Pagan Homeschooling

Being a pagan parent is more difficult than it sounds. For one, you don't have all of society telling your myths, and celebrating your holy days. So we have to see our religion in things that may not be meant to be pagan.

Using movies is a good way to start conversations, or to emphasize certain traditions within the craft. Hercules, the Disney Movie and the TV show, gives a
lot of information about the different Greek Deities! Poke'Mon can be used to introduce elements and their attributes. Little Bear is another great "pagany" show, celebrating Winter Solstice. Family rituals is where you will be teaching them more about the religion than any other time. Whether it is as an Esbat or a Sabbat, they will learn by doing much better than just listening to the stories.

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Esbats
An Esbat is when you celebrate the changes of the moon. This can also be a great way of teaching children about Astronomy and Weather (always looking for ways to throw in some home schooling! LOL!). There are lots of ways to celebrate the changes of the moon. From the very simple, by just going out and seeing the phase it's in and saying a simple prayer. To doing a full ritual. If you have
very young children, or children who have short attention spans, a simple celebration would be best!

With a simple celebration, I'd go out every night to see what phase the moon is in. Or almost every night. Have the children draw a picture of the moon and the sky it's in. Tell a story about the moon, say a simple prayer to the moon, and do some wish magic (Star light poem). Keep a simple moon journal with their pictures and all the stories, poems , prayers, and wishes that are done. when the children are ready for it, start going over past moon celebrations to show them their growth and to talk about what wishes and prayers came to be. Later
add dreaming magic. Talk about what their dreams were the night before and what they'd like them to be tonight. Keep these in a journal too, and go over them the next day to see if they had the dreams they wanted.

For older children, you could have full Rituals. Call the quarters, Invoke the God and Goddess, cast the circle and do whatever workings your family needs or wants. To give the children some control over the ritual, allow them to make up the short poems for the calling of the quarters before hand. Older children could write the entire ritual if they'd like. Still keep a moon journal, do some
wish magic, and dream workings. Add candle magic and energy workings to the rituals as the children become more interested and capable.

When the celebration is over, eat dinner and get settled into bed. Do your bed time rituals as normal but go over the celebration with the kids and ask them what they liked most about it, and what they didn't. Allow them to critique their work and yours, and talk with them about what they could do to make it better next time.

Some of the crafts that you might want to do during a moon celebration is making dream catchers, dream bottles, dream pillows, and candles. Most of these crafts can be done by small children with a little help.