Thursday, June 4, 2009

Proceed with Caution

It would only be natural that a home school group would need to be cautious about the types of events they put together for their children, yet can one be too cautious? Some of the things we celebrate for example, sometimes originated out of twisted and bizarre things in history. But do we really need to condemn those activities when they aren't done the same way today?Couldn't we still have the event in a positive way and teach our children the history and why it was twisted and bizarre? Or better yet, teach a new way to make it a positive thing?

 Perhaps I am not making clear sense, but I guess what I am trying to say without getting too specific is that there are things our children are interested in learning about, or doing, that might have a jaded past or that we know wasn't the best idea back in it's day. But by keeping our children from doing those things (I'm talking things that aren't physically harmful to themselves or others) we tend to just make the activity that much more intriguing. I'm not saying we should let our kids go out and do dangerous things, and then teach them why they are dangerous, but there are interests we can monitor and provide a lesson for while fostering creativity and providing them an experience that satisfies their curiosity and teaches the history that explains why people don't do it the way it used to be done anymore. Or why people don' t normally do it at all.