Meet Cornaline, the corn doll friend of my oldest daughters. Why would my daughter in this day and age have a corn doll one wonders? The Prairie Primer listed it as an activity and so it not being one of the yucky ones (Like the pig bladder) we did it joyfully. She named it after a character she likes adding the work corn to make us all laugh and for the rest of the day Cornaline is to follow her around. The curriculum says that this corn doll should be the only thing to play with for a whole day but this seems a bit extreme to us so we are just going to let her be mindful of the doll. If it’s fragility and simplicity.
The first week for us in this curriculum has gone better than I expected. My 12 year old looks forward to reading the chapter with me, just her and mom close enough to cuddle and read together. She likes the drama of it. I worried she would find it rather dull but that is not the case at all. I too enjoy learning more about a time not so very long ago, but that seems like it must have happened on a different planet.
I must be frank for a moment. I was worried this would be too Christian for us. The Prairie primer is very much christian but I found the book so far, not to be. It has been easy to omit just a few things such as the children reading the bible to simply reading a book. Thanks to a secular forum I was warned of the racists parts, dehumanizing the Native Americans and how they are portrayed. I was very please that my daughter picked up on it before I tried to explain our morals on that topic. So far so good. I do want my children to know that Laura was raised Christian but I do not want it to be raised up above any other belief if that makes sense. Our homeschooling is secular in nature and I strive to keep it as such. While there is wisdom in all faiths, I want there to a solid foundation in nature and science before that of the supernatural and religion. My children are free to choose what they believe, but I will not be teaching religion as fact or putting forth anything that does so absolutely.
All this to say, if your Secular, you might well still find this curriculum education and fun and not all that difficult to leave out the religiosity.
(To my Christian friends, your my friends, you know I love you, I don’t think less of you for your religion, I do however think better of you for putting up with me anyway! 🙂
