Reading as Meditation

It seems that no sooner do I put a disclaimer on my blog saying: I am not blogging anymore!  that I get an idea for a post that just grips me and won't let me go.  So maybe I need to just say I am only going to post when I want to.

******************************************************************************

This winter has been cold and snowy where we live.  It reminds me of all of the winters of my childhood, when we got so much more snow than we have in recent years.  I happen to love snow.  I love the peacefulness when it falls.  I still love to perch myself high on a big hill atop a sled and come down the hill at top speed.  I love to go home and drink a nice hot cup of tea.  I love to bake when it snows and serve Jason and the girls fresh melty chocolate chip cookies or a nice warm loaf of banana bread.  I love to slowly simmer hearty vegetable stews in my beautiful Le Creuset Dutch oven on a snow day and bake a big loaf of sourdough bread and slather it with real butter as soon as it's warm enough to slice.

But my very most favorite thing to do on a snow day is to burrow under my down comforter, nestle into my down pillows and read as the snow falls languidly outside my window.

This winter, maybe because of all the snow, maybe because my little family has passed around colds every week since early October, maybe because I am not blogging {as much}, I have been absorbed into books in a way that I had not been in years.  It's meditative for me.  I have the same soft, calm feeling in my brain and my bones that I do after meditating or practicing yoga for a few weeks.

I tend to read authors and here are some of my favorites from this winter.


John Green

I have read books by John Green before and I love his voice.  I love that these books bring me back to and remind me of what it feels like to be a teenager--so many firsts!  that "new breath of life" independence.  Allie has read all of John Green's books and I made my way through his catalog this winter and I love that it is something we can share and discuss, these feelings, this teenage angst and excitement, turmoil and elation.  Such highs and lows these teenage years.

Gillian Flynn

Normally I do not read anything dark.  I swore it off when the girls were small.  I wanted to always be upbeat and I struggle with anxiety and depression and I didn't want to follow some character down some dark passage and not come back for my girls.  But a friend told me how great Gone Girl was and we can not keep that book on the shelves in the library, so I tried it.  I loved it.  I was hooked.  I read it in a few days.  Then, I read Gillian Flynn's two other books and loved them both.  Dark Places  takes place partly in the mid-to late 1980s with pre-teen and teenage characters who are now adults in the rest of the story.  I was a pre-teen, teen in the mid-to-late 1980s, so I related so well to this and loved revisiting that time period.  Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn's first novel, is very polished for a first novel, it takes you on perverse twists and turns and I enjoyed every moment.

Knitting

I want to be a knitter or a crocheter so bad.  I love yarn and needles and homemade things.  I love the idea of whiling away hours listening to the click of my needles while it snows outside.  I want to order alpaca wool and learn the difference between those thick, heavy yarns and the thinner yarns.  And I try.  And I can do it.  I know how, although I am still very much a beginner at both.  I just never make time for it.  I don't watch TV and if I am not cooking or cleaning or running errands, I am reading.  Some of my friends bring their knitting to get-togethers and gatherings and knit while we talk, but I would rather hold my mug of tea and focus on the conversation.  If I am honest I can't concentrate on conversation and another task.  If you have ever had me drive you somewhere you know this to be true.

Ann Hood

I read Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine when I was 15 and absolutely obsessed with hippies and the Grateful Dead.  I hardly even remember that book, but I always remembered Ann Hood and oddly I never read another book by her.  But, after reading the book on knitting, trying to inspire myself to take up knitting this winter, I decided I loved her writing style and wanted to read more by her.  She is my kind of writer.  Her writing envelops you, it surrounds you, it becomes like breathing, it's meditative, you become the characters.  I love that.  I've read several of her books and I feel so fortunate that I have more to look forward to reading!

I've attended several seminars on meditation and it is almost always suggested that when you do something-anything- and become completely absorbed in it so that you are almost not aware of the outside world, your whole focus is on the task, you are meditating.  For some it is fishing or cooking or knitting or gardening.  For me, it is reading.

Skyping with My Girls' Favorite Author!

I have been enjoying not blogging.  I have found time to refinish some furniture - a hobby I had before blogging and I have begun a knitting project and been working on photo books - I have two years to catch up on!  We've had fun with friends at the beach and barbecues; the girls have gone out to dinner alone with friends to a restaurant! and are planning their costumes for the Homeschool Masquerade Ball!  They are growing up and they have an awesome group of friends, which I am so thankful for!!

I wanted to share this experience from last week because it was so great!  Several authors will skype with book clubs, so if your kids really love a book, I encourage you to get on that author's website, explore it and see what they offer...it's so empowering for kids to be able to have a conversation with someone whose words have made them feel less alone, understood, whose words have made them dream and inspired them to soar!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our first year of homeschooling, Allie discovered the Mother-Daughter Book Club series by Heather Vogel Frederick.  

If I had to pick one single thing that has impacted our homeschool in the last three years, it would be this book series.  

Our very first interest-led homeschool rabbit trail took place as a result of Allie reading The Mother Daughter Book Club our first year homeschooling.  We read Little Women which lead to reading a biography of Louisa May Alcott which lead to learning about her father's role in the Transcendental Movement in Concord, Massachusetts, which lead to learning about Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson and learning more about Concord and transcendentalism... (you can read about our experience here:  Immersed in a World of Little Women and here: A Week of Classics Without Even Trying).

Another book lead to my girls reading the Anne of Green Gables series, which lead to a whole other rabbit trail.

Another book lead to an interest in Jane Austen and yet another wonderful rabbit trail...

What I love about these books is that they expose children to classic children's literature and show how the themes may apply today and give vast resources on the authors of these timeless literary masterpieces and provide information on theme and setting for the works as well.

Allie's copy of "Pies and Prejudice" with her favorite passages marked,
sometimes she re-writes them and memorizes them.

This series inspired Allie to begin a Mother-Daughter Book Club of her own with her friends and their moms.

Last year, Piper DEVOURED this series, loving them as much as Allie did and we revisited many of the topics.

I can not even begin to tell you how many conversations around the dinner table centered on these books or the themes in these books or how many conversations in the car or at breakfast or late at night in our beds.

The girls in our book club read one of these books for book club, which lead them to read the entire series.  Most of these girls devoured each book in a single day--the moms could not believe how much the girls related to these books!

Much Ado About Anne inspired both of my girls to read Anne of Green Gables.

Friends who read and discuss books together.

Sharing books bonds us.

 Over the last three years, Allie and Piper have explored Heather Vogel Frederick, author of this series, website.  They have entered contests, written fractured fairy tales and corresponded with Heather.

When we realized how much all of the girls in our book club loved this series, we decided to ask Heather if she would skype with the group--and she readily and happily agreed!!!

We decided to have a Not Back to School party, invite some friends and skype with Heather Vogel Frederick!

All of the girls wrote down questions beforehand.

Heather was very, very nice and told the girls about an upcoming trip to New York where she was staying in the hotel where they brought the Titanic survivors, it was a great way to break the ice.

She asked if we wanted to start with questions or have her tell a little about how she became a writer.

We were nervous and opted for the second option.

Heather told us how, as a child she loved to read and her parents were always trying to get her to go outside and exercise.  Some of us could really relate to that!!

She told us how writing kept her from feeling lonely at times when she needed that.  She told us about rejection, her life as a journalist and as a young mom.  She explained the publishing world and gave the girls writing tips.

Then she asked if they had questions.  They each had several and she had put them so at ease that they were comfortable to ask them and she answered them all in detail, leaving the girls feeling even more connected to these books, the characters and the author!

Heather Vogel Frederick on Bullying
Two homeschool bloggers have criticized these books because of the bullying.  I had to ask Heather about her choices with that.  She explained that one of her goals with the books was that they have certain themes common to the classic literature the girls' in the book read, there are many common themes in children's literature that make the books more relatable to kids, bullying being one of them, because, Heather believes, bullying is part of life.  In Anne of Green Gables, Gilbert Blythe is a bully, and the Pye sisters are mean girls; some may say that although she is one of the March sisters, Amy is a mean girl in Little Women; one might say Elizabeth Bennett is a mean girl; in The Hundred Dresses there is Peggy and Maddie; of course, there is Nellie Oleson in Little House, the consummate mean girl.  Heather Vogel Frederick explained that bullying is something kids experience, whether parents like it or want to believe it or not, they do and they may recognize themselves in the person being bullied and feel understood or in the bully and realize what a bad habit they have gotten into.  Also, Heather's books have been promoted as books mothers and daughters read together and discuss themes, so a child who may be experiencing bullying, but who doesn't know how to start the conversation or doesn't feel comfortable, may use the book as a way to open the conversation with their mother or, the mother can use the bullying segments of the book to open dialogue with their daughter, discuss their experiences and how they handled it.  Heather went on to tell the girls how she was bullied.  Allie and several of the other girls - both those who had been in school and those who were always homeschooled - shared some of their experiences with bullies.  The moms chimed in as well and a dialogue was begun....

It was an AWESOME experience!  It was a great way to start our homeschool year (although technically we won't start back for a few more weeks--we've done math and history all summer and have a few chapters left to go).  But, the girls both opened new documents after their friends left and began writing and have been working on these novels every day since (so I guess we are also doing creative writing :)).  Our book club has decided to read Daddy Long Legs, a book featured in the third Mother Daughter Book Club novel, which none of the moms had ever heard of but are all intrigued by.  Several of the girls asked their moms to stop at the book store or library on the way home to get Heather's books that they had not read and the youngest among them was excited to read The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed, a historical novel by Heather Vogel Frederick aimed at a slightly younger audience.

We are looking forward to a great year with our awesome homeschool group!

I want to thank Heather Vogel Frederick, not only for the words that resonate so well with my girls, but for taking the time to speak with and inspire these girls.

Review: One Year Lived by Adam Shepard & a FREE ebook offer!

A while ago - an embarrassingly long while ago - I received an email from a young man who had written a book about his journey around the world.  We agreed that it was an interesting read for someone who is interested in un-traditional methods of education and I agreed to read the book and write a review.

And I got busy and...time got away from me...

But I am so, so glad that I did actually find the time to read this book!

Adam Shepard was at that point of young adulthood when you realize being an adult is not all you thought it was and at times it just seems like you go through the motions over and over and over and it becomes meaningless.  Adam decided he wanted his life to have meaning, so with little money or planning, he set out to travel around the world.  The experience of doing this, as you can imagine, added an incredible amount of meaning to his life and changed him in ways he could never have imagined.

Adam's writing style is very conversational, you feel like you are in the room with him listening to him tell his story, so that makes this book an easy read.  Adam went into this experience wanting to get EVERYTHING he could out of it.  He lived the cultures he visited, he experienced what life was like there, not as a tourist but as a native.  He fought bulls, he worked on a cattle farm, he lived with native families.

What Adam learns about the world from traveling is far superior and richer and more meaningful than anything he could have learned in a history book.  Now when he watches the world news, he has a much better idea of what is going on in the world...it's not just pictures on a screen and stories, it is real.

After reading this book, I decided that I would like Allie to read it, maybe to put a little travel bug in my little homebody-girl.  Not sure that it worked entirely, but she really liked the book, there was a lot to discuss and she learned a lot from reading it.

I know young people who have volunteered their time to build schools and orphanages in various impoverished countries.  I admire these young people so much.  I loved reading Adam Shepard's book and getting an inside glimpse about what traveling the world in this way is like.  I truly hope my girls take the time when they are in their twenties to travel the world and/or volunteer time in another country.

You can check out Adam's website:  One Year Lived

You can check out a video of Adam's experience fighting bulls here:  youtube

Adam has offered a very special promotion.  If you tweet about, facebook or otherwise promote this review post, just leave a comment with your email and I will send you a link to read his ebook for FREE!

Adam is a motivational speaker for high students and his book has gotten 4 and 5 star reviews by Amazon, GoodReads and other book review sites.

Delight Directed Learning: Guide Your Homeschooler Toward Passionate Learning

I go back and forth on reading homeschool development books.  There are a lot of great ideas out there that have worked for different people, but I've learned that I need to spend time just focused on my own two girls and what is best for them.  Sometimes all this information clouds my view and makes me think we should be doing or being something we are not.

That said, I've been observing my girls and how they spend their un-structured time.  Piper likes to make and edit videos and write scripts and stories.  Allie spends hours reading about animals and is an excellent caretaker of her small pets and is about to embark on breeding gerbils.  A year ago, Piper was making American Girl furniture and Allie was sewing handbags.  It's important that they have this time to explore their interests.  I have realized that this exploration leads to knowledge that they retain, are passionate about and enjoy discussing.  I want to encourage more of that.  I firmly believe that through this exploration and discovery, my girls will realize their life calling.

Photo credit

So, when Mary mentioned Delight-Directed Learning: Guide Your Homeschooler Toward Passionate Learning by Lee Binz, I decided to check it out.

Lee is very helpful in creating high school transcripts for college admissions.  In Delight-Directed Learning, Lee outlines how to add delight-directed pursuits to a transcript.  In some ways, this made me feel even more strongly that we want to spend this next year (before high school) pursuing more interest-led, delight-directed learning.

Some other ideas I liked:

• Grade the experience--Even if it is not something "assigned", how do you feel your child did?  Did they meet your expectations?  How can you talk to them if they did not meet your expectations without taking the delight out of the experience?  This is something I struggle with.  I want to support my girls' interests, but sometimes I feel they don't put their all into something or they could make something better.  I need to work on dialogue for this.
• Don't praise for mediocre performance or for "just trying", if everyone is special, then no one is and hard work no longer matters - this is another area I struggle with.  I love my girls and I always want to make them feel good, but I may be doing them a dis-service by not making them try harder.
• The authors warn about "testing" delight-directed learning, anything that takes some delight out of it slows the student down.
• The authors have tips for keeping your sanity when driving your kids to all their activities and forking over the big bucks to support their interests--such as, don't teach things your kids are already learning through delight directed learning.  If they are reading science books, don't worry about science.  If they are always writing, you don't have to worry about spending time teaching creative writing.

Borrowing Books from My Daughter

I had just finished reading two rather intense books and I was looking for something light, but not fluffy, to relax with.  I was not having much luck finding something that was light enough but not completely banal, and Allie came to me with a book she had recently read that she thought I would enjoy.

This was such a great book to share with Allie.  It's about a young Amish girl on her rumspringa--when Amish teens get to experience the "English" world and choose if they want to be baptized into their Amish faith and community.  Some Amish teens stay within their community and attend parties with other teens where they play CDs on radios, wear jeans and even drink alcohol for their rumspringa.  Some teens get to work and live outside the community.  Parents make the decision of where their teen will have their rumspringa.  In this book, Eliza's parents are hesitant to allow her to leave, but she has an opportunity to work as a nanny for a family outside the community and reluctantly, her parents allow her to work in the outside world.

We don't live far from an Amish community and as a child, my mom used to like to take us to "see" the Amish, which always made me very uncomfortable.  Imagine working in your yard and having a family ogling at your fence?  I don't think I would like it.  There are things that I admire so much about the Amish way of life.  I think many of our "advancements" have just complicated and added stress to our lives...emails and texts to respond to, phone calls to answer, carpools and classes and keeping up with the Joneses.  I am sure the Amish have stress, but I believe our bodies were made to work outside, strenuously, absorbing vitamin D and I think a lot of our stress is related to not enough time outside and not enough muscle exertion.  I completely admire the Amish for resisting these things and maintaining their way of life and their strong faith.  

This book addresses so many issues from underage drinking to teen sex.  There are consequences to all of the actions.  This young Amish girl sees all of this through the lens of the faith she has been raised in.  This lead to some very powerful discussion between Allie and I.  But, the most powerful thing for me, in this book, was that Eliza's mother has told a very big lie and she comes clean to her daughter.  The most important thing to me in raising my girls is that they know that they can always come to me, we can talk about anything and that I will be honest with them.  I don't sugar coat it, I don't pretend I am someone that I am not and I don't pretend that I am perfect.  I am honest and straightforward with them and I think they know and respect that.  I think it's important that as parents we don't pretend to have all the answers or to have been perfect teens ourselves, I think it's important to acknowledge our mistakes and to be understanding of our teens' mistakes while also explaining why we feel the way we do on some issues.  The lessons in this book just drove those points home.  

I highly recommend this book for moms of young teens, read it with your daughter and discuss it.  There is much to learn about Amish life while also deepening the relationship with our daughters.

Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter

I was given the opportunity to review this book quite a while ago and I apologize for taking so long to read and review it. 

As a big fan of Little House on the Prairie, I was excited to have the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book is about a mother who is extremely competitive and pushes her daughters to be the same.  The mother takes pleasure in intimidating other people and teaches her daughters to do that as well.  When there is even a slight infraction on her daughters' part, they are punished rather severely.  It's really an age-old tale about what it takes to be very successful.  Parents riding kids, no time for relaxation and fun, always being "on".  I think if an adult makes these choices, that is one thing, but when a parent thrusts this kind of life on a child, it is quite different.

This book made me think a lot about how I was raising my own girls and my own beliefs.  I have always believed in everything in moderation.  I don't want to work so hard that I can't enjoy my life and need to obsess about work every second.  I need downtime to read books and rest and do yoga.  At the same time, I don't want to loaf around and waste time, either.  I try to teach my girls to work hard, but to also find time to enjoy their lives.

I think sometimes there is this idea in our society that in order to be successful you need to step on and hurt other people.  I decided a long time ago that if that was what it took, I didn't want any part of it. I want to be able to live with myself and I would not be happy with myself if I hurt or lied to or intimidated others on purpose.  I've met people who are highly competitive and who do try to intimidate others and take advantage of others and I find it very stressful and unhealthy to be around them.  Melissa Francis mother is the kind of person with whom I would be unable to be friends.

This book takes you through the journey of a young girl who really does not know any better, her mother is manipulative and takes advantage of people, she's highly competitive and not very nice and her kids know no other way of life.  As Melissa and her sister get older and encounter more people, they sometimes become uncomfortable with the way their mother treats people, but she is still their mother and she has designed a life for them where they get to enjoy many things that most people only dream about.  As Melissa grows up and meets more people and has the opportunity to distance herself from her mother and make choices for herself, she heals from the wounds that her mother inflicted on her.

The Obvious Game

I love having being part of the BlogHer Network.  I have had so many awesome opportunities as a result of working with BlogHer.  Recently, one of awesome things that has come out of this affiliation was receiving an advanced copy of Rita Arens' new book The Obvious Game.

I loved this book.

No, seriously, I LOVED this book.

I think Rita Arens secretly followed me around 20 years ago and wrote this book based on my life.  She just changed the location and some of the situations.

Diana is an incredibly relatable character.  She is flawed and she knows it.  In typical adolescent fashion, she thinks she is more flawed than she really is and she does regrettable things because of it.  As a mom, this was a great reminder for what my girls are going through/will be going through.  ah, adolescence!

Diana's mom has cancer and Diana has a serious eating disorder.  As someone who has an eating disorder, I felt this book was so honest and really allowed the reader to understand what having an eating disorder means, how it impacts all areas of your life, how the little voice of an eating disorder can really make you feel like crap about everything.  I have read many memoirs and novels and non-fiction books about eating disorders and I have to say this book, for me, was not triggering in any way--this book does not read like a how-to guide, there is very little blow by blow how-to details, Rita Arens gets more into what goes on in the person's head when they have an eating disorder.  Although, clinically I would no longer be considered bulimic because I am not active frequently, I do still have the eating disorder voice and this book really made me consider how that affects areas of my life other than just food.  It was actually quite eye-opening for me!

The Obvious Game is set in a rural community in 1990.  I grew up in a rural community and it is so spot on for the way we did things in 1990 from driving around fields to bonfires to parties.  I also appreciated all of the references to music from the late 80s and early 90s.

The Kindle version of The Obvious Game was released on January 30.  The paperback version will be released tomorrow, February 7.  If you are the mom of a pre-teen or teenage girl, I strongly suggest you take a look at this book, it will help you remember a little of what it was like to be a teenage girl and also give you perspective.  If you want to understand eating disorders, I HIGHLY recommend this book.  Or, heck, if you are just looking for a good book to read--get yourself a copy of The Obvious Game by Rita Arens!

Advertising Attack

When I was a child, it was common for parents to tell their kids that they could not afford something.  Families went on vacation once a year.  People drove cars until they looked old and outdated.  Parents taught their children the value of a dollar.

I don't see that as much today.  Parents are afraid of their children being left out or feeling bad if they don't have something their friends have - a vicious cycle.  I know families who go on elaborate vacations many times a year and then complain that they have nothing saved for retirement.  I knew a family who went to buy the mom a car and came home with a new car for mom and a new truck for dad and a story about how the finance guy at the dealership added some zeros to their income so they could qualify.

No wonder our society is in the financial mess it is in!

Clothing, television shows, accessories, music...are all marketed to children in a way that they were not a generation ago.  These marketers know that when Billy or Janey whine, mommy and daddy may give in to them.  They know that parents don't want their five year old to be the only one not wearing Uggs or the latest Justice fashion or the only one not at the latest girl or boy band concert.  Cha-ching!

I don't blame the advertisers or even the people coming up with products and TV shows for kids.  

They are making a living.  They are being innovative and creative.

But we need to be smart about our financial situation as well as understanding the difference between needs and wants, luxuries and necessities.  For me, this is one of the most important lessons I can drive home to my girls: SAVE YOUR MONEY.  Be a smart, savvy consumer.  Don't buy something just because everyone else has it.  You may think your life will change if you own those pajamas or that perfume or go to that show, but it won't.

"Our economy was based on selling people things they couldn't afford and may not have needed.  It was not sustainable financially or environmentally,"  Tony Wagner, Harvard Fellow.

I had been searching for years for a children's book that explains how advertising works.  Last fall, I met with a representative of Capstone Press to purchase some materials for the library and I came across this gem: Advertising Attack.  It's part of a Mastering Media series.  You can purchase them on Amazon, but they are a library binding and rather pricey, so I recommend asking your library to purchase them.  As a librarian, I can tell you that we welcome suggestions from patrons and nine times out of ten, we will buy the books suggested.

I want my girls to see that people in advertising and marketing use psychology to try to make you think their product will change your life--it may be subtle, like just showing a popular person with the product, looking all-put-together and surrounded by beautiful people and then you subconsciously think: if I buy this, I will be like that person--all put-together and popular and cool.  Advertising Attack wastes no time and spares no language when explaining just this.  Not only do they explain it, but they give several pages of images and ask: what do you think they are advertising?  what is your impression of the person?  of the product?  At the end of each chapter there are exercises, for this particular chapter there were products and my girls had to come up with ways to advertise them--a briefcase, my girls decided should be advertised on a commuter train and show a well-dressed, successful looking gentleman; some snazzy clothes, maybe a young girl having fun with a lot of friends, surrounded by gorgeous guys at a hip club...that kind of thing.  Not only did Advertising Attack explain the concept, there were also exercises to make sure that the reader understood the concept.

We learned a lot about the influence advertising has over our society.  Did you know that until the late 1940's it was not a tradition for a man to give his fiance an engagement ring?  In fact, most people never even expected to own a diamond!  In 1947, De Beers diamond company launched a campaign "A diamond is forever" and convinced young girls that if a man was serious and a good catch, he would spend a month's salary on a diamond for her and thus, the expectation of a diamond engagement ring took hold.

Kodak had a big impact on our lives as we began taking pictures of all of the precious moments we never want to forget.  The girls and I had a lengthy discussion on all of the ways that one advertising campaign changed our lives...blogging, scrapbooking, photo books, photo editing...etc.  Kodak's primary focus was just to convince people to spend more money on film and film developing, but the influence that had has continued beyond Kodak and we feel, in positive ways.

Thankfully, tobacco advertising has changed, but when I grew up with Marlboro Man and Camel Joe, extolling the fun of cigarette smoking.  My girls, who grew up with cigarettes being linked to horrible diseases in advertisements, found this really fascinating.

We started wondering if advertising negative things (like smoking) would not be sustainable but advertising positive things (like capturing moments with a camera) would be sustainable.  We wondered if that was always the case and as we did so, I saw my girls start to understand why I felt understanding media and advertising was so important.

At the end of the book, my girls worked on independent projects.  They each came up with a product, a slogan, product description, color choices, where they would advertise it.  They drew storyboards for their product and came up with advertising campaigns for different media.

Laura Moriarty

When Jason was home for six weeks after his surgery, he shared in the housework and schooling which gave me a lot of time to do my favorite thing in the world: get lost in good fiction.

Sarah over at Clover Lane recommended a book by Laura Moriarty and it sounded interesting, so I decided to check it out.  I am now hooked.  

I tend to read authors.  When I find a book I really like, I look for everything else the author has written.  It's fascinating to me to see the evolution of an author's writing...the writing in a first novel is often so different from the writing in subsequent novels and you can see the growth of the writer.

I can not say enough good things about Laura Moriarty.  The first book I read by her was The Center of Everything.  This book is about a girl who is exactly my age.  The story starts when she is young and Ronald Reagan is running for President and takes you all the way through her life until she is in college.  This book is layered and both deep and relational--just the way I like my novels to be!  The main character lives with her single rather unstable but sweet mother in a crappy apartment.  Her conservative Christian grandmother helps out a lot.  She has a crush on a juvenile delinquent boy who turns out to be so sweet and so messed up.  Everything takes place with a backdrop of politics of the time, so as you read you can remember what your life was like when say, the whole Jim and Tammy Faye Baker thing took place or the Iran-Contra hearings.

The Rest of Her Life is about a mom whose high school daughter accidentally kills another high schooler.  It's about the mother's relationship with her daughter and how she feels about what happened, her fears and concerns.  As a mom, I totally related to Leigh, the mom in the story.  I really enjoyed this book.

Laura Moriarty's third novel, While I'm Falling was about a girl that I related to so well--she's a pleaser, she wants to make everyone happy, sometimes at the expense of her own happiness.  She is in college, struggling through subjects she doesn't enjoy because she thinks it will make her parents happy if she becomes a doctor.  When her parents announce their divorce, she makes a series of life-changing bad decisions that are completely out of character for her.

Laura Moriarty's most recent novel is a historical novel.  The Chaperone takes place in Kansas and New York City in the 1920s.  It was fascinating for me to get a glimpse of what Manhattan may have been like when my Nauna came here in 1920.  The character explores the exact neighborhood where my Nauna was living at the time.  The glimpse into women's roles and expectations of women at the time, as well as the evolution of Cora was truly worth reading.

Lone Wolf & Last Child in the Woods

Last week, when I was sick, I had the pleasure of guilt-free reading (my favorite thing! you can have your expensive vacation, give me my foam mattress, down pillows and a good book! I am such a homebody!)

I am a HUGE Jodi Picoult fan.

I love how she shows things from more than one angle and really makes you think about your feelings on a topic.

The book is about a man who studies wolves, he becomes so fascinated with them that he leaves his wife and pre-teen children to live in the wilds of Canada with the wolves for two years.  To research this, Jodi Picoult spent time with and interviewed Shaun Ellis,a man who actually did live with the wolves.  The observations and experience shared in this book about wolf packs was fascinating.

True to form, Jodi Picoult also focused on a family drama.  The son of the man who lived with wolves left home 6 years before and has had no contact with his father.  After he left home, his mother left his father.  His 17 year old sister is still living with the father and taking care of the bills and grocery shopping because the father is too wrapped up in his work to do those kinds of tasks.

The sister and father are in a near-fatal car accident.

The brother is called in Thailand and rushes home.

His father is on life support.

The brother and sister must hash out what their father would want--would a man who was so full of life as to live with the wolves WANT to be kept alive on life support or not?

The brother and sister each have a different perspective and you can see the story from each of their point of view in a way that really makes you think.

I also read this book.  It opens by reminding the reader of some experiences they may have had as a child, whether it was building dams with rocks in streams (as I did as a child) or raising pigeons on a rooftop in Queens (as my mom did as a child)...it goes on to say that nature soothes and comforts us and it is a place we can go when life gets confusing or overwhelming and just relax, get our bearings, remember what is important.  It reminded me of the old idea that the world is SO much bigger than your problems...the insects, the dirt, the stones and trees...they have all been here for hundreds of years and will continue to be there...when thought of that way our problems seem not as significant.

The author goes on to say that since the late 1980s, kids have spent less and less time outside.  I know my friends and I all talk about how we stayed out "until the streetlights came on" but nowadays you are afraid of your children being abducted and feel you need to be out there with them.  The author promotes and encourages a method of "controlled risk" in nature, he expounds on instilling an instinctual confidence.  He doesn't dismiss the idea of abductors, but instead tells the story of a father whose child was abducted, but who feels that rather than more laws on abduction, we need to teach children to trust their instincts.  The author gives examples of how we can hone those instincts in nature in a way that they will never be able to hone them playing video games, even Mortal Combat.  Hunting, fishing, ice skating, going to the ocean, boating, you name it...kids will learn to feel for things, the way things feel, the way they sound, smell, the way their air changes...whatever.  They will become more in tune with nature.

We have definitely always encouraged our girls to play outside and we limit internet and television, but this book inspired me to look for more ways that my girls can engage with nature this spring.  I have set up some nature play dates at local parks that don't have playgrounds - hikes, building a dam in the stream, catching tadpoles and salamanders - on our local yahoo groups webpage and Jason and I have made some plans with the homeschool neighbor dad to go camping this spring with all the kids.

Allie's Book Club

Last year, Allie read The Mother-Daughter Book Club series by Heather Vogel Frederick and LOVED it!

We spent a month reading Little Women and studying the life of Louisa May Alcott because of it.  That introduced us to transcendentalism and learning about Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson and reading some of the work suitable for children.  Allie also read Anne of Green Gables because of this series.  We watched Pride and Prejudice because of this series and Allie can't wait to be ready to read Austen!  The rabbit trails these books lead us on lasted for MONTHS.  This, to me, is interest-led learning and true learning at its best!

Allie had started talking about starting a Mother-Daughter book club last year and having her friends read and discuss one of the books as the first selection.  I was cautious about this.  I had been flamed by two homeschool bloggers - who I thought were my friends - because there is some bullying and mean girl drama in these books.  When I would gently suggest picking another book, Allie would say, "Forget it.  I really want to do one of the Mother Daughter Book Club books because it is a book club and shows you how a book club works."  Allie found MotherDaughter Book Club.com and showed me their review of The Mother Daughter Book Club.  She called me over to the computer when she was on Heather Vogel Frederick's website to show me how the author will call in to book clubs (it's Allie's dream to have heather Vogel Frederick call in, but we didn't have time to arrange it for this meeting).

Finally, around Christmastime, I got up the nerve to talk to some of our friends about the book club idea and the book Allie wanted to start with.  I was upfront about my anxiety with suggesting this book and the reason for it.  I was elated to tell Allie that our friends were open to the book.

Our first meeting was supposed to be last week, but since I was sick, we had to postpone it until this week.

Allie emailed everyone about the postponement.  She also emailed them a few questions about the book and asked them to jot down their favorite scene or character and what they liked about it.  She did ALL of the planning for this book club herself!  She cleaned the house and planned the menu.  We went shopping together and she and Piper made scones and brownies and fruit salad (they gave up cookies for Lent!).  They decided tea was a fitting drink for a book club and enjoyed learning how to brew it in a teapot :)

There are 8 girls and 6 moms in our group (2 of us have 2 girls).  Allie and Piper are the only two girls who were ever in school.  The discussion was lively and lasted much longer than any of us anticipated.  The girls spent a lot of time figuring out which character they were most like - one was Cassidy and the others are Jess or Emma.  They all like Jess a lot and spent quite a bit of time pondering what it would be like to live on an organic farm.  They also felt bad for Jess that her mom was an actress and not at home.  None of them liked Megan, they called her "the mean girl".  Most of us moms have read Queen Bees and Wannabees and other books on the topic (as well as having seen a play on bullying together) so the conversation took a turn into the reasons why people act this way and experiences we have all had with these situations (moms and homeschooled kids) and how the situation made us feel.  One of the girls, a 9 year old, said "You can't let what someone else says define you" which we all thought was profound!  All of the girls had sympathy for Emma and could relate to her on some level, which made for a very interesting and bonding conversation as well.

In the book, the girls read Little Women and there is a lot of references to it, the girls in the book are always asking: What would Jo do?  Allie was the only girl in the group to have read Little Women and tried to give some insight into the book.  At the end we picked our next book and it was unanimous: Little Women.  It's a long book so we are giving ourselves two months. Since Allie and Piper loved Number the Stars so much, however, and it's a short book, we decided to make that the April selection!

Allie said this book club turned out to be just the way she thought it would and she could not be happier!

I am so proud of her for coming up with the idea, being persistent about it, implementing it and working hard to make it a 

smashing SUCCESS!

home front

We are celebrating Read Across America Day today by having a Reading Day  A whole entire day spent in my pajamas with a book is equivalent to a fabulous vacation for me!  

In honor of Read Across America Day, I thought I would post a book review.  It's not a children's book, but I really feel that Read Across America Day should be a day that everyone - young and old - celebrates reading!

home front by kristin hannah really made an impact on me.  I think it is a book worth mentioning.  

Although this book takes place in 2003, Jolene is exactly my age in the book and has a daughter who is exactly A's age.  Jolene doesn't feel her age, it bothers her a little, so obviously I related to that.  The relationship with her 12 year old daughter is SPOT ON...so much so that I was sure someone had spied on some interactions between A and I!  Of course, Betsy (the 12 year old in the story) goes to school and deals with the same kind of pre-teen drama A dealt with when she was in school.

Jolene had a rough childhood and enlisted in the National Guard at 18.  The Guard has become her family.  Jolene and her best friend, who lives next door, both fly helicopters part-time for the National Guard.  Then they are deployed to Iraq.

Jolene must leave her 12 year old daughter.  Her daughter who is trying to make sense of the world, find her place, fit in.  Her daughter who is dealing with mean girls and learning about friendship.  Her daughter who is experimenting with clothes and make-up.  Her daughter who seems to resent everything Jolene says and does.  Her daughter who is mortified that her mother is not like all of the other mothers.  She has to leave her.  Her daughter won't even say good-bye.  She knows Jolene is lying about the lack of risk.  She begs Jolene not to go.

I can not even imagine what it would be like to leave your children and make such a sacrifice for the safety of our country and yet I thank God every day that there are men and women willing to make these sacrifices.

There are other issues in the story: Jolene and her husband are having marital problems before she leaves; Jolene's husband is a workaholic who seldom sees his kids or knows anything about them or their routine and he is expected to step up to the plate.  

I found Jolene's sacrifice inspiring and the mother-daughter story emotionally compelling.  

Number the Stars

My FAVORITE resource this week is read-alouds.

I read to my girls often when they were babies and toddlers,

but once they learned to read,

I am sad to say,

that I expected them to read to themselves.

We all snuggled up together in my bed and read to ourselves.

Last year, I was encouraged by the homeschool community to start reading to my girls again,

even though they were 9 and 11.

I chose Little Women, which was a flop because I kept needing to explain things (even though my girls would say, "We get it, Mommy.") and that ruined our momentum.

Then I chose The Lightning Thief and my girls couldn't break from the book while I made dinner, they had to find out what happened.

I gave up on read-alouds.

But I was encouraged once again,

by the homeschool community.

And I am so glad that you all kept on me!

We picked shorter books.

Like From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

We enjoyed it immensely.

We have been watching The Waltons, a 1970s television show set in the 1930s in rural Virginia.

We look forward to cuddling on the couch each night for a show.

One night, the show was about German immigrants who had settled on Walton's Mountain,

but could not trust anyone.

I decided it was time to introduce World War II.

A read and loved Number the Stars in public school in fourth grade

and I decided to read it with P.

But A loves this book so much that she snuggled in with us every night.

I can see why A loves this book.

It is compelling.

It is the kind of book where you can't read just one chapter.

Following a cardinal rule of good literature, each chapter ends on such a cliffhanger...that you have to read one more.

I call them potato chip chapters...you can never have just one!

Number the Stars is the story of a 10 year old girl growing up in Copenhagen in the 1930s.

Her family is part of the Resistance and she becomes aware of their actions when they attempt to save her Jewish friend.

It is an amazing story of courage and valor.

If you have never read this book, whether you are a child or an adult, I STRONGLY recommend picking it up!

Linking up with Susan

and

Book Expo '11

When I am not homeschooling my children,

I am working as an Assistant Children's Librarian and/or a Reference Librarian.

I love books the way Carrie Bradshaw loves shoes.

New York is famous for their Weeks.

Fashion Week.

Fleet Week.

For book lovers like me, we look forward to Book Week.
Book Galas, book promotions, authors all over the city...

And since I work in a library, I can attend some industry events,

like Book Expo.

Book Expo is where publishers come to try to get you to order from them.

You get free advanced releases of books.
(Technically you can't charge for advanced releases)

You get serious loot.

You bring suitcases with wheels, check them,
and then go back periodically to unload your loot.

The girls were psyched to get the new American Girl Books
and the skinny on the two new dolls & the new book series.

There are signings by famous people,
like Linda Evans from Dynasty:

and Tyra Banks,
who wrote a fantasy novel called
Modelland

One of the highlights for me was getting Elin Hilderbrand's new book
(which comes out in June)
Every summer, I look forward to her latest book.
Her books are all set on Nantucket
and are the perfect summer read.
They were giving away free beer at her table!

We met Mike Holmes
from HGTV.
He is seriously THE nicest guy and so down to earth!

Hey called Chrissy "Sassy" ;-)

I got my photo taken with Florence Henderson,
who was very sweet and gracious.

It took me all of Wednesday morning to go through everything.

These are some of the books I got for the girls:

I snagged these posters for our classroom:

I got this book about Bruce Springsteen.
If you know me, you know that I love my family and books and Bruce.
I've seen him countless times.
I weep when I hear his music.
It is something so deep, so in my blood, it's hard to explain unless you are a fan...
I read this book Wednesday night,
the author gets it,
he feels the same way during and after a show,
it's so emotionally intense,
something you can't explain.

I got this book signed by Mike Holmes for Jason.
Jason is a fan.
Mike Holmes was such a nice guy,
funny, charming, charismatic...
you felt like you'd known him forever...
like he was your best friend's husband.
Great guy!

I also got to meet Ellie Krieger
and got this {free} cookbook signed by her.
She was very sweet.

I got this book
and was able to take a little class with the
pros at Popular Photography :)

One of the most exciting moments for me
was when I was in the education section,
doing my Children's Librarian thing
and I came across
PEACE HILL PRESS.

I rushed over and said, "I'm a homeschool mom!"
They were very welcoming and bubbly.
Their booth was set up like a warm and cozy house.
We started chatting,
about Story of the World & Writing with Ease,
The Well Trained Mind.
I asked when Writing with Skill was coming out.
February. sigh.
Suddenly, I looked at the name tag of the woman I was speaking to,
and I blurted out,
"You're Susan Wise Bauer!"
(the woman who wrote ALL of the above books!!)
And she was like, "Why, yes I am."
She was very, very sweet and asked if I had questions and took the time to answer all of my questions.
She sent me the PDF for the workbook and Teacher's Manual for Writing with Skill,
so that A can start that this fall! YIPPEEE!!!
I was definitely gushing,
it was definitely not one of my finer moments.
I'd met Linda Evans, Tyra Banks, Mike Holmes, Kathie Lee Gifford, Florence Henderson, Ellie Krieger...
and it was Susan Wise Bauer
that made me star-struck.

I have tremendous respect for her.

My whole life this last year has basically been wrapped around homeschooling,

so to meet the person that I look up to so much...

it was quite exciting.

I hope that next time I see her

(at a conference in June)

I am not nearly as gushing and blubbering and starstruck!

Susan Wise Bauer,

if you read this,

please know that I was taken off guard to see you there,

and I have spent a good part of the last year reading everything you have written about homeschooling, 

your curriculum, your blog, and your books give me the confidence to homeschool my children

and to really believe they will get a great education at home!

All in all,

it was a great day!!