**Update 7/20/11 (Book list has been updated below to exclude the Pearl books. Not going to read them after reading this post by the friend of a child who is now dead because of their methods of child training.)
It's been a long time since I logged in to my blog and just wrote a random post. Lucky you. Today is the day I'm going to do it. [Feel free to clear your throat and politely click away - I won't notice.]
Most of you are enjoying a summer off from homeschooling and are even starting to gear up for "back to school". We've been doing perpetual school - which really translates to "school whenever we can" - for a long, long while. Therefore, I get kind of discouraged at all the "back to school" talk... since our breaks mostly consist of doctor visits, baby or teenage meltdown days, and just life interruptions... and we fit school all around those like a sloppy post-reunion tin-foil potluck dish might be covered in foil. Patch here. Patch there... whatever's left of the day - slap some "school" on it - don't let the time leak out un-used.
Forgive my food analogies. I eat a lot to keep up with the breastfeeding 5 month old... and @AnnVoskamp just mentioned BACON on Twitter. #forshame
And so... I've been trying to figure out a way to not just 'do school' but to thrive in the environment we live in - to capture the JOY of the moment - the JOY in the journey... to be OK with the stage that we are in and to maximize our meager efforts and make the most out of "what we have been given".
Which brings me to my current reading list:
The Ministry of Motherhood
The Mission of Motherhood
Educating the WholeHearted Child
One Thousand Gifts
The Growing Homeschool
Held by God
Eat That Frog
The Imperfect Guide to Homeschooling
Life Management for Busy Women
Shepherding a Child's Heart
The Available Parent
The Five Love Languages of Children
The Way They Learn
Bring Out the Best in Your Child and Your Self
Training Children in Godliness
Creating Family Traditions
Driven to Distraction
15 Minute Home and Family Organizer
Simple Fun for Busy People
Brain Rules for Baby
A Help for Domestic Happiness
The SleepEasy Solution
Homeschooling and Loving It
Queen of the Castle
5 Conversations You Must Have with Your Daughter
5 Conversations You Must Have with Your Son
Power of a Praying Parent
To Love, Honor, and Vacuum
Love Dare
Is there Life After Housework?
Speed Cleaning
A Charlotte Mason Primer
The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach
Understanding Learning: the How, the Why, the What
Emotional Intelligence
The Organized Home Schooler
The Lazy Gourmet
Family Feasts for 75$ a Week
The Un-Healthy Truth
Healthy Mom
Some of these are re-reads for me... but oh, so worth it. Others are ones given to me by friends, or authors for review. These books cover a broad range of topics I'm always reading about: motherhood, parenting, marraige, homeschooling, learning, organizing, feeding my family, being a Godly example and learning to accept my "station" and this "phase" in life as a blessing - no matter how much chaos comes with today (basically that would mean books on FAITH and Christianity - as it relates to motherhood).
My goal is to get through all of these books by the end of this school year... which would be July 2012 as a closing date... or thereabouts.
And not just those books... because I also have a few other favorites to add to the list - some that Apologia is sending for me to review. [Shhh! Don't tell them that I would have purchased the books anyway.]
I'm hoping to add these books to my "Teacher's Reading List" for this school year, too:
7 Tools for Cultivating Your Child's Potential
SoundBites from Heaven
How to Have a HEART for Your Kids
Six Ways to Keep the "Little" in Your Girl: Guiding Your Daughter from Her Tweens to Her Teens (Secret Keeper Girl)
Read for the Heart: Whole Books for WholeHearted Families
Seasons of a Mother's Heart
The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling
The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Teens
As you can see I have my free time all slotted with reading - until the cows come home. And that's OK with me. Although it might cut in to my Instagram time.
I'm hoping to get a few book reviews to you later as the school year unfolds. I'm pretty sure that I'll be including some amazing book GIVE - AWAYS as well. You won't want to miss that. I love getting a free book in the mail. I'm sure you do, too.
Now that I have a lot of great books to read, I wish I had groceries. But alas, we're going to have to move the schoolin' to the road today and go snag us a burger before we shop to fill the pantry. Homeschooling requires that you also keep a functional kitchen and household, unfortunately. It really is a busy job being home all day with kids. My husband learned a looong time ago not to EVER ask "So, what did you do today?"
Because ya-know? I just might answer him. #scarythought
[Do you have some great books that aren't listed here? Any thoughts on these? Want to help me sort them by your top 5 so I get to the best ones first? It's so hard! They all look interesting.]
11 comments:
Wow! That's a lot of books to read. I have no doubt you can do it, but I know I couldn't. I love to read, but wow! Have fun!
I am glad to know you are going to take a year to get all the books reviewed. I was feeling a little lazy thinking you had just read them all. HA HA I have read some of them and really did like them. A few of my favorites were Shepherding a Child's Heart and To Train Up a Child.
As for summer breaks, I hear you. We really school year round here too, so "Back-to-School" isn't a huge thing for us either. My daughter uses Time4Learning and Teaching Textbooks along with whatever we need to supplement with. We kinda semi-unschool. I say semi because we do use and online resource (T4L and TT). We live mostly a farm life and she learns tons from that.
Thanks for sharing your extensive book list. I will have to keep an eye out for your book giveaways! I saw some that looked interesting.
Joyfully,
Jackie
My Attempt at Blogging
Educating the WholeHearted Child is my all-time favorite!!
One I would recommend is The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell. (Possibly on your Apologia list?)I reviewed it for the TOS Crew a couple of years ago & was surprised at the ideas & encouragement I got from it. I had wrongly assumed that it was for newbies.
I have 5 kiddos ranging from 14 to 2 - I feel your chaos. Thanks for a great list to browse!
It's encouraging to read a "real-life" post! (although your book list was intimidating until you said you were giving yourself until next July).
I have read several of them and actually have a few of them slated to read as well. The Five Love Languages of Children and Shepherding a Child's Heart are two I'm quite anxious to start on!
Thank you for all of the wonderful recommendations! I am bookmarking this post. :-). Two that I would add are "A Pocketful of Pinecones" and "Weapons of Mass Instruction". Oh, and I have just finished John Holt's "Teach Your Own", which was excellent, too.
Hi Heather, Sounds like you'll be reading a lot..but remember.. no DRIVING while you do it. LoL!
My favorite books for homeschooling or homemaking are:
No Greater Joy I,II, and III
Survivor's Guide to Homeschooling
Boundaries (helps if you have a hard time delegating)
How to Have a 48Hr. Day by Don Aslett
Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley (FlyLady) (I like Spring Cleaning too but not when my life started getting crazy. :o)
I've been homeschooling 22 years now and raised five teenagers. I now have almost six grandchildren..
but still have three kids at home ages 16, 19, and 20.
I love your blog, Heather! Thanks for dropping by. It's nice to get in touch. BTW, I did a sort of 'book review' of Boundaries today for our Tuesday Tea chat. It might give you an idea if you would actually like it or not.
I also love many of the books on your list having read a substantial number of them. Have a great week!
Xo
Donna @ Comin' Home
PS. I ADORE the Love Dare!! Fabulous! Though I do wish they would make it for families and not just for couples. It's wonderful and we used it for daily devotions for some time. I just 'paraphrased'.
The challenges to love in various ways were very interesting to my teens. They picked right up on it!
I suggest starting with One Thousand Gifts. Happy Reading!
What a great list of books,minus The No Greater Joy books - ditch those and you have the perfect list. Anything by Sally Clarkson would make the top 5 for me. Looking forward to your reviews.
You homeschool, manage a family, blog AND read?! My personal reading habit went downhill when I started blogging and now I don't blog . . . Trying to get back into some good habits. Adorable picture! Thanks for sharing.
Good God woman when do you sleep? :) Great book list but wow! I have a few going... that I've been reading for a long time now. I'm also feeling like a 4 month summer break is in order, rather then the 2 1/2 months we are currently in the middle of. Then maybe I could get my books read too!
Post a Comment