09.04.08
Robin Hood
J13 and J12 spent a good portion of time earlier this year writing an episode of Robin Hood for the BBC, not that the BBC know anything about it 
I decided the limited edition of four copies, each bound by hand, deserved a mention on this here very quiet blog! If you would like to read the text, you can find it by clicking right here.
02.21.08
Galen meets Archimedes
Understanding that my star rating system is highly subjective and peculiarly personal, I award Jeanne Bendick’s books “Galen and the Gateway to Medicine” and “Archimedes and the Door of Science” three stars each.
Both are well-researched accounts; Galen deals with the early days of medicine and Roman culture, Greek Archimedes is obviously more mathematical in its focus. The former is more readable, though the latter seems to be the more highly acclaimed in home ed circles. Having read both, we preferred Galen.
If we were compiling a list of “science classics” these ones would certainly not be left out, but as to whether we would pick them up to re-read again and again, we’re just not sure. Hence the three stars.
Here is a review we wholeheartedly agree with regarding Mr Archimedes. It’s useful for its analysis of the weaknesses of the book and for the overview of material covered therein.
As for Mr Galen……how can you not be enraptured by an adventurous traveller, doctor to gladiators and personal physician to emperors? The snippets of cultural and medical information woven seamlessly through the biographical account, help the reader see exactly why this surgeon and scientist would become the standard medical authority for over a thousand years.
02.06.08
Betsy and Tacy
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill by Maud Hart Lovelace
What is there not to love about this book? It’s a *Milly-Molly-Mandy-type book* without the interminable “Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty and Little Friend Susan”s. It’s a *Five Little Peppers type book*, but with some adults who help out with the children’s goings-on. The kids aren’t perfect – indeed, the squabbles are most realistic, but they are eventually resolved. There is plenty of scope for “what would you have done?” or “what do you think they will do?” questions without ruining the story. There is adventure and mystery and intrigue and cross-cultural relations and friendship and family….a totally delightful book, which appealed to both our lads and lasses.
We’ll be looking for others in the series:
* Betsy-Tacy (1940)
* Betsy-Tacy and Tib (1941)
* Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill (1942)
* Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown (1943)
* Heaven to Betsy (1945)
* Betsy in Spite of Herself (1946)
* Betsy Was a Junior (1947)
* Betsy and Joe (1948)
* Betsy and the Great World (1952)
* Betsy’s Wedding (1955)
And if we ever get to Mankato (is it the same as in Little House on the Prairie?), we’ll be taking the walking tour and visiting Betsy’s and Tacy’s houses, which are in the process of being renovated. Details available at the Betsy-Tacy Society.
At the children’s request, this book is awarded five stars.
02.03.08
staples
Bread and rice. Two books. One a delightful read, one with interesting information, but not at all read-aloud-friendly.
The Bread Book by Carolyn Meyer is full of slightly quirky line drawings (by Trina Schart Hyman) that bring the book to life. Then there is everything from famous quotes to supposed histories of bread to how yeast works to etyomolgy to an overview of the manufacturing process to recipes to descriptions of bread in different countries to…….in short, it’s all there, everything you ever wanted to know about bread. And written in an engaging style. Actually, it was the best example of cohesive and coherent writing I’ve ever seen – so much so that the post-grad paper I did years ago analysing prose all came flooding back as I read this *perfect* piece of writing. (Hi Ms Greenwood!!!!)
Even though we bake almost all our own bread, meaning the children already understand the process well, we found the book to be informative….and certainly inspirational. No longer will they settle for our standard wholewheat sourdough loaf….we’ve had jonnycakes and crumpets and Irish Soad Bread and French bread and doughnuts (OK, so these ones were bought!) and grissinni….we have yet to try chapatis, tortilla, waffles, pumpernickle and Finnish barley bread. Not to mention all the festive breads in the book and, of course, camp bread.
Another interesting feature of this book is the very explicit evolutionary bias with which it was written. It is an excellent book for children to critique themselves – it is very easy to find the answers to the “what does this author believe about xyz?” questions. Equally easy for the children to decide the author’s nationality too – it’s a clearly American book.
“The Story of a Grain of Rice” by Raphaelle Brice.
Based on the title alone, I picked up this book it a thrift store, with high hopes for a good yarn about the everyday. We were disappointed. While it taught us about rice, it did not tell a story, in spite of the title. It was a series of snippets of information, in many cases unrelated to each other, making it most unreadable.
Complete with a useful little index and explanatory illustrations, and written at a fairly basic level with short sentences and simple vocabulary, this is an agreeable book for beginning researchers to delve into, however.
11.15.07
Secret of the Andes
Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark.
In this gentle yet courageous account of an Inca boy’s transition to from childhood to manhood are wonderful insights into a different culture, a different place, a different people, a different mindset altogether. My, they don’t point with their fingers, they point with their lips! They boy doesn’t call the hut on his meadow his home – that’s just a shelter for food and wool; the mountain is his home. Men wear ponchos. There are day winds and night winds, llamas and burros. Children grind potatoes, spin wool and make ropes. Sandals are made especially for travelling.
It’s a book that asks big questions, carries you along on a journey and adventure and even inspires. I especially like the idea of “all things in their time” that runs through the book. The waiting for the right time. The resulting eagerness to apply yourself to the hard work of learning.
“The boy knew that his mind was thirsty. He knew, too, that muddied water is unfit to drink.”
The one (perhaps very pernickety) factor stopping it getting five star status is the fact that too often it has short sentences. I found myself changing them as I read aloud ”to make it sound better”. For example, instead of: The llamas stopped humming. Chuto was coming among them. He was greeting them in the Indian way. He was telling them that new day was with them, that they must be up to graze the ychu grass, I found myself skipping words: The llamas stopped humming. Chuto was coming among them, greeting them in the Indian way, telling them that new day was with them, that they must be up to graze…….
However, these short sentences make it an ideal book for beginning readers to increase their reading fluency.
11.08.07
Robin Hood Returns
I’ve just started reading “A Landscape With Dragons”. Mostly it sits well with me, but there is something I can’t put my finger on that is bugging me about the book. I need to read further and see if I can work it out. Anyway, one of the things he mentions is the use of symbol and its recession from modern-day literature on the whole, and in particular, the changing meanings being attributed to long-accepted symbols.
Having visited the video store on Sunday night to pick up a John Grisham movie-from-the-book that father-in-law had mentioned (by the way, he advises you to just read the book – it’s far better than the movie – “Skipping Christmas”, if you’re interested), I ended up getting *five* DVDs…five for ten dollars, you know! A bargain.
Robin Hood was one of them. The 1938 movie version, to be precise. And what’s more, there was an additional DVD with documentaries about the making of and glorious technicolor and Robind Hood through history etc etc. We previewed them and decided the movie would be fine for the children to watch and the docos would be somewhat lacking in interest-factor, being not much more than interviews with rather stuffy old knowledgeable people.
As I told the children about the documentaries, they seemed Entirely Interested and so I turned my misgivings out with the rain that had been falling steadily all week, and let them watch. This was one time I was going to allow the use of the word *boring*. But I can just say, “I was wrong.” Over the course of two evenings, they watched all the interviews, not fast-forwarding through any!
Today they were rewarded with The Movie.
In one of the near-the-beginning scenes, a cup of red wine was spilled, and stays in the picture for some times dripping to the floor. My mind raced to “A Landscape With Dragons” SYMBOLS We paused the DVD and chatted about red liquid, foreshadowing, symbols. Could they remember any such instances in the recent television series they watched a lot of? No.
On we watched……until the point at which a candle was extinguished as someone died. We paused and discussed again.
Then we just enjoyed the rest of the movie, with occasional doco-inspired-comments:
*they brought those rocks in from afar*
*those leaves are sprayed green*
*the colours really are amazing, aren’t they*
*that’s not really him climbing that rope*
*there’s that famous horse*
And one heartfelt response from L7:
“This is waaaaaaaaay better than the tv one”
It was certainly more faithful to the story, less sophisticated, legend-ish rather than realistic, with better castle scenes (although the painted backdrops appear fake to the modern eye!), less gruesome and much more funny.
The Diary of Anne Frank
“So what did you think of that?” I enquired as the screening of “The Diary of Anne Frank” drew to a close.
“It was,” J11 began, and then hesitated. He turned to look at me, a sheepish look flickering on his face. “Good,” he concluded. I was just pleased he was actually connecting with The Lesson.
We have mostly steered clear of the Modern Wars with our children so far, but when then-K9 decorated a notebook with swastikas a few months back, we tiptoed into a few gentle conversations with the older ones. J13 and J11 have also started reading a few novels…..I Am David, Carrie’s War, Twenty and Ten, The Silver Sword, The Endless Steppe, *Biggles*…and The Gulag Archipelego is waiting on the shelf for when they are ready. Two excellent picture books have added visual atmosphere; “Anne Frank” by Josephine Poole and Angela Barrett, and “Rose Blanche” by Roberto Innocenti and Ian McEwan. Books we bought at Auschwitz and other various non-fiction have been pored over together and snuggled up on the couch with Grandpa-who-lived-through-it-and-lost-a-father-and-brother-during-it.
Then a chance sighting of “The Diary of Anne Frank” at the video store prompted me to add yet another dimension. Three hours long, we had to watch it in two sittings while the little children slept. It’s not necessarilly *ordinary* viewing for kids, but they sat entranced….and contributed to the conversation afterwards.
11.01.07
from Iraq to China
Mayada Daughter of Iraq
One Woman’s Survival in Saddam Hussein’s Torture Jail
by Jean Sasson
A Mother’s Ordeal: One Woman’s Fight Against China’s One-Child Policy
by Steven W. Mosher
Spot the similarities?
both are harrowing, yet compelling, reading
both present a fight against injustice
in both, *one woman* makes a difference
It’s been a couple of years since I read the China book – but there are still scenes from it firmly implanted in my memory. Nothing will ever erase them.
I finished Mayada today. Likewise, I will not forget.
The question for me becomes *what can I do about it?*
It is not enough to know.
It is not even enough to remember.
But I don’t know what to do.
Certainly I will share these books with my children when they are older.
But this is not sufficient.
What solutions will we find?
10.31.07
The Secret Church
 |
| |
Written by Louise A. Vernon, who wanted to make history come alive to children, she certainly succeeded with this one. The children begged for *just one more chapter* every time we sat down to read. They couldn’t bear putting the book down and having to wait to find out what would happen. It wasn’t actually *that* well written, but it captured our kids.
We now have a greater understanding of what it means to give up all for Christ, a greater understanding of the sacrifices made by individuals throughout history, and of course a greater understanding of the Anabaptists.
We have recently been reading of the martyrdom of many of the Reformation men and women. It is easy to assume they went willingly, without internal struggle to their deaths; to perhaps think of them as super-heroes. “The Secret Church” put a human face to one (fictional) family, and one lad in particular, and followed his many struggles towards belief.
08.31.07
Straightening the shelves!
Some days you wake up and you have no idea something special is going to happen THAT day. Yesterday was such a day.
Our last consignment of books for the year arrived in a brown cardboard box.
Inside was “A Thomas Jefferson Education”. I had been meaning to buy this book for a couple of years, but we always got to the end of the year and I’d run out of “education money”. This year I made it a priority.
And when it arrived I peeped inside. Just one page. And another. And a quick look at the contents. And a paragraph from the middle just to get a feel for his style. And the back cover. And the page that tells you what to do first (oh, that was a good one, it said to change nothing yet!).
As soon as the children were in the land of nod, I picked it up and settled into my favourite rocking chair. I read and read and read. Surprising, really. It’s been an age since I’ve read an education book. I was *over* them. I had heard enough of how everyone else organised their days and what they did with their children – I just needed to get on with living *our* life, without feeling slightly guilty that I wasn’t doing enough of this or any of that. So I learnt to knit and that occupied my hours instead of reading;-) For almost two years.
But this book was different. For a start, he suggested doing with young children exactly what we have been doing with our kids. Now THAT was refreshing! (In case you’re wondering, basically it consists of work them hard at chores round the house, read to them lots and let them use the rest of their waking hours to play and discover who they are – and his definition of young….up to about 12…..is more closely aligned to mine than the rest of the population’s seems to be – I don’t come across many people who are happy with the notion that a ten year old spend his days working round the house and playing for hours on end. “Ten-year-olds should be at school!” What’s more, he then suggests children become “young adults” and not “teenagers”. I am totally with him on that one, and had even been composing a blog post in my head to be used next month when our eldest turns 13!).
I digress.
I had always thought “when they get older they’ll get more formal in their studies”. The odd person (like their Dadda) had enquired, “What if they don’t want to?” and I’d enthusiastically exhorted him to believe that if they loved to learn they *would* be self-motivated. Others suggested we wouldn’t be able to teach them everything they need to know. I clutched another tenet of faith that we’d be able to help them find someone to guide them when the time came.
And here was an author singing my song. I was so excited I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat and willing my eyes to sprint across the pages as rapidly as they could to meet the next idea. I only got halfway, but I knew I was in possession of a precious gem.
Some days you wake up and you have no idea something special is going to happen THAT day. Today was such a day.
Instead of picking up the book again and racing to the finish line, when the littlies went for their afternoon naps and the biggies entered the solitude of their own favourite tomes, I headed for the computer. An idea that had been germinating for a long time burst forth.
I was about to get an education.
Yes, I know I have a bachelor’s degree and a post-graduate diploma (complete with distinction) and the Certificate In The Teaching Of English As A Foreign Language To Adults At Pass A Standard from the University of Cambridge….but I don’t have an education.
I have, however, taken the first step.
This blog is now ready to record *my learning adventure*
While I dream of it one day hosting reviews and articles and ideas and inspiration (that’s the bit I’ve been imagining forever), for now, it will be the place I can jot down ideas as I read and think and learn.
