Raising Freethinkers

I've started reading Dale McGowan's book, Raising Freethinkers. I'm pretty sure Shannon is the one who firmly got Dale into my sights through mentions of him on her blog. I subscribe to his blog and watched one of his YouTube videos last night. He's speaking in Teaneck in October and I'm thinking about going.

(I have to say I'm kind of freaked out by how much of the book---I didn't check whether it was the whole book or not--- has been scanned in at Google Books. I've heard vague mention of this and am feeling the frisson of mixed emotions that accompanies changing times. I will always choose a book I can hold in my hands over reading off a screen, or printing pages and reading a sheaf of papers. But, nothing stays the same, does it?)

In a nutshell, Dale touches upon something I've wondered about since learning I was going to be a parent: as a non-believer, and living a life outside of the culture of a spiritual house of worship/community, 1) how do I encourage and nurture humanism in my kids; 2) how do I expose my kids to religion/spirituality in its various shapes and forms; and 3) how do I not indoctrinate my kids to my own way of thinking and believing?

(The video I linked to, is actually about Influence vs. Indoctrination vis-a-vis parenting a child/children. I couldn't concentrate on it completely with my kids buzzing about, being tired and wondering whether Cap was going to keep his class for the full 2 1/2 hours or not on the first night of class.)

(I've been going to bed around 9pm. Last night, Cap didn't come home till about 11pm. The kids have been going to bed around 10pm. Last night they stayed up, but started getting "scared" and coming in to ask me when Cap was coming home, wanting to snuggle, etc. I was so tired I kept falling asleep between their visits to me. It wasn't pretty. Not ugly either, but not pretty.)

The book is a follow-up to an earlier book called Parenting Beyond Belief. Which I haven't read. But, I think I'm going to request it from the library. Raising Freethinkers is more of a practical guide and something which I may want to have a copy of at home to be able to refer to periodically. As it is, I'm on page 7 and feeling like I need to start taking notes when I'd really prefer to just read.

(Like A Homemade Life, which I recently finished. I'd bookmarked practically every single recipe in the book. Which led to the thought that I should really buy myself a copy rather than have a stack of 20 odd sheets of photocopied pages. The book would be much prettier. And satisfying to hold in my hands.)

Here's something that resonated with me from Chapter One (The Inquiring Mind) of Raising Freethinkers:

"Developing and keeping a sense of wonder requires time, opportunity, and practice. Some tips:
1. Allow unstructured time.
2. Choose wonder-inducing family activities.
3. Shake up the familiar.
4. Point out the wonder in the everyday."

For each tip he goes into detail to flesh out his point and gives concrete suggestions/examples.

I'm pretty solid on the first and fourth, have long had an itch to better figure out and incorporate the second (and have worked on this a lot over the years), and the third...that one's a challenge. Familiar is my middle name and it doesn't come naturally to me to quickly be able to see something from a perspective that is not utterly familiar, or invites familiarity.

I liked having this pointed out to me while reading the book. I see a key now...and though it feels stuck and old, I can feel the energy creeping out to my fingertips to give it a jiggle and see what happens.

What are you reading these days?