Stuff We Like :: 5.24.19
One of the most challenging things about writing a U.S. history curriculum was learning how to rethink the language I’d grown up on for U.S. history completely. For instance, the word “settlers” is one that gets used all the times for Europeans coming to North America and for citizens of the new United States as they moved beyond the country’s western borders. But it’s not really an accurate word — it’s a word that whitewashes what was basically an invasion of lands that belonged to several different Native American nations. Finding meaningful ways to talk about the history of the United States in a way that includes people who aren’t just straight white men required me to think more carefully about all the history vocabulary I grew up with — and to deal with some of the not-so-shiny parts of U.S. history in a respectful and thoughtful way.
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
Our curriculum sale is still going on!
Shelli reviewed the Critical Thinking Company’s Vocabulary Virtuoso — and we’ve got a 20% coupon for your curriculum shopping, too! (The Red Herring Mysteries are a favorite in our house, and Suzanne uses Mind Benders in the Academy’s junior high.)
It’s that time of year: 18 fun ways to take your homeschool outside
Summer classes start at the Academy June 3. (I am very excited about my chemistry class!)
From the archives: What to read next if you loved The Wizard of Oz, why this just might be the summer to start that homeschool co-op, and how homeschooling can be the opportunity to get the education YOU always wanted, too.
LINKS I LIKED
I quite enjoyed this NYT homage to the joys of the 1990s. (I totally remember getting phone ear from talking too long on the telephone, but I’m sad there was nothing about the literary pleasures of those long notes — with complicated folding — that you would write your best friend for hours after you finished your homework.)
We do tend to focus on dystopias (and especially right now), but literary utopias can be revealing, too.
THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW BUT NOW I DO
I feel like the title here speaks for itself: Everything you wanted to know about dinosaur sex.
My favorite color apparently says I am a robot. (I am not a robot. I think. Would I know, though?)
BOOKS ADDED TO MY TBR LIST THIS WEEK
Watch and Ward (Henry James that I've never gotten around to!)
The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation
AMY SHARONY is the founder and editor-in-chief of home | school | life magazine. She's a pretty nice person until someone starts pluralizing things with apostrophes, but then all bets are off.