Library cards...

My daughter sent this photo to me while she was at our local library.  She and her girls like to go to the library fairly regularly so  I told her to look for the author Mitsumasa Anno who wrote several clever picture books for children, and guess whose name was on the card?  Mine!  And the one above my name is a friend's daughter.  Do you remember signing your actual name to the cards in the library books?  I always thought it was interesting to see who checked out the books before me, but when we were all assigned numbers instead, the fun ended.  Do you see number 334 on this card?  That was my number.  Now notice the number of "renews" there are under it.  I guess we really enjoyed Anno's Aesop.

We were homeschoolers and the library was  basically our school curriculum.  We all read a ton of books and the librarians were so much help to us finding particular books for the periods of history we were studying or science books or art books.  I remember one time our youngest, who was five at the time, went up to the librarian's desk, stepped up on the step stool, and asked if she could find him some books on how to read.  The librarian looked at me with questioning eyes and I said, "Well, can you?"   It was so sweet to see her come around from behind the desk and take him to some picture books about the ABCs.  By the way, Anno had a terrific ABC book called:  Anno's Alphabet and a couple of fun number books called:  Anno's Counting Book and Anno's Math Games which we checked out regularly.  If you have Littles in your life, they might love to read the Anno books with you too!

My married children are now homeschooling their children, our grandchildren, and it's just so much fun to share ideas and books with them.  The older I get, the more I have come to realize that the real learning in life happens naturally out of curiosity and wonder.  Day to day life teaches us many good lessons, but I am ever thankful for the trusty library card.  We could always dive deeply into a subject or choose to float lightly on the surface, finding the perfect library books to quench our thirst for knowledge and understanding.  Nowadays most everything in the library is computerized, and I think that has its many benefits, but it is still quite a lovely and humble thing to hear the stamp of the library date pressing down on a paper card in a paper book that can be held in eager hands.

Cheers to the library!

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
~Marcus Tullius Cicero

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Marcus Tullius Cicero
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/library.html

Playing to learn...

A friend, Susan, pointed a group of us to this article from the NY Times called Playing to Learn.  As a mom who home schooled her five children from beginning through high school graduation, my heart cheers to read this article which encourages a playful  approach to the elementary years --promoting hours of reading aloud to children and  listening to children read aloud, having discussions with children and giving children time to write about things that matter to them, letting children count things (all kinds of things) and observe nature rather than making endless scientific word lists that are quickly lost after the test.  The ideas shared in the article are very similar to the way I taught my own children so I'm naturally ecstatic that Susan Engel, director of the teaching program at Williams College, would have supported my brand of teaching.   I would have taught this way no matter who thought it right or wrong, but it's nice to hear and goo to know that there are fresh ideas in educational circles today.  I would love to see the public schools adopt the ideas offered by this author.

5 Lil Chicks...

There once was a Mother Hen who wanted to raise her chicks in the way of the Lord. She wanted to raise healthy chicks fed on the very best wheat and the plumpest worms available. She wanted her chicks to be smart and wise and hard workers. She prayed, she listened, she heard. What did she hear her God say? "Homeschool."
Could she do it?

Homeschool seemed way out of Mother Hen's league and way beyond her abilities, but she felt God calling her to it so she studied and studied all kinds of books like: Let's Have Healthy Chicks and Dare To Disclipline Your Chick and You Can Teach Your Chicks at Home. She listened to Focus on the Family and to a couple dubbed The Grandparents of Homeschooling, Dr. Ray and Dorothy Moore. Little by little, Mother Hen became convinced that this lifestyle could be had if Papa Rooster thought it best too. And he did.
So they did.

The 5 Lil Chicks sat under their mother's wing day after day and learned all the Important Things that she and Papa Rooster deemed necessary. There were days when the chicks didn't want to learn to read or do their math. There were days when the only thing the Lil Chicks wanted to do was to play outside or peck at each other. Mother Hen thought she was never going to teach them a thing. But she pushed on, one day at a time, keeping her lessons short and sweet and giving her healthy chicks lots of time in the sunshine and fresh air. Papa Rooster gave his chicks work to do which made them strong and he taught them fine lessons too. They hoped their chicks would thrive.
And they did.

As the chicks grew in wisdom and stature, Mother Hen knew that one day they would each have to fly the coop and find their own way in the Big World. She taught them in the way they should go according to the Good Book and she tried to direct the chicks' studies after their particular interests with hopes that they would do well on their own, but ultimately the chicks would have to work hard and diligently. Would they be wise enough to fly on their own?
Yes, they would!

Nowadays Mother Hen and Papa Rooster have only one lil chick left at home. Mother Hen is still encouraging her chick in the way he should go, still hunting for delicious worms to serve him, and looking for the perfect books just for him so he, too, will grow in wisdom and stature just like his chicklings. After all this time Mother Hen decided it was time to share some of her thoughts and ideas with other Mother Hens who want to teach their own lil chicks at home.
So she did.

Five Lil Chicks

VEEP's...

Wow, what an amazing week the USA has had, first with McCain's historical introduction of his nomination of Sarah Palin to the Republican presidential ticket and then to actually hear her address the RNC last night live. It was a powerful night and I think many Americans are energized by this fresh, grassroots governor from Alaska.

Our family has always, always been interested in America's government and elections, so this year will be no different than any other. We like to listen to the speeches of all candidates and watch the debates on TV. Oh sure, we have our picks already, but we want to know everything we can about the candidates to make an informed choice when Election Day rolls around. Our family is celebratinig another new voter this year too -- eighteen year old S. will be casting his first-ever-votes this November and we're excited for him. I can remember vividly the first presidential election I voted in. I helped elect President Ronald Reagan. That was thrilling! Do you remember casting your first vote?

We're a home schooling family and so when elections come around, we always make this season a part of our studies. It's one of those "real life" learning experiences that a textbook just can't bring home (pun intended). Yesterday J. had an excerpt from the book A Man Called Peter, by Catherine Marshall, that he was to take from dictation. The excerpt was about the inauguration of Harry Truman and Alben Barkley in January of 1949. I decided that this book would make a good read aloud, so I proceeded to read the first chapter of the book to the boys. A few hours later, I was looking at a magazine online, the American Heritage, and -- lo and behold -- there was a radio diary about Alben Barkley, "Remember Truman's VEEP." Well, I reconized right away that it was a God Thing that I would come upon this at the perfect time, so I clicked it up and gathered the kids around to listen. We really enjoyed this little snippet about a senator who was born in 1897 in a log cabin in Lowes, Kentucky, who grew up on a tenant farm with his family, was deeply religious, became a lawyer, a senator, and the Vice President of the USA. Reminds me of someone in today's history -- a woman from a small town in Alaska, daughter of teachers, a hockey mom, outdoorsman, Christian, mayor of her hometown, governor and now VEEP nomination for the 2008 election.

I plan to use this opportunity in our country's election process to find more inspiring stories to share with my kids about past elections, presidents, and vice presidents. If you have a good story to share or a link to an historical election or candidate, please share it with me here in the comments. Thanks!

First day of home school....

Can it be
summer is over?
Not quite yet...
boys are bridge-jumping
this afternoon!
92 degrees
still says summer to me.

Short on words, deep on meaning...

Photo by Feuillu

This morning while sipping my coffee and reading my email, I came upon an email from one of my favorite blogs, Bravewriter, and thought I'd check out what was happening there. Julie is a homeschool mom and a writer who shares her skill, love and gift of words with all of us homeschool moms and our kids. I told her, "You do all the work, I just copy you!" If you ever need help with inspiring your kids to write, I enourage you to visit Julie's blog. Anyway, I was browsing Julie's side margins and came upon her de.licio.us link and clicked it up. I'm curious that way sometimes. I found this article: Short on words, deep on meaning, and my interest was piqued. The author asked people for six word memoirs or biographies of their lives and the response was so amazing -- some funny, some deep, some outrageous. Read it and see what I mean. Well, right away the light bulb went on, and I decided that for Today's Writing Lesson my teenage sons and I would write Six Word Biographies. We'd write one for ourselves and a few others for people we know -- either family members, friends, or famous people. What fun we had! Here's a sampling of a few we came up with.

Hope. Change. Yes we can! What?
~Barack Obama

Get ‘er done today. Golf tomorrow.
~Dad

Prayed. Got Tom and five kids.
~Jody

Does this have to be serious?
~Seth

God, coffee, family. In that order.
~Mom

Hey, everyone’s got to breath air!
~Dr. Phil

How did you spell that….again?
~Joseph

Die you must, live I will.
~Yoda

Snowed. I’ll practice my bunker shots.
~Joseph

She was weaned on a pickle.
~Hillary Clinton

Never should have taken those steroids.
~Roger Clemens

Isn't it amazing what just a few words can say about a person?
The best part of the day was the kiss on the cheek from each son and, "This was fun, let's do it again." Yes, we will!

It's a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water.
~Franklin P. Jones in Quote