A Melodious Sonnet

Homeschooling

Midweek Mix-Up #12: World War II, Pessimism, and Free History Videos

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Hello! How has your last week treated you? In today’s midweek mix-up, I’m sharing some of the interesting and slightly mismatched things I’ve come across this week.

Reading this week:

I’ve had a very interesting week when it comes to books. Part of my work right now has been on the computer, so I’ve been listening to an audio book while I did that. Also, I got sucked into a historical novel, and I had a fantasy going for school . . . and somehow I ended up reading all three simultaneously!

The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom

The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom
Progress: Finished.

The Hiding Place never fails to challenge and encourage me. Through faith, hope, and perseverance, Corrie shares snapshots of her early life, the events leading up to their family taking in Jews to hide them from the Germans, and eventually her arrest and imprisonment. This is a book written to remember her father and sister Betsy, but it is so much more. Her faith in God brought her through many trials, and over and over God is shown faithful through her life. This is also a powerful picture of what life was like under the Nazi regime, and how people lived and worked in their concentration camps. I’ll be writing a review of this soon, which will be on the website after a while.

Reading, Art, and Guilt — a Guest Post

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Twice in the past two months I have had an “ah-ha!” moment. Both times, I suddenly had an answer to something that I had been feeling guilty about for years.

I was reading by the time I was three years old. When I was a baby, someone gave my mom a book, something about “Teach Your Baby to Read.” I was the first baby, so she had time, and she made flashcards to put on objects all over the house. I can’t remember not being able to read, and I’m guessing maybe she eventually regretted teaching me that young, as I quickly developed an addiction to reading! I remember being excited to start first grade, but then being very disappointed because the first day of first grade the reading lesson was simply, “God.” I was reading whole books by then! I spent hours and hours reading thousands of books as I grew up, and put that love of books to good use when I started a bookstore in my late teens. However, after I got married, little by little I started feeling guilty for loving to read, and guilty for taking time to read when there were other things to do, as there always are. Comments some people made such as, “I only ever read the Bible and ___________(church paper),” or, “Reading is a waste of time for me,” added to that feeling of guilt. I still read, because I can’t make myself stop reading, but always with a slight feeling of guilt.

Reading, Art, and Guilt

Last year, my daughter came in from her bedroom one morning saying that she felt like the Lord had given her an idea. She wondered what I thought of a website devoted to book reviews. She would include warnings with the reviews of anything that parents might want to know about the book before giving it to their child, and build a search function to help parents find books about a particular area they were studying. After we all prayed about it, she built the website, and soon I started writing some reviews for her of books I read to myself or aloud to the other children. Still, I felt somewhat guilty about loving to read!

Incorporating God’s Truth into Ordinary Life

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I’m finding I like short, to-the-point posts. Which do you prefer—short, or longer posts? In today’s post, I’m discussing incorporating God’s truth into ordinary life—not only when you’re reading the Bible together as a family, but also when you’re studying history—or doing the dishes together.

Recently, I was reading a little book called Bomby the Bombardier Beetle. As I read, I was amazed at how easily the story of creation was woven naturally into the story.

“x IMG_5258” by David Hill via Flickr

Later, I realized that we can just as easily weave those truths into different parts of our homeschooling! Perhaps we won’t be teaching on creation as such, but maybe we can teach about the fall of man, or the beauty of redemption, or something else.

Why We Need to Read Poetry — and a Lot of It!

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Last evening, we were discussing poetry as a family. Dad admitted he loves poetry—which is rare for him, since he hardly has time to read anything other than the Bible. We were discussing different poems—some of the more famous ones like The Song of Hiawatha, Paul Revere’s Ride, and Barbara Freitchie. That last one was one we couldn’t quite put a name to, so in the end Mom got one of our poetry books and read it to us while we ate supper!

Why We Need to Read Poetry — and a Lot of It! (picture)

Poems are a needful addition to everyone’s lives. The rhythm, speech, and emotions are sometimes even more beautiful than a fiction novel.

Poems tell stories—stories that gracefully flow in harmonious melody, sometimes sad and sometimes joyfully.

Midweek Mix-Up — Pride and Prejudice and a Free High School Biology Curriculum

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Welcome to another round of midweek mix-up! I’ve been doing a lot of reading this past week, beyond a few breaks to do other necessary work and spending some quality sibling time.

Books I’ve been reading this week:

The Sound of Diamonds, by Rachelle Rea

The Sound of Diamonds, by Rachelle Rea
Progress: 45% (last week: 24%)

This story has grown more interesting, and the romance thread has grown stronger, too. I’m taking the opportunity to study how romance books work, and will find it interesting to see how the story ends.