Blog Carnival for Atheist Parenting, Fourth Edition

This blog carnival is for all atheist/agnostic/humanist/secular parents who are THINKING and who are wanting to create a healthy, vibrant, and positive upbringing for their beloved children.  The carnival is also for parents and bloggers who want to share their ideas and encouragement for secular parents in this nonsecular world.
Whether you are a visitor or a contributor, I hope you enjoy this edition of the carnival.

 When reading blog posts PLEASE leave a comment!
Bloggers love your feedback. 

If you like what you read, please be so good as to
share on your blog, on Facebook, 
in your atheist groups, and with friends!

Stephanie from her wonderful blog called Life, Unexpected, offers this post entitled Ways to Mess with an Atheist.  Stephanie posts about a moment that most of us who have had children in school have faced in some way. Her daughter's kindergarten teacher seems to have a problem with Stephanie's family being atheist and has found a way that feel manipulative and that leaves Stephanie powerless to fight it. Sometimes it is extra tough being a parent in the pubic school mileau. Stephanie and her family live in Germany.  She and her husband are working diligently to raise skeptical, kind, loving, and compassionate children. She also offers, in her post Speechless and Sad a response to a book about how to raise up a child...  I can honestly say that that particular parenting school leaves me sickened.

Jennifer at Humanist Happiness blog offers this post entitled Self Reflection for Working Parents. This post is for that truly parental issue:  guilt. Who can't relate to that?  Jennifer is a writer and speaker who specializes in Humanistic Leadership and Parenting topics. I welcome Jennifer here to CAP and I thank her for participating in the carnival this week. You can read more at her website Transforming Lives through Humanism.

Cephus, blogger on a blog called Bitchspot, allows me to post her blog post entitled Secular Parenting Gone Wrong.  Cephus's blog isn't a parenting-focused blog, but as a parent she does post about her parenting role from time to time.  Cephus blogs about atheist parenting behemoth Dale McGowan and his variety of blogs and websites. Bitchspot blog post goes on to suggest that atheist parenting blogs are unnecessary.  At least they were unnecessary to Cephus and her family. While I am a fan of Dale McGowan, I appreciate critical thought and skepticism and alternative ways to think about things. Thank you so much, Cephus, for your blog post!


Tessa Tinny Lange at Raising a Skeptic blog's post for this carnival is entitled Everlasting Why? about raising her two year old son, Soren.  If you have ever had a two year old you completely understand the title of Tessa's post!  Those early days are so full of question and wonder!  Tessa's post is quite moving and makes me miss those early days...  Also please read An Atheist Mother's Promise:  A Letter to my Sons.  I feel so moved and happy knowing that other skeptical parents out there are really giving such thought to the raising of their children.  She has so many good postgs here, I'll just leave you to it.  Tessa, thank you so much for participating in this carnival!  I really love your blog!


Are you looking for a blog about adventures in skepticism, homeschooling, atheism, and the like, check out this blog entitled Quaap!  I don't know much about Quaap!'s author, but I have exchanged a few emails with Tom and he is SO sweet!  Also I have spent some time on the blog.  I like it!  The blog post We All Turned Out OK (Except for all Those Problems) really hit me.  Probably because most of us can relate to this exact conversation. Well, I can. I thank you very much, Quaap!, for participating in the blog this week.  Keep CAP in mind if you write any new posts that would fit the carnival!

I welcome Crispy,  an antitheist atheist humanist merrily exposing the ludicrous fallacies of faith, to this week's carnival!  This THINKING blogger at his blog entitled Too Many Questions offers an excellent post where he goes through the motions of thinking about raising skeptical children.  The post To Offer or Not Offer Belief is almost like being in his head...or our own! The post explores the dilemma of offering faith to child and posits that even presenting faith options can itself engender faith. No wonder we are all working so hard to clear the cobwebs out of our reasoning skills!  Crispy, welcome and thank you!
I hope to see you on the carnival again one day!

Mandy at Secular Mom blog submitted a post entitled Don't Eat ANYTHING from Anyone!   I can feel the terror of being a mother with kids who live in a dangerous area where drugs are prevalent.  Mandy is a busy mom of five kids living in the Bible Belt and doing her very best to raise freethinking, educated children.  She was was born and raised in a fundamentalist, 6-day Creationist home, and left religion around age 20.  She now believes that this life is all we have, and Mandy wants to enjoy every day of it! If you are a secular mom and want to connect with others, check out Mandy's Secular Mom Forum!  Just another service she offers and another effort to form community where none existed before!  Huzzah Mandy!


Caleb sent this blog post to me to include and I'm happy to do it!


My own blog post offering this week from my blog at Atheist Homeschool Momma is called My Atheist Parenting Blog.  When I decided to embark on this project of a blog carnival for atheist parenting, I got my share of negativity on the idea; it confused me.  This post is my response to my own processing of the whys of blogging in my life.

 

 

And that concludes the carnival for this week!

We are still new SO and I appreciate it when you SHARE!  

Join us in two weeks for the next blog Carnival of Atheist Parenting.
I plan on hosting the carnival for a few months,
but if you are interested in hosting the carnival,
please contact me!

Please submit your blog posts next time or encourage your favorite blogger to!

 And Remember, I am not looking for atheist blogs; I am looking for parenting blogs!

Please submit your parenting blog post today!

 The next carnival is due out: December 15th, 2013
Please send in your blog post submissions by December 14, 2013

Send the following information to Karen.loethen@gmail.com

Type CAP SUBMISSION or Carnival of Atheist Parenting in the email subject line.
TITLE OF BLOG:
URL OF BLOG:
TITLE OF POST:
URL OF POST:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION of writer or blog:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF POST:

CAP: blog Carnival for Atheist Parenting is Looking for You!

atheist parentingl skeptical freethinking humanist parenting religion free parenting god free

This fortnightly carnival is for all atheist/agnostic/ humanist/secular parents who are THINKING and QUESTIONING and wanting to create a healthy, vibrant, and positive upbringing for their beloveds and who want to share their ideas and encouragement for secular parents in this nonsecular world.

This blog carnival for Atheist Parenting is NEW.   It will change, evolve, and grow with your help.  Please share your blog post with your secular musings, thoughts, activities, joy, and entertaining writing for the secular parent!  Haven't written anything like this?

Maybe now is the time.

WHAT IS A BLOG CARNIVAL?
The point of a blog carnival is to share your blog writing with the people who are looking for it.  In this case, freethinking parents who blog and who are looking for blogs to read.  There is so much stuff in the internet in general and on the zillions of blogs out there, just finding worthwhile pieces to read can be time-consuming and frustrating.  If you are a blogging secular parent, this carnival is the place to share your work with like-minded bloggers.  If you are a secular parent, this carnival is to bring good writing to you from others who are DOING IT!

Your blog post does not have to be, specifically about atheism or secularism, but should reflect these qualities in some way.  Ideally, posts will focus on secular parenting, it's struggles, joys, questions, advice, daily moments, humor, and the like.  
Though I highly prefer openness, I understand the struggles many secular families endure in the name of freethought; you are welcome to use pseudonyms.  New or very recent blog posts preferred. 

NEXT EDITION DUE OUT NOVEMBER 30th.

Send your submission by November 29th, 6pm!

 To submit your blog post:  

Send the following information to Karen.loethen@gmail.com

Type CAP SUBMISSION or Carnival of Atheist Parenting in the email subject line.
TITLE OF BLOG:
URL OF BLOG:
TITLE OF POST:
URL OF POST:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION of writer or blog:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF POST:

Blog Carnival of Atheist Parenting, Third Edition

Welcome to this the third edition of the blog Carnival for Atheist Parents.  I send out a huge THANK YOU to all of the people who are contacting me with support, encouragement, and love!  I hope to include your parenting blog post next time.  It is very easy to submit your blog post.  Follow the instructions at the end of this blog post.  

And Remember, I am not looking for atheist blogs; I am looking for parenting blogs!

Please submit your parenting blog post today!

For your convenience I have added an RSS feed button along the right side of this blog.  You can be among the first to receive an email when each carnival is released so that you don't miss a thing.

At the suggestion of a reader, I have started a list of atheist bloggers here on the website.  

If you would like to have your blog included on this list, please email or message me with a link. If you are interested in hosting an upcoming CAP, please let me know!

When reading blog posts PLEASE leave a comment!
Bloggers love your feedback.

If you like what you read, please be so good as to
share on your blog, on Facebook, 
in your atheist groups, and with friends!

• Blogger Zomberina Contagion was born into the world of hungry companies, disillusioned people, and unspoken ideas in 2006. After wandering aimlessly around in chat rooms and numerous social media outlets, in search of brains to eat and absorb useful knowledge from, she finally planted her first headstone on a small website called Ex-Christian.net. Since that fateful day two years ago, she has written many small essays about atheism, tragedies in the world, and the effects of religious belief in everyday world events.  On Zomberina's blog site Rotting Thoughts~Graveyard of the Lucid Remnants of Yesterday she posted a post called Once Upon a time the World was Created:  Biblical Fairy Tales for Children.  About the fairy tales post Zomerina writes My kids LOVE mythology, and there are some pretty good stories in the Bible, but because of the absolute religious fervor out there believing these stories are real, we have opted to rewrite them to echo broader, evolutionary concepts on a mythological level. Also read Discussing Tragedy with Children - Reblog.  Her most recent blog post was less about parenting and more about atheism, and it was GREAT!  I'm going to follow Zomerina's blog!  You can also view some of her art works at http://ashcraftgirl.deviantart.com.  I'm so glad ZC submitted a post to this carnival.  I appreciate the support.

• Jennifer, on her blog entitled Modern Homeschooling is a secular homeschooling parent.  She was born and raised in British Columbia Canada and moved to Arizona with her husband and three children in 2009. Alongside her husband Kevin she has started and run several businesses and continues to pursue her entrepreneurial goals while homeschooling their children.  If you are looking forward to the holidays, you might appreciate Jennifer's post entitled Holiday Survival Guide for Parents of Gifted Children.  I also like the post A Glorification of Busy. Thanks for your support of the carnival, Jennifer!

• My own submission to today's carnival from my blog Homeschool Atheist Momma is a post entitled A Letter to the Parents of a 'Difficult' Child.  It's one of those posts that might be TMI, but that I felt I had to write.  Parents will also love The Day I Learned to Love Nerf Gun Bullets and My Thirteen Tips for Parenting your Strong-Willed Teen. 

 

And that concludes the carnival for this week!

We are still new SO if you liked the carnival, 
PLEASE SHARE!

Join us in two weeks for the next blog Carnival of Atheist Parenting.
I plan on hosting the carnival for a few months,
but if you are interested in hosting the carnival,
please contact me!

Please submit your blog posts next time or encourage your favorite blogger to!

 And Remember, I am not looking for atheist blogs; I am looking for parenting blogs!

Please submit your parenting blog post today!

The next carnival is due out: November 30, 2013

Please send in your blog post submissions by November 29, 2013

Send the following information to Karen.loethen@gmail.com

Type CAP SUBMISSION or Carnival of Atheist Parenting in the email subject line.
TITLE OF BLOG:
URL OF BLOG:
TITLE OF POST:
URL OF POST:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION of writer or blog:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF POST:

Carnival Submissions Due

atheist parenting being a mother secular parenting beyond belief raising freethinkers blogs

Just four more days until the next 

Carnival of Atheist Parenting is posted.
Please submit your post Today!

Send the following information to Karen.loethen@gmail.com

Type CAP SUBMISSION or Carnival of Atheist Parenting in the email subject line.
TITLE OF BLOG:
URL OF BLOG:
TITLE OF POST:
URL OF POST:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION of writer or blog:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF POST:

It turns out that it is VERY HARD to find atheist parenting blogs!
I have spent a great deal of time looking for bloggers for this carnival.
I could use your help!
If you have favorite bloggers who are secular/atheist/humanist,
please ask them to submit posts to this carnival.

I am feeling frustrated and sad at the lack of atheist parenting blogs.
Have YOU thought of blogging? 

CAP: a blog Carnival of Atheist Parents, #2

blog carnival atheist parenting why I am an atheist  humanist   parenting without god atheist parenting atheist community secular humanism freethinking family  positive parenting loving atheist skeptical parent

Welcome to this the second edition of the blog Carnival for Atheist Parents.  News has been spreading and interest is growing and it makes my heart happy.  I love the internet and how it gives everyone with access to it the ability to educate and inform themselves and the ability to find other, like-minded people with whom to share some time.  THANK YOU to all of the people who are contacting me with support, encouragement and the love!

For your convenience I have added an RSS feed button along the right side of this blog.  You can receive an email when each carnival is released so that you don't miss a thing.

To all of the parents who have submitted posts to this carnival, I appreciate your participation in this new and worthy endeavor.  To all parents who are here to connect with others, WELCOME.  Sit back, grab your beverage of choice, and enjoy these thoughts of fellow parents who are out here in the foxholes, the burrows, the beaches, the meadows, the inner cities, the farmhouses, the internet cafes, the dark and quiet rooms hoping that the children stay asleep, and those who are living unique lifestyles with their families!

If you enjoy this carnival, please share it with like-minded friends and bloggers!

At the request of a reader, I will be starting a list of atheist bloggers here on the website.  

If you would like to have your blog included on this list, please email or message me with a link.

If you are interested in hosting an upcoming CAP, please let me know!

Read these blog posts and PLEASE leave a comment!
Bloggers love your feedback, questions, comments,

commiserations, confession, acclimation, compliment or salutation!

If you like what you read, please share the goodness on your blog, 

on Facebook, in your atheist groups, and with friends!

• Blogger Michelle writes about eclectic, hands-on, interest-led homeschooling her one "fish".  In her blog entitled School of one Fish she wrote a post called Second Time's a Charm where she and her family learned persistence and open-mindedness in their search for a good homeschool co-op in a religious world.  Michelle's blog is primarily a homeschool-focused blog, but reading of the adventures of her family makes me want to be secular AND IN EUROPE as well!

• Sophelia, Australian ex-pat living in Japan with her gorgeous son.  In her blog entitled, cleverly enough, Sophelia's Adventures in Japan, Sophelia takes this parenting gig one step closer to honest with children when she, in this post entitled Tiger Has a Wiener, sees that honesty about anatomical words can have unintended results.  Sophelia's blog posts as she goes through the difficult and ultimately uber-rewarding experience of adopting a son from Japan are written SO warm and so honest...I feel as though I've known her for years!  I appreciate her submission for this blog and I hope to read more from her as she goes through those millions of parenting lessons ahead.

• Andrew from the entertaining and informed blog called Laughing In Purgatory offers this post to this Carnival of Atheist Parenting.  Some people on Facebook or Pinterest might recognize some of Andrew's memes; I just saw one the other day that was colorful, won't post it here, but it made me laugh. Andrew submitted a post called Bullying in School - More Parenting in Purgatory.  I do hope that the bullying continues to be resolved for Will; one can only hope that the next kid has some protection as well.  In the spirit of this carnival, I would like to also recommend Andrew's excellent post called Yes, I'm Raising Atheists to all newbie atheist parents looking for more support!  I hope to see more blog posts by Andrew on this carnival!

• Jennifer saw the blog Carnival of Atheist Parenting and rushed to participate and I am glad that she did.  Jennifer was born and raised in British Columbia Canada and moved to Arizona with her husband and three children in 2009. Alongside her husband Kevin she has started and run several businesses and continues to pursue her entrepreneurial goals.  Thank You, Jennifer!  Another homeschooling blog (to foil all of those who think that all homeschoolers are Evangelical Christians!), Modern Homeschooling blog has a wonderful post called The Glorification of Busy, a post that I feel I could have written myself!  I hope you bop over and check it out!  Thank you for your enthusiasm, Jennifer!

• Carisa from A Cup of Curiosity blogs about various things including natural hair care, atheism, parenting, living in Oregon, interracial marriage, race, and culture.  Carisa offers us this post entitled Introducing the Subject of Religion to Kids.  In this post Carisa explores the experience of being a first-gen atheist and the awareness that her children will view church and religion in such a different way than she was brought up in her religious home.  She wants to be proactive, prepared for her children's eventual questions, even if some answers will be I don't know.  I also recommend a post on her blog entitled Letting Children go to Church with Strangers.  Carisa is also a freelance writer and I am pleased to welcome here to this carnival.  Carisa's blog was the first one that I added to the list of Parenting Blogs on the right side of this page!

• Dale McGowan of Parenting Beyond Belief, a book for loving and thinking adults who want to raise their children without religion, The Meming of Life blog, author, lecturer, and a major voice for atheist parenting kindly offered a few blog posts for this carnival.  We begin with Coming (religiously) Unglued a post which discusses one of my favorite things:  the upsurge of secular parenting! Dale's post entitled Flow talks about that thing that most religions call spirituality, those moments that feel transcendent. How I wish that *I* would have written this post! Dale's post 6000 Days offers we atheist parents another insightful discussion of how we are doing our part to create thinking children. Next, in The Power of Two, we get a greater understanding of Dale as a parent, watching his amazing children grow into thinkers and thoughtful dissenters!  And with the post To Hell With This Goddamn Freethought Parenting, you will LOVE this one!  Thank you Dale for continuing to write what I want to read!

• Kristin from Teaching Stars, mother of three beautiful daughters who love science, shares a  blog post about her homeschool journey through the heavily-Christian landscape of homeschool curriculum.  She wonders, Can a Secular Family Utilize Classical Conversations? I was surprised at her findings!  As a fellow homeschooler, I know the struggle of wading through the Christian materials and the dearth of secular stuff.  I also enjoyed her post entitled Waking up FOR Your Children Not With Them.  Kristin puts together a beautiful blog!  Thank you for participating in this carnival, Kristin!

• My own submission to today's carnival from my blog Homeschool Atheist Momma is a post entitled Sex and God and Shame.  As a mother of one teen and one preteen, I can assure you that sex is an issue in the room every day.  I tend to be very open and honest in our house, perhaps especially about taboo or difficult or awkward issues such as sex.  It is me doing my part to raise children into adults who can bring healthy messages forward into their world and into their own children.  I want the SECOND generation atheist parents in this family to be far more capable!

• Stephanie at Life, Unexpectedly blog was kind enough to allow inclusion of several posts for this carnival.   Stephanie is a 29-year old mom of two little girls. Their family is atheist and is a bi-national / bi-lingual family enjoying life in Germany.  In Talking Religion with our Kindergartener Stephanie talks about that event that nearly all of us experience, that moment when our children are exposed to the reigning mythology of the region.  And, just in case you didn't know, her post What it Means to be Atheist will make you grateful to have found her blog! 

• Sarah, also known as DrSarah, at Good Enough Mum blog is a General Practitioner in England blogs about as many things as what grab her attention, from blogging to prostitution to natural parenting to astronomy.  She is frequently being put in her place by her children, and aren't we all!  Sarah submitted this post about talking with children about atheism.  I think you will agree that Katie is a force to be reckoned with!!!  Although Sarah doesn't get blogging much, I hope to read more about her adorable family!  Conversations such as these are really some of my favorite things about being a parent!  I love the Socratic Method, don't  you?

And that concludes the carnival for this week!

We are still new,
SO
if you liked it, 
PLEASE SHARE!

Join us in two weeks for the next blog Carnival of Atheist Parenting.
I plan on hosting the carnival for a few months,
but if you are interested in hosting the carnival,
please contact me!

This carnival is quite homeschool-heavy!
Thanks to my homeschool friends!
~~~~~~
To make the carnival more mainstream,
please submit your blog posts next time
or encourage your favorite blogger to!

The next carnival is due out:

November 15, 2013

Please send in your blog post submissions by November 14, 2013

Send the following information to Karen.loethen@gmail.com

Type CAP SUBMISSION or Carnival of Atheist Parenting in the email subject line.
TITLE OF BLOG:
URL OF BLOG:
TITLE OF POST:
URL OF POST:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION of writer or blog:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF POST:

Second Carnival Submissions Due

Just one more day until the next 

Carnival of Atheist Parenting is posted.
Please submit your post Today!