Stuff We Like :: 2.3.17
Around the Web
Guys, I’m having a difficult relationship with the internet right now. It’s important to me to stay connected and engaged with what’s happening—but it’s also important for me to stay upright and to hang out with my kids on occasion, instead of crawling under the bedcovers for the next four years or so, which is what I feel like doing every time I fire up Facebook or Twitter. Even my favorite non-political pop culture sites have almost daily WHAT THE @%*& IS HAPPENING posts, which I appreciate because we’re all in this together, but which makes it difficult to surf on those days when I just can’t handle another newsflash. So the web pickings are a bit slim this week, but I’m hoping that if we all share strategies and support each other, we can figure out how to stay engaged AND stay sane. Comment if you have suggestions!
Here’s a great list of children’s and young adult books on refugees and what the refugee experience is like. I’ll be adding some of these to our bookshelf. (We also have a big list of immigration books, which includes books about the refugee experience, in the winter issue.)
If you’re in the middle of a comfort re-read of Harry Potter (and isn’t it always a good time for a comfort re-read of Harry Potter?), be sure to check out Sarah Gailey’s Women of Harry Potter series which is WONDERFUL and inspirational and may possibly make you cry a little bit (looking at you, Molly Weasley) but in a good way, I promise.
Thanks to the Boy Scouts of America for giving us some good news to celebrate this week!
at home/school/life
on the blog: Obviously you're going to want to add all of Suzanne's Hamilton fan reading recommendations to your library list. Because you never know when you might get stuck in a library with Lin-Manuel Miranda.
one year ago: We kicked off Black History month with a great high school unit study on the Harlem Renaissance.
two years ago: Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda: Better Homeschooling After the Fact
three years ago: Quick ways to cut the stress on hard homeschool days
Reading List
I’m currently teaching a Hamilton History class (aka U.S. History 1765 - 1800), so I’m brushing up on my Revolutionary reading. I’m only a short way into Janice Hadlow’s A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III, but it’s fascinating so far.
In honor of the new Shirley Jackson biography ( Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin), I’m reading/re-reading my way through Jackson’s works. My favorite “discoveries” so far: the recently published collection Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writings, and her novel The Sundial, which I’m totally adding to my Apocalypse Lit curriculum.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m a big fan of Lyndsay Faye’s Jane Steele (a Jane Eyre homage), and now I’ve moved on to her Timothy Wilde series, set in 1845 New York City—the first book, The Gods of Gotham, was excellent!—and have just begun her Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper novel, Dust and Shadow.
At Home
I know I talk about The Good Place every time, but the season finale was AWESOME and I’m now rewatching all the episodes on Hulu and you should watch them too because if it isn’t renewed for a second season it will be a small tragedy.
Big weekend coming up: Daughter #2 turns 14, Husband #1 turns 48, and the Falcons are in the Superbowl! I predict a lot of chips and dip and birthday cake in my immediate future.
So, my Christmas tree is still up. Is that bad? Between “I just don’t have the energy for this” and “the twinkly lights are so soothing and friendly” we haven’t managed to dismantle it. (Family of asthmatics = artificial tree, so at least it isn’t a fire hazard.) I’m sure we’ll have it down by Valentine’s Day. Probably. Maybe.
28 Great Books for Black History Month
From picture books to YA histories, these books make great readalouds for Black History Month in your homeschool.
We’ve rounded up a Black History Month book list to keep you reading—and talking—all month long.
A girl just wants to eat at the lunch counter, but it's not that simple in her southern city.
(Elementary)
The 1964 Freedom School Summer Project through a child’s eyes.
(Elementary)
Two girls forge a friendship that bridges a segregated town.
(Elementary)
Four friends stage a peaceful protest.
(Elementary)
The story of the civil rights movement seen through the eyes of a child.
(Elementary)
A girl becomes the first black student at a New Orleans school.
(Elementary)
The story of the 1963 March on Washington.
(Elementary)
Thought-provoking story of a black family forced off a bus with tragic consequences.
(Elementary)
A guide to black-friendly road stops helps a family drive from 1950s Chicago to Alabama.
(Elementary)
A family experiences racism in 1963 Birmingham.
(Elementary)
Profile of a female civil rights leader.
(Elementary)
A blues-inspired retelling of the Rosa Parks story and its impact.
(Elementary)
Nine months before Rosa Parks, a teenage girl refuses to give up her bus seat.
(Middle)
The civil rights era through the perspectives and stories of teen and young adult activists.
(Middle)
Biography of the journalist, activist, and educator.
(Middle)
Solid overview of the civil rights movement.
(Middle)
Historic photos inspire a fictional story of school integration.
(Middle)
Biography of the civil rights leader.
(Middle)
The youngest marcher on the 1965 Selma march.
(Middle)
Key moments in civil rights history.
(Middle)
A 1968 teenager raises money to fight prejudice.
(Middle)
Three sisters learn about civil rights in 1968.
(Middle)
A girl stands up against the North Carolina Ku Klux Klan.
(Middle)
An autobiographical history of the civil rights movement.
(High school)
School integration in 1960s Mississippi.
(High school)
The role of the Second Amendment in civil rights.
(High school)
A college student finds a middle ground between extremists on both sides of the civil rights movement.
(High school)
This reading list is from the winter 2017 issue of HSL.
52 Weeks of Happier Homeschooling Week 17: Keep a NO List
Death to Stock Photos
Homeschoolers are always making lists—books to read, field trips to take, websites to check out—so we’re definitely no strangers to the joys of a good list. But one list that we often skip is the NO list—a list of things that we’re not going to worry about, wonder about, or fret about—at least for the time being.
My list includes things like “using coupons,” “cleaning out the garage,” “my son’s reading habits,” and “standardized test prep.” All of these are things I have worried about, I could still legitimately worry about, and some people might think I should worry about—but I’m not going to. Not right now anyway. I’m worrying about other things (notably algebra and handwriting practice this year). I’m too busy to worry about whether I should participate in a homeschool focus group—so I say “no, thanks” and put it on my NO list. I’m more concerned about getting through AP U.S. History this year than I am about whether my daughter should try another sport—so we take more walks, and I put “find a physical activity for O” on my NO list.
The NO list, like any good list, isn’t a set-in-stone, established-for-all time dictate. Rather, it’s an evolving reminder of how you’re prioritizing your homeschool at a given time—this year, you’re going to stop obsessing over finding the perfect science curriculum and focus on making the one you’ve already bought work better. This year, you’re going to let the idea of picturesque, cozy morning time go because it’s never worked for your family, and you’re going to plant a vegetable garden instead. Right now, you’re going to stop panicking about your kid’s less-than-ideal grammar and focus on helping her find her voice as a writer. You get the idea. You can’t do it all. We never can. So knowing what we DON’T want to worry about right now can help you get where you want to go just as much as knowing what you DO want to do.
Ideally, you’ll keep an actual written version of your NO list that you can check back in with every couple of weeks (or months, if obsessing over lists is on your NO list right now). Are you worrying about the things you’ve designated as not-worth-your-worry right now? Are you worrying about things that should be on your NO list? Is it time to move that don’t-wordy-about-it item back onto your everyday radar? The NO list helps you prioritize, but it also helps you keep up with things you know should eventually be important, even if they’re not really that important this particular year.
Your challenge this week: Start your own NO list by choosing at least four things that you aren’t going to worry about right now. They can be homeschool specific (socialization, finding the right park day, writing research papers, writing on the front side of the paper) or more general (meal planning, painting the dining room, volunteering at the food bank). Remember: Putting something on this list doesn’t mean it’s not important or that it doesn’t matter to you—it just means that, right now, you’re focusing your energy in other areas.
Not-So-New Books: Belzhar
There's a lot of drama in this YA novel about a girl at a private school for troubled kids whose new diary lets her relive key moments of her relationship with her late boyfriend.
BELZHAR by Meg Wolitzer
If I were a teenage girl, I would love this book. As an adult, though, it irritated me. Which is kind of ironic because reading Wolitzer’s adult book The Interestings, I kept thinking that it would work much better as a young adult book, so maybe I'm just not her audience.
Jamaica (called Jam) Gallahue ends up at a Vermont boarding school for troubled kids because, a year after his death, she’s still mourning the loss of her boyfriend Reeve. At school, she’s assigned to a class called Special Topics in Literature, along with other students who’ve suffered great losses: Casey, who lost the use of her legs in an accident caused by her alcoholic mother; Sierra, whose little brother disappeared one night when she let him go to the store alone; Griffin, whose carelessness burned down his family’s barn, killing their entire goat herd. One by one, the students realize that when they write in the journals they’re required to keep for class, they find themselves back in the halcyon days before tragedy stuck. Jam gets to be with Reeve again. But there are only so many pages in the journal, and Jam knows that she’s eventually going to have to choose between the journal’s fantasy world and real life, which is becoming surprisingly good at her new school.
There’s a Big Twist near the end of the book that will either feel 1.) utterly predictable or 2.) utterly irritating. Either way, it leaves you feeling a little annoyed with Jam, I think. The secondary characters are well-drawn—I loved Jam’s roommate, and the other students in Special Topics were believable and engaging. And I do think that the tragedies of young adulthood are profound in ways that seem unreasonable to people outside of them, and Wolitzer does a good job of communicating that sense of “I-feel-things-so-much” that we all had in our teen years. Overall, I think it was interesting enough to recommend (hence the review), but it could have been so much better.
Stuff We Like :: 1.27.17
Let’s just take a moment to appreciate the magic of Mary Richards.
around the web
I flunked KonMari school—and I needed a good laugh.
More reasons to love librarians.
Relevant to my interests: The Highbrow Struggles of Translating Modern Children's Books Into Latin
Eye candy: Best bird photos of 2016
at home/school/life
on the blog: Carrie reviews the Seeds of America series, which is that U.S. history high school readaloud you’ve been looking for
one year ago: Shelli shares her family’s favorite elementary math games
two years ago: Peek inside the winter 2015 issue
three years ago: Our fabulous art columnist Amy Hood was one of HSL’s first regular writers
on the podcast: If you’re in the Atlanta area, Suzanne and I are giving a talk on how to handle homeschool testing on March 29.
reading list
I have read Goodnight Moon so many times that I think I can recite the entire text from memory, so I was excited to discover In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it—Margaret Wise Brown was an absolutely fascinating human being.
My daughter and I are reading Brave Companions for APUSH, and we’ve been really digging all the little stories of historical figures we didn’t know much about (like Alexander von Humboldt, who explored a bigger chunk of territory than Lewis and Clark). I’m always interested in the people when it comes to history, so this book was right up my alley.
I guess it’s no surprise that my son, who loves interrupting stories to ask questions, loved Wolf Story. (In fact, he liked it so much that it will probably end up on the readaloud of the week list at some point.)
at home
I’m so happy to have the new season of Grantchester on Prime. Give me a good vicar, some English countryside, and a knitting project (this—a Valentine gift for the kiddies—is what I’ve got on my needles right now), and I’m pretty much in Friday night heaven.
Starting a school is definitely an adventure. We’re a few weeks into the first term at my husband’s new school, and I feel like we’re starting to find our rhythm. (One of the biggest changes has been being busy on Fridays, which we’re used to treating as the beginning of the weekend. Oh, and adjusting our homeschool schedule to work with the extra time we spend at the school—we’re actually setting up a little family classroom so that we can do homeschooling at the school when we’re inspired.) I’m especially excited about our school library, which in addition to lots of great books, has curriculum materials for kindergarten through high school for families to check out for as long as they need. Isn’t that cool? Assuming I can ever get it all cataloged!
We have begun the great veggie burger challenge of 2017. We’ve tried these (really good, but they tasted best with all the extras which added a lot to the cooking time), these (which I loved but everybody else hated), and these (which are up for tonight’s dinner).
Fun Posters for Your Homeschool Rooms
Maybe it's just me, but winter always seems like a fun time to spruce up the old school room (or living room or back porch or hallway). We've rounded up some delightfully nerdy posters to give your space a little lift.
Full of wacky examples, passionate about things like the difference between they're, there, and their, and illustrated by images like barfing pandas, the Oatmeal Grammar Pack posters may not be for everyone. But they're hilarious and packed with truly useful information for growing writers.
I love the gorgeous DNA Double Helix print from Grammatical Art, but you can also find cool dinosaur prints, playful grammar posters, and other science artwork in this shop.
Outmane Amahou's minimalist graphic prints condense the history of art to a few indelible images. There's a pretty healthy roster of options, so you can put together a wall to go with your art history studies.
This groovy space alphabet by Fifty Five Hi's has tons of information and cool, vintage schoolroom style. The shop's Dino Alphabet is also pretty fab.
More inspirational than informational, the Be Radical poster by Ink & Sword makes science look good.
One of the most stylish anatomical posters out there, this typographic diagram of the heart by Ork Posters is a great science poster when your schoolroom is also your dining room.
I have a weakness for British history, so I am a little obsessed with this Kings and Queens of Britain poster by Supertogether.
Making the Most of Winter Movie Days in Your Homeschool
If you're looking for a way to write your next movie day into your curriculum, we've got you covered with fun activities inspired by the movies.
There's nothing wrong with a movie marathon, but sometimes, you need to kick it up a notch. If you're looking for a way to write your next movie day into your curriculum, we've got you covered with fun activities inspired by the movies.
WATCH: Edward Scissorhands
Tim Burton's story of fear and difference set in a technicolor suburban landscape may just be one of the great modern fairy tales.
DO: Soap carving
Get inspired by Edward's exotic topiaries and make your own sculptures with a butter knife and cakes of Ivory soap.
WATCH:: Home Alone
Come on, who doesn't dream about having the whole house to yourself every now and again?
DO: Indoor obstacle course
Build your own adventure with cushions, pillows, books, and whatever else you have lying around the house, inspired by Kevin's DIY home security system.
WATCH: The Gold Rush
Charlie Chaplin's chilly classic has some of the most iconic cold weather scenes in movie history.
DO: Pantomime show
Borrow Chaplin's silent movie style to create your own silent comedy show based on British holiday pantos.
WATCH: The Karate Kid
Choose your experience: the classic with Ralph Macchio as a misfit turned karate master or the newer version with Jaden Smith as a the karate kid.
DO: Karate
Rent a beginner's DVD, and turn your family room into a temporary dojo. If the horse stance proves a hit, you can sign up for real-life lessons.
WATCH: Treasure Planet
Disney's updated-for-the-space-age take on Stevenson's classic novel is surprisingly good.
DO: Have a treasure hunt
Make a map and send your young explorers in search of hidden treasure.
WATCH: Zathura: A Space Adventure
This underrated flick has all the qualities that director John Favreau would put to such great use in the blockbuster Iron Man.
DO: Make your own board game
All you need are markers, paper, and cardboard to create your own board game. Obviously, making all the rules is one of the best parts,
WATCH: The Gnome-Mobile
This hidden treasure of a film sends two children (yep, they're the kids from Mary Poppins) and their grandfather on a quest to help a gnome find a wife.
DO: Make a gnome habitat
You can occupy several hours creating a gnome garden complete with quirky inhabitants.
Book Review: Laurie Halse Anderson’s Seeds of America Trilogy
The Seeds of America trilogy looks at the American Revolution through the story of Isabel, Curzon, and Ruth, three young slaves fighting for freedom in the midst of America’s birth pangs
For the last couple of months, my eleven-year-old daughter and I have been devouring Laurie Halse Anderson’s historical fiction trilogy The Seeds of America, which looks at the American Revolution through the story of Isabel, Curzon, and Ruth, three young slaves fighting for freedom in the midst of America’s birth pangs. The series, recommended for readers roughly ages 10-14, opens with Chains, published 2008, continues with Forge, published 2011, and concludes with the long-awaited Ashes, published 2016.
Chains tells the story of 13-year-old slave Isabel and her younger sister Ruth, who have been promised their freedom upon the death of their owner. Instead, they are sold to the Locktons, British loyalists secretly working to undermine the American fight for independence. When the Locktons separate Ruth and Isabel, Isabel is drawn into the American fight for independence by Curzon, a young slave with close connections to the Patriots. He urges Isabel to spy on her owners in the hope that the Patriots will give her her freedom and a chance to reunite with her sister. Isabel ends up feeling caught between two nations, trying to decide which side will give her and her sister the best shot at liberty—the British or the Americans.
Forge continues the story from Curzon’s point-of-view. Curzon, on the run and trying to pass as free after an escape from a fearsome British prison, enlists with the Patriot Army and endures the hardships of winter at Valley Forge. He and Isabel, separated for most of the book, re-encounter each other at Valley Forge and have to sort out their own tangled loyalties and decide the best way to pursue their mutual dream of freedom.
The trilogy’s finale, Ashes, narrates Isabel and Curzon’s efforts to track down Isabel’s sister Ruth while dodging British and Patriot army skirmishes and evading an owner who wants to deprive them of the freedom and self-determination they’ve fought so hard to attain.
As my daughter and have read this trilogy together as a read-aloud, I’ve been powerfully struck by how often Halse Anderson’s trilogy reads like some horrifying dystopia, only to realize that this is, in fact, the story of my own country’s history—just a side of the story that’s long been hidden and ignored. Repeatedly, my daughter and I have found ourselves discussing the ironies of a war for independence that denied freedom to the estimated half-million slaves who lived in the colonies when the revolution broke out. As Abigail Adams wrote in 1774, “It always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me to fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.”
“As my daughter and have read this trilogy together as a read-aloud, I’ve been powerfully struck by how often Halse Anderson’s trilogy reads like some horrifying dystopia, only to realize that this is, in fact, the story of my own country’s history—just a side of the story that’s long been hidden and ignored.”
What makes this fictional story all the more compelling is that Laurie Halse Anderson grounds her creation so firmly in documented history, drawing inspiration from real-life slave narratives and testimony from Revolutionary War soldiers. Halse Anderson titles each chapter with a date, pinning her story to historic incidents in the war, and she also opens each chapter with short excerpts from Revolutionary War-era letters, diaries, newspaper advertisements, and military directives that echo off her fictional narrative in fascinating ways. At times, I’ve found myself wondering out loud about a particularly disturbing detail of slavery or the Revolution that Halse Anderson includes in her story, questioning if something really could have happened the way she describes it, only to have that detail confirmed by one of her historical excerpts.
When I learned about the Revolutionary War as a kid, I learned mostly dates and battles—only the broadest outlines of history—and the focus was almost exclusively on white men’s contributions. I love that this trilogy has given my daughter and me a window into the Revolutionary War experiences of girls and women, indentured servants and slaves, and people of color. It has given us a new perspective on the travails of young prisoners of war and soldiers in battle, as well as giving us a detailed look at the work of maintaining a military encampment and surviving when war made resources extraordinarily scarce. It’s also given us a new appreciation for the contributions that slaves and free black people made to America’s fight for freedom—contributions that often offered them little reward.
Our country is currently engaged in a tumultuous, painful debate about what it means to be a real American and what our country stands for. Laurie Halse Anderson’s Seeds of America Trilogy offers the kind of historical context I think we desperately need in order to see ourselves more clearly, accurately, and truthfully, and to move toward living up to our founding ideals. I’m so grateful to have shared these books with my daughter and to have had the chance to talk them over with her, and I encourage you to check them out, too. Some scenes of graphic violence and injuries do pop up in the books, so you might want to preview before sharing with younger/more sensitive readers. But all in all, I would highly recommend these books, even for readers who don’t normally gravitate toward historical fiction. You’ll emerge from these books with a fresh, unforgettable new perspective.
52 Weeks of Happier Homeschooling Week 16: Simplify Your Options
Limit your choices, and you’ll be a lot happier.
Researchers have found that the fewer everyday decisions you have to make, the more stamina, emotional self-control, and judgment you have—and the happier you are.
This is one of the simplest ideas to implement in your homeschool. Instead of making breakfast a spur-of-the-moment affair with a range of options, have one or two signature breakfasts that you have every day. Pare down your wardrobe so that everyone has an everyday “uniform.” (I’m a huge fan of Project 333, but anything that simplifies getting dressed every day works. Hey, it worked for former President Obama, who took sartorial decisions off his daily to-do list by always wearing gray or blue suits.) Follow the same routine every morning so that you don’t have to figure out whether it feels like a good morning to do math first or whether you should add a science experiment. Make everyday decisions simple routines that you don’t have to spend lots of time thinking about.
Obviously this system works because you have the freedom to shake it up when you feel inspired. You’re not prohibited from spontaneously deciding to make it Pancake Wednesday or taking an all-day field trip because you wake up in a field trip kind of mood—you’re just freed up from the pressure of having to construct every single day as it happens.
Your challenge this week: Choose one thing to simplify this week. (Breakfast is an easy place to start if you’re not sure where to begin.) See how your week comes together differently when you eliminate one piece of the decision-making process. Are there other decisions you could try to simplify?
Not-So-New Books: Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy
Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy
by Karen Foxlee
Sensible, science-minded Ophelia Jane Worthington-Whittard surprises herself more than anyone when she decided to rescue a mysterious trapped boy in the curious museum where her father is busy curating a sword exhibition. But there is something about the boy’s matter-of-fact yet fantastic tale that inspires Ophelia to be braver—and more adventurous—than she ever imagined, even in the days before her beloved mother passed away.
Like Disney’s hit Frozen, Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy riffs on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen.” Both modern adaptations play fast and loose with their original source—which makes sense, since Andersen’s meandering story with its old-fashioned morals seems firmly attached to the past. In Foxlee’s interpretation, the Snow Queen is pleasantly backstory-less—she’s just evil because she’s evil. The book follows two parallel stories: In the Marvelous Boy’s story, he tells Ophelia how he was chosen and prepared to defeat the Snow Queen—and how the Snow Queen had him locked away to prevent him from accomplishing his task. In the frame story, Ophelia faces ghostly girls, magical snow leopards, a terrifying misery bird, and her own fears as she makes her way through the museum’s corridors to rescue the boy and defeat the evil queen. Meanwhile, the queen—posing as a museum executive, has charmed Ophelia’s older sister Alice to achieve her sinister ends.
Ophelia is a likable enough heroine—and since she herself isn’t sure why she agrees to help the Marvelous Boy, I think the fact that it’s out-of-character for her works just fine. Ophelia’s grief over the loss of her mother feels realistic and heavy. The ending is predictable—but it is based on a fairy tale, and fairy tales are the literary equivalent of Patient Zero for predictable endings. Foxlee’s writing is gorgeous. I think this book is middle grade-ish, as far as reading levels go, and it’s wonderful to see such nuanced prose in a middle reader. It also makes for a lovely readaloud.
Stuff We Like :: 1.20.17
Let’s make America KIND again, y’all. Also capable of critical thinking and fact-checking. Sigh.
around the web
- I so agree with this: The general problem with math is that we teach kids how to pass tests, not how to, you know, actually do math.
- I love the idea of these little neighborhood food pantries.
- Don’t we all want to be Idris Elba’s Valentine?
- I did just buy my daughter a subscription to Teen Vogue for this very reason.
- I have a new dream vacation destination.
at home/school/life
- on the blog: Suzanne walks you through the rules of Library Chicken.
- one year ago: Learn more about Mary Tudor
- two years ago: Lisa made time for herself by joining a writers group
- three years ago: Shelli made our very first HSL blog post
reading list
- I discovered that the author of The Rose Garden Husband (which, as you know, is one of my favorite comfort reads) wrote another book called The Wishing Ring Man that also features Phyllis and Alan, who play matchmakers for the couple featured in this book and who are just as glowingly in love and perfectly matched as you knew they would be. It’s been a hard couple of months. Reading this made it a little better.
- I’m teaching a feminism in pop culture class, so I’ve been brushing up on the feminist canon with my Norton Feminist Literary Theory and Criticism. (You know, I am not a textbook fan generally, but the Norton collections are usually pretty solid. It pays to price watch on these -- I snagged my copy for $20-ish this fall, but it looks like the cheapest ones now are going for twice that.)
- For once, our readaloud of the week coincides with the official HSL readaloud of the week: We’re reading Skating Shoes. This rarely happens because my recommending a book is usually all that's required to get that book knocked off the consideration list! (Someone asked me about keeping a running list of our weekly readaloud picks, so I’ve added that to the bottom of the subscribers page.)
at home
- Of course we are watching A Series of Unfortunate Events together.
- I’ve been making this sunny yellow soup a lot this month—partly because it’s so cheerful to look at, partly because it’s so easy, and partly because I don’t know what to cook when it’s 69 degrees in January.
- My best friend is in DC this weekend—I contributed by knitting her chapeau for the march. (She may also be wearing my new favorite t-shirt.)
Bespoke Book List: Funny Fantasy
My kids loved Half Magic and devoured the rest of Edward Eager’s books. What other fantasy stories with magic and humor do you recommend?
Five Children and It: Eager himself pays lavish tribute to Nesbit’s old-fashioned magic tales in his own books, so if you haven’t read this classic story of five children and a wish-granting Psammead, put it at the top of your list.
Upside-Down Magic: When shapeshifter Nory flunks out of magic school, she ends up in a class full of kids whose magic is as wonderfully wonky as her own. (Bonus points to this book for introducing the bitten—beaver + kitten—and dritten—dragon + kitten.)
No Flying in the House: Annabel’s family has always been just her and her tiny white dog Gloria, who talks and wears a gold collar. But when a not-so-nice cat tells Annabel that she’s really half-fairy, Annabel knows big changes lie ahead.
Bed-knob and Broomstick: If you’ve read The Borrowers, you know how delightfully Mary Norton combines everyday English life with fantastic events, and this story (really two stories combined into one book), about the Wilson children and their witch-in-training country neighbor Miss Price, is just as charming.
Igraine the Brave: When her parents accidentally turn themselves into pigs during a castle invasion, Igraine finally has the opportunity to save the day, rescue her parents, and prove that she’s as great a knight as her famous grandfather.
The 13 Clocks: A little darker than Half Magic et al, James Thurber’s quirkily whimsical fairy tale is a favorite of Coraline author Neal Gaiman’s. An evil duke systematically dispatches the princes who come seeking his niece’s hand in marriage, but the Prince of Zorna has a plan to win the day.
This book list was originally published in the fall 2016 issue of HSL. Are you looking for a book recommendation? You can always email us.
The BookNerd’s Guide to Life: Library Chicken
maybe YOU ARE READY to UP YOUR LIBRARY GAME and PLAY LIBRARY CHICKEN! Be the person who takes up an entire shelf in the hold section! Impress friends at parties by reeling off your library card number from memory! WIN VALUABLE PRIZES! (NOTE: No prizes will be awarded.)
Are you a library power-user? Did you have to invest in a wheelie suitcase for library day because that bitty little “Friends Of” library tote bag wasn’t going to hack it? Can you find your way to your favorite sections blindfolded? Do you know the weekly work schedules of your favorite librarians by heart?
Well then, maybe YOU ARE READY to UP YOUR LIBRARY GAME and PLAY LIBRARY CHICKEN! Be the person who takes up an entire shelf in the hold section! Impress friends at parties by reeling off your library card number from memory! WIN VALUABLE PRIZES! (NOTE: No prizes will be awarded.)
Here are the steps:
1. Start with a nice fresh library card. You have no checkouts. You have no holds. You have no fines due. You and your local library coexist in peaceful harmony, content to follow your separate and individual paths. You have no plans to visit the library in the immediate future—instead, today is the day that you will start on the shockingly large number of books purchased but unread that seem to have accumulated on your bookshelves. And you’re definitely going to recharge the Kindle and take a look at those Project Gutenberg downloads, because this time you really are going to make it all the way through the complete works of Anthony Trollope. Everything is possible and all is well.
2. And then—something happens. Perhaps you broke your favorite coffee mug. Perhaps the cat decided to register a complaint about the new brand of cat food by hacking up a hairball on the quilt Grandma made for you when you went to college. Perhaps you accidentally caught part of a newscast out of the corner of your eye and you are feeling blue about the imminent decline of the American republic. Whatever it is, you need a pick-me-up—and the library is just down the road! Full of lovely FREE books just waiting for YOU! The books on your shelves—you know them, you’ve lived with them for a while now, and frankly, the excitement has gone out of that relationship. But the library has shelves and shelves of books you may have never even seen before! Or maybe there are books you’ve been eyeing, flirting with from a distance, and now you’re ready to commit. Anyway, it’ll do you good to get out of the house. You’ll just pick up a book or two, see if there’s anything good on the new release shelf. No big deal.
3. You stagger out the library door, trying not to drop your massive stack of books in the parking lot (because of course you left the big bag at home), having maxed out your card. And maybe your husband’s card too, since you happen to have it on you from that one time he wanted you to pick up that one thing. But probably not, because that would be AGAINST THE RULES.
4. At home, you cheerfully unload your books and arrange the stacks. What order will you read them in? Alternating fiction and non-fiction? Maybe all the books with blue covers first, just for fun? Alphabetical order by author, like that friend of yours from book club who is so much more neurotic than you are (not that we judge)? It doesn’t matter what you choose, because you have all the time in the world—you can renew each book twice, after all. Yes, the plan has changed slightly, but you’ll get back to Trollope soon enough. Everything is possible and all is well.
5. Except that now the cat seems to be unhappy with the litter box, as well. And did you know that political news is on 24 HOURS A DAY? You’d like to do some research at the library to find out if that little twitch you’ve developed in your left eyelid is serious, but by the time you’ve scoured the house to find your daughter’s library card (which you would never actually use without her, because that would be AGAINST THE RULES), the library has CLOSED. But this is no big deal, because we live in the 21st century! You login to the library’s online system and put The Left Eyelid Solution on hold. And maybe another book or two. Or 14. Look at all those lovely books that the lovely library truck is going to pick up from other branches and bring to your very door (or at least your local branch). There’s so much to look forward to in life. Your eyelid feels better already.
6. HURRAY! Three of your holds are in! Wow, the library is really on top of things. Of course, you can’t check them out right away, because your card is maxed out, so you’ll need to read three books and return them before you can get your holds. And they’ll only keep the holds for one week at the library before canceling the hold. No big deal— you’ve already read one of your check-outs already!
7. Wow, four more holds have come in! The library system is so efficient! Okay, no problem, you can go ahead and take back the two you’ve already read, and maybe read that graphic novel next, since you can zip through that in day or two. When you’re getting two of the holds at the library (picking the ones that expire earliest), you notice that five more have come in just today. That’s great.
8. Okay. Okay. You’ve read five more. (Along with graphic novels, YA novels and memoirs are usually quick reads.) Time to go to the library again. Pick up some more holds—the library is busy, so they haven’t gotten around to checking all your returns back in again, so you’ll have to come back tomorrow. Better not forget or your holds will expire! Plus, the Kate Atkinson that everyone is so excited about is due.
9. Days have passed, perhaps weeks. Your life has narrowed into a tunnel leading to the library and back home again. You keep your online account open all day long so you can check it obsessively. “Mom, would you like to check my math?” You can’t, because you have math problems of your own. The Sarah Vowell hold only has two days left so you’ve got read something and fast. Do you start on the Hilary Mantel that has already been renewed twice and will be due back in 6 days? But you’re really excited about the latest N.K. Jemisin and sure, you just checked it out, but if it’s popular and other people have holds you won’t be able to renew it. You should probably check on that. And you just couldn’t resist the 2-week-only Margaret Atwood you saw on the new release shelf the other day, could you? Could you? What will you do? Do you allow the Vowell to expire and be released back to its home library, forcing you to put it on hold again sometime? Do you hang on to the Mantel, even if it means racking up those exorbitant $0.10/day fines? Will you gamble with the Jemisin, leaving it on your to-read stack in the assumption that sure, I can just renew it whenever, praying that when you click the button you won’t get the dreaded “RENEWAL DECLINED - ITEM HAS HOLDS” message? Or will you just give up, admit you’re a failure and a disappointment to everyone who knows you, and pile all the library books—partially read or never even opened—in the car, dropping them in the return slot on the side because you’re ashamed to go inside and meet the librarians’ eyes?
What will you do? What will you do? WHEN YOU LOOK INTO THE LIBRARY’S STEELY GAZE, WHO BLINKS FIRST, MY FRIEND? WHO. BLINKS. FIRST?
10. Congratulations! You are now playing Library Chicken!! You also have no social life and haven’t eaten a meal with your family in weeks, but that’s the price you pay to become a top-level library athlete of this caliber! Come visit me and we can read side-by-side, hollow-eyed, and DO NOT SPEAK TO ME BECAUSE I HAVE TO READ THIS MAGGIE STIEFVATER BY 5 P.M. TODAY.
Happy reading, everyone! (With great love and appreciation for the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System, particularly the Roswell and East Roswell branches. I always obey all library rules, I promise.)
Citizen Science Project #11: Project Implicit
This month I stumbled upon an interesting citizen science project that anyone can participate in from his or her computer. Three scientists from Harvard University, the University of Washington and the University of Virginia founded Project Implicit in 1998. According to its website, “Project Implicit is a non-profit organization and international collaboration between researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition - thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control. The goal of the organization is to educate the public about hidden biases and to provide a ‘virtual laboratory’ for collecting data on the Internet.”
Once you register on the site, you can return again and again and take several tests, but if at any time you decide you would rather not participate, you can just close your browser to quit. The site is secure and will protect your privacy. According to scistarter.com, there are more than 90 different topics being tested. They seem to appear in a random order.
So far I’ve taken two of the tests, and the first one took me about 15 minutes. The second one took less than 10 minutes. They were not difficult tests, although figuring out what they were testing was a puzzle. Although I was given results at the end, I still wasn’t sure what it was about. However, I’m happy to help research as I continue my year of citizen science projects. Speaking of which, I have one to go! If you’ve enjoyed participating in any of these projects, I’d love to hear about it.
52 Weeks of Happier Homeschooling Week 15: Plan a Family Vacation
Here’s something nice to know: The anticipation of planning for your next vacation can give you the same mental and physical boost you get from actually taking a vacation. People may actually be happier in the weeks leading up to a holiday than they are in the weeks following one—which is the best argument we’ve heard for making vacations part of your homeschool routine.
To get maximum vacation bliss benefits, experts say you’re better off scheduling lots of small long-weekend-isn vacations throughout the year than saving up for one big multi-week holiday. Whether you’re planning an easy-on-the-budget campout (we’ve got some great starter camping tips in the summer 2016 issue of HSL) or an Airbnb city getaway for Black History Month (check out our destination list in the winter issue), collaborating with your clan to plan a long weekend getaway in the near future may be just the lift you need to get you through the mid-winter homeschool blahs. If your budget is tight, think cheap: You don’t have to travel far—or fancy—to reap vacation benefits. Even a one-day escape can lift your spirits if you take the time to plan it and give yourself time to look forward to it.
As far as planning goes, vacation should definitely be a family project. Start an internet research campaign, and check out lots of travel guides at the library to help you plan a perfect trip.
Your challenge this week: Come up with a doable destination you can visit sometime this winter, and start planning a trip with your kids.
Stuff We Like :: 1.13.17
Around the Web
- Catherynne Valente, author of the Fairyland series (my FAVORITE contemporary fantasy series), has given us a post-election gift: a prequel story starring A-Through-L and the Green Wind, called The Beasts Who Fought For Fairyland
- And here’s another gift, from Key and Peele: the last Obama-and-his-anger-translator sketch (NSFW-ish :))
- The school kids in a nearby county were hoping for the gift of the snow day, but at least the county twitter account has a sense of humor
At home | school | life
- The winter issue is out! Thank you guys so much for all the nice comments about it, and if you haven’t downloaded your copy, do it now so you can read it this weekend.
- on the blog: What do you do when your homeschooling days are over?
- one year ago: How to organize your homeschool library
- two years ago: Education for a different version of success
Reading List
- Zadie Smith has been on my to-read list for years and I FINALLY read On Beauty—am now busily putting the rest of her books (including the just published Swing Time) on my library hold list.
- I’m halfway through Ali Smith’s How to Be Both and the first section (narrated by the ghost of a Renaissance artist) was both bizarre and wonderful, so I’m looking forward to the rest.
- Next up: Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay!
At Home
- The Good Place is back! I LOVE this show! If you haven’t seen it, catch the older episodes on Hulu and then join us to watch the best show on television at the moment. (Besides, it totally counts as a homeschool intro-to-philosophy credit.)
- Actually, we’re watching a lot of TV, now that all the shows are back after Christmas break. I don’t have the emotional energy for drama (well, except for This is Us, which I’m hooked on), but I’m really enjoying the diversity in the new & returning batch of family sitcoms: Blackish, Speechless, and The Real O’Neals are all excellent.
- Up next for our semi-monthly family movie outing: Hidden Figures—everyone I know who’s seen it has loved it!
Celebrate Appreciate a Dragon Day with One of Our Favorite Literary Dragons
Appreciate a Dragon Day is January 16, and it’s the perfect excuse to check out one of these great dragons from literature.
Appreciate a Dragon Day is January 16, and it’s the perfect excuse to check out one of these great dragons from literature.
The Colchian Dragon
Where to find him: Argonautica, by Apollonius of Rhodes
Jason enlists the sorceress Medea’s help to subdue this dragon, who guards the Golden Fleece without sleeping or wavering in his vigilance.
Eustace Scrubb
Where to find him: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
Turning into a dragon (while dreaming greedy dreams inside a dragon’s lair) actually does wonders for Lucy and Edmund’s spoiled cousin Eustace.
Sir Isaac Newton
Where to find him: Between Planets by Robert Heinlein
Don Harvey’s scientist friend is a dragon from Venus and one of the most compelling characters in this science-fiction classic.
Saphira Bjartskular
Where to find her: Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Honest, wise, ferocious and loyal, Saphira is bonded to Dragon Rider Eragon when he hatches her from a sapphire-blue egg.
Seraphina Dombegh
Where to find her: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
In Seraphina’s world, rational, mathematically minded dragons live in an uneasy truce with humans, and Seraphina’s dragon blood puts her at risk when a murder occurs within the human royal family.
Firedrake
Where to find him: Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
On his quest to find the mythical place where he and his fellow silver dragons can finally live in peace, safe from destructive humans, the dragon Firedrake teams up with other fantastic creatures and an orphan boy named Ben.
Mayland Long
Where to find him: Tea with the Black Dragon by R.A. MacAvoy
When Martha comes to San Francisco to find her worried—and now missing—daughter, she meets the mysterious Mayland, who, it turns out, is a centuries-old Chinese dragon—a fact that comes in handy when Martha goes missing, too.
This article was originally published in the winter 2016 issue of HSL.
Reading the Brontes: The BookNerd’s Official Guide
I loathe Wuthering Heights. I should probably tell you that right up front. It’s not that I haven’t tried. I had to read Emily Bronte’s (so-called) classic first in high school and hated every ridiculous humorless violent hateful brooding moment of it. Being a person who typically enjoys nineteenth century classic literature, though, I figured that it probably was my fault, so I tried it again in college, and once again despised every ridiculous humorless violent etc. moment. I gave it one last try a few years later and finally decided, nope, it’s not me. Wuthering Heights is indeed an terrible garbage fire of a book. (Except for all those people who inexplicably love it. I promise not to judge you if you’re one of those people. I mean, you’re clearly wrong, but we can still be friends.)
That said, I’ve been a big fan of Charlotte Bronte’ s Jane Eyre since the very first time I read it, around age 13 or so. As I’ve reread it over the years I’ve found that I particularly enjoy different parts of it—my first time though, I was obsessed with Jane’s experiences at Lowood, the Boarding School From Hell, but during later reads I’ve been more interested in Jane’s relationship with Mr. Rochester, or the strength of will she finds to run away from Thornfield Hall.
Recently, I had a wonderful time doing Jane Eyre as a read-aloud with my daughter, and that experience set me off on a reread through Bronte works, Bronte history, and Bronte miscellany. From that, I’ve come up with this list for anyone - homeschool student, homeschool parent, or interested bystander - who’d like to take a deep dive into the world of the Brontes. I’m happy to present:
The BookNerd’s Official Guide to Reading the Brontes
(NOTE: Wuthering Heights NOT Included)
1. Read Jane Eyre. If you’ve already done that, reread Jane Eyre. Better yet, find a 13-year-old (or thereabouts) girl to read it with you, so that the two of you can enjoy Jane’s near-constant fury at the circumstances of her life (not to mention her occasional snarkiness) together. I’ve found that 13-year-old young women in particular have a real connection to Jane’s anger. Plus you’ll need someone to talk with about how St. John is THE WORST.
2. Read a biography of the Brontes. The lives of Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and supposed-to-be-the-Golden-Boy-but-never-got-his-act-together brother Branwell are at least as fascinating as their most famous novels. Claire Harman’s Charlotte Bronte: A Fiery Heart and Rebecca Fraser’s The Brontes: Charlotte Bronte and Her Family are both very good. Spoiler: Branwell is THE WORST.
3. Read more Charlotte. Both of her other major novels, Shirley and Villette, are good reads, though I’ve found that Villette stays with me longer and has more of an impact. Plus, after reading Villette, you can join in the great literary game of gossiping with your 13-year-old about what exactly happened in Belgium between Charlotte and her mentor, Constantin Heger.
4. Read some Anne. Poor Anne. Poor neglected Anne. Posterity seems to have entirely forgotten about Anne, which is utterly unfair. Plus, if this To Hark a Vagrant strip is historically accurate (IT IS and I refuse to entertain any discussion to the contrary), she was the most awesome sister of all. I’ve enjoyed both Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but if you only read one, make it Tenant, which—with its plot of a woman escaping an abusive husband with her child, not to mention all the arrogant entitled would-be suitors of the heroine, who get really really angry with her when she chooses not to love them back—feels (sadly) contemporary at times.
5. Read some fanfic. In this case, by fanfic, I mean some of the professionally published retellings of and homages to Bronte works that have appeared over the years. From Jean Rhys’ classic Wide Sargasso Sea (which tells the story of Bertha Rochester pre-attic), to Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair (set in a world where people can jump in and out of books to change the narrative), to my new favorite, Lyndsay Faye’s Jane Steele (“Reader, I murdered him”), there are plenty to choose from.
6. Finally, as a reward for all that reading—not to mention all those moors and all that brooding—read Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, in which a very sensible young woman visits the broody family Starkadder on their gloomy farm in deepest, darkest Sussex and proceeds to set everything right with a few common-sensical changes. I strongly suspect that Charlotte and Emily would have loathed this book (not Anne though, because she’s awesome), but it is enormously funny and one of my top-ten comfort book rereads. As a bonus, it was made into a wonderful movie with Kate Beckinsale as the heroine (and Stephen Fry as a delightfully smarmy Branwell fan).
EXTRA CREDIT This past year I finally got around to reading The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar . This book is a classic work of feminist literary criticism, first published in the 1970s, so I was a bit intimidated, but even as a layman I found it a fascinating read. I’m not exaggerating to say that it has changed the way I read novels written by women. But if that sounds a bit too much to tackle at the moment, you can pick up (the much shorter and much funnier) Texts From Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg for your homeschool (sample here ), secure in the knowledge that anyone who gets all the references in this book—conversations in text from literary figures including Medea, Hamlet, Lord Byron, Jo March, and Nancy Drew—can definitely consider themselves a well-read student of Western literature.
Happy reading, everyone!
Writing Your Next Chapter: Figuring Out Your Life After Homeschool
As homeschoolers, we spend a huge chunk of time preparing our kids to be independent, competent people setting off on their own adventures. But what happens to us when our homeschool days are behind us? With a little forethought and some strategic dreaming, we can plan a next chapter for ourselves as exciting as the one we’re busy preparing for our offspring. Here’s how.
IT SHOULDN'T COME AS a shock, but often, it does: After years of learning at home with our kids, they’re ready to head off on their own to their next adventure, and we’re left not totally sure what to do with ourselves now that this all-encompassing period of life is finished.
Homeschooling defines our kids’ educational experience, but it also defines us and our sense of who we are. We spend a lot of time thinking about our child’s educational and social development, but the truth is that homeschooling changes us as much as it changes our kids. When we sign off on that last high school transcript and see our child off to college or work or whatever next step he’s chosen for his life, we are not the same people we were when we first Googled “benefits of homeschooling.”
“When we started homeschooling, I was this shy, anxious person with a degree in computer science,” says Laura*, whose son left for college in 2010 after a decade of homeschooling. “When we finished, I had started and organized three homeschool groups, ran a local homeschool blog, and discovered that I liked history a lot more than computer science.”
Laura, who went back to college for her M.A. at the same time her son started his sophomore year, now teaches history at a private school. “It’s my dream job, but I never would have known that if I hadn’t homeschooled,” she says. “I loved being a homeschool mom, but I love this new chapter of my life, too.”
Letting go of our lives as homeschool parents is a major transition, and it’s fine to mourn those halcyon days of readalouds and backyard science experiments. But the transition from homeschooling doesn’t have to mean losing yourself—in fact, as Laura and other graduated homeschool parents have discovered, your post-homeschool life can be about finding yourself again.
“It’s my dream job, but I never would have known that if I hadn’t homeschooled.”
“For nearly two decades, homeschooling was all I thought about—all my goals were goals for my kids not for myself,” says Janet*, who sent the last of four always-homeschooled children off to college in 1999.
Deci, who started yoga classes when her youngest was in high school, went on to become a trained yoga instructor and now teaches yoga at her own studio. “I thought my life was over when my youngest moved out, but it was really just another beginning.”
TO MAKE THIS TRANSITION as graceful and gradual as possible, start laying the groundwork for your future adventures now. These simple exercises will help you point a path toward your future, whether you’re in your first weeks of kindergarten or prepping college applications.
Give yourself room to explore. Jump in now to join your kids in constructing salt-dough maps of the world or learning how to crochet or studying astronomy. You’ll never have a more welcoming environment for your intellectual curiosity than your homeschool days, so don’t miss the opportunity to flex your own learning muscles now. The happiest and most successful second-lifers are the ones who are willing to invest in their own skills and education—something that homeschool parents may be uniquely positioned to do, says Pamela Mitchell, a reinvention coach. If you’re not sure where to start, try a little bit of everything, and keep a journal to write down your emotional reactions to your efforts. Over time, you’ll start to recognize patterns that identify your interests.
Don’t be afraid to think small. A lot of people hang onto the idea that transitions don’t count unless they are dramatic, but you don’t have to backpack across Asia or become a YouTube celebrity to have a satisfying post-homeschool life. Something as simple as a part-time job at your favorite bookstore or signing up for a watercolor class can be a great first step toward redefining yourself, says life coach Marc Astwell. “Imagining a whole new life can feel really intimidating, but a new life is just a series of small steps,” he says. Your great new adventure can look a lot like your homeschool life did—just shift the focus to yourself and your interests rather than keeping your energies focused on your kids.
Keep a dream board. Whether it’s a real-life cork board or a private Pinterest board, start a collection of images, quotes, ideas, and other inspiration for your life after homeschool. Maybe you’ll find your board filling up with books you want to read or home improvement projects you want to try; maybe you’ll accumulate novel writing tips or travel destinations. Don’t be persnickety about what goes on your board—if something inspires you, add it to the mix. Later, you may want to look for patterns and cull your board to reflect your plans, but for now, let your mind run wild. You may discover that your board changes over time—that’s perfectly fine. You can remove items if they no longer speak to your interests, but treat this board like a visual brain dump where lots of different possibilities can exist together.
Be a quitter. Many people hang onto volunteer positions long after our passion for a project has faded into a sense of obligations, but this is a sure-fire way to close yourself off to other opportunities, says Mitchell. This doesn’t mean you have to drop volunteer projects that make your kids’ lives better (like coordinating the weekly park day they love even though it’s not your favorite thing on your to-do list), but it does mean that you should start thinking about transition plans for letting go of these projects as your kids outgrow them. “It’s tough because sometimes there’s no one to pick up your slack,” says Laura*, who was sad to see one of the homeschool groups she founded fold when she stepped away from her leadership role. “But at some point you have to drop the rope—and the earlier you start laying the groundwork for that, the fewer stresses and hurt feelings you’ll have to deal with.” Mitchell recommends making a list of your volunteer commitments every fall and circling the ones that you absolutely love. “Look for ways to cut back the time you spend on the ones that don’t feed your soul,” she says.
“Look for ways to cut back the time you spend on the things that don’t feed your soul.”
Look back. For many people, mid-life transformation isn’t as much about discovering a new passion as it is about rediscovering an old one. “Think about the things that you loved in childhood or adolescence, the ones that you put aside for a more practical career,” says Astwell. “For many people, those early passions are still the ones that make us come alive.” So if your garage is full of short stories you wrote before you decided to study accounting or you used to spend every spare minute in the woods behind yourself, a clue to your future passion may lie in your past. “I wanted to be an actress growing up, but I wasn’t a great actress, and my parents convinced me I’d be better off putting my acting skills to work in business,” says Gwen*, who homeschooled her two daughters for nine years. “When my youngest got involved in community theater in high school, so did I—and I still act and work behind the scenes for our local troupe all these years later.”
Give yourself permission to fall apart—for a little while. However you prepare, the actuality of life after homeschooling can hit you hard. You've been extreme parenting for years, using every ounce of your time and energy in a specific direction. To have that pulled away from you, even for the happy reason that your child is now your adult, can be emotionally wrenching, says Jett Parriss, an Oakland, Calif., therapist. You may suddenly notice lots of things you’ve been too busy to pay attention to: health problems, work dissatisfaction, life imbalances. It can be scary and overwhelming, so let yourself be scared and overwhelmed for a short time. In the long run, falling apart and putting yourself back together will serve you better than pretending you’ve got it all under control.
* We use first names only when we reprint articles on the website to protect the privacy of the people nice enough to share their stories with us.
This is a portion of an article originally published in the winter 2016 issue of home/school/life.
52 Weeks of Happier Homeschooling Week 14: Give Your Space a Lift
If you’re easing back into your routine post-holidays, one of the best ways to get everyone excited about back-to-everyday-life is to give your learning space a little makeover. This doesn’t have to mean painting and building bookshelves (though, gosh, wouldn’t that be nice?). Instead, focus on a few little changes that make your space more fun to use. Pick up a couple of fun new posters for the wall. Set up a reading corner with a comfy chair and a cozy blanket. Buy a groovy lamp, and set up a special math desk. Move your books around so that your family room shelves look new and interesting. Set up an easel and art supplies in a sunny corner. Set up your telescope and hang up constellation maps. Start a giant history timeline. Move your table to a different corner. Paint your chairs a different color. Take down your curtains or hang up new ones. Put up a tent for storytime.. Start a nature table, and venture out each morning to collect treasures for it. Build a little stage with a curtain backdrop in the playroom. Hang up chalkboard panels on your walls, and pass your kids a box of colored chalk. Paint a giant mural on your family room wall.
The idea is to make your space feel new and exciting again. By the time January rolls around, you’ve found your routine and figured out your rhythm, but you don’t want to give familiarity a chance to breed contempt. One or two little changes to the space you spend the most time in will keep things interesting.
SUZANNE REZELMAN is home | school | life magazine’s Book Nerd. Subscribe to home/school/life to read her brilliant book recommendations and literary musings every issue. Your library list will thank you.