Stuff We Like :: 8.2.19
Hello, end-of-summer! You could slow down a little if you want.
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
I’ve been taking a little summer break from blogging — I’ve been doing my live series over on Patreon, working on the summer issue, and wrapping up the Year Two curriculum (true story: the second year is so much easier than the first!), but the HSL blog has been pretty quiet. I’m kind of in planning/evaluating mode, so if you have thoughts about things you like, stuff you’d like to read more of, or other ideas for the HSL blog, now is a great time to share them!
in the magazine: Thanks for all the feedback on the summer issue format! It has been really helpful — even though it seems to be about a 50/50 split for people who prefer each version.
on the blog: The awesome Sarah Smee is bringing back our Kindle Deals posts! (She’s the best!)
at the academy: We wrapped our summer chemistry class with an escape room challenge inspired by the periodic table.
from the archives: The bigger picture of multiple intelligences, tips for making your homeschool feel more home-y and less school-y, and some of our favorite homeschool school supplies
LINKS I LIKED
I identify with Dorothy Parker less as an adult than I did as a teenager (when she was my — possibly problematic — role model), but I’ll still read any story about the Algonquin Round Table.
This recently rediscovered Langston Hughes essay is going on my U.S. history required reading list.
This is one of the best essays I’ve read in recent years.
The complicated history of feminist utopian literature: “We didn’t slay the angel in the house just to replace her with a lady CIA officer in a flak jacket, cool shades, and a cattle prod.”
THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW BUT NOW I DO
My inability to fall asleep unless I have one shoulder under a blanket is maybe not as weird as I have always thought it is.
BOOKS ADDED TO MY TBR LIST
This Is How You Lose the Time War (I have heard so many good things about this!)
I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution (I love Emily Nussbaum, and not just because Buffy changed her life)
WHAT’S MAKING ME HAPPY
Octavia Butler love! (I remember when I was trying to convince people to read Kindred, and now she’s everywhere, and it’s so great. I wasn’t super-smart about discovering her or anything — I was just lucky to have a great teacher who recommended her to me.)
This. (*Please be good. Please be good.*)
WHAT’S CONFUSING ME
The Cats trailer. I mean — I don't even know what I mean. But it’s weird.
(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.
If you want to make your homeschool a place that values creativity and creating, you can’t sit on the sidelines and wait for it to happen — you’ve got to get messy with them.
It’s been a while since we’ve done a Stuff We Like post, but here are some things that are inspiring our homeschool life right now.
Break out the board games to beat the mid-winter blahs in your homeschool.
Edgar Allan Poe’s Raven turns 176 years old this January, but there are still things to discover about this most mysterious of birds.
Here’s some of the stuff making my homeschool life a little happier lately.
Evil-fighting babysitters, middle school testing, Japanese storytelling, magical houses, and more in this week’s roundup of Stuff We Like.
The surprising fun of just asking why, the challenges of choosing a reading list, reading poetry, and more stuff we liked this week.
Being patient in pursuit of a routine, un-magic people at magic schools, teaching poetry to kids, and more stuff we liked this week.
Knitting for chilly classrooms, remembering why poetry books are so fun to read, watching His Dark Materials, new highlighters, and more stuff we liked this week.
Memes as the new formalism, how predictive text works, reading trends of the 2010s, and more stuff we liked this week.
The myth of morning routines, the downside of immortality, the problem with online reviews, and more stuff we liked this week.
Apprenticeships are the new college, what we lose when we lose local news, how we lost our sense of time, Hanukkah churros, and more stuff we like.
Decolonizing the canon, what to buy your favorite Nancy Drew fan, emphasizing the significance of the domestic arts in history, and more stuff we liked this week.
Leftover pie, the language of the apocalypse, the myth of limited rights, be as nice to yourself as you would be to a stranger, and more stuff we liked this week.
Games for storytelling, the problem with history curricula, eating alone, and more stuff we liked this week.
Why we love annotated bibliographies, Scooby Doo as Gothic lit, my new retirement ambition, why you should probably hang on to your notebooks in the computer age, and more stuff we liked this week.
Reading before bed makes you smarter, happier, and healthier (ahem), the emotional labor of feeding your family, Rebecca paper dolls, spooky witch houses, and more stuff we liked this week.
The cultural relevance of fairy tales, Hamilton bathroom breaks, new words as old as you are, and more stuff we liked this week.
Rapping The Iliad, historical costumes and racism, the yellowing of school buses, the problem with constant production, and more in this week’s roundup of Stuff We Like.
What were people searching for on HSL in September?
Lilith Fair flashbacks make me happy, British citizenship tests are stuck on the Tudors, the problem with “spiritual consumerism,” when books could kill you, and more stuff we liked this week.
Rediscovered Langston Hughes, the Algonquin Round Table turns 100, feminist utopias, and more stuff we like.
Preschool politics, battles on the YA shelves, Stone Age engineering projects, the subtleties of translation, and more stuff we like.
Burnout is not a professional goal, the myth of the frontier in U.S. history, what do we mean when we talk about “electability,” what we always suspected about cats is true, and more stuff we like.
Highs and lows of Facebook groups, Teddy Roosevelt and the Iron Throne, my new favorite interview with a vampire, and more stuff we like.
Our weekly roundup of links, books, and other homeschool inspiration.
Our weekly roundup of great links, books, and other stuff that’s inspiring our homeschool life.
The slow, important uncovering of history, snow plow parents, transcript-writing for people who aren’t transcript writers, cats in medieval manuscripts, and more stuff I like.
Problems with children’s literature, thirty years of “Closer to Fine,” saying goodbye to Dylan McKay, weird ancient Greek obsessions, and more stuff we like.
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.
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.