What Are Christians For?: Radical Christian Life in Modern America

What Are Christians For?: Life Together at the End of the World 
by Jake Meador

My husband and I bought this impulsively when we came across it at one of our favorite local bookstores. He was intrigued by the title and back cover; I was intrigued by the photo and bio of the author. He doesn't look like a man from Nebraska.

Meador explores how Christians in America have shaped and been shaped by the political landscape of our country. He suggests our faith has been watered down and compromised and asks, What would it mean to live by the Gospel when we vote and craft laws in modern America?

Wealth, comfort, and prejudice have too often conditioned and modified the calling of the Christian religion in America. (p. 12)

He says:

It's the way our vision of the Christian life has too often been implicitly conditioned and defined to leave the characteristic idols of the Western world untouched, unscathed, and unchallenged. (p. 13)

The author is speaking from a Protestant viewpoint. In the Introduction, he points to a priest he knew who lived the kind of radical and whole Christianity for which Meador is advocating. But I think the Catholic faith in America has mostly followed the same path, that of convincing ourselves we don't need to feed all the poor, or feed them the same way we'd eat, or give them the same health care we have, or build housing for them too close to our houses.

I'm not entirely sure I agree with all the historical roots Meador proposes for our current political and social climate, but I appreciate being challenged to question our complacency.

In critiquing industrialism our goal should not be to reach back to some pre-industrial era but rather to do what all Christians must do: to assess the health of our society and its history according to Christian ideas of morality and justice. (p. 53)

We should look at our economy and political landscape with a more critical eye. It's not that advances in technology or medicine are inherently bad, but they are also not inherently good.

A Christian approach to technology, in contrast, allows us to treat each technological development individually, asking each time why the tool is needed, what values it will impart to its users, and how it will shape the imagination of society more generally. (p. 60)

The fifth chapter, "The Unmaking of the Real: Wonder Among the Institutions," spoke on issues that probably most impact our life. He talks specifically about education here, even referencing Charlotte Mason and her educational philosophy (in the same paragraph that also mentions John Senior). He contrasts their ideas about wonder, life, and atmosphere, with that of most American schools.

From an early age we learn to interpret the world with the aid of institutions, and we learn that life is chiefly a matter of consumption rather than making. (p. 85)

Modern education (and technology) separates us from the world rather than immersing us in it. 

After laying out how we got where we are and how Christians in today's world are (inadequately) responding to our culture, Meador gives recommendations on how we can better live our vocations as Christians right here and now. Taken together, these recommendations promise to be difficult and to make us uncomfortable (in multiple senses). 

This book is one of the most convicting books I have read. Highly recommended if you want to be challenged to truly live as Christ is calling in the modern world.

I received nothing in exchange for this post. We purchased the book at a local bookstore at full price. Links to Bookshop and Amazon are affiliate links.

October 2021 Book Reports

Henry IV Parts One and Two by William Shakespeare - Kansas Dad helped choose these two plays for First Son's senior year of high school (along with King Lear). He reads them with his college students and thought they'd be a good complement to what First Son had already read. I love that our kids read so many Shakespeare plays. First Son read eleven plays in high school and three plays in earlier years. There are some great themes in Henry IV, though I wouldn't read it younger than high school and maybe not with all ninth graders (as First Daughter was this year). Falstaff is a bit...mature in his humor. I like the No Fear Shakespeare series for older kids. Use with caution with younger ones because they do make the mature jokes quite clear. (purchased copy)

How to Become a SuperStar Student by Michael Geisen (Great Courses) - I listened to this just a little ahead of First Son. I'd heard it recommended for homeschooled students as a way to prepare them for classroom work. It has some useful parts, some information and advice for working in teams and with teachers, that may be helpful for First Son, but the course probably works best for younger students. I think it would be perfect for a late elementary or middle school student preparing to go to a brick-and-mortar school for middle school or high school. In fact, I put it on First Daughter's list for the year, though I don't think she had time for it. There are a few lectures where the teacher mentions some more mature topics, so you would definitely want to pre-listen for a younger student. The course was recorded as a visual course, so there are some parts that might be slightly confusing if you only have the audio version. I think the main point was generally clear, though.  (purchased audiobook)

John Henry Newman: Snapdragon in the Wall by Joyce Sugg - link to my post (purchased copy)

The Anglo-Saxon World by Michael D. C. Drout (from the Modern Scholar series) - link to my post (purchased copy)

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry - This is not my favorite Wendell Berry book. I always find Jayber's relationship with Mattie Chatham weird and possibly not really acceptable. And it's all a little bit sad. But this was my second time reading it, and I appreciated it more this time around. (library copy)

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links.

An Impossible Stew: Ideas Have Consequences

Ideas Have Consequences

by Richard M. Weaver

This book brings up real problems and questions still relevant today despite it's 1948 copyright.

Sometimes this was a difficult book for me to read because Dr. Weaver would reference philosophical ideas or people without explicitly identifying them. More than once, I reread paragraphs (or chapters) when I realized he was using words I knew, but with different definitions. (For example, "materialistic" for him did not mean someone overly focused on possessions and money, but someone focused on the "material" world, rather than on abstract ideals and virtues.) Once I even asked my philosopher-turned-theologian husband to read through a paragraph and tell me if it really meant anything; there were so many philosophical terms all jumbled together, I couldn't tell if it contained any real ideas (like a mission statement gone horribly wrong). My husband assured me it did indeed mean something, "That's just how philosophers write."

I would need to write a blog post on every chapter to do justice to this book, but I don't want to devote that kind of time right now, so I'm going to try to condense my thoughts as well as I can.

In the Introduction, Dr. Weaver brings up materialism as it developed in the nineteenth century. (Remember, he's talking about limiting our explanations to the material world.) Darwin and his contemporaries made it "imperative to explain man by his environment" (p. 5). According to Dr. Weaver, science forced all of mankind to accept physical and only physical explanations for anything and everything, including his institutions, economy, and psychology. Certainly we have seen such a focus. Perhaps it is even prevalent in society today, but I do think there is a substantial number of people and institutions who have maintained the connection between mankind and our "transcendental glory" (p. 5). It's possible I feel a more balanced appreciation for the contributions of the nineteenth century scientists (and today's scientists) because the Catholic Church has continued to strive for salvation, seek the divine, nurture modern saints, and also encourage scientific investigations. I don't feel the same disconnect he insists must occur. Dr. Weaver seems to be suggesting we should deny all of these theories and lines of inquiry.

On the other hand, he writes things like:

For, as the course goes on, the movement turns centrifugal; we rejoice in our abandon and are never so full of the sense of accomplishment as when we have struck some bulwark of our culture a deadly blow. (p. 10)

There are some people who seek nothing so much as to destroy all that has come before, with a complete assurance there is nothing worth saving. The debates we hear and see every day regarding "cancel culture" are evidence of Dr. Weaver's insight. I would argue his insistence that we keep every single part of the past, retaining and admiring all of it, is just as flawed as that of those we seek to destroy it all. The best path is probably a very messy discussion and compromise to end up somewhere in the middle.

Dr. Weaver seems to be against the idea of equality. 

Where men feel that society means station, the highest and the lowest see their endeavors contributing to a common end, and they are in harmony rather than in competition. It will be found as a general rule that those parts of the world which have talked least of equality have in the solid fact of their social life exhibited the greatest fraternity...Nothing is more manifest than that as this social distance has diminished and all groups have moved nearer equality, suspicion and hostility have increased. (p. 39)

This is a difficult paragraph for Americans to read, primed as we are to value equality above almost all else. He provides little actual evidence for this assertion, and I'm not sure I believe him. Not that I believe we have an equal society. (See my post on The Tyranny of Merit and read that book for an excellent discussion of equality in America.) He extends this idea of equality later to include gender equality in addition to social equality. His ideas about the role of women were just as frustrating.

In chapter two, Distinction and Hierarchy, Dr. Weaver writes:

But all hinges on the interpretation of needs; if the primary need of man is to perfect his spiritual being and prepare for immortality, then education of the mind and the passions will take precedence over all else. The growth of materialism, however, has made this a consideration remote and even incomprehensible to the majority. Those who maintain that education should prepare one for living successfully in this world have won a practically complete victory. (p. 45)

Here I think he's identified a problem and its source perfectly. Remember, Dr. Weaver's definition of "materialism" isn't just about buying and surrounding ourselves with lots of stuff. Nearly everyone will argue against that as a goal. Instead, he's talking about aligning our lives as if only what we see and feel in the material world is relevant. If we lose a belief in an eternal world and our potential participation in it, there's no reason to focus on anything other than a job, having enough food, and a comfortable life, even if we don't anticipate a luxurious one. Our educational goals, therefore, would adjust to ones that are centered around preparing for a career with adequate or ample compensation. It's almost impossible to blend these disparate views of education.

The chapter called The Great Steriopticon is one of the most baffling. He has some great insights:

In summary, the plea that the press, motion picture, and radio justify themselves by keeping people well informed turns out to be misleading. If one thinks merely of facts and of vivid sensations, the claim has some foundation, but if he thinks of encouragement to meditation, the contrary rather is true. For by keeping the time element continuously present--and one may recall Henry James's description of journalism as criticism of the moment at the moment--they discourage composition and so promote the fragmentation already reviewed. (p. 100)

Note, Dr. Weaver is not talking about meditation as a practice of mindfulness (I sense he'd shudder at the thought), but of a thoughtfulness, a serious consideration of whether what was read or heard was true. Just imagine if he were around today to comment on the proliferation of instant news and social media! 

On the other hand, his solutions to the problem of news filtered by a few media sources is to suggest the elimination of the free press and limiting the literacy rate. He seems to believe that, because children who learn to read often grow into adults who choose their reading material poorly, we should somehow choose who is to learn to read and who should not. Though he doesn't touch on how we should separate the masses from the chosen, it doesn't take much thought to conclude many of those not chosen would be non-white and poor. To be honest, I can't even contemplate limiting free press or access to literacy as possible solutions. They feel much more dangerous than filtered news.

You may sense that I was swaying constantly between disagreeing with Dr. Weaver and agreeing with him. In the end, I feel conflicted by the book. I think there were a lot of statements that have proven prescient, predicting very well the modern world we live in today, but there were also a lot of chapters that careened too far, ending in bitterness and an undue preference for the old simply because it is old (think Mozart; Beethoven was the beginning of the end). As I said above, the Truth is probably somewhere in the middle, and discovering it requires a more nuanced conversation than Dr. Weaver appears to provide in this book.

The foreword by Roger Kimball ends by claiming:

Weaver's work is a heady, sometimes an impossible stew. But it is one from which we can learn  "something of how to live" or (what is almost the same thing) something of how not to. (p. xvii)

I can agree with that. 

By finishing this book, I read from front to back two of the three books I received for Christmas. The final book, The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor, is probably one I shouldn't read cover to cover straight through, for the benefit of my mental health. I have, however, signed up for a book club based on her stories, so the book won't sit sadly on my shelf.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. I received this book as a gift. Links to Bookshop are affiliate links.

January 2021 Book Reports

The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel - link to my post (library copy)

The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89 by Edmund S. Morgan - link to my post (library copy to start; then a copy from PaperBackSwap)

Find Another Dream by Maysoon Zayid - This audiobook was offered to Audible members, probably for free. It's hard to imagine someone more different from me than Maysoon Zayid - a New Jersey native with Palestinian parents who suffers from cerebral palsy and is an actress and comedian. Yet I enjoyed her story immensely: honest and funny. It's definitely not for children, only mature audiences. I find it helpful to listen to stories like this one, stories of people who have completely different experiences of the world than I do. In particular, I find the voices of those who are disabled to offer important insights; it's so easy to go through the world without realizing the myriad ways their every-day lives are more difficult than for me. I sought out her TED talk after listening to the book and enjoyed that as well. (Audible book)

Our Bethlehem Guests by William Allen Knight - I do not know where I got this little old hardcover book, but I'm guessing it was a library book sale. It's a short tale about an older man whose young daughter was born in Bethlehem. They left when she was young, but he continued always to regale her with tales, especially at Christmas, of the shepherds and the wise men. I read this aloud to the children this year, as I wanted something short, without having read it myself first. I think I would have anticipated their general lack of interest in the slow story. It was a nice little tale, though. (purchased used)

Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton - I saw this book on a young adult list and thought it might be a good option for First Son's psychology readings this year. He's currently reading The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and is fascinated by it, but it's really more neurology than psychology, and First Son is considering counseling. I liked this portrayal of a teenager suffering from schizophrenia, and I think the format of letters to his psychologist would be a good one for First Son's interests. It's a typical young adult novel, though, with intimate activity between Adam and Maya, and some questionable comments on Catholics. I think it's more Adam's attitude and inability to understand them more than any determined malice, but it felt cavalier. Still, some good things here so I'm putting it on his spreadsheet as something to consider at the end of the year. First Son is 17 and heading off to college in a year; there's not much here he probably doesn't already know. (library copy)

Minds More Awake: The Vision of Charlotte Mason by Anne E. White - Anne White is an accomplished educator, part of the team of dedicated volunteers who have made Ambleside Online the amazing resource it is for modern American homeschoolers who want to follow in Charlotte Mason's footsteps. This book is a wide-ranging invitation to her own experiences implementing Mason's principles in homeschool life. She doesn't give a curriculum, though there are suggestions. Amid descriptions of their family lessons, Mrs. White helps to translate principles into practice, into a lifework. This would be a great book for someone young to the philosophy of Charlotte Mason. (purchased Kindle edition)

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Bookshop, Amazon, and PaperBackSwap.com are affiliate links.

An Irish Story: The Hedge School

The Hedge School

by Gloria Whelan

I bought this book in paperback many years ago to read aloud to the children, but never got around to it. Recently, I found a copy in my Audible account and decided we'd listen to it in the van when the older one or two were not with us. (All together, at the moment, we are listening to Peter Duck.)

In this book set in the 1730s, Irish youth gather in the hedges for school while their country is under harsh English rule. It's a good historical novel showing some of the long-standing antagonism between England and Ireland. All the Irish in the novel are Catholic. One young man is even traveling to France to become a priest and return in secret to Ireland.

I enjoy sharing stories with my children that emphasize the value of education. Not only do the teacher and children sit outside in the cold and rain to do their lessons, they and their families are breaking the English law. They must keep even their ability to read and write a secret. And yet they study not just Irish and English, but Latin. The main character loves reading and reciting the Latin he learns.

My children enjoyed listening to the sometimes foolish risks of Padraic as he secretly plotted against the local English lords, but my daughter often worried about him when we had to stop while he was not yet in the clear. Because it was an audiobook, she would have to wait until our next time in the van to hear how he escaped the danger. 

I'm sure this is a lovely book on its own, but I particularly enjoyed listening to the narrator. He provided a wonderful voice for Padraic.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. I purchased the paperback version of the book from the publisher, Bethlehem Books, and the audiobook from Audible, an Amazon company. Links to Amazon are affiliate links.

Fuel for the Mind

I will be sitting in my van or a waiting room and, glancing at my book, realize those few moments of waiting are now precious time to dive back into a world away from my own. How odd it seemed to me that this Kansan stay-at-home mom was so enthralled with the world of biogeography and the intricate arguments for various methods of the dispersal of species on the land masses of the world. This is not a topic necessary for my homeschooling preparations, for my daily tasks, or for my spiritual growth. What I think about the author's arguments will have no impact on my career (or his), yet it's certainly one of the books I've enjoyed most this year.

As I was reading through my friend's rich and thoughtful blog, Abandon Hopefully Homeschooling, on Charlotte Mason's Twenty Principles, I was reminded of how well Mason articulates the reason for this expansion of my spirit when I pick up my current book. On Principle 8: On Education as Life, my friend writes:

The mind wants to think, and it wants to think a LOT, but it has to have things to think about.

The same need for things to think about is present in every mind, including my own. While most of the books I read focus on education, or spiritual growth, or reading something ahead of the kids, there is great value in reading something fascinating and challenging just because it is fascinating and challenging.

Lead Us Out: The World Beyond Your Head

The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction

by Matthew B. Crawford

Dr. Crawford is the author of Shop Class as Soulcraft, a book well worth your time. Kansas Dad picked The World Beyond Your Head for one of his classes last year. He encouraged me to read it, knowing I would find in it an essential argument for the kind of life we are trying to provide for our children.

This book will require a higher level of concentration than many popular philosophical books. The author claims it was written at a level understandable by anyone with a high school education, which while probably true, would require that person be quite interested and willing to focus. My husband assigned this to one of his recent honors classes and, as far as he could tell, none of the college students made it through the book. That's a shame because it's worth the effort.

Dr. Crawford begins with attention and the myriad ways our society and culture purposefully and insidiously weaken our ability to focus and think.

As atomized individuals called to create meaning for ourselves, we find ourselves the recipients of all manner of solicitude and guidance. We are offered forms of unfreedom that come slyly wrapped in autonomy talk: NO LIMITS!, as the credit card offer says. YOU'RE IN CHARGE. [...]

The image of human excellence I would like to offer as a counterweight to freedom thus understood is that of a powerful independent mind working at full song. Such independence is won through disciplined attention, in the kind of action that joins us to the world. And--this is important--it is precisely those constraining circumstances that provide the discipline. 

His critiques of modern culture are brutal and startling.

Few institutions or sites of moral authority were left untouched by the left's critiques. Parents, teachers, priests, elected officials--there was little that seemed defensible. Looking around in stunned silence, left and right eventually discovered common ground: a neoliberal consensus in which we have agreed to let the market quietly work its solvent action on all impediments to the natural chooser within.

Essentially, corporations and marketers shape everything in our culture. The government is not permitted to write laws "limiting" the choices of consumers. We are led to believe we have complete freedom, but in reality, the corporate world employs every psychological and legal tactic to shape our every decision, creating the perception of wants only they can fulfill.

The creeping saturation of life by hyperpalatable stimuli remains beneath the threshold of concern if we repeat often enough the mantra that "government interference" is bad for "the economy."

His writing on gambling, especially the manipulations of slot machines, is even more distressing than the story in The Power of Habit.

If we have no robust and demanding picture of what a good life would look like, then we are unable to articulate any detailed criticism of the particular sort of falling away from a good life that something like machine gambling represents.

The games marketed to children on various devices employ the same tactics as slot gaming. Providing a "picture of what a good life would look like" is an indispensable aspect of our homeschool.

Like many others, Dr. Crawford tries to seek the benefits of a life of faith without actual faith in God. We can hope this sort of questioning might lead some to truly encounter Christ.

In the epilogue, he writes:

The problem we began with a few hundred pages ago was that of distraction, which is usually discussed as a problem of technology. I suggested we view the problem as more fundamentally one of political economy: in a culture saturated with technologies for appropriating our attention, our interior mental lives are laid bare as a resource to be harvested by others. Viewing it this way shifts our gaze from the technology itself to the intention that guides its design and its dissemination into every area of life.

By the end of the book, he's exploring ways to counter this cultural tendency, not just by turning off a phone but by interacting directly and meaningfully with the physical world and the people who live in it. As we develop skills manipulating the physical world, we enrich our lives and our relationships.

I would love to assign this book to my high school students, but it would probably not interest them enough to draw our the required focus. I recommend it highly to just about everyone.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post, which is entirely my own opinion. Kansas Dad bought this book for his class. Links to Amazon are affiliate links.

Becoming More Fully Human: Beauty for Truth's Sake

Beauty for Truth's Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education

by Stratford Caldecott

This book was my meaty read for summer 2018. I didn't finish it before becoming swamped by high school planning, so it carried over into 2019. For many years, we have struggled in our homeschool to avoid viewing math as drudgery. I think we are fairly good at creating an environment in which math is often fun with Life of Fred books as our math texts and plenty of math games from books and our shelves.

Yet this environment is only partially meeting my goal. I have always thought the children should also learn to find the beauty and truth in mathematics, that it should somehow connect them to the natural world,  even though this beauty is something I only vaguely understand myself.

I hoped this book would show me how to reveal the beauty and truth of mathematics to my children in our homeschool.

The Forward is by Ken Myers (of Mars Hill Audio Journal):

Since the Logos is love, and since all things are created through him and for him and are held together in him, we should expect the logic, the rationality, the intelligibility of the world to usher in the delight that beauty bestows. 

A substantial part of the book focused on arguments explaining why the study of science and mathematics is enhanced and fulfilled through explicit relationships to the humanities and liberal arts. Among the many voices Caldecott gathers together in his reasoning are those of James S. Taylor in Poetic Knowledge, Bl. John Henry Newman in The Idea of a University, and Josef Pieper in Leisure the Basis of Culture. That last one is on my wish list.

An integrated curriculum must teach subjects, and it must teach the right subjects, but it should do so by incorporating each subject, even mathematics and the hard sciences, within the history of ideas, which is the history of our culture. Every subject has a history, a drama, and by imaginatively engaging with these stories we become part of the tradition.

Most of these ideas are not new to me and frankly, I was convinced of this much before I started the book, but Caldecott drew connections throughout history from ancient Greece to modern times that I found helpful. His prose is as elegant as you might hope based on the gorgeous cover of this book.

The purpose of an education is not merely to communicate information, let alone current scientific opinion, nor to train future workers and managers. It is to teach the ability to think, discriminate, speak, and write, and, along with this, the ability to perceive the inner, connecting principles, the intrinsic relations, the logoi, of creation, which the ancient Christian Pythagorean tradition (right through the medieval period) understood in terms of number and cosmic harmony.

Homeschooling with Charlotte Mason's philosophy means this relationship of ideas is already integral to our curriculum. We are reading history and science and geography together, allowing the story of humanity to be woven by the student from these different threads. Or rather, allowing the opportunity for these relationships to be developed; each student does his or her own hard work.

Moreover, though we have every intention of our children going to college or trade school and learning how to earn a salary so they can care for a family, either in a domestic church or in the Church, our educational goals are focused on providing the wonder and wisdom for our children to become the people God wants them to be. A job is only a small part of their lives.

The principle remains the same: knowledge is its own end--"worth possessing for what it is, and not merely for what it does." It is not to be valued for the power it gives us over nature, or even for the moral improvement it may bring about in us (even if these things may flow from it). It is to be valued for its beauty. "There is a physical beauty and a moral: there is a beauty of person, there is a beauty of our moral being, which is natural virtue; and in like manner there is a beauty, there is a perfection, of the intellect."

The quotes are Newman's from The Idea of a University.

After these basic arguments, Caldecott begins exploring numbers, shapes, and supernatural relationships. For example, he examines the "irrational beauty" of the golden ratio, phi, and the Fibonacci sequence. Supernatural relationships, like that between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, can be represented geometrically, revealing a greater depth to the relationship.

Then [pi] could be read as describing the relationship between the Persons, a relationship that is infinitely fruitful and never ending. Thus the endlessly flowing numbers of [pi] suggest the super-abundance of God's mercy, the infinite quality of his love, and the unlimited space opened up within the Trinity for the act of creation.

These explorations were exactly the kind of material I sought. Much of it is understandable without knowing too much higher level math, but the combination of mathematics and philosophy and theology made many of the discourses difficult to follow. Thales (before Pythagoras) showed how

the perpendicular line drawn from a right angle touching the circumference back to the hypotenuse will always equal the mean proportional between the segments into which it divides the diameter[.]

There's a diagram in the book for this one (and many others) that helps a little, but I still often found myself reading sections a second or third time to try to understand exactly what Caldecott meant. I'm certain I could glean even more from the book if I read it again.

In the end, though, the important idea is that these sorts of explorations reveal an inherent perfection of the universe which point us always to the Creator and his relationship with Creation.

Speculations like those I have mentioned in this chapter will appear forced to many. Yet we must return to the central idea that God's archetypal forms or Ideas are inevitably found within nature at every level, reflected with greater or lesser degrees of accuracy. That is not pantheism but Christian Platonism, perfectly compatible with the insights of theology and revelations of scripture.

Discussions of frequency, harmonics, and Chladni patterns allows Caldecott to connect a celestial harmony with liturgy, worship, and prayer. He quotes C. S. Lewis (Planet Narnia: The Seven Harmonies in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Micheal Ward).

[Celestial harmony] is the only sound which has never for one split second ceased in any part of the universe; with this positive we have no negative to contrast. Presumably if (per impossibile) it ever did stop, then with terror and dismay, with a dislocation of our whole auditory life, we should feel that the bottom had dropped out of our lives. But it never does. The music which is too familiar to be heard enfolds us day and night and in all ages.

All of these subjects must come together in our education. According to Caldecott, integrating science with poetry, art, music, and the humanities allows students, all of us, to understand the universe in a more complete way, one which will at the same time, allow for greater understanding in scientific and mathematical disciplines.

Music, architecture, astronomy, and physics--the physical arts and their applications--demonstrate the fundamental intuition behind the Liberal Arts tradition of education, which is that the world is an ordered whole, a "cosmos," whose beauty becomes more apparent the more carefully and deeply we study it. By preparing ourselves in this way to contemplate the higher mysteries of philosophy and theology, we become more alive, more fully human.

After reading this book, I have a greater appreciation myself for the beauty of mathematical thought and how the underlying principles of mathematics can reveal universal truths. It is not, however, a book I can simply read to my children or even realistically assign to a high school student. While it's been many years since I was in a college classroom, I have a far greater knowledge base than most high schoolers, and certainly a greater intrinsic interest, and I often struggled while reading the book.

So what I need know is for someone to take the next step. Use Caldecott's philosophy to write a mathematics curriculum or supplement or something I can share with my children.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post; all opinions are my own. I purchased this book at a local bookstore. Links to Amazon are affiliate links. 

What Not to Do: Ten Ways to Destroy to Destory the Imagination of Your Child

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child

by Anthony Esolen

This book is satire. Mr. Esolen, of course, does not want you to destroy the imagination of your child. He writes from the viewpoint of the mass market machine, the ones who are more interested in how much a person buys rather than who a person is. Sometimes I find satire entertaining, but more often I struggle with it. Whether it's truly the author's belief, or just a byproduct of the tone of the book, the text seems overly critical of the people involved in public education in our country. While I may not agree with all of the education decisions by politicians, superintendents, principals, and teachers, I think most of them (especially the teachers) are struggling every day to find the right way to guide students to productive, happy adulthoods. (I heard the author speak at an event earlier this year and thought he was just as dismissive of public education in his speech as he is in the book. Judging by the reactions of the other attendees, I am the only person who felt like he goes a bit too far.)

There's one chapter for each method, though many of the concepts flow or overlap from one to the next. The ten methods (in a cursory sense) are

• keep them inside,
• don't give them time alone,
• don't let them interact with real people doing real work,
• teach them to disparage fairy tales,
• teach them to scorn heroes (spread over two methods),
• limit love to physical acts,
• disregard differences between men and women,
• entertain children to distraction, and
• refuse to acknowledge the idea of God or something higher than mankind.

Dr. Esolen's statements follow much of Charlotte Mason's beliefs, but are written in a dramatic sense for the modern reader. This book could be the impetus to delve deeper into a life of thought or affirmation of the struggle of a parent to fight against the contemporary forces of consumerism and high intensity parenting.

If we loved children, we would have a few. If we had them, we would want them as children, and would love the wonder with which they behold the world, and would hope that some of it might open our own eyes a little. We would love their games, and would want to play them once in a while, stirring in ourselves those memories of play that no one regrets, and that are almost the only things an old man can look back on with complete satisfaction. We would want children tagging along after us, or if not, then only because we would understand that they had better things to do.

I copied quotes from every chapter into my commonplace book, but I'll try to be more restrained on the blog. Charlotte Mason proposes we provide a feast of ideas for children, a large variety of subjects in small bits over many years with concentrated attention and narration to establish those ideas within the mind. Dr. Esolen considers how that kind of education can be valuable despite the technology which allows immediate access to a wide variety of information.

[A] developed memory is a wondrous and terrible storehouse of things seen and heard and done. It can do what no mere search engine on the internet can do. It can call up apparently unrelated things at once, molding them into a whole impression, or a new thought.

The first few methods concentrate on time spent in the natural world, particularly unscheduled time, time to sit and ponder, gaze and wonder.

We might think an ordinary flower just that; but to the mind made attentive to the works of nature, the most ordinary things are steeped in their own peculiar ways of being, and are mysterious.

The regular nature walk addresses some of this need, by providing a scheduled time for a child to focus his or her attention on a small piece of the natural world, but Dr. Esolen is advocating more than a weekly nature walk. He's talking about time for a child to wander and roam.

It seemed like a few of the methods involved teaching children to disdain the innocent, child-like (even if not childish), virtuous, or heroic stories, fictional and factual.

Fairy tales and folk tales are for children and childlike people, not because they are little and inconsequential, but because they are as enormous as life itself.

Tending the Heart of Virtue and The Mysteries of Life in Children's Literature address these issues quite well.

The really effective killer of the moral imagination, though, will want to raise children who snicker at anyone who possesses a remarkable virtue.

If we laugh at those who strive to do what is right in story and history, we see ourselves as superior. Virtue becomes something to avoid. It is better to be smart than wise, self-confident than humble, powerful than kind.

They will have nothing to be proud of, yet will scoff at humility. They will fancy themselves important, and will be slaves to the contemptuous marketers of the day. They will string after their names the letters of degrees from institutions of higher learning, and will not be able to read Milton--or be willing to read Milton. They will be aspiring, breathlessly, for prestige, a promotion, a nicer house, the office of lieutenant governor--but will have no hero to love, no hero's mentality to serve.

Whether modern American society is purposely shaped by political or corporate forces with the intention to destroy imagination in children and shape them into mere consumers of the next big, bright, shiny, expensive toy or experience, Dr. Esolen makes a strong case that these forces are present and they may prevent children from living a life beyond the next paycheck or vacation.

Our lifestyle here on the Range (homeschooling with living books, camping for family vacations, regular family meals together, living our Catholic faith) counters the kinds of forces Dr. Esolen outlines in this book. Though these choices may seem counter-cultural within the greater American society, they feel natural to me. It's much more difficult for me to imagine a way to expand our influence to the greater society, and this particular book doesn't provide specifics on ways people can influence the larger community to enact changes against the ten methods Dr. Esolen has identified.

I received a electronic version of this book free from the publisher. I recently saw a similar deal on facebook and an online search found lots of sites where you can download a e-book file (which you can then transfer to an e-reader) or a PDF you can read on your computer. It's a bit ironic given a mournful lament about the death of so many paper books in one of the chapters, but I appreciated being able to read this book without purchasing a copy.

The italic print: Links to Amazon are affiliate links. As an affiliate with Amazon, I receive a small commission if you follow one of my links, add something to your cart, and complete the purchase (in that order). Every little bit helps - thanks!

My Favorite Picture Books: Rocks in His Head

Rocks in His Head by Carol Otis Hurst, pictures by James Stevenson

Based on the true story of the author's father, this book is a fantastic addition to a geology study. He loved rocks from the time he was a young boy, collecting and studying them his entire life. Every few pages the phrase "rocks in his head" repeats, to which her father always agreeably replies, "Maybe I do."

There's a little history (the rise of the automobile and the Great Depression) in addition to the geology, but most importantly is his humility and quiet perseverance. His rocks give him a steady joy, even when faced with struggles. In this end, his dedication to his passion and his never-ending quest for more knowledge earn him his dream job.

Second Daughter has been inspired to not only collect rocks after reading this book, but to search through myriads of library books to identify her rocks and label them. Now she and First Daughter have rock displays on their dressers.

November 2015 Book Reports

Editha's Burglar by Frances Hodgson Burnett is the story of a little girl who confronts a thief and foists upon him her own treasures in a courageous effort to prevent discomfort to her mother. It's a short book and sweet in its way. First Daughter (in third grade) will probably want to read it. (library copy)

The Diary of John Wesley Powell, Conquering the Grand Canyon edited by Connie and Peter Roop is an abridged and edited version of Powell's diary of his first expedition through the Grand Canyon. The editors claim to have remained faithful to Powell's meaning when adapting the text. From what I can tell, his writing would have been well served by better editing before his original book was published, so I wouldn't be too wary of sharing an edited version with my children. This book was created for young readers and I would expect First Daughter (in third grade) to be able to read it easily. I am considering reading this aloud to all of the children in anticipation of a hoped-for trip to the Grand Canyon ourselves. The natural world is portrayed in glorious and exciting language and the real risks of the expedition are clear. (library copy)

Francie on the Run by Hilda van Stockum is the second book in the Bantry Bay series. I read the first, The Cottage at Bantry Bay, aloud to the children last year. The one finally made it to the top of the pile. Though my mother's heart stopped at the thought of a six year old boy wandering Ireland, his adventures lead him to kind and generous hosts and all turns out well. I loved reading in my pale imitation of an Irish accent, too, and the children did not complain. They all loved Francie! (purchased Kindle version directly from the publisher)

Good Poems ed by Garrison Keillor is a book Kansas Dad and I picked out with a gift card on a visit to a bookstore on our anniversary. Oh, how exciting we are! I enjoyed reading the variety of poems selected. Well-known names like Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are mingled with new poets. A book like this is a good one from which to read a poem a day, which is what I did. (purchased copy)

Laudato Si -- On Care for Our Common Home by Pope Francis in an encyclical which teaches the important of being good stewards of the earth and how that stewardship is intertwined with care for all people, most especially the weak, the manipulated, and those trapped by poverty. We read this with the adult education class at our parish. (copy provided by our parish)

Don Camillo and His Flock by Giovanni Guareschi, translated by Una Vincenzo Troubridge - Read my review. (inter-library loan copy)

The Education Of Catholic Girls by Janet Erskine Stuart - Read my review. (free Kindle version)

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare - I have the Shakespeare Made Easy version. I like these editions because I can read the play as Shakespeare wrote it without interruptions unless I want to check my understanding. Then I can glance at the other page to see a contemporary version. Often I turn to the modern words for the comic scenes. The puns and allusions are the most difficult to understand. The children are memorizing lines from Twelfth Night right now with How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare. (received in a swap on PaperBackSwap.com)

In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden - Read my review. (library copy) 


Books in Progress (and date started)

• Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol 2 (sixth edition) (August 2014)
• For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay (January 2015, with my Start Here book club)
• Humility of Heart by Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (February 2015)
• Towards A Philosophy of Education (Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series) by Charlotte Mason (May 2015)
• George Washington, Spymaster: How the Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War by Thomas B. Allen (November 2015) 
• Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child by Anthony Esolen (November 2015)
• The Long Christmas by Ruth Sawyer (November 2015)
• The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (November 2015)
• The Nature of Kansas Lands edited by Beverley Worster (November 2015)

The italic print: Links to Amazon are affiliate links. As an affiliate with Amazon, I receive a small commission if you follow one of my links, add something to your cart, and complete the purchase (in that order). Links to PaperBackSwap could give me a referral credit if you follow the link, establish a new account, and post ten books. Links to RC History are affiliate links. Other links are not affiliate links.

These reports are my honest opinions. 

Challenges and Encouragement: The Education of Catholic Girls

The Education of Catholic Girls by Janet Erskine Stuart

Originally written in 1912 (with an imprimatur), this book speaks to the educators and parents of Catholic girls, though much of the content applies to all Christian students, male and female. There are chapters on religion and character, Catholic philosophy, lessons and play, mathematics, natural science, English, modern languages, history, art, manners, and higher education of women.

The sections focused on mathematics and science are the ones most likely to seem outrageous to modern readers. As a woman with a degree in cell biology and genetics, I believe the author's discouragement of women and girls studying such subjects is incorrect. Men and women all contribute to the glory of God and many women may do so in math, science, and engineering. Yet finding a balance between the blessings of intellectual abilities and what it means to be a woman, how that might shape our families and our lives (because there are differences between men and women), is a challenging struggle. One of the most important reasons she presents for her hesitation in young women pursuing higher education is that "an atmosphere for the higher education of girls has not yet been created in the universities." I believe universities still lack such an atmosphere. Many women who successfully maneuver through sciences do so by bravely sacrificing their respectability as scientists to serve their families or reluctantly sacrifice service to their families (or a family at all) in order to compete in what is still a field dominated by men and a set of expectations nearly unchanged since the publication of this book.

Let us admit the author is incorrect in some of her assumptions regarding the intellectual capabilities of girls and continue reading regardless.

The early chapters focused on faith, specifically the Catholic faith. Many faith-filled and well-meaning materials for children are, in fact, childish. Mother Janet rejects simplifications. (I think Charlotte Mason would agree.)

The best security is to have nothing to unlearn, to know that what one knows is a very small part of what can be known, but that as far as it goes it is true and genuine, and cannot be outgrown, that it will stand both the wear of time and the test of growing power of thought, and that those who have taught these beliefs will never have to retract or be ashamed of them, or own that they were passed off, though inadequate, upon the minds of children.

For this reason, I love the Faith and Life books for catechism for our homeschool. They are not exciting and lack a story or narrative (other than the narrative of creation), but they are clear and precise at every level. There are no simplifications or glossings in even the earliest books that must be clarified later on.

The habit of work is another necessity in any life worth living, and this is only learnt by refraining again and again from what is pleasant for the sake of what is precious.

Another aspect of this book was the encouragement to develop our own characters, knowing that as educators our very persons and daily actions are more important than any "subject" we teach.

We labour to produce character, we must have it. We look for courage and uprightness, we must bring them with us. We want honest work, we have to give proof of it ourselves.

I declared this year the Year of Nature Study in our homeschool and therefore took careful notice of the sections on nature study. Week after week, we go out for a nature walk and week after week, I am doubtful we have learned anything of value. Perhaps we have...

The object of informal nature study is to put children directly in touch with the beautiful and wonderful things which are within their reach. Its lesson-book is everywhere, its time is every time, its spirit is wonder and delight.

Our walks are certainly "informal." A friend and I have a small co-op for nature study, among other things. I commented to her our nature walks are more Last Child in the Woods than Handbook of Nature Study, but at least we're there.

How little we should know if we only admitted first-hand knowledge, but the stories of wonder from those who have seen urge us on to see for ourselves; and so we swing backwards and forwards, from the world outside to the books, to find out more, from the books to the world outside to see for ourselves.

Repeatedly this year we have read something and then encountered something similar or related in our nature walks. Rivers and Oceans (which is outrageously expensive so use this link instead) and Rocks, Rivers and the Changing Earth come to mind.

One must know the whole round of the year in the country to catch the spirit of any season and perceive whence it comes and whither it goes.

We have also been visiting a few of the same places to acquaint ourselves with them through all the seasons.

The outcome of these considerations is that the love of nature is a great source of happiness for children, happiness of the best kind in taking possession of a world that seems to be in many ways designed especially for them. It brings their minds to a place where many ways meet; to the confines of science, for they want to know the reasons of things; to the confines of art, for what they can understand they will strive to interpret and express; to the confines of worship, for a child's soul, hushed in wonder, is very near to God.

The author's thoughts on recitation and memorization struck me as well. I wrote about our own poetry memorization years ago, and have continued to ponder its worth. Mother Janet believed there is a value to recited poetry aloud (even when not memorized) because the sound of his or her own voice saying beautiful words outside his or her normal vocabulary expands the student's repertoire. In her experience, recitation leads to a desire for memorization. Memorization then leads to a love of reading and the formation of a literary taste. She cautions, however, to choose pieces wisely.

But it is a matter of importance to choose recitations so that nothing should be learnt which must be thrown away, nothing which is not worth remembering for life. It is a pity to make children acquire what they will soon despise when they might learn something that they will grow up to and prize as long as they live.

Reading aloud is eloquently supported.

Their first acquaintance with beautiful things is best established by reading aloud to them, and this need not be limited entirely to what they can understand at the time. Even if we read something that is beyond them, they have listened to the cadences, they have heard the song without the words, the words will come to them later.

A final quote:

A "finished education" is an illusion or else a lasting disappointment; the very word implies a condition of mind which is opposed to any further development, a condition of self-satisfaction.

Overall, I felt challenged and encouraged as an educator, of boys and girls, by reading this book.

October 2015 Book Reports

Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition by Karen Glass - Read my review. (library copy)

Little Men: Life At Plumfield with Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott was a pre-read for First Son, who will read this book independently this year (sixth grade). It's a sweet little book, but I was disapointed to find it more didactic (and therefore less enjoyable) than I remembered from my youth. Now I'm a little leary of reading Little Women again lest it fail to live up to its memory. (A Little Princess and The Secret Garden both seemed even better than I remembered, so at least I have them.) (library copy)

The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi, translated by Una Vincenzo Troubridge - Read my review. (library copy)

The Story of the Amulet by E. Nesbit is the third and last book in the trilogy begun by Five Children and It. We found it a satisfying end to the tale. (listened to this recording on Librivox)

Turkey for Christmas by Marguerite De Angeli is a quiet sweet story of the little sacrifices we make for those we love, especially at Christmas. I've added it to our rotation of family read alouds for Advent and think my girls will enjoy it. (library copy)

The Wild Muir: Twenty-Two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures selected by Lee Stetson - Read my review. (library copy)

Books in Progress (and date started)

• The Education Of Catholic Girls by Janet Erskine Stuart (February 2014)
• Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol 2 (sixth edition) (August 2014)
• Good Poems ed by Garrison Keillor (October 2014) 
• For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay (January 2015, with my Start Here book club)
• Humility of Heart by Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (February 2015)
• Towards A Philosophy Of Education (Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series) by Charlotte Mason (May 2015)
• Laudato Si -- On Care for Our Common Home by Pope Francis (September 2015, with our parish's adult education class)
• The Diary of John Wesley Powell, Conquering the Grand Canyon edited by Connie and Peter Roop (October 2015)

Links to Amazon are affiliate links. As an affiliate with Amazon, I receive a small commission if you follow one of my links, add something to your cart, and complete the purchase (in that order). My homeschooling budget is always grateful for any purchases. 

Links to RC History are affiliate links.

Links to Sacred Heart Books and Gifts are not affiliate links.

These reports are my honest opinions. 

Consider This: Virtue, Humility, and Synthetic Knowledge

Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition by Karen Glass

I have been reading about, contemplating, and imperfectly implementing Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education for more than seven years. This book is a delightful reminder that no matter how much I read and how many narrations I suffer through encourage, there is always more to learn.

Karen Glass is a member of the advisory of AmblesideOnline, a free online curriculum for today based on Charlotte Mason's philosophy. I recently read and reviewed her abridgement of Mason's sixth volume, Towards a Philosophy of Education, called Mind to Mind. I started reading this book earlier, but one of the disadvantages of reading through a library book slowly is the probability of another person requesting the book. A few of us were taking turns with it, I think, but I've finally finished reading it.

The author claims Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education is consistent with classical education.

We might understand character-training as a task that belongs to parents, or churches, but we tend to separate that kind of teaching from the teaching of school subjects such as math or grammar. The classical educators did not make such a distinction. All areas of education were brought into service for this single goal--to teach children to think and act rightly.

I don't know much about classical education, mainly just what I've read on blogs by those mostly interested in Charlotte Mason's methods, but it seems to me that Ms. Glass has smoothed Charlotte Mason's relationship with the classical tradition mainly by asserting that the modern idea of classical education (particularly the concentration on the trivium in sequence: grammar, logic, rhetoric) is a deviation from the original idea of a classical education. I'm tempted to agree, but I think someone educating using the trivium today would be less likely to be convinced by this book that Charlotte Mason was a classical educator. To do so, would they have to admit that they have strayed from the classical idea?

If we can get a vision of grammar, logic, and rhetoric not as subjects to be studied but as arts to be practiced and refined in the process of reading, narrating, and writing, we can see how beautifully Charlotte Mason's methods may be considered a synthetic implementation of the trivium of classical instruction, more especially when the ultimate goal of forming character and virtue is recalled.

Despite a title and main argument concerned with classical education, I most appreciated how this book inspired me anew in my dedication to my own education in reading widely and fostering humility and in my understanding of Charlotte Mason's philosophy in practice.

If virtue is the true goal of classical education, pride in intellectual achievement is the perfect stumbling block to ensure that the goal is never reached. In other words, we must not only become humble, but remain humble if we want to continue our pursuit of wisdom and virtue.

I have recognized my own lack of humility in the past year or so and have thought much on how to practice true humility.

Even after all these years, it is good to be reminded why we read so many books all at once, why we insist on composer study, piano, Latin, geography, history, and science.

We should not limit our children's exposure to knowledge, not because they need to acquire a great deal of information about everything, but because they need to develop relationships with every area of knowledge.

These relationships are the goal rather than the knowledge itself. Therefore, not only must students read widely, even in areas in which they do not feel an immediate affinity, but these lessons must be pleasant and inviting: living books.

Every child's mind will take what it requires, and we respect the personhood of children by not substituting our insights for their own needs. If they are to be nourished, they must take that nourishment for themselves. If one takes more or something very different from another, we accept this. If the feast is wide, various, and composed of only the best, there will be something for everyone.

Reading books on a variety of subjects slowly over time allows the student to make connections between them, recognizing the interwoven nature of science, discovery, and historical events.

Consider This encouraged me tremendously in our school's pursuit of virtue and poetic knowledge. A deceptively thin book, it's pages are thought-provoking and galvanizing for anyone interested in Charlotte Mason's methods.

Book Review and a Giveaway(!): Mind to Mind

Mind to Mind: An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason and Karen Glass

Karen Glass, a member of the Advisory at AmblesideOnline, has abridged Charlotte Mason's sixth volume, Towards A Philosophy Of Education, in an effort to provide a clear and concise summary of Mason's most comprehensive book.

A Charlotte Mason aficionado might gasp at an abridgement, but I think Ms. Glass has done a great service to the modern educator, at home or in a school. Her website states:

If you cannot bear to think of reading anything less than every word Charlotte Mason wrote in her original volume, this abridgment is not for you. (I confess that I fall into that category, myself.) But if you have tried to read Charlotte Mason’s volumes and found the Victorian-style prose hard going, or simply lack the time to tackle the long books, this shorter version may be exactly what you need.

Very carefully, Ms. Glass has removed references to events and people unfamiliar today while maintaining the heart of Mason's philosophy and exhortations. She has not altered any of Charlotte Mason's words, merely removed some of them. Though I am not an expert, I could find no instance where the removal of words altered Mason's assertions. Mind to Mind flows seamlessly without jarring instances where the reader notices something missing. In addition, Ms. Glass also added helpful chapter divisions and introductory paragraphs. Some sections of complete text appear in one of the three appendices.

I read Towards a Philosophy of Education years ago when my oldest was just beginning school. With four young children and a part-time job, my ability to concentrate suffered greatly. A book like Mind to Mind would have introduced me to the philosophy of Charlotte Mason without wading through as much text. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in an introduction to Charlotte Mason. After reading Mind to Mind, it would be a smooth transition to read not only the complete text of Towards a Philosophy of Education, but any of Charlotte Mason's five other volumes.

Giveaway

With the permission of the author, I have decided to give away my review copy of Mind to Mind. It's the one I read and the cover looks like it's been carried around a bit, but the pages are clean and I didn't write or underline it in. If you'd like to enter, just leave a comment below (make sure I can contact you) before midnight Central time on Monday telling me why you'd like to read Mind to Mind. Friends and family are welcome to enter, but US addresses only. I'll use a sophisticated method to choose a winner (writing names on pieces of paper and letting my one non-literate child pull one out of a bowl).

Mind to Mind officially releases tomorrow, September 4, but I see Amazon is already shipping copies, so you can order now and have your copy in hand before my giveaway is over and the Matchbook price for the Kindle is $0, so you could start reading the e-book within a few minutes.


I received a free copy of this book from the author for an honest review. Links to Amazon are affiliate links, but links to the author's website are not.

April 2015 Book Reports

My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier is the tragic story of a family devastated by the Revolutionary War. I appreciated the attempt to show the Tory side of the war and how families were divided. I felt like the end was unnecessarily hopeless. It would be much too violent to read aloud to my younger children (who will be 9, 7, and 5 next year), but I think I'll even look for something else for my 11 year old son to read. (library copy)

Bright April by Marguerite De Angeli is the endearing story of a young black girl. Her Brownie troop is a prominent part of her life so nature study forms a background for much of her education. On a special trip, she suffers discrimination and prejudice but with some wise advice and comfort endures to develop a friendship instead. I plan to read this aloud to the family next year. I think Second Daughter (who will be 7) will particularly enjoy it. (library copy)

Mysteries of Life in Children's Literature by Mitchell Kalpakgian - my review. (inter-library loan)

Cinnabar, the One O'Clock Fox by Marguerite Henry was recommended by someone in the Read-Aloud Revival facebook group. As we're just approaching the beginning of the Revolutionary War in our American history, I thought we could give it a try even though I hadn't read it myself. I thought it was a fine book, but my children all loved it. They begged for me to read from it first every day. It's not particularly historical and, I think, made fox hunting out to be a bit less cruel than it really is, but it was fun. (library copy)

The Wide Window (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 3) by Lemony Snicket. We listened to this book on audio CD. I was pleased to point out the reference to Damocles to my daughter since we had read that myth earlier this year. We also had a good discussion about how authors choose names for characters that tell us more about them (like Captain Sham). The author reads this one, and he's a better author than narrator. (library copy)

Anna and the Baby Buzzard by Helga Sandburg with fantastic illustrations by Brinton Turkle is a book I found while searching the library catalog for something else. I just love Turkle's illustrations. Anna steals a baby buzzard from a nest (the saddest part of the book) and raises it as her own, learning to let him grow up and be a buzzard. Second Daughter is fascinated by birds and will just love this book. I intend to read it aloud next year. It's a bit long to consider it a picture book, but it is not a chapter book either. (library copy)

A Dog Called Homeless by Sarah Lean is the story of a girl who stops talking about a year after her mother's death, the blind-deaf boy who befriends her, and the dog who attaches himself to them both. Somehow it all comes together. Cally sees her dead mother, which is a little weird. I can't decide if she's supposed to be a ghost or if Cally is imagining her; the text isn't definitive. This is a middle grade book, touching on themes of loss, family, loving parents who might not know the best thing to do, and being comforted. This will be an option for First Daughter next year in third grade. (library copy)

El Deafo by Cece Bell is a graphic novel based on the author's life after she becomes deaf as a young child. She invents a alter-ego superhero to help her navigate elementary school. My children love this book, especially my 8 year old daughter. I think some of the references to a crush in fifth grade were unnecessary, but generally liked the way the tale is accesible to those who are not deaf, giving some insight into what it is like to be deaf and how important friendships and honesty are, especially when someone's life is so different from your own. As a interesting side note, one of our librarians is deaf. She used an aid like the one in the book but didn't have as good an experience with it and eventually stopped using it. (library copy)

King David and His Songs by Mary Fabyan Windeatt is a biography of King David in which the author imagines him singing one of his psalms throughout his life, with one psalm in each chapter. David's sins are appropriately presented for kids of all ages (as well as his penintence), but this isn't the kind of book that explores his life in great depth. My children enjoyed listening to this biography, recommended for Volume 1 of Connecting with History. (purchased copy)

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes - my review. (library copy) 

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo was recommended on a facebook thread for the Read Aloud Revival group. Our library had an audio copy available and we needed something for the van, so I requested it...and absolutely loved it. This book may be one of my favorites of all time. There's courage, goodness, honesty, and kindness, in a world that's a little bit silly. Don't watch the movie. (library copy)

Evangelizing Catholics: A Mission Manual for the New Evangelization by Scott Hahn was the book selected for the adult education class at our parish. Overall, I'd have to say I don't recommend it. Though I don't think it was intentional, the depiction of Protestants seemed more negative than positive (or even neutral). I felt like Dr. Hahn wrote this book really quickly off the top of his head in order to have a book on the shelves focused on the New Evangelization and I think he probably has better books, though I haven't read anything else he's written. (borrowed from the parish)

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry is another book set in Port William. This one tells the life of Jayber Crow, a bachelor barber who falls in love with a woman married to another man and remains faithful to her in secret until her death while her unfaithful husband ruins her family's land in a quest for a bigger and more industrialized farm of modern America. It's not quite as grim as it sounds, but was not as near lovely as Hannah Coulter. (library copy)

I also finished Minn of the Mississippi, Galen and the Gateway to Medicine, and Our Lady's Book. I read these just ahead of First Son, who read them independently in school this year (fifth grade). I may write homeschool review posts of them at some point. (all purchased copies)


Books in Progress (and date started)

• Open Mind, Faithful Heart by Pope Francis (January 2014) 
• The Education Of Catholic Girls by Janet Erskine Stuart (February 2014)
• Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol 2 (sixth edition) (August 2014)
• Good Poems ed by Garrison Keillor (October 2014) 
• For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay (January 2015, with my Start Here book club)
• The Story of the Amulet by E. Nesbit (February 2015, listening with the children on LibriVox)
• Humility of Heart by Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (February 2015)
• Lost in the Barrens by Farley Mowat (April 2015)
• The Austere Academy (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 5) by Lemony Snicket (April 2015)
• The Reb and the Redcoats by Constance Savery

Links to Amazon are affiliate links. As an affiliate with Amazon, I receive a small commission if you follow one of my links, add something to your cart, and complete the purchase (in that order). My homeschooling budget is always grateful for any purchases. 

Links to RC History are affiliate links.

Links to Sacred Heart Books and Gifts are not affiliate links.

These reports are my honest opinions.