Books Read in July

How to Read Literature Like a Professor - Thomas C. Foster
I mentioned in a previous post that I was in the process of reading this.  I have finished it since then.  It is written in a conversational style, so easy to read, with chapter titles such as Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It's Not).  I highly recommend it to anyone who would like to get more out of their reading.  Now I think I need to brush up on Greek mythology.

Remarkable Creatures - Tracy Chevalier
By the same author who wrote Girl With a Pearl Earring.  This is about Mary Anning, the uneducated working class woman who was the first person to discover an ichthyosaurus fossil and a pleisiosaurus fossil.  The main focus of the story is on the friendship between Mary Anning and a middle class spinster who shares her love of fossils.  Highly enjoyable.

Unschooling Rules - Clark Aldrich
"If you look at class schedules and other school propaganda, you might think that (a) the students' entire day is filled with hour after hour of rigorous work, and (b) even more hours are needed.  But if you were to follow one student as an anthropologist might, actually keeping track of time spent under instruction and in practice assignments, the real number is a little less than 3 hours."


"Tests don't work.  Get over it.  Move on.


"And we want tests to work so badly.  We love the idea of a simple-to-deploy, objective mechanism that can sort, motivate, and diagnose - the equivalent of quality control at a car manufacturing plant looking for defects.  The only problem is that tests do everything wrong.  Tests only test the test taker's ability to prepare for and take tests.  For example, there is no skill worth having that can be measured through a multiple-choice exam."

Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
A re-read.  I was browsing in the library, looking for a light summer read when I saw this.  I first read it when Swimmah was a baby, so about 14-15 years ago.  That was also before I read Pride and Prejudice, so I missed all the references to that.  Funny as ever, and I enjoyed the references.  (v.g.)

King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table - Roger Lancelin Green
I picked this up because we've been watching back episodes of Merlin.  Most of my knowledge of the Arthurian legends is from The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, which was not exactly faithful to the original legends.   I realize that everyone puts their own spin on old legends such as Arthur (including the show Merlin), but I wanted to know what the traditional tales were all about.

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague - Geraldine Brooks
Based on actual events, this novel chronicles the events in a small isolated village in 1666 where there is an outbreak of the plague.  I'm not quite half-way through this one yet, but so far I'm finding it very interesting.

All Creatures Great and Small - James Herriot
Still reading with Turtlegirl, a little at a time.

Our Top Ten Favorite Kids' Fantasy Book Series

I intended this post to be a list of favorite kids' chapter books, but I started writing down our favorites, and realized that most of them are series.  Then I noticed that they were mostly fantasy.  Then I kept thinking of others that I had forgotten about.  Maybe I will do another post with favorite stand-alone chapter books, and maybe one with non-fantasy books (there must be 10 they liked...). The series on this list range from the ones we read together when we first started reading chapter books to books my kids have been reading on their own more recently.

Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osbourne
These were Swimmah's first chapter books that she read.  When she had progressed beyond them and was reading other books, she still wanted to read "the whole series".  I pointed out that a new book comes out every 6 months or so, she decided that maybe she didn't really need to read them all.  These are great for introducing history (there's one - or a "mini-series" of four - on the Olympics, fyi).  The only down side I found was all the incomplete sentences.  I know the author/publisher wanted easy-to-read, but couldn't they have done that and still be grammatically correct?  It just irked me...especially after listening to upwards of 20 of them!  Hence my need to point out that a new one comes out every 6 months - "You'll NEVER be done with them!"

Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin
These are great beginning chapter books for cat lovers!  Mrs. Jane Tabby doesn't know why her kittens are all born with wings...

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
More great beginning chapter books, but if I remember correctly, we read these aloud, at least the first time.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
I first read these to my girls to appease them for not reading Harry Potter to them.  Now, don't get me wrong, I am (and was then) a huge Harry fan.  But I don't think they are appropriate for 7 and 5 year olds.  I thought that Narnia was a little less violent and scary, but still exciting.  They have loved this series!  I read them aloud, we have listened to them on CD, they have each read them to themselves.  And we've seen the movies that have come out so far (isn't the next one due soon??)

The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
I think these were the first chapter books Turtlegirl read completely on her own.  More action and adventure, without being too scary.

Redwall by Brian Jacques
Oh my.  Turtlegirl loved this series.  It has all her favorite things: animals, action/adventure, and humor.  She picked up the first one at the library when she was about 8 years old.  She tried reading it by herself, but found it too difficult, so she asked me to read it to her.  Well, I found it a bit difficult myself.  Each type of animal has their own British accent - and the moles!  I'm not sure what part of England they're supposed to be from, but I never did master that one (although Swimmah got pretty good at it).  I was thrilled to discover that our library has recordings of some of them, but unfortunately only the first 5 or so.  Then it was back to me reading aloud.  But Turtlegirl was so taken with the series that she sat down, at 8 yrs old, and sewed little stuffed animals of many of the characters. (just a little bragging)

Martin the Warrior and Cornflower on a whale watching trip.

And Winifred the otter came with us almost everywhere for a while:

She's much larger than the mice, but then, otters are bigger than mice.  At a butterfly conservatory.

Tales From Dimwood Forest by Avi
More talking animals, more of Turtlegirl's favorites.  There are five books in this series: Ragweed; Poppy; Poppy and Rye; Ereth's Birthday; and Poppy's Return.

Warrior Series by Erin Hunter
Feral cats, prophecies, warring clans.  These were Swimmah's favorites for a few years.  We read these at bedtime for a while, until I got really bored with them and told her that she had to read the rest on her own.  I'm mean like that.  She continued to read them and love them, but Turtlegirl admitted that she got bored with them after a while, too.  Depends on the kid, I guess.

The Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathryn Lasky
This time the animals are owls.  I never read these, as the girls both read them on their own.  I saw the movie - does that count?  Part hero legend, part dystopian society.

Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
Perhaps you are familiar with this one?  Unless you are living under a rock, I'm sure you've heard of Percy Jackson.  Great fun, great introduction to Greek mythology.

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Did you really think I could write a list of favorite fantasy novels and not include this?  I love this series as much as my kids do.  I started reading HP when they were babies, after my sister, who had read the first two with her sons, recommended them to me.  I put off reading them to the girls as long as I could, back during the height of Harry mania.  I knew that they get progressively scarier, so didn't want to rush into the series too soon for them and ruin the experience.  I read them aloud, we listened to the audio recordings (Jim Dale is fantastic as the narrator), and they read them to themselves, and we watched the movies (disappointing).  They still listen to the audios and re-read them from time to time.  They are truly modern classics - every time we read them, we discover something new.

Wait, that's 11 already!  I could go on...  I didn't even mention the Lord of the Rings trilogy!  The automatic numbering gets messed up when I add pictures, so I've stopped using that.  I suppose I could just manually type the numbers in, but that seems so archaic.  Another time I will list non-fantasy favorites.  What are some of your favorites?

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday.

Weekly Wrap-Up: July 27

I really don't have much to wrap-up this week, and probably won't for the next month.  Other than watching the Olympics and visiting with family, we don't have many plans for the next few weeks.

Last week was the last week of the summer swim season, so this week we have had quiet evenings at home.  Well, except for Wednesday, when we were out for the swim team end-of-season picnic.  Oh, and Tuesday, my husband and his friend spent the evening working on his outboard motor.  And then letting it run (...and run) to make sure all was well.  But other than that, things have been pretty quiet around here.  


This is also our last week of "school".  We're taking a month off before starting up for the official new school year.  Of course, that also means making final plans and preparations for the year (well, as "final" as things get around here...our academic plans are always open to change).  I'm looking into various options for pre-algebra for Turtlegirl.  Right now, I'm looking at Math-U-See, Teaching Textbooks, Kahn Academy, and Thinkwell.  I'll let her choose from those, and/or any others I might find. We've used Math U See for other levels and I liked them well enough, although she was not crazy about them.  Or maybe it is just math in general.  When I was looking into Algebra I for Swimmah, she swore she hated Math U See, but when I showed her the various options (can't remember now what other ones we looked at), she decided to go with Math U See and hasn't complained about it since.


We're looking forward to watching the Olympics over the next couple of weeks.  Swimming is high on our list of events to watch, naturally.  We're looking forward to gymnastics as well, not to mention a few sports we have not seen before, such as canoe slalom.  Let the games begin!

This post is linked to Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unscocialized Homeschoolers.

Top 10 Things You Should Know About Me

This week's Tuesday Top Ten is 10 Things You Should Know About Me.  Yes, things you should know...all very important, of course.

1. I/we am/are beginning our 10th year of homeschooling.  I believe I've mentioned this before, but I'm kind of amazed myself!  Where does the time go???
2. I'm certified as a Montessori teacher, so that affects my approach to homeschooling and parenting.  
3. I'm the youngest of six.  And I'm 6 years younger than my closest sibling.  5 sisters, 1 brother - he got his own room.  Actually, I did, too, after the others started moving out.
4. I love tea.  There's nothing like a mug of hot tea on a cold day.  I miss it in the summer when it's too hot for a hot beverage.  Sure, I switch to iced tea, which is good, but it's not the same.
5. I am an INFP.  This is based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which I find to be the most accurate personality test for me.  
6. I'm a procrastinator.  Sometimes I put things off because I really don't want to do them, like hemming my husband's pants, but then when I finally get around to it, I wonder why I dreaded it.  I mean, really, hemming isn't that big a deal - just a little boring.  Other times I put things off because I'm not sure how to do it, so instead of just jumping in and trying, I put it off and make starting all the harder.  And most of the time, when I do get around to doing it, it's not as bad as I thought it would be.
7. I hate to shop.  The crowds, the annoying music, the trying-on (nothing ever fits).  And it's about a 35 minute drive to any of the three closest malls.  That makes a trip to the mall take up almost the whole afternoon!  (I just found out I have to return a pair of Land's End shorts to the closest Sears...)
8. I'm just 5 feet tall.  If you were to meet me in person, you would notice.  It also helps explain why I have such a hard time finding clothes that fit me.
9. I have issues with my glucose levels.  Even on a low-glycemic diet (essentially low carb), I struggle to keep my glucose out of pre-diabetic levels.  When I first started this diet, I lost about 10% of my weight, and I have managed to keep the weight down, but not necessarily the glucose level.  I need to go for a blood test later this week to see how I've been doing the last few months.  Wish me luck!
10. I got a Kindle this past winter, which I like overall.  I love the convenience of it fitting in my purse when I know I'm going to be waiting, such as waiting for my kids' activities to be done.  I also love that when I come across a word I'm unfamiliar with, I can just touch it and the definition pops up!  So much easier than waiting until I get home (or walking across the room) to look it up, which I normally forget.  But my kids keep hijacking it to play Every Word Crossing.  They even changed it to a timed game.  I prefer the non-timed game, so I can find all the words and not have the game just end on me!  

So there you have it, 10 things about me.  And now you know why I always post these Top Ten lists so late in the day: I procrastinated!

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday.

10 Totally Random Things On My Mind

The last few weeks I have been following the iHomeschool Network's 10 in 10 blog hop, and linking up to Many Little Blessings' Tuesday Top Ten.  This week's top ten is 10 Totally Random Things On My Mind.  So here goes:


It's hot.  I know, all you (all y'all?) Southerners are rolling your eyes at this New England girl complaining about the heat and humidity.  But it is hot...and we don't have central air, so there!  Or a pool, as my kids keep reminding us.  OK, we do have window units.  But they're loud and wake me up at night.  Which probably explains all my kvetching today.

This is what I feel like doing.

What's for dinner?  This is the burning question, so to speak.  I know anyone who is responsible for feeding a family struggles with this.  It's complicated a bit in our home by having to feed two vegetarians and two non-vegetarians, one of whom also needs to keep the glycemic load to a minimum (meaning that pasta really isn't the best meal).  I have a few meal ideas that make everyone happy, but just a few.  And one of them is chili - and who wants that in this heat??

I think we're going to use The Story of US by Joy Hakim for our history spine this year.  It's at our library so that's a plus.  We have 2 of her The Story of Science books, which I like, but my kids aren't crazy about them. That is why I'm thinking that we'll use them as a spine, rather than the main reading source.  I'll look for other books, field trips, and movies to supplement.

I've become a chauffeur.  It's official.  Older kids means more activities, and until Swimmah can drive, Mom has to drive her.

I have picked 3 zucchini from my garden so far.  And one tomato is almost ready to pick.  We also have a tiny little eggplant and several teeny, tiny cucumbers.  Oh, and I made a small batch of pesto a couple of weeks ago, and have used some cilantro and rosemary as well.  OK, maybe summer heat isn't all bad.

I'm reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster.  It's lively and entertaining.  It is readable and I am enjoying it.  I'm also reading Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier, and am finding all kinds of symbolism in it!  Well, I think it's fun, but I've always been kind of a word/literature geek.

How do people find the time to blog every day?  I'm struggling to find the time to blog 2 or 3 times per week.

I think I'm getting arthritis in my left index finger.  And aren't I too young for that?  I'm only 40-something.  But the top knuckle is enlarged and it feels a little stiff.

One of our cats has a sprained ankle. Or some part of her hind leg/paw.  And we did not take her to the vet, shame on us.  We had just had both our cats to the vet for their regular check-ups (ka-ching!), when she started limping.  We first noticed it in the evening after dinner and decided to see how she was doing the next morning.  She was noticeably better the next morning, and she does seem to be getting better every day.

I really need to get Turtlegirl to clean up her art supplies.  She's great about cleaning out the turtle/lizard/frog tanks - in fact that's usually what she's doing when I want her to do something else.  Hmmm.  But putting away bottles of paint?  Not high on her list of priorities.  After all, she knows right where to find them next time she wants to use them.

Was that random enough for you?  What's on your mind?

Weekly Wrap-Up: July 13

This week started with a swim meet and is ending with a swim meet.  Sunday was a crazy day, with a swim meet in the morning, and kayaking with friends in the afternoon.  The meet went a little longer than I expected, and I really didn't think we would be able to make it in time for kayaking, but somehow, we did.  I was glad, too, because it was a lovely day and we had a great time with good friends.  I would include a picture if I could figure out how to get a picture from an email message to a blog, but I am somewhat technologically challenged.  If I figure it out, I will add it later.

I did spend a little time considering plans for the coming year.  I took an idea from Julie's post last week at Brave Writer and thought about what I would change about last year.  The biggest change that I would like to see is more excitement about learning.  There were, at times, some rather "resigned" attitudes, a "What do I have to do now?" kind of attitude toward anything remotely academic.  While I don't expect anyone to jump with joy at the prospect of doing, for example, their math lesson for the day, I would like to see maybe a vague interest in the lesson/assignment.  That's one of the things I have always struggled with: I want my kids to want to learn for learning's sake, to be excited about learning, but when they're not, then what?  When they were younger, I tried to focus more on what they were interested in, and tried to keep the lower-interest subjects low-pressure.  But as they are getting older, I have to admit that I am starting to feel the pressure.  I know that there's still time and that when they decide that they want/need to know something, they will pick it up so much faster and easier than if we push them.  But still.  It is so hard to resist all the societal pressure.  There is no one actually telling me that my kids should be doing such and such, but it's there all the same: The Expectations.


Deep breath.  Go back to what I know works: encourage their interests; discuss with them what they will need to do to prepare for adulthood (and putting it that way helps me keep things in perspective, too); and get their input.


The other thing that I would improve from last year is time management.  We could all use a little help there.  Luckily, this one is a little more straight forward.  We'll figure out how many waking hours we have, subtract out the scheduled activities, and then divvy up the remaining time to create a study schedule.


Wish me luck! ;) 

This post is linked to the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

10 Reasons I Am Excited About the New School Year

As I alluded to in last week's Weekly Wrap-Up post, it's getting to be the time of year when we know that in another 6 weeks or so, the school year will officially begin.  That means that I need to get serious about planning for the year.  Oh, I made general plans in the spring, but now I have to think about how I will put those plans into action.  This always makes me a little nervous, maybe because I'm more of an "idea" person and the follow-through is more difficult for me.  But nervousness and excitement can be two sides of the same coin, and in this post I want to concentrate on the reasons why I am excited about the coming school year.


This will be our 10th year homeschooling!  Wow!  How did that happen?!  We started out homeschooling in what would have been Swimmah's first grade year, and here she is in 10th grade (if she were in traditional school).  

This is what they looked like back in our first year of homeschooling.  Yes, Swimmah broke her arm that August.

And this is the three of us this past March.  It's harder to find pictures of the  two of them together nowadays.

Now that they're older, they work more independently.  I don't say this because I get more time to do my own thing (not that I don't mind that, too), but more because it's gratifying to see how they've grown.  I used to have to sit next to them and do the work with them, but somewhere along the way, they started just doing it themselves.  For the most part, anyway...

We are schooling year-round this year.  I have tried to do a year-round schedule for quite a few years, but this is the first time I've been able to carry-through.  In the past, we have had things like camp and vacations earlier in the summer that threw us off and I didn't manage to get us back into doing academic things until the public schools in the area started.  So this year, we will be able to take more time off around the holidays and when the winter doldrums set in.

Volunteering.  I'm hopeful that the girls will be able to continue volunteering at the nature center and the library during the school year.  It's a lot of driving for me, but it's great for them, 1. because it's good experience for when they need to get an actual job, and 2. because it (the nature center particularly) will help them either reinforce their desire to work with animals, or help them decide that they don't really want to do that for a living.  

We will be studying US History this year.  I'm excited about this!  It's a little daunting, too - how are we supposed to cover all of US history in one year??  I suppose we kind of started it last winter when we drove to Philadelphia, to DC, then to Monticello (then to Nashville, where the above picture was taken.  We were in Nashville for a wedding, though and didn't get to any historical sites while there).  I had originally planned to do the Philly-DC-Monticello trip the year we studied US history, but the trip to Nashville came up last year, so we decided to do it then.

They will both be using Math-U-See.  The last few years, I have been pulling things from various resources for Turtlegirl (Swimmah, too when she was younger).  She's ready for pre-algebra now, and I think Math-U-See will be the best fit for her.  It's been working well for Swimmah.

Reading classics with my kids.  Always a pleasure.

I just love Autumn.  It's my favorite season, and always has been.  I love the cool, crisp air and the beautiful New England foliage.  I love walking through the crunchy leaves, and going apple picking, and even the shorter days.  There's something very cozy and homey about having dinner when it's dark out.  My husband thinks I'm a little strange for that last one.

I'm blogging now, so I will have a record of what we've done.

And the 10th reason I'm excited about the coming year is...

A new season of Dr. Who!  OK, this has nothing to do with homeschooling, but we are excited about it, nevertheless.  We started watching the new (started in 2005) series last winter.  We streamed them all and are all caught up, but now have to wait until the season starts again to see any new-to-us shows.  Well, there's always all the shows from the 1960's, 70's and 80's, but they seem so hokey - especially the ones from the 60's.  The tenth doctor is definitely our favorite.

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday.

Weekly Wrap-Up: July 6

There's nothing like a holiday in the middle of the week to throw you off!  Wednesday felt more like a Sunday, which threw me off Thursday and Friday.  Plus, my husband took the week off from work so that made the whole week feel like the weekend.

Not that I'm complaining - it has been a pleasant week.  We took the kayaks out on the river on the 4th, and stopped at a beach area for a picnic lunch and a swim.  The girls had a great time flipping their kayaks and getting back into them from the water.  Then we went to my in-laws for a cook-out.

My husband got in a couple of fishing trips, split a bunch of firewood, and he and I painted the front door.  Swimmah and Turtlegirl both volunteered at the nature center, and Swimmah at the library.  She also decided to continue the mural on her bedroom wall started last summer.  Last year, she did one wall (an under-ocean scene) so now she is painting a second wall.  Here is what she did last year:

I'll post more pictures when it is completed.  Turtlegirl painted a mural on all of her bedroom walls last summer.  Here are two of her walls:

The kitty is our beloved George, who is no longer with us.

And meanwhile, I have started to feel pressured to get my plans for the coming school year more fleshed-out.  It must be the time of year, because Julie at Brave Writer posted about this today.  So over the next couple of weeks, I will carve out time to sit and reflect on our goals for the coming year and discuss individual plans with each of my girls.

Are you feeling pressured to finalize your plans for next school year, too?

This post is linked to Weekly Wrap-Up.

Tuesday Top Ten (or Eleven): 10 Pieces of Advice I Would Give to a New Homeschooler (plus a bonus!)

So you've decided to homeschool your kids. If you're like me, it seemed like a great idea (not that my husband and I made the decision lightly) until the time to actually start crept closer.  Then the panic set in: "What was I thinking?!"  "I can't do this!  I have no patience!"  "How am I going to teach chemistry?!"

First, take a deep breath.  Relax.  You can do this.  There are a few things to keep in mind to make sure you're successful.

1. Your relationships need to come first.  You are their parent, first and foremost.  Yes, they need to learn discipline, but let that come from household chores rather than academics.  We want them to love learning, right?  Julie Bogart of Brave Writer has lots of great advice on this.  She says to make brownies and tea or hot chocolate and maybe give them a little shoulder massage before they sit down to write.  The point is to make them want to write, to look forward to these times.  If there is a subject that they're really resisting, take a break from it and reflect on why they're resisting so much.  Then you can approach it in a way that is more appealing.  Your goal as a parent is to promote healthy relationships.  And as my Montessori teacher-trainer used to say, "Never get into a battle of wills with a child.  They will win."
2. Become familiar with different learning styles.  There are many, many books on this topic.  Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences is a classic.  Another that I like is Discovering Your Child's Learning Style by Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Kindle Hodson.  Knowing how your child(ren) learn will make life for everyone involved much easier.  Expect that if you have more than one child, they will most likely have different learning styles.
3. Don't buy any curriculum until you have a sense of what will work for your children.  Just because your friend loves a particular curriculum doesn't mean that it will work for your family.
4. Use the library.  Your library is a great resource for books, and librarians usually love to suggest or help you look for books.  Some books you will return to again and again so you'll want to own those, but really, most we use for a short time and them move on to something else.  I also recommend going to libraries in neighboring towns as well.
5. Get your kids' input, especially as they get older.  When they're younger, you can try to tie academics in to their interests.  When Swimmah was about 6 and 7, she was heavily into dinosaurs.  I found dinosaur math worksheets at enchantedlearning.com.  I also found early readers at the library about dinosaurs.  They were really a little too advanced for her at first, but because it was a topic she loved, she put more effort into them than she did other early readers.  I was amazed at how quickly she learned to read words like "pachycephalosaurus".  Last year, she and I discussed which Algebra curriculum would work best for her and I narrowed down some of the options so she could choose from 3 or 4.  This helps them learn to take charge of their education.  And really, isn't that the point?
6. Find a support group.  Unless you live way out in the boonies, there should be other homeschoolers around.  It's so nice to have friends who get why you're doing this (for the kids, too!) and to have people to bounce ideas off of, as well as possibly get together to form co-ops and classes.
7. Have them help clean the house.  Really.  You can't do it all, at least not without driving yourself crazy!  Besides, I like to think of it as part of their education.  Someday they will need to be self-sufficient adults.  They will need to know how to clean, do laundry and some basic cooking at least.  And possibly some basic home repairs, like changing a washer on a faucet.
8. Don't sign them up for every activity that comes along.  You will run yourself ragged trying to get them to everything.  I know all those classes and co-ops look so interesting, but try to stick to classes that tie into what you're already studying and/or are related to your child's interest.  Having goals for what you want to accomplish during the year helps with this.
9. Re-read your favorite homeschooling books regularly to keep yourself on track.  This will remind you of why you chose to homeschool in the first place, and keep you motivated.
10. Remember that you are the expert of your own family.  You know your children better than anyone else.  You (and your spouse) should be the ones to make the final decision about what goes on in your home, not the expert on TV, or who wrote that book, or even the well-meaning relative. 
11. Remember that just when you think you have it figured out, they change.  Kids do that!  They grow physically, emotionally, academically.  Every few months, sit down in a quiet moment (or hour) and reflect on what's working and what's not working, and how to fix things if they're not.  I've been doing this the last few years, and I find that it helps immensely.   

Homeschooling is a lot of hard work, but it is so worth it!  Our first year homeschooling, I remember being so tired, it was so much effort.  Like any new job, it gradually got easier (not easy, easier).  Nine years later, it's just life.  :)

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday.

Books Read in June

I meant to write this post yesterday, being the last day of the month and all, but I guess June just slipped away.  So here we are:

The House of the Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Finished!  This was tough to get through.  I have to say I am not a fan of Hawthorne.  I have also read The Scarlet Letter and one of his short stories that Swimmah was assigned for a literature class last fall, and now I think I can safely say that I do not care much for Nathaniel Hawthorne, thank you.

Emma - Jane Austen
A re-read.  This is maybe my third time reading it, and I am noticing so much that I had skimmed over before.  That's how you know it's a classic, right?  One of my favorites.

A Thomas Jefferson Education -Oliver DeMille
Also a re-read.  I like to read homeschooling/educational classics frequently to keep me motivated and remind myself why I'm doing this.  Yes, we want our children to love learning and to fulfill their potentials!

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.
I can't remember now where I came across the recommendation for this book.  It reminded me a bit of another book I read early in the spring, The Genius in All of Us by David Shenk.  The basic premise of The Genius in All of Us is that greatness is not reserved for a gifted few, but that all of us have the potential to excel.  It just takes hard work and persistence, more than most of us put to use.  


Mindset claims that there are two basic mindsets: the fixed-mindset and the growth-mindset.  People with the fixed-mindset believe that our personalities and abilities are fixed; we can't change what we are.  So if you are not good at math, writing, or making friends, or what-have-you, that's just how it is.  Or conversely, if you are good at math, or whatever, then you are special, and that makes you better than someone who is not good at it.


Now those with the growth-mindset believe that people have the potential to change and grow.  So if they are not good at math, then they need to work harder so they can get better at it.  And they do.  And if someone is better at something than they are, they just think that the other person has had more practice with that particular something.  Then they work harder so they can improve.  She gives advice on how to promote the growth-mindset in our children, as well as ourselves.


The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
Audio.  We are listening to a BBC Radio production on CD in the car.  I think this is third time I've listened to this (third time's a charm?), I've read the books once completely through, and of course have seen the movies (more than once).  An oldy but a goody.


All Creatures Great and Small - James Herriot
Still reading with Turtlegirl.  This may take a while as we don't seem to have as much time for reading aloud as we used to.