Literature

We are utilizing a somewhat eclectic approach to literature this year.  Daughter G, a 10th grader, is not taking a formal literature class in order to focus more on writing.  She is, however, reading 19th century literature at home, to go along with the same time period as our history studies.  She and I are both working our way through Les Mis right now, with an eye to the new movie due out next month! 

My bookmark is the purple one and hers is the pink one.  I work hard to try and pass her, and she works hard to make sure I don't.  :0)  My hubby is listening to the audio book of Les Mis while he drives to work, so that when all three of us are finished reading/listening we can have a fabulous discussion of it!  Hope that discussion actually materializes.... and that it materializes before we go see the movie.

Son G, an 8th grader, is taking an online literature class this year.  After experimenting on child #1, I realized that an introduction to literary terms and the experience of being accountable to someone other than mom were both good things to have prior to starting high school.  So this is the year for child #2.  He is currently reading The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, and enjoying it a lot more than he thought he would!  In class they are discussing the plot of this story, and delving deeply into an analysis of each major character.

Son L is reading solely for pleasure right now.  He is on book 5 of the Redwall series, and is completely enthralled with it!  My regular readers will know that he has had a rough start to 7th grade, and is having to work very hard in a few other academic subjects.  So I am thankful that literature for him can be purely pleasure reading right now, without the expectation of having to be prepared for a class.

Son C is reading books that correlate with our history studies, and recently finished the complete, unabridged version of The Swiss Family Robinson!  This book even looks old, doesn't it?!

He loved it and I was so proud of him for soldiering through the somewhat awkward manner of speaking.  When he was done, I had him do a simple "beginning, middle, end of the story" assignment just to solidify the flow of the plot.  He drew pictures down one side of the paper, and wrote a description beside each picture of what was happening.

Little Man's literature is still me reading stories to him.  I try to read every day, but must confess that is a challenge.  If I have an extended reading time with him three times a week I feel very successful.  Okay, make that two times.

In addition, my husband is reading The Book of the King (Book 1 of The Wormling series) outloud to all of us, and though it is our goal to read at least 5 nights a week, in reality it happens about two or three times. 

See what I mean?  Eclectic!

Reading Hard Books

On one of the yahoo groups I am on, we were having a discussion this past week about reading hard books.  And then Marcia Somerville, author of Tapestry of Grace, posted an article on her blog called "Reading Hard Books."  Hearing similar thoughts from two sources in the same week made me sit up and take notice.  Perhaps God wants me to learn something here!


Quoting from Marcia's blog (and she quotes from How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler):

[Adler] makes a passionate case that the books that enlarge our grasp of truth and make us wiser must feel, at first, beyond us. They ‘must make demands on you. They must seem to you to be beyond your capacity.’ If a book is easy and fits nicely into all your language conventions and thought forms, then you probably will not grow much from reading it. It may be entertaining, but not enlarging to your understanding. It’s the hard books that count. Raking is easy, but all you get is leaves; digging is hard, but you might find diamonds.

Evangelical Christians, who believe God reveals himself primarily through a book, the Bible, should long to be the most able readers they can be. This means that we should want to become clear, penetrating, accurate, fair-minded thinkers, because all good reading involves asking questions and thinking. This is one reason why the Bible teaches us, ‘Do not be children in your thinking; be babes in evil, but in thinking be mature’ (1 Cor. 14:20 RSV). It’s why Paul said to Timothy, ‘Think over what I say, for the Lord will grant you understanding in everything’ (2 Tim. 2:7). God’s gift of understanding is through thinking, not instead of thinking.

I agree, and it gave me pause as I consider my own book choices and the books I ask (force) my children to read.


Sometimes my children complain that a good plot is buried in archaic language.  It is so hard for them to read, they want to give up and read a more modern version, an abridged version, or a different book altogether.  I guess it depends on the book and our purpose for reading it, but I feel largely validated in saying no to their desire to quit, and in making them finish a hard book (and just so we're clear, this would be for my older children who are already excellent readers, and the hard books are interspersed with easier reading).

Hard books not only challenge and instruct our thinking, they also increase our vocabulary!  On the yahoo group I mentioned earlier, Rebecca shared these thoughts:

"Another time I read Anne of Green Gables to my children since I had so enjoyed that series when I was a child. Once again I was surprised how complex the language was. It was harder than my pleasure reading books. It was then that I decided that our children must, must read the old classics regularly to increase their reading age. If they stick to what is published now, they will never increase their reading age past a certain point.

Just last night I was reading a free ebook about Beowulf. Being copywrite free, it must have been written pre ~1920. The language was hard and I had to concentrate when I was reading. Here's the thing - according to the website I  downloaded it from, it was an elementary school level book. Now I am wondering  what language level were their high-school books!"

I have recently been experiencing this for myself, as I am currently reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.  There are famous quotes from this book that I have heard referenced ("it was the best of times, it was the worst of times..") but I have never before read the book for myself, and since we just finished learning about the French Revolution I figured this would be the perfect opportunity (I was never sure which two cities the title referred to, but now I know they are London and Paris in the 1780's!).  The language is incredibly rich and descriptive, but the sentences are woven together in such a way that I really have to concentrate as I read (also, I am usually reading when I am tired!).  Here is an excerpt from a section I read yesterday:

"Up the broad flight of shallow steps, Monsieur the Marquis, flambeau preceded, went from his carriage, sufficiently disturbing the darkness to elicit loud remonstrance from an owl in the roof of the great pile of stable building away among the trees."

Isn't that an incredible way to say, "Monsieur the Marquis, with his lantern carrier in front of him, walked up the stairs so loudly that an owl on the stable in the woods hooted loudly." ??

What do you think?  Do you agree with the value of reading hard books?  Have you read anything recently that has made you concentrate?  Look up unfamiliar words?  Spoken to you with its richness of language?

I'm pondering what this all means for myself, and for our home school, but in the mean time I am going to go read more Dickens!

Books I read in 2011

I read just 23 books in 2011, down significantly from my 39 of last year. There is still a long list of books to be read! So many of them challenged me, encouraged me, and made me think. Some made me laugh or cry (or both). Some led to great discussions with my husband and/or children.

I am currently reading The Hunger Games, partly to see what all the fuss is about, and partly to preview it for possible reading by our daughter. It is a compelling story ~ I am enjoying it ("enjoy" may not be the right word. For those of you who have read it, you'll understand what I mean!) I have always desired to teach our children to be discerning about the books they read and the movies or TV shows they watch, but I sense it urgently now. All too soon our children may be out of our home and deciding for themselves what they will allow into their minds. That is as it should be, but it will be disastrous for them if they have not learned how to be both discerning and self controlled. I had an excellent conversation with our daughter last week about this. I told her that she already knew very well the difference between things that were "good" and "bad", but I wanted her to learn the difference between "good" and "best". That elicited some great comments.

Anyway, here is the list of books I read this year. I bolded my favorites.

Shaiton's Fire, by Jake Thoene
White, by Ted Dekker
Red, by Ted Dekker
Black, by Ted Dekker
The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara
Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet, by Eleanor Cameron)
Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliffe
Men of Iron, by Howard Pyle
Lineage of Grace, by Francine Rivers
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
Red Rock Mysteries Books 1-4, by Jerry Jenkins and Chris Fabry
Among the Gods, by Lynn Austin
Faith of My Fathers, by Lynn Austin
The Strength of His Hand, by Lynn Austin
Song of Redemption, by Lynn Austin
Gods and Kings, by Lynn Austin
Adara, by Beatrice Gormley
Eleventh Guest, by Brock and Bodie Thoene
Hittite Warrior, by Joanne Williamson
Tenth Stone, by Brock and Bodie Thoene

Currently Reading.....

"Same Kind of Different as Me". Wow. What a great book!

I DID win the Kindle!!!!!!

Just found out moments ago that my blog generated the most sales of all the bloggers that entered the contest, so I did win the Kindle! Yippee Skippee!!!!! I'm so psyched!

Thank you, thank you, thank you blog readers who purchased from Hands and Hearts!

Okay, Kindle owners.....help me out! What do I need to know?

FIAR Co-op - How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, Part 1

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World is a very fun book that incorporates so many different topics for further learning. We could have spent a few more weeks on it! In the story, a girl sets out to make an apple pie, so she goes to the store to buy the ingredients she'll need. But the store is closed so she has to travel the world and collect all the ingredients herself.

First we read and enjoyed the story together. Then we did this sequencing activity where the students had to remember in what order the girl collected all the ingredients, and glue the pie shapes in the proper sequence.



We talked about each country the ingredients came from, found them on a large world map, and then did this flag activity.






Since cinnamon is one of the ingredients (hailing from Sri Lanka!), we mixed up some cinnamon, applesauce, and a bit of glue to form a dough and punched out cinnamon room fresheners with a heart shaped cookie cutter (dough not edible because of the glue).


In the background you can see son C holding his nose, because he hates the smell of cinnamon!





We let them air dry on wax paper for several days - I turned them once or twice a day so they wouldn't curl on the edges. Didn't they turn out cute? And they smell so good! (note to self, great Christmas gift for children to make for grandparents or Sunday School teachers!)

Special Time with C and Little Man

What did sons C and Little Man and I do during the week that the other three were doing SAT testing?

We went to the library, just the three of us, and checked out lots of books. I have used various children's book anthologies over the years to help me choose the best of the best books to read to my children, but what I have been doing recently is using the 1000 Good Books List. I printed out a copy of this list and keep it in our library book bag. By and large, these are generally considered "classic" children's books, that have continued to delight over the course of several generations (and yes, there really are 1000! ~ for all different ages).


I read to both boys, and C read to Little Man!


Three of the five days we baked something together. Son C in particular loves to bake! On this day he made brownies almost completely by himself. The whole family enjoyed them for dessert after dinner that night.


Another day we made two kinds of cookies. Son C made chocolate chip, and Little Man made peanut butter.



I had C do some peer teaching. Using this tub of magnetic pictures, he helped Little Man recognize the beginning sound of each picture and place it appropriately on the white board. Little Man is still working on all the letter sounds, and this was fun to have his older brother help practice with him.





We missed the older siblings while they were SAT testing, but I'm thankful for the fun I was able to have with just C and Little Man! (a rare treat to be with just two!)

Books I read in 2010

I have a new book reading goal, and that is 40 or more books during 2011. I read 39 in 2010, 4 more than the previous year. Most of them were GREAT! So many good books..... something I'm thankful for about living in this day and age. There's lots of garbage out there too, but so many good ones if you are discerning. And they are so accessible!

I printed out my 2010 booklist so that I can remember which titles I read, and have started a new listing down in my right sidebar. Once more, here is my list of books read last year. I bolded my favorites.

• Venom and Song by Batson and Hopper (for fun)
• Curse of the Spider King by Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper (for fun)
• Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff (for school)
• A Place in the Sun by Jill Rubalcaba (for school)
• The Well of Sacrifice by Chris Eboch (for school)
• The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (for school)
• Gilgamesh the Hero by Geraldine McCaughrean (for school)
• The Runaway by Patricia St. John (for fun)
• Garden of the Purple Dragon by Carole Wilkinson (for fun)
• Ninth Witness by Brock and Bodie Thoene (for fun)
• Eighth Shepherd by Brock and Bodie Thoene (for fun)
• Seventh Day by Brock and Bodie Thoene (for fun)
• Sixth Covenant by Brock and Bodie Thoene (for fun)
• Fifth Seal by Brock and Bodie Thoene (for fun)
• Fourth Dawn by Brock and Bodie Thoene (for fun)
• Third Watch by Brock and Bodie Thoene (for fun)
• Brother Andrew, God's Secret Agent by Geoff and Janet Benge (read aloud)
• Poppy and Ereth by Avi (for fun)
• Poppy's Return by Avi (for fun)
• Poppy and Rye by Avi (for fun)
• Second Touch by Brock and Bodie Thoene (for fun)
• Ragweed by Avi (for fun)
• Have Space Suit, Will Travel by Robert Heinlein (for school)
• First Light by Brock and Bodie Thoene (for fun)
• The Sigma Protocol by Robert Ludlum (for fun)
• Water Buffalo Days by Huynh Quang Nhuong (for school)
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (for fun)
• Man From the Sky by Avi (for fun)
• Poppy by Avi (for fun)
• The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (for fun)
• A Skeleton in God's Closet by Paul L. Maier (for fun)
• My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George (for school)
• So Far From the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins (for school)
• Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (for school)
• Corrie ten Boom, Keeper of the Angel's Den by Geoff and Janet Benge (read aloud)
• Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan (for school)
• Onion John by Joseph Krumgold (for school)
• The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom (for personal growth)
• Going Rogue, An American Life by Sarah Palin (for fun)

Doesn't this look cozy?

In preparation for our camping vacation coming up soon, a couple of the children have gotten new sleeping bags. They are so excited about these bags!! They have been playing in them, reading in them every afternoon, and of course listening to stories in them too.

I love this picture because I love it that my husband reads out loud to us almost every night. We have worked our way through the Chronicles of Narnia and are listening to The Last Battle now. My husband does all the different voices, and his British accent is quite good! Jolly good actually. ;-)

The A.D. Chronicles

I have been reading such an incredible series of historical fiction books called The A.D. Chronicles. They are written by historical fiction writing veterans, Bodie and Brock Thoene (pronounced Tay-nee) and are set during the time of Christ. It took me a while to connect with the first book, called First Light, but they have gotten progressively better. Just when I think the Truth of Christ cannot be revealed in a more wondrous way, it is. The Thoene's are masters at crafting stories that capture the imagination, and the way they have woven fictionalized elements into familiar stories from the New Testament has made these stories really come alive for me!

Each book introduces new made up characters as well as including ones more familiar from stories of Jesus' miracles, or from previous books. It is easy for those of us raised on these stories to read them almost by rote. Without passion. But when we stop and think what it must have been like to have been born blind and suddenly see for the first time, or to be Lazarus, who was already enjoying the wonders of heaven, and was called back to live among finite men on earth...WOW. Or to be a leper, living in the valley reserved for lepers, outcast from society and the warmth of family, flesh slowly dying bit by bit. And then to be touched, embraced, by Yeshua. To look in His eyes and be fully known and completely loved. How all those who were healed in some way by Jesus must have thanked God to be living at that time!

I have become fascinated with the Jewish culture and Jewish customs and traditions. I am so excited to be studying Year 1 of Tapestry this coming school year! We will learn much about the ancient Israelites, their covenant(s) with God, their triumphs and failures, and God's longsuffering. I simply cannot wait! (except I do need to finish getting ready!) :-) I know we are going to learn so much that will deepen and make richer my personal relationship with Jesus.

Torn now between wanting to read faster to see what's going to happen next, and wanting to read slower to make it last longer, I am currently reading book 9. There are, so far, two more books in the series, but our church library doesn't have them yet. So I may have to exercise patience! I am so thankful for the ways these books are confirming and building on my understanding of God from Scripture. Something that has really become evident in the last couple of books is the difference between fact and truth. Just because something is a fact (sickness for example) doesn't mean it is ultimately truth (the truth is, Jesus is the resurrection and the life).

Two of the books are prequels and go back to the time that Christ was born. I had a particularly difficult time reading about the slaughter of little Jewish boy babies two years and younger in Bethlehem, after Herod found out that Jesus had been born there and the magi had returned to their countries by a different route. Through the course of the book I had come to know and love the women of Bethlehem and their children. Rachel, the midwife, who had helped to birth Jesus Himself, and was the wife of Zadok, head shepherd of the temple flock, who had witnessed the angel chorus in the sky over Bethlehem the night Jesus was born! How amazing, how miraculous for everyone were the months that Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus lived among them in Bethlehem. And then to read how furious Herod was, how mad and insane he had become, and with what viciousness his guards hunted down and killed all the sweet and innocent boy babies, while Jesus alone survived. What wailing among the women of Bethlehem then! This verse took on new meaning for me after reading about it in Thoene's novel:

Matthew 2:17-18 "Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."

I confess, I wept too.

How could God's plan include such suffering for those He loved? These books address that question through stories, and through truth spoken by its characters. The stories have at times encouraged me, challenged me, and comforted me. They have also made me laugh!

If you are a lover of historical fiction, or even if you're not, I highly recommend them!

Movie Night - The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

We recently read this wonderful biography of Gladys Aylward, missionary to China. It was an amazing account of what an ordinary person can do when they are obedient to God's call. After being turned down by a mission organization as "not qualified" to become a missionary, Gladys figured out a way to get to China on her own. She worked in a remote region in mountainous north China, and transformed from a hesitant, frightened woman to a confident, beloved, fluent Chinese speaking member of the town, even forsaking her British citizenship and becoming a Chinese citizen. When the Japanese invaded her region, she singlehandedly (well, with God's help!) led a group of 94 children more than 200 miles out of the war zone to safety. It was truly an inspirational read, and it was thrilling to share with all the children.


We decided to watch the movie adaptation, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, for movie night. We told the children it would differ from the actual account in numerous ways, and boy were we right! They condensed her harrowing 6 week journey to even GET to China (which included being kidnapped in Russia and narrowly escaping being sent to Siberia to work on machines for the rest of her life) into just one long train ride and a short jaunt on a mule, and in true Hollywood style they added in a romance with a Nationalist Chinese Army officer that did not exist in real life. The real Gladys was horrified by the movie version of her life, feeling that her reputation was forever tarnished.

However, we are learning that movie versions rarely equal the book version of someone's life story, and to discern the differences and then focus on the major themes that both share. The movie, despite veering from the truth in several places, did have as its major theme the determination Gladys had in following what she believed to be God's call on her life, and the ways in which God helped her and provided for her as she obeyed that call.

The movie is very well done and was fun to watch. As long as you read the book first and know the true story of her life, this is highly recommended! And again, I am so very thankful that Tapestry of Grace schedules these biographies as part of their curriculum. It has impacted me personally in a very deep way to read these true accounts of ordinary christians in our time who are sold out for Christ and determined to follow Him no matter what. Now we are reading a biography of Corrie Ten Boom, as we focus our history studies on World War II for a few weeks. Talk about inspirational!! When we finish the book, we will be watching The Hiding Place with our older children.

Nancy Drew

If you pay attention to my right sidebar, you may have noticed that I've been reading alot of Nancy Drew lately. This is for two reasons. First and foremost, my daughter is hugely into Nancy Drew books right now. This is what she can be found doing most of her waking hours:



I have 12 of them (the original series, not the modern rewrites) from my own childhood which she devoured, and then we went to the library and checked out a whole bunch more. Reading them together has been a fun point of connection between us.

And secondly, though they are very formulaic I realized they have several elements I really appreciate. Many of them contain characters who are superstitious or believe in ghosts to some degree. When Nancy solves the mystery, the "ghost" is always proved to be an actual person preying on people's fears. Reason always prevails. I like that! I also like that Nancy always keeps her cool even when she finds herself in dangerous situations. And I like that she is so observant and thoughtful in how she processes clues and other information. When I read them as a child they encouraged me to be more observant of the people around me and more aware of my surroundings, something I carried into adulthood.

To top it off, Nancy is pretty, a good driver, an excellent swimmer, serious minded but knows how to have fun, and is a sweet and respectful young lady. What's not to love!! The fact that they are easy reads which don't require much time or thought has absolutely nothing to do with my reading about one a day. Nothing at all.

;-)

(any suggestions for what to read when my Nancy Drew binge is over??)

John Adams

I finished John Adams last night. 651 pages. I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment, and also a deep sadness that it is over. I have enjoyed this book SO much. I cried when Abigail died, even though I knew it was coming and she's been dead for nearly 200 years. I cried again at the end when John died. On the same day, 4th of July, as Thomas Jefferson. After their deaths, there was only one signer of the Declaration of Independence still alive. Truly the end of an era. And what an era it was! John Adams was an incredible, fascinating, and amazing man. I am quite sure I will see him in heaven, and I am so glad!! I will share more about this book later when I have more time, just had to report that I finished it.

Reading Fanatic

Our daughter has become me. I am thrilled! When I was her age I walked a mile to school and a mile back, reading the whole way. My nose was nearly always in a book. Today as we left the house to take her brother to his occupational therapy, she read the whole way to the van, the whole way there, while we sat in the van, and the whole way back. I had assigned one chapter today. She read three. Such is the lure of a truly good book!

I can't take all the credit for this, of course (much as I'd like to!). Some children who are exposed to good literature from infancy and are read to for hours on end, as all our children have been, really don't have their own love affair with books until they are much older. I have tried hard not to expect that all our children will be strong readers. So perhaps that is why it is so wonderfully thrilling to me that at least one of them IS!

I am having to really speed read to stay ahead of her in this book. In fact, she is ahead of me at this moment. But it's a great book that's hard to put down, so I'm sure I'll catch up quickly. ;-) What book is this you might ask? Yesterday she began Calico Captive, which is the true story of a young lady and her family who were captured by Indians and sold to the French during the time of the French and Indian War (1754-1763). It's very gripping.

I am so thankful for good books! And I'm so thankful that my own parents read to me, read their own books in front of me, and still read for pleasure. My mom took us girls to the library each week with a large cardboard box which we would fill to the brim. The next week we'd return all those books and fill up the box with new ones. When I was old enough I was allowed to ride my bike to the library, where I would fill up my bike basket with gems that I had picked out all by myself. It was during that time that I fell in love with biographies. I read the entire shelf of biographies at my elementary school library, and most of the biographies at the public library! I can vividly remember getting my very own library card. Wonderful!

When I was in 6th grade I read the unabridged version of Little Women. It drew me in so completely that even though it was about 3 inches thick (I am not exaggerating) I read it while walking to and from middle school, which was about half a mile each way. I made the mistake of staying in at recess to finish the chapter where Beth dies, and I cried so hard that I was embarrassed when everyone else came back in after recess and wondered what had made me cry!

In 7th grade I read The Longest Day, which is a story of D-Day told from many different perspectives. It was fascinating and horrifying all at the same time. I learned so much about honor and duty and sacrifice from that book. It left an indelible impression on me.

As our daughter reads more and more fluently and makes more of her own choices for what to read in her free time, I pray that I can continue to guide her towards truly great literature, while also allowing her the freedom to read about some topics that may seem more "adult" for her age (such as my reading of The Longest Day at age 12). That's a fine line sometimes. I'm so thankful for the wisdom God gives!

Thanks mom and dad, for instilling in us girls a great love of books and language, and in doing so, blessing your grandchildren even before they were born. And thank you for giving us such good books as gifts. They are treasured and well loved (as the velveteen rabbit was loved!), and they encourage us to continue reading to our children and passing on to them a love of books. In this day and age, it's so much easier to turn on the tv than to pick up a book, so we need all the encouragement we can get!

We are very excited to take our son G on a date to the library to get his own card, when he turns 9 in May. We did this with our daughter when she turned 8, and now it's his turn. He wants this desperately. I can't wait to see his face when he realizes what we're there for!

The Weekend in Pictures (with a few words)

I hung a couple new hooks in our basement stairwell where the kids hang their coats. One of my small but frequent annoyances has been taking out the Awana stuff from everyone's backpacks on Thursday and putting in co-op stuff. Where do I keep the Awana stuff in the meantime? To solve this problem I hung a basket on the top hook. This is the new home for our Awana vests and Tiny Tots shirt in between Wednesdays. The hook below the basket is the new home for our son C's "church bag" - his quiet activities for worship service. I am a happier mommy now. As my friend Amy says, "it's always the little things." (and I'm kindof proud of the fact that I did this all by myself!!)

On Saturday evening we went to an event at another church (the church where we meet for co-op). They were hosting the "Stand Strength" team, which is a group of power lifters who lift, break and bend things with incredible strength, all the while weaving scripture into their demonstration.

Here's Little Man waving his glow stick during praise and worship at this event.

Getting ready to break through 20 patio bricks, 10 with each elbow. This was truly amazing!

Lifting a 400+ pound telephone pole.

Inflatables!! (I know these are blurry pictures, but the children wanted me to put them on my blog) :-)

Earlier in the day on Saturday I had a successful buying experience at the homeschool book fair. Here is most of what I bought (most of it for next year), minus our Math U See materials which will be coming in the mail this week. That pile alone will be about 8 inches high!

Spelling, grammar, phonics.

I couldn't resist a few books to include in our current history study, and a couple for next year.

A few new art supplies and a cool new lace-up activity for Little Man to use in his "schooltime" next fall (he asks to "do school" all the time!).

We love co-op!

Yesterday was our day at homeschool co-op. We love co-op and I'm so thankful for the blessing it is to our family! On Thursday evenings I don't like co-op, because I'm usually up later than I want to be preparing for the day (packing up backpacks and snacks, planning my lessons). But on Fridays I love co-op. I love teaching. I love that we have to get up and be somewhere at a certain time (that's really good practice for homeschoolers). I love that my children are being taught such interesting and educational things. I love that my children are making friends. I love it that I am making friends! There are really so many wonderful people in the world, have you ever thought about that? I used to think that I knew all the best people in the world, and now I know that there are many "best" people I haven't met yet!

The two classes I teach are so much fun. The junior gym class is very high energy of course, and very physical. The drawing class is great because the kids are older and it's delightful to interact with them. I have a helper mom this session who is just as excited to be there as the students are!

Our sons G, L and C are all in one class together called "Magic School Bus", and each week they use a different Magic School Bus book to learn about an aspect of science. Last week it was seeds and they brought home a plastic glove with different seeds "planted" in each of the fingers of the glove, with wet cotton balls to make them sprout. Today we will be transferring the seeds that sprouted to little pots, and later this spring we will transplant them into our garden!

Yesterday in this class they learned about bees and honey. They each brought home a small piece of actual honeycomb, and they quizzed their daddy and me on bee facts all evening long. They love this class! (and I do too! It assuages my guilt that I dropped the ball with our science book this year).

Two of our boys (G and C) are also in a recorder class together, where they are learning to play the recorder. They love this class and I love that they do it at co-op and not at home. :-)

Our daughter G is in a sculpting class that is just fabulous, the Kids of Courage class again (where they learn about christian children who are persecuted for their faith), and my drawing class.

Yesterday after co-op a friend of our daughter G came home with us and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening here. We have been trying to get them together for a playdate since before Christmas, so they were thrilled. G's foot seems to be healing nicely so far. No signs of infection (thanks for asking votemom!). She is still favoring that foot quite a bit, and she says that she "feels it" but it doesn't exactly hurt. There are only one pair of shoes she can wear that don't press on her stitches, so she may look a little "interesting" at church tomorrow.

Today I will be going to an annual homeschool book fair in my area. This is a large book fair, with vendors coming from far away states, and I generally buy a good portion of our curriculum at this fair each year. I will see lots of homeschoolers that I know, so it will be fun!

Book Review

Recently a friend gave me a book to read called Lies Homeschooling Moms Believe. I thought, hmmm, this title sounds interesting but I really don't think I am believing lies. It was a thin book, would be an easy read, so I picked it up last weekend and started in. Finished it the next day! It was quite compelling, and I had to agree that I have, at one time or another, believed every lie in the book.

I highly recommend this book for all my homeschooling friends, and for my non-homeschooling friends it might be interesting and show you ways to encourage your homeschooling friends. You can find the book here.

The Lord, in His mercy and longsuffering, is helping me to be "real". I truly want to be. It has been harder for me to be real to my non-homeschooling friends than to my fellow homeschoolers. I think this is because I know that fellow hs'ers can understand completely what we go through, both the highs and the lows, whereas if I share about a really bad day with my non-hs'ing friends, they are more likely to tell me to just put my kids in school! (This has actually happened to me by the way. If you have heard about a bad day we've had and have not said this to me, you are not the friends I am talking about!). That is not what I need to hear. It minimizes the commitment we have made to home educate, and ignores the fact that classroom teachers also have really bad days. What do you say to them, "just stay home"?

I'm glad I read this book. Thank you Amy, for passing it along to me! The homeschool cartoons scattered throughout the book gave my hubby and I quite a chuckle too. I give it two thumbs up!