October Reading Notes

I am reading...

More Home Cooking - Laurie Colwin

I have heard so much about Colwin's food writing and her Home Cooking and More Home Cooking have both been in my Amazon cart for ages.  This was my first opportunity to sit down and read any of her essays, and my opinions are mixed.  On one hand, hurray for articulate, thoughtful, often humorous food literature!  On the other hand, Colwin goes a bit far into the realm of the food snob to have me fully behind her.  Many of her recipes sound frankly disgusting to me, but I wasn't reading her for cooking suggestions and I believe More Home Cooking was published almost twenty years ago when for all I know tastes were very different.  There was just a lot of rah-rah organics, everything made from scratch, 'knowing about your food', mothers knowing where their children's food came from, etc. etc.  It was tiresome.  All that being said, actually I am enjoying it and have a good ability to skim over annoying prose anyway.

On Rereading - Patricia Meyer Spacks

Spacks is a retired professor of English literature and writes exactly like a retired professor of English literature.  In fact, her entire first chapter carefully outlines what she plans to write about in subsequent chapters.  I just found this odd.  She's articulate and interesting and so far I find that I'm picking this book up and putting it down multiple times.  It hasn't gripped me yet, but that being said I am a die hard rereader myself and really want to hear what she has to say about the subject.

Pilgrim At Tinker Creek - Annie Dillard

I actually saw Dillard's name on a list somewhere recently about books people found helpful in their religious journeys.  I can't say I really understand that but I have absolutely found Pilgrim At Tinker Creek eye-opening for my nature walks.  Her way of looking at the world - observing the huge and the minuscule - is beautiful.

Life Among The Lutherans - Garrison Keillor

The American Stephen Leacock!  This was my first time reading Keillor and he was very, very funny in a dry, cold, Minnesotan way.  We church people are a never ending source of humor, I tell you.

My reading this past month has been pretty sporadic what with the start of homeschooling, a very large event at the church, an overnight trip away that involved air travel and not a little planning on my part.  Hopefully October will see a few more books achieved, especially as I'm hoping to best last year's reading total of 62 books.  So far this year I have read 57.

The 8yo is reading...

 Some of the books that have caught our fancy the last little while - an eclectic list.  A little of this and a little of that, but attempting to pick, if not necessarily Good Books For Children, at least not undeniable twaddle.

 

A few of these titles have made it on to our study list for the next few weeks, so will have a bit more discussion  of themes and plot, etc.

 Some of them are just for fun.  The 8yo picked up Mr. Tinker in Oz on a whim, and I have no idea what sparked that interest.  I have never enjoyed Frank Baum so it wasn't from me.

Reading List in Early Winter

Reference materials to keep to hand

Other things to have on hand...

A good map!  I have a little atlas but I much prefer to keep a big rolled up laminated wall map beside me and unroll it so everyone can lie on it and see where they are.  A globe is also nice.

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This large, heavy doorstop has been invaluable to us.  The pictures are big and glossy and well done and the mini biographies are full of more information than I need for my littles to enjoy a piece of art but wouldn't likely be enough for an older child.

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Nicely done.  Not too much information to overwhelm younger students but enough to answer everyone's questions about who the vikings were.

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 My completely unprofessional opinion about dictionaries is this: buy a grown-up dictionary right off the bat and forget about children's versions, which they quickly outgrow anyway.  You may as well teach them how to look up a word properly as soon as they're able to because the rest of their school days will be spent doing just that.  Choose whichever publisher you like; I prefer Oxford.

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A birdfeeder, or a flat space to spread seeds, and a good birding guide for your area.  Also nice are other nature guides, to local plants, flowers, tracks, insects...as much or as little as your interests and pocketbook allow.

We're still in the early years, of course.  Who knows what will be invaluable reference material a few years from now.

Music - Vivaldi

Although I love the music of many genres I know very, very little about it from a teaching standpoint.  I'm afraid that after being able to tell a whole note from a half note my knowledge is exhausted.  Since this is the reality we're living with and I'm unable to outsource my children's musical education, I've been more than a little nervous about presuming to teach them anything.  We've defaulted to listening to a classical piece during morning time and taking it from there; right now we're enjoying Vivaldi's Autumn from his Four Seasons.  This is the sort of classical music I feel fairly confident with!  Listen, children, it sounds like leaves and wind!

And I came across this short and interesting TedEd video about why we should listen to Vivaldi - he is indeed the 'pop music' of his age.  Take a moment and enjoy.

In case you're interested in learning more about the orphans of the Ospedale Della Pieta, here are a few links:

From Classicfm

From Wikipedia

Beyond morning time

The 7yo dislikes being asked to practice reading aloud every day, but still we persevere.  This is what we're working through at the moment:

It's written from a Protestant viewpoint, if that is an issue for you, and I like how each biography is split into a few chapters and followed by review questions.  The font is quite large, and the chapters very small - perfect for the reader who can manage short chapter books and progressing into nonfiction.

Something else he dislikes?  Copy work.  We do as many words as we can before mutiny reads it's ugly head.  We putter through the John James Audubon copy work book from this site.

Math is significantly less of a battle and probably deserves it's own post, but we use these books:

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Combined with a lot of baking, number puzzles, calculator play, tangrams, board games and Doodling In Math Class videos it equals a lovely and interesting elementary math education.

Autumn Reading...

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Fresh Fall Leaves by Betsy Franco

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A Seed Is Sleepy by Dianna Hurts Aston

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Thanks For Thanksgiving by Heather Patterson

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In November by Cynthia Rylant

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Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman

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Things To Make And Do by Linda Beech

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Handbook Of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock

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Autumn Story by Jill Barklem

Stones & Cones by Jillian Hulme Gilliland (The cover is nothing much to look at, but it's one of the best craft books for young children using natural material that I have come across.)

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Woodland Creatures by Usborne Young Beginners

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Little Mouse on the Prairie by Stephen Cosgrove