Stuff We Like :: 1.27.17

Let’s just take a moment to appreciate the magic of Mary Richards.

around the web

I flunked KonMari school—and I needed a good laugh.

More reasons to love librarians.

Relevant to my interests: The Highbrow Struggles of Translating Modern Children's Books Into Latin

Eye candy: Best bird photos of 2016

at home/school/life

on the blog: Carrie reviews the Seeds of America series, which is that U.S. history high school readaloud you’ve been looking for

one year ago: Shelli shares her family’s favorite elementary math games

two years ago: Peek inside the winter 2015 issue

three years ago: Our fabulous art columnist Amy Hood was one of HSL’s first regular writers

on the podcast: If you’re in the Atlanta area, Suzanne and I are giving a talk on how to handle homeschool testing on March 29. 

reading list

I have read Goodnight Moon so many times that I think I can recite the entire text from memory, so I was excited to discover In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it—Margaret Wise Brown was an absolutely fascinating human being.

My daughter and I are reading Brave Companions for APUSH, and we’ve been really digging all the little stories of historical figures we didn’t know much about (like Alexander von Humboldt, who explored a bigger chunk of territory than Lewis and Clark). I’m always interested in the people when it comes to history, so this book was right up my alley.

I guess it’s no surprise that my son, who loves interrupting stories to ask questions, loved Wolf Story. (In fact, he liked it so much that it will probably end up on the readaloud of the week list at some point.)

at home

I’m so happy to have the new season of Grantchester on Prime. Give me a good vicar, some English countryside, and a knitting project (this—a Valentine gift for the kiddies—is what I’ve got on my needles right now), and I’m pretty much in Friday night heaven.

Starting a school is definitely an adventure. We’re a few weeks into the first term at my husband’s new school, and I feel like we’re starting to find our rhythm. (One of the biggest changes has been being busy on Fridays, which we’re used to treating as the beginning of the weekend. Oh, and adjusting our homeschool schedule to work with the extra time we spend at the school—we’re actually setting up a little family classroom so that we can do homeschooling at the school when we’re inspired.) I’m especially excited about our school library, which in addition to lots of great books, has curriculum materials for kindergarten through high school for families to check out for as long as they need. Isn’t that cool? Assuming I can ever get it all cataloged!

We have begun the great veggie burger challenge of 2017. We’ve tried these (really good, but they tasted best with all the extras which added a lot to the cooking time), these (which I loved but everybody else hated), and these (which are up for tonight’s dinner).

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