My 888 reading list

No pictures this time - just a reading list. There is a reading challenge posted on a homeschool website I like to visit (www.welltrainedmind.com - a great site for classical homeschooling!) that I will be trying this year. The concept is simple: pick 8 categories of books, with 8 books in each category that you will read in 2008. To help a little, you can have 8 books overlap categories. I really like this idea, because I have been a bit neglectful of my own studies the past few years. I have been putting a lot of thought into my kids' studies, but I've just been reading whatever looks good at the library for me. I deserve a little thought, too! So, in case anyone's interested, I thought I'd post my reading list for 2008. Call it my New Year's resolution!

1. Biographies
a. Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution, by Natalie S. Bober
b. Shakespeare, by Michael Wood
c. Thomas Alva Edison: an American Myth, by Wyn Wachhorst
d. Joan of Arc, by Sir Winston Churchill
e. The Last Lion, Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940, by William Manchester
f. Without Precedent: The Life and Career of Eleanor Roosevelt, by Joan Huff-Wilson and Marjorie Lightman
g. Thomas Jefferson: Stateman of Science, by Silvio A. Bedini
h. Lightning in His Hand: the Life Story of Nikola Tesla, by Inez Hunt and Wanetta W. Droper

2. Christian Non-Fiction
a. The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence
b. Prayer: Does it Make Any Difference? By Philip Yancey
c. Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, by Joanne Weaver
d. The Problem of Pain, by C.S. Lewis
e. The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis
f. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe
g. For Women Only: What You Need to Know About the Inner Lives of Men, by Shaunti Feldhahn
h. Cure for the Common Life, by Max Lucado

3. Parenting/Homeschooling
a. Drawing with Children, by Brookes
b. Raising Life-Long Learners: a Parent’s Guide, by Lucy Calkins
c. The Organized Homeschooler, by Vicki Caruana
d. Character Matters: How to Help Out Children Develop Good Judgment, Integrity, and Other Essential Values, by Thomas Lickona
e. Dumbing Down Our Kids, by Charles Sykes
f. Raising Strong Daughters, by Jeanette Gadeberg
g. The Assault on Parenthood: How Our Culture Undermines the Family, by Dana Mack
h. 7 Things Kids Never Forget, and How to Make the Most of Them, by Ron Rose

4. Shakespeare I’ve Never Read
a. Love’s Labor's Lost
b. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
c. Richard III
d. Henry VIII
e. Titus Andronicus
f. The Merry Wives of Windsor
g. Much Ado About Nothing
h. King John

5. NC Authors
a. The Cat Who Ate Modern Danish, by Lilian Jackson Braun
b. Magic Street, by Orson Scott Card
c. Postmortem, by Patricia Cornwell
d. The Best Short Stories of O. Henry
e. On Agate Hill, by Lee Smith
f. Look Homeward, Angel, by Thomas Wolfe
g. Walking Across Egypt, by Clyde Edgerton
h. A Virtuous Woman, by Kaye Gibbons

6. War and Conflict
a. 1776, by David McCullough
b. The American Civil War, by Sir Winston Churchill
c. The Red Badge of Courage, by Steven Crane
d. Poetry of the World Wars, ed. By Michael Foss
e. Joan of Arc, by Sir Winston Churchill
f. The Black Arrow: a Tale of the Two Roses, by Robert Louis Stevenson
g. The Last Lion, Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940, by William Manchester
h. In Search of the Trojan War, by Michael Wood

7. Poetry
a. Lady of the Lake, by Sir Walter Scott
b. Collected Poems, 1922-1938, by e.e. cummings
c. Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson
d. Evangeline, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
e. Poetry of the World Wars, ed. By Michael Foss
f. In the Clearing, by Robert Frost
g. Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown
h. Awake My Soul and Sing: Poems Inspired by Favorite Hymns, by Helen Steiner Rice

8. Books I Own and Have Never Read
a. Lady of the Lake, by Sir Walter Scott
b. The Problem of Pain, by C.S. Lewis
c. Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson
d. The Red Badge of Courage, by Steven Crane
e. Evangeline, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
f. An Autobiography of God, by Lloyd John Ogilvie
g. The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold
h. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo

Mom has already said she wants to make her own list, which is great! If anyone else wants to try this, let me know -- we can compare lists!

My dancing angel

Last Saturday Kathryn's dance studio had their Christmas recital. It is a bit smaller than the end-of-the-year performance (her class only did one number instead of the three they will do in June) and the costumes aren't elaborate. They are theoretically things that are already in their wardrobe. This year, though, they were supposed to wear all-white outfits. What mom gets her child an all-white leotard? They get dirty so fast, and Kathryn would normally opt for pink or purple or fancy anyway. In fact I couldn't find one at Wal-Mart or Target at all. So, my wonderful friend Allyson made three matching white leotards with skirts for her daughter, Kathryn, and another girl who they are good friends with. She made all three in about a day. I am in awe of her seamstress abilities! In return, I baked a double batch of cookie press cookies that she needed. I think I got the better end of the deal!

Tae Kwon Do

These pictures are from right before Thanksgiving, but with our traveling I am just getting them up now. Better late than never!

Daniel has been in the Little Dragons class in Tae Kwon Do since August, and was in his first belt ceremony on November 15th. He got to trade in his original white belt for a new one, showing that he has attended class and learned all the enw material from the last three months.

Here is his old belt. Each month he earned a new black stripe.



Here are a few of the other Little Dragons. You know, I'm not sure why they use that name for this class. The kids ALWAYS reply, "I'm not little - I'm BIG!"


As part of the belt ceremony, each child got to break a board. Here, Daniel is practicing his strike before he tried it on the board. He broke it first try! :)


The lady giving Daniel his new belt is Ms. Needham, one of Daniel's instructors. She is great with the kids.


Daniel's certificate, showing that he earned his belt.


The new belt, complete with his "on guard" scary face. Priceless!



And just so she doesn't feel left out...

Living Room Revamp

I didn't have my digital camera at the start of our living room/dining room project, so I can't show before and after shots. I can show you some nice after pictures, though! The furniture is not all back yet (obviously), and we will be getting an area rug for the living room, hopefully soon. Hopefully this will give you an idea of what our new rooms look like.

Here is our dining room, aka our school room. We do just about all of our writing and other seatwork right here, so this room got finished first. We still have to work on pictures for the walls, but I'm waiting until all the the furniture is in place in the living room before I try to decide what goes where.


Here is our living room, complete with one VERY spoiled dog.


Our entryway. Didn't Jason do a great job with the floor?

My Little Zoo Animals

Kathryn and Daniel really enjoyed their trip to the zoo. Between the animals, the bug play area, the carousel, and our yummy picnic lunch, it was a great day. Field trips like this are the icing on the homeschool cake!

The carousel is fairly new, and it has plenty of exotic zoo animals to ride. Kathryn chose this zebra, and Daniel rode on a dolphin next to her.




Kathryn likes to pretend she's a spider.


This is safer than riding the real thing...


Daniel enjoyed being a spider on the climbing ropes. He can get all the way to the top easily these days.



A bumblebee makes a great seat.




The rhinos have been off exhibit while they have been renovating and expanding their habitat. It doesn't officially open until next spring, but we got a sneak preview this visit. Only two of the rhinos were there, but there will be 8-9 when the habitat is complete, including some young rhinos. In the meantime, we got to enjoy the rhino statue.

Zoo trip

I love our zoo! We manage to get there a few times each year, and I love seeing the beauty of the zoo and the diversity of the animals there. Friday it was on the cool side (low 50's all day), and it was a perfect day to enjoy fall outside. The leaves were turing and were much more colorful than at our house. They do such a nice job keeping up the grounds at the zoo, it feels almost more like a walk in the woods than a managed facility.

Anyway, on to the pictures! I think I've figured out how to get pictures on this blog, so here are a few of my favorite animal shots:

The elephants have been off exhibit for almost two years, so it was a real treat to see them up close again!

This grizzly bear decided it was time to cool off in his pool, despite the cool weather.

Up and running!

I've finally taken the plunge -- I'm starting a blog! There are several blogs I read daily (or at least as often as they post new entries), and I always thought I might try my hand at one. There were only two small problems that I could see:

1) I didn't have a digital camera. Yes, this is a pretty sorry excuse, but if I ever did this, I would want it to be a place to keep family up-to-date with how the kids were growing, so as long as I didn't have a digital camera I didn't have a good way to get my pictures onto the computer. Well, Jason got me a camera for my birthday! I now have a camera that can fit in my pocket (that's a change from my last one!) and can get my pictures quickly and easily onto my brand-spanking-new blog. Of course, I haven't tried it yet, but the directions look easy. I mean, how hard could it be, right? Right?

2) How on earth will I find neat and clever things to write about on a regular basis? That problem's still there, but I guess whoever reads this will just have to live with it.

Yesterday was a fabulous day for a trip to the NC Zoo. We had a blast! It was really busy (apparently a lot of school groups thought the same thing we did), but it was great nonetheless. I'll try to upload some pictures in the next few days.