Carnival of Atheist Parents, Twelfth Edition

Welcome to the 12th edition of the Carnival of Atheist Parenting.
I started this blog carnival so that parents looking for secular parenting tips could meet, form a community, or simply read ideas and issues from other parents in the same boat. Being a first generation atheist offers its own challenges, mainly in our own thinking framework. It is my sincere hope that this carnival is useful and is of interest to you.

If you check out a blog post, please leave some feedback for the blogger.
Bloggers love comments.
 
If this blog is of interest, I would appreciate having the carnival promoted on your websites, blogs, FB, and other social media.

• Rachel from Resplendent Jane blog describes herself as a "crunchy", homeschooling, bird wrangling, cat herding, wannabe homesteader living in someone else's paradise. Her post called Thanksgiving Past and Present: How We Celebrate Now is a musing about Thanksgiving, what it was like growing up, how it has changed when she found she discovered her lack of faith, what she teaches her kids about the holiday, and how they celebrate it, or what they do instead of celebrating...
  
  Rachel also has a fun post on Halloween, make sure to look for it while you are there!  Thanks so much, Rachel, SO glad we met on social media!  ;)

• Please welcome Stephanie from Life, Unexpected blog. Stephanie is a 30-year old mom of three, currently enjoying tons of family time during her maternity leave at home. She writes about her life as a happily-married professional mom making the split between her career and raising bi-lingual, bi-cultural children to be free-thinking, happy individuals while still trying to dole out some time for her hubby. And somehow she finds time to blog.  ;)
  
  With the recent death of Stephanie's grandfather the family faced the challenge of explaining death to their 6- and 4-year old daughters. She offers a post entitled Grieving with Children - As Atheists to this carnival.
  If you have some time, I recommend reading some of her Thankful posts, maybe even think about getting into the habit yourself.  ;)

• Welcome to Anna from Epic Domestic blog. Anna goes by Mrs. Epic on her blog. She is a children's librarian, a nerd, a bookwork, a craft-a-holic, and a soon-to-be-atheist mom. Her blog centers around parenting and other "domestic" topics from a nerdy standpoint. She is looking for more atheist blogs because she feels the need to connect with other atheist parents and to read about their experiences. She hopes that her blog can help her to connect with other atheist parents. 
  
  Mrs. Epic offers this post entitled Parenting: On Being an Atheist Parent (To Be). Her blog is so totally new and she hopes to delve more into topics of parenting on her blog. Please check out her newbie atheist parent blog!

• Sara, an ambitious writer, activist, artist, homeschooling mother, grad student, and freelance writer of Sara J. Schmidt blog muses about how, in some ways, her daughter is exactly like her and, in some ways, her exact opposite. Sara has to laugh and think about how much better she'll have it because of the ways her daughter is not like her! The blog post In Defense of Ron Weasley is adorable and something we can all relate too!
  
  Other blog posts on Sara's blog that might interest you include Things I love Thursday and A Year of Bravery.
  As it happens, Sara is also an In Real Life friend of mine that I met online first, then in real life!  <3

• I'm delighted to welcome Lauren of Felix and Victor blog to the Carnival of Atheist Parents. Lauren is a new blogger, living in Australia, mother of two boys. Her blog focuses on parenting and Cystic Fibrosis (CF) as her youngest child has this disease. She is an atheist and her husband is non-religious. Lauren offers a post entitled Life, the Universe, and Everything, a post very important to her because it is a description of her beliefs and it addresses that atheism while existing in a community of parents with seriously ill children in which there is a very strong religious presence.
  
  I also enjoyed the post entitled My Favorite Holiday Memory on Lauren's blog because I got to live in Australia for a year and a half and I understand the cultural interest in holidays of other countries.  ;)
  Thanks so much, Lauren, for participating in the carnival this month!

• Karen's blog My Own Mind is a blog for atheist homeschoolers and atheist parents in particular. I have been writing it for four years or so and have transitioned from a very homeschool-focused blog to a mostly atheist parenting blog. We recently attended a Catholic funeral. My son John has so many interesting observations from the mass that I asked him to write this piece for my blog. It is called I Took John to Church. No kidding, I love this post!  LOL
  
  With respect for Stephanie's recent loss, I offer my post called The Big Question: Death as another atheist parenting post that may interest you.

I hope your December is drama-free

and lovely!

If you would like to have your blog featured on this blog carnival send your submission 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:

 The next carnival is due out:  
Wednesday, December 17, 2014 
Please send in your blog post submissions 
by December 16th, 2014

Carnival of Atheist Parenting, Eleventh Edition

atheist, secular parenting, godfree
Many first-generation freethinking parents are seeking in earnest and I am proud to be available and open and willing to offer my support. Not my advice or my expertise or my definition or my label but my support, my friendship, my small community.

Check out the column on the right for a list of freethinking parenting blogs!

There are many parents out there who are new to living a secular life, new to raising children without the traditional ways, sometimes hidden and living in seclusion due to their secular choices, afraid to be open and yet determined to raise their children as skeptics and as happy people. These atheist parents are looking for those few voices out there who can offer them understanding, community, advice, or just a general feeling of being normal.
 

This blog carnival contains blog posts by parents who are raising their children in a secular home, without religion, dogma-free. If you have a parenting blog, won't you consider submitting a post for an upcoming carnival?

If you are here for the first time, I warmly WELCOME you!
Please connect to the RSS feed on the right side of the page  so that you can be among the first to read the carnival  and so that you don't forget us!

When reading blog posts remember: 
Bloggers love your feedback!  
If you like what you read, please share!

Angelique from life. expounded: secular family life: the mystical, the mundane, and everything in between blog submitted a wonderful post called Lesson Learned and a great resource post called More Smut We Keep Around the House.  Angelique has been spending her past year thinking and has been focusing on the humanist side of her view and of her life. Her post entitled Lesson Learned and it totally made me laugh! I am convinced that Angelique's son will NOT become a fundamental preacher!  lol In More Smut we Keep Around the House this blogger offers a list of books that, in one form or another, encourage critical thinking, skepticism, and/or religious literacy.
Nearly every freethinking parent that I know is always looking for new titles! You have some titles on there that I have never heard of!

Angelique, THANKS for your excellent submissions. After reading your blog, I'm pretty sure you and I would be great IRL friends.  lol

I hope Wendy Thomas Russell of Relax, It's Just God, a blog for Secular Parents doesn't mind a quick plug on her blog post Last Call!!!  Wendy's book Relax, It’s Just God: How and Why to Talk to Your Kids About Religion When You’re Not Religious is slated for release Jan. 6, 2015, so keep it on your list for after Christmas stuff to want!

As for my own blog My Own Mind, I am never at a loss as to what to write about atheist parenting. My days are full of wonderful moments with my children, moments that reinforce the natural, dogma-free life that we are living. One small example is this recycled post called Thanks, Hitch where I give a brief insight of a moment that we shared with a lovely family from Brisbane who has a rather surprising world view and how my son handled that. Another recycled post is one that I was asked to write for an online atheist magazine. The post Atheists Talking to Our Kids About Death and Grief is an untidy article that I wrote, but with a good final piece as to what to do if you are floundering in a sad sea of sadness and need some direction for secular grieving.

 

 Thank You for checking out the carnival this month.
I hope you have found something that helped you

on your journey into parenthood.

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

 

 The next carnival is due out:  August 30th, 2014
Please send in your blog post submissions by August 30th, 2014

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:

Heathen Children

Carnival of Atheist Parenting, Tenth Edition

Why a blog carnival for atheist parenting? 

There are many parents out there who are new to living a secular life, new to raising children without the traditional ways, sometimes hidden and living in seclusion due to their secular choices, afraid to be open and yet determined to raise their children as skeptics and as happy people. 

These atheist parents are looking for those few voices out there who can offer them understanding, community, advice, or just a general feeling of being normal. Many first-generation parents are seeking in earnest and I am proud to be available and open and willing to offer my support. Not my advice or my expertise or my definition or my label!
But support, friendship, this small community. 

This blog carnival contains blog posts by parents who are raising their children in a secular home, without religion, dogma-free.

If you are here for the first time, I warmly WELCOME you!
Please connect to the RSS feed on the right side of the page 
so that you can be among the first to read the carnival 
and so that you don't forget us!

 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!

Sadly, I have no submissions for the carnival this time.
I would love to see this carnival take off, though if there is no interest in it, 

I'm willing to let it go.

 I'm going to give it a few more months of a test

because so many people have asked me to keep it going. 

Hopefully, if there is interest, I can keep it up and running.

My own contributions to this carnival from my blog My Own Mind are On a Mission or an Imposter? and An Unfortunate Necessary Evil. In the blog post On a Mission or an Imposter? I discuss some of my reasons for being opposed to the whole Christian mission thing. Not only are KIDS send out to mission, I believe that many good and well-meaning people feel compelled to spread their good news comes from a quote by a Baptist minister, Charles Spurgeon, who tells believers to either be a missionary or be an imposter. Guilt, the favorite motivator of the pushy.

In my post An Unfortunate Necessary Evil, a friend asks me how to raise freethinking kids. Many parents struggle with this issue! In fact, this is the exact reason that I am trying to get this carnival out there and this is the exact reason why my blog posts are so open with atheist parenting. Anywho, my response to her might surprise you with its simplicity.

Let me also add this link to a Shared Atheist Parenting Board on Pinterest.
If you would like to be added to share on that board just let me know.

  Thank You for checking out the carnival this month.

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

 The next carnival is due out:  August 15th, 2014
Please send in your blog post submissions by August 14th, 2014

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 of Atheist Parenting, Ninth Edition

Welcome to this, the ninth edition of the Carnival of Atheist Parenting. I started this carnival in the hopes that bloggers with atheist parenting content would share their writing for other secular parents to read. 

The internet is beginning to be a place where other skeptical people can be open about their atheism, humanism, or other nonbelief and this blog carnival is here to celebrate that and to participate in the openness that is happening all around us.

Whether you are open and out, exploring, or just visiting, I hope you will take some time to visit the blogs in the carnival. When a blogger submits a piece to this or any carnival, they are hoping that their writing will move or entertain you somehow. 

I hope you leave comments on blog posts 

that do effect you in some way.

This blog carnival is quite new and still looking for bloggers who have posts about parenting outside of the cultural religious majority. If you are one of these bloggers or if you know someone else who blogs this way, please submit your piece to this carnival or encourage your friend to do so.

If you enjoy this carnival, consider adding your name to the RSS feed so that you can be among the first to read each new carnival.

Happy Hikers

Sophelia has been busy on her blog Sophelia's Adventures in Japan talking about issues near and dear to her heart, namely adoption, adventure, academia, and other things beginning with the letter A. Her newest blog post Science! Look Mummy, SCIENCE! is Sophelia fangirling her dear, darling child who is figuring out how the world works through his discovery of physics principles in cartoons!  This eight year old with a previously sheltered upbringing is now considering the relationship between magic and science in which, it turns out, magic IS science!
I think you will enjoy Sophelia's blog that is "sharper than a page of Oscar Wilde witticisms rolled into a point, dipped in lemon juice, and stabbed into somebody's eye." ~ Ace Rimmer, Red Dwarf*
Sophelia, THANK YOU for your submission to this carnival this week.

Jen at Happiness Through Humanist blog webring sends us a post entitled How to Raise Moral Children. And that's what it's all about! But, if you have a boy child, or a girl child, I know that you will be interested in reading Jen's blog post Real Life and Minecraft, because if you have kids, you NEED to read this one!
Jennifer's mission is to help transform people's lives through Humanism by teaching them to be the most ethical people they can be...and I'll bet that most of us could afford a couple of hours of reading through posts with that goal in mind!
 
Vanessa at Life Sans God blog is a woman who transformed from a devoted Christian to a self-proclaimed atheist, from religious to godless. Her blog shares her thoughts on atheist, parenting, fitness, and more. Vanessa submits a post called Incredible Years (Part 2) for the carnival where she gives an update on her Incredible Years Parenting Class. The focus of the post is on praise, incentives, limit setting, ignoring, and play.
Vanessa has moved her blog to Dreaming in Earth Tones as she looks forward to switching the focus of her blogging to her lifelong values of gratitude, good health, and simplicity. Her new blog is really beautiful to look at and it seeks to bring centering and good health to whomever spends some time there...check it out!

Karen at My Own Blog offers several posts this time. Parenting Memes: Helpful or Hokey is a blog post where Karen shares some parenting challenge memes that she created herself and that have gone crazy viral on Pinterest. Karen's blog post On a Mission or an Imposter gives ink to her concern of the church's urging of its members to proselytize. Her arguments are sound and interesting, check it out. And finally, An Unfortunate Necessary Evil is a post that came out of a question from a concerned parent wanting to give a quick-fix inoculation to her daughter to protect her from the predatory or attractive religious propaganda out there.
Karen is an atheist parenting blogger dedicated to providing new and hidden secular parents support and encouragement in this conservatively right country. 

I'm grateful to all of the blogging parents who 

have shared their blog posts

and their hearts with us in the Carnival of Atheist Parenting.
THANK YOU for visiting.

 The next carnival is due out: July 30th, 2014
Please send in your blog post submissions by April 13, 2014

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:

Seeking Religion-Free Posts on Parenting for this Carnival

We're BACK!

Seeking Religion-Free blog posts on PARENTING for the next Carnival of Atheist Parenting:  http://carnivalofatheistparenting.blogspot.com/

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:

Please submit your blog posts next time 
or encourage your favorite blogger to!
I appreciate your support for this project.

 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 

July 15th, 2014

Carnival of Secular/Atheist Parenting, Ninth Edition

This blog carnival is for secular parents!
If you are out there feeling slightly alone in the secular world looking for some like-minded parents with whom you can discuss basic parent-y things, this blog carnival is for you. The blogs included in this carnival and the blogs listed on the right side of this blog are parents who are raising their children to be freethinkers and parents who are out in their secularism.

Check them out and add yourself to the RSS feed on the right column of this blog to be among the first to get the carnival.

If you are a secular parent who blogs, please submit your parenting blog post for an upcoming carnival.  HOW TO SUBMIT A POST FOR THE CARNIVAL directions are at the end of this carnival post.

I am enjoying Vanessa's fun and clever blog entitled Life Sans God. Vanessa is an out atheist to many of her family and friends. The post submitted to this carnival called Dear Sister Christian is an open letter to her Christian loved-ones. I hope you also read her post entitled Incredible Years (Part 2). Vanessa transformed from devoted Christian to self-proclaimed atheist, from religious to godless. Her blog shares her thoughts on atheism, parenting, fitness, and more.

 

The Carnival of Atheist Parenting wishes to welcome Jen back again for another go with us! Jen's incredibly excellent blog Happiness Through Humanism is a wonderful resources for all parents wishing to learn more about What to Teach a Child. This blog post offers three important skills for parents to learn in order to provide an ethical upbringing for their children. This Floridian mom is interested in informing readers about humanism and how it can bring simplicity to the life of a family. Jen also offers the following blog posts:

• Humanist Learning Systems  http://humanistlearning.com 
• The Bully Vaccine  http://thebullyvaccine.com
• The Humanist Approach to Happiness                       http://happiness.jen-hancock.com/
• The Humanist Approach to Grief and Grieving  http://humanistgrief.com   

 

My own contribution to the carnival this week is a blog post from my blog My Own Mind called Challenging Teen, Redux. If you have a challenging teen, I think you will appreciate some of the suggestions that I offer in this post. I honestly think that your teen will appreciate it too. I also wrote a blog post entitled Parents: A Challenge for You. If you are up for it, give it a try! I have created these small challenges for myself at times and have had great weeks as a result! The memes are being pinned like crazy on Pinterest!

 

The next carnival is due out: April 30, 2014
Please send in your blog post submissions by April 29, 2014

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:
IMAGES: Please indicate if you have a blog image that you prefer that I use if I include images in the carnival.