four."

"What god are you asking about? Do you mean Thor, or Krishna, or Jesus, or what?"

"Like Kyle's god."

"The Christian god?"

"Yeah."

"Well, in Christian mythology, god is an all-powerful being who is good if he's on your side, and he's on your side if you're Christian."

"Oh. So you mean that if you're not Christian, god doesn't like you?"

"No. If you're not Christian, that's an irrelevant question."

"So it only matters for Christians?"

"If that's the god we're talking about, yes."

"Where does that god live?"

"Generally upwards, somewhere in the sky above the earth."

"What does he do all day?"

"As near as I can tell, he watches people."

"He lives in heaven right?"

"In Christian mythology, yes."

"Kyle says when you die you go to heaven."

"What do you think?"

"I think when you die, your body turns into trees and flowers."

"That's what I think, too."

"But Christians think you go to heaven."

"Well, if you do what they think god wants you to do, then yes."

"What do people do in heaven?"

"As near as I can tell, they watch people."

"That's boring."

"I think it would be boring to watch people and never be able to interact them."

"What do Christians think happens if you're not good?"

"Hmmm. Most would say that you go to hell."

"What's that?"

"That's a place where all you do is hurt. Most Christians say it has fire and brimstone, which very hot and like coals, and you stay there forever."

"So you don't die?"

"You go there after you die."

"Oh. OK. So, but wait. Christians mommies tell their kids that if they don't be good they're going to go to hell and never get out and hurt all the time?"

"Some do."

"But you said that what they believe."

"Well, yes. I guess they do say that."

"That is just so wrong!"

"Yup."

"Will Kyle go to hell? Sometimes he's not good."

"First off, I don't think he's not good."

"Yeah, but will he go to hell?"

"I don't believe in hell, so I don't think he will."

"Oh. Good. Can I have some lunch?"

"Sure."

Each day most parents send their children to daycare, or preschool, or school. The parents go to work or work in the house, or run errands, or enjoy their day without their children. They function the way they do because their children are not with them. When their children are with them, while it might be enjoyable, it adds a layer of stress to their lives. This is clear from popular quips like "Thank goodness the weekend is only two days long. If I had the kids every day nothing would get done." It's in music "Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again." It's on TV shows and in commercials.

By sending kids to school, the family itself is made into something new. Instead of a unit that functions together and works together to accomplish things or have fun or even survive, it becomes a split squad of parents, who are responsible for the survival of the group, and children, who are dependent on their parents for their very survival. The stress comes in when the two squads are put together. The parents are suddenly unable to preform tasks they see as necessary or even to recreate because the children are there. The children get stressed because they are suddenly in their parents' way.

School creates a situation in which families can no longer work as a team. Instead, they are put in opposition to one another. Their goals are not the same. Their coping skills depend on being apart from each for significant portions of the day.

Home school, while alleviating some of this opposition and stress, still puts parents and children on different teams. Parents are once again responsible for the survival of the group, but instead of the short term survival (until the children are adults) they are now in charge of the children's survival in life because they must teach them the skills necessary to survive and to recreate the family structure in their own lives. It also adds the stress of putting the additional burden of teaching children on the parents.

What if parents and children were all on the same side? What if, instead of work/school days and weekends there were just days? The thing about unschooling is it allows families to connect with each other in ways that school or home school cannot.