Today I can start counting "school" days for my new homeschool year. Yesterday the seminarian started his summer session too - 3 hours of Hebrew 4 days a week. The kids' summer schedule will be a little lighter. We are going to restart our basic skills work - a little math, a little writing, etc., and are also starting a reading/mapping project using Paddle to the Sea and the study guide and maps from Beautiful Feet Books. I have had this for at least 2 years, waiting for the right time to use it! We'll also move on in history - I am so sick of Story of the World but have no good reason not to finish, and will just read some interesting science books. We didn't finish North With the Spring yet (yes, I know it's summer!) and then will read Fabre's Book of Insects together, then maybe some of the science books by Virginia and Alvin Silverstein. All of these are books I've had stashed for a long while; I think the only new purchases I will need to make this entire year will be math books, a real science curriculum (maybe) and some grade-level test-prep workbooks.
One thing I have noticed now that I have to count days - we don't do any work on days that don't count. Once I completed my 180-day grid, I checked out mentally on all but the fun stuff. We haven't touched math, phonics or spelling since about June 15. Which is fine, mostly - everyone needs a vacation - but the skills get lost so fast. The boy had a birthday so has some thank you notes to write. Yeah, that counts.
The kids also signed up for summer reading at the public library. They don't really need the incentive to read but who can pass up free Dunkin' Donuts and water ice from Rita's?
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
The differences between us
Every now and then I am reminded of how different we are from other people. I had one of those experiences at the library the other day.
In front of me in line at the circulation desk was a nodding acquaintance of mine and her high-school age kids. They were looking for a book for one of the kids - assigned summer reading for (public) school. The child didn't know the name of the book needed - the librarian had to go look it up on the list the high school had provided them. (So I guess this one was not the first student to walk into the library looking for they-don't-know-what.) When it was determined that all copies of the book were checked out of that branch, the mother said they would check back for it another time. Of course the librarian suggested they put in a request for it so they could just come in and pick it up and not stop back at some random time when the book may or may not be on the shelf. The family looked at one another with puzzlement. The librarian went on to explain that it was available at several other branches and she could get it for them. The family still had no clue what she was talking about. She mentioned the names of some of the branches in the county-wide system that had the book on the shelf. The mother said "Oh, I can't drive all the way out there..." The librarian very calmly (much more calmly than I felt at the moment) explained the method for requesting books to be transferred from branch to branch. The family all looked stunned that such a thing is possible.
I didn't hear the end of it because the other desk opened up and I was able to pick up my requested books and get out of there. But I was stunned too. These kids attend the public high school that is across the street from the library. How can they not know how to use it? I see kids in there during after-school hours all the time - mostly using the computers, but searching the stacks too. Walking in and out with books. Real books in their hands. How can this entire family have no clue how to use the library? At least one of them had a card so presumably it was not their first experience there. That's one good thing, at least.
OK, I am sure I felt at least a twinge of superiority over this. My kids know how to use the library. They understand they can get a book from any branch in this library system. They don't know about inter-library loan yet as I have never had reason to use it. But I don't guess it would mystify them. I think if they went to school they would know, or I would teach them, not to walk in for a book without knowing the name of it and relying on the librarian to have a copy of the school's list.
So once again I am reminded that we are not like other people. I thought the public library was a near-universal experience for middle-class Americans. Wrong again!
In front of me in line at the circulation desk was a nodding acquaintance of mine and her high-school age kids. They were looking for a book for one of the kids - assigned summer reading for (public) school. The child didn't know the name of the book needed - the librarian had to go look it up on the list the high school had provided them. (So I guess this one was not the first student to walk into the library looking for they-don't-know-what.) When it was determined that all copies of the book were checked out of that branch, the mother said they would check back for it another time. Of course the librarian suggested they put in a request for it so they could just come in and pick it up and not stop back at some random time when the book may or may not be on the shelf. The family looked at one another with puzzlement. The librarian went on to explain that it was available at several other branches and she could get it for them. The family still had no clue what she was talking about. She mentioned the names of some of the branches in the county-wide system that had the book on the shelf. The mother said "Oh, I can't drive all the way out there..." The librarian very calmly (much more calmly than I felt at the moment) explained the method for requesting books to be transferred from branch to branch. The family all looked stunned that such a thing is possible.
I didn't hear the end of it because the other desk opened up and I was able to pick up my requested books and get out of there. But I was stunned too. These kids attend the public high school that is across the street from the library. How can they not know how to use it? I see kids in there during after-school hours all the time - mostly using the computers, but searching the stacks too. Walking in and out with books. Real books in their hands. How can this entire family have no clue how to use the library? At least one of them had a card so presumably it was not their first experience there. That's one good thing, at least.
OK, I am sure I felt at least a twinge of superiority over this. My kids know how to use the library. They understand they can get a book from any branch in this library system. They don't know about inter-library loan yet as I have never had reason to use it. But I don't guess it would mystify them. I think if they went to school they would know, or I would teach them, not to walk in for a book without knowing the name of it and relying on the librarian to have a copy of the school's list.
So once again I am reminded that we are not like other people. I thought the public library was a near-universal experience for middle-class Americans. Wrong again!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Do Hard Things: Hope for the culture.
A few days ago I was in despair over the future of our culture. It seemed that there was a serious lack of care for the future. I was reading too much negative stuff and feeling really negative about my kids' futures.
Then I started reading Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris. These are the young men behind The Rebelution: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations. This is just the thing I've been looking for. Yes, there is hope for the future. Yes, there are people who care.
The beginning of the book focuses on the problem: "The Myth of Adolescence" laments the low expectations we as a society have for young people and the things they can accomplish. We get a short history lesson on a few people who did "hard things" as teens. Next, comes "A Better Way," subtitled "Reclaiming the teen years as the launching pad of life."
Why do we think the teen years should be full of mindless fun, "harmless" rebellion and not much else? Why don't we use young adulthood as a time of preparation for full adulthood? Why does our culture have such low expectations of young men and women?
The rest of the book outlines the authors' advice for moving forward to doing hard things. There are anecdotes about people who have accomplished much in their short lives, projects that came to fruition after people got motivated and got to work. This is not fluffy stuff but real advice to get things going. Reading some of the stories really made me aware of my own mediocrity. Seriously. There are young teens who have done so many good, hard things.
This book is written by Christians and absolutely has a Christian worldview. In a way, I think that's too bad, because that alone will turn some people off from reading it. But a person does not have to be a Christian to want to do more with his or her life. Of course the concept of God is not limited to Christians but there is a lot of talk about the Gospel, Jesus, and liberal use of scripture. But open-minded nonChristians can get a lot out of this book. (Death cultists excluded.)
I feel so much better now. My older kid is turning 11 tomorrow; he's teetering between childhood and adulthood. I've said for a long time that I would not use the word teenager with my kids. (I am not sure where I got that idea; from one of my regular blog reads, I think.) He's almost a young man. He's ready to start doing some hard things.
Whether you are a teen or not, are you ready to start doing hard things?
Then I started reading Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris. These are the young men behind The Rebelution: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations. This is just the thing I've been looking for. Yes, there is hope for the future. Yes, there are people who care.
The beginning of the book focuses on the problem: "The Myth of Adolescence" laments the low expectations we as a society have for young people and the things they can accomplish. We get a short history lesson on a few people who did "hard things" as teens. Next, comes "A Better Way," subtitled "Reclaiming the teen years as the launching pad of life."
Why do we think the teen years should be full of mindless fun, "harmless" rebellion and not much else? Why don't we use young adulthood as a time of preparation for full adulthood? Why does our culture have such low expectations of young men and women?
The rest of the book outlines the authors' advice for moving forward to doing hard things. There are anecdotes about people who have accomplished much in their short lives, projects that came to fruition after people got motivated and got to work. This is not fluffy stuff but real advice to get things going. Reading some of the stories really made me aware of my own mediocrity. Seriously. There are young teens who have done so many good, hard things.
This book is written by Christians and absolutely has a Christian worldview. In a way, I think that's too bad, because that alone will turn some people off from reading it. But a person does not have to be a Christian to want to do more with his or her life. Of course the concept of God is not limited to Christians but there is a lot of talk about the Gospel, Jesus, and liberal use of scripture. But open-minded nonChristians can get a lot out of this book. (Death cultists excluded.)
I feel so much better now. My older kid is turning 11 tomorrow; he's teetering between childhood and adulthood. I've said for a long time that I would not use the word teenager with my kids. (I am not sure where I got that idea; from one of my regular blog reads, I think.) He's almost a young man. He's ready to start doing some hard things.
Whether you are a teen or not, are you ready to start doing hard things?
Monday, June 23, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Death of the culture - who cares?
Still pondering world demographics and the end of Western culture after reading America Alone. I found myself getting really annoyed and upset about the fact that countries like Italy and Spain have such abysmal birth rates that their cultures may vanish completely. As the book said, it'll still be named Spain or Italy but the culture will be completely different. I wonder what kind of people just let their culture die.
But then I realized that there is no reason for people to care if they don't have children. If there's no one coming behind us, who cares what the future looks like? I want the US to survive, politically and culturally, partly because I have children and I want their future to look a lot like my present. (Only better, of course.) But if I didn't have children, would I care? Well, I have 6 nieces and nephews, and 1 of them has a couple of kids; the others could someday. I'd like them to have this Western culture that I love too. But what if I didn't have those kids to think about? Would I care about the children of friends? Would I care about random children that I don't know?
Why did men go off to fight the Nazis so eagerly? What were they fighting for? Many of them, no doubt, had no children. Why did they care if the Nazis overtook Europe and then, eventually, the US? Why do men join the volunteer army to go to Iraq now? Some of them are fighting for their kids' futures, but not all. Why do some care about and fight for the future and some - don't?
The current rising generation is a very self-absorbed group of people. (This is not an original thought.) Young men are not bothering to marry or even to grow up. Women are still having babies, but often don't seem to care about giving them a future (like those high school girls in Gloucester, MA; you can google it if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's all over the place) or like the gals who figure they can do a better job raising kids on their own, who needs a stupid man around? And of course all these fatherless boys are not going to grow up with any idea of honor and defending one's country and culture. The woman:man::fish:bicycle crowd is interested in creating their own culture, possibly looking like a colony of wasps (but with more queens). What are these self- or celebrity-absorbed mothers going to teach their boys? The US will not have the ability to defend itself; enough people won't care to. I'd guess that the time will come when few people will care what kind of government is in power, as long as the checks keep coming and the tv reception is good.
What about those monks who "saved civilization" by copying out ancient Greek and Roman texts during the dark ages? They didn't have children. Of whom were they thinking when they were doing all that work? Why did they bother? Did they know their work would end the dark ages and bring Western culture back to life?
Who will bother to preserve our culture?
But then I realized that there is no reason for people to care if they don't have children. If there's no one coming behind us, who cares what the future looks like? I want the US to survive, politically and culturally, partly because I have children and I want their future to look a lot like my present. (Only better, of course.) But if I didn't have children, would I care? Well, I have 6 nieces and nephews, and 1 of them has a couple of kids; the others could someday. I'd like them to have this Western culture that I love too. But what if I didn't have those kids to think about? Would I care about the children of friends? Would I care about random children that I don't know?
Why did men go off to fight the Nazis so eagerly? What were they fighting for? Many of them, no doubt, had no children. Why did they care if the Nazis overtook Europe and then, eventually, the US? Why do men join the volunteer army to go to Iraq now? Some of them are fighting for their kids' futures, but not all. Why do some care about and fight for the future and some - don't?
The current rising generation is a very self-absorbed group of people. (This is not an original thought.) Young men are not bothering to marry or even to grow up. Women are still having babies, but often don't seem to care about giving them a future (like those high school girls in Gloucester, MA; you can google it if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's all over the place) or like the gals who figure they can do a better job raising kids on their own, who needs a stupid man around? And of course all these fatherless boys are not going to grow up with any idea of honor and defending one's country and culture. The woman:man::fish:bicycle crowd is interested in creating their own culture, possibly looking like a colony of wasps (but with more queens). What are these self- or celebrity-absorbed mothers going to teach their boys? The US will not have the ability to defend itself; enough people won't care to. I'd guess that the time will come when few people will care what kind of government is in power, as long as the checks keep coming and the tv reception is good.
What about those monks who "saved civilization" by copying out ancient Greek and Roman texts during the dark ages? They didn't have children. Of whom were they thinking when they were doing all that work? Why did they bother? Did they know their work would end the dark ages and bring Western culture back to life?
Who will bother to preserve our culture?
Saturday, June 21, 2008
America Alone
Mark Steyn (a Canadian writer living in the US) is one of the funniest and scariest writers around. He is currently on "trial" by a Canadian Human Rights Commission for inciting hate with remarks from his book, America Alone. There's lots of information on the net about the trial, such as this op/ed piece from the LA Times a few days ago. Instapundit often links to updates.
I just finished reading America Alone this morning. It's a worthwhile book. Some people can't stomach the anti-Islam tone, though all his commentary about radical Islam's desire to rule the world comes directly from the news or from quotes by Islamists themselves. So I don't see where the "hate" comes in. He's reporting.
But, if that's not to your liking, you could read just Part 1: "The Gelded Age," and the last 2 chapters, "the Importance of Being Exceptional" and "the Falling Camel," in which Steyn outlines the demographic problems facing Europe and, to a lesser degree (so far), the US: European citizens are not having enough babies to keep their cultures alive. The US is close to doing the same. And who pays for those nifty welfare-state benefits when the population ages and there are no babies coming along behind? Important to think about as we contemplate Canadian-style Socialist medicine.
There are great quotes, like:
As French philosopher Jean-Francois Revel wrote, "Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself."
Or:
Multiculturalism was conceived by Western elites not to celebrate all cultures but to deny their own.
That reminds me of a comment a long-lost friend of mine made about a neighbor's marriage: they were really cool, she said, because it was a multi-cultural marriage. Implying that mine, being mono-cultural, was not so cool, I guess. Sorry to be so boring by being white and American and marrying a white American guy.
It's funny, too. A quick read, maybe an important read for this election year.
I just finished reading America Alone this morning. It's a worthwhile book. Some people can't stomach the anti-Islam tone, though all his commentary about radical Islam's desire to rule the world comes directly from the news or from quotes by Islamists themselves. So I don't see where the "hate" comes in. He's reporting.
But, if that's not to your liking, you could read just Part 1: "The Gelded Age," and the last 2 chapters, "the Importance of Being Exceptional" and "the Falling Camel," in which Steyn outlines the demographic problems facing Europe and, to a lesser degree (so far), the US: European citizens are not having enough babies to keep their cultures alive. The US is close to doing the same. And who pays for those nifty welfare-state benefits when the population ages and there are no babies coming along behind? Important to think about as we contemplate Canadian-style Socialist medicine.
There are great quotes, like:
As French philosopher Jean-Francois Revel wrote, "Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself."
Or:
Multiculturalism was conceived by Western elites not to celebrate all cultures but to deny their own.
That reminds me of a comment a long-lost friend of mine made about a neighbor's marriage: they were really cool, she said, because it was a multi-cultural marriage. Implying that mine, being mono-cultural, was not so cool, I guess. Sorry to be so boring by being white and American and marrying a white American guy.
It's funny, too. A quick read, maybe an important read for this election year.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Another great book find
How do these great books find their way into my house? A few weeks ago I picked up a library book on a whim: The Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers. I guess it was on the featured books shelf in the kids' area - I don't even remember how it got in our bag. It looked like a fantasy - which my kids don't typically like! So it went in the library book basket and sat there for about 2 weeks. When I was going through the books to find the (over)dues, it turned up and I looked it over again. Hmm...
Echoing from the river bottom forest...the bark of the bog owl speaks of wild places still untamed, of quests not yet pursued, of great deeds not yet done. Aidan Errolson heeds this call of the wild, and soon learns it's a call to save his country.
Having nothing else to read (yeah, right), we dove in. And then we couldn't stop...
You might find the story familiar: Aidan is a young farm boy, youngest among 4 brothers. His main job is tending the sheep; he protects them with his sling. One day he is called home only to find an old man, "the Truthspeaker" in his home, giving a strange prediction... this young boy is to be king? War erupts, and no one will come forward to answer the enemy's challenge, till Adain and his sling save the day...
It's a fun adventure story with lessons if you want them: bravery, trust, friendship. There's an explosion. My kids figured out the biblical connection early on. Kids not exposed to the Bible might just see it as a great story - it is not a "religious" book; there are a few references to "the One True God" and that's it.
And, this story does not take place in Israel. More like Georgia swampland. Then there's the surprise of the "feechiefolk" who some think are mythical creatures...
We've started the next in the trilogy immediately (I think yesterday I read about 100 pages between the 2 books) and it's just as good. Aidan is now part of the king's court, but is losing the king's favor. He is sent out on an impossible quest...
Written for 9-12's, it's still a satisfying read aloud for the parents. OK, for this parent, anyway.
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