Books and Curricula (or, How A Homeschool Mom Attempts to Regain Some Sanity)

On Friday I did one of my favorite (yet most guilt-inducing) things to do: I buried my nose in a book, almost all day long. I had an intimidating list of things I should have been doing... and yet. The book was Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson. It's... well, you could say it's detective fiction, but that really wouldn't do it justice. The detective is believable and the victims all seem like real people, set in real families, whose losses seem unbearable because the author paints such a nuanced portrait of them. I had never heard of the book, or the author, but I came across it at the Scholastic Book Sale and thought it looked intriguing. Nice to have a hunch play out.

I also picked up Amy Tan's Saving Fish From Drowning and Anne Tyler's The Amateur Marriage. Summer projects. Oh! And how come none of you have ever told me about ANNE LAMOTT??????? Oh. My. Gosh! I'm in the middle of Plan B: Further Thoughts On Faith, and I'm already plotting to figure out how I can amass everything she's ever written. I picked this one up at Costco purely on the title, and figured out about three pages into the book that I needed to read anything of hers I can ever get my hands on. And I also figured out, after mentioning her to some of my friends, that I'm apparently the last person in America to have heard of her. That, my friends, is one of the hazards of homeschooling, isn't it - Head In Sand Syndrome. (I was also the last person in America to hear of this guy - and how sad, too, since what he's accomplished is so extraordinary!)

Furthermore, to report back in on a book previously mentioned, sometime over the winter I finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer. Unspeakably good.

And for Patty (and other Dallas Willard fans out there), I'm maybe a third of the way through Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ. Which is making me wonder about how different my life might look if I practiced even a small fraction of the spiritual disciplines that I know I should. Not in a guilty way, either - more in a curious, maybe-I-should-try-that way.

And Crissy, wow, I can't believe that you remembered that I was looking for new math and grammar programs! Except that I probably am ALWAYS doing that. Sigh. Anyway, I did buy MathUSee for my daughter last month. I'm still giving her the (expletive-expletive) Saxon worksheets for now, but we're not doing any of the (expletive-expletive) lessons. I'm just kind of finishing the book to a point where I feel satisfied, and we'll pick up the MUS at the beginning of next year.

BUT, as for GRAMMAR, I have purchased something that I LOVE, so far - Analytical Grammar. Ah! This program is wonderful! (Yes, I'm infatuated!) It has straight-forward explanations. No-nonsense worksheets. No overkill. Easy to schedule. But thorough instruction. And... diagramming. (Be still, my heart!) We started it last week, and I will let you know how it goes this summer. But so far, it's the New Best Thing.

Now, if I could only figure out the New Best Thing for teaching Algebra. Yes, the time I have dreaded since beginning homeschooling has now arrived: I must research, and select, an Algebra program. Pray for me. Not since potty-training have I had less enthusiasm for a parental duty.

Summer Sampling

Yesterday my eldest babybird had his last class of the year at his one-day-a-week Classical School. He had a bruising final exam and their class was held over for about 45 minutes (!) but when he got out, all the guys in his class piled in our truck with their sleeping bags and Airsoft guns to celebrate the end of the year. Now my house is trashed and my lawn is full of little neon-colored plastic bb's and we all got maybe 2 hours sleep last night... but I have one happy 12-year-old.

What's more, we have today to recover, for tomorrow is Homeschool Day at Six Flags! Woo-hoo!

We'll get back to math next week and start our new grammar program for the summer, too. But for this week, we're dipping our fingers in the icing of summer freedom. Mmmm, tasty.

Permission

All this bad news around here has made me want to get crackin' and do something, anything, positive. I've been gardening, I've been cooking, and, surprise, all of a sudden I'm in the mood to scrapbook. (Why ask why? Just go with it.)

And so, noodling around on the internet, looking for scrapbooking inspiration, I stumbled upon this article. The author's best line, to me, is this:

I want to give my children permission to live an imperfect life.

YYYYYYY--ESSSSSSSS! (Imagine me saying it with great gusto.)

I'm so hard on myself. And my kids. But I would like to be kinder. I have a feeling that if I were okay with certain parts of myself not being perfect, I'd be okay with my kids' shortcomings, too.

Give up Perfectionism! (At least for today.)

Raging Bull

One of the best sermons I ever heard was on the passage where Lazarus dies and Jesus gets there too late to prevent it. Everyone is mourning. Martha and Mary question Jesus. And Jesus mourns with them. This is the passage where we get, "Jesus wept."

My pastor told us that the verse, "Jesus wept" is a woefully inept translation. The word we read as "wept" actually means... literally... "snorted." As in rage. Like a bull when he's angry and ready to charge.

I love this picture of Jesus, angry at death, angry at loss, angry that the world He created, so perfect, had been so tainted. Angry that we, His children, must endure the pain of grief.

I need this picture of Jesus right now. A family in my homeschool group lost their 2 1/2 year old son yesterday. He drowned in a friend's pool.

I have no doubt that my friend's son is with Jesus. But I also believe Jesus is with my friend, too. Snorting.