A couple of weeks ago I was at a medical appointment with one of my kids (the sick one) and the nurse asked him about school, specifically, if he was missing much school because of being sick. He said he was not exactly, because he is homeschooled. So she turned to me and asked "are you homeschooling because he is too sick to go to school, or are you..." I could tell she didn't how to finish the sentence.
So I said no, we are not homeschooling because he's sick, but we are... (pause, because I couldn't think of the word either)... cultural homeschoolers. Yes, that's it! Cultural homeschoolers. It's part of our culture.
She got that. She smiled and said "that makes sense." It was nice to see that she got that. If you are a homeschooler who has tried to explain yourself to people who don't get it, you might understand what I mean.
So now I know what we are. We are cultural homeschoolers.
Having a definition doesn't change a thing, but it's still nice to have one.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Saturday, April 06, 2013
Life in the Schoolhouse
If I was to examine my blog archives (which go back to 2005, so I won't), I wonder if there would be a blogging break every year around late winter and early spring.
So the schoolhouse still has two kids. And a mom and a dad. And the dog! The sick kid is still sick, but things are looking up. A little, maybe. Spirits are up, anyway.
We are still homeschooling. I saw a great quote on Bravewriter's Facebook page the other day:
In the fall, it's classical education.
In the winter, Charlotte Mason.
By spring, it's all unschooling.
Yep.
As usual around this time of year, I'm panicking about the homeschool evaluation and portfolio. As usual, we haven't produced much this year. We didn't even do a project, like our Voyager's Stone map or the Leafcutter Ant display. But we'll manage; we always do.
In other news, I finally got semi-mobile by getting a Kindle Fire for my birthday. I still don't have a smartphone but that will be coming. My old phone, which is my husband's old phone, was once a hot commodity: a Motorola RAZR. Yeah. Some guy standing in line behind me at a doctor's office the other day expressed his amazement that I was still using such an old phone. Well, it works! Every time I use it!
I'm really itching to start blogging with photos. There are technical reasons I don't, and they go beyond "middle-aged mom can't figure out this new-fangled gadget." My daughter is taking some great photos lately; she is following a talented aunt in this way. And dreaming of a DSLR camera which is way out of everyone's budget right now. But her babysitting business is picking up!
Spring is here, and though that means the hot, humid, hated summer is coming, it's hard not to be optimistic, content, and even happy.
Doesn't it seem like a photo of just-about-to-bloom daffodils should go here? Hm... I think we have some in the back yard....
So the schoolhouse still has two kids. And a mom and a dad. And the dog! The sick kid is still sick, but things are looking up. A little, maybe. Spirits are up, anyway.
We are still homeschooling. I saw a great quote on Bravewriter's Facebook page the other day:
In the fall, it's classical education.
In the winter, Charlotte Mason.
By spring, it's all unschooling.
Yep.
As usual around this time of year, I'm panicking about the homeschool evaluation and portfolio. As usual, we haven't produced much this year. We didn't even do a project, like our Voyager's Stone map or the Leafcutter Ant display. But we'll manage; we always do.
In other news, I finally got semi-mobile by getting a Kindle Fire for my birthday. I still don't have a smartphone but that will be coming. My old phone, which is my husband's old phone, was once a hot commodity: a Motorola RAZR. Yeah. Some guy standing in line behind me at a doctor's office the other day expressed his amazement that I was still using such an old phone. Well, it works! Every time I use it!
I'm really itching to start blogging with photos. There are technical reasons I don't, and they go beyond "middle-aged mom can't figure out this new-fangled gadget." My daughter is taking some great photos lately; she is following a talented aunt in this way. And dreaming of a DSLR camera which is way out of everyone's budget right now. But her babysitting business is picking up!
Spring is here, and though that means the hot, humid, hated summer is coming, it's hard not to be optimistic, content, and even happy.
Doesn't it seem like a photo of just-about-to-bloom daffodils should go here? Hm... I think we have some in the back yard....
Thursday, January 31, 2013
A Day in the Life (with 14- and 15-year-old)
The folks at Simple Homeschool have invited us to post about a day in our homeschooling lives. I have enjoyed writing these sorts of posts in the past. It's fun to follow a day and document it. It might be a typical day, or it might not. It's also fun to read about other homeschooling families' days. Well, OK, sometimes it can be a little distressing, if we start comparing (negatively) our day to some other family's day, so we should remember it's just one day out of many. Maybe that Mom isn't always so creative, fun, organized...
Much of the past two years haven't been such fun for me to document. My son (the 15-year-old) is chronically sick with, as far as we can tell, a non-life-threatening, nonspecific illness. In other words, tests don't show anything and none of the many doctors we've seen can figure it out. And since no one can figure out what's wrong, no one can figure out how to make him feel better. So we deal with nausea, coughing, sleep disturbances, fuzzy thinking, and other symptoms we'd rather not talk about, all day, every day, while trying to homeschool at a high school level. (By the way, my boy gave me permission to tell you about this.)
So let's get started and document this day. I don't know what will happen! It could be a good day, meaning we will get some things done. Or, maybe not. We are doing things a little differently today. Usually our day starts slowly, and late, at least compared to most homeschool families I know. But today my boy has a "playdate" at 2pm. Since he is a teenager, this is not what you're thinking. He and a friend want to play a new game together via X-Box Live, and that's the time the friend is available. Since there is a general ban on X-Box after 9 am and before 4pm, this gets special consideration. A promise was made to get up early and get started on his work right away. His usual practice is to get up anytime between 9 and 10, depending on how many times he woke up in the night. Sometimes, despite the general ban, he does play a little X-Box in the morning to help himself wake up if he's had a bad night.
And yes, he does get up early: 8:30. Yes, that's early for him. First off, he takes his meds, has a drink, then hits the exercise bike. Since sleep disturbances can be caused by a lack of physical tiredness, exercise is important, though it is usually not done first thing.
While he is exercising, my girl, the 14-year-old - who just had an orthodontist appointment and is still in a little pain - gets up and starts puttering around the kitchen, talking to the dog and looking for sympathy and something soft to eat. (I gave up on a family breakfast a long time ago; it's every man for himself around here.)
I take this chance to get my shower. The Dad of the house is long gone to work.
Because we didn't follow our usual routine, I missed our morning Bible reading. Bad Mom! We'll do it tomorrow.
Usually the morning (after the Bible reading I forgot today) is the time for independent work. (Morning is a relative term. Sometimes that means 11!) I try to supervise as needed, bouncing from one child to the other while trying to clean the kitchen and do laundry in between. In theory, we get together to do work together after lunch. This is the rare day when that might work; we don't have anyplace to go! The kids have a checklist to work off every day so they can't forget anything, though things do get skipped. I'm working toward a weekly, then a monthly, then maybe a quarterly checklist, then - complete independence!
After his exercise, my boy does some reading in The Middle Ages, a nice non-scholarly history book on the time period we're studying this year. We are all reading it, together but separately; from time to time we talk about it and everyone has to write a short paragraph for each chapter. I am behind everyone else in my reading. When he's done with that, he goes to the computer to read a chapter in CK-12's Biology 1 course and watch the associated videos. He's doing pretty well today; he hasn't gotten tired and he hasn't thrown up! Maybe he's pushing himself because he wants to get a lot done before 2. But it's pretty hard to hold back vomiting, so we'll just call it a good day.
My girl goes off to read Animal Farm; she's using a study guide from Glencoe Literature Library along with it. After that, she does some grammar, some reading in our history text, and then practices piano. When she's finished with that, she does a little math; she's working in Key To Percents and an 8th grade Spectrum math book. She has to take standardized tests this year, so I need to be sure she is at least familiar with 8th grade math concepts. No, this is not ideal - we don't like "teaching to the test" but, you know, we do what works at the time, right?
One thing about having a sick kid: the other kid(s) in the family are often affected. If I'm at the Children's Hospital with him having some sort of test, she's not getting help with math. So no one is really working at grade level in math right now.
Now it's about time for lunch. We make some refried bean nachos (hey, it's pretty healthy) and use that time to listen to a history lecture (The Early Middle Ages from The Great Courses). We look at some examples of Carolingian Miniscule print online and briefly peruse a web page about Alcuin of York. Next, it's time for Latin. We use Visual Latin, and we're going through it very slowly. But we get part of a lesson done! Then both kids check their homework for tomorrow's writing class to be sure it's all set to go.
Now it's time for the playdate. My girl finishes up her history reading, then goes outside to take some photos. She's trying to find the perfect entry for an upcoming contest. I notice she didn't do any science work, but I don't want to stop her photo shoot. We'll get it done tomorrow.
I start making dinner and do some paperwork. I spend a minute worrying about high school transcripts and grades, then set it aside for another time.
4pm, and the game is over. My boy thanks me for letting him do it and tells me he feels better today than he has in a while. He goes to his room to ride the exercise bike again. My girl gets ready for a babysitting job she has later, then downloads photos and studies them. I don't think she got that perfect shot yet.
Dad blows in and we eat dinner. Usually we talk about the day's history learning, and today is no exception. Then he runs out to a meeting. My boy showers, then sits down to do his math. This is new for us; I can't remember the last time anyone did work after dinner. He's tired now, and would rather not do it, but that was part of the deal. He's working his way through Mastering the Fundamentals of Math; he had been doing Algebra 1 but with his fuzzy thinking problem, math has gotten harder and some things have been lost. So we're reviewing the basics. Sometimes he needs me to sit with him and help him through some of the problems, but not today. He's determined to soldier on. (When I checked it later, he got 75% of the problems right, so we have to go back tomorrow and work on those.)
While I take my girl to her babysitting job, he does some more history reading. It sounds like we do a lot of history around here, doesn't it? I have a post about history that's been in draft status for a long time; maybe I'll get that done soon! After he finishes, we talk for a bit about the fate of Europe and thus the US if the Germanic tribes had not invaded the Roman Empire. We have talks like that a lot. He loves to speculate.
Now, he's watching a creepy-sounding tv show, my girl is still babysitting, Dad is still at his meeting, and I'm here. Our day is done.
This was not a typical day. I don't know what a typical day is right now! But it was a good day. It might not seem like much of a high school day. We didn't really produce anything except some math work (which can be a bit problematic here in Pennsylvania where portfolios are required). But we're doing what works for us right now, not unschooling (which hasn't worked for us), but sometimes close. Some days it is very unschoolish around here! But they are learning, every day.
Thanks to Simple Homeschool for the opportunity to do this. I hope this is helpful to others who have chronically-ill children or who otherwise have homeschools that don't look like everyone else's.
You can do your own A Day in the Life post and link up too, at Simple Homeschool. If you don't have a blog, you can share your day in the comments there, so go ahead and do it!
Much of the past two years haven't been such fun for me to document. My son (the 15-year-old) is chronically sick with, as far as we can tell, a non-life-threatening, nonspecific illness. In other words, tests don't show anything and none of the many doctors we've seen can figure it out. And since no one can figure out what's wrong, no one can figure out how to make him feel better. So we deal with nausea, coughing, sleep disturbances, fuzzy thinking, and other symptoms we'd rather not talk about, all day, every day, while trying to homeschool at a high school level. (By the way, my boy gave me permission to tell you about this.)
So let's get started and document this day. I don't know what will happen! It could be a good day, meaning we will get some things done. Or, maybe not. We are doing things a little differently today. Usually our day starts slowly, and late, at least compared to most homeschool families I know. But today my boy has a "playdate" at 2pm. Since he is a teenager, this is not what you're thinking. He and a friend want to play a new game together via X-Box Live, and that's the time the friend is available. Since there is a general ban on X-Box after 9 am and before 4pm, this gets special consideration. A promise was made to get up early and get started on his work right away. His usual practice is to get up anytime between 9 and 10, depending on how many times he woke up in the night. Sometimes, despite the general ban, he does play a little X-Box in the morning to help himself wake up if he's had a bad night.
And yes, he does get up early: 8:30. Yes, that's early for him. First off, he takes his meds, has a drink, then hits the exercise bike. Since sleep disturbances can be caused by a lack of physical tiredness, exercise is important, though it is usually not done first thing.
While he is exercising, my girl, the 14-year-old - who just had an orthodontist appointment and is still in a little pain - gets up and starts puttering around the kitchen, talking to the dog and looking for sympathy and something soft to eat. (I gave up on a family breakfast a long time ago; it's every man for himself around here.)
I take this chance to get my shower. The Dad of the house is long gone to work.
Because we didn't follow our usual routine, I missed our morning Bible reading. Bad Mom! We'll do it tomorrow.
Usually the morning (after the Bible reading I forgot today) is the time for independent work. (Morning is a relative term. Sometimes that means 11!) I try to supervise as needed, bouncing from one child to the other while trying to clean the kitchen and do laundry in between. In theory, we get together to do work together after lunch. This is the rare day when that might work; we don't have anyplace to go! The kids have a checklist to work off every day so they can't forget anything, though things do get skipped. I'm working toward a weekly, then a monthly, then maybe a quarterly checklist, then - complete independence!
After his exercise, my boy does some reading in The Middle Ages, a nice non-scholarly history book on the time period we're studying this year. We are all reading it, together but separately; from time to time we talk about it and everyone has to write a short paragraph for each chapter. I am behind everyone else in my reading. When he's done with that, he goes to the computer to read a chapter in CK-12's Biology 1 course and watch the associated videos. He's doing pretty well today; he hasn't gotten tired and he hasn't thrown up! Maybe he's pushing himself because he wants to get a lot done before 2. But it's pretty hard to hold back vomiting, so we'll just call it a good day.
My girl goes off to read Animal Farm; she's using a study guide from Glencoe Literature Library along with it. After that, she does some grammar, some reading in our history text, and then practices piano. When she's finished with that, she does a little math; she's working in Key To Percents and an 8th grade Spectrum math book. She has to take standardized tests this year, so I need to be sure she is at least familiar with 8th grade math concepts. No, this is not ideal - we don't like "teaching to the test" but, you know, we do what works at the time, right?
One thing about having a sick kid: the other kid(s) in the family are often affected. If I'm at the Children's Hospital with him having some sort of test, she's not getting help with math. So no one is really working at grade level in math right now.
Now it's about time for lunch. We make some refried bean nachos (hey, it's pretty healthy) and use that time to listen to a history lecture (The Early Middle Ages from The Great Courses). We look at some examples of Carolingian Miniscule print online and briefly peruse a web page about Alcuin of York. Next, it's time for Latin. We use Visual Latin, and we're going through it very slowly. But we get part of a lesson done! Then both kids check their homework for tomorrow's writing class to be sure it's all set to go.
Now it's time for the playdate. My girl finishes up her history reading, then goes outside to take some photos. She's trying to find the perfect entry for an upcoming contest. I notice she didn't do any science work, but I don't want to stop her photo shoot. We'll get it done tomorrow.
I start making dinner and do some paperwork. I spend a minute worrying about high school transcripts and grades, then set it aside for another time.
4pm, and the game is over. My boy thanks me for letting him do it and tells me he feels better today than he has in a while. He goes to his room to ride the exercise bike again. My girl gets ready for a babysitting job she has later, then downloads photos and studies them. I don't think she got that perfect shot yet.
Dad blows in and we eat dinner. Usually we talk about the day's history learning, and today is no exception. Then he runs out to a meeting. My boy showers, then sits down to do his math. This is new for us; I can't remember the last time anyone did work after dinner. He's tired now, and would rather not do it, but that was part of the deal. He's working his way through Mastering the Fundamentals of Math; he had been doing Algebra 1 but with his fuzzy thinking problem, math has gotten harder and some things have been lost. So we're reviewing the basics. Sometimes he needs me to sit with him and help him through some of the problems, but not today. He's determined to soldier on. (When I checked it later, he got 75% of the problems right, so we have to go back tomorrow and work on those.)
While I take my girl to her babysitting job, he does some more history reading. It sounds like we do a lot of history around here, doesn't it? I have a post about history that's been in draft status for a long time; maybe I'll get that done soon! After he finishes, we talk for a bit about the fate of Europe and thus the US if the Germanic tribes had not invaded the Roman Empire. We have talks like that a lot. He loves to speculate.
Now, he's watching a creepy-sounding tv show, my girl is still babysitting, Dad is still at his meeting, and I'm here. Our day is done.
This was not a typical day. I don't know what a typical day is right now! But it was a good day. It might not seem like much of a high school day. We didn't really produce anything except some math work (which can be a bit problematic here in Pennsylvania where portfolios are required). But we're doing what works for us right now, not unschooling (which hasn't worked for us), but sometimes close. Some days it is very unschoolish around here! But they are learning, every day.
Thanks to Simple Homeschool for the opportunity to do this. I hope this is helpful to others who have chronically-ill children or who otherwise have homeschools that don't look like everyone else's.
You can do your own A Day in the Life post and link up too, at Simple Homeschool. If you don't have a blog, you can share your day in the comments there, so go ahead and do it!
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
New Year's Eve at the Schoolhouse
The kitchen is a mess. The dishwasher is full of clean dishes but the sink and counter are littered with dirty ones. There's a small table in the family room covered with coffee cups, a wine glass, and plates with pumpkin pie crumbs. Pillows are scattered on the floor between the couch and the television.
The remains of a wild New Year's Eve party?
Yes! My little family spent yesterday and evening watching two of the three movies in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. We'll watch the third movie today.
If you knew us, you'd know how wild a party that was.
We like movies. We'd like to watch more than we do. But it's so hard to fit a movie in to our day or evening. On a typical evening we're sitting down to relax about an hour before everyone should be getting ready for bed. So we will content ourselves with watching a 40- or 50-minute tv show, or we'll plan to watch a movie over two nights. For some reason, even though we can sit for two or more hours in a movie theater without getting up, when we watch a movie at home we rarely can go an hour without someone needing to get up: to get more water, coffee, or something to eat; to use the bathroom; to get the barking dog into the house.
So when we started talking about watching the Lord of the Rings again after seeing The Hobbit, I wondered how long would it take us to watch 10+ (12?) hours of movie. At our rate, it could take over a week! But the adults conferred and we decided to surprise and thrill the children by announcing the New Year's LotR Film Fest: all three movies over two days. We began about 1:00 Monday afternoon, and wrapped up our day just before midnight.
No, we didn't make it through all three films. We didn't even attempt that. We took breaks for a couple of dog walks, some room cleanup, a little laundry, and dinner after completing The Fellowship of the Ring. We started The Two Towers around 7:30 and planned to watch half of it. (Some of us didn't feel the need or desire to stay up till midnight.) But though that is not a movie I truly enjoy, even I had to admit it: there's not a good place to stop. If you've seen it, and disagree, tell me where you'd take an overnight intermission. In the middle of Helm's Deep? During the Ent walk? I think not.
This morning everyone is still sleeping. As always, I'm the first one up. I'm tired, and feel a little sluggish from the lack of activity yesterday. This morning we'll clean up the debris from last night, restart the dishwasher, take the dog for a good long walk, and sit back down again. I hope to finish before dinner, so we can have a calm and early night.
I'm glad it won't be such a long day of movie-watching. I'm happy that we're doing this, but I wouldn't want to do it too often. I hope my kids feel the same way.
Wild parties like this shouldn't happen too often.
How do you spend New Year's Eve and Day?
The remains of a wild New Year's Eve party?
Yes! My little family spent yesterday and evening watching two of the three movies in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. We'll watch the third movie today.
If you knew us, you'd know how wild a party that was.
We like movies. We'd like to watch more than we do. But it's so hard to fit a movie in to our day or evening. On a typical evening we're sitting down to relax about an hour before everyone should be getting ready for bed. So we will content ourselves with watching a 40- or 50-minute tv show, or we'll plan to watch a movie over two nights. For some reason, even though we can sit for two or more hours in a movie theater without getting up, when we watch a movie at home we rarely can go an hour without someone needing to get up: to get more water, coffee, or something to eat; to use the bathroom; to get the barking dog into the house.
So when we started talking about watching the Lord of the Rings again after seeing The Hobbit, I wondered how long would it take us to watch 10+ (12?) hours of movie. At our rate, it could take over a week! But the adults conferred and we decided to surprise and thrill the children by announcing the New Year's LotR Film Fest: all three movies over two days. We began about 1:00 Monday afternoon, and wrapped up our day just before midnight.
No, we didn't make it through all three films. We didn't even attempt that. We took breaks for a couple of dog walks, some room cleanup, a little laundry, and dinner after completing The Fellowship of the Ring. We started The Two Towers around 7:30 and planned to watch half of it. (Some of us didn't feel the need or desire to stay up till midnight.) But though that is not a movie I truly enjoy, even I had to admit it: there's not a good place to stop. If you've seen it, and disagree, tell me where you'd take an overnight intermission. In the middle of Helm's Deep? During the Ent walk? I think not.
This morning everyone is still sleeping. As always, I'm the first one up. I'm tired, and feel a little sluggish from the lack of activity yesterday. This morning we'll clean up the debris from last night, restart the dishwasher, take the dog for a good long walk, and sit back down again. I hope to finish before dinner, so we can have a calm and early night.
I'm glad it won't be such a long day of movie-watching. I'm happy that we're doing this, but I wouldn't want to do it too often. I hope my kids feel the same way.
Wild parties like this shouldn't happen too often.
How do you spend New Year's Eve and Day?
Monday, December 31, 2012
2012 Reading and 2013 Plans
The other day I talked about my Bible reading for 2012 and pondered plans for 2013. Now it's time to talk about all those other books.
I'd set myself a goal of two books per month, one fiction and one non-fiction, not including reading for our homeschool. That's not a very impressive goal, but even at that I didn't exactly make it. I read 15 novels but only eight non-fiction books for myself. But, as always, there is overlap in my worlds. I picked up 1066: The Year of the Conquest for myself, but ended up handing it over to my fifteen-year-old to read and discuss with me. So was it a homeschool book or personal reading? I also read The Monk in the Garden to my kids, but I listened to myself as I read, so I also got the benefit of it. (What, you've never zoned out reading a book to your kids?)
So, I can't say I did enough reading, with 33 books all told, but it was OK. I did exceed my goal, so I'm happy about that.
My favorite non-fiction book for the year was The Brother Gardeners; my favorite fiction was either The Invisible Bridge or Jane Eyre. I could break out categories (contemporary fiction, classics) but that requires too much thinking.
Now for next year. I found a couple of flaws in setting a specific number of books to read: I tend to shun very long books, and I tend to read too fast if I feel I am running out of time. Jane Eyre is a book to savor, but I found myself getting impatient because it was taking me too long to finish. So, I'm sure I didn't give every chapter the attention it was due. So for next year I'm not setting a goal for a number of books, but rather for time each day to read. An hour a day of reading of my own sounds good for a start. Actually right now that seems like a lot; an hour goes by so quickly in this house!
I will be doing even more reading related to homeschooling, but look at what's coming up in the Schoolhouse in 2013: Beowulf, The Divine Comedy (well, at least Inferno because that's the most interesting and fun of the three), To Kill A Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, and others I would have to look up in my homeschool notebook, which has been nowhere to be found for the past two weeks. I've read all those before, but reading them again is not going to be a burden. There's another plus for homeschooling teens - all the good books we get to read together. I learn at least as much as my children do, of course. I know that's a cliche but it's true.
I also want to tackle at least one really big book next year. For a long time
I've wanted to read the unabridged Les Miserables. I count that as one
of my favorite books but it's been many years since I read it, and I didn't even know
till two years ago that I'd read a heavily-abridged edition. So I want to read it again for the first time. By the way, I feel compelled to say that my interest in Les Miserables has nothing to do with the movie. I saw the stage musical years ago and despised it. I'm not a big fan of musicals anyway, but this book in particular seems ill-suited for that treatment. I know that I'm pretty much alone in that opinion, but there it is.
My reading list can be found on my 2012 Reading page. I'll set one up for 2013 when I finish my first book, which will probably be Clouds of Witness by Dorothy Sayers. I don't expect to do any better on keeping my list updated book-by-book or month-by-month than I did last year, but as always I will give it a try. I had to do a bit of catch-up today to get it done. I also keep track of my books on Goodreads and am happy to see people over there too.
What did you read in 2012? What are you doing to read in 2013? What should I add to my to-read list? It's already pretty long, but I'm always open to suggestions.
I'd set myself a goal of two books per month, one fiction and one non-fiction, not including reading for our homeschool. That's not a very impressive goal, but even at that I didn't exactly make it. I read 15 novels but only eight non-fiction books for myself. But, as always, there is overlap in my worlds. I picked up 1066: The Year of the Conquest for myself, but ended up handing it over to my fifteen-year-old to read and discuss with me. So was it a homeschool book or personal reading? I also read The Monk in the Garden to my kids, but I listened to myself as I read, so I also got the benefit of it. (What, you've never zoned out reading a book to your kids?)
My favorite non-fiction book for the year was The Brother Gardeners; my favorite fiction was either The Invisible Bridge or Jane Eyre. I could break out categories (contemporary fiction, classics) but that requires too much thinking.
Now for next year. I found a couple of flaws in setting a specific number of books to read: I tend to shun very long books, and I tend to read too fast if I feel I am running out of time. Jane Eyre is a book to savor, but I found myself getting impatient because it was taking me too long to finish. So, I'm sure I didn't give every chapter the attention it was due. So for next year I'm not setting a goal for a number of books, but rather for time each day to read. An hour a day of reading of my own sounds good for a start. Actually right now that seems like a lot; an hour goes by so quickly in this house!
I will be doing even more reading related to homeschooling, but look at what's coming up in the Schoolhouse in 2013: Beowulf, The Divine Comedy (well, at least Inferno because that's the most interesting and fun of the three), To Kill A Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, and others I would have to look up in my homeschool notebook, which has been nowhere to be found for the past two weeks. I've read all those before, but reading them again is not going to be a burden. There's another plus for homeschooling teens - all the good books we get to read together. I learn at least as much as my children do, of course. I know that's a cliche but it's true.
My reading list can be found on my 2012 Reading page. I'll set one up for 2013 when I finish my first book, which will probably be Clouds of Witness by Dorothy Sayers. I don't expect to do any better on keeping my list updated book-by-book or month-by-month than I did last year, but as always I will give it a try. I had to do a bit of catch-up today to get it done. I also keep track of my books on Goodreads and am happy to see people over there too.
What did you read in 2012? What are you doing to read in 2013? What should I add to my to-read list? It's already pretty long, but I'm always open to suggestions.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
2012 Reading: Bible in a Year
It's the season of looking back. And forward. I don't make a lot of New Year's resolutions anymore. In my experience and observation, change doesn't come about because a new year came around on the calendar. Just look at the parking lot of the local YMCA or other gym in January, and then again at the end of February. Hey, I can say that, I've been among them!
But I did set some goals (or made some resolutions) for my reading and will continue to do that. I shouldn't need to set goals, after all, reading is something I enjoy and truly want to do. (Compare with going to the gym which perhaps I know I should do, but don't want to do.) But it still helps to have some goals or I tend to get lazy with magazines and websites and pretend that's real reading.
My big reading goal for 2012 was to read the Bible in its entirety. I did it! This is the 2nd time in my life I've managed it. It's hard. It's not a lot of reading each day in terms of minutes needed to complete it, but some of it is hard to understand and, I'll just say it, boring. Some of it even seems weird. I used The Kingdom Bible Reading Plan that I found at the Desiring God site. There are plenty of different plans around. I liked this one because it has daily readings from four different books of the Bible: Old Testament Law and Psalms, Old Testament Prophets, Old Testaments Writings (such as Job and Proverbs, among others), and New Testament. Let's face it, a chapter or two a day of Leviticus is going to be easier to manage than four or five. It's also got a built-in "catch-up" feature, with readings scheduled for the first 25 days of the month. Let's face it again, most people are going to get behind.
I did get behind, often. Many months found me scrambling to finish on the last day. I started one or two months already behind. That is one of the weaknesses of setting such a reading goal: There were plenty of chapters I read quickly, even mindlessly, just to get it done and the box checked off. That is not the way to read anything important!
So I'm not going to try this again in 2013. I still plan to read the Bible every day, or most days. I've started using YouVersion (thanks to Sandy for reminding me of it) which I had always thought was just for mobile devices. Imagine my surprise when I found that even desktop users can benefit from it. (Yes, I am not mobile yet. It has nothing to do with not wanting - not be be confused with needing - to be mobile, and I'm sure I will be soon.) I've already signed up for a couple of short Bible reading plans. I do like having stuff delivered to my inbox, even the Bible.
A better goal for me this year might be to spend x amount of time reading the Bible via YouVersion plans, personal Bible study, working with my kids on their Bible curriculum, and joining the study at my church. I wouldn't mind an online study with discussion either, if I could find one that fit. I'm thinking of keeping track (via a paper chart?) of my reading, so I can see just how much of the Bible I read in a year without a formal plan to do it. It would also be interesting to me to see what books I return to again and again, and which I avoid. I already know a couple.
I read books other than the Bible, of course. But it's time to stop typing and do a little reading. I'll update my general reading goal results and plans later or tomorrow.
But I did set some goals (or made some resolutions) for my reading and will continue to do that. I shouldn't need to set goals, after all, reading is something I enjoy and truly want to do. (Compare with going to the gym which perhaps I know I should do, but don't want to do.) But it still helps to have some goals or I tend to get lazy with magazines and websites and pretend that's real reading.
My big reading goal for 2012 was to read the Bible in its entirety. I did it! This is the 2nd time in my life I've managed it. It's hard. It's not a lot of reading each day in terms of minutes needed to complete it, but some of it is hard to understand and, I'll just say it, boring. Some of it even seems weird. I used The Kingdom Bible Reading Plan that I found at the Desiring God site. There are plenty of different plans around. I liked this one because it has daily readings from four different books of the Bible: Old Testament Law and Psalms, Old Testament Prophets, Old Testaments Writings (such as Job and Proverbs, among others), and New Testament. Let's face it, a chapter or two a day of Leviticus is going to be easier to manage than four or five. It's also got a built-in "catch-up" feature, with readings scheduled for the first 25 days of the month. Let's face it again, most people are going to get behind.
I did get behind, often. Many months found me scrambling to finish on the last day. I started one or two months already behind. That is one of the weaknesses of setting such a reading goal: There were plenty of chapters I read quickly, even mindlessly, just to get it done and the box checked off. That is not the way to read anything important!
So I'm not going to try this again in 2013. I still plan to read the Bible every day, or most days. I've started using YouVersion (thanks to Sandy for reminding me of it) which I had always thought was just for mobile devices. Imagine my surprise when I found that even desktop users can benefit from it. (Yes, I am not mobile yet. It has nothing to do with not wanting - not be be confused with needing - to be mobile, and I'm sure I will be soon.) I've already signed up for a couple of short Bible reading plans. I do like having stuff delivered to my inbox, even the Bible.
A better goal for me this year might be to spend x amount of time reading the Bible via YouVersion plans, personal Bible study, working with my kids on their Bible curriculum, and joining the study at my church. I wouldn't mind an online study with discussion either, if I could find one that fit. I'm thinking of keeping track (via a paper chart?) of my reading, so I can see just how much of the Bible I read in a year without a formal plan to do it. It would also be interesting to me to see what books I return to again and again, and which I avoid. I already know a couple.
I read books other than the Bible, of course. But it's time to stop typing and do a little reading. I'll update my general reading goal results and plans later or tomorrow.
Saturday, December 01, 2012
Christmas traditions, changing again
Can a tradition change? If it changes, can it even be a tradition?
Three years ago I wrote about my family's new Christmas-tree-fetching tradition. Now, we are making a new one.
For most of my life I heaped scorn on the artificial Christmas tree. I grew up with real trees and fake trees were just so, so... fake. Like my aunt's white tree with the color wheel, circa 1962. But it didn't matter how many nice, realistic, green trees I saw: they were just not right.
But a few years my kids ago we discovered that our kids are allergic to just about every tree there is. We wondered about sinus problems in winter. We took advice and started hosing down the tree to get some of the nastiness out of it before bringing it in the house. Last year we decided it was enough: next year, we will have a fake tree.
Just before Thanksgiving my girl and I went out and scouted trees. After checking out a few stores and online sites, we ended up with a shortish (maybe a little too short), not-too-wide tree. We set it up to make sure there were no broken branches or burned-out lights, with the intention of taking it back down till after December 1. Who were we kidding? Once the tree was up and plugged in, there was no taking it back down for a couple of weeks. We left it in place, unadorned, till we returned home from our Thanksgiving trip.
Today it is fully decorated and looking gorgeous. No one is sneezing. We didn't have to hose it down, or mess with the heavy tree stand. We don't have to water it. We don't have to scream at the occasional spider crawling out of it. (I am not sure that actually ever happened, but it might have. Or it could, anyway.) We don't have to constantly sweep up needles.
We are never looking back. Our new tradition is born. It's hard to think of a way to make "let's go drag the tree out of the attic" festive, but we'll find the way.
Do you have a real tree, artificial tree, or no tree at all? Give me a link to your blog post about your traditions.
Three years ago I wrote about my family's new Christmas-tree-fetching tradition. Now, we are making a new one.
For most of my life I heaped scorn on the artificial Christmas tree. I grew up with real trees and fake trees were just so, so... fake. Like my aunt's white tree with the color wheel, circa 1962. But it didn't matter how many nice, realistic, green trees I saw: they were just not right.
But a few years my kids ago we discovered that our kids are allergic to just about every tree there is. We wondered about sinus problems in winter. We took advice and started hosing down the tree to get some of the nastiness out of it before bringing it in the house. Last year we decided it was enough: next year, we will have a fake tree.
Just before Thanksgiving my girl and I went out and scouted trees. After checking out a few stores and online sites, we ended up with a shortish (maybe a little too short), not-too-wide tree. We set it up to make sure there were no broken branches or burned-out lights, with the intention of taking it back down till after December 1. Who were we kidding? Once the tree was up and plugged in, there was no taking it back down for a couple of weeks. We left it in place, unadorned, till we returned home from our Thanksgiving trip.
Today it is fully decorated and looking gorgeous. No one is sneezing. We didn't have to hose it down, or mess with the heavy tree stand. We don't have to water it. We don't have to scream at the occasional spider crawling out of it. (I am not sure that actually ever happened, but it might have. Or it could, anyway.) We don't have to constantly sweep up needles.
We are never looking back. Our new tradition is born. It's hard to think of a way to make "let's go drag the tree out of the attic" festive, but we'll find the way.
Do you have a real tree, artificial tree, or no tree at all? Give me a link to your blog post about your traditions.
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