Books Read in May 2009

Here are the books I read in May -

Living in the Age of Entitlement: The Narcissism Epidemic by Jean Twenge
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Dressed for Death by Donna Leon
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
Keeper by Mal Peet
Girlwood by Claire Dean
Millionaire Babies or Bankrupt Brats by Jim Fay & Kristan Leatherman
Packaging Girlhood by Sharon Lamb (perusal, not full reading)
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis (modern day Afghanistan)

The one I am most excited about is The Outlier's. It is a non-fiction book that discusses the success of the so-called privileged. Basically, it suggests that highly successful people need a combination of timing, lucky breaks and dedication (ie 10,000 hours of practice) to become amoung the great. It's written in an easy to read, conversational manner, so it is funny and informative at the same time. Read it! And if you're really interested, here are some more posts regarding the Outliers:

The Trouble With Geniuses

My next favorite was the Millionaire Babies book. This is a book written by the Love and Logic authors. It provides an excellent discussion of how to hold kids accountable while teaching them life-long money managing skills. Hopefully so they won't graduate straight into the money mess that is the norm with most United States citizens currently (high debt, no savings, no delayed gratification skills, over-spending, etc.) I've been writing allowance and spending contracts all week! I can't say the kids love this, but they know their mom and know it's good to know what they are accountable for ahead of time - because with me there are usually no freebies!

Happy Mother's Day!

Rachel and I were in San Francisco with the Girl Scouts this year for Mother's Day. It was a lot of fun trekking across the Golden Gate with 6,000 other girl scouts.

TV or not TV - Maybe THAT is the Question! (I'm just so clever with the title thing...)

Isn't it interesting how sometimes a topic comes up once, and then again and again... Recently this has happened with me. Several people (women, of course) have expressed discontentment with the amount of television-viewing going on in their houses. Two friends in the same day even. And I cannot take credit for introducing the subject, either. After all, when you're already a hippy-van driving, weirdo homeschooler, who won't get your kids cell phones, you're kind of hesitant to verbalize that you've also chosen to eschew yet another one of the Wonders of the Modern World.

It's now been about 6 months since we cut the cord, and I love having no cable TV. We do still watch programs, but they are films ordered from Netflix or the library. I love documentaries and foreign films, so I get lots of these. The kids and Pat still like the main-stream stuff, so we get these too (but fewer, since I can go into the Netflix queue and move that stuff down =) !) I love the quiet of the house during the day and especially love it in the evenings and weekends! No more droning headaches. I wish I could say that I am accomplishing all the reading I'd like to do, but since I have such high expectations of myself, and also can be lured by the draw of the computer, I would still like to improve in that area.

So, do I miss any shows? Not really. Still, once in awhile American Idol - only because RMD loves to sing and was in an Idol contest herself, but that's pretty much it.

As always - there are web resources available for getting rid of the idiot box, or boob-tube or whatever your favorite name for it is!

-Throw Away Your TV blog post

-How to Stop Watching TV

-7 Day Challenge - Stop Watching TV

The First Step is Admitting You Have a Problem...

Okay - I have a problem. And it's a big one. I'm addicted.

To Books.

If I had time, I would spend every minute of the day reading or listening to books. I am constantly looking up books on the library website or Amazon. For myself and the kids. I keep finding good books that coordinate with our history studies, and either checking them out from the library or buying them. If I read one book on a topic, I usually am inspired to read more on the same topic. If I check out a really, really good book from the library, then I usually want to buy a copy to keep for later, or a memory, or something. I have so many books, that it would take me several years to read them all, and that's only if I didn't get anymore. I also have so many more books that I want, and so many topics I want to read about. I am in 2 book clubs officially and am supposed to be joining a Classics-only book club as well, but can't seem to find time to read just one book and focus on it - like the classics require. I am usually reading 4 or 5 books at any given time. Non-fiction, modern fiction, kids historical fiction, herbal remedy & natural health books, knitting books, travel guides, how-to homeschool books, work-out books...

I guess it's good that I don't spend much money on clothes or beauty-services or decorating-the-house items. This way I don't feel so bad buying books. I figure as long as I spend less then what our monthly golf budget looks like, I'm okay...

Top 5 Comments for Homeschoolers

Here's a funny blog post I found. Other then #2 below, I haven't heard all these questions myself, but I'm sure someone is thinking them...

5 Most Popular Comments about Homeschooling by Those Who Don’t

Author: Tam

When you start homeschooling, you often hear the same comments from many different people. I don’t know if the comments are different for people who never sent their children to public school. Here are the 5 most popular that I have heard this year, and how I would REALLY like to answer them!

5. So, will you have Prom in your Living Room?
My kid’s 8…..is prom something YOU are concerned about?

4a. Isn’t the local elementary school good enough for you?
Nope, its not good enough. Not even CLOSE to good enough.

4b. Well, did you think about sending them to the other schools in the area?
Really? There are OTHER SCHOOLS? Boy am I an IDIOT. I didn’t even THINK to research other public and private educational institutions in a 30 mile radius before I chose the most LIFE ALTERING option there is.

3. What about SOCIALIZATION?
Well, I am trying to keep her locked in her bedroom alone as much as possible, but damn, she figured out how to open her lock with a penny and I’m back to square one. Have any suggestions?

2. Wow. I could NEVER do that.
Why? Are you stupid? (I LOVE this response!)

1. WHAT are you DOING to YOURSELF?
I still haven’t come up with a comeback for this one. If you have one, let me know.

Here's the actual link:

http://www.giftedhomeschool.net/social-aspects/5-most-popular-comments-about-homeschooling-by-those-who-dont/

To Wear or Not to Wear, that is the Question...

To Wear....














Or Not to Wear...











On Thursday, as RMD was getting out of our car to join her carpool to WAS - Wilderness class, she simultaneoulsy discovered and announced that she had no shoes. My first reaction was total disbelief - I think hers was as well. And then I was angry. Not even so much because of the lack of shoe thing, but more because the lack of shoe thing was a blatant display of a huge problem we are having around here lately concerning certain family members. Namely, lack of organization.

Each day I request some sort of thing to be done - packing books for co-op or Spanish class, making lunch or laying clothes out for WAS, putting things away that have been lying on the family room floor for more then a week, it doesn't matter what, but something. And more often then not, I hear "I'll do it later..." Well, as you can see, later never manages to come, the consequences (there are always consequences in this Love and Logic household) don't matter enough, and waa-laa - no shoes! So, I guess I really need to rethink my consequences because they are obviously not working. In fact, I probably need to step even further back and rethink my requests. These are things that should just be done, and without reminding or requesting, given the said offenders age. They should really be automatic, and not even concern me at all. Maybe I should go to Love and Logic class, being offered here at our library. Something needs to change, though, and I'm willing to admit it might need to start with me.

So, you're probably wondering what happened to the no-shoes kid. Well, in our current world, it turns out shoes don't really matter. I mean when you're spending your school day mud-sledding down butt-slide hill, painting your face with that mud or ashes from the fire that was started with 2 sticks, tromping through creeks on "catch-stuff" day and doing all this with your teacher who drove to school with NO SHOES ON, it just really doesn't make a difference now, does it?

(this picture was actually taken on a day WITH shoes!)

April 2009 Books

I seem to have slowed down on reading this month - blogging too, for that matter. Maybe I need something inspiring to occur. Anyway, books read this month are as follows:

-Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
-Tale of Two Cities (partially read) by Charles Dickens
-The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
-A Gathering of Days – A New England Girl’s Journal 1830-32 by Joan W. Blos

-Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
-The Balloon Boy of San Francisco by Dorothy Kupcha Leland
-The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
-The Girl of His Dreams by Donna Leon

-Opera for Dummies - this is actually outstanding!

Since the Well-Trained Mind recommends Agatha Christie books for APD's grade level, I figured I had better read one (having never read anything by this acclaimed author before). I'm hooked! Written in the 1930's, the books are very tame. They are well written and really require the reader to use his / her brain (a novel concept, indeed!).

The Agatha books inspired me to try another mystery author - Donna Leon. These are contemporary, and unfortunately do have some unobjectionable scenes, so I won't recommend them for APD. But they are a lot of fun, with the added benefit of being set in Venezia. Since we are hoping to visit Venice with my mom in October (AND, I just learned my maternal Great-Grandfather was from Venice!), this is even more cool.

Gathering of Days and Balloon Boy are kids' historical fiction books, but very entertaining. Especially Balloon Boy, since we recently went on a hot air balloon in Arizona!

My all time favorite for the month and maybe even the whole year so far is The Thirteenth Tale. I cannot even put why into words - it's just one of those books which is so well written it engages the reader from page 1. It seems to be from the era of Jane Austen, but more readable. It is a classic in it's own right. I think I'll even add it to my favorite books tab in the margin of this blog!