From Senior to Sailor

The first year of my blog, I had a photo shoot with my nephew Drake. He was 9 years old, almost 10. Is that possible?! He was so little. Eight years later (this past October), I had the privilege of taking his senior photos.

In August he will be entering military service with the Navy, and he will be gone for many years. It breaks my heart a little that these kids grow up and start their own lives. Sniff.

[What terrifies me is that my youngest son, Leif, is 9 years old, almost ten. I’m going to blink and he will be graduating.]

The Hero of a Novel

G.K. Chesterton is one of the most brilliant and quotable authors. His writings are often hilarious and always profound. If you’re wondering where to start, allow me to recommend his collection of short essays, In Defense of Sanity. Most of the essays are just a few pages in length and are perfect for daily or weekly digestion. They cover a variety of topics such as Chalk, What I Found in My Pocket, Running After One’s Hat, Gargoyles, Cheese, Jan Austen, and a Rotten Apple. He often begins the essay with witty laughter and builds to a theological roar.

Every essay contains multiple quotable quotes, and it is almost impossible for me to choose a favorite. The above quote comes from the essay “On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family,” which is generously underlined in my copy. He follows the above quote with this:

“The thing which keeps life romantic and full of fiery possibilities is the existence of these great plain limitations which force all of us to meet the things we do not like or do not expect… To be in a romance is to be in uncongenial surroundings. To be born into this earth is to be born into uncongenial surroundings, hence to be born into a romance. Of all these great limitations and frameworks which fashion and create the poetry and variety of life, the family is the most definite and important.”

And later:

“They say they wish to be as strong as the universe, but they really wish the whole universe as weak as themselves.”

The Oregon Coast with New Friends

Our whole family drove over to the coast yesterday afternoon to meet up with Brandy from Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood and her family who are currently on a tour across the states. [I was so glad Russ was able to go with us!] Because the weather was a little iffy (rainy and cool) we started out at the Hatfield Marine Science Center where the kids explored for a couple hours. [Our family had never been there before!] Brandy and I spent the whole time chatting.

We headed across the bridge to see the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, not realizing that we were arriving just as it was closing. [I should have been more diligent about checking hours of operation!] Instead, we hiked down to the beach where the kids, despite the cool, overcast weather, proceeded to get very wet and sandy. Lola was soaked. Brandy and I spent the whole time chatting.

Fortuitously, the clouds parted, the sky turned blue, and the sun began to shine. By the time we made it back to the cars, it was gorgeous and quite warm. The bedraggled kids changed out of wet clothes while I snapped a few pictures of the lighthouse, bay, and bridge.

It was dinner time, so we headed north to Lincoln City so our visitors could have a true Oregon Coast dining experience at Mo’s. We ate clam chowder and fish with a view of the water. Brandy and I chatted the whole time.

We ended our evening with some fresh air. The kids played. Brandy and I chatted the whole time.

Our family had so much fun with our new friends, and we are so happy to have met the whole Ferrell Family! I wish we lived closer so the kids could play and Brandy and I could chat the whole time. [grin]

Good Things Run Wild

Food for Thought ~ Be Astonished

“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” ~Mary Oliver

The other day my son called to me, “Mom, come look at this white flower!” Lo and behold, after we’ve lived here for almost a decade, a couple volunteer calla lily plants appeared in my hedge. They used to be my favorite flower! Astonished, indeed.

Pay attention:

:: How Drawing Can Help Improve Your Memory, According to Research @ LifeHacker

"Together these experiments indicate that drawing enhances memory relative to writing, across settings, instructions, and alternate encoding strategies, both within- and between-participants, and that a deep LoP, visual imagery, or picture superiority, alone or collectively, are not sufficient to explain the observed effect. We propose that drawing improves memory by encouraging a seamless integration of semantic, visual, and motor aspects of a memory trace."

Be astonished:

:: Fairytale Macro World by Polish Photographer Magda Wasiczek @ Bored Panda [Gorgeous!!]

And a bunch of fascinating videos to enjoy.

Watch the answer here:

Food for Thought ~ A Storied Life

:: Art Stories: The Wounded Hero by Russ Ramsey @ The Rabbit Room

“Christ does not celebrate our strength while mocking our weakness. He picks us up in our broken condition and lives to be strong for us.”

:: Remembering What We Mean by Doug McKelvey @ The Rabbit Room

"We will see one day with such an unbroken, sacramental vision. All things. All things for the inexhaustible wonders that they hold, for the inexhaustible glories they reveal of the mind of the artist and storyteller who created them. But fairy tales, and luminous paintings, and the voices of cellos and the taste of a wild, sun-warmed blackberry or the sparkling of a chalice held aloft or the visual force and scale of a wide, windswept ocean can sometimes jar us back to that sacramental vision, even if only for a brief, precious moment."

:: Dulce Domum: The Longing for Home in Literature (and Our Hearts) by Renee Mathis @ CiRCE

"This desire for a place to call home provides one of the strongest themes for authors, poets, and artists of all kind to weave throughout their works. We may laugh at the sugary sentimentality of a glowing thatched cottage, covered in flowery vines and surrounded by a picket fence, but the desire for a place to call one’s own is no laughing matter."

:: Storied Living (or, Why Literary Criticism Trumps Self-Help) by Lindsey Brigham @ CiRCE [Most excellent!!]

“Thinking like a novelist, then, we’ll attend to the meaning by attending to setting, plot, and character. We won’t ask general questions like “What does Christ’s lordship mean for my life?”, but rather, “How, at this moment, could Christ’s lordship be communicated through the way I set the table for dinner?” (His person and reign are beautiful; set the table beautifully, with order and colors and flowers.) Not “How can I present the gospel to my coworker?”, but “What sort of character is my coworker—what are his quirks, his foibles, his virtues, his vices, his longings—and where among all this might he be met by Grace?” (For some characters, of O’Connor’s at least, Grace comes like a textbook hurled between the eyes or a serial killer’s gun in the face.) Not “How can we make Christ the center of our homeschool routine?”, but “How does the rhythm of our school-day sound out our dependence on the Lord?” (It’s a matter of actual spoken words and prayers and songs.)”

:: Are the Gospels Mythical? @ First Things

"The world’s myths do not reveal a way to interpret the Gospels, but exactly the reverse: the Gospels reveal to us the way to interpret myth."

:: Not Duffers, Won’t Drown @ First Things

"This vision of childhood, in which the role of parents is to trust children and the role of children is to keep that trust, to be honest and good and, above all, not duffers, is to me a purer, sweeter, and infinitely more potent vision than any other a child is likely to encounter in literature. As Chesterton observes in Orthodoxy, “The old fairy tale makes the hero a normal human boy; it is his adventures that are startling; they startle him because he is normal.” The world of Swallows and Amazons is a normal child’s ideal world, quiet and sheltered and kind, but full of startling and unexpected things, some of them real and some imagined."

:: 4 Reasons to Start Class With a Poem Each Day @ Edutopia

"These voices, contemporary and classic, have helped define my classroom culture to such an extent that on the rare occasion when I postpone the “Poem of the Day” until later in the class period, my students interrogate me about it."

:: Reflections on “Ask Andrew” Episode 6-Magic in Lewis and Tolkien by Jaime Showmaker @ Plumfield and Paideia

"I expected Kern to rattle off these types of standard arguments. And, while he did hint that there are different kinds of magic, he went in a totally different direction than I was anticipating. And although I was initially confused by the approach that he took, I really should not have been at all surprised that he would take us back to the place that he almost always comes home to: Jesus Christ and Homer."

:: Why I Write Scary Stories for Children by N.D. Wilson @ The Atlantic

“There is absolutely a time and a place for The Pokey Little Puppy and Barnyard Dance, just like there’s a time and a place for footie pajamas. But as children grow, fear and danger and terror grow with them, courtesy of the world in which we live and the very real existence of shadows. The stories on which their imaginations feed should empower a courage and bravery stronger than whatever they are facing. And if what they are facing is truly and horribly awful (as is the case for too many kids), then fearless sacrificial friends walking their own fantastical (or realistic) dark roads to victory can be a very real inspiration and help.”

:: Maiming or Claiming?: On Writing in Books by Nicole Mulhausen @ BookRiot

“See, there is a kind of magic that happens when we read a book. We don’t merely enter another world, but that world enters us, marks us. It seems appropriate to record the intersection, the details that make up the context of our reading.”

:: The Question to Ask When Answers Are Unclear @ The Gospel Coalition [So many ways to apply this one in any subject.]

“What do I know to be true?”

:: Teaching Reading ~ The Detour @ Classical Academic Press

"Like Martha in Luke 10:41–42, we Christian classical educators are “anxious and troubled about many things.” So, like Martha, we must be reminded that “one thing is necessary.” Before we are careful about identifying phonograms or introducing new vocabulary words, we must first place our students at the feet of stories or poems—indeed, at the feet of language itself—and help to awaken a sense of what the philosopher Josef Pieper calls receptive openness or attentive silence. That is to say, we must help our students to choose, like Mary, that good portion that will not be taken away from them."

Awakening Wonder

As I mentioned in my last education post, I have a stack of books in front of me that have informed and are informing my educational philosophy, particularly as I plan for this coming year. I will be sharing several quotes and important concepts from each in the next few posts, but I want to start with Awakening Wonder: A Classical Guide to Truth, Goodness & Beauty. This is a dense book that was difficult for me to read and understand, but it contains beautiful truths that are vital in our lives. I will need to read it several more times through in order to grasp most of them. For now this summary quote is greatly impacting my contemplation of my role as a teacher in the lives of my children:

Thus, we must ask ourselves: Are we presenting music and mathematics, Beauty and symmetry, as inseparable? Do we teach our students to see athletic skill as an embodiment of control over chaos and thus exemplative of the processes of creation? Do our science classes teach that discovery of the workings of the world not only gives us knowledge but awakens us to the awe and wonder of the Incarnation itself? Do our history classes present the totality of history as an eschatological narrative from Garden to city, from creation to communion, from water to wine? Do our Bible classes present theology as rooted in philokalia, the love of Beauty? Do we teach our students that there is something extraordinary about the imagio Dei, that we yearn for a meaning and a purpose outside of ourselves, that we long for a Beauty that awakens us from our self-centered slumbers, that our hearts ache for a life filled with wonder and awe? Are we cultivating an insatiable desire in our students to encounter the True, the Good, and the Beautiful in a life-transforming way, a way that enables our souls to reach for and embrace a state of being than which none greater can possibly be thought?

I Can’t Believe I Live Here

Today we hiked the 5 Mile Winter Falls Loop at Silver Creek Falls with this fantastic group of friends.

How is it possible that this stunning location is less than an hour from our home?! And walking behind the waterfall is the stuff of fantasies and fairy tales. What you can’t see are the myriad caves and crevices behind the waterfall that the boys wanted to spend all day exploring. Next time we’ll plan to do just that.

This is the second waterfall on the hike (the Lower South Falls). I don’t know if you can see the little people behind the stone wall to the left of the waterfall, but this is another walk-behind trail.

More falls.

Walking the trail.

Double Falls.

And more falls.

Now one thing is abundantly clear: I am so out of shape. I hope I can get out of bed tomorrow. [And I’m so glad it wasn’t a hot day. It was cool and overcast, perfect for hiking and taking pictures!]

Sweden’s 1st Birthday

Almost two weeks ago on May Day, we celebrated the littlest family member’s first birthday. It was a gorgeous day in the garden with family and friends.

Swede has a fantastic personality that isn’t so obvious from these pictures. I’m so glad Shannon had girls with strong personalitites. She and Ben catch me in knowing glances all the time. These kids of ours are world-shakers. Ha!!

I’m so grateful that Lola has these sweet sister-cousins just down the road.

State of the Academy Address ~ 2016 [Looking Forward]

Last month I shared a bit about where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing this past year in our home academy. In essence, it’s been a year of rest for us all.

In the past few months I’ve been contemplating the idea of Christian classical education as I’ve read Awakening Wonder and The Liberal Arts Tradition and reviewed Beauty for Truth’s Sake and Beauty in the Word. As I move forward with our upcoming plans, I will be considering a more holistic and robust approach to classical education and integrating the ideas of piety (“properly ordering one’s loves”), gymnastics (physical training, coordination, and fine and gross motor skills), and musical or poetic education (music, singing, poetry, acting/imitating, drawing, fine art, and stories—fiction and non-fiction) with the arts of the quadrivium (arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy) in addition to the arts of the trivium (grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric). I’ll share about this in upcoming in-depth posts.

For now, this post will serve as a quick overview of our upcoming studies.

As long as I’m being completely honest, I’ll just say it: I’m terrified of our next school year. [wry grin]

I will have four distractible children with completely different needs and studies—who need me at all times. I’m trying to sort out the logistics of it all. Where will they each work so that they have enough space, without the distraction of siblings, with their mother on hand to help with questions and discussion? How can I clone myself to be in 4 places at once? I’m still not exactly sure how this is going to work. Even if I think I get it figured out, we’ll probably still have to adjust several times throughout the year (or maybe the first month or two).

Lola [5/6 Years Old—Kindergarten]

Lola will be in Classical Conversations Foundations. This will be her second year (and our family’s 7th!). She will attend play camp and music class/choir during the afternoon on our CC day. She will continue learning to read (All About Reading), write (Handwriting Without Tears), and count (math picture books and games). She’ll continue to focus on memorizing poetry (Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization) and Bible verses (Sing the Word), and she’ll listen to more audio CDs during independent play time. We’ll also be reading many wonderful books together. [I have long lists of music and story CDs and favorite books coming up here on the blog.] We’ll be working together on physical coordination and games, particularly biking and swimming over the summer.

In the best possible world, Lola would spend about an hour a day (in small chunks of time) on formal lessons (that are rarely formal—more of a snuggle-on-the-couch and learn together sort of thing). I want her to spend most of her time in play. Ideally. The problem here is that Lola does. not. play. independently. She is either messing with her brothers and distracting them, doing one-on-one work with me, or sneaking screen time. It does not matter what fun little activity she is given (bubbles, play dough, rice or beans in bins, coloring, whatever)—it is 5 minutes of play time for her, 45 minutes of distraction for her brothers, and an hour of clean-up for me. The only other option is heavily enforced isolated play time. So I’m trying to do some figuring in this department. She really needs a twin sister to play with. Ha!!

At a glance:

• Classical Conversations Foundations [One morning a week for 24 weeks: fine arts, science projects, public speaking, geography drawing, and memory work in history (+timeline), science, Latin, geography, English grammar, and math.]
• Choir/Music Class
• All About Reading
• Handwriting Without Tears
• DK My First Number Book and other living math picture books and games and manipulatives
• Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization (and other poetry)
• Sing the Word
• Music and story CDs [lists in upcoming posts]
• Many wonderful picture and chapter books—fiction and non-fiction [lists in upcoming posts]
• Bike riding, swimming, hiking, cordination exercises and physical games

Leif [10 Years old—5th Grade]

Leif will be in Classical Conversations Foundations and Essentials. This will be his 7th year in Foundations and 2nd in Essentials (and I am tutoring his Essentials class). I am considering choir for him, and he will be starting piano lessons in the fall. During the week he will work on CC memory work, math (Khan Academy), Latin (Song School Latin 2), spelling (All About Spelling), CC Essentials grammar and writing (IEW Medieval History-Themed Writing), geography drawing, and independing reading in all subjects plus literature. He will also continue swim team practice four days a week.

At a glance:

• Classical Conversations Foundations and Essentials [One day a week for 24 weeks. Fine arts, science projects, public speaking, geography drawing, and memory work in history (+timeline), science, Latin, geography, English grammar, and math plus grammar, writing, and math games in the afternoon.]
• Piano lessons
• Khan Academy Math [5th-6th grade]
• Song School Latin 2
• All About Spelling
• IEW Medieval-Themed History Writing
• Story of the World, Volume 2 (and Medieval-themed fiction and non-fiction)
• Astronomy and Physics
• Map drawing and online geography games
• Swim team

Luke [12 Years Old—7th Grade]

Luke will be in Classical Conversations Challenge A. This will be his first year in the Challenge program (with one of my favorite people, Heather Timmons, as his tutor). The Challenge program will dictate the bulk of his studies during the week, but he will also begin piano lessons in September and continue swimming on the swim team four days a week.

At a glance:

• Classical Conversations Challenge A (One day a week in class for discussion and presentation.)
• Piano lessons
• Latin Alive! [We are subsituting this program for the CC recommendation of Henle.]
• Khan Academy Math [Pre-algebra. We are substituting this program for the CC recommendation of Saxon.]
• Science research and drawing body systems
• Literature (10 book selections) and The Lost Tools of Writing
• Drawing the whole world (including capitals and land forms, all by memory)
• The Fallacy Detective and It Couldn’t Just Happen (science catechism questions, note taking, class discussion, and apologetics paper)
• Swim team

Levi [14/15 Years Old—9th Grade]

Levi will be in Classical Conversations Challenge I. This is a first for us (the oldest is always the guinea pig), and the first year I’ve had a high schooler in the house! His tutor is another one of my favorite people, Cheryl Halsey. He will again be in class with my best friend’s son, McKinnon, and they will probably continue to do some work together during the week. The Challenge program will dictate the bulk of his studies during the week and he will continue swimming on the swim team daily.

At a glance:

• Classical Conversations Challenge I (One day a week in class for discussion and presentation.)
• Henle Latin [He’ll take the National Latin Exam in the spring.]
• Khan Academy Math [Algebra. We are substituting this program for the CC recommendation of Saxon.]
• Exploring Creation with Physical Science
• American Literature (20 novels!) and The Lost Tools of Writing
• American Documents
• Economics
• Policy Debate
• Shakespeare (The Taming of the Shrew, individual Shakespeare projects)
• Music Theory
• Swim team

 

I think that about covers the basics.

I’ll be sharing more details in up-coming posts. Do you have any questions you would like me to attempt to answer?

Mothers, Sisters, Family

We spent the day with my family for Mother’s Day. This isn’t the best photo we’ve ever taken (really, Lola? sigh), but I think it’s the first whole family picture with Sweden. For an impromptu photo, it isn’t too bad (we only made one guy change his shirt, hahaha!!).

Gorgeous weather. Favorite people. Happy Mother’s Day!

Reading List Challenge 2016 ~ April

Read in April

I read at the beach. I chatted about books with book club friends. I read at the pool. I read everywhere this past month!

[Two of these books I actually finished on May 1st and 2nd.]

I started out reading a light historical romance then progressed with a short book on how to study history, a children’s adventure book, a meandering but lovely “Western,” short classic stories, a fairytale/satire, a book on education, a non-fiction WWII book, and then ended the month with a light modern romance. If that’s not variety, I don’t know what is!

:: Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson [After enjoying Donaldson’s Edenbrooke last month, I had to try her second novel. It’s yet another satisfying light, fun, steamy, clean romance—possibly more complex and intriguing than Edenbrooke. Not great literature, but very dreamy for those of us who enjoy shallow romance novels. Haha!! 4 stars for enjoyment.]

:: A Student’s Guide to History [This was a very quick and excellent read in anticipation of the Classical Conversations Parent Practicum speaker training that I attended this past month. Our theme is “Navigating History” and I’m very exciting to be speaking in Albany, Oregon in July.]

:: Outlaws of Time: The Legend of Sam Miracle by N.D. Wilson [We pre-ordered this one and the 3 boys, my husband, and I all had it read within a week. We loved it. This is an excellent adventurous fantasy with excitement and heart, and now we’re waiting for a sequel. 4 stars.]

:: So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger [Enger’s Peace Like a River is in my top ten. I had heard that his second novel wasn’t as good as the first, so I put off reading it. I’m glad I finally sat down to savor it. I loved this one. I really did. Yes, it meandered, but I loved it. I fell in love with the characters. I loved the atmosphere Leif Enger weaves from word to sentence to page to story. Heroic in the quietest sense. The world is indeed a romance. 4 stars]

"He gave his story in bright shards." "Violent and doomed as this world might be, a romance it certainly is." "I could feel the draw of his silence, the draw of his naive and weak-eyed quest for atonement; no doubt even his shifty past was a draw, for his life seemed a curving line, capricious, moment by moment inviting grace." "In times of dread it's good to have an old man along. And old man has seen worse."

"Entering the shop I was jarred by my reflection in that glass. It was just barely me. I was used to resembling what I was--a well-meaning failure, a pallid disappointer of persons, a man fading. This fellow looked tired and rough, but--if I may say it--capable. Wary, I would say, and of dubious intent. It hit with a thump that people seeing this personage would not guess me for anything but a stranger with a firm grip. It was almost a pleasure to squint at the glass. What would Grace Hackle say, if she happened by and saw me? Nothing at all—but she'd think, The strenuous life!"

:: Words Aptly Spoken: Short Stories [I finally finished this collection of 25 classic short stories. It was a great variety.]

:: The Princess Bride [What a riot!! The introduction got a little long and crazy (and not really appropriate for a younger audience), but we absolutely loved the story part with the author’s “interruptions.” It is very similar to the movie, often word-for-word, but with a little more story and hilarious commentary. The boys and I loved it. (The author’s convoluted conclusion was a little long and crazy as well, and I didn’t read it aloud.) 4 stars for the story inside the story.]

:: The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education [This is an excellent primer on a robust and comprehensive traditional classical Christian paradigm, including and beyond the implementation of the Trivium. I’ll be sharing more about this book as I lay out our plans for this coming year. 4 stars]

:: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank [I really struggled with this one. I did not enjoy it for the first half of the book. Anne Frank is indeed a real life early teen and she is full of strong personality, but I think I have a bit of an early teen voice/personality “overload” at the moment without reading one’s diary. It’s amazing how universal this 13/14 year old thing is. Sigh. The book did grab my interest about halfway through, though, and I finally finished it. I’m unsure how to rate it.]

:: Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay [This is a modern literature-infused remake of Daddy-Long-Legs, which was the first book I read this year (a re-read for me, and listed under “novels” since it was published in 1912). Not realistic (who writes letters like that?), not deep literature, but yet another light, entertaining, clean, and quite enjoyable romance novel! 4 stars]

In Progress

[Yes, this list is a little ridiculous.]

:: Flannery O’Connor: The Complete Stories [I read The River this month.]

:: Mystery and Manners [I read a couple more essays this month.]

:: The Iliad [I’ve stalled, but I’m determined to finish… sometime this year… ]

:: Listening to Your Life [I continue to enjoy this daily devotional filled with excerpts from Frederick Buechner’s writings.]

:: Ambleside Online Year O Reading List [I’m reading all the books on this list aloud to Lola this year.]

:: Plutarch’s Lives [I am attempting to slow-read this one with the boys this year. I may chicken out and read the Greenleaf Guides Famous Men of Greece and Famous Men of Rome instead. Or even Augustus Caesar’s World.]

:: Julius Caesar retold by Leon Garfield [I’m working through both story volumes with the boys this year.]

:: The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers (re-read) [One of my favorites.]

:: Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper (re-read) [Another favorite.]

:: Beauty for Truth’s Sake by Stratford Caldecott (re-read) [And yet another favorite.]

:: The Law by Frederic Bastiat

:: Rhetoric by Aristotle

:: In Defense of Sanity by G.K. Chesterton

:: Pippi Longstocking [with Lola]

 

The 2016 Reading Challenge Master List

(I finally added all the books on my list. Well, there is not actually an “end” to the books on my list, but these are the main selections on my mind at the moment. There is no way I will read even half of these books this year and I’m sure to add a few as the months go on, but I’ll use this list for reference when I’m picking up the next book to read. I don’t really like how they are organized, but this will have to do at the moment.) 

(Books marked out have been completed.)

Devotional/Faith

Listening to Your Life by Frederick Buechner [in progress]

In Defense of Sanity by G.K. Chesterton [in progress]

The Drama of Scripture: Finding our Place in the Biblical Story by Bartholomew

The Creed in Slow Motion by Reverend Ronald Knox

Real-Life Schole Sisters

The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O’Connor [I loved this biography of Flannery O’Connor. It is peppered with quotes from O’Connor’s own writings (letters and essays) as well as details about her stories. I feel much more equipped to understand her fiction writing. 4 stars]

Flannery O’Connor: The Complete Stories [in progress]

Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O’Connor [in progress]

Online Schole Sisters

Awakening Wonder: A Classical Guide to Truth, Goodness & Beauty [There are some gems in this book, but I feel as if I had to work so hard to mine them. The last chapter of the book is fantastic, though. 3 1/2 stars]

Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper (re-read) [in progress]

Beauty for Truth’s Sake by Stratford Caldecott (re-read) [in progress]

[Also discussing Flannery O’Connor with this group.]

Symposium at Parnassus (Facebook Group)

Understood Betsy (re-read) [This is such a beautiful classic children’s book, but it is just as important for adults—particularly parents and educators. The author of the story, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, brought Maria Montessori’s teaching methods to the United States and was also named by Eleanor Roosevelt as one of the ten most influential women in the country. 4 1/2 stars]

Mother Carey’s Chickens by Kate Douglas Wiggin

Jack and Jill by Alcott 

Little Women by Alcott

Little Men by Alcott

Rose in Bloom by Alcott

Climbing Parnassus by Tracy Lee Simmons

Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education by David Hicks [in progress from 2015]

The Liberal Arts Tradition: A Philosophy of Christian Classical Education [This is an excellent primer on a robust and comprehensive traditional classical Christian paradigm, including and beyond the implementation of the Trivium. I’ll be sharing more about this book as I lay out our plans for this coming year. 4 stars]

For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay (re-read)

How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler

Poetic Knowledge James Taylor

Plutarch’s Lives [In progress]

Potato Peel Pie Society (Facebook Group)

[Ambleside Online Year O book list with Lola] [in progress]

Dragonflight [Classic fantasy, and Russ’s favorite author. Fantasy is not my genre, but this one was enjoyable. Definitely some adult situations and not for young children. 3 1/2 stars]

Julius Caesar (re-telling by Leon Garfield) [In progress]

The Taming of the Shrew (“)

Henry V (“)

The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers (re-read) [in progress]

The Green Ember/ The Black Star of Kingston by S.D. Smith

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (July-Sept)

[The Princess Bride (July-Sept) (listed under read-alouds)]

The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers (re-read) (Feb)

Surprised by Joy by Lewis (Feb)

The Four Loves by Lewis

[Mere Christianity, The Weight of Glory, The Abolition of Man (re-reads)]

Something by Jane Austen

The Once and Future King

[Handmaid’s Tale, Alas Babylon, Ender’s Game, A Wrinkle in Time (re-reads)]

[George MacDonald’s Curdie books (re-reads)]

[Classic Fairy Tales]

[And discussing several other previously read books]

ChocLit Guild

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy [This was my first Thomas Hardy novel, and I loved it. His descriptions are vivid paintings, and I laughed out loud more times than I could count. His characters sprung to life. This is an early contender for 2016 favorites. I enjoyed the new movie version as well. 4 1/2 stars.]

The Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare by Chesterton [Loved it. Review here. 4 1/2 stars]

Wonder [I sobbed my way through this one. Excellent and important. 4 1/2 stars]

Becoming Human by Jean Vanier [This fascinating non-fiction book on the value of every human and the tension between individuality and community was a book club selection this month, paired with the middle grade novel Wonder. I’ll share some thoughts and quotes when I get my copy back. It’s making the book club rounds at the moment. 4 stars]

The Supper of the Lamb (re-read)

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 

Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson [After enjoying Donaldson’s Edenbrooke last month, I had to try her second novel. It’s yet another satisfying light, fun, steamy, clean romance—possibly more complex and intriguing than Edenbrooke. Not great literature, but very dreamy for those of us who enjoy shallow romance novels. Swoon. 4 stars for enjoyment.]

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr. (re-read)

The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and "Women's Work" by Kathleen Norris

Something by L.M. Montgomery

The Great Divorce (or other non-fiction by C.S. Lewis)

Still Life by Louise Penny

Book Detectives

The Family Under the Bridge  (re-read) [This short children’s chapter book was a re-read for me. Our Book Detectives group had a wonderful literary analysis discussion on this one.]

Dominic (re-read) [One of my top favorites. Review and analysis here. 5 stars.]

The Cricket in Times Square (re-read)

Symposium Read-Alouds (with boys)

Shakespeare Stories (Leon Garfield, both volumes –Hamlet and The Tempest) [in progress]

Heidi [I don’t know that I had ever actually read this one all the way through before. The boys LOVED it. Every day they would ask for me to read just one more chapter, and then just one more! In fact, one evening Russ sat down and listened with us and he wasn’t content with the two extra chapters, so he sat next to me after the kids went to bed and I watched a movie and he read the rest of the book, laughing out loud and reading passages to me from time to time. 4 1/2 stars]

The Princess Bride [What a riot!! The introduction got a little long and crazy (and not really appropriate for a younger audience), but we absolutely loved the story part with the author’s “interruptions.” It is very similar to the movie, often word-for-word, but with a little more story and hilarious commentary. The boys and I loved it. (The author’s convoluted conclusion was a little long and crazy as well, and I didn’t read it aloud.) 4 stars for the story inside the story.]

Tuck Everlasting

Classic Fairy Tales (PPPS in December)

Pippi Longstock by Astrid Lindgren (with Lola)

Roman Roads Western Culture Greeks with Levi

[Also discussing with online Schole Sisters]

The Iliad [in progress]

The Odyssey

DRAMA ANDL LYRIC BOOK LIST:
  – Aeschylus (The Oresteia)
  – Sophocles (Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus)
  – Aristophanes (The Frogs and The Clouds)
  – Eurpipides (The Medea and The Trojan Women) included in Roman Roads Reader
  – Sappho (various poems) included in Roman Roads Reader
  – Pindar (collection of Odes) included in Roman Roads Reader
  – Theocritus (Idyls I, VI, VII, and XI) included in Roman Roads Reader
  – Hesiod (Works and Days) included in Roman Roads Reader
  – Quintus of Smyrna (The Fall of Troy) included in Roman Roads Reader
  – Apollonius of Rhodes (The Argonautica) included in Roman Roads Reader

THE HISTORIES BOOK LIST:
  – The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories
  – The Landmark Thucydides
  – Xenophon: The Persian Expedition

THE PHILOSOPHERS BOOK LIST:

  – Plato: Six Greek Dialogues
  – The Basic Works of Aristotle

CC Challenge B short stories [2015-16] (with Levi and McKinnon)

Words Aptly Spoken: Short Stories [I finally finished this collection of 25 classic short stories. It was a great variety.]

God Lives by Hans Christian Andersen
The Teapot by Hans Christian Andersen
The Bet by Anton Chekhov
The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
Little Girls Wiser than Men by Leo Tolstoy
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke
Araby by James Joyce
The Schoolboy’s Story by Charles Dickens
That Spot by Jack London
The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Celestial Railroad by Nathaniel Hawthorne
A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett
A Man and the Snake by Ambrose Bierce
The Cop and the Anthem by O. Henry
The Necklace by Henri Guy de Maupassant
The Hammer of God by G. K. Chesterton
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain
The Bird on its Journey by Beatrice Harraden
The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde
A King in Disguise by Matteo Bandello
The Startling Painting by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Last Lesson by Alphonse Daudet

Classical Conversations Parent Practicum (“Navigating History: The Art of Argumentation”)

Rhetoric by Aristotle [in progress]

The Law by Frederic Bastiat [in progress]

A Student’s Guide to History [This was a very quick and excellent read in anticipation of the Classical Conversations Parent Practicum speaker training that I attended this past month. Our theme is “Navigating History” and I’m very exciting to be speaking in Albany, Oregon in July.]

The Peacemaker by Ken Sande

The Tolkien Project

The Hobbit

Bilbo’s Journey by Joseph Pearce

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Frodo’s Journey by Joseph Pearce

The Philosophy of Tolkien by Peter Kreeft

Letters From Father Christmas

Life/Parenting

The Young Peacemaker by Ken Sande

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey

Daring Greatly by Brene Brown

Coming Clean by Seth Haines

A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L’Engle

Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Novels

Daddy-Long-Legs [Easy, short, old-fashioned, charming, funny, romantic novel. Brain candy I don’t have to feel guilty about. 4 stars]

The Martian [Gripping, fascinating, hilarious, and stressful sci-fi novel. The most interesting scientific and technical “manual” I’ve ever read, and science/technology/sci-fi are not my things. Lots of language and short, choppy journal-style writing for most of the book but it fit with the story. It is a fantastic tribute to human ingenuity and spirit, with an up-beat can-do attitude. 4 stars]

So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger [Enger’s Peace Like a River is in my top ten. I had heard that his second novel wasn’t as good as the first, so I put off reading it. I’m glad I finally sat down to savor it. I loved this one. I really did. Yes, it meandered, but I loved it. I fell in love with the characters. I loved the atmosphere Leif Enger weaves from word to sentence to page to story. Heroic in the quietest sense. The world is indeed a romance. 4 stars]

Heart of Darkness [This wasn’t as hard to read as I thought it was going to be. The prose was exquisite in places. His descriptive writing reminded me of Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd, though this one was not nearly so lovely. The forward movement felt slow, and the characters less appealing (though one was fascinating). 3 1/2 stars]

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie [I love a good mystery. I watched this as a play years and years ago, but it was high time I read this, one of A.G.’s most famous stories. 4 stars]

The Lonesome Gods by Louis L’Amour

These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy Turner

The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber (short stories)

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam

The Maytrees by Annie Dillard

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Mrs. Mike by Freedmans

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson

Stephen Lawhead Song of Albion

The Cellist of Sarejevo by Steven Galloway

The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Emma/Persuasion/Sense and Sensibility

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

Roll-Overs from 2015’s List

Strong Poison (continuation of Lord Peter Wimsey series) by Dorothy Sayers

Invisible Man

The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel

Slaughterhouse-Five

Dune [I tried to start it in 2015 and just couldn’t get going. Maybe I’ll try again later this year.] [I found this article at The Guardian: Dune, 50 years on: how a science fiction novel changed the world. I guess it stays on the list…]

The Once and Future King (PPPS)

The Brothers Karamazov

The Brothers K

The Road

Paradise Lost (need to read in plain English novel form)

Frankenstein

Children’s/YA Novels

The Ranger’s Apprentice

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Young Readers Edition) [A beautiful and true story about a boy from Malawi who builds a windmill. 4 stars.]

The Glass Sentence [This is a hefty 500 page YA fantasy/sci-fi novel and the first in a trilogy. I read the whole thing on vacation, but I wasn’t sucked into the story. I didn’t love it. My fantasy/sci-fi-loving husband didn’t love it either. Interesting premise and world-building, decently written, but not great. 3 stars.]

Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories [This is a nice companion book to Wonder. I especially appreciated The Julian Chapter, but it isn’t quite as magical as Wonder. 4 stars.]

Outlaws of Time: The Legend of Sam Miracle by N.D. Wilson [We pre-ordered this one and the 3 boys, my husband, and I all had it read within a week. We loved it. This is an excellent adventurous fantasy with excitement and heart, and now we’re waiting for a sequel. 4 stars.]

The Folk of the Faraway Tree

Half Magic

Ella Enchanted

Popcorn Reads

Greensleeves by Eloise Jarvis McGraw [I don't remember who recommended Greensleeves to me. It was written by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (author of the middle grade novels The Golden Goblet, Mara, Daughter of the Nile, Moccasin Trail, and others) and published in 1968. It is a hefty book at 334 pages. It is the coming of age story of 18-year-old Shannon Lightley. Yeah, an 18-year-old. It is written in first person, and seems light and modern-ish in style, but I was constantly surprised by a fantastic turn of phrase, description or witty comment. And it was way more...smouldering...than I expected it to be. But still clean. The ending was a little more open-ended than I expected (Miss Prim-ish), but not unsatisfying. The book has a decent theme without being preachy. (And it is not at all a "Christian" book as there is not a single mention of God or church.) 4 stars]

Edenbrooke [All that stuff I said about Greensleeves? Yeah. I read this on the first day of vacation, and then I just wanted to re-read it for the rest of the week. I skimmed/re-read it the following week and then I bought my own copy (the first one was a library copy). And then I ordered Blackmoore by the same author to read next (listed under ChocLit Guild reads). Super duper mushy clean romantic story. More romantic than Greensleeves, but maybe more cheesy. Definitely a more satisfying ending. Whatever. This is the kind of book I’d read all day every day if I didn’t care about my brain and my family. 4 stars.]

(Blackmoore) [listed under ChocLit Guild reads]

The Black Opal [Decent but somewhat forgettable. The author is a long-time mystery and romance writer, but I didn’t find this book particularly mysterious or romantic. Meh. I may try another one. 3 stars.]

Dear Mr. Knightly by Katherine Reay [This is a modern literature-infused remake of Daddy-Long-Legs, which was the first book I read this year (a re-read for me, and listed under “novels” since it was published in 1912). Not realistic (who writes letters like that?), not deep literature, but yet another light, entertaining, clean, and quite enjoyable romance novel! 4 stars]

 

CC Challenge A Reading List [2016-17] (with Luke)

[The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Carry On, Mr. Bowditch; The Magician’s Nephew; Number the Stars; Amos Fortune, Free Man]

The Secret Garden

[The Door in the Wall; A Gathering of Days; Crispin: The Cross of Lead; The Bronze Bow]

CC Challenge I Reading List [2016-17] (with Levi and McKinnon)

Billy Bud, Sailor

The Scarlet Letter

The Red Badge of Courage

The Gold-Bug and Other Tales (Poe)

Through the Gates of Splendor (Elisabeth Elliot)

Born Again (Chuck Colson)

Starship Troopers

Up from Slavery (Booker T. Washington)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (re-read)

Self-Reliance Ralph W. Emerson

Walden (Henry David Thoreau)

The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)

Tom Sawyer

The Call of the Wild

Johnny Tremain

The Sign of the Beaver (re-read)

Harvey (Mary Chase)

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

An Old-Fashioned Girl

Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?

The Money Mystery

The Taming of the Shrew (re-read)

I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah

(American Documents)