Home Educators Against Licensing

Please sign this Petition to the Prime Minister to uphold that parents have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of their child.

For those outside the UK there is also a Global Petition to support home educators (homeschoolers) in England.

*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

Earthquake in Haiti: the resilience of children

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

… imagination makes the best of things

*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

Winter Song

Thanks to On Bradstreet for this lovely winter post.

*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room. Se'Lah is also hosting a new *Gift of Jewels* project. Participants will send a randomly selected person a greeting card in the post and each receive one in return. To take part visit *Gift of Jewels* project: peace and love... by 30th January.

Infertility's Common Thread

For anyone who has ever had a miscarriage, struggled with pregnancy, and all things infertile…there is a movement upon us that you might want to join. It’s rather simple actually: a discreet ribbon on your right wrist to signal to others that they are not alone in their struggles.

The pomegranate-colored thread holds a two-fold purpose: to identify and create community between those experiencing infertility as well as create a starting point for a conversation. Women pregnant through any means, natural or A.R.T., families created through adoption or surrogacy, or couples trying to conceive during infertility or secondary infertility can wear the thread, identifying themselves to others in this silent community. At the same time, the string serves as a gateway to conversations about infertility when people inquire about its purpose. These conversations are imperative if we are ever to remove the social stigma attached to infertility.Tie on the thread because you’re not alone. Wear to make aware. Join us in starting this conversation about infertility by purchasing this pomegranate-coloured thread (#814 by DMC) at any craft, knitting, or variety store such as Walmart or Target. Tie it on your right wrist. Notice it on others.

Find out more about The History of Infertility's Common Thread.


*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room. From 1st to 7th December Se'Lah is featuring seven "Gift of Jewels" Giveaways at Necessary Room. You can enter as many of the giveaways as you wish by leaving a comment on the featured post. The seven randomly selected winners will be announced on 7th January 2010. Entries will remain open until 6th January 2010.

Come Into the Light

'Keep it true, keep it simple and watch your joy grow.'
Lucinda Drayton

*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

Stop and Hear the Music

Pearls Before Breakfast

Can one of the nation's great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour? Let's find out.
By Gene Weingarten
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 8, 2007; Page W10

HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L'ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED HIMSELF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was nondescript: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play.

It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,097 people passed by. Almost all of them were on the way to work, which meant, for almost all of them, a government job. L'Enfant Plaza is at the nucleus of federal Washington, and these were mostly mid-level bureaucrats with those indeterminate, oddly fungible titles: policy analyst, project manager, budget officer, specialist, facilitator, consultant.



...There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who stayed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who hurried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away.

...for the rest of the article go to:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...


*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

Unschooling ABCs

A – autonomy - the freedom to choose when, where, how and what we learn and to direct the rest of our life with the same freedom (when to take trips, when to wake up each day, what to wear, when to eat, what to spend our time on, who to spend time with, etc…).

B – being together – we have so much time to get to know and enjoy each other!

C – creative & critical thinking – we don’t spend precious time memorizing “right” answers in order to score well on tests, our learning has a more lasting purpose. We have the freedom to question everything, and explore to the extent that our curiosity is satisfied before moving on to something else.

Read the rest of the alphabet at This Inspired Life.

*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

It's Alright To Cry

*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

You've got a friend in me

This week's Conscious Friday is for Sunnyboy.



*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

Work, play and learning in the lives of young children

'What about the youngest children - where do they fit in? Samantha Punch carried out a detailed study of children's work in Churquiales, a small rural community in Southern Bolivia. By three or four years old, children were already fetching water, collecting firewood, going on errands, feeding ducks and chickens, scaring birds from crops, picking peas and beans, peeling maize stalks and harvesting peaches. As children got older they progressed onto more complex, physically demanding and responsible tasks...

Punch concludes

Even from an early age children carry out some tasks independently and they should not be seen purely as helpers but active contributors in their own right. Their unpaid work not only benefits the household ... but also increases their sense of autonomy, enabling them to gain skills and competencies useful for their individual independence. (2001:818)

...From a Western perspective, child work is viewed as a potential threat to children's welfare and development. The expression 'child labour' is frequently used, which has connotations of exploitation and harm. From his research among the Abaluyia of Kenya, Weisner (1989) notes that parents may hold a quite contrary view. Children's work is seen as valuable, not just in preparing them for their adult roles, but serving an essential function as a form of emotional and social support, integrating children into a family and community network that places high value on interdependence and interconnectedness...

[In Europe and North America] most young children's activities are interpreted within the dominant discourse of 'play' and 'learning'. From the children's point of view they are experienced as attempts to contribute, as small examples of 'work'.'

Work, play and learning in the lives of young children
Martin Woodhead
In: Psychological Development and Early Childhood by John Oates, Clare Wood and Andrew Grayson, The Open University 2005, pages 41-46




March 2009

*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

One Day

Matisyahu

*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

Reclaiming Our Freedom to Learn

'When we all request education and institutions where our children and young people can stay and learn, we close our eyes to the tragic social desert in which we live. They have no access to real opportunities to learn in freedom. In many cases, they can no longer learn with parents, uncles, grandparents—just talking to them, listening to their stories or observing them in their daily trade. Everybody is busy, going from one place to another. No one seems to have the patience any more to share with the new generation the wisdom accumulated in a culture. Instead of education, what we really need is conditions for decent living, a community.

“True learning,” Ivan Illich once said, “can only be the leisurely practice of free people.” '

Reclaiming Our Freedom to Learn
by Gustavo Esteva
posted Nov 07, 2007
Gustavo Esteva wrote this article as part of Liberate Your Space, the Winter 2008 issue of YES! Magazine. Gustavo is a grassroots activist and deprofessionalized intellectual. Author of many books and essays, former advisor to the Zapatistas, and member of several independent organizations and networks, Mexican and international, he lives in an indigenous village in Oaxaca, in southern Mexico.

Back From The Future
by Gustavo Esteva
Notes for the presentation in “Schooling and Education: A Symposium with Friends of Ivan Illich” organized by TALC New Vision, Milwaukee, October 9th, 2004

UniTierra: Our Roads
Participants and co-creators in Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca, Mexico, discuss their experiences with learning and unlearning. In Spanish with English subtitles.








*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

Preschool or Not?

'Preschool is socially unnatural. By taking young children away from their source of power – mother – and putting them together in a group of similar ages (unable to help each other), we render them helpless. In this impossible and unnatural setting, they fail to socialize on their own and depend on adult control to be able to function and stay safe. Such experience teaches the child to see herself as socially failing and dependent on authority.
...home, play, music, dance, art, books and Nature are all she needs; expose her to what you love and what she shows interest in, and don’t impose any teaching.'

Ask Naomi Aldort: Preschool or Not?
What do you recall from age four? Nothing you know today relies on what you learned in these early years in a school. Instead, it relies on how you felt about yourself. Read the full article at Natural Life magazine, July/August 2009

A Homeschool Curriculum for Preschool and Kindergarten by Lillian Jones
Much Too Early by David Elkind
A Gift of Time by Sue Smith-Heavenrich
Let's Not Institutionalize 3, 4, and 5 Year Olds by Larry and Susan Kaseman
Open Letter published in The Times Educational Supplement by the Open EYE Campaign
Early Learning Policies Should Not Be Imposed by the Open EYE Campaign
Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills by Alix Spiegel
Grow Slow by Vicky Allan
The Wild Child by Scott Noelle
Unschooling Nurture by Laureen (Life Without School)
Alliance for Childhood
Universal Preschool: the universe is our preschool
Open EYE: campaign for an Open Early Years Education

Universal Declaration:
The Preschoolers' Bill of Rights
Proclaimed by Tykes On Trikes, 2006

WE, the preschoolers of the world, have determined that parents who abdicate their responsibility to raise, educate, and care for their own children from birth to age five, jeopardize children's lives and endanger all of humankind - and we have had enough! We are tired of being handed over to transient strangers, so-called child "experts," daycare providers, teachers, preschools, corporations, government agencies, and special interest groups in the name of social reform and the global economy.

Our parents and other adults, many the victims of abandonment in daycare centers and preschools themselves, have forgotten or dismissed the worth of the developing child.

We have determined to do what adults should have been doing all along - protect all tots and demand a better quality of life for preschoolers in liberty and freedom through this decree.

WHEREAS, young children, by reason of their physical immaturity and vulnerability and precisely because they are the future generation, need special safeguards and care, parents have a moral duty and noble obligation to provide their children the best they have to give.

WHEREAS, preschoolers' brains develop at astounding rates and are capable of assimilating vast amounts of information, it is the duty of parents to protect developing minds and keep them independent from government control and indoctrination with standardized curriculum and testing.

WHEREAS, early education and learning are not at all the same thing as "schooling" or the act of attending preschool,

WHEREAS, most preschool programs are based on fads and not on well-established knowledge of how young children learn best,

WHEREAS, interest-initiated learning including open-ended creative and imaginative play, exploration of the environment, hands-on experiential learning, and interaction with caring adults (preferably a child's own parents), in the safety and security of their own homes is the best model for early childhood education,

WHEREAS, parents should respect and strengthen a young child's natural ability and desire to learn,

WHEREAS, preschoolers are being expelled in alarming rates from preschool and daycare programs due to the current trends of forcing academics that lead to undue stress and pressure resulting in physical, behavioral and learning problems,

WHEREAS, play that children can control is central to the physical, social, emotional, psychological, and intellectual growth of a young child - contributing to their language development, social skills, and problem solving capacities that lays a foundation for later academic learning,

WHEREAS, too early separation from parents has been shown to be harmful to the developing child,

WHEREAS, academic instruction, even at Kindergarten level, has been shown to be harmful to the developing child,

WHEREAS, the politicians who push for social reforms, including universal preschools, are more interested in getting elected, re-elected, grabbing power, or making money than with what is best for young children,

WHEREAS, publicly-funded programs usurp parental authority and promote an entitlement mentality,

WHEREAS, it is clear that the strongest motivation of the proponents of publicly funded preschool programs is access to taxpayer monies,

WHEREAS, savvy marketing and slick corporate styled publicity campaigns are purposely making parents feel that they are incapable of teaching their own young children, and falsely suggest that children who don't go to preschool will be unemployable or wind up in prison,

WHEREAS, parents are capable people who should accept responsibility for their children's education and can be effective without the enticements of a government preschool, government "experts," testing and other government interference,

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that there should be no voluntary or compulsory government preschool programs,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Tykes on Trikes, on behalf of a united coalition of young children throughout the world, hereby reclaims childhood with the Preschoolers' Bill of Rights to the end that each child may have a happy childhood and enjoy the rights and freedoms herein set forth, and calls upon parents, all citizens, organizations, local authorities and national governments to recognize these rights and strive for their observance in accordance with the following principles:

Principle 1

Every child shall be entitled to and enjoy all the rights set forth in this Declaration, without exception and without distinction or discrimination on account of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or income or class status.

Principle 2

The child shall be given opportunities to enable him to develop physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, morally, and socially in a healthy and normal manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity. The best interests of the child shall be the paramount consideration.

Principle 3

The child shall enjoy the benefits of a family. A child of tender years (ages 0-5) shall not, save in exceptional circumstances, be separated from his or her mother and father. The child needs love and understanding and shall, wherever possible, grow up in the care and under the responsibility of his or her parents, and, in any case, in an atmosphere of affection and security.

Principle 4

The child is entitled to receive an education or early learning opportunities that are in the best interests of the child. The responsibility for the child's education and guidance lies solely with his parents. The child shall have full opportunity for interest-initiated exploration, play and recreation facilitated by caring adults (preferably the child's own parents), and public authorities shall protect and promote the enjoyment of these rights.

Principle 5

The child shall be protected against all forms of neglect, cruelty and exploitation, including, but not limited to, enrollment in government funded daycare and preschool programs.

BE IT KNOWN that Tykes On Trikes, on behalf of children ages 0-5 throughout the world, now proclaims...

The Preschoolers' Bill of Rights
Everywhere in the world preschoolers, children ages 0-5, are oppressed.

This document seeks a beginning to redress that imbalance.

1. Preschoolers have the right to a happy childhood.
2. Preschoolers have the right to a loving, functional family.
3. Preschoolers have the right to be cared for and nurtured all day and everyday by the people they love and want to be near the most - their own parents.
4. Preschoolers have the right to hear, "I love you" from their parents frequently throughout the day.
5. Preschoolers have the right to receive plenty of hugs and kisses from their parents.
6. Preschoolers have the right to have parents who have not been intimidated, invalidated, and undermined by so-called experts who fill them full of diaper-doo about how they are incapable, unqualified, and unprepared to give their child what he or she needs.
7. Preschoolers have the right to live and learn in the comfort and security of their own homes.
8. Preschoolers have the right to play and should be encouraged to do so by everyone.
9. Preschoolers have the right to be read to.
10. Preschoolers have the right to be sung to.
11. Preschoolers have the right to ask questions, receive answers based on facts, clarity and honesty, and engage in endless discussions with their parents.
12. Preschoolers have the right to explore their indoor and outdoor environment under the loving supervision and guidance of their parents.
13. Preschoolers have the right to lap time, not circle time, and should be cuddled in their mothers' and fathers' laps frequently throughout the day.
14. Preschoolers, in recognition that the concept of "quality time" is a meaningless fabrication by adults to ease their guilt over forsaking "quantity time" with their own children, have the right to demand abundant amounts of undivided time and attention from their own parents.
15. Preschoolers have the right not to attend preschool.
16. Preschoolers have the right to be heard and heeded, and as the largest minority on earth, reserve the right to speak for themselves especially when their parents, duped into compliance with government and private entities, are incapable of it.
17. Preschoolers have the right to resist any school, daycare, or government or private institution that tries to dumb them down with standardized curriculum and testing.
18. Preschoolers shall have the right to be free from measurement, assessment, evaluation, comparison, labels, diagnostic testing, ranking, and grading, except as chosen by their parents in the interests of the child's health and development.
19. Preschoolers have the right to disobey parents, teachers, politicians, and special interest groups that attempt to enroll them in government subsidized preschool programs against their will.
20. Preschoolers have the right to take class action suits and rise up against misguided parents, educators, celebrities and politicians who attempt to confine them in government funded universal preschools.

This Preschoolers' Bill of Rights is international in scope.

You are welcome to copy this in its entirety as long as you include this credit line:

Copyright 2006, Tykes On Trikes, All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with Permission of http://www.TykesOnTrikes.com/

*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

Informal Learning: An Interview With Dr Alan Thomas MSc, PhD, FBPsS

*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

Babywearing

Sunnyboy carrying his teddy in his sling

Hotslings Kid Cotton Pouch from Big Mama Slings*

Babywearing links:
The BabyWearer
Sling Meet
Babywearing Bloggers
The Importance of the In-Arms Phase - Jean Liedloff
Baby Carriers of the Animal Kingdom - Truly Natural Parenting!
Flickr: Simple/ethnic baby carriers
Flickr: Babywearing!
Enter the SnugBaby Summer Competition 2009 to win a SnugBaby mei tai, in your choice of colour.

Click here to see the play, crafts and learning ideas blog link-ups we share at.

The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

*Note: I've featured this product because I liked it and wanted to tell others. I haven't been asked, or paid, to do so.

Humanity's Expression

'The resistance is now. You are free.'


The CVEITCH Channel


*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

Nurture For Nature

Nurture For Nature by Kali Wendorf
Resurgence, Issue 254 May/June 2009
'A peaceful, sustainable world is possible. The effort required to adjust how we collectively meet the optimal developmental needs of children is minute in comparison to the cost of fighting wars and decimating forests. Our commitment to nurture will most certainly begin to heal Nature, and create a just, sane and compassionate future.'

Click on the text above to read the full article.

Kali Wendorf is the founding editor of Kindred, a sustainable family living magazine.
www.kindredcommunity.com


*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

History of compulsory schooling

This short documentary explains the history of compulsory schooling and advocates choice in education.



Global Petition to support home educators (homeschoolers) in England

UK Petition to the Prime Minister


*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

Just say NO to forced schooling

I saw this poster on Travelling to Scotland and RenegadeParent today (it was originally posted on Soaring). Thanks to these bloggers and others (such as Dare to Know, Sometimes It's Peaceful and children are people) for all the useful information they have been posting about the recent Badman Report on the Elective Home Education Review.

Find out more about the DCSF attacks on home educating families and threats to the civil liberties of all families by visiting the UK Home Education Blogs listed in my sidebar (if there are any others that should be included please let me know) or Action for Home Education. There's also a Yahoo Badman Review Action Group and a Facebook group to Stop the UK Government Stigmatising Home Educators!

JUST SAY NO TO THE DCSF


*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.

Whatever Happened to Mother

Whatever Happened to Mother?
A Primer For Those Who Care About Children
by James Kimmel, Ph.D.

'A society that is not responsible to its children, that does not provide them with what they need, will breed a population of asocial and anti-social individuals. Even more destructive to children, in terms of their individual mental health, is a society that pretends to be responsible to its children, when it is not. Its children will not even know what they need. They will be alienated from their human requirement of nurturing.'

Click on the text above to read the entire on-line version of this book at The Natural Child Project.

*The inspiration for Conscious Friday comes from Se'Lah at Necessary Room.