Our third evening in Rockaway Beach, we headed to the main beach to explore. It was frigid. The boys and Russ decided to walk the beach all the way back to our beach house, and Lola and I braved the cold to watch the sunset. She was a pretty good sport.
Can you see the teeny tiny ship in the distance in this next picture?
Monday was our last day of Classical Conversations for the year. Wednesday, Luke passed his tutor proof for CC Memory Master. Today, after a cold and wet few months, the weather forecast predicted 80 degrees. Since we started our school year at McDowell Creek Falls, it seemed fitting to celebrate the end (of sorts) with another hike at McDowell Creek Falls. It was absolutely spectatular. The water flow was massive compared to September, and the roar of the water was deafening.
We did more hiking and climbing today than usual (though we all did get our feet in the water), and my legs were jelly by the end of our adventure. At least I can count P.E. for the day, right?
[I’ll share more pictures later after I finish our coast trip photos.]
We spent a good portion of our spring break vacation reading. It rained quite a bit and Russ was working part of the time. He had all of Wednesday off, but it rained all day and he and I did nothing but curl up in fuzzy blankets and enjoy our books. I think he really needed that down time.
Unfortunately, I read the perfect vacation book on our first day and then I was ruined because no other book I picked up grabbed me in the same way.
Books Finished in March
I definitely completed less variety this month, but I made progress on some of my more challenging books.
:: Wonder [I sobbed my way through this middle grade novel, tears streaming down my face. It is so beautiful and important. 4 1/2 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.]
:: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Young Readers Edition) [A beautiful and true story about a boy from Malawi who builds a windmill. Great paired with The Boys in the Boat or A Long Walk to Water. 4 stars.]
:: Greensleeves by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
I'm trying to decide what to say about this book without making myself look bad. No, there's probably no way around it. Y'all will just have to know the real me. I stayed up until 5 am finishing this one. Yes, you read that right: 5 am.
Here's the deal: I love a good romance novel. I even love not-so-great romance novels. In fact, this has always been my favorite genre, even when I don't want it to be.
Here's the problem: I like them smouldering, but clean. Clean, but not cheesy. Oh, and well-written with great character development. And not super preachy. Ha! Do you know how hard that is to come by? Almost impossible. Vintage is nice, but not necessary. I'd say Jane Eyre comes closest in classics (even though I hate the first 10 chapters). The Harvester by Gene Stratton Porter is next on the list. Other classic romances are nice (Pride and Prejudice, for example, or any of the romance novels by George MacDonald), but not quite as smouldering.
The Awakening of Miss Prim is the best modern romance I've read, probably because the setting doesn't seem modern and it's full of literature/theology/classical education references. Lighter on the smoulder, though, and maybe slightly unsatisfying at the end.
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.)
If you think smouldering, clean, coming-of-age romance novels are cheesy and ridiculous, don't read this one. And please don't think less of me.
I don't know that I'd give this book to a younger teen. But I will out my husband and say that he started reading it before I did and finished it in a couple days. 4 stars.
:: The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden [It had been many years since I read this children’s book, but it was a favorite from my childhood. It was just as magical this time around and I enjoyed our parent-child book club discussion. 4 1/2 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 this coming month. Super duper mushy clean romantic story. More romantic than Greensleeves, but maybe more cheesy. 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.
:: 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. Now I have to decide whether to try the second book in the series. 3 stars.]
:: 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.]
In Progress
[Yes, this list is a little ridiculous.]
:: Flannery O’Connor: The Complete Stories [I read The Displaced Person and The Lame Shall Enter First 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… ]
:: Words Aptly Spoken: Short Stories [I’m reading this collection and discussing with Levi and McKinnon over the next few months. We read several of the stories this past month.]
:: 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
:: In Defense of Sanity by G.K. Chesterton
:: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Maybe by next month I’ll have a more complete 2016 Master List with links…
The Beginning Stages of the 2016 Reading Challenge Master List
(Books marked out have been completed)
Devotional
Listening to Your Life by Frederick Buechner [in progress]
In Defense of Sanity by G.K. Chesterton [in progress]
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]
Jack and Jill (Alcott)
Little Women
Little Men
Rose in Bloom
Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education [in progress from 2015]
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 (“)
The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers (re-read) [in progress]
The Green Ember/ Black Star Rising
Surprised by Joy
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
Gone With the Wind
The Book of the Dun Cow (re-read)
The Quotidian Mysteries
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 [in progress]
Roman Roads Western Culture Greeks with Levi
[Also discussing with online Schole Sisters]
The Iliad [in progress]
The Odyssey
CC Challenge B short stories [2015-16] (with Levi and McKinnon)
Words Aptly Spoken: Short Stories
God Lives by Hans Christian AndersenThe Teapot by Hans Christian AndersenThe Bet by Anton ChekhovThe Selfish Giant by Oscar WildeLittle Girls Wiser than Men by Leo TolstoyRikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard KiplingThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Mansion by Henry Van DykeAraby by James Joyce
The Schoolboy’s Story by Charles Dickens
That Spot by Jack London
The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan DoyleThe Celestial Railroad by Nathaniel HawthorneA White Heron by Sarah Orne JewettA Man and the Snake by Ambrose BierceThe Cop and the Anthem by O. HenryThe 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]
Family Life/Parenting
The Young Peacemaker by Ken Sande
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey
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
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 [in progress]
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]
Children’s/YA Novels
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.]
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 this coming month. 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.]
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.]
Yes, it’s my birthday. [No, there is no 3 in my age. Ha!]
I’ll pause the Oregon Coast pictures to post links and quotes and videos from the past month.
Enjoy the buffet!
Living a Good Life
:: This Could Be the Difference Between a Life of Suffering or Joy @ UnTangled [I adore this one. Go read it.]
Suffering is resistance to what is.
Suffering is opposition to the present moment and demand for the next moment. Suffering is having this but wanting that. Suffering is the search for the next thing. Suffering is the mental roaming we do for what might be.
Suffering, for instance, is trying to read something brilliant, while wondering about something better.
:: Forty Days | Forty Sacraments @ CIVA [So gorgeous. Click on the link to see her paintings.]
I find myself in a time of waiting right now in certain facets of my life, and this project was birthed out of that—being present with waiting, present with solitude. These paintings are marking time, and they are also calling out beauty where you might not expect it—in the extremely ordinary.
Politics
:: On Jane Austen in the General Election by G.K. Chesterton [Relevant. And hilarious. And a tiny bit terrifying.]
"A dictator has to be a demagogue; a man like Mussolini cannot be ashamed to shout. He cannot afford to be a mere gentleman. His whole power depends on convincing the populace that he knows what he wants, and wants it badly."
Books, Education, and Family Culture
:: As Soon As He Returns by my friend Nicole Mulhausen @ Book Riot
The human voice is my favorite instrument, and reading aloud is important in ways that I can hardly express. Ordinary and ancient magic: breath and sound and time, weaving a narrative. And whether it’s a story of return, Mole to his home, or a story of grand adventure, Marie-Laure and her Uncle Etienne with Jules Verne on the Nautilus, to begin aloud together, especially a longer work, always involves both risk and promise—the risk of interruption, broken narrative, and the promise that the reading will always be shared, requiring patience and fidelity, when, like Marie-Laure, we are tempted to read on alone.
:: Loving the Lost Boys: Some Thoughts on Boyhood and Reading by Zach Franzen @ Story Warren
Let me add one more point on this score: The failure to recognize male distinctness leads to a marginalization of femininity. I just read a sample reading from a 2011, fourth grade National literacy test about a girl wrestler named Daisy. A story for fourth grade boys about a girl wrestler? Why don’t boys enjoy reading?
:: For Useless Learning by Peter J. Leithart @ First Things
"Lewis points out that there is always some crisis, some alarm that demands our attention; there are always a million and one things more important than reading Homer. Yet we continue to read Homer because we are not creatures whose behavior is solely guided by a crabbed criterion of usefulness. We are creatures made in the image of a Creator who makes things that He does not need, things that are not of use to Him. As we imitate His excess, we play music and recite poetry and tell stories... We should not be ashamed of the uselessness of the liberal arts, for making what we do not need, and doing what we have no ordinary use for, is part of the glory of being made in the image of the infinitely creative God."
:: Two teenagers started a street school to educate poor and homeless children in Pakistan
:: Edible Spoons
:: Richard Turere: My invention that made peace with lions [This reminds me so much of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.]
Art [Movies and Music]
:: I’m a Christian and I Hate Christian Movies by Alissa Wilkinson @ Thrillist
Christian theology is rich and creative and full of imagination, that's broad enough to take up residence among all kinds of human cultures. It contains within itself the idea that art exists as a good unto itself, not just a utilitarian vehicle for messages. (In the Greek, the Bible calls humans "poems" -- I love that.) There is no reason Christian movies can't take the time to become good art. Each one that fails leaves me furious.
:: J.S. Bach - Crab Canon on a Möbius Strip
Looking for the Helpers
:: Walking The Beat In Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, Where A New Day Began Together @ npr [Sob. This one is exquisite.]
"Yes, I have been talking to you for years," Rogers said, as Clemmons recalls. "But you heard me today."
"We're going to do what we do every time we get someone who’s in pain or hurt. We're going to give them our love."
:: 'If We Left, They Wouldn't Have Nobody' @ npr
"I just couldn't see myself going home — next thing you know, they're in the kitchen trying to cook their own food and burn the place down," Rowland says. "Even though they wasn't our family, they were kind of like our family for this short period of time."
After spending a while at my new favorite beach, we meandered up the road just a bit and stopped at the lighthouse. Above is the view to the north.
Below is the view to the south. That rocky area is where we were just a few minutes before. The weather held out while we walked to the lighthouse and back, but it was still hazy (as it usually is on the Oregon coast, even when it’s a warm day).
We headed over to the Oregon Coast on Sunday evening (after church, nursery meeting, Costco, packing, and a 70th birthday party for Grandpa Ron at Chuck E. Cheese). The weather was decent when we started out, but as we headed over the mountains it began to rain. And then we had to pull over because Russ couldn’t see. That’s saying something for these native Oregonians. But we made it to the Rockaway beach house in one piece, unloaded, and crashed into bed.
Russ was working remotely most of the week, but he started early Monday morning while the rest of us lazed about. He finished up in the early afternoon and we drove down to Tillamook to pick up a few things at the store. We decided to drive over to Oceanside and explore because we had never been there before. We figured it might be raining but we could hang out in the truck and see the sites. We came across this pathway at a little pullout on the side of the road. I cannot resist pathways like this one, so we decided to brave the weather and take a hike.
We headed down and down and down.
And we discovered my new most favorite beach. The roaring sound of the waves and the backwashing rocks was deafening. I wish these pictures came with audio!
Can you see the speck of Levi up on the smaller rock above? He was ecstatic.
Here’s a closer view.
All this beauty.
I wanted to stay forever. Wouldn’t you?
The weather improved, bit by bit, until we had some blue sky and sunshine!
I wanted to stay forever, but we decided to drive up a little further and see the lighthouse. More pictures tomorrow…
:: In Spite of That, We Call This Friday Good by Jonathan Rogers @ The Rabbit Room
"I’m trying not to skip ahead to Easter. I’m trying, these two days, to sit in the grace of the stripped altar and enter imaginatively into the place of the disciples, who only knew that their Lord had died, not that he would rise again. Flannery O’Connor’s stories are a help in that regard. Her characters suffer and boast and finagle their way through a broken world, unaware that grace is streaking silently toward them like a meteor that will throw everything off balance."
Others may go to the beach for spring break, but we’re headed to the coast. What’s the difference, you may ask? At the beach it is sunny and warm. At the coast it will rain and storm all week long. At least we have a beautiful place to stay, and we’re taking a truck-load of books and games.
See you on the other side.
…this will likely be my only political post/link on the blog this election season (though I won’t guarantee a politics-free FB page).
There were so many articles and videos I could have chosen (a plethora, really), but I will let David Brooks at The New York Times say it for me, because he truly does “have the best words.”
[I’m not picking out quotes. You’ll have to click and read the whole thing.]
On Energy
My son and I just had a conversation about this the other day. He's in the "this is useless; when will I ever use this?" phase. I told him it's a little like energy. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. He has to gather energy from other sources in order to make his own spark. And he'll never know what combination of energy sources will make that spark until the moment it happens.
The more energy gathering he does, the more potential creative energy he has.
On Constraints
Another day we were driving to the swimming pool for practice. This son, who is always coming up with fantastical solutions to everyday problems, said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could earth-bend a bridge all the way to the swimming pool?”
I countered, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could bend the earth so that wherever we wanted to be was suddenly just a step away?”
Let’s talk about the word fantastical, shall we? It means “conceived by an unrestrained imagination.” The word I want to focus on is “unrestrained.”
God is the ultimate Creator. He created staggering vastness (in its extent, proportions, quantity, and intensity). He created staggering minute-ness. He created staggering beauty in material, texture, form, color, and pattern. He created staggering diversity and variety.
Sheer excess, friends. There is nothing practical about a thousand of varieties of fruit.
Every day, by the witness of His own creation, I learn that God delights in creating.
But God also created constraints.
Physical law. Natural law. Moral law. Chronological time. Biological systems.
God is a God of cosmos (form and harmony), not a God of chaos.
The greatest creativity I’ve witnessed has not occured in unrestrained environments.
Anyone can plink random notes on a piano and call it a song. But if the musician uses his imagination within the constraints of rhythm and harmony and tempo and dynamics, he achieves a certain masterful creativity.
In fact, the greater the constraints, the greater the creativity.
That seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it?
In writing, the tighter the form (paralellism, poetry), the greater the requirement for a precision of words and ideas.
In fantasy writing, authors who are able to conceive of consistent constraints for their fantasy world and plot constraints for their characters are able to create a more masterful story.
I would not hesitate to say that creating beauty within constraints and overcoming restraints to solve problems show a higher degree of creativity.
The greater number of constraints (either within a form or as problems to overcome) or the greater the complexity that is brought into harmony, the greater the creative skill.
In many ways, we fight against this as a culture. We don’t like constraints. My teenage son doesn’t like constraints. I don’t like constraints. Constraints aren’t fair. Constraints aren’t fun. Constraints aren’t easy. Society should have solved all our problems for us by now.
But, made in the image of God, we are still hard-wired to know, deep inside, that constraints are necessary. We are still hard-wired to need constraints to grow in character, in skill, and in creativity. We are still hard-wired to value those traits when we see them in others. Do you know how I know this?
Do you want to watch a movie about a character who has nothing to overcome? When someone is given everything they need or want without restraint, are strong character, skills, and creativity likely to follow? Are a man’s accomplishments worthy of praise if he puts no effort into them? Don’t we love an underdog story?!
Skillful creativity is not unrestrained imagination.
Skillful creativity is bringing chaos into harmony or form.
Skillful creativity is perseverance in adversity.
Skillful creativity is acknowledging restraints and solving problems in spite of them.
Why do I want my boys to read books like Wonder, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, A Long Walk to Water, and The Boys in the Boat? Because these are characters [particular (historical) and universal (fiction)] who are faced with constraints, great constraints; they work within their limitations to do incredible things, they show astounding perseverance in the face of adversity, and they grow in character as a result.
Ask kids, ask yourself: what constraints (and how many) did each of the people in the following videos face? Did working within these constraints require a higher degree of character, skills, and/or creativity for the people who solved them? Would their creativity have been better served without constraints?
[The boys sit down to their math, and I sit down to my book stack and a refreshing drink.]
Completed in February
I feel like I cheated just a bit in February because the books I finished were rather short. I still read a good variety, however—dark modern classic, classic mystery, sweet children’s book, theological modern classic fiction, and non-fiction. I started several new books (my “in progress” pile is getting ridiculously huge) and completed a few short stories and essays.
:: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad [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]
"There were moments when one's past came back to one, as it will sometimes when you have not a moment to spare to yourself; but it came in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream, remembered with wonder amongst the overwhelming realities of this strange world of plants, and water, and silence. And this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect."
:: 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]
:: Understood Betsy [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]
:: The Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton [Loved it. Review here. 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]
In Progress
:: Flannery O’Connor: The Complete Stories [I read The Life You Save May Be Your Own and Good Country People 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… ]
:: Words Aptly Spoken: Short Stories [I’m reading this collection and discussing with Levi and McKinnon over the next few months. We read several of the stories this past month.]
:: 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
:: Greensleeves by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Maybe by next month I’ll have a more complete 2016 Master List with links and up-to-date reviews…
The Beginning Stages of the 2016 Reading Challenge Master List
(Books marked out have been completed)
Devotional
Listening to Your Life by Frederick Buechner [in progress]
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)
Jack and Jill (Alcott)
Little Women
Little Men
Rose in Bloom
Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education [in progress from 2015]
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 (“)
The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers (re-read) [in progress]
The Green Ember/ Black Star Rising
Surprised by Joy
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 [Review here. 4 1/2 stars]
Becoming Human by Jean Vanier
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)
The Cricket in Times Square (re-read)
Symposium Read-Alouds (with boys)
Shakespeare (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
Tuck Everlasting
Roman Roads Western Culture Greeks with Levi
[Also discussing with online Schole Sisters]
The Iliad [in progress]
The Odyssey
CC Challenge B short stories [2015-16] (with Levi and McKinnon)
Words Aptly Spoken: Short Stories
God Lives by Hans Christian AndersenThe Teapot by Hans Christian AndersenThe Bet by Anton ChekhovThe Selfish Giant by Oscar WildeLittle Girls Wiser than Men by Leo TolstoyRikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard KiplingThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Mansion by Henry Van DykeAraby by James Joyce
The Schoolboy’s Story by Charles Dickens
That Spot by Jack London
The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan DoyleThe Celestial Railroad by Nathaniel HawthorneA 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”)
The Law by Frederic Bastiat [in progress]
Family Life/Parenting
The Young Peacemaker by Ken Sande
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey
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
The Diary of Ann Frank
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Greensleeves by Eloise Jarvis McGraw [in progress]
Children’s/YA Novels
The Ranger’s Apprentice
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Young Readers Edition)
:: What Art Can—And Can’t—Do by Philip Yancey @ First Things [This is an older article, and it’s not a short one, but please, please read it. Let it breathe life into your soul. (Hello, Flannery O’Connor.)]
For those of us who labor in the arts and who believe in transcendence, here is a place to start. Some are called to be prophetic goads, and some giants may hammer in firmly embedded nails. But the rest of us can aspire, with no tinge of shame, to scribbling in the sand. Spaces need filling. The father of cellist Yo-Yo Ma spent World War II in Paris, where he lived alone in a garret throughout the German occupation. In order to restore sanity to his world, he would memorize violin pieces by Bach during the day and then at night, during blackout, he would play them alone in the dark. The sounds made by the reverberating strings held out the promise of order and hope and beauty. Later his son, Yo-Yo, took up the father’s advice to play a Bach suite from memory every night before going to bed. Yo-Yo Ma says, “This isn’t practicing, it’s contemplating. You’re alone with your soul.”
:: After you have read the above article, go read this Facebook post by S.D. Smith.
You lose elections long after you lose the stories that shape. Elections are a hundred years too late to save us. In other words, an election only reveals the stories we believed, loved, and allowed into our hearts to shape our affections. Elections are more effect than cause.
:: Lord of the Flies: Evil Recognized Is Redemption Begun @ CiRCE. I read Lord of the Flies for the first time last year and am reading Flannery O’Connor this year.
Like a Flannery O’Connor story, Golding’s ending completes the meaning of his work, not by resolving it, but by creating the possibility of resolution. The characters are not saved, but they are prepared for salvation. And readers are prepared along with them, for they, too, have been given the opportunity to take a long, hard look at themselves.
:: Candor: What Jane and Lizzy Bennet Can Teach Us about Charity @ Roman Roads Media [The Four Loves | A Series Exploring C.S. Lewis’ The Four Loves] What a beautiful essay! Again, I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time last year (though I had watched both movie versions numerous times) and The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis is on my to-read list this year.
This will sound very anticlimactic, but when we face our human enemies, we need to face them as literary critics. A good critic does not react to what he reads. He reads it. He reads it carefully, over and over if necessary. He considers its genre, its context, its author, its author’s intentions, stated and unstated. He considers what circumstances the author himself may have been reacting to. And then, given all that consideration, he gives the work the most generous interpretation he can. The virtues of a literary critic are patience and generosity, but something deeper too: the good critic has to want there be something in that book to be understood—something, however small, that is worth understanding.
:: My Wife is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World: C.S. Lewis on Eros, Beauty, and Plato @ Roman Roads Media [The Four Loves, Part 2]
But I would submit that our starting point and first response to the question, “What makes a woman beautiful?” should be “Participation in the image of God.” Man is created in the image of God, male and female, but woman is given a special aesthetic placement in that order—she is the glory of man. She bears the image of God in a unique way—a way that’s glorious and beautiful, a way that’s defined and measured by participation in something greater and more universal than herself.
:: The Eye of the Beholder @ CiRCE [Supper of the Lamb was one of my favorite books from 2015]
:: Harper Lee, Author of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ Dies at 89 @ The New York Times [Go Set a Watchman was one of my favorites in 2015 and To Kill a Mockingbird is in my all-time top 10.]
:: Christian Books and Christian Reading: Part 2 @ Center for Lit
Lewis realized that anyone who has never read widely is liable to become a prisoner of narrow and weakly held opinions, because his experience is limited by his own time and place. The one who participates in great literature, on the other hand, encounters the opinions of a host of other thinkers. He can see the consequences of their ideas without having to adopt their philosophies himself. In the process of comparing his assumptions with those of others, his own worldview gains strength and clarity.
:: The Necessity of the Imperfect Community (Inspired by Jayber Crow) by Angelina Stanford @ CiRCE
"I think Berry makes a profound point about the community being imperfect and yet that imperfection is just what we need to grow. The Enlightenment has us all obsessed with creating the perfect environment for us to achieve our potential. But maybe our obsession is making it harder for us."
:: The book most people have lied about reading - and it's not War and Peace @ The Telegraph [As of this month, I’ve read 11 of these, not counting half-heartedly listening to Alice in Wonderland. I have Anne Frank on my to-read pile.]
:: Punctuation in novels @ Medium [So fascinating!! Brief strong language alert.]
:: Words are for Lovers @ The Philology Institute
Third, words reveal the contents of our minds and hearts. That means words involve a certain amount of vulnerability. We are disclosing to the other something personal and private. We are uncovering something of our interior life, something of ourselves.
:: Standards, Grades And Tests Are Wildly Outdated, Argues 'End Of Average' @ nprEd
"Absolutely no one is precisely average."
The term he uses for this--jaggedness--is perfection. I have at least two kids who are much more jagged than average, for sure. This article is excellent, especially paired with a re-reading of the children's book Understood Betsy:
"'What's the matter?' asked the teacher, seeing her bewildered face.
"'Why--why,' said Elizabeth Ann, 'I don't know what I am at all. If I'm second-grade arithmetic and seventh-grade reading and third-gradespelling, what grade am I?'
"The teacher laughed. 'You aren't any grade at all, no matter where you are in school. You're just yourself, aren't you? What difference does it make what grade you're in? And what's the use of your reading little baby things too easy for you just because you don't know your multiplication table?'
"'Well, for goodness' sakes!' ejaculated Elizabeth Ann, feeling very much as though somebody had stood her suddenly on her head.
"'What's the matter?' asked the teacher again.
"This time Elizabeth Ann didn't answer, because she herself didn't know what the matter was. But I do, and I'll tell you. The matter was that never before had she known what she was doing in school. She had always thought she was there to pass from one grade to another, and she was ever so startled to get a glimpse of the fact that she was there to learn how to read and write and cipher and generally use her mind, so she could take care of herself when she came to be grown up, but in that moment, she had her first dim notion of it, and it made her feel the way you do when you're learning to skate and somebody pulls away the chair you've been leaning on and says, 'Now, go it alone!'"
:: Celeste Headlee: 10 ways to have a better conversation @ TED. I need to listen to this TED talk weekly, if not daily.
:: Death, the Prosperity Gospel, and Me @ The New York Times
"The prosperity gospel has taken a religion based on the contemplation of a dying man and stripped it of its call to surrender all. Perhaps worse, it has replaced Christian faith with the most painful forms of certainty. The movement has perfected a rarefied form of America’s addiction to self-rule, which denies much of our humanity: our fragile bodies, our finitude, our need to stare down our deaths (at least once in a while) and be filled with dread and wonder. At some point, we must say to ourselves, I’m going to need to let go."
This reminds me of the Flannery O'Connor essay I read recently (The Fiction Writer & His Country).
"He will feel that any long-continued service to [the topic of prosperity] will produce a soggy, formless, and sentimental literature, one that will provide a sense of spiritual purpose for those who connect the spirit with romanticism and a sense of joy for those who confuse that virtue with satisfaction."
In The Mind of the Maker (also on my "currently reading" stack), Dorothy Sayers quotes C.S. Lewis:
"There is kindness in Love: but Love and kindness are not coterminous...Kindness, merely as such, cares not whether its object becomes good or bad, provided only that it escapes suffering... It is for people whom we care nothing about that we demand happiness on any terms..."
:: Misty Copeland Recreates Iconic Edgar Degas Artwork @ Coloures [Gorgeous!]
:: Master of Light: A Close Look at the Paintings of Johannes Vermeer Narrated by Meryl Streep @ Open Culture [video] Vermeer is one of my favorites!
:: Loving Vincent
More about the movie:
:: Music
I have not read much of G. K. Chesterton in the past, but I have read and loved quote after quote after quote of his. In fact, I think he may be one of the most quotable writers ever. He has a way of taking profound thoughts and turning them into clear, short, brilliant, and often witty or playful statements. In many ways he greatly, in all the best ways, reminds me of C. S. Lewis.
I have his book of essays, and have delighted over several of them, but this is the first book of his I’ve read, fiction or non-fiction. This story happens to be the best of fiction in that points to Truth in a way that non-fiction cannot. I knew nothing going into it, and I think that’s the best way to experience it. Therefore, I intend to tell you nothing about it. [grin] Other than, of course, that I found it brilliant, thought-provoking, and witty in an inimitable Chesterton style. And, of course, I must share a few quotes that struck me but, I hope, do not give away the plot of the story.
The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare
"What is poetical about being in revolt? You might as well say that it is poetical to be sea-sick. Being sick is a revolt. Both being sick and being rebellious may be the wholesome thing on certain desperate occasions; but I'm hanged if I can see why they are poetical. Revolt in the abstract is--revolting. It's mere vomiting.
"It is things going right that is poetical! Our digestions, for instance, going sacredly and silently right, that is the foundation of all poetry. Yes, the most poetical thing, more poetical than the flowers, more poetical that the stars--the most poetical thing in the world is not being sick.""Through all this ordeal his root horror had been isolation, and there are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematicians that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one. That is why, in spite of a hundred disadvantages, the world will always return to monogamy."
"The fear of the Professor had been the fear of the tyrannic accident of nightmare, and...the fear of the Doctor had been the fear of the airless vacuum of science. The first was the old fear that any miracle might happen, the second the more hopeless modern fear that no miracle can ever happen."
Ah, Great Wolf Lodge, I adore you. Especially in February.
It is a rare vacation, in my experience, that meets the needs of parents and a wide range of ages of children (from 14 year old boy down to 5 year old girl). And vacations with kids are rarely vacations for parents. Maybe I’m alone in that assessment, but there you have it.
Two years ago, under crazy weather and driving conditions, we made the short trek (which became so much longer) to Great Wolf Lodge for the first time. It was a raging success, and we have been longing to return ever since.
Russ and I decided that our 20th wedding anniversary was occasion enough, so we returned to Great Wolf Lodge this past week. This time around we had much better driving conditions, and our stay at the resort was fabulous. It started off even better than expected when, during check-in, our basic room was upgraded to a suite with a separate master bedroom and bath (for free!). Bliss.
Two strange things happened while we were there.
The first: I heard a knock on our door at 3:30 am the first night. It was a staff member who informed us that a young child had wandered into the lobby and they had to knock on every door to make sure all kids were accounted for and find the parents of the lost child!
The second: We decided to try out the lodge’s buffet restaurant the second evening, even though it was a little more than we might have spent otherwise. We dried off, got dressed, and hit the restaurant as soon as it opened at 5 pm. We were impressed by the great food selection and filled our plates with food. We had barely sat down to our meal when the power went out! We ate in the semi-darkness until they had to close down the buffet because they could not keep the food warm. We still had our fill of delicious food, and they did not charge us! The power was out for more than an hour and a half (across a large section of the town, as I understand it), and I felt sorry for those families who were swimming at the time and were wet and hungry (the restaurant did not open again that night). We were happy as clams, however! The boys still had a little time to swim in the evening after the power came back on and Lola and I were in the Grand Lobby for the Great Clock Tower Show.
We were able to truly relax and enjoy ourselves. The boys are completely independent in the water park, and Russ and I took turns hanging out with Lola who is now old enough to go on the big waterslides with us (other than the Howlin’ Tornado—and I was perfectly content not to go on that one). She had a blast.
Other than a couple pictures on Instagram, I didn’t even take pictures. These are from two years ago. It all looks the same. [grin] I spent my time relaxing, playing, and reading books. That’s my kind of vacation! Honestly, two nights here is just about perfect. Guests can swim starting at 1 pm on the day of check-in and they can swim until close (9 pm) after checking out (and use the locker rooms after swimming).
Speaking of anniversaries…
My 9th blog anniversary came and went without even a hint of celebration this year (blog slacker that I’ve been). February 17th marked nine years of blogging here at Mt. Hope Chronicles.
NINE YEARS!
I think I’m going to have to plan something extra stupendous for next year…
Now it’s time to return to the real world.
We need to buckle down and FOCUS for the next three weeks.
Math. Honestly, it has never been my favorite subject to teach.
I started out using RightStart Math with Levi. It’s an incredible program, but incredibly teacher-intensive. It was difficult to teach Levi (my distractable non-math kid) with two younger brothers running around getting into mischief. It was even more difficult to consider teaching two boys at different levels. RightStart Math was only going to be great if I actually used it, and it started to sit on my shelf much more often than it was off the shelf in use. [I’m considering pulling it back off the shelf to teach Lola early math, however. We’ll see.]
After much math frustration with Levi and then a long break to regain sanity (around 2nd or 3rd grade), I purchased Teaching Textbooks and ended up using it for all three boys (my two younger boys were advanced in reading and math) for a few years. Honestly, it was a God-send. Math was much more enjoyable for everyone. I loved that the boys could do it independently, that it gave them instant feedback, and that it was self-grading.
Last year, Levi’s first year in the Classical Conversations Challenge program, we switched him to Saxon Math. I can see how Saxon Math is a thorough, rigorous program. But it almost killed us. Even doing only half the problems.
What I really wanted was an interactive, inspiring, engaging, self-teaching (with excellent visual/audio instruction), instant-feedback, self-grading, mastery-based, challenging, attractive, comprehensive math program. Similar to Teaching Textbooks, but better.
I had used Khan Academy occasionally in the past for a video here and there, and I loved Sal Khan’s teaching style. What I hadn’t realized is just how much they’ve added to Khan Academy recently. It is now a complete math program.
So we’ve been using Khan Academy as our main math “spine” since September and I adore it.
It is an online math (and so much more!!) program, and it’s free. Let me repeat that in case you didn’t read it correctly the first time:
It’s FREE.
It blows my mind.
Students can work online on a computer or on mobile devices with the Khan app.
Parents sign up for an account and then their students sign up for their own account under the parent.
Students choose a grade level (K-8th) or a subject (pre-algebra and up through college math). They complete a Mission Warm-Up to assess their current knowledge.
When a student logs in, they can go to their mission page (the grade level or subject they are working through).
This is what Luke’s mission page looks like:
On the left it tells him what percent of the mission (grade level or subject) he has completed. It also tells him which skills he has practiced, which skills he has mastered, and which skills he has yet to complete in each topic. He can click “show all skills” to see all the little boxes, or “hide skill breakdown” to minimize it. He can click on any one of the little squares if he wants to choose his next skill to practice. When he hovers over the square, it will tell him what the skill is and give a preview.
On the right he is given suggested next tasks.
When he clicks on a skill to practice, his screen looks like this (I think this is a screen-shot of a 5th grade skill):
The program is mastery-based. In the upper right-hand corner, students can see exactly how many problems they need to complete correctly and independently to successfully practice the skill. For this particular skill, they must get the first two correct or five in a row if they miss one.
If they need instruction, each problem gives them a direct link to the video with instruction for that particular skill. The video pops up on their screen. They can watch it and then return directly to the practice. If they need help working through the problem, they can click on “show me how.” Each time they click the button, they are shown one step of the problem. (This screen shot shows one hint.) They can watch every problem worked through and explained step by step! If they ask for a hint, that problem does not count as correct. Students then work through the problems until they can get the designated number in a row correct.
Students can use a scratchpad on the screen when needed (with a mouse on the computer or finger with the app), but my boys usually use scratch paper and a pencil. A calculator function pops up on the screen when they are allowed to use it for the skill.
After a student has successfully practiced a skill, they are given a mastery challenge after a specified amount of time has passed (often 16 hours). Previous skills are randomly tested in mastery challenges to determined whether the skill or concept is still mastered. If not, it gets bumped back down to “practiced” status rather than “mastered” status.
The levels are connected and build on each other. Some skills are covered in multiple levels. If a student masters a skill in 4th grade that is also covered in the 5th grade level, it will already show as mastered when they move up a level so they do not have to repeat concepts (unless they show up briefly in mastery challenges).
Students work at their own pace. They work on skills and concepts until they are mastered. They level up as soon as they are ready.
I’m not even touching the surface of the program. Students earn “badges” and avatars. They can see graphs of their activity. You can add “coaches” to their account so other adults can encourage or challenge them.
One of the best aspects of the program is the parent page. Parents have access to detailed, customizable reports for each of their students.
I can see with an easy glance at his activity summary, for any specified period of time (including daily), just how much time my child has actually spent working on Khan, what videos he watched, what skills he practiced, what skills he is struggling with, and more. Or I can click on “full progress report” (below). I can expand or minimize each category.
So here are the cons:
Students have to have internet access. (But they can log in from anywhere at any time!)
Students are not given a specified day’s lesson. I usually give my boys a set amount of time, and I can verify the time they spend and their activity from my parent account. I’ve found this helpful because the boys can work on math even if we have varied amounts of time available depending on the day.
Some kids may struggle with deciding what to do next. They are given suggestions, but they may feel it is too open-ended. Some kids may need more parental direction.
A student must be able to read and follow directions or have parental assistance. (Teaching Textbooks, on the other hand, has a narrator reading the problems aloud, so that is helpful for struggling readers.)
Khan is constantly upgrading and improving the program, as well, so look for more features in the future!
Well, there you have it. I didn’t even mention the computer programing or the science or many other subjects that Khan offers. You’ll have to check it out yourself. [grin]
I’ll end this post with one of Sal Khan’s instructional videos, just to give you a taste.
I spend my days educating my children. Well, I use the term “educating” loosely. I attempt to provide an atmosphere of learning and quality content to draw from. Some days (not often) that looks like strict lessons in Latin and grammar. Most days, for better or worse, that looks suspiciously like unschooling.
One of the greatest things parents can do to create a home atmosphere that encourages learning is to let their children see them learning. This benefits children in several ways, but I’d like to highlight just one benefit at the moment.
Learning new things is hard.
I think parents forget this sometimes.
Some of us have been long-removed from situations in which ideas or skills are brand-new to us. Maybe we forget the frustration that sometimes accompanies the learning process. Maybe we forget how it feels to be awkward at something new. Maybe we forget the stress that hits when we are asked a question we have no answers for.
Have your kids watched you struggle with something new? Something difficult? Have your children watched you choose to learn something for its own sake, because learning is a worthwhile pursuit?
When your kids are struggling with learning something new or doing something difficult, do you think of a time when you felt the same way?
Have you experienced that moment of break-through, when a skill or an idea you’ve been wrestling with suddenly (or not so suddenly) comes with something resembling ease? Have you shared that moment with your children?
I’ve had Spencerian handwriting copybooks on my shelf for a few years, always meaning to get around to them—some day. This past month I realized that I needed a now or never moment, so I pulled them off the shelf and just began. No planning. No ceremony. No beautiful fountain pen. Just the kitchen table, a pencil, and me.
It so happens that I discovered something: Spencerian handwriting is difficult for me. It’s frustrating. I, who have always enjoyed handwriting, have found a challenge.
So each day, as the boys sit down at the table to do their math on Khan Academy (which deserves a whole post of its own), I sit down at the table with my handwriting copybooks and my belated inexpensive fountain pens and write. I’m still waiting for a break-through. But my boys are watching me try and struggle and keep at it, and I’m experiencing empathy for them as they try and struggle and need encouragement to keep at it.
In addition to the Spencerian handwriting—which is just for me; I’m not requiring the kids to do it—I’ve also restarted Duolingo Spanish. Just a few minutes each day is all it takes (at home on the computer or on the go with the app, and it’s FREE!). The boys are not learning Spanish; it’s just for me. (Though guess who wants to learn Spanish now? That’s right. All of them.)
Just a few minutes each day—but I make sure my boys see me trying something difficult and keeping at it…
…Because learning is a joy, even when it’s hard.