Smrt Lernins

My friend Patchfire expounds upon why she recommends The Well Trained Mind first to new homeschoolers.

This is my favorite bit:

I recommend The Well-Trained Mind first, though, because I want these neophyte homeschoolers to see what’s possible. I want the mom who is considering homeschooling because she wants something better to see just how much better is possible. I want to encourage my fellow secular homeschoolers to reach high. There’s no shame in reaching for the stars and falling short. There is, I feel, shame in only reaching for the light switch.

For Secular Thursday, Patchfire and I packed up our babies and headed out to the Scary Jesus Book Store*, our local homeschool book store. It caters to a…well, let’s just call them the Really Really Not Secular crowd. We both independently came up with the idea of photoblogging our trip, so check out her Secular Thursday post on the same topic!

This is Scary Jesus Book Store. It’s on the corner of a local strip shopping mall. It will help you build character. GET IT?

As you can see, it makes no bones about what it is. Christian. No Sundays. No Wednesdays. Not so many hours.

This is us. Patchfire and Purple Child on the left, Smrt Mama and a teensy bit of Babypie’s hand and shoulder on the right. Scary Jesus Book Store also featured.

Math. Fairly Jesus-free. Nice. Feeling pretty hopeful.

Hopes immediately dashed by shelf full of Creationism DVDs…

The neighboring shelf of $.50 Christian tracts (offering answers on many important issues)

And Literal 6-day Young Earth Creationist “Science” books on the next shelf over from that.

So much ignorance of actual scientific evidence, so little time.

Then we hit Bible versions. How many Bible versions does one need? The answer…

Home Economics for Homeschoolers? Only girl ones. Lucky for Captain Science, only girls need to learn about things like cooking, ironing, cleaning, and sewing.

“Better get right on that domestic stuff, Rosie. Daddyman’s shirts won’t iron themselves.”

Patchfire says Eclectic Girl really liked these books, which are parallel histories. Hi, Patchfire! Hi, Purple Child!

Bob Jones University. All of it.

At this point, the store owner (who might be German? Very blond, Aryan, with a Germanic-sounding accent) came over to ask why we were taking pictures. We both said, very honestly, that we were photoblogging for our homeschool blogs. “Some people might think it’s weird,” said Patchfire. Aryan Scary Jesus Book Store Owner replied, “I think it is you are** weird, too, and I think I do not like it.” No more in-store pictures. We made our purchases (I got Vocabulary From Classical Roots and Spencerian Handwriting — $20, not a bad deal!) and left.

Happy Patchfire!

Naughty rebel Smrt Mama! Please note my minivan, the Battlestar Galactogogue, with her lovely pro-gay marriage, pro-Obamacare, cloth-diapering, shop local bumper stickers — used to have a great breastfeeding magnet, too, but someone stole it at the homeschool co-op.

Smrt Mama is HARDKORE!

A nice field trip into the belly of the Christian Homeschooling beast. Another fun Secular Thursday!

*That’s Scary Jesusbook Store, not Scaryjesus Book Store. The store is the scary part, not Jesus.
**Patchfire reminded me that the book store owner did not say “it” was weird, but that “we” were weird.