Stuff We Like :: 3.9.18
Seriously, I was typing the headline for this post, and I started with 2014. Can you tell next week is spring break for Jason’s school? I’m ready!
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
I think Suzanne is trying to read All The Short Stories Ever.
Shelli has some perfect-for-spring readalouds for kids who are interested in birds.
You may be interested in this list of great epistolary novels to read with your kids, especially if you’re trying to cross that item off the 2018 Reading Challenge.
February was a slow reading month, but there are a few new releases you might want to check out and Suzanne and I shared our small-but-mighty list of good reads.
one year ago: Shelli shared her favorite homeschool gadgets. Plus: How do you know when it’s time to break up with your curriculum?
two years ago: Maybe you’d like to read some great biographies of scientists for Women’s History Month. Also: Rebecca reviews Beast Academy’s comics-based curriculum.
three years ago: Tracy asks, “So what if all they do is play video games?” Also: Alistair Grim’s Odditorium is an odd but charming little middle grades fantasy.
THE LINKS I LIKED
I’m not sure there is a word that sums up Shelly, who is my other half in a profound way, but I loved this piece about the way that women talk about their best friends.
The question on all of our minds: What would W.E.B. DuBois think about the Black Panther movie?
What if Monopoly was even more like capitalism? (Start by ordering turns by privilege.)
Jane Smiley goes in search of the real Grant Wood, and what she discovers is fascinating.
These riffs on the Claudia-focused Baby-Sitters Club covers by Angry Asian Man are totally worth the time suck they will quickly become.
WHAT I’M READING AND WATCHING
I’m making slow but steady Madeleine L’Engle progress — honestly, I’m at the point where it’s sad to think that I will be done with Madeleine L’Engle when I’ve made it through this list, so I don’t mind slowing down a bit. I’ve been on the great Austin family road trip in The Moon by Night, one of the most oddly paced books I’ve ever read and one that makes me want to take a long road trip with my children who would not want to read genetics tomes aloud over the campfire. (The Moon by Night, incidentally, is taking place during the same summer that Adam is off studying starfish with Dr. O’Keefe in The Arm of the Starfish, in case you are keeping up.) I have discovered weird, weird stuff happening in New York City when Dr. Austin takes a fellowship there in The Young Unicorns, which is my least favorite of the Austin books. (I do love Dave, so I am glad he reappears later in a much better book.) And I am just starting A Ring of Endless Light, which is one of my favorites. I’m coming for you, An Acceptable Time! Eventually.
Also near the top of my TBR list is An African American and Latinx History of the United States, which has gotten spotty reviews but which I’m very excited about because its existence is inevitably going to make writing an intersectional U.S. History curriculum so much easier.
We’re planning the reading list for Jason’s high school next year, which means I have been reading all the Swift, Pope, and Voltaire I can get my hands on to prepare to dive into the Enlightenment. (I have to warm up for Kant. No offense, Kant.)
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN OUR HOMESCHOOL
One thing that helping get Jason’s school off the ground has taught me is that is impossible to overemphasize the importance of time management. I’m trying to give my 10th grader more (and more complicated) long-term projects with stages of due dates so that she gets practice managing multiple deadlines. This is a low-stakes business right now, of course, but it won’t always be, so this feels like the time to discover what works for her (and — just as often — what really, really doesn’t work for her). It’s cool to discover things — for example, she is not a fan of the bullet journal (which I, as you know, adore), but she loves those old-school agendas with all the tabs and dividers.
