Mudspark Life Learning

I asked myself recently why mainstream culture is so bent on handing responsibility over to others. We give our power to doctors, pharmaceutical companies, teachers and schools, banks and so many more entities and institutions. We have learned as a culture to not trust our intuition, healing ability, bodies, or ability to learn and be curious. Those who do trust themselves are accused of not trusting anyone else, as in the case of homeschooling, for instance. Why is there such a fear of taking responsibility? I think this is because in our current society, we see either/or: either the responsibility is ALL on my shoulders, or others will be my parents and take care of me. We want to be taken care of. The world is overwhelming and scary. I want someone to hold my hand. Who doesn't? The greater culture has become so attached to giving responsibility to others that we can't even see that a middle ground is possible: I can check with my doctor, then take herbs. I can homeschool a

I've always wanted to get a big roll of paper, unroll a big huge section, and let the kids go to town with paint. So I did. I got the paper and paints through Rainbow Resource . The drawing was so long I didn't have a wall to hang it on. We had to tear off one end to make room! Somehow I didn't get a picture of that. But you can imagine the color.

  My husband just finished a power-filled retreat with Bill Plotkin , and one of the insights he brought home with him is this chart of soulcentric development . It perfectly captures why and how I homeschool (or at least towards what ends I aspire). I see my toddler as an Innocent in the Nest, and my school age child as an Explorer in the Garden. Homeschool as a way for them to explore the garden in the context of family, community, and nature. It sets up ideal conditions for them to do necessary work as teens, when they need to create a secure and authentic social self, something that is very hard to do in most of today's high schools. With this ground work they will grow up to be authentic, strong adults able to do their work in the world in a meaningful way. And by work I don't mean being successful economic units, although that can be a part of it, too. I mean soul work. Inner work that translates into a calling that makes the world a better place. Plotkin

Yesterday we discovered earwig colonies under a bunch of rocks in our backyard. There seemed to be a large earwig, a whole bunch of teeny earwigs, and some little white eggs. I was curious about why all of these would be clustered together, so looked up earwigs online. Apparently they are one of the few insects that show some maternal behaviors, as the mother earwig stays with the nymphs at least to their first molt. They molt five times before becoming adults. The mothers also watch over their eggs. I've never really liked earwigs, but I knew they just eat decaying matter like dead leaves, and they in doing so are an important part of an ecosystem. But those pincers do look nasty, so I also looked up whether or not earwigs bite. They can pinch but can't really break the skin and aren't aggressive. As I was perusing the wikipedia page on earwigs, my son said, "I want that coloring page!" So I printed out the two images of prehistoric earwigs that lived at the