Stephen Lawhead (#atozchallenge)

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I started this post in the Blogger app on my iPad, but it disappeared. Good thing I hadn't gotten very far! Anyone else use the app? I haven't used it much, and now I think I know why!

I mentioned yesterday that Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle was my introduction to Arthurian fiction. I still love the books, and even have the audio books. The narrators are excellent. I may have to listen to them in the car, after my kids and I finish the series we're listening to currently.

Since finding his King Arthur books, I've read nearly everything he's written. The two exceptions are Dream Thief and Empyrion. I don't know why I haven't read them; probably because they are old enough books that I haven't come across them in book stores. I also don't see many Lawhead books in thrift stores or in library sales. I think people really like him and don't get rid of his books often. He's also written some children's books I haven't seen.

Stephen Lawhead was born in Nebraska in 1950. He is a Christian, and his faith comes through in most of his books. He and his family moved to England in 1986 to research his Pendragon books, and they currently reside in Oxford. According to Wikipedia, he was the manager for the Christian band, DeGarmo and Key! I'm sure I'm dating myself by admitting I listened to them, but I thought that was an interesting piece of his history.

My favorite books are his Song of Albion trilogy. They are based on Celtic mythology, which I love. The story is just beautiful. The hero, Lewis, is a student at Oxford University. He learns that the Celtic knot, the border between our world and the Celtic Otherworld, is unraveling, and he ends up going into the Otherworld and becoming intimately involved in trying to save both worlds. He ends up gaining a new understanding of Christ's sacrifice, and I was blown away by the ending of the third book. I highly recommend it. In fact, it's time for me to read through these again. I have the audio books of these, as well, and they are well done.

His King Raven trilogy, about Robin Hood, was excellent. It's a new take on the Robin Hood stories, and it's very cool. It has the mystic component I love in his writing.

Byzantium, a stand-alone book about an Irish monk who loses his faith and finds it again, was riveting. I also enjoyed his story about St. Patrick, which is the only one of its kind he wrote.

His Dragon King trilogy, some of his earliest work, were pretty good. Not outstanding, but they are worth reading if you're a Lawhead fan.

I didn't particularly care for his Celtic Crusades books. I don't know why. They just didn't grab me. I've only read them once, and I don't remember much about them. I also didn't care for Avalon: The Return of King Arthur. It was just weird.

His most recent series, Bright Empires, was excellent. I was surprised by how openly he wrote about Christ in the last one. God as the Creator is honored through the entire series, really, and in the last book, he was more...evangelical, if that's the correct word. It's not, really, but I can't think of a better term. I also felt there was a maturity in his writing that I hadn't seen before, and I suppose after surviving a cancer diagnosis, that makes sense.

 I'd love to know if you've read any of Stephen Lawhead's books, and which are your favorites, if you have. If you're looking for a new author, do check him out. I can lose myself in his stories, and that, to me, is what makes a great book.

King Arthur #atozchallenge

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K - another tricksy letter. I tried and tried to think of books that started with "K," and couldn't come up with any I wanted to write about. I scrolled through over 500 titles on Goodreads. Nothing. Then I remembered how much I love reading about King Arthur! Everyone should read about King Arthur at some point. 

My first foray into Arthurian fiction was my discovery of Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle. You will be hearing more about Mr. Lawhead tomorrow. Long about 20 years ago or so, I found Arthur in a bookstore in Lansing, Michigan, and went on to read the rest of the books. I love them all. The first book, Taliesin, begins with–wait for it–Atlantis. That was the first and only time I have read about Atlantis in conjunction with the King Arthur story. I confess, Taliesin was probably my least favorite read, but once I read the other books and saw how it fit into the story line, I had a greater appreciation for it. The story is told from a Christian perspective throughout the books - the spread of Christianity through Britain is woven throughout the books. These are definitely my favorite Arthur stories. They are appropriate for high schoolers and adults. Lawhead's writing is not particularly graphic, but he doesn't gloss over things, either. Life in the Middle Ages was bloody and difficult.

After discovering Lawhead's books, I kept my eye out for any fantasy books that talked about King Arthur. I read Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Trilogy, which was interesting. Arthur is, in these stories, a Duke, and the uncle of Mordred, who is Uther's heir to the throne. It's told from a pagan perspective, and Christians are given quite a bad rap. I enjoyed the stories, but I didn't end up keeping the books. I tried reading some of Cornwell's other books and didn't care for them.

When we studied the Middle Ages, we tried reading Roger Lancelyn Green's King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table. I didn't like it, because it made King Arthur sound like an idiot. Here's an example:

Arthur: "Oh, look! My sister, who hates me, has sent me a cloak and says it's a gift. I will try it on!" 

Everyone Else: "NO! Don't do that! Make the messenger girl try it on first!"

The messenger girl tried it on, died a horrible death, and Arthur realized his sister had meant to kill him. Imagine that! There were other instances of things like this, and it just made me crazy. I don't like reading about King Arthur as a dolt. Since then, I've learned that Green's version is the closest to Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, the original story of King Arthur, as it were. So, if you're looking for an un-romanticized version of the King Arthur legends, this is a good option.

From there, we read Howard Pyle's Arthur stories, and I liked those much better. I love Howard Pyle anyway. Dover has reprinted Pyle's books about King Arthur, and they are nice paperbacks, with his original illustrations. They're wonderful read-alouds. We all enjoyed these books, from my teens down to my 8 year old. *I* liked that King Arthur and his knights were heroic and chivalrous. It's high school reading level if they're going to read on their own.

I could go on, and on, and on about Arthur books. There are TONS of them. Really. I have books for elementary kids on up through high school in my house. Another time,  perhaps I will write a post with more of a homeschooling focus and list more of them, but this is it for now! (I realize I haven't mentioned The Once and Future King, but that's because I haven't read it yet.)

Do you like King Arthur legends too? What's your favorite?

Diana Wynne Jones #atozreadingchallenge

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One of the great things about my sister-in-law (and there are lots of great things) is that we like to read the same kinds of books. She has introduced my children and me to lots of great books we would have missed if not for her. Diana Wynne Jones was one of the best suggestions she's given me.

Diana Wynne Jones lived from 1939-2010. She was 5 when World War II began. From the little I've read of her life, her parents didn't seem particularly interested in their children, so she and her two sisters were very close. She married John Burrows in 1957, and they had 3 sons. There is an official Diana Wynne Jones website, though there isn't a ton of new information as she's passed away - but you can find a list of all her book titles there, and there's a book exchange if you're looking for something in particular.

I was going to have my oldest daughter write about DWJ, because her favorite book of all time (to date) is Howl's Moving Castle. She actually saw the Studio Ghibli movie based on the book before reading the story, and fell in love. She's read Howl several times, and is now exploring more of Diana's books. I've read several, and have really enjoyed them too. Her stories are a great mix of fantasy and humor. I lucked out on a Better World Books bargain bin sale recently, and scored several books by Diana we've not read before. I've also found some at library sales (you may be noticing a pattern here).

I'd say most of her books are appropriate for middle school and up. Amazon says ages 8-12 or grades 3 and up, and that might be true for some of them, but they can get a little intense. No sex, or swearing, though. Some of her books were written for a younger audience. Check out this post to get an idea of what you might want your children to read, if you think they'd enjoy her books.

Howl's Moving Castle is probably my favorite book from DWJ, too. I've also enjoyed the Chrestomanci Chronicles, and really, just about everything I've read of hers. The one exception was Fire and Hemlock. That was a strange book. I didn't really get it. I should probably read it again sometime, just to see if I really didn't like it or wasn't paying enough attention when I read it, but you know, there are so many other books to read, I probably won't.

I'd love to know if you've read any of Diana Wynne Jones' books, and if so, what you thought of them!

(This Amazon widget thing is fun. I don't mind if you don't use my links, but it's a quick way to show several book covers with links.)

Eva Ibbotson #atozchallenge

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I had a hard time coming up with a post for "I"!

If I'm going to choose a book to read for fun, it's probably going to be in the fantasy genre. I'm a lifelong lover of fairy tales and magic. Unfortunately, a lot of what passes for fantasy these days is glorified romance novels. Not really my thing. I tend to look for books in the juvenile section.

A few years ago, a friend of mine mentioned that she was delighted to find books by Eva Ibbotson still in print, as she had fond memories of reading them as a child. Of course, I had to go see what they were all about. I found enjoyable stories, probably best for 8-12 year olds, if you consider the reading level. (Amazon has both grades 5-8 and ages 8-12 listed.)

Eva Ibbotson (full name: Eva Maria Charlotte Michelle Ibbotson, née Wiesner) was born in Vienna, Austria in 1925. Her parents separated in 1928, and her father took a professorship in Edinburgh, Scotland, and her mother, a playwright left Vienna for Paris when Hitler banned her work, and ended up in Middlesex, England. Ibbotson's childhood was spent between them, and her experience fleeing Vienna, as well as spending time between parents, is definitely reflected in her writing.

My favorite one is probably Journey to the River Sea, about a little girl named Maia who was orphaned and sent from England, with her governess, to live with relatives in Brazil. It's an adventure story, rather than a fantasy story, but I loved reading it and remember thinking my girls would really enjoy it.  I also really enjoyed Island of the Aunts, which is about an island where some elderly ladies take care of fantasy creatures, and are looking for some children to train up to be their replacement caretakers. Lots of fun.

I think her stories would make great read-alouds, as well as fun reads for kids (or anyone else who likes British fantasy children's authors). I've picked up a lot of mine at library sales, which is great because they were inexpensive, but also a little sad, because libraries aren't keeping them for children to read. 

I'm trying out an Amazon widget so you can see covers of the titles of the Ibbotson books I have. 

James Herriot #atozchallenge

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As I scroll back through my previous posts, I can tell I like sharing books involving nature and animals! Today's author, James Herriot, fits nicely into that theme.

James Herriot was actually James Alfred (Alf) Wight, a veterinarian who practiced in the Yorkshire Dales in England after qualifying in 1939. He passed away in 1995.

I remember reading my first James Herriot book as probably a middle schooler. When I started homeschooling, I learned about the Treasury for Children (link to audio version, narrated by Jim Dale), which is a collection of picture books made from some of the stories you find in his novels. Then, I discovered audio books, which have changed my life for the better in SO many ways, and found All Creatures Great and Small on audible.com when I began my membership. What's fun about the audio versions is, they are narrated by Christopher Timothy, who played James Herriot on the BBC series based on the books.

Since then, we've gotten all five of his books on CD, and my family and I have listened to them several times over. We all enjoy them, from my  husband and myself, to my teen girls, to my little guy. I confess that when I got to Every Living Thing fofr the first time, I was glad I was alone in the car when I listened to the part about the introduction of artificial insemination in cattle. I laughed until I cried, but I wasn't sorry I didn't have to explain it to my girls, who were elementary aged at the time.

One of the things I enjoyed most was reading about his children, Jimmy and Rosie, and how they would go on veterinary visits with him when they were old enough, preschool age, until they started school. He would quiz them by asking them to, say, name six red birds or so many wildflowers. I don't know if my children picked up on the importance of nature study, or that it seemed to be assumed in the books, but I did! Good stuff.

If you already enjoy James Herriot's books, and might like to know a bit more about him, check out James Herriot: Life of a Country Vet, or perhaps James Herriot's Yorkshire. There's also The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father, a biography written by his son, James Wight. There's a website where you can read more about Mr. Herriot and any related activities - such as Skeldale House opening as a B&B!

Have you read any James Herriot? What did you think?

Girl of the Limberlost #atozchallenge

A few years ago, I read Girl of the Limberlost, by Gene Stratton Porter, for the first time. It's actually the sequel to Freckles, which I haven't read yet. GOL was one of my grandmother's favorite books. It was published in 1909, which probably explains the name of the main character: Elnora.

Gene Stratton Porter was born in Indiana, and was an author, naturalist, and nature photographer. According to Wikipedia, she was also one of the first women to form a movie studio and production company. How cool is that? The Limberlost Swamp, the setting for the book, is a real place. Here's a picture from the state of Indiana website - over 428 acres preserved for nature study!

I read this book when I lived in North Carolina and was homesick for Michigan, which made the story's setting of Indiana near and dear to my Midwestern heart. I loved reading about all the different kinds of moths Elnora collected. It's been a lot of years, and it was well before I began commonplacing, so I don't have any favorite quotes to share with you. I remember it being a story about a strong young woman who persevered through a great deal of hardship and poverty, and made a success of herself, finding love in the process. I remember feeling a special connection with the story, knowing my grandmother loved it.

I've heard lots of good things about Gene Stratton-Porter's other books, too, and am looking forward to exploring more of her books. If you'd like to read Girl of the Limberlost, here are some links:

• Free for Kindle here
• Gene Stratton-Porter's collected works, $0.99 for Kindle, here
• Free online at Project Gutenberg here
• Paperback copy here

If you've read any of Gene Stratton-Porter's books, what was your favorite?

Farley Mowat #atozchallenge

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My son and I recently read Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat, for a book report he had to do for school. I shall refrain from my diatribe on book reports and their uselessness for the sake of brevity. The assignment was to find a chapter book that we would read aloud together, and then he had a form to fill out, and he was to share his favorite lines from the main character in a dramatic voice. I don't know how well he did with the dramatic voice, but when I asked him for his favorite thing the main character had said, he knew exactly what he wanted to say, so I suppose that was good.

Anyhoo, Owls in the Family is a wonderful book about a boy in Saskatchewan who brings home and raises an orphaned great horned owl, as well as another owl he rescues from an unfortunate situation. Not only did we learn a lot about owls, but their antics, as well as the antics of Billy and his friends, kept us laughing through the entire book. It's such a great story! It was only 89 pages long, with 11 chapters. We were able to break it into short enough readings that it was easy for him to narrate, and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing his connections to the story as we read it.

Farley Mowat was born in 1921, and lived many places throughout Canada. His father was a librarian, and it seems they moved several times for his jobs. He was very interested in birds, and even wrote articles on birds for the local newspaper while he lived in Saskatchewan as a teenager. He wrote books about Canada's far north, mostly, but he did write a biography of Dian Fossey, a woman who worked with mountain gorillas in Africa. He was an environmentalist and very concerned with the destruction the human race seems determined to wreak upon nature.

I tried to look up information on Farley Mowat to share, and bless him, he didn't/doesn't have a website. He died in 2014 at the age of 92 (thank you, Wikipedia), so I suppose I'm not really surprised by that. He served in World War II, to put his timeline into perspective a bit. Not too many of those veterans are still with us. He did write an autobiography of his early years, Born Naked: The Early Adventures of the Author of Never Cry Wolf, and there appear to be two or three other autobiographical books in his repertoire, as well.

Somewhere, I have a copy of his book, Never Cry Wolf : Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves, which I picked up at a used book store at some point. I haven't read it, but after reading Owls in the Family, I'm going to dig it out. I'd also like to get The Dog Who Wouldn't Be to read with my son, as it sounds like it details the life of Mowat's dog, Mutt, whom we met in Owls. And, after reading the description of The Boat Who Wouldn't Float, I'm going to have to read that one, too.  (Seriously, go read the description. I bed you're going to want to read it.) I hope to read many more of his books! Most of them sound like books I'd enjoy reading. My library has a few, but naturally, not the ones I'd like most to read first. Ah, well. Have you read anything by him? What are your favorites?

Ella Minnow Pea #atozchallenge

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If you're looking for a fun read with lots of great words and word play, do check out Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. 

I read this book several years ago, when my mom shared it with me. She'd read it with her book club. I will be honest: I didn't know what to expect. I don't like very many of the books her book club reads. This one, though, was so good, I kept her copy. 

The book is set on the fictional, autonomous island of Nollop, located off the coast of South Carolina. The island was named for Nevin Nollop, the man who authored the pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," in this fictional world. The people of the island have a statue of Neville Nollop, with his famous pangram sentence on the bottom of it. They place a lot of importance on the written word. The book is written as a set of letters between Ella Minnow Pea and her cousin, Tassie, with occasional correspondence from their parents or the Council (the governing body of the Island). 

All is well on the island until letter tiles begin falling off the statue. The Council decides that it must be a sign from Mr. Nollop himself, and so they pass laws that people must stop using the letters, both in speech and writing. Even books in libraries containing these letters have to be removed. If someone is caught using one of the illegal letters, they have a choice between being exiled from the island or beheading. Sounds perfectly reasonable, no? I loved reading the correspondence as people were forced to be more and more creative to get their points across without using specific letters of the alphabet.

I giggled as I re-read this bit on the suggested replacements for names of the days of the week, upon  the loss of the letter "D":

For Sunday, please use Sunshine

For Monday, please use Monty

For Tuesday, please use Toes

For Wednesday, please use Wetty

For Thursday, please use Thurby

For Friday, please use Fribs

For Saturday, please use Satto-gatto (p. 70)

I close this post here, which you will read on Wetty, the thir of April, two thousan sixteen. 

Daugherty - James, that is #atozchallenge

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Lately, I've been on a James Daugherty kick. I just love his illustrations. Last summer, I saw A Child's First Book of American History in a local store that carried a few homeschool products, and I really, really wanted to buy it. The illustrations were simply gorgeous, and I thought it looked like a perfect book to read to my son. I loved that it was a book of stories about important people in American history. Isaac enjoys books like that. It wasn't inexpensive, though, so even though it was beautiful, I convinced myself to leave it in the store. When I got home, I started looking through the books I already had, and lo and behold, I was the proud owner of The Rainbow Book of American History by Earl Schenck Miers, which is the original version of the book I saw in the store! I was thrilled! I noticed that Mr. Daugherty had done the illustrations, and decided to go see what else I might have by him. I found several things and am collecting more as I find them.

James Daugherty was an interesting man. He was an artist and author, born in Asheville, NC in 1889, and died in Boston, MA in 1974. He actually illustrated propaganda posters during World War I. Check this out:

Isn't that striking? I thought these posters were an interesting facet of James Daugherty's art career.

In addition to the Rainbow Book of American History, I have several other Daugherty books. Here are a few of the covers:

He wrote picture books, such as Andy and the Lion; biographies, like the Thoreau and Lewis & Clark biographies pictured above; history books, such as The Magna Charta (part of the Landmark series of which we homeschoolers are so fond), and illustrated some compliations, such as Their Weight in Wild Cats, which is a book of American "tall tales." Many of his books are out of print, but many are still available. I find them sometimes at library sales and in thrift shops, too. 

He was also a modernist painter! Check out this painting, which is owned by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York:

I really like James Daugherty's illustrations, and I'm looking forward to learning more about his other art, too. I hope you've enjoyed this small sample of his work.

The Case for Books #atozchallenge

I've just recently begun reading a book that's been in my to-read pile for quite some time now: The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future by Robert Darnton. I picked up my copy at a library sale, which I found somewhat ironic. If I were a librarian, I believe I'd keep it on the shelves, just for the sake of the title.

Robert Darnton comes to the discussion of books, in their various forms, with a unique and broad perspective. You can check out his website here. He is an author (obviously), a scholar, and a librarian, having retired from being the head  librarian at Harvard University. I can't imagine that as anything but a dream job - how about you? He's also worked in the book publishing business. He's been the driving force behind projects aimed to digitize and make available otherwise hard-to-access texts, such as Electronic Enlightenment (edited correspondence from the 17th-19th centuries, available by subscription) and Gutenberg-e (which began as a subscription site and is now open access, offering monographs).

The Case for Books is a compilation of essays, written at different times on different issues related to books and how they fit into society. He sees a place for all kinds of books - printed, electronic, and audio. I love this section from the introduction:

The staying power of the old-fashioned codes illustrates a general principle in the history of communication: one medium does not displace another, at least in the short run. Manuscript publishing flourished long after Gutenberg's invention; newspapers did not wipe out the printed book; the radio did not replace the newspaper; television did not destroy the radio;l and the Internet did not make viewers abandon their television sets. Does technological change therefore offer a reassuring message about the continuity, despite the proliferation of new inventions? 

No. The explosion of electronic modes of communication is as revolutionary as the invention of printing with moveable type, and we are having as much difficulty in assimilating it as readers did in the fifteenth century, when they confronted printed texts.

Isn't it interesting to note that people struggled to accept books when they were first printed? In my mind, the invention of the printing press seems nothing short of a miracle, but we are so often unable to embrace change. There is a lot written on e-books, both pro and con. I, myself, prefer a printed book, because I find I learn better when I read in that format. I can read "fluff" on my iPad, but not anything I want to remember. I hear from many people, though, who love their e-readers, and think it's nothing short of miraculous that they can carry an entire library in their pocket.

All that to say, I'm enjoying reading Darnton's essays about books. His writing is engaging, rather than simply scholarly-dry, and I'm learning a LOT of new words. There aren't many books that require me to bring out my dictionary, and I'm rather enjoying it. There is much food for thought here about where books have come from and where they are going.

Bringing A Garden To Life #atozchallenge

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It's that time of year: thinking about what to do with any possible gardening space in my yard. I moved last summer from North Carolina, and a fairly large yard, to Colorado, where I have a very small one. Also, in North Carolina, planting season begins in about two weeks. In Colorado, it will be at least a month and a half. I've been told not to plant anything until after Mother's Day, and the end of May is probably safer.

This year I'm trying something new to me: winter sowing. A friend turned me on to this when I was complaining about my drastically shortened growing season. Basically, you use containers, such as milk cartons, to create mini-greenhouses. You plant seeds in them, and then set them outside where they get sun and any precipitation that might fall. You water them when the soil is dry, and in theory, when it's actually time to plant them outside, you will have nice, cold-hardy seedlings. I planted broccoli and cauliflower, and I have some little sprouts! It's very exciting.

Many moons ago, when I was leaving my job in Michigan to move to North Carolina with my husband, my boss's wife gave me a beautiful book about gardening: Bringing a Garden to Life.

I remember loving this book. The author, Carol Williams, gently teaches the proper care and feeding of a garden, while sharing stories of her own garden and experiences. She paints a picture of the possibilities that exist in any space, no matter how small. She says one should plan, but not obsessively so (I appreciated this, because I am a terrible planner), and that it's probably worth waiting a full year with a new garden space before deciding what to plant, so that you can see what's already there.

I...don't want to do that. Heh. I don't see much coming up this spring except a few daffodils in the raised bed. My current yard has a lot of overgrown bushes that need to be removed. The folks who owned this house before us were really nice people, but they were not terribly interested in gardening, I don't think. That's not a bad thing, actually, because it means I can plant lots and lots of things and not worry much about displacing anything potentially wonderful.

She also talks about keeping a notebook, because

Ultimately, the best way to know the best planting time for corn, and flowering times for lilac, is to watch one's own garden. p. 7

She recommends writing poetry about your garden–not for anyone to read, only for your own notebook–because it helps you notice things. The book is dotted with illustrations by Newton H. Stubbing, and English painter.  The pictures included were from his personal notebooks. How perfect.

So much of this book seems new to me! I'm enjoying it in a whole new way, after gardening on my own for 20 years, learning to see nature in a new way thanks to Charlotte Mason, and probably (one can hope) a bit of maturity.

I'm glad I found this book again. I have a lot of books about gardening, but this one brings me the most joy. She gives great instruction, and provides plenty of inspiration. If I had to choose one book on gardening to keep, it would be this one.

It's out of print, but the used prices are very reasonable. Perhaps you could find it at your library, even. If you're looking for some gardening inspiration, I hope you'll consider this book. I don't think you will be disappointed.

A Was Once An Apple Pie #atozchallenge

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Welcome to the A to Z Challenge for April, 2016! I'd thought I would write a nice introductory post for yesterday, but April snuck up on me and I forgot. I'm working on a series about books, and may have to tweak the titles to get all the letters covered. I may share authors, specific books or series, or themes. You'll just have to come back and find out!

The title of this post is a bit misleading. It's really a sneaky way to get to talk about Edward Lear. I love Edward Lear! He was a British artist, author, illustrator and musician, who lived from 1812-1888. He knew Tennyson, and actually published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry. He was one of twenty-one children. I can't even imagine, can you?

I remember checking out this book from the library when I was in elementary school, and it was an old book back then:

I am a big fan of nonsense. I love to laugh, and I love silly books, so Edward Lear became one of my favorites. I was thrilled to find the book pictured above at a used book store a few years ago. Don't you love it when you meet an old friend?

When I had children of my own, naturally, I started looking for for fun ABC books. I came across "A Was Once An Apple Pie," a lovely little book using one of Lear's nonsense alphabets, with new illustrations. I happen to love Lear's illustrations, but I can see how these new, colorful ones are appealing to young children. Here's the one I found. It's out of print, apparently, but the used prices are reasonable:

The alphabet rhymes are fun to say. "A" in this alphabet says:

The one for "I" is probably my favorite, though:

He also wrote fun limericks:

And I remember LOVING his nonsense botanies. This was one of my favorites:

I would guess that Mr, Lear's most famous poem is "The Owl and the Pussycat." Did you know, though, that he also did some amazing bird illustrations?  Check out this beautiful drawing of a parakeet. I also learned, while poking around for this post, that he did some landscape drawings, as well. Take a look at this one.

If you're interested in getting a book by Edward Lear, I have a few recommendations.

The Book of Nonsense - Free Kindle version, if you just want to see more of what his nonsense was about.

The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear - This is a nice paperback, not terribly expensive, if you prefer holding a real book (I do).

A Book of Nonsense (Children's Classics) - Nice hardcover, not too expensive, and part of the Everyman's Library children's books, which look really nice on a shelf.

The Owl and the Pussycat - Board book version of this fun poem for very small people

Poetry for Young People: Edward Lear - I love this series of books, and if you're looking for a small selection of his work to share with your children, this is a good choice. We've used several of this series in our homeschool poetry studies.

Edward Lear's Birds - in case you're interested in looking at Lear's beautiful bird drawings

All righty! I know that's a lot of links. I do get excited about books. I'm looking forward to chatting with you about some of my favorites this month!

The Value of a Child

I have the privilege and pleasure of participating in Nancy Kelly's Living Education Lessons. I cannot tell you how much the first two classes blessed me, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the sessions more than I can say. The next one is tonight, in fact! I missed the CMI conference last summer because of our move, and will miss it this year, too, because I waited too long and it's sold out. I needed something to renew my spirit, and these classes with Nancy are just the ticket. Do check them out and see if it's something that might interest you. You won't be disappointed. Her blog, Sage Parnassus, is also a wonderful resource.

The first two weeks we discussed Miss Mason's first principle of education: "Children are born persons." Upon first glance, it seems like an obvious statement in some ways. The longer I've had to ponder it, though, the more I find there is to consider.

It's not simply that children are human, or that they are people. Person almost needs to have a capital "P," because personhood, I believe, is talking about a child's soul, the very thing that makes them who they are in the eyes of God.

This first principle is what first touched my heart and drew me to Charlotte Mason. When I was growing up, personhood was not something that was ever discussed, much less seen as important. Certainly no one had heard of Charlotte Mason. The parenting style was punitive, with little or no regard to circumstances or the heart of a child. When I learned from Miss Mason, and the lovely people God's brought into my life along this journey, how to see my children as Persons, my heart and parenting were forever changed for the better. I'm so grateful!

I made a new connection on Personhood as I was reading our first assignment. Nancy has asked us to keep commonplace entries of our readings, of course, and sometimes I feel as though I should just copy the entire book out by hand. There seems to be more underlined than not! The quote I chose was this one:

If we have not proved that a child is born a person with a mind as complete and as beautiful as his little body, we can at least show that he always has all the mind he requires for his occasions; that is, that his mind is the instrument of his education, but his education does not produce his mind. --Vol. 6, p. 36 

When I read that initially, I felt a huge sense of relief. I was assured that the education I'm giving my girls is not what is making their minds. They already have all the mind they need. It was a breath of reassurance I needed.

Then, though, I looked back over the reading as I prepared to read the next week's assignment, and I came across this quote:

...the beautiful infant frame is but the setting of a jewel of such astonishing worth, that, put the whole world in one scale and this jewel in the other, and the scale which holds the world flies up outbalanced.
--Vol. 6, p. 34

Can you see that vision with me? Can you imagine the soul of a child as a precious jewel whose value outweighs that of the earth itself? That image has captured my imagination, and is again reworking the way I see my children. I know as mothers, as parents, we all see our children as precious. I have no doubt of that. I am beginning to see that they are worth still more than I knew, and they are so incredibly beautiful.

When I put those two quotes together, I found an expansion on the idea that children are not blank slates or empty buckets to be filled. No matter what book we assign our children to read, each one will receive it differently. I am continually amazed by the connections my children make in their reading, and it's never the same thing from any of them. We can no more turn a child into a doctor or a lawyer than we could turn them into a squash. They are who they are made to be by the Creator, and He is forming them according to His purposes.

Of course, I still want them to experience truth, beauty and goodness through the books they read, and my goal is still to provide them with the feast of ideas Miss Mason talks about spreading before students, but in the end, the ideas help them find out more about who they already are, rather than making them into something I want.

Never Say Never

I am not missing, but I've been hiding. I keep thinking about the blog, and haven't been sure what to write or how to talk about what's been going on here. It's certainly not a tragic situation, but it's been quite an adjustment for my family. Here's the deal:

My son completes his 8th week of school this week. He's attending the lovely little school at our church.

I still have a hard time believing he's going to school. This is my 11th year homeschooling. I love having my children home with me, and I love being able to give them a living education, so unlike what I experienced in public school.

How did we get to this place?

For the last 3.5 years, since we officially started "school" with him, I've been trying to teach this child. It's been an uphill battle, every single day. And, I do mean battle. He fought me constantly when we'd try to work together. It didn't seem to matter what I did. Believe me, I tried what seemed like everything. I kept thinking he'd grow out of this need to push back against school work, but he just didn't. He took all my time and energy, and I was not able to engage with my high schoolers the way I wanted. I didn't feel I was doing well by anyone. No one was getting what they needed from me.

When we found out we were moving to Colorado, I was thrilled to discover a Charlotte Mason school here. I thought that would be the answer to everything. He would go there, until the girls had graduated high school, and then he would come back home with me. Unfortunately, they are not in need of students his age, so when he didn't test as being ready for their second grade, they weren't willing to work with us. I felt a little desperate at that point, as I really needed some help with him, but I had to believe if he'd needed to go there, God would have worked it out. Isaac really liked that school, and said he wanted to go, so we began to try to get him up to speed with reading, handwriting and math so he could. He didn't seem to understand that he had to do some actual work to get caught up, and he was no more motivated to work with me, even knowing he could have gone to that wonderful school with the playground and the fish pond (the reasons he gave me for wanting to attend there).

He struggled with the upheaval of our move from North Carolina to Colorado, as we all did. There were a lot of good things about our new home for him. We moved into a house that is right next to a park, and with lots of kids there in the summer. He got to play there a lot. There are some boys living in the house behind us, and he quickly made friends with them. We had a couple of months of settling in before we officially started our school year in Colorado, but we fell back into our pattern of discord as soon as I got the school books back out.

We started attending a church here, and our pastor's wife, Sara, turned out to be a tutor (and is becoming a dear friend). She agreed to work with Isaac, which helped somewhat. As I described my struggles in working with him, she encouraged me to talk to the principal at the school there. To my surprise, the principal was willing and eager to work with us. She, Sara, and the second grade teacher (who also happens to be my girls' youth group leader) came up with all kinds of ways to help him, as he's not reading on grade level. God removed all of my objections, one by one, and I knew we'd have to send him.

I've been having a rather schizophrenic conversation with myself.

Homeschooling mom (HSM): "You are the parent. Surely you can figure out how to work with your own son?"

Tired of Fighting mom (TFM): "I agree with you, but it's been 3.5 years and nothing I've tried has worked yet."

HSM: "You're a homeschool fraud and a failure."

TFM: "I am so tired of fighting with this child."

HSM: "Surely there is something we haven't tried yet. Have you considered [insert idea from any of many well-meaning homeschooling friends]?"

TFM: "Yes. Don't you remember when we did that?" or, "No, we didn't try that, but we've tried SO MANY THINGS hoping that it would fix all our problems, and nothing has."

HSM: "It's always better for kids to be at home."

TFM: "I wanted to believe that, too."

HSM: "I miss him when he's not here."

TFM: "I miss him, too."

HSM: "Are you sure you love him enough? Maybe you don't love him enough."

TFM: "The only reason I was able to consider this at all is that I love him so much. I don't want to destroy our relationship or his love of learning. My relationship with my son is more important than my ideals."

This is still going on, but I'm able to ignore them (or at least live with them) most of the time now. I spent a lot of time crying, the first week or two, and I do miss him. I've seen amazing improvement in Isaac already, though. He's taken initiative every day to get himself ready to go to school, and after the first day, told me I could drop him off at the door and pick him up in the carpool line - I was not to come in with him. When it's been snowy, he's packed his own snow pants and boots so he could play in the giant snow pile in the parking lot.

He doesn't seem to mind that he doesn't have nearly as much free time as he did. He gets THREE recesses at school, which he thinks is fantastic. (Never mind that he had hours of free time at home...) He loves being around all the other children. Honestly, he was lonely at home. With my teens' schedules, he wasn't getting much social activity. He's still working with his tutor twice a week after school, and will have to do that through the summer. He has to read to me each night, but he's more willing to do that now than he was when it was only my idea. There have been very few days when he didn't want to go to school. 

The hardest part has been realizing that this means my homeschooling journey will probably come to an end quite a bit sooner than I thought it would. My girls are in high school, and even if I really stretch things out, I have a maximum of 4 more years (and that is assuming they both take a "gap year"). I don't see bringing Isaac back home. It's not that I don't want to, or that I wouldn't. If that's what needed to be, I would do it in a heartbeat. He enjoys school tremendously, is doing so well, and I know it would be hard for him to be the only child at home. At the end of the day, I'm grateful. I'm grateful we are able to send him to a private, Christian school, at our church, where I know and love the people. I'm grateful he's doing so well, even though I'm having to bite my tongue at some things I just don't agree with about the way things are taught. I'm grateful that my son and I are able to enjoy each other more in this season.

I forgot, somewhere along the way, that this little Person has a mind of his own (does he ever!) and that what I want, for me, is not necessarily what is best for him. This school is what is best for him right now. I'm getting closer to acceptance and peace with it. God's helping me see what was right and what went wrong, and He's made it clear this is where Isaac needs to be for now. 

AFFILIATE – 8 Resources for Learning the Times Tables

Multiplication: it's a math skill we ALL use in daily life. I point this out because there is actually math I do NOT use in my daily life. My teens have just started those word problems that say things like, "Plane A left the airport going this fast, and Plane B left at the same time going this fast. How long will it be before they are x number of miles apart?" Do we actually have to do that, ever? Maybe air traffic controllers need to know that kind of thing...

Anyway - I DO use multiplication! I use it when I'm cooking; I double recipes quite often. I use it when I'm shopping, and for "fast counting" when I have a certain number of people and need supplies, for example.

It's important for children to memorize their multiplication tables. It truly does make math work SO much faster for them! Are you an educator or parent with a frustrated child who is attempting to memorize the multiplication tables? Read on.

Hundreds of kids have learned their times tables in an hour using a very fun & easy to understand animated video. The Times Tales DVD is a two-part video series that uses stories to teach multiplication to kids. The videos use cute, simple stories that provide students with a "memory peg," allowing them to quickly recall otherwise abstract multiplication facts. As students progress through the video, they'll learn multiplication without even knowing it! It's that easy!

About the Times Tales DVD - What is included?

• Animated video comes on a DVD
• CD includes printable worksheets and flashcards

What Educents customers are saying about Times Tales:

"Fun and effective! Did in 2 weeks what other curriculum didn't do in a year!"

"My kids did NOT want to like this when I first opened it up, but they ended up liking it a LOT! They kept trying to "figure it out" so it took a while for my 2nd and 4th grader to just relax and watch the stories. We followed the recommended pace, and in 2 weeks this DVD solidified what other methods could not do for them in a year! Even my 3 yr old shouts out the answers to some of the quiz questions! Of course she doesn't understand what she's learning yet, but when her time comes, learning her multiplication facts will be painless and easy :) Definitely recommend this program to anyone who has stressed over drilling boring multiplication facts into their kids! You WILL Love it! :)" -ML

"I can’t even imagine how many less papers my 5th grade teacher would have had to grade if we had this in my elementary school! We did multiplication drills every single day during our 2nd semester! Using this DVD really beats that." - Celena J.

Times Tales Animated DVD & Printable Worksheets

Times Tales teaches kids the upper times tables without rote memorization. Students can simply follow along with the entertaining story. As they progress, they'll be guided into associating the stories they've learned with real math. You can always find the Times Tales DVD at a discount on Educents.com!

More Activities to Practice Multiplication:

This hands-on activity uses legos to reinforce multiplication facts. 

Source: SchoolTimesSnippet

Early Multiplication: Grouping with Legos by School Time Snippets - Kristina and her son practice multiplications using Legos!

Multiplication Rap DVD - Kids discover what multiplication is all about, learn facts through 12, and practice skip counting.

Superhero Flash Cards - A series of self-checking multiplication and division flash cards with a fun superhero theme.

Visual way to teach multiplication to your student. 

Source: Lemon Lime Adventures

Patterned Multiplication Circles by Lemon Lime Adventures - Dayna and her 7-year old use this visual way to learn multiplication. This math craftivity is fun for all ages!

Musical Math with Sue Dickson’s Songs that Teach - This program makes memorizing the facts easy, sure, and fun with catchy songs that allow students to master the facts in no time!

30 Multiplication Facts Printable Worksheets - This low-cost packet includes 30 printable worksheets, 143 flash cards, six vocabulary word cards, and a multiplication chart.

A+ Math Multiplication Unit - Build a strong foundation in math with A+ Interactive Math’s multiplication unit.

2016 Reading List

Do you make a reading list for yourself at the beginning of the new year? I have seen several people do this, and there are always reading challenges floating around in the blogosphere. Anne over at Modern Mrs. Darcy put up her 2016 Reading Challenge, which involves reading twelve different books in twelve different categories over twelve months. That sounds reasonable, doesn't it?

My issue is this: I have a reading list aversion. If I make a reading list, I no longer want to read the books on it. It's fairly ridiculous, actually. I have no idea why this is.

This year, though. I've done it. I've made a list, and have hopefully left some room on it for books I haven't met yet. In fact, I've already gone on a rabbit trail and checked out five books from the library.

I was having a hard time deciding if I wanted to focus on C.S. Lewis or Shakespeare. Someone shared a challenge on Facebook to read all of Shakespeare's works in a year. I was tempted; I've been enjoying Shakespeare with my girls, but I haven't read lots of what he wrote. However - that's a LOT of Shakespeare. I'm not sure I'd have time to read much else. Honestly, I know myself. There is no way I would read only Shakespeare for an entire year.

I'm part of a Facebook group of passionate book people, and they have reading events all the time. This year, I signed up for four year-long events in which we will explore different authors, genres, or concepts.

The first group is a C.S. Lewis group. C.S. Lewis wrote so many more books than I ever knew! He wrote fantasy, science fiction, Christian books, scholarly books, poetry... it boggles the mind. In my group we are planning to read the following:

• Surprised By Joy
• Mere Christianity
• The Four Loves
• The Abolition of Man
• The Weight of Glory
• Poems

I'm also planning to re-read the Chronicles of Narnia, because it's been a while, and I love them.

The second group is a Shakespeare group. We will read the following:

• Julius Caesar
• The Taming of the Shrew
• Henry V

As it turns out, I haven't read any of those yet. I'm excited to explore some new-to-me Shakespeare and not feel overwhelmed by the selections.

The third group is a survey of American Character. We were originally going to start with a biography of Abigail Adams (wife of John Adams, 2nd U.S. President), but it seems the group didn't like some of the assumptions made by the author. Instead, they decided to read John Adams by David McCullough. 

Have you seen that book? It is 752 pages long.

SEVEN HUNDRED FIFTY TWO PAGES.

Do you know what my response has been to this book, every single time I've considered reading it? "Why? Why would someone write a book that long? And why would anyone want to read it?" Don't I sound scholarly and well-read? Ha.

It's actually on the Ambleside Online list for the year my girls are in, but I didn't assign it. They wouldn't have had time for much else, even had I broken it out over the whole year. It's supposed to be an excellent book. Here's hoping it is, because I will never finish it if it isn't a rip-roaring good read. 

Thanks for letting me get that out. 

The list of books for the American Character group is:

• John Adams, by David McCullough
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (my girls ARE reading this one)
• Marmee and Louisa by Eve LaPlante
• The Wright Brothers by David McCullough (this one isn't nearly as long, and I'm grateful)

The last group is a Science Fiction/Fantasy group, and I'm most excited about this one. Fantasy is my favorite genre. I'm learning, thanks to Charlotte Mason, how important it is to read other things, but if I had my druthers, I'd read fantasy all the time. In this group, I'm only re-reading one book, which is pretty exciting to me. Here's our list:

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle OR Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
• A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood OR Foundation by Isaac Asimov
• The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams OR The Princess Bride by William Goldman
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card OR Alas Babylon by Pat Frank

I'm hoping to read both selections each time, since I haven't read any of them before (except A Wrinkle in Time).  Although I've read it more than once, it feels like a new experience in many ways, even as it feels like returning to an old friend.

I confess, I'm feeling a bit trepidatious about this reading list thing. I'm excited, though, because I'm reading most of the books on my list with other people. I love to talk to other people who love books like I do!

In addition to the books for the events in my Facebook group, I have been eyeballing books on the lists of last year's reading from a couple of my favorite people: Liz Cottrill at Living Books Library, and Nancy Kelly at Sage Parnassus. If you're looking for possible reading selections, check out their lists.