Many books, little reading

2011 was going to be my year for reading.   I was going to reclaim my status as a reader.  Now the year is half over.  How am I doing?

Not so well, really.

I've completed 20 books; 9 were read-alouds in our homeschool.  I guess those count, particularly books like The Odyssey and Chosen by God, which were just as valuable for me as they were for the kids.

I have two books listed as "in process" on my "2011 Reading" page.  But that is really not quite true.  I have a few books in process right now.  I just can't settle on one, sit down, and read it through right now. 

I wanted a fun adventure story so I picked up The Three Musketeers.  Then I heard about Blackout - a novel involving time travel and World War II - so I started that for myself and as a preview for my 14-year-old.   While browsing the library I came across Farthing, an alternate history wherein the Nazis prevail in World War II; I had just been talking about alternate history so that piqued my interest.  I am still reading Bonhoeffer; it is very good but not always what one wants to read on a summer day in the hammock.  Yesterday I started reading Herodotus' Histories for our summer school.  (Yes, ancient history as summer reading. It's a good antidote to all the Tom Clancy and Royal Diaries my kids are inhaling right now.)

I've been managing just a few pages a night with my own personal reading.  It's been a busy  summer.  That comment about the hammock? Wishful thinking!

Still, I think I am doing better than last year, though I didn't keep records then.

My kids are doing better than I am.  As part of their homeschooling, I require them to log the books they read.  Each child read about 50 this year; not all of it high quality, as noted above.  Many times I have regretted not logging the books I read as a kid.  Wouldn't it be fun to see what you were reading at 10, 15, 22?  I don't think my kids see the value of logging their books yet.  They do it because I make them.  But I'll keep those logs and someday they will enjoy marveling over the books they read when they were teens.

Or, they'll recycle them with hardly a glance.   Who can predict?

What are you reading this summer?  Do you keep track of your books?

Personal reading challenge

There was a time when I considered myself a reader. I was one of those bookworm kids and I continued to read a lot as an adult. Somewhere after becoming a mother, personal reading fell off the daily agenda. Homeschooling didn't really help; I read (both past and present tense) a lot, but it's not really the personal reading that I crave.

Then I read Susan Wise Bauer's essay "Stop Cleaning the Kitchen and Read a Book" in "The Classical Teacher," a magazine/catalog put out by Memoria Press. That did not help me feel any better about the lack of reading in my life.

I've read and used some of Mrs. Bauer's books. I can't say I run a classical homeschool though I use some of the recommendations I've found in A Well-Trained Mind. I disagree with some of her philosophy - which means I agree with some of it. Like this:

In order to embark on the project of classical education— not just for our children, but also for ourselves—we have to rediscover a much older way of thinking. For us to really enter into the project of classical education, we have to change our perspective from “I could be educated if I could go through school again" or “I could be educated if I had time to enroll in a graduate program" to “I can educate myself." We have to think about how we will enter into classical education along with our children.

In order to get educated, we do not have to go to graduate school. We have to read, take notes on what we read, and discuss ideas with our friends.

The article has much more to it; there is practical advice on how to read (as in, to get a lot out of a book), and how to get over the feeling that there is simply not enough time to read. There are no recommended booklists; she covered that in her book A Well-Educated Mind, and there are plenty of other places to find good books to read.

Regarding "there's not enough time to read," she says:

The biggest difference between electronic media and books is the way in which television and the internet can insinuate themselves into every spare minute. I have never once sat down to read Plato, lost myself in it, and looked up and found that two hours have passed. But there have been a lot of times when I've just sat down to look at email ... and have suddenly discovered that a huge amount of valuable time has slipped away from me.

I read this article at the end of July, so for August I set myself the goal of spending an hour a day reading. Real books - the internet and magazines don't count. Homeschooling books and curriculum don't count either.

The first week of August was pretty easy for me; one child was away at camp and one was at a daycamp for 5 hours each day. But that first easy week reminded me of how much I missed reading, so it was a little easier to keep up after the camp week was over. I probably missed my goal a few days here and there, but overall I found or made the time. I read quite a few books of my own, and previewed a few for the kids. I read parts of some books that have been kicking around for ages, only to find they really weren't worth finishing after all.

During that month, the house wasn't any messier than usual, the kids and husband didn't go hungry, and I was probably more content and relaxed than normal because I was reading again. Actually, my kids probably stepped up to help more than before, because I was asking them to - so I would have more time to read.

Some mothers I tried to talk to about this were dubious. They couldn't get past the "stop washing dishes" part. Some are just in the wrong season of life for this right now. It's true that I don't have babies and toddlers who demand constant attention; I wouldn't be typing this up right now if I did.

What I do have, though, are two young people who need to see, in a concrete way, that reading is valued in our house. I can talk to them all I want about the importance of reading good books but at what point do they look at me and say "if it's so important, why aren't you doing it too?" I might think I don't have to worry about that; they are good and enthusiastic readers. Well, that's today. What about tomorrow?

Someone might say I'm justifying my own selfishness because I simply want to read. (Actually someone did say that.) I am not always reading Plato and Aristotle and Homer, it's true.

But, that is a challenge for another month. August was my month to get started. I haven't decided on any changes for September. It's enough for me right now just to be reading again.

Recipe for Success: Home Education Week, Day 4

Already on day 4 of Home Education Week at Principled Discovery:

It is also National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day! So share a recipe…figuratively, as in two parts love, one part creativity, or literally, as in a super quick, nutritious meal your kids scarf up. Think about what you do in the day, what helps keep it organized and you sane (or how you got past that need for organization and saneness!), and curriculum materials you find effective.

This started out to be hard. What do we do that keeps us going? What is effective around here? What do we do all day? And then it came to me. Of course.

Books. Lots of books. History books, science books, silly books, serious books, grownup books, picture books, beautiful books. If I could give my children all they needed by just reading great books to them, and encouraging them to read great books on their own, I would. I almost can.

Someone once expressed surprise (maybe I should say shock) because my kids want me to read to them still. They are 9 and almost-11, and they are reading on their own; pretty well, too. But I can't imagine not reading to my kids. Sure, they can read. But there are some books that are better read together the first time. I had never read The Chronicles of Narnia. Why would I hand those off to my kids to read on their own the first time? Last year we read Oliver Twist. That, they probably couldn't read on their own, but they loved listening to it. And then of course there was our marathon: the entire "Swallows and Amazons" series, 12 books, our "pleasure books" for months. We still talk about those books, two years later.

I am looking forward to the day they both feel comfortable reading aloud to me, so we can all take turns with the books. Won't that be a great time?

See more on this topic at Principled Discovery. And add your own!

What I wish I'd known....

Today I came across an interesting meme at The Heart of the Matter, a new blog to me. (Thanks to Smallworld.) This week the topic is:

What You Wish You Had Known Your First Year of Homeschooling.

I can't really say when my first year of homeschooling was. Was it when I decided to homeschool? Was it when my kids "should have gone" to kindergarten? Or when I had to register them with the local school district at age 7? I guess it doesn't matter, because the answer would be the same no matter what:

I'd have calmed down about the reading.

Both my husband and I could read before we went to kindergarten, and both love books. So we assumed any kids of ours would love books and would be early readers. Well, they both love books, always have. Our boy's first comfort object was a book, not a blankie. And if we had to punish the little toddler, afterwards he would cry "read a book, read a book!" That was how he could be sure he was still loved.

But neither kid took to reading early. The boy and I struggled mightily for a couple of years before I gave up on the conventional methods and let him read easy books. By 8 I could relax a little because he could read, some. Now by almost 11 he is doing pretty well. He can't spell, because he never got the phonics down. But recently he asked me to "redo" phonics with him because he sees the lack of it hindering him. Since he is doing it because he wants to, there is no struggle and we're progressing OK. He is "behind" in writing but otherwise doing pretty well. I managed not to kill his love for books and learning.

My 2nd child wasn't interested at age 6, and I didn't really care because I was still struggling with her big brother. At 7 she taught herself to read. I guess hearing his phonics lessons was enough to get her started, and she's never looked back.

So, if I could have those years back, I'd just keep reading to them, keep letting them love books and language, and sit back till they were ready to read. I should have known it would happen.

Go over to Heart of the Matter and see what others have to say.

One of those great homeschooling days

This is not typical, but days like this happen often enough to make it worthwhile.

Up at 7, with the dog and kids, walking/running the neighborhood.

Catechism and discussion of 6th commandment (it's more complicated than you think).

A chapter of North With the Spring, read aloud. Words to bring tears to your eyes.

Math, grammar, even phonics without complaints! Ever since I told the big complainer that he'd have no computer game time if he complained about these basics that we have to do, we have gotten a lot more done in a shorter amount of time! Shazam!

Animal classification - looked up a few animals found while reading On the Banks of Plum Creek (oh yeah, they did their reading in that after breakfast cleanup; we just do 3 chapters a week). In the process, of course, they had some short diversions in the pages of the encyclopedia, on the Animal Diversity Web, and on the Encyclopedia of Life website. Read about grasshoppers in Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study. We read about the order Mammalia in the Audubon Nature Encyclopedia. We are loosely following The Prairie Primer and getting discussion and activity ideas from that book, so we also discussed idleness, work ethic, and wheat growing.

J went outside to work on some kind of rocket involving matches, paper clips, and something else. (Under strict instructions not to light said matches alone.) Then moved to playing with the dog, then had a little baseball practice with Dad (who is on spring break and outside fixing the roof). The rockets never did work; it's a little too windy outside today.

E wrote up a recipe for a bready sort of thing, then put it together on her own. It turned out horribly - I should have been paying closer attention when she rattled off her list of ingredients; if I had, we might have added some leavening. No matter; I do hate to waste a cup of flour and an egg (the other ingredients were in negligible amounts), but the lesson, of course, was priceless. Yes, I'm living a MasterCard(tm) ad.

We read a picture-book bio of Charles Dickens and talked about the way his life affected his writing. We had read Oliver Twist a few months ago so the image of the orphan in the workhouse was familiar to them. Took a virtual tour of the Charles Dickens Museum in London. Decided that The Pickwick Papers should be our next "pleasure book" to be read aloud. I am not sure I'm up for that right now. It took a very long time to get through Oliver.

In between we had teatime, and did some house and dog chores. The kids had time to play some more with the dog, get in some more baseball practice, and do some "geological exploring" which was really just messing around in the mud.

Just before bed we read a bit of Tom Sawyer.

Yes, these are the days that get me through the tough ones. The days everything clicks, the kids improve their skills (even if it is almost imperceptible), greatly increase their knowledge and understanding of the world, and take great joy in life.

Gilead

Last night I finished the first required reading for my class: Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson. My class is all about people - observing, listening, figuring out how they think. So we're reading books about humans and the human condition - listening in, so to speak.

Gilead is a father-and-son book. An elderly preacher, dying of heart disease, writes a long meditation on his life, for his young son. In it he recounts much of his life and describes some very complicated father-son relationships: his own father and grandfather, and his best friend and his son. There is also a good bit of musing on faith.

Some of the reviews I read called the book "slow" and "tedious." It is certainly not a page-turner. But it is beautiful and it has a lot to say about relationships, life, disappointments and how we respond to them. As my professor said, "this is one to read slowly, put down and contemplate. Don't try to read it all in one sitting. Roll it around in your head before you move on. There's a lot here." I'd agree with that assessment.