Armchair Puzzlers is a great book I happened upon at the thrift store today for 50 cents. I am elated to have found this book. It turned out to be one of those books that my children just took an instant liking to and they’ve passed it around now from one person to the next and have read in it constantly for nearly the last five hours. Really.
I had to go out today and run some errands and, as is usually the case, there was a thrift store near by.
Go ahead. Laugh.
But really, who would not get a bunch of new books for a homeschool library for 50 cents each?
There are some other nice books in the bunch besides Armchair Puzzlers. Two of the books are for my collection. Cottage Style has got beautiful, relaxing pictures. That’ll be for me and a cup of tea and my little living room.
Okay. On to hairdos.
I tried a new hairstyle today that turned out well today. It felt rather Victorian.
Put hair in a high ponytail. Make a small part just above the band that you can slip your thumb and pointing fingers through from underneath. Flip the ponytail over and pull it down through that part so it comes totally out underneath and hangs down. This will create two beautiful rolls of hair — one on each side. I then braided the ponytail and put it in a bun.
That’s probably not real clear, but it’s the best I can describe it.
Big Joe and I spent quite a bit of time talking about the presidential election process. I have a unit study on that. We also spent a great deal of time working on the spelling/writing program we are working on for dyslexics. I hope to have that on my website in the not-too-distant future.
I want to tell you about this book. I think you would like it, BUT you must have in your mind before you begin to read it one of my favorite sayings: Comparison is the death of contentment.
Okay?
Actually, this book is a great resource for illustrating that no two families are the same at all; it can help one to realize that there’s no sense in comparing, because no two families could be exactly alike even if they tried.
Still, some of the families in this book have it so together and have so many wonderful things going on, it’s hard not to get that old “woe is me” attitude. There are a few moms in the book who work in addition to homeschooling, so that was encouraging to me personally.
What’s to love about this book:
Who doesn’t enjoy a peek into someone else’s life? With this book you get to peek into 30 homes.
This book doesn’t just talk about “school,” but describes how homes are set up, how messy or neat they are, who in the family works, quirks between kids, etc.
There is an abundance of ideas — things I had never thought of. We will definitely be adopting several of them.
It does not have to be read all at one time nor does it have to be read in order. You can read about one family this week, another family next week. Or you can go through and find a family with two children, or four children — whatever you have, and see how their schedule compares to yours. (Okay, sometimes one has to compare!)
I found it very motivating to read about what other families were accomplishing. (Anything that motivates is worth a pretty penny around here.)
I don’t want to fall short at the end of any given day because I have focused on the wrong things. Things not “wrong” by virtue, but just put at the top of my priority list at the wrong time of my life. Our home needs to be livably clean, but I need to remember to not put house-cleaning above my children’s educational and emotional needs. Don’t get me wrong; our children need to learn to do chores and balance housekeeping, learning, and working in their own lives, but it’s too easy to get caught up in making our homes ”perfect.”
I love this line from the book regarding Nancy Lande’s homeschool day:
Our home looks well lived in, warm, and has an air of, well…clutter.
Yes, I like that.
Thinking on this book today led me to write my own typical “day.” Reading this book helped me with my perspective.
And there is a newer version of the book called Homeschool Open House that I would like to read after I work through my current stack of books to be read.
Last night my daughter and I started reading aloud Little House in the Big Woods. The Little House books were my very, very most favorite books in the world when I was little. I could not imagine that there could be any better books. I was so sad when I had sped-read through the set of books and there were no more to read! Then the TV series, Little House on the Prairie, came out and my sister and I were both thrilled. We watched it every week.
Also, a little note about Year of the Doll House. It’s meant to be simple. It’s merely a committment to playing on — hopefully — a daily basis, and it just happens to center around a doll house. I was thinking about Michele and her son and thinking that so many other things could be used. A farm, a horse barn, etc., but even a doll house is fine. I am picturing the manly decor you may end up with!
I have a book of quotations on Motherhood. One of my favorites is this:
You can do anything with children if you only play with them. Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) German Statesman
I believe that’s true. It has been amazing to me how many learning lessons have already come our way from playing with the doll house together. I feel like I am accomplishing so much by doing so little.
So don’t let it seem like something too big to do. ~:-D
There’s a lot to like about this book–namely, validation that, yes, I am doing enough.
I have mixed emotions about homeschooling: I love many of the subjects heralded as “classical,” but that did not come from having received a “classical” education myself. I love nature and a gentle approach to teaching, which has always led me to keep a variety of Charlotte Mason “help” books on my bookshelf. Life, however, continues to throw me curve balls and I have confidence that my children are smart and capable, so I’ve often found myself “settling” for an unschooling approach. Somehow, though, unschooling has taken a liking to our family, and I have truly taken a liking to unschooling, and I find myself thinking that it is the only real way any of us truly learn.
In the future I’ll write more about our unschooling adventures, but for now I just want to give you a short review of the book.
I think unschooling is misunderstood because it is so hard to define. It’s different for every family. There are, however, similarities that all unschooling families seem to have: they do what feels right to them, they trust that all children have a natural drive to learn, and they choose not to force a curriculum on the family.
Some things you’ll get from this book:
Personal accounts of what unschooling is for about 30+ families. There are first-hand statements throughout the book to complement the topic at hand.
Information and thoughts about how T.V. and modern technology fit in.
Resources at the end of each chapter, including information on the three R’s.
How various families record what they are doing to create a portfolio or transcript.
How to deal with your children as they begin to change from child to adult.
Like I said, I already embrace unschooling. We started out using it by default, but I really like the results I am seeing from it. If you are tempted to unschool or wondering if you should continue unschooling, this book might be of great help to you. It can, at the very least, settle some doubts. If you don’t unschool but just want to know more about it, this book is very much for you. It contains information beneficial to not just unschoolers but all homeschoolers.
Yes, this book has so much in it. Everything from “The Greatest Paper Airplane in the World” to “Latin Phrases Every Boy Should Know.”
The book starts out:
“In this age of video games and cell phones, there must still be a place for knots, tree houses, and stories of incredible courage.”
And so we are hoping our boys (and our girl) will pick this book up and learn to appreciate the simple, vital things in a boy’s life.
This book has many “boy” things in it, such as artillery history, how to build a tree house, how to make a battery, and stories of courage — as in the Wright brothers and Robert the Bruce, but it also has lessons on grammar and Latin phrases, of course something boys should know, but how often do you see grammar paired with boyish, ”dangerous” things?
Prepare yourself. This book has the 10 commandments in it.
It’s a book I think every homeschool library needs.
Who wrote it, you ask?
Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden, “two men who would have given away the cat to get this book when they were young.”
North Carolina is full of wonderful things, and sometimes I take a day and do a road trip to Raleigh and visit some places that I love. Today I went to The Homeschool Gathering Place. What is The Homeschool Gathering Place? It is a store for homeschoolers. It is full of all kinds of new and used homeschool curriculum. I could literally spend hours in there (and sometimes do) just leafing through books and checking out new homeschooling resources.
Today I checked out their shelf of used “how-to” books. Some of these books I have had my hands on before via our local library, but today I found all these books at around 4 dollars apiece. There were many more, but these were some I especially wanted in my own collection. The exception to this, in regards to pricing, is the book by Karen Andreola called Story Starters: Helping Children Write Like They’ve Never Written Before. I gladly paid 28.00 for this, as I just love Karen Andreola’s style. This book, like her others, gives me a sense of peace and control as I read it. She inspires me to inspire my children! It works. Of course, I am Charlotte-Mason-minded, so that is part of the charm of Karen Andreola’s books working for me, but mostly I think it is Mrs. Andreola’s sweet way of writing and the beautiful illustrations she chooses.
I look forward to reading these and then sharing more about them on my website, The Healthy Homeschool.
Lynn
PS — Just wanted to add that this is NOT the fieldtrip I have promised to take pictures of and share. The Homeschool Gathering Place was great, yes, but there’s another store on my list. More to come…
Coincidentally, one of the glorious things about my job is that right next to the store I work in is – you guessed it — a thrift store! ~:-D So you know I walk through there for a hot second every day to see what’s on the shelves.
Yesterday I was thrilled to find a history book, and I mean exactly what I have been thinking I needed to have for our interest in a classical education these days. It was publised in 1935, so those who labored to put this massive book together could not know of the impending World War. It is bittersweet to hold the book and think of just that fact.
It’s The Illustrated World History — A Record of World Events from Earliest Historical Times to the Present Day. Edited by Sir John Hammerton and Dr. Harry Elmer Barnes. Illustrated with Nearly One Thousand Historical Documents and Scores of Specially Drawn Maps. New York, WM. H. Wise & Co. MCMXXXV
This book is an awesome resource for history up to the time the book was published. It begins with ancient history in the Nile and Euphrates river basins, Egypt and Mesopotamia. The book has 1144 pages and beautiful black and white picture illustrations.
I don’t know what it is about history books, but I can hardly resist the old ones. It gives me a cold chill to hold history in my hand — just a book — and know that kingdoms, common men and women, martyrs, soldiers, impassioned lovers, plagues, famines, and the joys of everday living are wrapped up neatly in sentences for future generations, who will do the same things. One day you and I will be wrapped up neatly in the pages of a book, just tiny, probably nameless parts of a larger fabric that makes up a chapter for others to read. They’ll read not about us, but about the great events of our time.
I was reading on the last page of the text of the book:
Imperialism is curbed by the shortage of capital for export, the collapse of foreign credit, and the exhaustion of virgin areas for investment and the export of capital.
Little did they know. And there’s more. Would the authors reconsider this statement?:
Our technology for production has far outrun the mass purchasing power of man necessary to utilize the increased volume of products.
Our consumption of “products” has only grown. The need for homes to have computers and extra televisions and cars; and, elementary school-aged children carrying around cell phones and pocket-sized video games would stun the authors!
Finally:
World war, using the deadly methods of destruction now available, may drag all civilization down once more to the level of barbarism.
Perhaps they did see that the stage was set for World War II. I won’t even go into the benefits that came from World War II, nor will I ponder here about the state of the world today.
Anyway, one of the things I am most excited about is that each chapter begins with a table of dates for that chapter.
I say again, it’s just what I was looking for.
I know I have made this entry picture-rich. Please bear with me. One more picture. Look at the inside cover. I love it!
It says:
I know as well as you that history is only a succession of images. That is why I love it; that is why it suits men. It is the romance of the universe. If it is not entirely true, it contains truths your statistics will never contain. Old history is an art; she paints man and the passions of man, the most faithful images that man has traced of himself. It is a portrait… Anatole France.
There’s more to come about making your own timeline notebook. When you see our timeline notebook and hear of our studies, you’ll see why I so love this book.
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is one of my all-time favorite books, so I couldn’t wait to read the Christmas stories contained within this new addition to my home library. I sat down yesterday with a cup of hot tea and read The Quiet Little Woman.
“I am grateful, but, oh, I’m so lonely, and it’s so hard not to have any mother like the other children.”
Little Patty laments her situation and wants only love. The story of Patty’s winning over a family with her faithfulness, quiet endurance and meek spirit made me cry!
We will definitely be reading this together as a family — even my older boys. With this story, Louisa May Alcott makes one want to be kind and do good. It doesn’t hurt for even teenaged boys to be touched like this from time to time! ~:-D
Debt-Proof Your Marriage: How to Achieve Financial Harmony (Debt-Proof Living) is a book I am whole-heartedly recommending to you today. I have it on my lap, even as I type. I have been reading it for two days now and I know it will change our finances. I am believing that it will change the way my husband and I live and spend.
We do not make a lot of money, we are not upper class, but we certainly should be able to survive on my husband’s income. However, we don’t. Now, anyone who knows me well, knows that we have had some medical issues that have altered our circumstances a bit. Still, Debt-Proof Your Marriage: How to Achieve Financial Harmony (Debt-Proof Living) has guidelines that will help a couple have money put up for emergencies.
My husband and I have talked extensively about my being home full time and working on my home business endeavors. This would help our entire family. We have purposed to make things so that I can be home and we will be able to remain afloat (and doing fine) should another emergency arise. We have tried this before, but this time we are purposed to make it really happen. Both of us — on the same page — reading this book together and believing we can make it happen.
Mary Hunt has so many ideas that are going to help us do this. One of the things I have already found in her book — Debt-Proof Your Marriage: How to Achieve Financial Harmony (Debt-Proof Living) — that has appealed to my heart is for wives to honor your husbands as the leader of the family and for husbands to nurture your wives. She encourages giving from your money first to help others and paying yourself first, some things we need to do much better at!
Anyway, if you are struggling financially right now, spending more than you make, amassing debts that you are worrying about paying, or just starting out without a purpose for your money and without really knowing each others’ spending habits, I highly recommend you put this book in your home library, or go to your local library and check it out!
Here’s an idea for a get-together that is both fun and educational. It’s Book Character Day. My daughter is taking part in one today. Each child dresses up like their favorite book character. With book in hand, each child comes dressed up and ready to view and review an assortment of books and costumes!
Games and snacks could be included to make it extra special.
Little Fox Goes to the End of the World is actually a great book choice for a unit study for the elementary grades. Many paths could be taken in the direction of winds, sea, sailing, and animals!
Approaching-50 mother of four. Thrifter. Content with lots of clothes bought for very little money. Loves retro. (That could be styles from the 40s and 50s. And sometimes stuff even older than that. And sometimes stuff from all time, all mixed up together!) Bluffs about decluttering but secretly loves STUFF. Goes through stages. Has standing and staring spells before rearranging the entire home. Just because. Tune in each day to see what new outfit comes home from G.W. Boutique next. (That's Goodwill, by the way.) Oh, and she owns a spoiled beagle named Annie. And this blog.
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To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.
William Henry Channing
1810-1884
What You Do
Sow a thought, reap an action.
Sow an action, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.
Unschooling Voices
. I gladly paid 28.00 for this, as I just love Karen Andreola’s style. This book, like her others, gives me a sense of peace and control as I read it. She inspires me to inspire my children! It works. Of course, I am Charlotte-Mason-minded, so that is part of the charm of Karen Andreola’s books working for me, but mostly I think it is Mrs. Andreola’s sweet way of writing and the beautiful illustrations she chooses.
is a book I am whole-heartedly recommending to you today. I have it on my lap, even as I type. I have been reading it for two days now and I know it will change our finances. I am believing that it will change the way my husband and I live and spend.
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for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
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