Stuff We Like :: 2.16.17

There are a lot of reasons that I love homeschooling, but not having to be afraid that my kids will get shot by a crazed gunman at their school should not be one of them. I don’t understand how this keeps happening, and nothing changes.

What’s happening at home/school/life?

Suzanne has some reading suggestions for those midwinter days when you just want to wallow in the cold, dreary, grayness of it all.

Plan a Black History Month field trip — or an anytime field trip! — to one of these great museums.

Our readaloud of the week may clue you in to our weekend plans.

One year ago: We tracked down biographies of some awesome women for Black History Month. (Also: tips for grading essays in your homeschool and how an earlier bedtime can boost your homeschool happiness.)

Two years ago: Rebecca reviewed a critical thinking curriculum that’s great for improving family dinner conversation. 

Three years ago: Why boredom is an important part of learning

Four years ago: This magazine would not even exist without the wonderful Shelli.

The links I liked

Teaching kids about slavery is the worst. It’s horrible. It’s sad. It’s the end of a certain kind of innocence that it hurts to destroy. But not teaching kids about slavery is even worse.

I am a little late with this one, but these suggestions for intelligently navigating Christine’s situation in Phantom are too funny not to share.

Death by underwire, or all the ways clothes have killed women through history. (I am never not going to read a piece about killer fashion.)

This one’s for all my fellow rule followers! “The little worriers of the world need heroes, too.”

Why is pop culture obsessed with the battle between good and evil?

What I’m reading and watching

I am reading Oliver Twist with my AP Lit students and East of Eden with my Honors Lit students, and the result is happy reading but a very heavy bag.

I also read this weird little novella by Seanan McGuire (she writes the Wayward Children series, which I thoroughly enjoyed) called Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day. It’s a ghost story, and I loved the way it managed to be both prosaic and dreamy at the same time. Ultimately, it felt more like a short story than a novel (or even a novella), but I liked this particular take on the classic ghost story.

We are having so much fun watching the Olympics! My son and I have also been doing some loosely related reading, including Olympig (which is fun and funny — and, I just realized, by the author of Roller Girl!), Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics, and The Magic Treehouse Hour of the Olympics (with the companion nonfiction book), and I read The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games, which I can highly recommend if you are interested in the Greek roots of the modern games.

What’s happening in our homeschool

We usually take a break during the Olympics, so we have been enjoying watching the action and playing a lot of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games in between events. (We were also inspired to break out our Flag Frenzy! game, which we haven’t played in ages.)

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