Stuff We Like :: 8.11.17
You guys know that I was really hesitant about offering a print subscription, especially at such a high price point (and I totally understand everyone who’s commented that the price is just too high, believe me!), so I just want to say a big, huge, gigantic THANK YOU to everyone who has subscribed to the print edition. I promise that we will pour our hearts and souls into making these the best issues of HSL ever.
around the web
I don’t know, maybe you won’t find this brief (filed by the ACLU on behalf of John Oliver who’s being sued by a coal magnate over one of his shows) as funny as I do, but you should definitely read the table of contents.
Totally relevant to my life: Freelance achievement stickers (Y’all, I did NOT get the Put on Pants sticker today.)
This is the kind of mash-up of journalism and academia that I live for: How the pink plastic flamingo became an icon
Have you heard about this new alternate history show Confederacy that's coming out? I have issues with it for a lot of reasons, but Roxanne Gay explains several of them better than I could.
In case you’re wondering what to get me for Hanukkah: E.B. White’s farm in Maine is for sale
at home/school/life
on the blog: A day in the life of Shelli’s homeschool
in the store: Speaking of Shelli, our awesome senior editor has written a brilliant guide to homeschooling the early elementary years
one year ago: The Girl Who Drank the Moon is one of those gorgeous books that you can’t help falling in love with
two years ago: Great books about the Gold Rush
three years ago: How do you homeschool through a financial crisis?
reading list
This (lackluster) week in Library Chicken: Notes from a Feminist Killjoy: Essays on Everyday Life (+1), What Katy Did (+0, on my shelf), The Power of Myth (again—I had to pick my class readings!—+0, on my shelf), Invisible Cities (+1), All the King's Men (again—also prepping for class!—+0, on my shelf), Mythology (also class prep—0, on my shelf), The Iliad (also class prep—are you noticing a theme?—+0, on my shelf), 4:50 from Paddington (I am watching Miss Marple, which makes me want to reread all the Miss Marple books—+1). Basically, I’m super annoyed at Suzanne because she keeps reading really interesting books that I do not have time to read right now.
at home
We are crazy busy getting all the final stuff organized for Jason’s school—there is a lot of “one more thing”-ing when you are starting a school! (Actually, there is a lot of “one-more-thing”-ing in my life in general these days.)
It’s also a busy planning-for-a-new-grade season here. I’m sure I’ll go on and on about what we’re doing next year, but I’ll give you a brief rundown: Non-Eurocentric World History, Latin, creative nonfiction (reading and writing), Beast Academy, and critical thinking for my soon-to-be-4th-grader, and AP U.S. Government and Politics, World History and Literature (she may end up taking the AP World History test at the end of the year, but I didn’t put in an AP syllabus for this one because I really wanted to focus away from traditional Euro/white/hetero/male-focused history), Introduction to Critical Theory (I wrote the curriculum for this, and I am so excited to get to teach it—like, making-up-little-songs-about-it excited), Japanese, Algebra II, and Biology for my almost-10th-grader.
I am always trying to balance talking about our homeschool with protecting my children’s privacy, so I won’t tell you how my daughter ended up doing on the AP U.S. History exam. But I WILL say that I’m really glad we did it, and if you are thinking of aiming for the AP test, you definitely should — it ended up being a very happy experience for both of us with the class and with the exam.
At Home with the Editors: A Day in the Life of a Homeschool Mom
One time an acquaintance I know (who doesn’t homeschool her kids) told me that she imagined the homeschooling life to be very relaxing, and she thought that we would have lots of time during our days to do whatever we wanted. [Can we add a laugh track here?]
On one hand, I think homeschooling is pretty awesome because we’re in charge of our time, and there is a freedom in this. However, to say it’s always relaxing or that we can do whatever we want is a myth. As my children get older, and as they become more dedicated to certain interests, I have found our free time shrinking. I look back with nostalgia on those days when I had a toddler and 1st grader. We had fun doing easy activities, going on playdates, and exploring nature and storybooks. Although it’s very hard work to take care of small children, the work I did with them wasn’t hard, and I got to pick what we did!
“To say homeschooling always relaxing or that we can do whatever we want is a myth.”
This past year I had a 4th grader and a 1st grader, and it was a great year, but it was different from past years. It felt more academic and regimented. This was mostly because my 4th grader has been devoting himself to learning classical piano in a competitive way. This is his thing, and he wants to do it. It’s been an awesome journey for all of us, but relaxing? With lots of free time? Nope.
With this in mind, I thought I’d write what my daily schedule looked like this year—the whole day. Although, it makes me feel a little exposed to write about this. Parents can be so judgmental, and simply writing a list doesn’t give you the real picture of our daily life.
Keep in mind that no two days are the same. Three days a week I took one of my sons to an appointment or two. Some days we would take a break from something or everything! At least once a month we’d have a play date. Weekends were free. Next year, our schedule may change. Our days are always in flux, but in general, this is our daily routine. It’s a routine that has developed to work around our obligations as well as our personal interests. For the most part, it is fun! But it’s also a lot of work!
The times listed are approximate start times, but we’re often running late on everything!
7:30ish a.m. I wake up. Read news, yoga, check e-mail, sometimes write.
8:30-9:00 a.m. Boys wake up. I fix them breakfast and eat with them. I may put laundry in. Do some dishes. We get dressed. Boys will play before we transition to lesson time.
10:00 a.m. Begin morning lessons. I try to read aloud to both boys for about 30 minutes. Then my 10-year-old works on math, grammar, music theory, etc. My 7-year-old gets to play while 10-year-old does one-on-one lessons with me. We usually do this until lunchtime.
12:00-12:30 p.m. Lunch time. Boys play while I make lunch. My husband joins us while we watch part of a nature, history, or science documentary. (He works from home.)
1:00-1:30 p.m. Clean up dishes. Boys help sweep & clear dishes. More “transitional” play.
1:30 p.m. Husband sits with my 10-year-old while he practices piano for at least an hour, sometimes more. I go upstairs to do one-on-one lessons with my 7-year-old. We do math, reading, handwriting, a science book readaloud, play games, and read about birds.
2:30 or 3:00 p.m. Whew. We’re all tired now. The boys watch a kids’ program and then play games on their digital tablets and/or computer. This is my 1~1.5 hours of free time when I might do any of the following: take a walk, nap, cook, bake, write, check social media, clean, more laundry (always laundry). I tend to rotate these activities and do what seems most pressing at the time.
4:00 p.m. Boys finish playing games and the 10-year-old will go outside to play. 7-year-old either plays inside with his toys or goes outside. If I haven’t already, I need to start thinking about dinner, but I usually put this off. I prefer to sit on the front porch and watch the boys play. Or I putter in the garden.
4:30 p.m. This is the time that my 7-year-old likes to practice piano. I sit and listen and/or run back and forth to kitchen while cooking dinner.
5:00 or 5:30 p.m. Dinner. Lately we’ve been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation together. This show starts lots of great conversations!
6:00 or 6:30 p.m. I do the dishes. Boys help clean up. More play.
6:30 or 7:00 p.m. My 10-year-old practices piano again for another hour. My husband is his audience again, and many times, I am too. But I usually go off with the 7-year-old to either play a game, sketch together or paint…. whatever he wants to do.
7:30 or 8:00p.m. Boys take showers & get ready for bed.
8:30-9:00p.m. Boys watch gaming YouTube videos. Eat snacks. I take my shower and get ready for bed. Then I curl up in bed and watch something on Masterpiece Theatre.
9:30ish p.m. Boys clean up and go upstairs. I read books to them. Daddy talks with them about their day.
10:15 p.m. Lights out for the boys. I retreat to my bed to read a book!
11:00 p.m. Lights out for me!
Does anyone else’s schedule resemble mine? Let’s commiserate/celebrate together!
Library Chicken Update CABIN-EXTRAVAGANZA 2017: THE CABIN-ING
Welcome to the weekly round-up of what the BookNerd is reading and how many points I scored (or lost) in Library Chicken. To recap, you get a point for returning a library book that you’ve read, you lose a point for returning a book unread, and while returning a book past the due date is technically legal, you do lose half a point. If you want to play along, leave your score in the comments!
CABIN-EXTRAVANGANZA: As you might imagine, weeks of prep are required for the Annual Family Trip to the Cabin Where Mom Gets a Glass of Wine, Puts Up Her Feet, and Reads the Entire Time. I have to make a list of all the books I want to bring and then carefully time my library hold requests so that I can pick up the books before we leave. I start working on my list weeks ahead of time: I especially like to get nice thick new releases (that I might not otherwise get to before they’re due back) and I don’t want to bring any potential duds (though of course there are always surprises). Over the years, my cabin memories have gotten mixed up with the books that I’ve read there (Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, and The Three Weissmans of Westport by Cathleen Schine, to name a few), so it matters to me what I bring, meaning that it’s important to carefully winnow the list. Or not. I’m not so good at the last part. This year was a record: I brought three bags of books, wildly overestimating (as usual) how many I would be able to get to. But as Amy reminded me, that’s the entire point of Library Chicken, right?
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
This one was a lot of fun. A writer of Agatha Christie-like mysteries finishes his final book and commits suicide--or does he? And what happened to the last chapter of the manuscript? We get two mysteries for the price of one as the tale of the editor investigating the author’s mysterious death bookends the text of his final novel.
(LC Score: +1)
Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
A semi-famous artist and animator, now a full-time mom, deals with depression and anger during one very long, very bad day. I wasn’t sure how much I’d enjoy this novel given my mixed history with Semple’s other books, but this one is funny and heartfelt and goes in the YES column. NOTE: The main character will be easy to identify with for those of us (I know I’m not the only one!) who are married to super-nice spouses while being not-always-so-nice (even though we try, we do!) ourselves. And if you happen to be the super-nice one in the couple, you could always read this to see what it’s like being the other half.
(LC Score: +1)
Wodehouse: A Life by Robert McCrum
After having completed the Bertie and Jeeves oeuvre I wanted to read a Wodehouse biography. This one is solid and entertaining and deals well with the international scandal at the center of P.G. Wodehouse’s life, when, as an interned Englishman stuck in France during WWII, he agreed to broadcast on Nazi radio, even though he was in no way a Nazi-sympathizer himself. McCrum does a good job of explaining Wodehouse’s behavior (which was seen as providing traitorous propaganda to the enemy) without trying to excuse or defend it.
(LC Score: +1)
The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
Four adult siblings squabble over the disbursement of the family trust, which has been gutted as a result of the eldest’s irresponsible and immoral behavior. (Though maybe not in the way you expect.) At the beginning, the family seems to be made up entirely of mean-spirited jerks and pathetic losers, but new connections are forged and relationships shift, leading to a surprisingly sweet ending.
(LC Score: +1)
Ha’Penny by Jo Walton
Half a Crown by Jo Walton
The second and third books (following Farthing) in the Small Change trilogy, set in an alternate Britain (where the Nazis made an early peace with England and won the war on the continent) circa the 1950s. In Ha’Penny, following closely on the events of Farthing, we see England slip closer to fascism, while in the background a plot is hatched to assassinate the new Prime Minister and his guest, Adolf Hitler, on the opening night of a new London production of Hamlet. I had major issues with one of the relationships in this novel (and if you’ve read it, email me, because I would like to discuss it AT LENGTH), but it won me over in two ways. First, the actress involved in the assassination plot is one of the “famous Larkin sisters”, who are clearly and unashamedly based on the Mitfords, and yes, I’m up for reading anything and everything involving the Mitford sisters. (I may even occasionally cackle with glee while doing so.) Second, the Mitford-I-mean-Larkin actress is playing the title role in the production, a gender-bent Hamlet, and I found the backstage conversations about the motivations of a female Hamlet fascinating. (Also, I would now like to see this production. Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern, could you please make that happen?) Half a Crown jumps the action forward 10 years, to 1960 and an England with its own secret police force and soon-to-be-opened concentration camps. While the depiction of Britain’s fall into fascism felt scarily realistic, I thought the ending of the series was a bit too pat, though overall I enjoyed the trilogy.
(LC Score: +2)
The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
Secrets and lie detectors! Polygamy and Margaret Sanger! Feminism and bondage fetishes! The creation of Wonder Woman is one of those you-couldn’t-make-this-stuff-up tales, brought to life in this well-researched history by Jill Lepore, who always chooses interesting and unique topics to write about. (I’m also a big fan of her Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin.) It’s a great read, especially if you’ve just enjoyed the new Wonder Woman movie. (And if you haven’t, what are you waiting for?)
(LC Score: +1)
Mister Monkey by Francine Prose
This novel consists of a cleverly linked series of narratives from various people connected with the doomed revival of a popular children’s stage musical, Mister Monkey. Though a very different book with a very different style, I was reminded of The Nest, in that it starts out rather sordid and grim, but ends up with a bit of sweetness and hope.
(LC Score: +1)
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Fifteen years ago, a reality show depicting an exorcism performed on a 14-year-old girl became a pop culture phenomenon. Now her younger sister is 23 and is being interviewed for a book on the events of that show and their shocking aftermath, declaring in the process that she believes her sister was actually mentally ill and was denied needed treatment. I don’t want to give too much away, but Tremblay owes a large debt to Shirley Jackson in this creepy and occasionally disturbing novel.
(LC Score: +1)
Swing Time by Zadie Smith
Smith tells the story of two young girls growing up in the housing projects of London, who meet in a dance class and become on-again off-again best friends. One of them becomes a professional dancer and the other, our narrator, becomes the personal assistant to an international pop star. For what it’s worth, this is one of those novels where I felt I missed the point somewhere along the way, but that didn’t actually hamper my enjoyment.
(LC Score: +1)
The Vacationers by Emma Straub
An extended family vacation in Mallorca leads to all sorts of secrets being revealed, with relationships upended and characters having to figure out a way to stay together—or not. This was a quick, entertaining read, but I was a little disappointed by the cliche nature of the family problems. Basically, all the men (with the partial exception of the nice gay couple) are sleeping around, and (DEEP SIGH) the 18-year-old daughter wants to lose her virginity before going home and starting college. (Is that still a thing? Really, is that a thing we’re still talking about as an important life goal? Could we maybe decide not to have it be a thing anymore?)
(LC Score: 0, off my own shelves)
Howards End Is on the Landing by Susan Hill
In this memoir, subtitled A Year of Reading From Home, accomplished author and publisher Susan Hill devotes herself to reading and rereading the books on her own eclectic bookshelves. I’m always in the mood for a book about books, but I found Hill to be a bit of a lit snob, just a smidge smug and condescending. To be fair, I was probably never going to get along with someone who dismisses the Wimsey-Vane romance as ridiculous and has an entire essay on how she finds Jane Austen boring.
(LC Score: 0, off my own shelves)
Library Chicken Score for THE CABIN 2017: 10
Running Score: 82
On the to-read/still-reading stack for next week:
The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Coates’s memoir of his father)
The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi (need to finish reading Oyeyemi’s backlist)
The Sinful Stones by Peter Dickinson (Inspector James Pribble #3)
Postern of Fate by Agatha Christie (the final Tommy and Tuppence)
New Resource: Your Guide to Homeschooling 1st Grade
When I began homeschooling, I felt overwhelmed. There were too many books, blogs, and other resources. I wanted a short, sweet guide to help me get started teaching my son. I never found that, so I decided to write one myself.
I’m happy to announce that The Everyday Homeschooler’s Guide to Teaching 1st Grade is now finished and available for you! It’s short, but it’s also packed with information. This book will be helpful to any parent who has a child between the ages of 4-8 or thereabouts. “First Grade” is merely a guide. Not an absolute.
When we officially began homeschooling (that is, according to the state law), I asked, “What are 1st grade students supposed to learn?” Yes, there are books and websites out there that will tell you, and when I looked at them, I started to panic! Are you kidding me? A first grader is supposed to know all that?!
I calmed down, and ultimately, I used those lists as a guide for some simple lessons, but truthfully, I didn’t teach even a quarter of it to my son that year. Instead, I realized that by creating an environment that would honor his questions and foster his creativity, he was learning more than enough. I knew it was important that I let him use his imagination, play, and start a good routine. When he was five-years-old, I decided to create priorities for our homeschool that are still helping me plan our goals six years later. And the daily habits I set in place that year have helped me tremendously as we dig into more academic work now.
I wrote The Everyday Homeschooler’s Guide to Teaching 1st Grade for those of you who want to teach your children, but you also don’t want them to lose their love of learning. There is a list (not an overwhelming one) about what 1st graders typically learn in school, but then I also show you how to start thinking like a homeschooler. The first grade is the perfect time for setting up good habits that will last throughout your child’s whole education, and I will encourage you to set up the habits that are most important to you.
Also in this e-book you will find:
- a list of the most popular educational philosophies used by homeschoolers today
- clickable resource links
- how to create a physical environment that will foster creativity and learning
- a tip on how to get your child to try something without forcing him/her
- tips on lesson planning and scheduling
- tips on how to meet other homeschoolers
- a secular resource guide
- suggested reading list
- and more…
I hope you’ll check out the Table of Contents and Introduction here and also get back to me about this and other resources you’d like to see here on home/school/life. Amy and I are dedicated to making the home/school/life website a complete resource for families at every stage of homeschooling, so we want your input. Thanks!
Readaloud of the Week: A True Home
In brief: Orphaned mouse Mona has never had a real home—until a storm drives her into the cozy safety of the Heartwood Hotel. Working as a maid at the grandest hotel in Fernwood Forest, Mona’s happier than she’s ever been. But Mona’s not sure she really belongs at Heartwood—and danger may be lurking in the woods.
Why it’s a great readaloud: Sometimes you want a gentle, reassuring book that reminds you the world is a good place and kindness is usually the right choice. This book delivers, with a likable protagonist who uses her brains and her courage to problem-solve when she runs into problems. It’s hard not to love the details of the hotel where adorable woodland creatures come for their holidays, and there’s a surprising depth to this simple story that can launch interesting conversations about community, family, home, and friendship.
But be aware: If you’re in the mood for adventure and excitement, you may want to save this book for a quieter time.
Quotable: “We live by PROTECT and RESPECT, not by TOOTH and CLAW.”
(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 :: 8.4.17
This is the time of year when I feel a little sorry for all the kids in our neighborhood going back to school but also I can’t wait to have the library to ourselves again!
around the web
I am obsessed with my disposable fountain pens, but Jas swears by the humble stick pen.
It’s like The Toast knew just what I needed.
Relevant to our interests: Hayao Miyazaki’s favorite children’s books
at home/school/life
on the blog: We published a review of a science curriculum that wasn’t actually secular, and we’re sorry
in the magazine: The good news: We’ve finally got a print edition! The bad news: It’s pretty pricey. (Maybe someone will buy it for you for the holidays if you start dropping hints, though?)
one year ago: Our favorite school supplies
two years ago: What to read next if you loved The Phantom Tollbooth
three years ago: Mindful Homeschool: Find Peace in Your Home
reading list
This week in Library Chicken: A Circle of Quiet (+1, lovely whenever I need to feel that the world is a better place and I can be a better person in it); Labyrinths (+0, because it was on sale for the Kindle, and you can’t buy Borges and not read him immediately); The Hazel Wood (+0, advanced copy, and it was so weird because I don’t think it was a good book but it was so creepy that I couldn’t fall asleep until I finished it so maybe it actually was good? I will have to think further on this.); Dust Tracks on a Road (+1, and if you are a Zora Neale Hurston fan, you should definitely read this, and if you are not a Zora Neale Hurston fan, you may become one if you read this); Talking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin (+1, work-related); Howl and Other Poems (+1, work-related); People of the Book (+1, didn’t love it but it was still pretty good, and I was happy to cross it off my TBR list finally); The Library at Night (+1)
at home
We’ve been doing our homeschool planning meetings this week, and I think we’re all set to tackle 4th grade and 10th grade. I am especially excited about our NOT WHITE MEN world history year, which both my kids will be tackling in different ways. Putting together a plan for this was a little challenging, but I am so happy with what we came up with for both tracks. (If everything works as planned, maybe I’ll publish them here next summer.)
I finally got around to watching Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, and while it is nothing like either of the Dirk Gently books, it is silly and fun and interesting. And it entertained me while I finished the knitting parts of my Tiny Tea Leaves and matching headband, so onto the Tiny Shoes!
Summer Reading: Lian Tanner’s The Keepers Trilogy
Welcome to Summer Reading 2017! This year we’re taking advantage of the long summer days to read our way through some of our favorite series for children and young people.
One of the wildly inaccurate misconceptions about homeschoolers that I’ve encountered out in the world is that we are, as a group, overprotective of our overly sheltered children. After all, why else would we refuse to send our kids to school if not to spare them the tough-but-necessary life lessons that can only be learned on the playground? Part of this comes, I think, from the tendency to send children off to preschool at earlier and earlier ages, as a good friend discovered when, after choosing to keep her 3-year-old home with her for another year, a family member told her, “You’ve got to untie those apron strings at some point.”
It’s also confusing to me as a modern parent how protective I’m supposed to be. As a kindergartener I walked a half mile or so on my own to school every morning, and as a tween (a word that was not yet invented when I was one), I rode my bicycle (not wearing a helmet, of course) along a busy four-lane highway to visit friends, and I don’t think I would have been comfortable with either of those scenarios with my children. On the other hand, when I was a teenager, whenever I went out I was expected to let my (responsible and engaged) parents know who I was with, where we were going, and when I’d be back. Now that my kids are all cellphone-enabled, I’m lucky if they tell me they’re leaving before they run out the door, knowing that I can text them if I’m wondering where they are, and they can call me if they need to be rescued. And while I’m pretty much okay with that, given that it’s never been a problem and my kids are good about responding, I still wonder if that makes me irresponsible and disengaged. My high school freshman daughter’s friends were shocked that I was fine with her heading to the coffee shop or public library (both within easy walking distance) after school let out without asking my explicit permission beforehand, just texting me at some point to let me know where she was. Apparently, despite all those years of homeschooling, I’m actually more on the loose and easy-going side of the spectrum.
Which leads us (albeit in a roundabout sort of way) to one of my favorite fantasy series for upper elementary readers and above. No matter whether you’re protective or permissive, the world created by Lian Tanner in his Keepers trilogy will give you a new perspective on how we choose to look after our children. In the city of Jewel, children are literally chained to the Blessed Guardians for their own protection until Separation Day, learning such lessons as “An Impatient Child is an Unsafe Child, and an Unsafe Child puts All Others At Risk!”
When Separation Day is canceled, Goldie escapes from the Guardians and takes shelter in the mysterious Museum of Dunt, where she must quickly learn to navigate its shifting rooms and discover its secrets in order to save herself and the people she cares about.
Goldie joins her best friend, Toadspit, on the trail of his little sister, kidnapped by child-stealers and taken to the city of Spoke during its Festival of Lies, when everything is turned back to front and upside down.
Back in Jewel, Goldie and Toadspit (with the help of a magical dog, a talking cat, and the bloodthirsty spirit of a warrior princess) join the battle to free their city from the tyranny of the Blessed Guardians.
We Were Wrong: This Curriculum Isn’t Secular
A while back, we reviewed a curriculum called Sassafras Science in the magazine. Our curriculum reviewer was so excited about it—and who could blame her? It sounded awesome: Science built around storytelling, with a narrative that introduces key science concepts through the adventures of the story’s main characters. Our reviewer enjoyed it, her kids loved it, and it seemed like a great program for secular homeschoolers to check out. Except, as it turns out, it isn’t secular.
One of our missions here at home/school/life is to connect our readers with the very best secular homeschool resources. Sometimes, that isn’t as easy as it sounds—particularly with science materials. In this case, HSL recommended a science program that describes itself as neutral science. (“Neutral science” is a weird term that’s being used in homeschool circles to describe science that gives religious philosophy equal space with objective data, implying—problematically—that both have equal scientific value.) The volume our reviewer looked at didn't raise any red flags for her, and her review didn't raise any red flags for me. But that’s the problem: Non-secular science isn’t always immediately recognizable, but it’s our job to dig deeper. In this case, I didn’t dig deep enough. It’s my error, and I’m sorry.
In the fall issue, we’ll be discussing ways we can all recognize non-secular science when it’s not clearly identified as such—something that will help all of us find the resources we want. And here at home/school/life, we’ll continue to focus exclusively on secular resources and to apologize when we get it wrong.
Sincerely,
Amy
Library Chicken Update CABIN-EXTRAVAGANZA 2017 : THE PREQUEL
Welcome to the weekly round-up of what the BookNerd is reading and how many points I scored (or lost) in Library Chicken. To recap, you get a point for returning a library book that you’ve read, you lose a point for returning a book unread, and while returning a book past the due date is technically legal, you do lose half a point. If you want to play along, leave your score in the comments!
CABIN-EXTRAVANGANZA, THE PREQUEL: Every July we pack up the cars for our annual family trip to Boone, NC (chosen because it is roughly halfway between Atlanta and my brother and sister-in-law’s home in Virginia Beach), where we stay in a rental “cabin” that, with three levels, a hot tub, excellent wifi, and an assortment of widescreen TVs, bears zero resemblance to any of the actual cabins I camped in during my outdoorsy youth. However, it is built of logs and there’s a nice fire pit in the back (not to mention a boulder-filled creek with a very convenient swimming hole) so I guess it’s sort of cabin-ish. Boone is a great little college town (Go Appalachian State Apps!), with unique restaurants, fun and funky shopping opportunities, and an assortment of great outdoor activities, so as soon as we’ve unloaded, we head inside the cabin and do our best NEVER TO GO OUTSIDE AGAIN. The family’s goals are to catch up on what’s been happening in our various lives, play board games from the truly impressive collection we’ve built up over the years, and nap as much as possible. MY goal is to read as many books as I can, even while being distracted by my loving family and their attempts to engage me in conversation and so-called bonding activities. As you can imagine, during the week prior to the cabin trip there is a flurry of last-minute housecleaning, packing, and frantic calls to make sure we remembered to get someone to take care of the pets. Meanwhile, I’m upstairs reading all the books that have to go back to the library and in the process not quite finishing the Library Chicken Update I was supposed to turn in before we left.
Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary With the Bard by Laura Bates
I’ve been trying to read more about our prison system, and in particular I am interested in education behind bars, both in terms of the men and women who choose to do that work, and the effects on the inmates who participate. Professor Laura Bates spent years teaching Shakespeare to maximum security inmates. Her memoir of that time exposes a world that few of us ever see, but I was surprised by her choice to focus almost exclusively on one particular student, Larry Newton, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole while still a juvenile. Bates has clearly been deeply affected by Newton, who she describes as extraordinarily talented and insightful, and there’s some fascinating stuff here, but I became impatient with her concentration on Newton’s story and their relationship and was disappointed not to learn more about her broader experience with the dozens of inmates she worked with over the years.
(LC Score: +1)
The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death by Colson Whitehead
Whitehead wrote this memoir of the time that a magazine staked him to play in the World Series of Poker several years before his novel, The Underground Railroad, won the Pulitzer Prize (and everything else), and gee, I sure hope he’s feeling better these days. His writing is smart and funny, but the tone of this memoir—written in his persona as a native of “the Republic of Anhedonia”—is cynical half-joking despair that never lets up. Ha? It’s hard for me to laugh when I’m worried about whether the author is eating and sleeping okay and whether someone is regularly checking up on him.
(LC Score: +1)
By the Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie
Tommy and Tuppence mystery #4—and my favorite so far (with one left to go). Tuppence, now a grandmother, gets suspicious when an elderly woman seemingly disappears from an old folks’ home. This one is by far the best-plotted of Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence novels (yeah, okay, maybe there are some plotlines that don’t quite get wrapped up but what’s a loose end or two between friends?) and of course I always enjoy hanging out with the Beresfords.
(LC Score: +1)
The Old English Peep Show by Peter Dickinson
This is Dickinson’s second mystery novel starring the fabulously named Inspector James Pribble and I think I’m hooked. In 1960’s England, Pribble is sent to the country estate of a famous and wealthy family to explore the suicide of an old retainer, but all is not as it seems, especially since a large chunk of the estate has been converted into an Olde Englande theme park experience. With man-eating lions, which just you know isn’t going to end well. (Insert your favorite Jurassic Park quote here.)
(LC Score: +1)
The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah
You know, I have loved books that everyone else hated and hated books that everyone else loved, so I get that reading is subjective. I generally try to be as positive as possible even when I didn’t particularly enjoy a specific book, and when it comes to official fanfic—like this “New Hercule Poirot mystery!”—my expectations are not high. But in this case, I kinda feel like I read it so you guys don’t have to. (In fairness to Hannah, I thought her Poirot was okay, it was the rest of the book that didn’t work for me.) (LC Score: +1)
Vermilion by Molly Tanzer
ARRGH. I loved loved LOVED the beginning of this book. Our heroine, Lou, is a Chinese-American psychopomp (essentially a freelance exorcist) in an 1870s San Francisco populated by ghosts, assorted undead, and sentient bears. Tanzer, you had me at the bears, but when you threw in SENTIENT SEA-LIONS (!!!) I immediately logged into the library system and put everything else you’ve ever written on hold. Unfortunately, the beginning just sets the stage and the main plot has Lou leaving San Francisco behind (the sea-lions, Lou, how could you leave the sea-lions?) to investigate why Chinese men are going missing in Colorado. And yes, there’s a Mysterious Sanatorium and other supernatural things to come, but I just didn’t find it as interesting as the initial set-up. Plus, once we got into the main plot I started having major issues with story and characterization. Mostly I just desperately wanted to go back to San Francisco. (Dear Ms. Tanzer, I will happily read an entire series of Lou’s psychopomp adventures in San Francisco—and please can she have a special sea-lion buddy?) Anyway, I’m still going to look for Tanzer’s other novels, but this one broke my heart a bit as it went from 'My New Favorite That I Must Tell Everyone About' to 'Flawed But With Some Great Ideas.'
(LC Score: +1)
Moxyland by Lauren Beukes
This is the second Lauren Beukes novel I’ve read (after the equally excellent Zoo City) and I would just like to say that she is amazing. Moxyland is a near-future modern-cyberpunk tale of the corporate-ocracy told by four alternating narrators (one of whom is an art student who allows herself to become, via a sort of nanotech tattoo, a literal walking advertisement for a soda company). It is original and energetic and I couldn’t put it down. Now I just need to work up the courage to read her most recent novels: The Shining Girls (about a serial killer targeting bright young women throughout time) and Broken Monsters (about murders where human bodies are seemingly fused to animal bodies). (Beukes is great and I really want to read her latest books but all the reviews talk about their “brutal and disturbing violence” and I’m kind of a wimp and keep chickening out.)
(LC Score: +1)
The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan
After Fagan’s end-of-the-world story The Sunlight Pilgrims I expected this earlier novel to also be science fiction, but there’s nothing otherworldly or futuristic here—it’s the story of a 15-year-old Scottish girl who’s been in and out of foster care and who is now in a group home waiting to see if she’ll be charged with murder. The storyline is bleak and violent, but surprisingly I didn’t find it a particularly bleak or depressing read, in part because Fagan allows the humanity of her protagonist to shine through and even leaves us with a tiny smidgen of hope.
(LC Score: +1)
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
Atwood’s retells The Odyssey from the point of view of Penelope and the twelve maids who were murdered by Odysseus upon his return. Short and entertaining (if a bit grim, topic-wise), and would make a great high school side-by-side read with the original.
(LC Score: +1)
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
I have loved everything I’ve read by Helen Oyeyemi (White is for Witching, Mr. Fox, What is Not Yours is Not Yours) and this novel was no exception, but I struggled a bit getting through it. This was my second attempt and even with a running start I got stuck for a couple of week about a third of the way through. I hasten to add that this is a me problem, not a problem with the book. In this, her version of the “wicked stepmother” story, Oyeyemi deals with uncomfortable issues of race and parenting that made it a challenging read at times, though well worth it.
(LC Score: +1)
Deconstructing Penguins: Parents, Kids, and the Bond of Reading by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
This guide shares tips and techniques that the Goldstones have learned after years of hosting a series of book clubs for upper elementary and middle school students. I’ve found it a helpful resource when thinking about how to begin discussing literary analysis with middle-grade readers, and I picked it up for a reread to get ready for the middle school literature this fall. (Though clearly I’ve been hanging out with Amy too much, because every time the Goldstones talk about teaching the kids to be “book detectives” who find the meaning hidden within each book by the author, I think to myself, “The Post-Structuralists might have a bone to pick with you about that.”) HOMESCHOOL RECOMMENDED (despite those wacky post-structuralists).
(LC Score: +1)
The Great Brain is Back by John D. Fitzgerald
While working on a recent Summer Reading post I discovered that there was an 8th Great Brain novel I hadn’t read, published after Fitzgerald’s death, and of course I had to find a copy. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s a necessary addition to the series; posthumously published works are hit or miss to begin with, and in this particular case, I really struggle with the character of Tom (the Great Brain) as he gets older. From a parental perspective, Tom does some terrible things to his siblings and friends (which, I have to say, did not bother me at all when I read and reread these books growing up), and in his first adventure here he ends up cheating his brother and taking a loss because he can’t stand the idea that little brother J.D. might actually have gotten the better of him this one time. As Tom enters teenagerhood that behavior stops being funny and clever and just-maybe-acceptable and starts to look a wee bit sociopathic. (I was comforted to read that the author, John D. Fitzgerald, also struggled with this as the characters aged, feeling that it was past time for Tom to mature and permanently reform, while the publisher insisted on his adventures continuing just the same as always.) Please do continue to pass along the original Great Brain books to any upper elementary readers in your vicinity, but I think it’s okay if you give this last one a miss.
(LC Score: +1)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier written by Alan Moore, art by Keith O’Neill
This Week In Comics (Part 1): Previously on Library Chicken, I reported on Scream for Jeeves, a Lovecraft-Wodehouse crossover. One might think that we had covered all the Cthulu/Jeeves mash-ups available, but not so! In Black Dossier, a collection of League histories from its earliest 17th century incarnation onwards, one short story has Bertie Wooster telling us about the time Lovecraftian monsters attacked his Aunt Dahlia’s home, Brinkley Court. (SPOILER: Gussie Fink-Nottle’s brain gets removed, but no one notices.) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, for those who are unfamiliar, is a group of Victorian heroes, including Mina Harker, Captain Nemo, Allan Quartermain, and Dr. Jeckyll, documented in a series of comic books by Alan Moore and Keith O’Neill. (There was also a truly awful movie adaptation that you should feel free to ignore.) This graphic novel brings some of the characters forward to 1958 (when, in this universe, Britain is just coming out of its 1984 Big Brother era) in a framing story where they must steal the files containing the history of the League. WARNING: I love the concept and all the literary references, but Black Dossier and the other comics in the series would qualify for a hard R-rating (violence and <ahem> quite a bit of sexual content) and are definitely NOT for kids.
(LC Score: +1)
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl & the Great Lakes Avengers
This Week in Comics (Part 2): This Squirrel Girl collection, made up of material from before the current run of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Ryan North and Erica Henderson, consists of a few miscellaneous appearances plus her adventures with the Great Lakes Avengers, most of which spoof Marvel Comics and their occasional grimdark tone. WARNING: While the GLA issues can be funny and entertaining, they are also cynical, violent, occasionally mean-spirited, and sometimes come awfully close to being outright offensive (all the while playing it up with cute little comments like “Look how offensive we’re being! Oh, that’s terrible! We’re going to get letters!” so that we can be sure to appreciate how clever and ironic they are). Plus: Deadpool guest-stars! Despite the incredibly adorable cover, these comics have a very different tone and spirit from the current run and are definitely NOT appropriate for young SG fans.
(LC Score: +1)
Library Chicken Score for 7/18/17: 14
Running Score: 72
On the to-read/still-reading stack for THE CABIN:
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (a mystery within a mystery)
Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple (loved Where’d You Go, Bernadette, did NOT love This One Is Mine)
The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (squabbling adult siblings, my favorite)
The Vacationers by Emma Straub (more squabbling family members—on vacation!)
At Home with the Editors: Shelli's Summer Homeschool
Summer can have a mind of its own, so I know that making a firm agenda for these hot months is futile. Still, past summers have proved that we benefit from a little structure in our days. So I do a few homeschool lessons during the summer, and I also make summertime my time for planning, record-keeping, and cleaning up for a new year. While I do these “administrative” things, my boys have extra time to play, so that makes them happy.
LESSONS
First, I keep our homeschool lessons light. This year, I decided to only do Spanish and readalouds during our morning lesson time. I’ve struggled to include a foreign language in our homeschool in the past, so by putting away almost everything else for now, it’s easy to do one Spanish lesson per day. (I’m trying out Calico Spanish Level A right now, and I’ll let you know how we like it!) I also have a number of books that I never get around to reading to the boys during the winter months, so now is my chance.
PLANNING
It’s great to take a long time to plan and think about what I want to do with the boys in the fall. I have some new curricula to try out, and instead of feeling like I have to read through it all and understand how to use it right away, I have all summer to peruse it. I use my time wisely by going through my curricula (old and new) about once a week until I’ve looked at everything and made my plans. I’m very excited to begin exploring the Institute for Excellence in Writing’s Teaching Writing: Structure and Style and Student Writing Intensive DVD courses this summer. I hope that they may be a good fit for my son beginning in the fall.
RECORD-KEEPING
The biggest project I undertake every summer is our record keeping. By law, I have to write progress reports for both my boys, but since it’s for our eyes only, I consider it more of a keepsake. I write a list of every subject, and under each heading, I use bullet points to list all the curriculum, books, field trips, and classes that my boys have completed that year. Then, since I’m a photographer, I create a slideshow of the photographs from our homeschool year. My boys love watching the slideshow because they’ve usually forgotten what they were doing at the beginning of the year!
CLEANING
I’m not talking about cleaning my house when I talk about cleaning up our homeschool, although the de-cluttering I do definitely benefits the house. First, I go through homeschool supplies and books and get rid of the things I don’t think we’ll need anymore. (I give good stuff to charity and throw away the rest.) I also like to go through anything the boys may have built or made that year, and I ask them what they want to keep and throw away. This year, I did a deep purge of craft supplies and the recyclables that my eldest son used to use to make things with. He just isn’t into building anymore, and his younger brother is more into drawing and painting. So I have made more room for paints and paper.
I also store away the binders with last year’s work, progress reports and everything else we finished. While I try to let go of things, I probably keep a lot more than I need. But there’s always time to declutter again next summer or the summer after that.
What is homeschooling like during the summer for you? Do you take a break from everything, or do you homeschool year-round?
Stuff We Like :: 7.28.17
Just FYI: Our subscription service is raising its price-per-purchase, so the price of a subscription to home/school/life magazine will be going up $2 (to $21) in August. If you want to renew or subscribe before August 1, you can still do it for $19. The blog will obviously continue to be free. :)
around the web
Great tips for helping introverts participate in class without telling them to “just speak up.”
Timely read: How to do nothing
Why representation (in literature, art, and life) matters so much
at home/school/life
on the blog: I love Maggie’s ideas for creating a list of writing topics.
one year ago: What to read next if you loved the Warriors series
two years ago: I love this: When your child is ready to do it “all by herself”—but you aren’t
three years ago: Books we read in June 2015
reading list
My Library Chicken score this week: The Secrets of Wishtide (which I totally loved, and I thought it was a series but it’s not, and why the heck not? +1), The Art of Eating (+1), The Murder at the Vicarage (+1), The Power of Myth (+1, work-related, though I ended up buying a copy, too), The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath (+1), Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America (+1, work-related), Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America (+1, work-related, and the book that launched me on my current Thurgood Marshall kick)
My son is reading Survivors obsessively, making this his second book series obsession of the summer and me pretty much the happiest mom in the universe.
Speaking of series obsessions, my daughter just zoomed through the Jackaby series (which you already know I love) and Chrestomanci series. Apparently summer is serial reading season here!
at home
Jason and I are watching our way through season two of Poldark and lots of Marple while I work on my current baby shower knitting project. (Acorn TV is definitely the best subscription television for me!)
I am SO HOPEFUL about the Wrinkle in Time movie. Do not let me down, Ava DuVernay.
Summer Reading: M.T. Anderson’s Pals in Peril series
Welcome to Summer Reading 2017! This year we’re taking advantage of the long summer days to read our way through some of our favorite series for children and young people.
For me it all started with The Secret in the Old Clock. My dad was good about bringing home presents for my brother and I whenever he traveled for work, and after one trip (perhaps wildly overestimating the current reading comprehension level of his 2nd grade daughter) he gave me the first book in the Nancy Drew series. I had it by my bedside for months, doggedly making my way through, reading (and rereading) the pages until I could figure out what was going on, but eventually I triumphed—and immediately began working through the rest of the series. Downstairs in our homeschool room there is an entire shelf crammed with those familiar yellow hardbacks, next to a healthy sampling of Hardy Boys, half a dozen Happy Hollisters, a smattering of Bobbsey Twins, almost the entire run of Trixie Belden, not nearly enough Cherry Ames, and a selection of Tom Swift from my dad’s childhood.
I liked the way Tom Swift looked on my shelves, but I never did get around to actually reading them, so I probably shouldn’t have been so surprised when my children looked at my carefully preserved and lovingly displayed collection and said (more or less), “Naah, I don’t think so.” My older daughter read a handful of Nancy Drew mysteries, more out of duty than pleasure, but no one was really interested. Mostly they just sat there, collecting dust.
That’s one reason I was so happy to discover M.T. Anderson’s Pals in Peril series. Anderson must have grown up reading the same books I did because these “Thrilling Tales!” are an affectionate tribute to the mystery and adventure series of decades past. The pals in question are Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut (who is stuck in a bit of a time-warp), Katie Mulligan (a resident of Horror Hollow, where she regularly fights off zombies, werewolves, and rogue mind-sloths), and Lily Gefelty, an ordinary girl whose life feels a bit boring next to the exploits of her daring friends. My children hadn’t read much of the source material, but that didn’t stop them from enjoying these hilarious and ridiculously over-the-top adventures, stuffed with fabulous illustrations by Kurt Cyrus, absurd footnotes, and full-page advertisements for Gargletine Brand Patented Breakfast Drink, Official Beverage of Jasper Dash! (“Say, Kids, Want to Feel Peachy Keen? Drink a Quart of Gargletine!”) This series has been one of my favorite readalouds (though mid-elementary readers and up should be fine reading it on their own) and is worth checking out by anyone who grew up with Nancy and Frank and Trixie for both its humor and the sweetness of the friendship at its core.
“On Career Day Lily visited her dad’s work with him and discovered he worked for a mad scientist who wanted to rule the earth through destruction and desolation.” The whales cannot be trusted! Fortunately, Lily can rely on Jasper and Katie to help her save the world. The books get slightly more complicated as the series goes on, but this a great choice for young readers who are venturing beyond beginning chapter books. (Though if parents do them as a readaloud they’ll be able to share the enjoyment of chapter openings like, “If you have ever been present at a vicious attack by elevated sea animals, you’ll know exactly what the people of Pelt felt like. I, for example, was unlucky enough to be working as a house-painter in Minneapolis that terrifying summer of the Manatee Offensive.”)
The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen
Jasper, Katie, and Lily are taking a well-deserved vacation at the Moose Tongue Lodge and Resort when they run into the adorable mystery-solving Hooper Quints, the brave but not-that-bright Manley Boys, and the boy-crazy Cutesy Dell Twins. But what happened to the heiress’s priceless diamond necklace?!?
Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware
The pals encounter dinosaurs! lost cities! gangsters! and monks! while exploring the Land That Time Forgot: mysterious DELAWARE. Plus, the Delaware state song! This novel is by far the longest of the series and ends with our pals still stuck in the trackless jungles of the Blue Hen State, leading directly into:
Agent Q, or The Smell of Danger!
The tyrant known as His Terrifying Majesty, the Awful and Adorable Autarch of Dagsboro, is determined that those meddling children shall not escape his clutches, and sends his Ministry of Silence spies out to disguise themselves as furniture and lay in wait for our unsuspecting trio.
Back at home, Lily has to deal with her mom, who’s been acting strangely ever since her visit to Todburg, the most haunted town in America, while Katie is menaced by a visit from her cousin, bratty (and ever-so-bored) Snott Academy student Madigan Westlake-Duvet. Can Jasper help his friends survive the onslaught of the undead? Will the author successfully describe Madigan’s outfit every time she is mentioned in the narrative, as he is contractually obligated to do?
He Laughed With His Other Mouths
In the final Pals in Peril adventure, Jasper goes on a dangerous quest to find his father, who he has known only as a concentrated beam of energy from the region of the Horsehead Nebula. Fortunately, Lily and Katie refuse to let him go alone. And while the Pals are busy saving Earth from invading aliens, a second story—of Busby Spence, reading Jasper Dash novels while waiting for his father to return from the war—unfolds in a series of footnotes. (Warning: parents reading this book aloud should be prepared for unexplained allergy attacks—I did NOT cry, the room just got dusty!—and may want to lay in a store of tissues.)
Do This Writing Assignment First
Coming up with a great idea can be the hardest part of creative writing — so make coming up with those ideas your first homeschool writing assignment of the year.
Journal writing instruction often relies heavily on pre-determined writing prompts, imperatives such as “Write about a time when you had to make a difficult choice,” or questions like “If you were an animal, what would you be and why?” Even though writing has always been something I enjoy, I have to say that I hate writing to most journaling prompts. It turns out that asking me to write about my most embarrassing moment is the best way make me forget every embarrassing thing I’ve ever done, at least until the next time I’m having trouble sleeping. And let’s be honest. So many writing prompts are just insipid. (Think: “If you had to wear a coat outside in the summer or a swimsuit outside in the winter, which would you choose and why?”)
Of course, writing to a prompt and staying on topic is a skill that’s critical for academic success, and I’m not saying that kids should never write to a prompt. When it comes to daily writing practice or journaling, though, there’s a much better approach.
Kids need to be coming up with their own writing topics and learning to filter their own experiences for writing inspiration. In fact, that’s what most “real” writers do. Obviously, no one gave J.K. Rowling the parameters of the Harry Potter universe and told her to write stories about it. She called upon a lifetime of observation and experience when she wrote her incredible novels. My reporter friend who is featured on the local news station’s more lifestyle-oriented hour of programming says that she usually needs to come up with her own ideas for stories, drawing upon things she’s seen, read, or experienced. As a blogger and freelance writer, I’m constantly jotting down ideas for future posts and articles as inspiration comes to me.
If we want our kids to be skilled writers, we need to equip them to do one of the most important things skilled writers do—generate their own ideas for writing.
That brings us to what I’d like to suggest as your first writing assignment for the year—the Journal Ideas list.
There will probably be days when your student writer sits down to a blank notebook page with plenty of bright ideas for writing after a morning of getting fired up over a news story, having an argument with a sibling, or experiencing gustatory bliss at the new pizza parlor. There will be days though, inevitably, when the blank page feels intimidating and the words to fill it just don’t come as naturally. Those are the days this list is for.
On the Journal Ideas list, your student should down write at least twenty things about which he or she has special knowledge or about which he or she could have something interesting to say. It helps to work alongside your student, creating your own list.
To get you started, here are ten things I’d put on my own list:
- High school marching band
- Lessons I’ve learned about teaching
- Books
- Childhood friendships
- Things I hate doing because I’m introverted
- Family vacations
- My dog Mimi
- Art
- Tina Fey
- Best and worst gifts I’ve given my kids
On the days when writing ideas don’t come easy, the Journal Ideas list is there to remind your student of the interesting things he or she has to say. For the days when it still seems hard to get started, it helps to pick an idea from the list and then pair it with a writing purpose (entertain, inform, persuade, express). Isn’t it funny how the more specific we get with our writing topics, the easier it is to write? My high school marching band idea seems pretty broad and generic, but if I narrow it down to a certain writing purpose like persuasion, it becomes easier to write about. Sitting down to that topic and purpose, I’d likely write with a local government audience in mind, sharing how my experiences in marching band were critical in crafting the person I became and persuading the officials to adequately fund the local schools’ music programs.
Encourage your student to keep revisiting the list. Creative thinking breeds creative thinking. Get your kid in the habit of looking for ideas to fill the Journal Ideas list with, and you’ll find yourselves much closer to where you’d like your writers to be, people who see inspiration in life and who are comfortable using written language to talk about the human experience.
52 Weeks of Happier Homeschooling Week 40: Get Familiar with Your Child’s Learning Style
Every child has a dominant learning style, a way that he best absorbs and processes information, explains Kristin Redington Bennett, Ph.D., assistant professor of education at Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Some kids may fit obviously into one learning style; others may straddle a few different styles. One of the great perks of homeschooling is that once you identify how your child learns best, you can tailor your lesson plans to your child’s strengths—a strategy that can reduce stress and boost happiness in your homeschool.
Kinesthetic Learners (a.k.a. Body Smart learners)
Kinesthetic learners need to move to learn. Kids who are kinesthetic learners concentrate better and retain information better when they are moving around.
Signs your child may be a kinesthetic learner
- You joke that your child has a permanent case of the wiggles because she’s always squirming in her seat, bouncing up and down, crossing and uncrossing her legs, or tapping her feet.
- He has a great sense of balance and co- ordination. He’s also good at activities like sports and dance.
- She talks with her hands, using lots of gestures and moving around when she’s telling you a story.
How to teach your kinesthetic learner
- Push back the chair, and encourage your child to stand up or balance on an exercise ball when he’s working.
- Take regular 15-minute breaks to toss a ball, build with Legos, or practice your Just Dance routine.
- Teach your child to make letter shapes with her body, and let her practice spelling words with movement instead of on paper. Grab the abacus when you’re solving math problems together so she can move the beads as she’s counting.
Visual learners (a.k.a. Image Smart learners)
Visual learners absorb information best when they can see information, usually in the form of pictures, charts, or diagrams.
Signs your child may be a visual learner
- He loves doing puzzles and solving mazes.
- She’s good at following directions for things like playing a game or putting together Lego structures.
- He’s very particular about how his space is arranged. He needs to have everything set out just the way he wants it before he’ll start an art project or a game.
How to teach your visual learner
- Buy lots of different colored highlighters, markers, and pencils for your child to use for schoolwork.
- Encourage him to draw things out, whether it’s a series of pictures for a creative writing assignment or groups of shapes for math problems.
- Send her out with a camera to take photographs of different colors, shapes, plants, or other objects.
Logical Learners (a.k.a. Number Smart learners)
Logical learners are natural mathematicians, but they also use pattern-recognition and mental organization skills to approach other subjects.
Signs your child may be a logical learner
- He solves math problems in his head faster than he can write them out.
- She frequently comes up with ideas for science experiments and enjoys conducting them.
- He likes drawing patterns and playing strategy games.
How to teach your logical learner
- Look for puzzles and computer games to help her reinforce skills like spelling and computation
- Start with big picture issues (“What do you think this book is about?” or “Tell me what the solar system is”) before drilling down to details (“Tell me the characters,” or “Name the planets”)
- Help your child learn to organize his thoughts using outlines or lists.
Auditory Learners (a.k.a. Word Smart learners)
Auditory learners have a knack for memorizing things because they tend to think in words.
Signs your child may be an auditory learner
- He loves rhymes and word play.
- She has no trouble repeating back some- thing you told her several days ago and can tell you what’s coming up next in a book you’ve read before.
- He’s really good at trivia games.
- She frequently comes to you to tell you about what she’s doing when she’s work- ing or playing on her own.
How to teach your auditory learner
- Encourage her to make up songs with tricky information to make it easier for her to remember.
- Focus on the people and stories in subjects like science and history.
- Make up stories about math problems to help your child figure out how to solve them.
- Read out loud to your child to help her cement information in her memory.
Your mission this week: Observe your child, and pay attention to how he absorbs and retains information. Try a few new teaching or play strategies to see how he responds.
Part of this post is reprinted from the HSL Toolkit.
Readaloud of the Week: Owls in the Family
In brief: Billy rescues two great horned owls and brings them to his family’s Saskatchewan home, and hijinks ensue. Wol is a comedy genius, battling it out with skunks (during dinner) and terrorizing everyone from the minister to Billy’s French teacher, while Weeps is afraid of everything except the family dog.
What makes it a great readaloud: This old-fashioned, episodic novels lets kids peek into truly free-range childhood: Billy and his friends roam their neighborhood and the surrounding prairie with enviable freedom, and the owls’ (and boys’) antics provide plenty of laugh-out-loud entertainment.
But be aware: You may want to remind your kids that we know more now than we did then about how to treat wild animals—some of Billy’s stories (such as when he robs birds’ nests of their eggs) don’t jibe with current environmental ethics.
Stuff We Like :: 7.21.17
Apparently, finishing an issue makes me very chatty. I promise I am not enjoying a glass of frosé while writing this. (But no promises about what I’ll be doing after it’s written!)
around the web
The best thing I read this week was Rebecca Solnit’s talk about the time she spent roaming—both books and wilderness—during her childhood summers: “I was lucky that children were weeds, not hothouse flowers, in those days, left to our own devices, and my own devices led in two directions: north to the hills and the horses, south to the library.”
One thing you have to decide when you have a website is how you want to handle ads. I guess it’s obvious that my decision has been to limit them to the occasional sponsored post from companies whose homeschool philosophy syncs with ours, which is maybe not the most financially savvy decision but one I (mostly!) feel good about. (Obviously other people make other decisions, and those are the decisions that work best for them, so this isn’t any kind of criticism, just me musing.) But this piece about video ads taking over editorial content makes glad we’ve made the decisions we have—and that I’ve been the person with the power to make those decisions.
This is terrifying.
Great piece on how we think poetry is so much more complicated than it actually is.
Ooh, more Agatha Christie adaptations! (I have always thought Ordeal by Innocence would make a great series.)
Nice to see book clubs have remained consistent since the 1700s: “In most cases, food and alcohol in copious quantities, accompanied we may suspect by a considerable element of boisterous good humour, played an important part in the life of the book clubs.”
at home/school/life
on the blog: Look! I finally posted our 9th grade reading list. Now to finish our reading list for 10th grade! (It's a world history year—suggestions welcome.)
one year ago: Homeschooling High School: Mythbusters Edition
two years ago: Resources for teaching current events in your homeschool
three years ago: Mindful Homeschool: You Have All the Time You Need
reading list
I have basically rocked Library Chicken this week in my post-issue to-do list vacuum, so I am just going to give this whole space to my own reading list this week. I returned Just One Damned Thing After Another (first in the Chronicles of St. Mary’s series) because I was having second thoughts, but I picked it up again because some of my requests for further books in the series came in, so I read my way through the aforementioned Just One Damned Thing After Another, A Symphony of Echoes, A Second Chance, and A Trail Through Time like I was a binging a TV series. (And this would make a great series—ooh, maybe Eleanor Tomlinson could play Max!) These books are pure, history nerd, easy reading fun—the perfect back-porch-poolside-too-lazy-to-get-out-of-bed-today summer reading. Resist the urge to compare them to Connie Willis, and you should be fine. (Library Chicken score: +4)
I also recently discovered that Joan Aiken (you may remember her from The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and the Armitage family stories) wrote Jane Austen fan-fiction. How did I not know this? Suzanne said to start with Jane Fairfax (whom you may remember from Emma—she marries Frank Churchill), so I did, and it was such fun revisiting the world of Highbury and getting a different perspective on some of the characters. Some parts were better than others, and I definitely wouldn’t describe it Austenian, but it was certainly worth reading. Next up: Mansfield Park Revisited. (Library Chicken score: +1)
I am also really digging into my upcoming Greek history/literature/music/philosophy/art/science class for this fall. I’ve been reading a lot of context and criticism to help get oriented in the Classical world, and now I’m going back to the primary sources, some of which I hadn’t read since college and some of which I read before I had my inner chronology of Greek history properly in place. First up: Herodotus’s Histories, which really helped me get into the Greek mindset (and to appreciate that history has always been a narrative rather than an objective collection of facts) and Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War (again, now that I have the Peloponnesian War straight in my head and a different edition, which I really liked), which goes into long, delicious (and only very occasionally tedious) detail about the war between Sparta and Athens. Is it weird that I’m starting to view Greek history as my own personal soap opera? (Library Chicken score: +2)
I’m also trying to wrap my brain around a plan for high school world history next year, so I’ve been reading with that in mind. I really enjoyed Glimpses of World History, which Jawaharlal Nehru wrote in the 1930s as a series of letters to introduce his daughter to world history—I’m always looking for a way to see world history through non-Western eyes. I also enjoyed the perspective offered by Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, which mixes science into history in a way that many traditional world history books don’t. And I know we’re going to read Guns, Germs, and Steel, so I gave it a quick reread. (Library Chicken score: +3)
at home
Another summer, another friend with a baby on the way. This time I’m knitting a Tiny Tea Leaves (I love this pattern!), some Tiny Shoes, and a matching Violets Are Blue headband. (It’s a girl.) I got some lavender-ish yarn in the KnitPicks summer sale, and I think it's going to be adorable.
It is apparently our Summer of New Appliances. We recently replaced our hot water heater, and now we’re getting a new fridge. Yay?
The kids and I have taken up cross-stitching to cope with all the steamy, soggy afternoons we’ve been having this summer, and it’s a really fun project. I think I know what I am getting for Hanukkah this year! I would be really happy to get in some pool time, too, though.
Find Your Next Podcast Obsession: The Radio Adventures of Eleanor Amplified
The Radio Adventures of Eleanor Amplified is an excellent podcast and a Jula Family favorite, but it didn't start out that way. While I was instantly impressed by the production value (layer upon layer of sound effects!) and I liked that it was an old time radio show set in the present, I found the plot-line to be tired... crazy professor with an evil mind-control serum and a laser? That's been done. I found the character’s voices to be tired... rocket-scientist Dr. Gordon sounds just like Professor Frink from The Simpsons and the voice of Mr. Richmond, the newspaper editor, was so stereotypical it hurt. Both, so done. Maybe I was being overly-critical now that I critique podcasts. Maybe... I was just tired. Regardless, I had downloaded the Road Trip Edition (which is a brilliant feature I wish every podcast would adopt) and there’d been nary a peep from the backseat so who was I to complain?
As we drove west on I-70 toward the Georgetown Loop Railroad for my nephew’s 4th birthday celebration, I found myself chuckling. Wait, what? Did I just laugh at the podcast that I had resigned myself to disliking? I sure did, and I didn't even know I'd been paying attention. Back up.
I had to pause the show to ask the kids what had happened, which they totally appreciated. After some mom-shaming on their part, and an insincere apology on mine, they caught me up on what I’d missed and gave me their blessing to skip back to the beginning anyway. This time around, I appreciated the jokes, especially when Eleanore tells Professor Ignome that his plot to bore into the city reservoir and fill it with mind-control serum was “boring, all right,” because I'd just had that same thought! I love Eleanor's mom, who sounds just like Charlie Brown’s teacher, and I was totally won over when in episode 2 they introduced Conn Seanery and his shatellite phone. Instantly, I was transported to a nostalgically hilarious place—the SNL skit where Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond) and Burt Reynolds, a.k.a. Turd Ferguson (Norm MacDonald), antagonize Alex Trebeck (Will Ferrell.) That image, combined with the dialogue from the actual podcast, made me so happy. I had done a full 180, and ironically I had gotten lost on the way to the train and had to make an actual u-turn, but in the end I'd arrived at two conclusions: Eleanor Amplified was awesome, and do not blindly follow Siri because she is a fickle friend who will betray you at the worst possible time.
If, like me, you're a huge nerd fan of NPR and their shows and podcasts, not included in the Road Trip Edition but worth a listen to, is the Extra Episode where Terry Gross from Fresh Air talks with John Sheehan, a former Fresh Air producer and winner of the in-house contest that WHYY conducted to encourage a new and original podcast. John created the winning podcast at his desk during his lunch break, and Eleanor Amplified spent five weeks in the #1 spot for Kids and Family and #23 overall on iTunes, and spent about a month in the top 100.
While doing my research, I came across a review on Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. “The father of now two daughters (one who is 2 and the other 11 months old), knew from the beginning that his main character would be a young woman — 'I didn’t need another male hero in the world.' The four major lessons he hopes young listeners will pick up from the project: don’t be greedy, ambition has its limits, commercialism can have side effects, and seeking truth and speaking truth is important in and of itself.” Based on the conversations the kids and I have had, I'd add that questioning the motivations of others and how they drive their actions is also a prominent theme (and given the current political climate, maybe adults need to learn these lessons, too.) I'd also like to draw attention to the fact that the most devious, ambitious and greedy bad guy in the show is actually a woman! CEO Ms Angela Brandt sounds a lot like Donita Donata (for you Wild Kratt fans out there) and is really good at being really bad.
Suitable for kids of all ages, The Radio Adventures of Eleanor Amplified is available for download on iTunes and for Android.
BONUS: Cincinnati Public Radio has this wonderful little podcast called Classics for Kids. There's not enough to it to warrant an entire review (each episode is only six minutes) but it is totally worth downloading. Did you know that Bach had 20 kids?!? And some of them were also famous composers? Full of historical facts, beautiful music and charming stories of the composers as young children, struggling adults, and mentors to other famous composers, these podcasts are perfect. While not a serial podcast, I do recommend you listen to each composer’s series in order.
13 Tips for Attending Homeschool Conferences
Homeschool conferences can be overwhelming, but also incredibly informative. I recently attended a homeschool conference and here’s what I learned.
1. Bring a friend and a notebook.
Many of the workshops you would like to attend may be scheduled at the same time. Split up the workshops with a friend, and divide and conquer. Take notes during the workshops. It will be impossible to remember everything you heard and learned. A notebook will help jog your memory when you’ve had time to decompress from all you learned. At the end of the day, compare notes with your friend and share information. You will gain twice as much confidence and information with a friend.
2. Take as much information as you can in the vendor hall.
Vendors have material available because they want you to become informed, and want your business. Even if you think you are not interested in what a vendor has to offer, check out their product, and take their promotional material. Once home, it’s easier to digest all the information over a cup of coffee and some quiet time. You may just be inspired by something you didn’t know you needed or wanted!
3. Make a game plan.
Vendor halls and workshops can be overwhelming, especially at larger conventions or conferences. Be sure to check out the schedule and make a game plan on what you need. Ask the staff at the registration table for any updates to the schedule. Speakers and workshops schedules sometimes get moved because of attendance numbers, or other factors. You don’t want to miss your favorite workshop, so be sure to inquire. If the registration desk has a map of the vendor hall, review it before entering. Also make note of where the restrooms are located and local restaurants or the food court. Staying nourished and hydrated is important.
4. Ask to lock in sales prices.
If you can’t purchase now, ask the vendor if they can lock in the sales price that is offered at the conference. Most vendors will offer an extended sales price during the conference and for a week or so after the conference.
5. Check with speakers or workshop hosts to see if there is a webinar or audio version of the workshop that you can get free or purchase.
There is so much information to take in, that being able to listen to keynote speakers again, may be a benefit in your homeschooling.
6. Rest.
Grab lunch with a friend and decompress from the convention noise and overwhelm. Sitting outside for a while can help you regain some clarity, and give you energy to tackle the next workshop or vendor hall. Wear comfortable shoes.
7. Bring bags.
Most conference will offer a reusable bag as part of the vendor hall experience, but purchases, flyers, and PR material can quickly fill up your bags. Better yet, check to see if a rolling cart is allowed into the conference. It will save your back and arms from all the weight of that newly acquired material.
8. Meet and greet.
Introduce yourself to others. Tell your homeschooling story. Ask about theirs. Conferences and conventions are prime real estate for making connections in the homeschool world. Find your common ground, stay connected through social media or other methods, and build your homeschooling network.
9. Thank the coordinators of the event.
So much behind the scenes planning takes place to make homeschool conferences a success. Give helpful suggestions, rather than complaints. Volunteer to help if you can. Even a few hours attending the registration desk is a help to all.
10. Ask questions.
Contact the speakers and vendors if you still have questions about their workshop or product. They will welcome your inquiry for more information.
11. Decide if you will bring children.
Some conferences are child friendly with lots of scheduled kid activities, and others are more geared toward an adult day. Conferences may or may not offer child care or kid activities, so be sure to inquire. Vendor halls can be a long day for children who have no interest in looking at curriculum. Plan accordingly.
12. Plan time for sightseeing.
If you are traveling to a conference be sure to check out the local sites. Homeschoolers never stop learning, and this is a great opportunity to explore the world.
13. Set your budget.
Vendor halls and that shiny new curriculum or online curriculum, can be very tempting to purchase. Be sure you research thoroughly and stick to your budget.
Homeschool conventions are a perfect opportunity to make connections and have all your homeschooling questions answered. Do your research before the convention both on workshops you want to attend, and speakers that you want to hear. When you are in need of a homeschool reboot, a convention can be just the thing to inspire and refresh your world.
Looking Back on a Decade-Plus of Homeschool Life
Once I decided that ‘school’ didn’t have to look anything like the model I grew up with, I also started thinking about happiness, and success, and what I really wanted for myself and my husband and my children as we grow up together.
I can tell you exactly when I decided to homeschool. Kid No. 1 was nearly three, Kid No. 2 was an infant, and Kids No. 3 and No. 4 were years away. I was sitting on my bed next to my husband, reading my way through a stack of library books— not unusual, except in this case, the stack consisted of every single homeschooling book my local library had available. About halfway through the stack I turned to my husband and said, “I think we can do this.” I believe his response was a dubious “Hmmm.”
That was over 10 years ago, and if you ask me why I choose to homeschool, I can give you a decade’s worth of reasons. Initially, it just sounded like a whole lot of fun. I loved school and was a fairly accomplished nerd in my day, so the idea of doing school with my kids (of whom I am also rather fond) seemed pretty great. Academically, it turns out that the one-on-one of homeschooling is such an efficient way to teach that we could take Fridays off and still keep up with what was being taught in our local schools, even as we watched our school-friends deal with bullies, school bureaucracy, and the occasional lousy teacher. I believe that homeschooling supports family relationships and creates life-long learners, and we’ve chosen this course with great care and thought.
Of course, if you ask my kids why we homeschool—and people have—they will tell you that it’s because “Mom likes to sleep in and wear pajamas all day.”
Now, as it happens, this is also true. Which I think illustrates something important about homeschooling: it’s not just an educational choice, it’s a lifestyle choice. I thought I knew this going in. I pictured my kids’ educational journey as just that, a road trip, where instead of taking the interstates like most other folks, we had decided to take the back roads, enjoying the scenery and confounding the GPS.
But I’ve since realized that metaphor doesn’t go far enough. Once I decided that ‘school’ didn’t have to look anything like the model I grew up with, I also started thinking about happiness, and success, and what I really wanted for myself and my husband and my children as we grow up together. We’re still on a journey, but it’s not enough to say that we’re driving the back roads. I think we’ve left the car behind and are doing something radically different— more like taking a trip in a hot air balloon, with an entirely different view of the scenery.
“We’re still on a journey, but it’s not enough to say that we’re driving the back roads. I think we’ve left the car behind and are doing something radically different— more like taking a trip in a hot air balloon, with an entirely different view of the scenery.”
I didn’t quite know that’s what I was signing up for, halfway through the stack of library books, and it can get a bit nerve-wracking up there at times, but I have learned a few things I can share with my fellow balloonists.
Be flexible. You’re in charge up there, but you’re not in control. Health, financial, or other family issues may mean that the best choice for your family today is not the same as it was last year, or even last week. Give yourself permission to change course.
Keep your destination in mind. Whether you’re planning to homeschool for a year, until college, or for as long as it works, at some point your child will have to deal with the more traditional expectations of the rest of the world. This can be a rocky transition, but there’s a lot you can do to prepare and make it easier.
Teach the kids how to steer. When it’s appropriate—and as often as possible—let them make the decisions about where to go next. And, of course, enjoy the ride. Skip math and grammar and spend the day in bed with the kids and Harry Potter. Take a family trip when everyone else is in school. And definitely, always, wear the pajamas.
At Home with the Editors: Amy’s 9th Grade Reading List
Our 9th grade homeschool reading list is heavy on U.S. history and literature, with an effort to bring in diverse voices and stories. (Plus lots of physical science and a Studio Ghibli lit class!)
As promised, here’s the list of books we read in our 9th grade homeschool this year. (You can read more about our curriculum and schedule for 9th grade here; this is just the book list.) We read a lot, so this looks like a long list, but we didn’t read every book in its entirety. And while I tried to break this down into sections, we don’t really compartmentalize, so there’s definitely overlap. I didn't include books she read on her own for fun.
Summer Reading
How to Read Literature Like a Professor
I am always recommending this book to people who want to do more academic reading, and high school felt like the perfect time to put it on my daughter’s list.
A People’s History of the United States
I’m pretty sure this would have made a good U.S. History spine, too, but I went the more traditional route and assigned this for summer reading.
The Partly Cloud Patriot
I wanted to my daughter to jump into U.S. History thinking about who is telling the story and why and what it all means, and this collection of essays was a fun way to introduce the power of perspective in history.
Americanah
We were both really moved by this story about a young Nigerian woman who comes to the United States to go to college. (We also loved her We Should All Be Feminists.)
The Tao of Pooh
Recommended by my philosopher friend as a surprisingly good introduction to Taoism, which I wanted to explore before jumping into our comparative lit class.
U.S. History/American Literature
Spine: The American Pageant (AP edition)
I don’t usually go for traditional textbooks, but this one was helpful for pacing ourselves so that we covered everything we needed to get to before the AP test.
Spine: Primary Source: Documents in U.S. History Volume 1 and Volume 2
Spine: Norton Anthology of American Literature
We read this almost straight through—it was great for sampling a lot of different nonfiction, stories, and poems.
The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
I love that these letters capture a dramatic period of U.S. history and what life was like for ordinary people during the Revolutionary period. We really enjoyed them.
The Witches: Salem 1692
How can you study U.S. history and skip the Salem witch trials? I thought this book was fascinating (and a great read alongside The Crucible) because it really ties into ideas about religious provocation and crowd-sourced accusations that feel pretty relevant right now.
The Scarlet Letter
For literature, we really wanted to look at the qualities/themes that make a work "American," and The Scarlet Letter was a good place to start. Hawthorne is writing as a descendant of the Puritans he skewers in his story, establishing the complicated relationship between the past and present, the old and the new, that's still such a big part of American thinking. (I always get the Norton critical editions when I can because the essays at the back are great supplemental material.)
Founding Brothers
An obvious choice but a really good read.
Huckleberry Finn
An obvious but essential read. (But seriously WHAT IS WRONG WITH TOM SAWYER? Is he a metaphor for everything that is wrong with the South or just a terrible, terrible person?)
The Killer Angels
We all know what happens at the Battle of Gettysburg, but this scrupulously researched novel really brings it to life. My daughter hated it, though, so she didn't finish it.
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Fascinating!
Mothers of Invention: Women in the Slaveholding South in the Civil War Era
We talk a lot about how WWI changed women's lives, but the Civil War had a similar effect on the "ladies" who had to go from pampered, protected, fragile flowers to strong, capable caregivers, workers, and providers.
The Red Badge of Courage
Not my daughter's favorite—a little too violent and unhappy, but since that's kind of the point, we worked through it.
Catharine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity
Great biography. My daughter loved this one.
Brave Companions
We really enjoyed this collection of short biographies of people who don't always make it into traditional history textbooks.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
This is an excellent and often heartbreaking book about the Native American genocide during the 19th century.
Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation
Another sad but excellent book about Native American history.
Fathers and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Subjugation of the American Indian
This book wants to sort of give Jackson's side of the story, to explain why he'd commit so enthusiastically to wiping out entire nations of people. And maybe it kind of succeeds? But Jackson's position is just so terrible and wrong and misguided and the results of his actions so catastrophic that I think we kind of didn't care why he might have felt that way. Sometimes it's fun to read a book that you can totally disagree with, but we'd been reading a lot about the Native American genocide, and this just made us sadder.
Nothing Like it in the World: The Building of the Transcontinental Railroad
The railroad transformed the United States, and its completion was a massive undertaking for a still-young country. The whole project is fascinating, and this book did a great job capturing both its scope and some of the individual personalities involved.
Portrait of a Lady
Always a delight!
An American Tragedy
I loved this book in high school, so I was happy that it held up on reread and that my daughter enjoyed it—two things that are never guaranteed!
Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt
We will pretty much never stop being amazed by the sheer coolness of Teddy Roosevelt.
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America
Really interesting read about how Roosevelt brought the idea of conservation and public lands to the United States.
The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age
Corporate culture is such a part of modern life, it was really interesting to read the history of its roots.
American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism 1865-1900
When did capitalism become the American Dream? Sometime between the end of the Civil War and the turn of the 20th century, the democratic dream started to become the capitalist dream, and this book captures some of the people and moments that contributed to that transition. This was so interesting to read.
My Antonia
A classic novel of the pioneer experience—plus interesting to read while immigration is such a controversial topic.
Southern Horrors and other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida Wells, 1892-1900
OK, so Ida B. Wells is awesome in pretty much every way, but this book—about racism and sexism in the post-Civil War South—is so depressing. Totally worth reading depressing, but be prepared.
At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power
Also depressing, also worth reading. Lots of sexual violence (which is probably obvious from the title), though, so be aware.
The Strange Career of Jim Crow
How could we not read a book that Martin Luther King, Jr., called "the historical Bible of the civil rights movement?"
The Great Gatsby
Gorgeous.
Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy: A Lost Generation Love Story
The Murphys knew EVERYBODY (Picasso! Hemingway! Fitzgerald! Cole Porter!) in 1920s Paris, and their lives read like a good novel. (Which I guess isn't that surprising since Fitzgerald also based the Divers in Tender Is the Night on them.)
East of Eden
I really think this is the great American novel.
The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America
My daughter didn't love this group biography of Oliver Wendell Holmes, William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, and John Dewey, but I read it twice.
Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants Since 1882
A really detailed examination of the history of immigration in the United States.
How the Other Half Lives
A first-hand look at the lives of new immigrants in 1880s New York City.
Black Like Me
This book is amazing: A man passes as black on a road trip through the 1950s South, and his experiences and their effect on him are pretty unforgettable.
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
More cool Roosevelts.
Band of Brothers
It's not that this is a bad book—it's a very good book—but wars are not our favorite part of history.
Hiroshima
So heart-wrenching.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
You've probably heard about how great this book (which explores the intersection of science, race, and ethics) is, so I'll just chime in and add, yep, it is great.
All the King’s Men
A classic. (And, oh my gosh, incredibly relevant)
The Final Days
This is a richly detailed chronology of Nixon's last months in office.
Invisible Man
Everyone should read this book, so I'm happy it fit so neatly into our high school reading list.
Comparative Literature
Studio Ghibli: The Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata
This book was fine—some very interesting bits and some less interesting bits—but it was awesome to find a book about Studio Ghibli.
Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence
A readable approach to a slice of Japanese philosophy that resonates through the adaptations we watched.
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
Another philosophical idea that we wanted to understand in a more nuanced way.
Allegory of the Cave
I think this is the essential text for understanding the Western mind/body dichotomy, which is also an important part of Western literature.
Japanese Tales
Being able to recognize allusions and motifs is an important part of comparative literature. (Plus these fairy and folk tales were really fun to read!)
The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore
See above. :)
Physical Science
Spine: Holt Science Spectrum: Physical Science with Earth and Space Science
I wasn't over-the-moon thrilled with this textbook, but of the limited options for homeschooling high school science, this one felt like the best fit for this year. If you use it, be prepared to supplement a lot. I think this is a good option if you have a kid who's interested in physics but doesn't really have the math yet to be successful at physics.
Spine: Hands-On Physics Activities with Real-Life Applications: Easy-to-Use Labs and Demonstrations for Grades 8 - 12
Because you can't do high school science without labs! (This was actually a pretty good resource—it didn't match up with the book exactly, so I still had to put in some Google fu time to find labs to go with some concepts, but the labs we did were well organized and mostly successful.)
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Everything feels more accessible and more interesting when Bill Bryson explains it to you.
Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality
One of my favorite intro to physics books. We read this in bits and pieces as it related to things we were studying.
Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher
Another good book that we read in bits and pieces as topics in it came up in our studies.
The Norton History of Astronomy and Cosmology
Again, we read this as it felt relevant to what we were studying. It's a history of astronomy, so it gave good background info, but what I really like about this book (as opposed to the many other histories of astronomy out there) is that it includes the contributions of non-Western thinkers. Actually, you could probably use this as a spine for a middle school history of astronomy class and have a great time.
Professor Povey's Perplexing Problems: Pre-university Physics and Maths Puzzles with Solutions
Sometimes she'd figure out the right answer, often she wouldn't, but my daughter loved the explanations of how to approach physics and math problems. I think it really helped her expand her thinking about scientific problem-solving, which is awesome. I picked it up on a whim, but it was definitely one of our science highlights.
The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge
When experiments don't work and hypotheses fail, you're still learning something.
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
A fun readaloud.
Bad Science
Another good readaloud—this one's focused on how to recognize bad science (skewed test results, medical quackery, etc.) when you run into it.
Earth: An Intimate History
Interesting overview of the history of earth science.
Reading the Rocks: An Autobiography of the Earth
Pop-geology! (That sounds like an insult, but I promise I don't mean it that way.)
Etc.
The Bean Trees
My pick—I loved this novel, and I was excited to share it with my girl.
Letters from Iceland
Such a delightful surprise!
Our Town
Part of our "read more plays" initiative.
Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science
A little dated now but still totally worth reading.
The Importance of Being Earnest
So funny! (Plus it inspired our dog's name, so there's that.)
Cry, the Beloved Country
Beautiful and heartbreaking.
The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet
This one had been on my daughter's TBR list for too long.
Great Expectations
A classic!
A History of Reading
A lovely little collection of essays on the magic of reading.
The Nine Tailors
Still trying, still failing, to get my daughter hooked on the Lord Peter mysteries.
The Best Short Stories of O. Henry
Because when you're trying to write more focused short stories, you turn to a master.
The Portable Dorothy Parker
ESSENTIAL. Don't leave home without it.
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.