Littering...

I guess it's a little weird, that I'm noticing this now. Of course I have always seen trash on the streets, on lawns, on hiking trails... But it seems, that for some reason I never attribute this trash to people, who might actually willingly throw their trash away. Maybe I was simply oblivious, or maybe the sight of a guy, throwing his cigarette out of the car window, is so common, that I don't think about it twice. Because, after all, they all do it, right? (Well, no, my father-in-law doesn't. He steps on it, and then puts it into his pocket.)

In the past couple of days, as I was driving or walking down the street, I noticed several people throwing their trash away. Wrappers, cups, cigarettes... They just dropped their trash, clearly not even thinking about their actions. Or if they did, then it was probably one of those "That little piece of trash won't hurt anyone," thoughts, that went through their minds. In two cases, the people were kids, throwing away candy wrappers, and it leaves me wondering, if this is not a lesson they are taught at home. Don't litter. It's one of the first and simplest lessons my kids had to learn. Aside from the obvious damage littering does to the environment, it's an ugly sight. Does anybody really want to see plastic cups, sandwich wrappers, plastic bags, cigarettes, and other trash on the streets? It's ugly! We create enough trash as it is, and our landfills are mountains of trash, but couldn't we at least try to keep our garbage there rather than making our cities into landfills?

As my family and I are consistently trying to reduce the amount of trash we create by avoiding unnecessary packaging, using our own shopping bags, and quite simply by buying less stuff, I am a bit upset by our thoughtless neighbor, who recently poured a suspicious brown liquid down the street drain. I am sad to see that a majority of people still live by the motto "The great flood after me" (a German saying, meaning, who cares, I'll be dead anyway when the planet drowns in crap). We will continue to improve our ways, but what's more important, we'll make sure that our children know what's right, and will want to do this too. It's really not that hard.

And now for the homeschooling...

As others are taking their long awaited breaks from school, this family jumps into high gear next week, after enjoying a more leisurely spring schedule with lots of outdoors time. I had a conversation with Sarah, who inspired me to take a bit of a different approach for my summer schedule.

We will start our work at 9am and finish at noon. From a list of things that need to be done, they get to choose what to do first, second, third etc. We will cross off whatever has been done. Friday is our unschooling day, during which they get to work on anything they want to.

We will do this for four weeks, then take one week off, then start over. It seems to make no sense to me to take a 3 month break during the summer. The kids will forget everything they've learned, and at some point will get bored. At the beginning of the new school year, they'll have to redo work from the last school year. Where's the use in that?

The materials we're currently using are Math U See, Critical Thinking books for reading, grammar, writing, social studies and more, Hooked on Phonics, Bob Books, Handwriting without tears, and a couple of other workbooks.

And then, thanks to Rooster X and his lovely better half, we are finally going to start a "work for screen time" for our kids. We have taken a pretty relaxed approach to the kids' screen time, and it has totally backfired at us. So much for Extreme Unschooling. Sorry, folks, it ain't workin' for us. The kids get to do small, medium, and large chores to earn a certain amount of screen time. They're not in love with the idea, but they both understand. I'll report how that works out for us.

The nicest thing about this summer, though? Park days!! Long afternoons at the park with a bunch of really cool homeschoolers. There's simply nothing better than that.

And, what's going on in your lives this summer???

Random Ramblings :)

1. There is simply nothing better than a quiet house. While I love the Oregon coast, I had no desire to join my family to admire the sandcastles in Cannon Beach today, so I stayed home, got some work done, watched some German TV, ate out, and yes, went through my blog scroll to see what's going on out there, in the bloggy world.

2. Leavenworth, WA is a truly charming, very small, German style village... with German food, German music, German style houses... and yet, I'm disillusioned after finding out that it really has no German history, but the "Bavarian" style (Ha! Why is everything German always Bavarian???) was simply a way to pull this small town out of a depression... by Americans. *sigh* It's genius, but not real... *doublesigh* ;)

3. At an adoption "celebration" at the court in Eugene yesterday I may have developed a bit of a crush for the middle-aged judge. Am I getting old?

4. Chocolate and lavender are an unexpectedly delicious combination. You should try it. It's from Dagoba, too expensive, but heavenly.

5. I'm sorry but Faber-Castell markers are THE best markers on Earth... not that you care, but well, I do.

6. I'm worried about North Korea and Iran and considering digging a bunker in my backyard. You know... just in case.

7. Toothless Fairy is getting a tooth. That is an unexpected and very good surprise. That means we only have to worry about one tooth now rather than two. YES!!

8. I actually managed to save exactly one picture from my SD card of my Seattle/Leavenworth vacation and delete the rest of them. This one picture is silly, but it proves I've been to Seattle. I feel so dumb for deleting those pictures. They were so good!

9. I'd like a new spine please with lifetime warranty.

10. Old German movies are so freakin' hilarious, I can't stop watching them... and that's why I'm done here now... going to watch one of those German-Bavarian-mountains-Dirndl-Lederhosen-sappy-movies. :P

Dale McGowan at work again... Loving it!

Parenting Beyond Belief

The following text can be found on Dale McGowan's website:

Introducing…Foundation Beyond Belief

Being a humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead. — Kurt Vonnegut

I don’t give as much as I’d like to the causes I care about. I consider myself a pretty generous guy, and when I give, I give generously. But I get to the end of each year and realize that I just haven’t given as much as I wish I had. Again.

Another thing: When religious folks give through religious charities and churches, it registers as an expression of their worldview. I want that too. I want my contributions to “count” as a visible expression of my secular humanism.

Then there’s this: Multiple solid surveys by philanthropic research organizations like Independent Sector and the Giving Institute1 show that churchgoers give a much greater percentage of their income to charitable causes than non-churchgoers like me. Arthur C. Brooks (author of Who Really Cares) is pretty sure he’s got my number: he says it’s “evidence of a gap in everyday virtue” (p. 40) between the religious and nonreligious.

I think he’s missing something obvious. If people in Group A are asked to pass a plate full of the generous donations of their friends and neighbors and either add to it or not, 52 times a year, while people in Group B have no such regular and public nudge — I’d say something other than virtue is in play.

offer5400I think the difference has much more to do with whether or not you have systematic opportunities for giving than some “gap in virtue.” I speak at Unitarian fellowships and Ethical Societies all the time, places brimming with friendly atheists. And when that offering plate passes by, I give, and so do they, knowing that these places will use it to do some good.

The offering plate is also passing through a million mainstream church pews every Sunday, giving the religious an easy and regular way to give and to combine their giving with others as a positive collective expression of their worldview.

I don’t agree with those who insist religious people give primarily out of fear or guilt. That may be in the mix, but most I know give because they are challenged and encouraged to do so, because generosity feels wonderful, and because the habit of giving turns giving into a habit.

I want to do better. It’s time for those of us who are otherwise engaged on Sunday mornings to have our own easy and regular means of giving, one that focuses and encourages humanistic generosity and demonstrates it to the world.

Welcome to Foundation Beyond Belief.

> what it is

FBBlogoFoundation Beyond Belief is a new 501c3 charitable and educational foundation created (1) to focus, encourage and demonstrate humanistic generosity, and (2) to support a nationwide nonreligious parent education program.

The Foundation will highlight ten charitable organizations per quarter–one in each of ten areas (health, poverty, environment, education, human rights, and more). Members join the Foundation by signing up for a monthly automatic donation in the amount of their choice, then set up personal profiles to indicate how they would like their contribution distributed among the ten categories. Maybe you’d like to give 25 percent each to human rights, poverty, education, and the environment. We’ll distribute it accordingly. By year’s end, you will have helped support a dozen organizations in the areas you care most about.

The centerpiece of the Foundation will be a lively online community. Active members can join a social network and discussion forums centered on the ten categories of giving, upload videos, recruit new members, advocate for causes and help us choose the new beneficiaries each quarter. We’ll also create and host a multi-author blog of world-class contributors focused on the cause areas, as well as humanism, philanthropy, and the intersection of the two.

Carefully selected for impact and efficiency, the beneficiaries may be founded on any worldview so long as they do not engage in proselytizing. At the end of each quarter, 100 percent of the donations will be forwarded and a new slate of beneficiaries selected.

On the educational side, the Foundation will build the next stage in nonreligious parent education—a nationwide training program for parenting seminar leaders. We plan to have 30-40 people teaching nonreligious parenting seminars in cities across the country within a year.

We’ve begun assembling a stellar cast to guide the Foundation through its infancy. The Board of Directors includes Hemant Mehta (author, Friendly Atheist blogger, Secular Student Alliance board chair), Dr. Wayne Huey (ethicist, educator, author, former Georgia and U.S. High School Counselor of the Year), Trish Hotze Cowan (Sunday School Director, Ethical Society of St. Louis), and executive director Dale McGowan. (That’s me.)

The Foundation will launch in two stages. On October 1 we’ll unveil the pre-launch website, where members can begin setting up profiles and basic donations. On January 1, 2010, we will launch the full site, including the ten featured causes, all profile options, blog, social networking, and the means for members to select and change their preferred distributions.

We’re making no little plans here, and there’s the potential to do something pretty earthshaking. But this is a community thing, or it’s nothing. We’ll need your help.

> what you can do now


There are two ways to stay in the loop as we work toward the Foundation’s partial launch in October and full launch in January:

Facebook users: Click here to join the Foundation Beyond Belief group on Facebook Causes. No donation required — just keeping yourself in the loop.

Non-Facebookers: Click here to put your email on our mailing list.

Either way, sign up and we’ll keep you informed as it takes shape.

(Regarding donations: Our tax exemption process is nearly complete, at which time your donations will be fully deductible. We’ll let you know when that happens. If you simply can’t wait to donate, and don’t care if it’s deductible, click here.)
_________________
1And the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, and the 2002 General Social Survey, and the American Community Survey of the U.S. Census…the list goes on. The facts themselves are not in doubt.

You can read me here...

Portland Familyon page 9.

As time passes by...

... at lightning speed, I wonder how I managed to post here daily... sometimes twice daily. How did I manage to read all the blogs in my scroll? And how did I leave all those comments? Looking back I think it must have been a long winter. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. I loved reading all the posts, the little updates, the big ramblings, the discussing of current events and such. And now I feel a little guilty because I have literally stopped reading and stopped writing.

The fact is though, I really haven't stopped at all. I've just taken my creativity somewhere else, which, of course is a good thing, when you consider that the other thing I'm doing is actually going to make me a few bucks, and ultimately... wouldn't it be nice to make a living with this writing business? I have just been published two more times in Portland Family and Goodness Magazine. I ran to the library first thing this morning to pick up some copies. And I was delighted when I saw the layout, and of course my name in print. Sometimes I'm still in disbelief, when I see it. This is my name, my work, and someone likes it enough to publish it and pay me for it. Does one ever lose this sense of amazement and happiness about being published? I sure wish I won't. I love the feeling, and I hope it'll stick around for a very long time.
I will post the Portland Family and Goodness links as soon as they are available online.

A little update on the family and homeschooling front: Toothless Fairy and Blue Eyed Boy are excited about summer. Village Home classes will end this week, and we'll have all summer to build our enthusiasm about going back. Not that we don't have any enthusiasm now, but toward the end of the school year, we all feel a little worn out, and are ready to stay home for a while.

What does that mean in terms of our own homeschooling journey? Are we done for a while too? Actually we're not. As a matter of fact, I have just ordered the Math-U-See curriculum for both kids, which we will be using pretty much all summer to catch up a little in that department. We will also be using our Critical Thinking books, and both kids enjoy the "Test Prep" books I bought for them. It gives them a bit of an idea what standardized tests are like. (Might I add that they get a good giggle out of multiple choice questions? They think those are hilarious.)

We will also be joining the homeschool park days each week, and of course there's going to be some camping for the family, and a family reunion at the coast.

Our Rational Sunday School will continue throughout the summer as well, so I'll be teaching every other week to little Heathens and their parents. ;) Part of me wants to write a secular curriculum for programs like ours. I have some ideas, but how to realize them? And when? It's going to be on my to-do list for sure.

Toothless Fairy has been gone for 4 days now. She's camping with HerbiFaery and her family, and apparently she had a great time. But she's also looking forward to coming back home. Blue Eyed Boy, Ogre and I are ready for her to come home as well... although we did have some good times in the garden together. We put bugs on leaves and played Titanic with them (no worries, no bugs were harmed), we played in the water slide, watched caterpillars eat our brussels sprouts leaves and measured just how much the snap peas grew in the past week.

Enjoy the pics, forgive my silence, don't leave me, and have a wonderful week.