Stuff We Like :: 5.18.19
You can always tell right after an issue comes out because I have so much to talk about. :)
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
It’s all been very exciting:
- The spring issue is out!
- I wrote a homeschool planner! (You can order it on Amazon. You can see how I'm using it on Instagram. And you could win our Ultimate Homeschool Planning Package, which includes so many of my favorite planning tools.)
- Subscribers can check out a sample of our liberal arts high school curriculum. (So far people seem to like it!)
- Suzanne is being PERSONALLY targeted by her library and Dan Simmons, but she is persevering with Library Chicken despite that.
- I’m working on our summer reading guide for 2018, which means I get to go back and look at all our old summer reading posts, and you might want to do that, too, because they are full of good ideas.
one year ago: Nanette recommended the Myths and Legends podcast. Plus: How I use my bullet journal for our homeschool’s as-we-go planner. (Someone on Instagram asked me whether my bullet journal had stopped working for me — it definitely didn’t, but who could say no to the opportunity to custom-build a homeschool planner from scratch? In fact, some of my favorite things about my new planner are ideas that I borrowed from the flexibility of my bullet journal! You know I think the planning solution that works for you is the right one for you.)
two years ago: Nine great books for Latino Book Month. Plus: Seven great resources for critical thinking and a peek inside Shelli’s kindergarten.
three years ago: Lisa wondered: “What’s so special about homeschooling?”
THE LINKS I LIKED
I feel like I’d remember if I had Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s remains in my cellar, don’t you?
The new Nancy Drew graphic novel series looks AMAZING. (Suzanne, did you see this?)
I cannot wait to read this one. (And I don’t have to — at least not completely — because there’s an excerpt here.)
I have been trying to explain this to my kids for years: Food just tastes better in bowl!
WHAT I’M READING AND WATCHING
I am plowing through Peter Ackroyd’s history of England in the wrong order: I started with Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution because I am brushing up on the Glorious Revolution before I reread Gulliver’s Travels again, but I loved it so much I kept going to Revolution: The History of England from the Battle of the Boyne to the Battle of Waterloo (which is also relevant and which is my favorite so far), and since I have to wait until October for Dominion: The History of England from the Battle of Waterloo to Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, I think I'm just going to go back to Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors and start over from the beginning because I am really enjoying them so much.
And I’m finally ready to catch up on the latest season of Jane the Virgin, which—if the silly name has put you off trying it—is such a great show, the perfect combination of sweet and spectacular, with the best writerly jokes of any show I can remember watching. (Plus Rogelio is my favorite.)
IN OUR HOMESCHOOL
We are spending the spring exploring India because we realized that this country always gets short shrift in our history studies (and probably also partly because Haroun and the Sea of Stories was one of our family’s favorite readalouds of the past few months). We’re trying to do it together, which means figuring out things we can do with an almost-11th grade super-reader and a we’re-not-sure-if-we’re-calling-it-4th-grade-or-5th-grade-for-next-year-yet who isn’t always keen to dive as deep. Fortunately, the Ramayana is perfect for both of them—my daughter is reading this version on her own (my friend who studied Indian philosophy says it's the best translation for first-timers because it doesn't over-condense but it does try to keep the story's flow), but we have read a couple of picture-book versions together (I mentioned two that we really liked in the spring issue world mythology roundup) and we all enjoyed a lecture on the Ramayana by Neil Gaiman from the British Library’s podcast. We have also had a great time making shadow puppets, even though ours are nowhere near as spectacular as some of the ones we’re seen. Now that they’re both totally interested, I think this project is going to be a lot of fun.
