Rational Moms
Rational Moms is a group blog of, well, rational moms. They discuss how skepticism relates to parenting, and, as you might imagine, there’s plenty of fodder for that.
In a recent post, one of the blogging moms took her sons on a solar system walk near Zürich, and she wrote about it.
The result of her encouraging a love of science in her kids? This little slice of awesomeness. Nicely done, Mommy Chanson!
Geez, it’s enough to put a tear in this Daddy’s eye. My kids always roll their eyes when Dad goes into the science behind some observation they’ve made or whenever the opportunity to teach a little science presents itself… but they listen, dog bless ‘em.
Hehehe, Pluto in the slice of awesomeness.
I’d love to get my wife more involved with skepticism. She’s got a good eye for woo, and likes science, though she won’t seek it out for entertainment like me. She does, however, like a good episode of P&T and the like. She’s just not as “active” about it as I am. It does help that our kids are little science sponges, especially my son (of course, he’s the oldest of the two, and he’s only five).
I think part of the problem I have getting across how cool skepticism is is the media I have available. She’s a reader, but again not of sci/tech type things. Podcasts put her to sleep, no matter the subject (and skepticasts make up well over 90% of my downloaded content), and there’s not a lot of solid tv/video out there on the subject. That’s why I’m so hoping to see The Skeptologists make it to my screen. Then she can see some of the people who engage me so much on-line and in their writings, and know where they come from. She knows it’s a big amazing world out there, but she often doesn’t see the urgency behind pulling away the curtain on pseudoscience. I’m a veteran of those discussions, but we need a ground-level entry for people like her.
I wrote into Newrule when the show first asked us to, and I mentioned that we’ve been a “Nielsen Family” twice in recent months, as well as picked to evaluate some new shows. In both ratings diaries, I lamented the availability of real scientific and skeptical programming. I don’t know how much that helps, but it’s something we’ll need to see to hook people like my wife.
Phil, I love ya, but this double-dipping from your blog is not up to your usual high standards. Ryan’s post yesterday, for example, showed a lot of effort.
I know busy with your (however many) jobs, but maybe you could find a post skeptologist-centric content here?
Would be a great name for a group of critics of the antivaccinationist crowd, wouldn’t it? Warrior Moms are no match for Rational Moms.
That’s brilliant! My daughter is just two years old, so she can’t draw any thihg but blurrs yet. =) But she does know pretty much about space. She knows that Jupiter is the biggest planet, that we live on Earth, that Saturn is the one with the rings, that our galaxy is called the Milky way and she also knows what comets are made of. So, as you might gather, I’m proud of her. =) On the other hand, what parent isn’t. And also, just because she can answer questions like “what is the great red spot on Jupiter” correctly, doesn’t mean that I think she grasps what a planet actually is. She is only two, after all. Anyway, point being, I feel like she’s of to a good start! If a child knows more about space than about God, it can’t be bad.