Monthly Archives: August 2006

Cyber campfire

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Taken last weekend, this is our last campfire of the summer. We may take the pop-up (fondly dubbed The Fifth Baby) out again next month before we sprinkle it with mothballs to keep the vermin out during the winter. Sigh. Where did the summer go? And why did it run away from us so quickly?

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And this is Doc sitting by the fire holding tight to 16-month-old Lucy. She’s doing great, by the way. Her belly and legs show no trace of any burns. Thanks be to God. You may remember what happened back when the summer was new and we were camping for the first time this year. I’ll gladly leave that memory behind. Except the helicoper ride. That was fun.

Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life by Michael Dirda

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From a chapter entitled “Bringing It All Back Home”

In 1950s Ohio, a boy could slide easily into daydreams about King Solomon’s mines, mysterious islands, swordplay in Ruritania, cackling master criminals, and dark avengers. Books fed the imagination. Then suddenly CD-ROMs, video games, and digitalized movies began to surpass any child’s wildest fantasies. But all they exercised, as far as I could tell, was hand-eye coordination. Yet more and more it grew clear that computer monitors and wide-screen TVs were becoming, in Keats’s phrase, “charmed magic casements” to transport us to “faery lands forlorn.’

While I sometimes think it’s wrong to be concerned, it has been a long while since I glimpsed a kid sprawled under a shade tree lost in a book. After all, we can’t count on J.K. Rowling alone to create or sustain a passion for turning pages. Like Aristotelian virtue, reading is a habit. Children need to read, then to read some more. Quantity matters far more than quality – there will be plenty of time for classics. But when starting out, the young should be immersed in a culture of the sentence, not the screen.

I agree. Except for the bit about quantity above quality. British educator Charlotte Mason called children’s books lacking in quality “twaddle.” What’s the twaddle in the childrens’ section nowadays? Those horror books like Goosebumps, for one. I’m not fond of the Babysitters Club or Sweet Valley High series either. The classics can be found for younger readers in additions made especially for them to enjoy. Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt is wonderful resource for parents who care about what their children read.

Thoughts on when to homeschool

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Today’s the 28th, and … no school! Much to the kids delight. Public, private or homeschool – kids will be kids and any time mom announces no school today, they’re happy.

I planned on starting today several weeks ago, but decided last week to change the schedule for the year. When you homeschool, you can do lessons whenever you want, where you want. In a car. At the kitchen table. At the beach. At night. In the morning. (This is starting to remind me of the children’s book Green Eggs and Ham)

I know this. I love this about homeschooling. Yet sometimes it’s hard to put into practice. I’m so use to doing it the expected (read: public school) way. Finally I’m living outside of the expected, boring, ho-hum box.

Ha. It’s only taken me two years to get there.

So, here’s my plan: 185 days of “formal” learning. Any homeschooling mom knows what I mean by that. Formal as in sitting the rump in the chair with pencil in hand for handwriting, attempting to learn a new concept in math, writing thoughts on paper that makes sense to a reader. Stuff like that.

Here’s the outside of box part – I’m going to do three weeks of formal learning, then take a week off. (And yes, I do like the idea of schooling year ’round. It makes so much sense, but that’s another post for another day.)

The idea of three weeks for school, one week break is taken from the pages of one of my favorite homeschooling books The Well-Trained Mind: a Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. Even if you do not follow a classical approach to your homeschool, you would benefit from reading the last bit of the book. Start with chapter 35 and read to the end. Good, good stuff in there, for all homeschoolers.