Project 365: Day 28

 

What I am reading, part 3, and this is the end of the boring book posts :-)

This one is my absolute favorite!  Now, understand that if anyone ends up reading this based on my recommendation, that I do not necessarily agree with every little idea Mr. DeMille espouses.  Mostly this would be his political and sometimes religious statements.  However, just because some of these statements happen to be contrary to my own beliefs, it does not negate the fact that this is the. most. excellent. book on education I have ever read.  It all just makes so much sense to me.  

Technically we have been following a TJEd (or Leadership Education) method for a while now, just from what I have read about it online and talked about it with other homeschoolers.  But I had never actually read the book before (whoops), and this has now affirmed for me that we are going in the right direction.  Especially love the appendices with realistic approaches and book lists.

Project 365: Day 27

 

 What I'm reading right now, part 2

I know, I know, James Patterson???  But quite honestly, I love to read book series, and the Alex Cross series is a little addicting.  I must confess that I have also read Patterson's numbered series about the Women's Murder Club, as well.  There.  Phew.  Full disclosure.  Anyhoo....I am down to the last four books of the Alex Cross series, which I will most likely finish by next week, and then comes the letdown.  Does anyone know what I mean?  That huge empty feeling when you finish a series and then you have to go find something else to read?  It's so easy to just pop over to the library and grab the next few books in a series, no thought involved, no time wasted.  But when I'm between books I feel so lost.

Project 365: Day 26

What I'm reading right now, part 1

I've actually been reading this book for a few weeks now.  It takes me longer to finish nonfiction because I mostly limit myself to reading educational books during our study times.  Fiction books I can devour at an average rate of 2-3 per week.

So, even though it's taking me forever to finish this book, I really like it!  I have never been one for history much; I think because in school it was just so gosh darn boring with memorizing dates and other facts.  My entire 16-year mantra was "memorize just enough to get an A on the test and then promptly forget it all".  But I really like when history is put into a single perspective like this.  How Lincoln Learned to Read is an overview of twelve famous Americans in the context of their educations, which really makes history come alive (to use a terrible cliche).

It's also interesting because I am really on a kick to learn as much as I can about education.  Most of these twelve people had very different educations from what we are used to as a collective country today.  There were good points and less favorable points to each, but the fascinating part is how they all came out as what most people would consider "successes".

WARNING: Books Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

I have long believed that an addictive habit of reading can be toxic. Generally, though, this belief stems from allowing myself to be sucked in to a very good book. The more believable the characters are, the more exciting the plot, the more well-written the story...it all correlates to the amount of time I spend both reading the book and mulling the book over in my mind while not reading, and thus the less appealing everyday tasks seem in relation.

Which all translates into: My house gets really messy and the kids yell at me to put down the stinking book and make them some food. Can you believe these gall of these beasts, wanting to be fed every day or something?

Reading selection from last night

So anyhoo, that's not really what I want to warn you about this time. No, I'm here today to warn you of this simple fact: If you do not put the book down at night--if you decide to just finish off the last 400 or so pages of your 600- or so -page book--after turning the last page, you will look out your bedroom window and it will be light outside. Then you will sleep half the day away, thanking your lucky stars the other adult in the house is home that day. Which will probably lead to not being able to sleep again the next night, eventually giving up and deciding to blog about the sheer insanity of it all at 3:25 a.m.

Reading selection from tonight

Tomorrow night (or would that be tonight?) -- Tylenol PM.

An insomnia-inspired blast from the past can be found here.