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Christmas and Epiphany Resources for the Autistic Homeschooler

Around this time of year, sometimes a month or two earlier, one tends to run across resource lists or resource guides for celebrating holidays in a particular fashion. At least two of my neighbors had Christmas trees up a full month ago, and many others tossed carved or whole pumpkins to the curb starting in late September. I'm a more church-year kind of girl, and decided to use an older sense of " resource " for this post. There are zero specific product recommendations (at least those that require purchase). I hope you enjoy the ideas! Cross-posted to my Substack . Atmosphere of the Home If you scan this post, you might notice that I took a line from Charlotte Mason  in designing my headings. In our household, we've started home education before finding out we were autistic and also well before Child gets old enough to "attend" school. I'm also a second-generation homeschooler, with at least 2 family members likely on the spectrum, so I have some  expe...
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Answering Internet Atheists: General Guidelines

In terms of content I'm very familiar with, this post does not fit into that category. However, it's been a topic of marital conversation often enough that I wanted to pull together my ability to find and analyze sources to learn by writing. In my head, the best organization for the post works by starting with defining terms, then outlining three thoughtful steps or principles to help give a gentle answer to atheists one encounters in corners of the Internet. If you're looking for a solid apologetics course to prepare yourself, I plan to take this free 20-hour video course from the C. S. Lewis Institute over semester break this year. I'll likely write on it and work in the content if it goes well (which I fully expect that it will)! The publication date is significant: today is the Feast of St. Lucy . Traditionally, she wore candles on her head and brought sustenance to Christians in catecombs during the Diocletian persecution. Her feast day is also an ember day , i.e...

One Faith No Longer: a Book Reflection

In our family, I am the book dog-earer. One criterion that determines which books I consider writing book reflections on is how much I dog-ear (or, if the Bibliovore brought them into the marriage, how much I want  to dog-ear) them. One Faith No Longer : The Transformation of Christianity in Red and Blue America, by George Yancey and Ashlee Quosigk, suggested by Alisa Childers in a video some time ago, falls in the first category. So, here you go! As a reminder, here's the general outline of this post: I will . . . Contextualize the author's writings as a whole (bibliography) Bring the author's major ideas to the present day Comment on major sections of the book, or important chapters, depending on organization Authors' Bibliography Yancey, a Baylor professor, is the more seasoned co-author; he has written widely on American Christianity in relationship to racial topics, progressivism, and culture (topics). I think his skill in crafting subtitles is excellent. From olde...

A Semi-Ignorant Layman's Impression of Christian Platonism

Up till about two years ago, I hadn't even heard of the term "Christian Platonism." Then, I was exposed to it a few times in the context of the Surprised by Hope book discussion class the Bibliovore and I co-led at a previous congregation. We didn't have time to get into the details at all, but named one of our children after an early Christian Platonist, so I figured that now is a good time for me to learn more about the concept with you. Definitions In order to define Christian Platonism, we need to have a sense of what its predecessors were/are. These are, mainly, Platonism, Aristotelianism, and Christianity. (Sources are, respectively,  Britannica , Britannica , and World History Encyclopedia .) Platonism developed out of Socrates' influence, because Plato was a pupil of Socrates. Both were Greek philosophers who thought, taught, and wrote about "the good life." Plato's surviving works are usually taken to summarize his views, but as the Bibliovo...

Mama Bear Apologetics: A Book Reflection

A few years ago, at a friend's recommendation, I obtained a copy of Hillary Moran Ferrer's Mama Bear Apologetics to supplement my more academic forays into the subject. After re-reading it last year, I found that it made the cut of what to write a book reflection on, this year. Now, here it is! As a reminder, here's the general outline of this post: I will . . . Contextualize the author's writings as a whole (bibliography) Bring the author's major ideas to the present day Comment on major sections of the book, or important chapters, depending on organization Bibliography Technically, this encompasses three women's bibliographies, since Ferrer edited the book while Teasi Cannon and Alisa Childers took turns writing chapters. Ferrer's The book that started things came out in 2019. Besides books, Hillary has written blog posts over at Mama Bear Apologetics' website . From her Amazon page , books she has written center around the popular-level apologetics b...

Essential Maternal Reading for the Would-Be Neurodiverse Christian Homeschooler

I hope you enjoyed last week's post  that pairs well with this one. The background research and thinking ideas over for my upcoming book is continuing to go slowly but surely. This post is the second one specifically addressing my target audience, neurodiverse Christian homeschoolers. The fundamental question I am asking and (hopefully) answering: what should a mother read to prepare for this venture? Neurodiversity in Women Compared to men, women are diagnosed  with ADHD or autism spectrum disorders later in life and often initially with mental health conditions. Many symptoms present differently, and possible differences in masking due to neurobiology and socialization mean that women might not suspect a neurodiverse condition until later. While I don't have a diagnosed case of autism, all the signs point that way. How did I come to suspect that's the case? The Bibliovore had long known of one neurodiverse diagnosis and suspected autism as a second. Most of the traits tha...

Essential Paternal Reading for the Would-Be Neurodiverse Christian Homeschooler

As of the writing of this post (about a month in advance of publication), I've just completed the "book" prereading I've set myself for the upcoming book! There's a lot more research and thought to be done, but the foundation is there. This post is the first one dealing specifically with my target audience, neurodiverse Christian homeschoolers. The fundamental question I am asking and (hopefully) answering: what should a father read to prepare for this venture? Neurovidersity in Adulthood One key term in this discussion is neurodiversity--originated in the 1990s or a bit earlier by high-functioning autistics (think Asperger syndrome as an approximation). The intent was to de-stigmatize autism and enable those in society to be more aware of the strengths of an autistic brain. A more recent term, intended to be both broader and more accommodating of the possibility that autism may be much more common than previously thought, is neurominority. According to  Ortega 20...