Stuff We Like :: 2.16.19
RIP, Mars Rover; renegade nuns; my new favorite tip for recognizing passive voice; my neighborhood 50 million years ago; and more stuff we like.
RIP, Mars Rover; renegade nuns; my new favorite tip for recognizing passive voice; my neighborhood 50 million years ago; and more.
I do love the feeling of satisfaction when you get the “Your AP class has been approved” email!
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
on the blog: Go all-in with a unit study to beat the midwinter homeschool slump and sometimes you just have to get started, whether you feel ready or not.
from the archives: Delightfully doleful books for dark and dreary days and some great STEM biographies for middle grades
LINKS I LIKED
I’ll always read an interview with a copy chief, but I’m totally stealing the zombie-passive-voice tip from this one for my students.
I think we all know that I am always going to read a story about a medieval nun who faked her own death to escape a convent.
THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW BUT NOW I DO
There’s a map that lets me look at my neighborhood 150 million years ago.
There’s actually (kind of) a synonym for the word synonym.
BOOKS ADDED TO MY TBR LIST THIS WEEK
Napoleon’s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History (because I’ve got to find some good chemistry book recommendations for my students in Year 2)
H20: A Biography of Water (see above)
And crossed off: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Eleanor Hardcastle, which Suzanne tells me is a cool idea that doesn’t quite get there
WHAT’S MAKING ME HAPPY
Plotting middle school
Making our own textbooks
This amazing cross-stitch, which I got as a gift from a friend (rated PG-13)
(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.)
Stuff We Like :: 2.8.19
Friends versus “friends,” the link between prairie dresses and colonization, slow cooking trumps quick hands, adventures in medieval poop, and more stuff we like.
The weather here is just crazy: At the beginning of the week, it was cold enough to snow; yesterday, it got up to 70; tonight, it’s getting down to 36.
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
on the podcast: Suzanne and I are talking about the big homeschool questions on our minds right now (and hoping some of them sound like interesting future podcasts!)
on the blog: Revisiting HSL’s initial mission (it’s still our mission) and the soul-expanding power of quitting
on patreon: It’s our live chat weekend!
on instagram: You don’t have to know where you want to end up to choose where you want to go next
in the archives: A science of infection reading list and why homeschooling is always easier in hindsight
LINKS I LIKED
Those “quick hands” cooking videos have always felt a little off-putting to me, but I didn’t know why.
Oh my gosh, so much this! I cannot take seriously anyone who says utilize when she just means use.
I loved this — I definitely am not where I was at 27, but I totally identify with the idea that we change so much and so little at the same time. (Especially since I had a student ask me today if I missed being young!) (I don’t, though.)
I love Facebook for keeping up with people it might be hard to keep up with otherwise — but this is why I keep my circle of friends small enough that I never feel like I need to put the word “friends” in quotation marks.
This was fascinating: The racism and colonial entitlement in feminine frontier fashion.
This is delightful: A list of things that I actually would like men to explain to me, please.
THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW BUT NOW I DO
The news has always been too much, especially in the 19th century.
The socks and sandals thing dates back way before the 1970s.
A day on Saturn is 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds
BOOKS ADDED TO MY TBR LIST THIS WEEK
On the Come Up (we’re reading The Hate U Give for book club right now)
The City in the Middle of the Night (I loved All the Birds in the Sky)
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President (because I know almost nothing about Garfield, and I want to fill in some gaps)
WHAT’S MAKING ME HAPPY
(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.)
Stuff We Like :: 2.1.19
The not-so-true Instagram reality, new words for cold days, find your Dewey Decimal personality, let’s stop hustling for a minute, and more stuff we like.
The not-so-true Instagram reality, new words for cold days, find your Dewey Decimal personality, let’s stop hustling for a minute, and more.
Happy February! We had an un-snow day this week — snow was predicted and the city shut down, but it ended up being kind of a lovely day.
what’s happening at home/school/life
in the magazine: Be sure to get your copy of the winter issue!
on the podcast: Suzanne and I are recording the new episode this morning, so look for it on Patreon sometime this weekend
on patreon: What to eat when you wish you had a little more weekend ahead of you
on instagram: Un-snow day adventures!
on the blog: Sometimes you need to take yourself out of the homeschool equation for a minute and the value of repeating science experiments — and of not repeating them, too
from the archives: 28 great readalouds for Black History Month and Suzanne’s official Hamilton reading list
links i liked
I do love getting glimpses of other homeschool lives on Instagram, but I hate the way we all feel pressured to present the best shiniest version of our lives all the time. This piece is about the pressure to make new motherhood look perfect, but I feel the same pressure around homeschooling sometimes, too.
What Dewey Decimal number are you? (I’m apparently 031.)
Don’t read this if swearing offends you! But if you enjoy inventing your own swear words, you might find this piece as funny as I did.
I’d love it if we could stop validating the whole nonstop work culture.
A good question: Does Duolingo even work?
things i didn’t know but now i do
This was a good week to learn some new cold weather words. (Aquabob!)
Frostquakes are a thing.
books added to my tbr list this week
An Unkindness of Ghosts (Sarah recommended it, but I’m saving it for a more emotionally stable reading time)
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee (I would like to read about the past century of Native American history very much)
In an Absent Dream (I loved the first book in this series — the second and third, not so much, but I am hoping this one brings back the magic)
my daughter’s new Warrior Cats fan fiction novel (obviously that one’s going straight to the top!)
what’s making me happy
unexpected days off (even if there’s no snow involved)
my sister-in-law and her lovely family are moving back to town
my new breadbox (because now I feel like I can play 20 Questions and mean 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.)
“Why do we do experiments someone else has already done?”
There’s value in repeating experiments, but don’t forget to make time for your own science questions, too.
There’s value in repeating experiments, but don’t forget to make time for your own science questions, too.
One of the great things about the rise of the Internet is that you can find any science experiment on YouTube.
Sometimes, I’ll queue up a few versions to show my kids before we tackle an experiment at home. This is handy: We can see how the experiment is supposed to look, so that if something goes wrong, it’s easier to troubleshoot. It also gives the kids an idea of what to expect, which helps them focus on paying attention during the different steps of the experiment. And it’s fun to feel like part of a community of people doing the same experiment — that’s one of the things I miss being a homeschooler instead of a science teacher these days.
But a few weeks ago, when I started another video for a jelly bone experiment we were doing with the Thanksgiving leftovers, my son — he’s 11 — said, “What’s the point?”
“What?” I said.
“We’re not really experimenting to see what happens,” he said. “We already know. It’s already on YouTube like a hundred times. What’s the point?”
I hesitated. There IS a point to repeating experiments — it’s called science. We repeat experiments because every experiment doesn’t work out perfectly, and different scientists may get different results. If we repeat an experiment, we can see whether the results are always true, or sometimes true, or only true once every leap year.
Doing experiments someone else has already done also helps us build our science toolkit. That’s why those YouTube videos are so useful. When we can see how someone else does an experiment, we can develop a good lab technique — and, if things go wrong, seeing where other people went right can help us redo the experiment more successfully.
And, of course, there’s always a chance that repeating an experiment may teach us something new. We could discover something no one else did before. True, that’s unlikely when we’re doing the same strawberry DNA experiment every 5th grader in the country does in science class, but it’s always possible.
All of those are good reasons for repeating experiments, and I started to explain them to my son. Later, I did talk about them. But I didn’t answer him then because I realized that he was asking a scientist’s question.
“That’s true,” I said. “What’s a science question you think we should answer?”
And just like that, our science routine changed. We still do experiments where we know what happens, but I also make a point to do experiments based on our own real-life questions. We experimented to see what ants do when it rains and whether people are more likely to use a trash bin in the park if it has a white bag versus a black bag. Because repeating experiments is important but so it encouraging scientific curiosity.
Misty Heaslet is a middle school science teacher turned homeschool mom. She lives in western North Carolina.
This column was originally published in the winter 2019 issue of HSL.
Stuff We Like :: 1.25.19
Celebrating Edward Gorey, how many books could you read in a year, a Golden Compass adaptation that I can’t wait for, trying the murderer of Edwin Drood, and more stuff we like.
Celebrating Edward Gorey, how many books could you read in a year, a Golden Compass adaptation that I can’t wait for, trying the murderer of Edwin Drood, and more.
It’s been a busy week here!
What’s happening at home/school/life
in the magazine: The winter issue is out!
on the podcast: I’m talking about how we get our homeschool groove back after a break.
on patreon: We’re scheduling our first chat if you have topics you want to add to list!
on the blog: What I’ve been reading lately.
from the archives: A resolution to bring back literature and how to make your winter homeschool movie days feel a little more active
Links I liked
I like this take on why the ending of “A Series of Unfortunate Events” the Netflix series is a little less open-ended than the books.
All the mentions of Edward Gorey in The New York Times!
This is one of those things that makes you happy to be a reader: Who killed Edwin Drood? Some Dickens fans decide to bring the case to trial.
A medieval scribe — who also happens to be a woman — gets a little long overdue credit.
Classic literature is complicated by racism, sexism, xenophobia, and all kinds of othering. And yet, many of these classics have stood the test of time for good reasons. I believe completely in building a new canon that incorporates meaningful diversity, but this piece about reading as time traveling captures a lot of my ambivalence about letting go of the classics completely.
Things I didn't know but now I do
I could read more books a year if I spent less time re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
There won’t be any Sweethearts candies this Valentine’s Day. (I’m honestly not sure how I feel about this.)
BOOKS ADDED TO MY TBR LIST THIS WEEK
Relish: My Life in the Kitchen (How had I not heard of this?)
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (I had no idea James Tiptree was a woman, and apparently I am missing out on some great short stories)
You Know You Want This (She had me at “Cat People”)
WHAT’S MAKING ME HAPPY
The third season of The Magicians (I’m always behind!)
(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.)
Stuff We Like :: 1.18.19
Existential therapy, quitting email, fortune cookie literature, the best way to take notes, and more stuff we like.
Existential therapy, quitting email, fortune cookie literature, the best way to take notes, and more.
It’s our last lazy week before our routine picks back up, so we’ve been enjoying every minute of it.
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
in the magazine: The winter issue is out next week! I am particularly excited about our Gigantic Homeschool Book List, which was incredibly fun to put together.
on the blog: How to start a family book club
on instagram: The hat I keep knitting over and over again (When I wrote this post, Mary Oliver was alive; when it actually posted, she was not. I feel a little weird about that, especially since the reference I made is such a casual one.)
on patreon: A new episode of the Podcast with Suzanne and Amy! (It will be up everywhere next week)
from the archives: Suzanne’s original instructions for playing Library Chicken and why we’re always second-guessing ourselves when it comes to homeschooling
LINKS I LIKED
I, too, started my publishing life in the days when magazines were arbiters of taste, so this mini memoir by a former newspaper film critic (who hated The English Patient) really resonated with me.
I am now obsessed with finding an existential therapist.
Even though I will probably never actually quit email, I love the idea of quitting email so much.
Sometimes the best dinners are the ones you don’t see on Instagram.
THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW BUT NOW I DO
There is an official point where I will stop reading J.K. Rowling’s further notes on the wizarding world she created, and this is it.
City traffic was a little crazy even before there were cars.
Doodling is the best way to take notes.
BOOKS ADDED TO MY TBR LIST THIS WEEK
Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom (I’m so skeptical, but I have to)
A Tale for the Time Being (because Suzanne recommends it)
WHAT’S MAKING ME HAPPY
These hilarious Virgo pencils (My best friend jokes that my biography should be titled Meticulously Planned Spontaneity, which honestly seems fair.)
(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.)
How to Start a Family Book Club
Our family book club has been a great part of our homeschool life for the past seven years. Here’s how you can start a book club for your family.
For homeschoolers, reading is a way of life. So the idea of a family book club— a regular reading discussion group around your family’s kitchen table—can either sound like the most brilliant idea ever or like literary overkill. In fact, it’s just logical. We’ve been running our family book club since 2012 — our first book was Lloyd Alexander’s Time Cat; right now, we’re reading Hilda and the Troll, my son’s pick for January — and it’s become a much-loved part of our homeschool life.
A family book club helps you navigate that magical middle ground between the books you read to learn something and the books you read for fun — the place where real literary criticism and analysis happens. “Book clubs don’t just encourage us to read—they encourage us to form opinions about what we read and to express and support those opinions,” explains Jan LaBonty, a professor in the School of Education at the University of Montana. Kids who’ve spent evenings arguing about whether it matters why the Pigeon wants to drive the bus or how the Sisters Grimm series changes traditional fairy tale characters and what those changes might mean, won’t be fazed when someone asks them to talk about symbolism in Hemingway’s short stories or to discuss narrative reliability in The Catcher in the Rye.
We tend to save that kind of literary analysis for high school, but starting early can have big benefits. For one thing, it makes reading a much more interactive and exciting experience. For another, this kind of critical thinking naturally lends itself to conversations about big ideas — those things you really want to talk about with your kids but that can feel kind of awkward when you bring them up without context. Reading a book like Catherine, Called Birdy — about a 14-year-old girl trying to resist an arranged marriage in medieval Europe — lets you talk about the challenges of growing up and the importance of balancing what your parents want with what you think you need. When you talk about a book like Holes, you have the opportunity to really think about bullies and adults who abuse their authority. Because you’re talking about fictional characters and situations, sensitive topics aren’t as emotionally charged.
“Parents who participate in a book club with their kids send the message that they think their children’s opinions and ideas are worth the time it takes them to read, listen, and respond,” says Eric Meadows, a reading specialist for the New York City public school system. “Book clubs build trust and communication skills between children and their parents.”
Starting a family book club is as easy as choosing your first book — which, for some of us, isn’t all that easy. Balancing a range of ages, interests, and time commitments can be a challenge. If you have non-readers, you may need to track down an audiobook or make time for readalouds in order for everyone to participate. Finding books that appeal to a teenager and a preschooler may be a challenge. Like any homeschool project, you’ll want to tweak and adjust your book club to make it work for your particular family.
If you’re new to literary analysis, downloading a reading guide for the book you’re reading can help you steer the conversation — though after a book or two, you’ll probably be good at coming up with your own questions and talking points. Set a different family member as moderator for each meeting — you may want to go first to model moderator behavior, but everyone should get a turn. Some kids may want a list of questions ready to go for their turn as moderator; for other kids, part of the fun will be coming up with their own discussion points. Chat with your moderator in advance so you can come up with a plan together. The moderator may have ideas about what food and drink to serve (veggie dogs for The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! pancakes for Pippi Longstocking) or an activity to go with the book, or it may work better in your family to have the moderator focus on the discussion and someone else take over the food and activities. (An activity may seem silly, but having something to do with your hands while you’re talking can actually make it easier to keep the conversation going. We had a particularly great conversation building Lego Roman villas while discussing The Thieves of Ostia.) There’s really no wrong way to do it, so experiment until you find a plan that works for you.
The key to a successful family book club is to keep pushing each other. “Did you like the book?” is an interesting question, but “What did you like about this book?” is a much more interesting one. Read passages you like aloud to each other. Say, “This part just didn’t make sense to me. What did you think about it?” Talk about the plot: What happens in the book? Is it logical? Where it’s not logical, are you willing to cut the author some slack? Talk about the characters. Do any of them change over the course of the story? Does your perception of them change? Which characters are the most interesting? Which characters are likable? Which aren’t? Does their likability correspond with whether the characters are good or bad? Talk about the language the author uses. Why does she use one word to describe something and not another word? What does she include that you think is unnecessary? What does she leave out that you really want to know? Read the first paragraph together out loud. Did the book end up where you thought it would after reading that first paragraph? Sometimes, the moderator might ask everyone to bring in a song or a poem that reminds them of the reading. Sometimes, you might want to watch a movie adaptation of a book you’re reading.
Books with historical settings can make great book club reads, but don’t treat them like an additional history class. Focus on the merits of the book itself, and consider the role that history plays in the book. Treat books about different cultures or different countries the same way — if you have information to share, that’s great, but the goal is to talk about the book itself, not to research the history/culture in the book. (There’s nothing wrong with doing research if you get excited about something, but it shouldn’t be a requirement for participating in book club.)
It’s also important to acknowledge that there will be times when kids just plain don’t like a book or can’t get into it, and it’s important to be respectful of that. (Come on, do you really always finish the book for your own grown-up book club? If you’ve never skimmed the last hundred pages of a book club read, you’re a better person than I am.) Kids can stop halfway through a book — but they have to do it in a meaningful way that respects the spirit of book club. Kids should be prepared to discuss why a book ended up in their DNF file: If the book was “boring,” what specifically made it boring? Were the plot or the characters too predictable? Were there lots of long descriptions that got in the way of the plot? Talking about why a book isn’t appealing, why you didn’t care about what happens next, can be as meaningful as analyzing what you liked about a book.
Finally, be wary of making book club an extension of structured school time. You don’t want it to feel like homework. At its best, book club is a fun family project — like movie night or Lego Friday, it’s something you should look forward to having on your to-do list. That means that instead of nagging — “Shouldn’t you be reading your book club book?” — you show the rest of the family that book club is worth doing by reading the book yourself. Invite the kids to snuggle up with you and read, too; post your questions about the book on the fridge; mention what you’re curious about from your reading as you’re running errands. If you’re interested, you’ll spark their interest, too.
5 Tips for a Great Family Book Club
After seven years of family book clubs, I can attest that these strategies will help keep things running smoothly.
Give everyone a voice. Everyone should take a turn choosing the book and leading the conversation. It’s not going to kill you to read Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants any more than it’s going to kill your 12-year-old to tackle Emma. And if you want your kids to read your books seriously and give them a fair shot, you have to be willing to do the same thing with their picks.
Don’t only pick books you like. Talking about books you don’t like—and why you don’t like them—can lead your conversation to some pretty interesting places. Along those same lines, don’t choose a book that you absolutely love. Hearing the rest of your family grumble about something you adore can be surprisingly difficult.
Make it a party. Making a whole production out of book club — even if this means doing it quarterly rather than monthly — gives this project sticking power. Serve book-themed snacks and encourage the kids to decorate your discussion area. We kept an excitement chart on our dining room wall for years where we plotted every book we read in comparison to previous reads.
Invite special guests. Grandparents, neighbors, and friends can be a great addition to your family book club now and again. We mostly keep book club for the four of us, but my philosopher friend Skyped in when we read The Book of Chuang-Tzu and my daughter’s friend, who recommended The Red Pyramid to us, was excited to join us for our discussion of it.
Use a talking stick. One of the challenges of any book club is making sure that everyone gets a chance to talk. To prevent your club from talking over each other or to keep one excited speaker from monopolizing the conversation, use a talking stick (or, if you’re us, a talking Perry the Platypus plushie). Whoever’s holding the stick should be the only one talking.
(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.)
Stuff We Like :: 1.11.19
Let’s not magically tidy our books off the shelves, the problem (ahem) with women political candidates, W.E.B. Du Bois and the modern infographic, and more stuff we like.
Let’s not magically tidy our books off the shelves, the problem (ahem) with women political candidates, W.E.B. Du Bois and the modern infographic, and more.
We’re slowly easing back into our routine — my daughter’s dual enrollment class started this week, and one of Jason’s Spanish teaching gigs picked back up. We’re trying to get back on a semi-normal sleep and wake-up schedule, and I’m taking advantage of the extra time to stock the freezer with break-in-case-of-emergency meals for when the spring semester gets crazy (and also, to be totally honest, to take some naps because there is never enough time for naps once the new semester gets going). We don’t actually start back to school — homeschool or Jason’s school, where I teach — until after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and this is the time when I am so glad to have those extra two weeks off.
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
on the blog: It’s OK not to do everything and my first reading roundup of 2019
on instagram: Podcast planning with Suzanne!
on patreon: My kindergarten-inspired plan for homeschooling middle school
from the archives: How to start homeschooling in the middle of the year and how do you know when it’s time to quit homeschooling?
LINKS I LIKED
This is a wall I can get behind.
Possibly a little too on-point: What your Myers-Briggs type says about whether you will take the Myers-Briggs test. (I actually took the Myers-Briggs test, but I now want all my friends to address me as “Nerd Emperor.”)
I’m so glad I am not alone in really hating the way Marie Kondo declutters books. (I actually think Marie Kondo is adorable, and I love some of her ideas, but the books thing is a hard no.)
THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW BUT NOW I DO
Along with everything else he did, W.E.B. Du Bois helped invent the modern infographic.
There are, on average, three meals mentioned in every Sherlock Holmes story, and poor Watson almost never gets to finish them.
There’s a library extension for Chrome!
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is leaning a little less.
BOOKS ADDED TO MY TBR LIST THIS WEEK
Kitchen Yarns (because I think we all know I can’t say no to a title like that)
Snobbery with Violence: An Edwardian Murder Mystery (recommended by Lindsey!)
Bellwether (I’m always hoping to recapture the magic of To Say Nothing of the Dog)
The Lumbee Indians: An American Struggle (This looks amazing)
WHAT’S MAKING ME HAPPY
Valentine Love Note Hats (How cute are these?)
Snuggling by the fireplace to read together (I do think it should snow if it’s going to be this cold, though!)
(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.)
Stuff We Like :: 1.4.18
How to be a learning model in your homeschool, easing back into homeschooling after a long break, the joys of Scholastic book fairs, ants on medical leave, the rise of small bookstores, glitter, and more stuff we life.
How to be a learning model in your homeschool, easing back into homeschooling after a long break, the joys of Scholastic book fairs, ants on medical leave, the rise of small bookstores, glitter, and more.
Happy New Year! I love a break, but I also love that I have a life I enjoy coming back to after a break. (I will admit: I’m not loving the idea of going back to real pants after weeks of pajamas… but other than that!)
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
We’ve been revising our most-read posts of 2018 on Facebook these past couple of weeks, but in case you are interested in the full list, here’s what you guys read in 2018:
How I Use My Bullet Journal for Our Homeschool’s As-We-Go Schedule
Curriculum Review: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
A Fun Living Math Curriculum for Elementary to Middle School: Your Business Math
How We Created Our Homeschool's Studio Ghibli Literature Class (Without a Curriculum)
(Not all of these were published in 2018, but they were the most-read posts for last year.)
on the blog: Start your week off with our Monday meditations and how to model critical reading for your kids by thinking out loud to yourself (finally! talking to yourself counts as a legit educational strategy)
on Patreon: How I use commonplace books to chronicle our annual homeschool and create a family holiday tradition that we’ve come to love
from the archives: How to figure out what’s next for YOU when homeschooling is over and transitioning back to homeschooling after a long break
LINKS I LIKED
Apparently I am not the only person whose kids sometimes fail to appreciate my culinary creative because they want their favorite foods again and again. (I will happily make macaroni and cheese, which is my mom’s recipe for macaroni and cheese, just with more cheese, with them every other month for the rest of their lives just because we all know the recipe so well that we end up having the best conversations while we make it. But I am also excited to make coconut milk-braised chicken legs.)
Scholastic book fairs were the highlights of my childhood, and the one I went to as an adult was just as magical.
Something to celebrate: Small bookstores are thriving again. (I have such fond memories of the little bookstore in our small town that opened up when I was in middle school and was willing to order me all the weird books I wanted that the library didn’t keep on their shelves.)
If you, too, loved Firefly, I bet you will love this as much as I do.
THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW BUT NOW I DO
Mark Twain was so famous, his editor tried to get President Roosevelt to move Thanksgiving to accommodate Twain’s birthday.
The world of glitter is incredibly complicated. (And who is this top secret glitter consumer that no one knows is actually using glitter? It’s all VERY MYSTERIOUS.)
If I move, it probably should be to this town that has more books than people.
This is so cool: Scientists were able to recreate this pre-Incan temple using 3-D printed models.
Ants take sick days, too!
BOOKS ADDED TO MY TBR LIST THIS WEEK
Bellweather Rhapsody (Alex award winners are almost always hits with me!)
Crazy Salad (I’m trying to read more essays in general, and Nora Ephron feels like a good place to start)
Shiverton Hall (How did I miss this when it came out?)
Born to Be Posthumous (Who can resist an Edward Gorey biography? NOT ME.)
WHAT’S MAKING ME HAPPY
Watching School of Rock for movie night. (We couldn’t stop laughing. It was one of those right-movie-at-the-right-time moments. And we had the best tacos.)
My new $8 leopard print wool coat. (Thank you, thrift store.)
The first Agatha Raisin book — totally fluffy silliness, sometimes that’s just what you need
This gorgeous citrusy bubble bath that I would never buy for myself but was totally delighted to get as a gift
(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.)
Stuff We Like :: 12.28.18
Feminist versions of space exploration, the best movie musicals, delightfully weird literary cookbooks, how world orders end, holiday reading, and more stuff we like.
Feminist versions of space exploration, the best movie musicals, delightfully weird literary cookbooks, how world orders end, holiday reading, and more.
Happy almost New Year!
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
We’re on vacation, and it’s awesome!
LINKS I LIKED
Funny: An update on the problem of Maria
I’ve loved Eliza Dushku since she rocketed her way into the third season of Buffy, and this op-ed piece makes me love her even more.
Just what the holidays need: The best movie musicals ranked
The Comedy Wildlife Photography awards never fail to make me happy.
Sci-fi space exploration has traditionally been a man’s world. What would it look like if women had a voice, too?
THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW BUT NOW I DO
There is a reason stepping on Legos hurts more than walking on fire.
My secret fear of falling off a cruise ship is TOTALLY FOUNDED.
There’s a Barbara Pym cookbook!
Some people take gingerbread construction very seriously.
BOOKS ADDED TO MY TBR LIST THIS WEEK
All the Names They Used for God (a gift from a friend!)
Cane (I’ve never read this, and I need to)
Save Me the Plums (It’s not out until April, but I can’t wait!)
Revenge of the Translator (This looks right up my alley)
WHAT’S MAKING ME HAPPY
Forbidden Island marathons
My new perfume
My new favorite mindless knitting project
Being on holiday!
(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.)
Stuff We Like :: 12.21.18
Links, books, and more stuff that’s inspiring our everyday homeschool life right now.
You guys, this holiday break is just what I needed. This is the second full year Jason’s school has been going, and I am still struggling to find the right balance for HSL stuff, school stuff, my other work, homeschooling, and life stuff, like laundry and feeding people every day. I am often humbled by how bad I can be at keeping it all together. A few weeks off always means tons of catch-up, but it’s also the breathing space I need to figure out what’s not working and how to fix — at least maybe — some of the bumpiest spots.
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
Suzanne and I are launching a Patreon to help bring back The Podcast with Suzanne and Amy. We thought long and hard about doing this — but we really want to the Podcast to come back, and the truth is that we just can’t afford to keep it going unless we have a little money coming in. We’ve always been so vigilant about not allowing advertising from non-secular homeschool companies and about not trading editorial coverage for advertising dollars, and that’s never going to change because I feel pretty strongly about editorial integrity, but it does mean HSL doesn’t make a ton of money — which means sometimes we have to prioritize other work to pay the bills. We’d like to prioritize the podcast, though — and other great free content that we haven’t had as much time to work on these past two years, so we’ve decided to try Patreon. We have some great benefits for patrons (including special access to patrons-only content, monthly live chats, and early access to new podcast episodes), but don’t worry: We’ll still have all the same great free stuff here on the website.
on the blog: Sometimes, you’re late for co-op — but there’s always a good reason!
our most popular post last week: The HSL 2019 reading challenge is here — and there’s bingo.
from the archives: Some of our favorite books of 2017 and holiday treats inspired by classic holiday books
you may be interested in: 12 Great Book Series to Read Together (Binge reading season has arrived!)
LINKS I LIKED
I will never stop wanting to discuss all the reasons why Clueless is the best modern Jane Austen adaptation — and here’s why “totally” is the perfect foil for Austen’s excessive use of “very.”
I know I’m kind of snobby about the whole Instagram Influencer thing, but this is crazy, right?
Yes, thank you, I would be interested in reading about the history of authoritarian time changes. (I once refused to switch to daylight saving time for an entire year, but I’m not sure it counts since I just did the math when I needed the time. It felt so rebellious, though!)
Someone found the last menu from the December 2009 issue of Gourmet that was never published, and if you, too, loved Gourmet, it will make you kind of sad. (I’m definitely making the potato-leek gratin.)
THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW BUT NOW I DO
The letters Q, X, and W were illegal in Turkey.
There’s an awesome Queen Anne exhibition coming to Kensington Palace, thanks to The Favorite. (This movie did not go where I expected it to go, but it was gorgeous to watch with the costumes and sets — and, of course, a must-see, since I had just spent a semester convincing people to appreciate the hilarity of the zeugma about Queen Anne taking sometimes counsel and sometimes tea in The Rape of the Lock.)
BOOKS ADDED TO MY TBR LIST THIS WEEK
Ottolenghi Simple (I’m hoping someone buys me this for the holidays)
Now & Again: Go-To Recipes, Inspired Menus and Endless Ideas for Reinventing Leftovers (yes, please, give me something to do with all the leftover kale salad that we always seem to have)
The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge (because if Eugene Yelchin and M.T. Anderson are teaming up, I am there)
The Word Is Murder (because Magpie Murders was one of my favorite books of 2017)
WHAT’S MAKING ME HAPPY
Trader Joe’s peppermint Jo-Jos
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (I’m the last one to the party on this, I know, but it’s so charming!)
(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.)
Sorry We Were Late for Co-Op, But...
Sometimes you’ve got it all together. Sometimes you’re late for co-op. But there’s always a reason!
Sometimes you’ve got it all together. Sometimes you’re late for co-op. But there’s always a reason!
Sometimes you’ve got it all together. Sometimes you’re late for co-op — and it’s a good thing homeschoolers don’t have to write excuses because some of them would be … interesting.
We thought it was Tuesday.
Annie couldn’t find her Tardis socks, and she can’t wear her tutu without them.
Minecraft.
No one had matching shoes.
Someone tried to flush a harmonica.
We had to change the toner so Sarah could print her homework.
The car keys were being used as a chandelier in a Harry Potter Lego set.
George wanted to know where babies come from.
The kids couldn’t leave until we collected data to determine who has the longest tongue.
Jenny had the wrong socks. More precisely, she had 13 pairs of the wrong socks before we finally found the right ones.
All the clean underwear ended up being used in the dog’s pillow fort.
Aaron discovered the Trolley Problem.
The audiobook was at the most exciting part.
We were just going to drop off the overdue books, but there was book sale at the library.
My mother-in-law watched something on CNN about socialization and called to tell me about it.
The FAFSA made me cry.
Apparently only two of the kids made it to the car with their shoes on.
This was originally published in the fall 2017 issue of HSL.
Stuff We Like :: 12.14.18
Selfies before iPhones, schoolgirl maps, a hero's journey for girls, the oldest footprints in the Grand Canyon, and more.
Selfies before iPhones, schoolgirl maps, a hero's journey for girls, the oldest footprints in the Grand Canyon, and more.
School’s out for winter break — our Saturnalia party is today, and after that, it’s home sweet home until January! This is a short week, though, because getting through finals always takes some doing.
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
The World War I Christmas truce makes a great unit study for the holidays.
From the archives: Homeschooling and patience and great games to play this winter break
You may be interested in: Last minute ideas to celebrate the winter solstice
LINKS I LIKED
Sewing + feminism + cheekiness + Regency England = my favorite selfie of all time
These 19th century maps drawn by schoolgirls are amazing. (Don’t they totally remind you of that part in Emily of New Moon where Rhoda traces her map on the window?)
Ahem: The Lady-Hero’s Journey
THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW BUT NOW I DO
Listening to some of our new batch of Congresswomen read the Preamble to the Constitution gets me all choked up.
The Grand Canyon’s oldest footprints are 310 million years old.
WHAT’S MAKING ME HAPPY
These bacon-fat gingersnaps, which sound insane but are addictively delicious
This magnificent sweater that I will be making for everybody
NPR’s Book Concierge (You know it’s a great selection when it has Julian Is a Mermaid AND Space Opera!)
(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.)
The HSL 2019 Reading Challenge
If you, too, are looking for a way to organize your (endless) reading lists for 2019, consider our Reading Challenge Bingo — it’s flexible enough to work for you and your younger readers and a fun way to keep track of what you’re reading throughout the year.
Scroll to the bottom of this post if you want to download a PDF copy for yourself.
New year, new books! For some people, the end of the year means holiday treats, celebrations, time with family and friends — and that’s all nice, but real book nerds know that winter break is really all about putting together your dream TBR list for the coming year.
If you, too, are looking for a way to organize your (endless) reading lists for 2019, consider our Reading Challenge Bingo — it’s flexible enough to work for you and your younger readers and a fun way to keep track of what you’re reading throughout the year. You can be as ambitious as you like: Complete the whole card by reading 25 books, or just complete a row or two. Your 3rd grader can tackle the challenges, your high schooler can fill out her own card, and you can take this challenge on yourself. Keep your scorecards on the fridge and plan celebrations when you hit major milestones or offer prizes for the first person to get three in a row or another accomplishment you choose.
Ideally, this challenge will give you an excuse to check out a few books you wanted to read anyway and point you toward a few books that you might not have picked up otherwise. And since it involves reading, everybody wins!
What’s on this year’s challenge:
A retelling of a classic you’ve never actually gotten around to reading
A book set in a city you’ve always wanted to visit
A book that’s becoming a movie in 2019
A book by an author from your state
A book set in an alternate reality
A book published in the 1970s
A book with a non-human narrator
A book published this year
A book translated from another language
A book inspired by Asian mythology or folklore
A book inspired by Norse mythology or folklore
A book recommended by your best friend
A book you meant to read last year but never actually got around to reading
A book you think your favorite fictional character would read
A book that has been banned in your state
A play
A book with a character who has a hobby that you also practice
A book that takes place on two continents
A book nominated for an award in 2019
A book that takes place in two different timelines
A book set in space
A book set in (or near) the place you grew up
A book inspired by Native American mythology or folklore
A book whose title begins with the letter J, K, Q, X, or Z
A book with a homeschooled main character
You can download a copy of the Bingo card here. (Last year’s challenge is here. And Suzanne has some great tips for keeping up with what you're reading during the year here.) Happy reading in 2019!
Stuff We Like :: 12.7.18
Links, books, and more stuff that’s been inspiring my homeschool life this week.
In our big Enlightenment madness competition at Jason’s school this week, it came down to Swift (“A Modest Proposal”) versus Swift (Gulliver’s Travels), and it was so fun to listen to all the arguments about why Samuel Johnson Dictionary was more representative of the Enlightenment than Hogarth’s “A Harlot’s Progress” — and vice versa. It was the highlight of my week — well, that and the latkes.
What’s happening at home/school/life
It’s our giant mythology reading list!
Maggie has some tips to bring community service and project-based learning to your language arts classes. (It’s like the homeschool trifecta!)
From the archives: Celebrating Nelson Mandela and the lazy parent’s guide to holiday cheer
You may be interested in: Some of our favorite holiday readalouds
Links I liked
THIS. I have seen so many beloved magazines shut down over the past decades: Sassy, Mademoiselle, Gourmet, Blueprint, and now Glamour. And while I get it —the world changes and especially the media world — it feels even sadder not to give these magazines the real goodbye they deserve.
This is why I love philosophers: Is it ethical for Chidi (from The Good Place, which you should start watching now if you haven’t already!) to be so darn buff?
Relevant to my interests: Co-parenting with Lord Byron
Also relevant to my interests: The Victorian occultist accused of killing men with her mind
This made me laugh so hard.
Things I didn’t know but now I do
Apparently, it takes 1.71 days to poop out a Lego.
Smooth guardian frogs are really good dads.
What’s making me happy
The Art Institute of Chicago has made its archives open access, and they are AMAZING.
This “Honest Diversity in Tech Report.”
These awesome Hanukkah cards.
This Totoro hoodie. (I’m so excited to see my Ghibli lover’s face when she opens this!)
This game. (Check it out if you loved Sagrada; skip it if you can’t get into abstract games.)
These out-of-control snickerdoodles.
(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.)
Stuff We Like :: 11.20.18
The Squirrel Census is a thing and it's awesome, discovering an ancient Greek shipwreck, FBI writer profiles, in defense of puns, the witch capital of Norway, and more.
The Squirrel Census is a thing and it's awesome, discovering an ancient Greek shipwreck, FBI writer profiles, in defense of puns, the witch capital of Norway, and more.
The holidays are here — Hanukkah kicks off this weekend (even though we’re still working through the Thanksgiving leftovers), Jason’s birthday is next week, classes end the week after that, and then it’s all blissfully blank calendar pages through the middle of January. I am looking forward to reading Hannah Arendt with my best friend, recording the lectures for our Victorian semester, finally cleaning up my office, and spending lots and lots of time with my lovely little family. I hope you have much joy in the works, too.
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
We have a great two-for-one subscription sale going through December 15!
Tips to help you organize your homeschool library. (There is a DIY version of the card catalog involved.)
Suzanne is always right about what I should read next.
From the fall issue: Aminata shares how her Waldorf-inspired morning routine has developed into her favorite part of the homeschool day.
one year ago: Shelli doesn’t teach geography — but her kids have learned it anyway
two years ago: Resources for studying the Supreme Court
three years ago: Rebecca reviewed a holiday curriculum for parents, designed to put the fun back in the season
four years ago: Homeschooling isn’t always easy — so why do we do it?
LINKS I LIKED
New item for my bucket list: Participate in the Central Park Squirrel Census
Relevant to my interests: The 100 Best Pens. (I do own the Schneider Slider Memo XB Medium, and it totally is the smoothest-writing pen that also isn’t smudgy I have ever tried, so I am excited to write my way through the rest of the top 10.)
How cool is this? A shipwreck of a Greek vessel dating back to 400 B.C.E. was found in the Black Sea. (Don’t these kinds of discoveries always make you wonder why you didn’t become an archeologist?)
Descriptions of writers included in FBI surveillance reports are sometimes weirdly accurate (and sometimes just weird.)
In defense of puns (I may have printed this off for my 11-year-old who is not appreciating my puns these days!)
THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW BUT NOW I DO
Vardo is the witch capital of Norway, and it’s much more disturbing than Salem.
However bad things may seem, the year 536 was worse.
WHAT’S MAKING ME HAPPY
The art projects my students made connecting two Enlightenment era literary works
My dog’s holiday sweater
My new cat socks (Now I’m not even mad at the dryer for eating all my other socks!)
Sufganiyot (You should make these even if you’re not celebrating Hanukkah this weekend! Most people make them with raspberry jam, which is great, but I always make one batch with red currant jelly because that is my favorite.)
It’s reading by the fire season! (We’re reading Good Omens so we can all watch the series together.)
(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.)
Curriculum Review: Better Chinese
Shelli reviews a beginner’s Chinese curriculum that’s working well for her 6th and 3rd grader.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I’ve undertaken the task of teaching my boys and myself two foreign languages when I don’t speak any foreign language. I’m teaching them Chinese and Spanish.
I think the biggest challenge in teaching a foreign language is finding the time to do it on top of all our other lessons and commitments. The second challenge is finding a good curriculum. I have learned that when it comes to foreign language, I cannot wing it. I need all the help I can get, especially since I’m doing two languages.
As for our Spanish curriculum, you can learn how I searched for and found a great Spanish curriculum in the Winter 2018 issue of home/school/life magazine. As for Chinese, I couldn’t find many non-digital curriculums for homeschoolers. I did find online programs, videos, apps, workbooks and resources geared toward adults on Amazon.com, but as for a step-by-step program of how to teach children Chinese when you don’t speak it yourself, I found only one: Better Chinese. This program teaches the simplified version of Mandarin Chinese.
(If you know of another program I missed, please tell me about it in the comments section!)
For the record, I have nothing against online language programs or apps, and I think having a component of the curriculum online is helpful, but I haven’t found it useful to do all the work online when I sit down with my two boys. We need a variety of activities – games, flashcards, worksheets to practice writing, etc. I find it too difficult to learn a language by just listening and viewing a screen. We also need a lot of repetition, so I needed a program that would offer a variety of ways to go over vocabulary.
I started by purchasing My First Chinese Reader Starter Kit (about $60 on sale). This includes one textbook (volume 1), two workbooks (volume 1A and 1B), a 6-month subscription to their online lessons, and a 1-year subscription to their MP3 files for volumes 1-4. Later I felt I needed more help, so I purchased their Teacher’s Guide for volume 1 (about $41.00) and an additional set of Worksheets and Writing Exercise Sheets (about $81.00). (It’s a huge set of unbound worksheets, but I do feel this was too expensive for what is essentially a big workbook.)
I have found Better Chinese to be a good curriculum, but it’s far from perfect. I have had to be creative to get it to work for us, and I believe it’s because I was already teaching from a Spanish curriculum that I have been able to figure out how to study Chinese with the boys.
For what it’s worth, here are my pros and cons regarding Better Chinese:
Pros: I like the Volume 1 textbook and how it’s set up. Each lesson gives us enough Chinese to learn without overwhelming us, and each lesson builds on the one before it. I like that we can watch animated versions of the lessons online to hear how the Chinese is spoken, and we can keep listening and going over the lessons until we learn the characters, pinyin and English translations. (We spend a long time on each chapter.) Better Chinese offers more than one way to listen to the vocabulary, so I appreciate that too.
Cons: The textbook doesn’t come with any instructions on how to teach the material, which is why I purchased the Teacher’s Guide. This guide has been helpful and unhelpful. First of all, it’s written for classroom teachers. There’s a lot of information in it, but as a homeschool mom, I can use only part of it, if any. We won’t be able to do many of these games and activities until we get a little better at reading Chinese. (You can’t play a game, if you don’t have a clue what you’re looking at!) Instead of playing games or doing activities, I have found that good, old-fashioned sit-down time with pencil, paper and flashcards is what works best for us. But this brings me to another pro.
Pro: I like that Volume 1 Workbook A comes with perforated cards of each Chinese character we’re learning. (There’s no way I could create my own Chinese flashcards because I’m not good at writing the characters yet.) I also like the extra worksheets I purchased even though they were too expensive. These seem more effective right now than trying to play games in Chinese.
Another con: There is no answer key for any of the worksheets or workbooks. Granted, I can figure out most of the answers by simply checking the English translation in the textbook, but there are a few worksheets that ask you to respond to a question or write the correct word pattern. It would be helpful to have answer keys for these worksheets.
As with any endeavor, you have to start somewhere. Overall, I’m happy with this curriculum, and we’re learning Chinese, though very, very slowly. Better Chinese has given me some of the tools I needed to start teaching Chinese to the boys and myself, though I have some materials in this set that I may never use. As we go along, I’ll be able to discern better what other resources will be helpful to us.
Do you teach Chinese to your children? Please tell me about your experience.
Stuff We Like :: 11.8.18
Maps of imaginary worlds, whitewashing ancient statues, transgender people in the medieval world, and more stuff we like.
I feel measurably lighter at the end of this week than I did at the beginning. I have an editing fest ahead of me this weekend, but I am feeling up to the task!
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
Shelli reviews a middle grades fantasy with a great heroine protagonist.
one year ago: World history at the movies
two years ago: The Secret Keepers and The Secret of Goldenrod
three years ago: Mindful Homeschool: What are you afraid of?
four years ago: Raising children who love to write
LINKS I LIKED
Relevant to my interests: Literary maps of imaginary worlds
This is a great list of books to introduce Iranian culture to kids.
THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW BUT NOW I DO
Someone knit a map of space, and it’s amazing.
All those white marble Greek statues? They weren’t actually white at all.
The first comic strip may have been in Latin.
The easy answer is yes, of course, but the details are fascinating: Were there transgender people in the Middle Ages?
There’s a word for that stack of books I haven’t read yet.
WHAT’S MAKING ME HAPPY
This bookstore in Germany
(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.)
New Books: The Mad Wolf’s Daughter
Shelli reviews this medieval fantasy, in which a girl learns to channel her inner heroine.
The Mad Wolf’s Daughter by Diane Magras
I read The Mad Wolf’s Daughter by Diane Magras out loud to my two boys, and I’m not sure who loved the book more: them or me. This is a riveting Scottish medieval tale about a young girl named Drest who finds herself on an unexpected rescue mission to save her father and brothers from some invading knights. The knights, however, leave behind one of their own, and she takes him as a hostage, hoping to trade him for her family.
Drest has only a few days to return this wounded knight to Faintree Castle before they hang her father and brothers. Along their difficult journey, they encounter a hostile bandit who follows them and wants to kill Drest. They also encounter a friend who joins them on their mission, and Drest rescues a witch who will repay them just when they need it the most.
The hardest part of the journey, however, is what Drest learns about her father and brothers. They are being hanged because they have terrorized many of the villages she is traveling through, and she’s faced with the dilemma of whether she’s going to join her family’s warband or become something different.
As I was reading this, I thought that this book is unlike any middle grades novel I’ve read so far. It’s unpredictable and brings up many interesting questions about loyalty. My boys and I were swept along with Drest as she wrestled with new revelations, yet we were encouraged with how she drew strength from imagining what her brothers would tell her to do in any given moment. We weren’t fooled though. We knew it was this young heroine who was making herself into her own legend.
We can’t wait to continue Drest’s story in the sequel to this book, The Hunt for the Mad Wolf’s Daughter, which comes out in March 2019.
(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.)
Stuff We Like :: 10.26.18
Existentialism in children’s literature, climate change and vanished hikers in the Alps, the legacy of female spiritualists, what your favorite Shakespeare play says about you, and more stuff we like.
It finally feels like fall!
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
Sometimes in late October that back-to-school enthusiasm fades and break still seems too far away, and you just need a little extra inspiration. When that happens, these 8 little adjustments can make your everyday a little happier.
A homeschool morning meditation: I want to let today be just what it is, one moment at a time, accepting the bright parts and the hard parts as they come.
I think you know it’s going to be a good Library Chicken week when you’ve got Holmes/Stoker feminist steampunk detectives and harmonizing decapitated cadaver heads who need a little assistance from a 7th-grade lab assistant. (Don’t worry, I still found books to grumble about.)
one year ago: Shelli considers the differences in homeschooling 2nd grade the second time around
two years ago: Molly on the pleasures and challenges of grounded life
three years ago: Learn more about the wild life of Teddy Roosevelt
four years ago: Shelli thinks about the ways homeschooling has encouraged her to pursue her own learning goals
LINKS I LIKED
OK, I have always loved the Chronicles of Prydain more than other fantasy series, and I guess now I know why. It’s existentialist fantasy!
I would never teach a history class with just Howard Zinn — but I would never teach a U.S history class without him either. This is a lovely tribute to what makes his history work so relevant and important — maybe now more than ever.
I love this roundup of black folklore books — I’m bumping a couple of these to the top of my reading list.
Relevant to my interests: Holy Spirits: The Power and Legacy of America's Female Spiritualists (I could have also put this in the next section because I did not know this piece of Sojourner Truth’s story)
Doesn’t somebody want to road trip with me to Texas to see the Edward Carey exhibit at the Austin Central Library Gallery?
This was captivating: Climate change is melting glaciers in the Swiss Alps — and one woman’s long-missing parents were finally discovered because of it.
THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW BUT NOW I DO
How to tell how realistic a made-up language is
I am a person of extreme discernment and top-notch taste — or a sociopath. What does your favorite Shakespearean play say about you?
WHAT’S MAKING ME HAPPY
Finally catching up on a new season of The Great British Baking Show
Lunch with Suzanne on Mondays
My dog’s Halloween costume
Writing postcards to encourage voters
(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.)
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.