Powerful book

Strider and I just recently finished reading Twice Freed by Patricia St. John -- and it's now one of my all-time favorites!  It's historical fiction, centering on Onesimus, the runaway slave mentioned in the Bible in the book of Philemon.  This sounds like it would be rather dry, and I did not have high expectations for it, to be honest, but once we got to oh, about the second page, both Strider and I were definitely sucked in!  The author's characterization of Onesimus was so realistic -- he wasn't the easily-redeemed, mamby-pamby wimp that is the typical protagonist in "Christian fiction."

 The historical and geographical aspects were fascinating to read about, as the story traveled throughout the countryside of the Roman empire, and ultimately even to Rome itself (which was not portrayed in a romantic way at all).  After studying the Roman Empire for the last couple of months, we found this to be a nice "living" way to see further aspects of this time period.  And, of course, running into the people from the Bible, such as John Mark, Priscilla and Aquila, Demas, and especially Archippus, added a whole other depth of interest.

As soon as we got to the last page, both Strider and I wanted to look up the rest of Patricia St. John's writings -- we already reserved a few at the library!

Meanwhile, the younger set here has been enjoying this book:

While not "powerful" in quite the same way as Twice Freed, it's been an enjoyable read nontheless.  And definitely more intense than the average children's book.  I love how my kids get quiet with anticipation as we read it!

Reading books such as these on the couch with the kids = one of the best parts of homeschooling for me!

Book Recommendation: The Phantom Tollbooth

One of the best things about teaching my kids now is watching them enjoy some of the very same books I loved as a kid.  One of my first favorite novels was The Phantom Tollbooth -- I was fascinated by it so much that I even tried to write a sequel to it.  (I was probably in about 3rd or 4th grade, so it was likely a very lame attempt...  but I enjoyed the process anyway!)

 

Recently I was able to introduce Strider to Milo, the main character, and go on all the adventures with him, as we listened to the audio version on a car trip.  I was nervous that it might not be as good as I remembered it, but when Strider started literally rolling around in the backseat because he was laughing so hard, I was satisfied.  The book really is quite clever, and even slips in all kinds of grammatical phenomena and educational vocabulary.  It's like the equivalent of the cooking method in which the chef hides all kinds of pureed vegetables in tasty dishes so the kids don't even know they're eating them.  Just as I'm a fan (and practitioner) of this kind of cooking, so also do I enjoy watching the kids learn while they're in hysterics over a fantasy story.

 

So, I highly recommend this books for grade-school kids (probably 3rd grade or higher), as well as adults.  (There are many cliches and phrases mentioned that only the adults are likely to catch the humor in.)  And, as it turned out, the audio version was fabulous.  We listened to one read by Norman Dietz and were amazed by how quickly he could switch between numerous voices.  I see there is also a version read by David Hyde Pierce, and I imagine that would be terrific as well!

Learning, so we don't repeat it

When Pete and I first had conversations about the academic subjects* we would be teaching our kids, we tried to determine which aspects we thought were most important. Should math be a key focus? Or writing? Science? Ideally, of course, we would teach everything to our kids, but knowing there would be constraints of time, energy, etc., we wanted to see what we thought would be most significant and crucial to the development of our children as they entered adulthood. What did we most want to equip them with? (Clearly, not grammar, as I ended that question with a preposition!)

Math, we concluded, could always be aided with a calculator or Excel, spelling and writing would always have the benefit of the word-processing checkers available these days. Even the memorization of formulas and facts seemed less important with the advent of Googling and easy online research.

But what we keep coming back to is the importance of knowing HISTORY. As Strider and I read in his history book a couple weeks ago, the ancient Roman Cicero said,

"To know nothing of what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child."

And we concur.

So, ever since Strider was in kindergarten, the subject of history has been the main focus of our studies, and we try to weave other subjects in and around whatever time period we're looking into. One of the main benefits of this is that the younger kids can join in, to whatever extent they're able, as talk about people from different eras.

Along the way, we've discovered some really impressive books that people have written, giving us fascinating glimpses into windows of other civilizations and times. These are some of our favorites:

A Child's History of the World by Virgil M. Hillyer. This was the first one I read Strider in kindergarten and it gave a great overview of, well, the history of the world. Obviously it can't be completely comprehensive, but it included a lot of the main things. :) Unfortunately, it was written so long ago that some of the more recent main events (such as World War II!) are not included.
The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. We own almost all 4 of the volumes in this series now -- and our favorite versions are the CD's. Strider loves to listen to them in his room, or in the car.

"Augustus Caesar's World" by Genevieve Foster. This is the book we're reading this semester. I was a little skeptical at first, fearing it would be rather dry and narrow in its scope. But I, as usual, was quite wrong, and we've enjoyed learning through her "horizontal" approach, as we've read about all different groups of people and events that surrounded this man. Her writing is so conversational and story-like; the people are three-dimensional to us now.

I have loved learning all about HISTORY as I teach my kids. I somehow zoned out during my own childhood and missed most of this. Hopefully we're all gaining in wisdom and insight!

*I am not including "Bible" as an academic subject here. Of course we think that book is of the highest order and should be taught in all things.