My First Little Workbook of Wicca by Rev. Velvet Rieth

My biggest complaint: this book is perfect bound, and as a workbook, I really wish it was either spiral bound, or had tear-out pages, or something. I could see kids doing these pages over and over again, and I’ve recently come upon several ways to re-use pages (like putting them in plastic page protectors and using dry erase markers and crayons), and I can’t do that with this book.

Rev. Rieth put this together for her grandchildren. It has pages to color, a Pagan alphabet, pages to practice writing alphabet letters, words, and numbers, information on color correspondences, information on quarters and directions, songs, activity ideas, and activity pages.

There is a ton of info here, and enough activities to keep a child busy for hours and hours – in fact, I could see using this book as the basis for a preschool or kindergarten curriculum. I know that my son brings home similar pages from preschool every day right now.

The Wiccan content isn’t super deep here, but then it’s not really meant for that sort of thing. And as always, any themed alphabet is going to pick and choose what words to use, and there’s always at least one that leaves me wondering what they were thinking.

All in all, a cute book, and one we’ll definitely be making use of, as soon as I figure out how to make the pages re-useable for my little guy with fine motor delays who could use plenty of practice….

Pagan Piggy Bank

A Witch’s Primer Grade One by Lorin Manderly

Let’s start with the basics:  I bought this book to review because I really liked the premise. Ms. Manderly says in the intro that she is interested in the idea of a Pagan school (parochial school) and felt there wasn’t anything out there that would serve as an appropriate text book.

Unlike most of the reviewers on amazon.com, I think this book failed to really reach that potential.

Each chapter has a few pages of text, a summary (sometimes as much as half the length of the chapter, and questions for review. In that sense, it’s set up like many text books, though the summaries in most texts are considerably shorter than the chapter, which makes me think more details were needed in the chapters themselves. There are no pictures, which seems odd for a book meant for teaching children.

The book feels very scattered – eighteen chapters in 156 pages. It’s also sometimes confusing – in one chapter, the author starts out talking about how we will discuss Greek gods, and then switches pantheons without any segue. She has 2 chapters about the gods, in fact, which at times seem to contradict each other. Some chapters seem very light on information, and some feel like there’s far too much for the age group this is intended for.  Her chapter on “Myths and Legends” focuses entirely on Arthurian Legend, which seems a bit deceptive – there are plenty of other myths and legends out there, related to the deities she’s discussed elsewhere, but they’re never mentioned.

I’d also quibble a bit with her title. Not all witches are Wiccan, but what she’s written is really a Wiccan primer.

Finally…she spends a fair number of chapters talking about spells, herbs, potions, and the like, all the while telling children not to do any of these things without supervision. It seems like an awful lot of information to give a child if you don’t want them to actually use it.

All that said…I still might use this with my kids, with careful editing and thinking about whether the chapters are sending the message I want to send to them. It’s written so that a mid-elementary school aged child could read it easily, so that might work too if you’re planning to have an in-depth discussion with your children about what they’re reading.

It’s become apparent that while I can keep up quite a busy posting schedule when things are going well, when the kids get sick, things get complicated, and I simply can’t do it all. And then getting caught up again is well nigh impossible.

So, I will have a new posting schedule starting in November. I will post on Tuesdays. The plan is that there will be one review, one paid lesson, one freebie, and one link round up. I hope to get a giveaway in there with one of the other posts as well.

And now for the help wanted. I am looking for someone interested in helping out with the link roundup process, which I am going to set up on pinterest – so if you love pinning great Pagan parenting ideas & would be interested in doing it for MoonDaySchool in exchange for site membership, let’s chat!

Now it’s time for me to get back to work so I can meet my November posting schedule…

Herding Cats

A weekly post of Pagan parenting resources – groups, blogs, crafts for kids, and so on.

 This week, ecology and recycling resources.

http://www.kidsplanet.org/ – lots about endangered species around the globe

http://kids.nationalgeographic.co.uk/kids/ – National Geographic Kids from the UK

http://www.childrenoftheearth.org/ – lots of interesting options

http://www.kidsbegreen.org/ – lots on recycling

http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/explore/reduce/ – more on recycling

Everyday Magick for Children of Earth-Based Spiritual Families – by Rayne Storm.

I bought this book – I’m still on the hunt for things that we can do with my very active non-verbal little guy.

My first impression of this book was, “OMG this is so lovely!” – I was so struck by the inside of it that I went to show my husband.

Every page starts, “There is magick in…” with a different topic, followed by a rhyming explanation of the topic. There’s a short lesson or moral, and a question or challenge – some activity to do or think about related to the topic. Topics range from seasonal to parts of the natural world to activities.

I really like the way this book approaches magick – it’s a part of the everyday world, and something you can find everywhere.

I think this could be used as a framework for larger lessons, with the addition of related activities for a group.  But I think we’re going to try using it as a page-a-day sort of thought starter – it’s simple enough for a fairly young child, but profound enough that older kids should find it interesting too.

I am hoping to have a review and at least one more lesson up this month, but we’ve had 4 trips to the pediatrician, and 1 trip to the ER with sick ids in the last 10 days, and one more doctor’s appointment to go this week, so I’m  running behind.

On to this month’s goodies!

First, the usual rafflecopter drawing below – I’ll be drawing one winner who will receive a paid 6 month membership to the site, and I’ll draw a second winner who will receive a $10 gift certificate to PaganChildrensBooks.com.

Second, we’re having a referral contest. For every friend that comments on this post and says they were referred by you (please give them your username so they can let me know who referred them)  you’ll get one point. Whoever has the most points at noon on Friday the 24th of August will get both a 6 month paid membership to the site and a $10 gift certificate to PaganChildrensBooks.com.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Herding Cats

A weekly post of Pagan parenting resources – groups, blogs, crafts for kids, and so on.

 This week, craft resources.

The Coven Avalon – regular posts of Pagan themed crafts

Crafty Bees – a bi-weekly column by Velody of Treegold & Beegold (there are also tutorials there, and links to her very nifty Etsy shop)

Oakdancer’s Pagan Parenting page

About.com’s Wiccan/Pagan site

Winter Solstice Crafts (I haven’t looked far, but it looks like this site may have others too)

Witchcrafted.org

Proud to be Pagan

Wheel of the Year: Lammas is now live as a paid lesson. This lesson includes basic info on the holiday, a myth, links to stories and chants and songs, craft ideas, snack ideas (and a recipe).

Six pages of info; free to all paid members, $3 as an individual lesson.

To purchase the lesson, use the add to cart button below or see the lesson tab at the top of the page.

To become a paid member and get this for free, see the Adventurer tab at the top. Adventurer members can find the free download link in the discussion group for this lesson.