Stuff We Like :: 7.20.18
Suzanne and I had so much fun at the SEA Homeschool convention last week! It was great to meet so many readers in real life, and you really have made us feel properly guilty about being Podcast Slackers.
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
Suzanne raves about the new world of science-fiction and fantasy literature. (I am not super familiar with the old world, but some of these books are really great, so count me in.)
Why is homeschooling so lonely? This is a question I think we don’t ask often enough — it can be hard and isolating finding your way as a homeschool parent, and it’s even worse if you think you’re the only one who feels that way.
one year ago: Our 9th grade reading list. (I should do one for 10th grade.) Also: Nanette reviews the podcast adventure Eleanore Amplified and Suzanne’s reflections on a decade of homeschooling
two years ago: What to read next if you loved the Percy Jackson books. Plus: Busting myths about homeschooling high school and following where summer homeschooling leads you
three years ago: People still ask why we don’t have a print edition. Also: My best tip for organizing your high school homeschool
four years ago: Finding the beauty in chaos
THE LINKS I LIKED
I think I like this idea: We need a new mythology to tell the story of climate change.
Belt Revivals publishing company is bringing back forgotten books from Midwestern writers. (And there’s some William Dean Howells and Ida Tarbell in the queue.)
Are middle children going extinct?
What if we just gave money to people who need money?
It’s okay not to be polite about things like genocide: “Poor people, immigrants, black activists, and perhaps LGBT employees at a restaurant in Virginia are bludgeoned into silence by the constant cry for civility, made to hold still as injustices are visited upon them. Meanwhile, those with no real fear that they’ll ever wind up on the wrong side of the power dynamic in America can scold and hector.”
WHAT I’M READING AND WATCHING
At the top of my stack is Be Prepared, recommended to me by @khanrott, who is my book twin! We like all the same books, so if she says it’s good, I am so in. (Plus the cover could be a drawing of me on a camping trip.) This plus lots of sunscreen and my pool recliner is pretty much the sum of my plans for Saturday afternoon.
I am having a hard time this summer. Politics is … hard. Realizing that my daughter is about to be a junior in high school is hard. Juggling too many big projects is hard. And I’m really struggling with trying to being kind and compassionate when other people are … not kind or compassionate. I find that books help, and I’ve been slow-reading books that are basically balm for the soul: Pablo Neruda’s Odes to Common Things, Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns, Audre Lord’s Sister Outsider.
The kids and I have been watching Gravity Falls together — they watched it on their own a while ago but picked it for our summer binge. It’s hilariously Twin Peaks-ish, which doesn’t seem like it should be a sentence.
WHAT I’M THINKING ABOUT
Academic stamina. I don’t know if that’s an official term, but it’s the best one I can think of to describe the ability to work through a long-term assignment, setting goals along the way, and wrapping up with a finished product that you’re genuinely proud of. As my daughter heads into 11th grade this fall, I want to be sure she is building these learning muscles. I see so many smart kids who just don’t have the ability to work through a project from beginning to end—I don’t want my daughter to coast on being smart and a good writer. I want her to really push to do the hard work to make a good paper excellent. I see many multi-step projects in our future this fall. Do you worry about academic stamina with your homeschoolers? What do you do to help them develop it?
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
It's that time again! We've rounded up some great ways to celebrate your first day of the new homeschool year, whether you want to keep it simple at home or take a big adventure together.