Spring (& Summer!) Reads & Inspiration

April 7, 2012

Fourth and last post in my Spring Book series. Previous post is Sew a Sweater for Your E-Reader.

Last season's book list went pretty well. This time around I've decided to limit the list to my personal reading, podcast and audio listening, and amazing (or at least fascinating to us) free online educational videos.

Some of these were mentioned last season since my reading carries over. I've had certain books on the go now for like, ever. (That would be Thoreau's Walden). But I'm going to limit myself in this list to include books I am only actively reading right now. 

As with last season this book list will be updated throughout the months and a link will remain on the side bar under finds & favorites.

Look for this graphic:

You might be interested to know I am becoming more of an (e)reader than hardcopy book reader, though I read those also whenever I can get my hands on them. 

Along these lines, did you know that you can lend certain Kindle books? I am very interested in exploring this. I would love some digitial book lending buddies.

Basically, how it works is the book owner can loan their Kindle book once for a set period of time (14 days for most books I believe) and then it is automatically returned to the owner digitally (and I'm assuming removed from the lender's files somehow??). The owner cannot read the book during the loan period.

I am willing to do this with our Kindle titles. The books available for loan are asterixed in the following list. If someone is willing to loan our family some of their Kindle purchases please e-mail me or leave a comment.

Reading

Home Education (Mine & Theirs)

• Free Range Learning: How Homeschooling Changes Everything - Yep. I love books like this. Laura speaks my language about homeschooling but has better research to back it up.
• How We Decide - I'm reading this book to figure out why decision making is so hard for me and how to learn to trust my gut more (and be ok with that). 
• The Student Whisperer - "Inspiring is the critical element of great education and all successful learning." Oh, gives me shivers, I just eat this stuff up!!
• The Writer's Jungle - I have picked this back up again. I love this resource so much and hope to write more about it one day. I will be talking about it briefly in this month's curriculum post for Simple Homeschool. If you are unfamiliar with this resource I recommend this podcast as an introduction.
• The Everyday Language Learner's Guide - I will be getting serious about learning French this summer, living in a francophone province and all. I'm so thankful Aaron reached out and offered this resource.

Creative Entrepreneur

• Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World - A great resource. Very much enjoying reading and listening to this.
• Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art - Helping me navigate the waters (I guess that's why it's called Walking on Water) of being a Christian artist and writer. What does that mean?

Home, Health & Heart

• The Art of Raw Food - My mother-in-law and her husband gave this gorgeous cookbook to me for my birthday. I'm just getting into it now. My sister-in-law (other side of the family) and also my friend Catherine have gone raw recently. Three raw influences in my life. A pattern of three is one of my tune and listen hints. I'm not sure if I call this intuition or superstition. Whatever you call it I pay attention when things come in threes. My body is ready for more raw food and I am scheming ways to go more raw in our diet this spring and summer. The perfect time of year for it. 
• How To Live on 24 Hours a Day - loved this little free kindle edition. Thanks Jen for recommending. 
• The Gifts of Imperfection - I listened to this but I much prefer reading it and digesting it this way.

Read Alouds

Books I'm reading to the kids. These are as much a part of my reading, as my other mama reads.

• The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - going through the series for the second time.
• The Horse and His Boy
• A Wrinkle in Time
• Dragonsong - we're actually listening to this as a whole family. Really enjoying this story.
• Secret of The Andes

Fiction

• Les Misérables - I think I may have had to read this is school at some point, but oh my goodness, it is so much better than I ever remember. Too many highlights (literally, my Kindle is full of them) from this book to mention.
• March - I find some of Geraldine Brooks' writing a bit graphic for my tastes (I skip sections or read briefly). But I love her writing overall, and really learn so much reading her historical fiction. In the past I've read People of The Book, Year of Wonders and Caleb's Crossing. 
• The Hunger Games Triology* (we can lend all three books)

Celine started reading these last month. I ok'd the first one after a bit of research. She devoured them, earning extra money by working for her siblings to buy the books (I wasn't using school money for these). I wanted to see for myself what all the fuss was about so I started the series also and once I got over the premise - children murdering each other - I was hooked. (Does that ever sound terrible when you write it out!)

I don't know that I'll watch the movie any time soon but I've enjoyed the triology and talking about the ideas in this book with Celine. Having read the series, I liked this discussion at Inspiration Soup on What Age Is Appropriate to Read the Hunger Games.

Laurent, who is newly eleven is nowhere near ready to watch or read a book like this. Not to mention he is a sensitive-hearted person and I intend to stand guard at that part of his soul as long as possible.

Watching Celine head into the land of young adult books is a bit scary for me but it's time. Although my job is still very much to protect her from inappropriate books I also need to read along when I can and engage in conversation. On the other side of the coin (in case you're thinking we're feeding Celine pop culture) she is diving deep into Emily Post right now.

We call it early 20th century history and it also has encouraged some interesting discussions. Watching Celine's middle school education unfold - driven by her interests in design, sewing & doll making - has been such an exciting journey. I can't recommend it enough - homeschooling that is and encouraging your children to be who they are. 

• May B. - I really liked this children's novel told in prose written by Caroline Starr Rose. Celine enjoyed it also. My younger two could not get into though. I had hoped to read it aloud to them but we didn't do that in the end. It's a very fast read. Celine and I both read it in a couple days. 

Biography & "Story" Non-Fiction

• If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name: News from Small-Town Alaska - I love books like this! Highly recommend. This is the writer (and woman) I'd like to be.  
• Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart: A Midwife's Saga - I gave this 5 stars at Goodreads.  This is my favorite kind of book - a good story (conflict, conviction, love, loss and a strong character throughout) about something I'm passionate about. (*available for loan loaned out already)
• Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy - I started this book last year but wasn't able to finish it before it was due at the library. I know own it on Kindle, so no excuses for not finishing. What an amazing man.

Listening

I've talked a lot about Krista Tippett's Public Media program On Being in recent posts. Many of these are links to those programs, which are meeting a real need for me right now.

• Behind the Blog with Heather Bruggeman & Erin Goodman (a huge fan of both these women)
• Behind the Blog with Jamie Martin & Erin Goodman (ditto)
• Sarah Kay's Way with Words - On Being with Krista Tippett
• The Last Quiet Places - "silence is an endangered species"
• Behind The Blog with Hillary Boucher & Erin Goodman
• Balancing Motherhood with Your Own Dreams - Jamie Martin is interviewed by Lisa Byrne. This is a really good listen. 
• What We Nurture
• Creativity and The Everyday Brain
• The Losses and The Laughter We Grow Into
• Reasons to Homeschool - Simple Mom Podcast with Tsh & Jamie.
• TJEd Basics
• TJEd Basics Q & A - these two TJEd came at just the right time (as these things often do) during a time of doubt and questioning in our educational approach. So invigorated after listening to these.

We've started a new morning routine. A very short transitional tool to help me move from "writing" head to "homeschooling" head - The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor. Delivered to my inbox each morning. Part education (history & poetry to name just two) and part inspiration. Wholly perfect for a morning transition (but not exactly "wholesome").

The content is written for an adult audience so some of the story themes are not G rated (but I can screen those in the e-mail first). This leads to interesting conversations which is the stage of parenting and family life we are at with a child becoming a young adult.

• Sparkle Stories - you can read my review here. Very wholesome.This month Sparkle Stories is giving away a Free Easter Story. Another free Father's Day Story.

Watching

• Radical Sincerity - TEDx talk, can't wait to read her forthcoming book.
• TED-Ed lessons worth sharing. Damien has watched some of these with the kids.
• Origami When Paper Comes Alive. Another TED talk via one of our favorite homeschooling resource websites - Youngzine. I highly recommend Youngzine. The origami video inspired a bunch of paper folding in our home. This is a beautiful example of the kind of education I want to give our children - the merging of art, science, math. Using creativity to solve problems. This kind of stuff gets me so jazzed.
• Touch Wood in a Japanese Forest with Bach led to this. Which of course leads to a discussion on Bach and more music and more YouTube. And this is how it rolls when you homeschool. Inspiration leads to education.
• Becoming Elmo - I know I said I was only going to highlight free videos but this one was very inspiring for our young artists and creatives, I just had to include it. 

Book Resources

These are resources I've been finding (with your help) and sourcing myself. I haven't necessarily bought or used them but I think they are worth mentioning and I intend to look into them more myself in the future. 

• Heritage History Living E-books Curriculum - Thank you Dana for directing me to Jimmie's Collage where I read about this e-book resource. Seeing as we depend heavily on e-books for Celine's education this history resource is on my to-buy list for Celine. Check out Jimmie's Collage for general homeschool resources also. Gotta say I'm curious about her Language Arts Curriculum e-book. 

Remember: I update this throughout the season so check back often for links to good books and resources. 

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