In September I finished reading the following books. I am still working my way through
Muscular Christianity but hope to finish it in the next week and include it in my October post.
Since Mary enjoyed
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George so much, she asked to read
On the Far Side of the Mountain, the next book in this trilogy. These books are about a boy, Sam Gribley, who left his New York home to live off the land in the Catskills. Sam's younger sister Alice now is also living with him in his wilderness home. A very sad event occurs at the very beginning of this book. Sam's greatest companion, Frightful, a female peregrine falcon is confiscated by a conservation officer, who explains to Sam that it is against the law for him to keep an endangered species. When Alice leaves, Sam fears for her safety and sets out in pursuit along with his friend, Bando. This book contains wonderful descriptions of Sam and Alice's resourcefulness and creativity in using materials they find in the wilderness. For example, they make compasses, sundials, slingshots, etc. We also learned a bit about about breeding falcons and orienteering in this book.
We moved on and read the final book of the trilogy by Jean Craighead George:
Frightful's Mountain. This book, written from Frightful's perspective, describes how Frightful becomes less and less imprinted on Sam and more and more wild and instinctual. She raises eyases that lost their mother, mates and raises her own eyases, and even migrates for the winter and returns again to the Catskills. Since we are studying about flying creatures of the fifth day in science this year, this book reinforced a lot of our lessons. There is information about the kinds of nests that falcons build, their mating and reproductive habits, as well as how they nurture and care for their young. This book also contains interesting information on how falconers are able to raise young eyases and reintroduce them into the wild. The description about Frightful's migration ought to make everyone stand amazed at the great Designer! It is amazing how birds know to eat more to increase their fat stores, when to leave, what direction to go, when to come back and not only to come back but to come back to the same location! Not only that, but I gained a deeper appreciation for all the hardships that birds undergo in their migratory travels. It's amazing that they are able to survive at all! God is amazing!
I read
Homer Price by Robert McCloskey to the girls while we were homebound because of Tropical Storm Lee's visit! This book, originally published in 1943, contains six short stories about a young boy, Homer, who lives in the small mid-western town of Centerburg. Our copy has a different cover, a picture of the doughnut machine, so it has become known as
The Doughnut Book in our house. And that was the story we liked most from this collection! I really enjoyed a glimpse of a small town that I have never myself experienced.
I checked
America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money by Steve and Annette Economides out of our local library. I have been intrigued by this book for quite some time after seeing it in the
Rainbow Resource catalog. This book provides useful information on setting up a family budget as well as money-saving tips in specific areas like groceries, cars, housing, utilities, medical, clothing, recreation, and vacations. There is also a chapter on the system that they use to teach their children about handling money, called the Payday System. David and I are in discussions about whether this system or a revised form might be useful with our children. I enjoyed reading about their grocery shopping strategy. Annette and Steve shop for all their groceries once a month--everything, even all their produce. One covers the outer section and one covers the inner aisles. The communicate while they're shopping on walkie talkies, so they can tell each other about the great deals they find. They do use coupons, but each party is responsible for his/her domain. Their theory is that the less you venture into a store, the less you will spend. I am not ready to attempt this, but it was really interesting to read about it! I also picked up a great tip from reading this book on
deli meat. I am also really excited about bringing my slow cooker on my next vacation to prepare an inexpensive meal!
A good friend of mine, also a home-schooling mom of four, told me about
Managers of Their Homes A Practical Guide to Daily Scheduling for Christian Home-School Families. Since she lives in Utah now, I was able to borrow this book from another friend and mentor. The authors, Steven and Teri Maxwell, are Christians and offer not only practical suggestions for devising a workable schedule but also tons of spiritual encouragement. They tested out this kit with several families first and have included comments/questions resulting from these trials in the margins of the book. Their method for developing a schedule is very easy to use. I have found after using a schedule for two weeks that I am actually able to get more accomplished. Okay, I'm still not really venturing out of the home except for the boys' weight checks and to go grocery shopping, but the house is cleaner, laundry is done, dinner is
usually ready, and we are able to do more extra things, like crafts and music. I have been able to have scheduled time with Maggie to work on letter sounds and numbers and read and play puzzles, all things which I wanted to do before, but seemed to get crowded out by other things. I personally love the freedom of a schedule and that I don't need to remember what everyone's supposed to be doing because it's all written down. I would note, however, that I did notice that the moms who tested the book did not all subscribe to the chapter on scheduling babies. Some chose to schedule their babies, while others chose to feed on demand. The schedule can accommodate either approach. My husband has been so impressed with how much we are accomplishing that he wants to develop a schedule for Sundays, too!
No comments:
Post a Comment