May 27 2016

Sparkle and Shine Brightly Review

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Recently, I became aware of two magazines from Christian girls. Sparkle targets readership in the grades K-4, and Shine Brightly is geared towards upper elementary grades, so 5-8. This post is a review of the sample copies I received from Gems Girls’ Clubs, the owner of these two publications.

Girl with Sparkle magazine

She enjoyed these magazines.

Sparkle is published monthly October through March, so six issues total per year, for an annual subscription price of $10.70. It is a 16-page, full-color magazine, mostly glossy.  Continue reading »

May 24 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 21- The Return of the Native

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The Return of the Native (or How Not to Choose A Spouse) by Thomas Hardy is one of the 32 novels included in The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer – the most influential novels in the history of Western literature, according to Dr. Bauer. The link provided above, by the way, is to the free Kindle version of the book.

The Return of the Native

I was familiar with other writings by Hardy, like Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Unlike any other novel before this one on Dr. Bauer’s list, I had no idea what to expect. It was an interesting place to be. I realized that when I don’t know the plot or have expectations about the characters, I am a bit insecure inside a novel. It’s a good thing to experience now and then. It keeps everything fresh.  Continue reading »

May 22 2016

How to Deal With Symptoms of Stress in Your Child

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As children are constantly growing and learning, we get used to them going through different stages and fussy phases. One day they’ll relish your pot pie and ask for more; the next time you serve it they’ll refuse to take a bite. While these behaviors are typical in growing kids (and sent to make us stronger), if you notice that your child is consistently acting out, is unusually aggressive or irritable, distant, or not sleeping well, they could be experiencing symptoms of stress, rather than a passing phase.

There are many ways that stress can manifest in your kids, but generally, a parent knows when their child is simply not being themselves. They may lose their appetite, throw sudden tantrums, or begin to grind their teeth. Teeth grinding (or bruxism) is actually fairly common in children, with as many as 3 in 10 suffering from it at some point. If your child starts complaining of earache, or pain in the jaw area, then you should check if a dental night guard would ease their discomfort until they outgrow the condition.  Continue reading »

May 17 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 20- Down and Out

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Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell was the book I had to read for the May meeting of my reading group. I did not enjoy it. It describes poverty in Paris and then in London. I don’t like reading about poor people, especially when they spend most of their earnings on alcohol.

Down and Out in Paris and London

While reading the book, I did have all sorts of thoughts about Protestant countries (like England) versus Catholic countries (like France). Have you noticed that Protestant countries tend to do better economically? That they have a bigger middle class than Catholic countries? That the contrast between the very rich and the very poor is not as striking?

Religion has a lot to do with life – more so than we realize. Religion influences one’s take on work, for instance. There was an atheist in the book who hated the bourgeoisie and stole from every employer he ever had simply because he hated anybody with a business. Of course, he was also a Communist.  Continue reading »

May 10 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 19- Traveling Mercies

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Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott is a funny book if you can put up with some language and an enormous amount of liberal concepts. If you can get past that and focus on the Christian experience the author shares, along with good writing and great humor, then you will enjoy this book.

traveling mercies

A single mom and a recovering alcoholic, Lamott makes a living as a writer of mostly nonfiction, memoiristic books. The introductory chapter to this book will give you her conversion story which can be summed up in the following: she was an alcoholic and a drug user, then she met Jesus, and then she quit. But see, I just made it boring. She makes it fun over several pages and you get to sense the heart of God through this process, the incredible love of the Creator for Anne Lamott, working her over and over until she finally surrendered.  Continue reading »

May 6 2016

Essentials Curriculum Review

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For the past four months, I have been teaching spelling from a curriculum from Logic of English, called Essentials. My children are in second grade and kindergarten respectively and we started LOE Essentials in January, in the second semester. I geared this curriculum mainly towards the oldest, but the little one could benefit from it too. She is learning how to read and spelling is reading in reverse. So I have included her in our lessons, especially in the beginning, during the Pre-Lessons.

Teacher's Manual and Student Workbook

Teacher’s Manual and Student Workbook

I decided we needed the Pre-Lessons after administering the Placement Test very informally, over breakfast. Even though my son can write in cursive (we did not do manuscript at all), spelling has come difficult for him. We have tried four other curricula and I have no seen great results. He does the work, remembers the spelling for a few days, then he does not.  Continue reading »

May 3 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 18 – Madame Bovary

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I read Madame Bovary painstakingly. It took me longer than a week because I had to put it down over and over again. I was not sure I could finish it. It pains me to see characters – especially women – making foolish mistakes again and again. When I finally came to about 80% of the book, – yes, I read it on my Kindle – I started enjoying it. Why? Because Emma Bovary was finally hitting rock bottom.

Madame Bovary

I don’t like reckless behavior, whether in real life or in literary fiction. I understand why Susan Wise Bauer included this novel in her list of 32 best novels to read from Western literature. It is the first novel chronologically which puts an end to Romanticism and starts Realism as a current in literature.

Gustave Flaubert shocked many people with the realistic depictions of every day life and the adultery Madame Bovary engaged in while married to Charles Bovary, a country doctor in Yonville, France. Flaubert even got sued over the book, which shocked the sensibilities of many in the 19th century.

Continue reading »

Apr 26 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 17 – Founding Mothers

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Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts makes for very good historical reading as long as you can peel off the layer of mockery she dishes all over the Founding Fathers. Ms. Roberts has done a lot of reading to bring us details about the wives and mothers of the Founding Fathers, but she presents it through her liberal lens and that is a pity.

Founding Mothers

Casting aspersions upon the heroic and the patriotic is not the way to go when you tell the stories of our Founding Mothers. Yes, women were lacking the vote and right to property back then. Yes, women were perpetually pregnant and barefooted in the kitchen. But why do you have to mock the men for it?

The men were the product of their era. Many of them came around on the issues of slavery and education for women during the years described by this book. Some even started wondering about the womanly vote. It all takes time. I take issue with Cokie Roberts’ history of the Founding Mothers because of the tone she takes towards the Founding Fathers.

Do you really have to tell us three times in the book that Alexander Hamilton was a womanizer and Martha Washington named her tomcat after him? Would one time not have been enough? Do you really have to throw sarcasm at Benjamin Franklin for being a pig – for a pig he was? Why can you not recount some of his good parts – for he had many? Why magnify the men’s defects and paint a picture of only their growth areas? What kind of history is this?

Ms. Roberts sounds like a feminista with a chip on her shoulder – someone who has not completely recovered from the gender war. I would like to reminder her, next time she rattles on about the wonderful, enlightened European nations, that Switzerland only got the vote for women in 1971. Wrap you mind around that historical fact, Ms. Roberts!  Continue reading »

Apr 19 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 16 – Stories of Composers

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Stories of Composers For Young Musicians by Catherine Wolff Kendalls makes for great bedtime reading. (I have been reading to my children since they were infants. We read before going to bed but we also read throughout the day.)

My children take violin and piano lessons and my goal is to make classical music a delight for them. As such, we play classical music during our meals and we read as much about composers as we can. I have invested in some CDs about composers’ lives but my children were still too small at the time – we are talking preschool age.

Stories of Composers

They are now 6 and 8 and these stories seem to go over better. It will be an interesting test, after reading this book with them, to re-visit the initial CDs and see if the kids have a better reaction to them.

Because they did enjoy this book. It was a bit boring for my six-year-old in the beginning, because the book has no pictures beyond a portrait of the composer. But she soon realized these composers fell in love and married – well, most of them did. She is in this phase of awakening to romance.  Continue reading »

Apr 12 2016

Tuesday Tome Week 15 – Mommy, Can We Practice Now?

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Mommy, Can We Practice Now? by Marie Parkinson is another helpful book for parents whose children are involved in music lessons. Paying for violin or piano lessons is one thing. Making sure the kiddos practice every day at home without losing one’s temper is another thing altogether.

First, let me tell you a story. I have a friend who puts her children in a public school. She does not understand why I homeschool. That’s fine. We respect each other and have wonderful conversations about being a mom and cooking and life in our small town.

Mommy Can We Practice Now?

She definitely does not understand why I pay somebody else to teach my children violin and piano when I can play violin and some piano – albeit not at a concert soloist level. Indeed, it may seem inconsistent. To say “I am not a violin teacher by training” is the same as to say “I am not a physics teacher by training.” Which means I really have no business tackling my children’s education as a homeschooler, overall.

But this is where I disagree. Physics or chemistry or reading or any other school subject are very different from the arts. Music and art are best taught by somebody who is trained as an artist and, even better, as a teacher of artists.  Continue reading »