It's Monday! Make it a Double! or Have You Studied Your Political Philosophy Today?

I just added a little more umph (that would be caffeinated umph) to my afternoon brew. It's been a Monday and I need it. The house is a wreck, there is too much laundry to fold (even though my wonderful mother-in-law was here and folded a bunch of it) and Baby is eating yogurt with a spoon from the container. She really loves using a spoon, but she's getting it all over herself. Oh well.  So, what are ya'll up to today? Well, we had school. You know, I'm really loving history. Have I mentioned  that before? How important it is for kids to learn history! Not out of one of those boring, dry, dull textbooks. I mean, really learning history. Studying people....

(Did you know that it was William Penn's idea to have a three pronged government?)

("I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered one for three days!" Daniel Boone.)

and ideas. It's like.... I'm just reading this stuff (and it's all on an elementary school level,) yet it's impacting me so much. I get excited about it because I can share this with my kids and have them learn it, and I get scared because I know that it's not being taught in schools.  So, today we studied the beginning of the Enlightenment and some of John Locke's philosophies. I was getting excited as I was explaining to my kids that our country was founded upon these principles and ideas of John Locke - that "Every human being had, by 'natural law', the right to seek, 'life, health, liberty and possession.' " and that "rulers can't take away the 'life, health, liberty, and possessions' of their subjects. If they 'destroy, enslave, or impoverish' their subjects, the people can join together, announce that the contract isn't valid any more, throw the rulers out of office and appoint new rulers." (I've quoted from our history book "Story of the World, volume 3: Early Modern Times" by Susan Wise Bauer, and she's quoting John Locke) and I'm trying to put in their head the importance of these ideas. If we don't understand these ideas and believe them and defend them, we are subject to tyranny.  So, I'm getting a little passionate here and Bubba says, "I eat grease! I am a robot!" Kind of took the wind out of my sails, but he's only 8. However, I am laying a foundation for my children. We will continue to talk about these ideas - self-government, freedom, we will continue to talk about the important documents that came before our own U.S. Constitution - the Magna Charta, the Mayflower compact and we will continue to study these people who had these ideas and what came of them.  And study the people who had other ideas, bad ideas and what came of them. And hopefully, somehow it will sink in!