The regular “little of this, little of that” feature from Like Mother, Like Daughter!
So many links!
Education thoughts:
- Why it's okay to let your kids play with Legos. Phew. I definitely want to poke around this site a bit more.
- I'm not astronomy-minded, as I have said before. Maybe you have someone in your family who is? This seems like a really great piece about black holes. Not that I would know. What do you think?
- Tony Esolen with a little advice on how to teach your children (and you can find links to the 1000 Good Books he references — and more — here).
- I thought of Esolen when I read this post that Deirdre sent from Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria. He agrees on the problem, at least.
- Louis C. K. on why his kids won't have smart phones. This is from a while ago, and there is a little rudeness (bleeped out) –but also a lot of trenchant commentary on the human condition.
- What about your own education? Are you getting married soon, or were you recently married? Do you wonder if you received good instruction? I met a lovely lady, Mattie, last year when I spoke in Colorado. She told me about the online marriage preparation course she and her family run — it's approved in many dioceses and recommended by many clergy, including some impressive bishops. Take a peek at this site — we will be returning to it as Deirdre wraps up her wedding planning posts with a giveaway. You might not be able to wait that long! Don't feel you have to!
History notes:
- Germany's oldest student finally gets PhD denied by Nazis long ago. And she didn't just waltz in and pick it up, either — she had to study the intervening decades and pass her orals!
- My favorite kind of historical artifact: everyday life in 19th century New Hampshire, filtered through the imaginations of a couple of young boys in their journals. I think these could be just the inspiration some lively contemporary boys might need to get started on their own!
Miscellaneously:
- Kelli O'Hara's quick change during a scene from The King and I, performed at the Tony awards — a little video for the theater-and-costume buffs among us (thanks Cathy!)
- Is gay “marriage” inevitable? Rachel Lu warns against succumbing to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
- I love Cardinal Sarah. His is a spirited defense of beautiful liturgy very much in the school of dear Pope Benedict.
- What is the internet for, anyway? Perfectly timed photos of dogs.
From the archives:
- Time to revisit the thoughts in this post: dating rules for teens?
Today is a beautiful feast, the Immaculate Heart of Mary! Enjoy!
Mrs. B. says
Great, great links this morning! I’ve just read the Lego piece – I loved the humor, the squirrel mafia! I have a boy (9 y-o) just like that: he’ll go through phases of absolutely all-absorbing passions, and he takes them seriously, and it’s a beautiful thing to see. Right now Legos have taken the back seat, and he’s all about cars: he knows everything about cars, even old cars (because old car magazines are safer than new ones, if you know what I mean), and he draws them with astonishing skill and painstaking care. It’s very obvious that his passions have taught him very valuable lessons. Then when we are doing “school” he changes: he obviously cares about the multiplication tables a lot less than cars… I get upset at him, I’m afraid, because I’d like to see him use his skills in all things, not just those he really cares about. I know, because I remember being that young, that kids don’t understand the value of school subjects (unless they are truly interested in them for their own reasons), and that’s normal: normal, but also a sign of their (normal) immaturity. So, is it ok for the parents to sort of cater to this, and think that everything will turn out all right anyway? It’s like being on the trapeze without the net underneath… In terms of the literature we read (and don’t read…), movies we watch (and don’t watch), and the way we live, my kids enjoy a beautiful education, I know. But I don’t want them to then despise the books we use for school: the grammar book, the math book… They are a necessary component as well. Leila, I’ve read your recent tweets about not worrying about our homeschooling… maybe I’ll go search through the archives for some past words of wisdom! Thanks!
Leila says
Mrs. B, have you read the books and sites I recommend in my education posts? In particular, John Taylor Gatto?
Especially with boys, it’s just sheer craziness not to harness their interests rather than thwart them. Boys have a lot of excess energy, and for good reason. Why do we fight this?
There is a certain, VERY MINIMAL amount of necessary work that the normal child needs to do. By normal I mean that 80%. 10% would sit there and passively do whatever boring work you handed them. 10% will squirm and be in misery if they get two minutes more work than they can stand.
For that bare minimum, keep it challenging and try to encourage them to do it FAST. Put a carrot out there. But don’t make them grind more than absolutely necessary. Children have always despised their schoolbooks — it’s just how it is (other than that 10% who make life difficult for the rest). Paradoxically, I think it’s best if the school books are very bare-bones and don’t have pretensions to being fabulous. That’s why I do favor the simple primers, the MCP Plaid workbooks (old ones), and other somewhat colorless texts. They have the virtue of honesty.
I think you would find very few adults who demonstrate the “maturity” you are speaking of… most people really do just stick with the things that interest them. Weird that school can’t accept this trait of human nature.
Know your child. But also know that children can absorb a lot quickly and then they do have a lot of interests and even obsessions — and those things will be very positive for their intellectual development.
For your summer reading and watching, I recommend the memoir My Family and Other Animals — book and movie. A lot of fun and good insight into that kind of boy!
Lisa G. says
Oh – there’s a movie? I’ve gotta look for that! I read the book – hilarious. (Have you read “Our Hearts were Young and Gay”? Hilarious also.
Mrs. B. says
Dear Auntie Leila, thank you for your reply! I have read very little Gatto, but I am a longtime fan of Durrell, who can make his readers laugh as very few writers can: I have a weakness for British humor. I hadn’t thought about him in a while, thank you for reminding me, and for revealing there is a movie as well!
I wouldn’t dream of standing in the way of my kids’ passions: I was a much less interesting child, I think, (maybe Gatto would say I was dulled by school!) and I am astonished at what they can do simply because they love it. My boy especially has done real work: he taught himself to read (he didn’t set out to, of course, it simply happened: at 5 he was obsessed with heavy trucks and studied signs on the roads so intently that one day he read “Road Work Ahead” all on his own…), he has taught himself to draw with a skill I can only dream of, with a love for details and perfection that is almost moving in a child. He devours books, and what I love about it is not necessarily what he absorbs (though of course I make sure it’s all good), but that he naturally considers books his gateway to knowledge and he’s eager to open the next. He’s not afraid to tackle anything.
These are all his own achievements, and all I’ve done is to “spread the feast”, as some say: to make wonderful books available, all sorts of subjects, and let my children free to enjoy themselves. There is a lot of freedom in our house, something I am very ambivalent about, as you might imagine. But I have seen that children learn very naturally this way, and not just the kind of learning that stays in one’s head: they will grab what they have learned and literally do something with it: draw it, build it, reenact it, or just tell us about it. Boring, conscientious little schoolgirl me is quite amazed!
So I thought it would be easy for my boy to just give me some of his full attention for when we work on other necessities: when you say to work fast, that’s what I’d like too… but he is also a sloooooowwww person in general, and working fast is not for him. He doesn’t do anything fast, so it’s not related to “doing school”. I keep telling him that the faster we work, the sooner he can go back to his freedom, but it doesn’t seem to work well… I probably need to work better at that carrot!
As for our school books, I think I’ve picked “honest” ones, as you say, and I don’t think they are the problem.
I want to do some thinking this summer, about the way I teach, about my expectations, about how to balance all the freedom I give my kids with their other duties… I find homeschooling difficult, but as beneficial to me as an adult as it is to my kids. As I said, I’m going to spend summer in your archives, Leila!
Annalisa says
Mrs. B., I have also been struggling to help my 7 year old embrace the reality that quick work means finishing something of less interest (for her, math) in order to move on to those things she enjoys more. She is a slow, dreamy, passionate, artist and poet who loves companionship in all things. She is very attentive to some kinds of work, but when we approach something that previously required more effort or been less interesting she seems to shut down no matter the carrot. Given her age, I’ve been tempted to just put some things on hold and try again in a few months. Perhaps the summer is just what we need. But, on the whole, I’m also thinking about how I teach, my expectations and how to order school as it fits into the larger goals of family life.
Katie says
Yay history! Since you already have a designated “history notes” section, I’ll toss out this fascinating article I saw this week, with themes of education and collective memory to boot: 100-Year-Old Chalkboards, With Drawings Still Intact, Discovered in Oklahoma School.
Nancy says
Great links on education-thanks for sharing!
Wendy says
You asked about our education. I was public schooled all the way, by a single Mom teacher. I remember few things. I just wanted to chime in that there are things that matter more to the educational success of our children than schools – even if your children go to public school 7 hours a day. There is so much talk about fixing education, by which they mean fixing the schools so they are producing test passers, but all that aside, there are bigger things that keep our nation’s children from being successful. From my own experience you don’t learn much when Daddy is gone. You don’t learn much when your life is tumultuous at home, from parents fighting to cruel siblings, to neglect of the nurture that is required for wholeness. For so many of our nations children I just described their home life. How can they learn when they have so much to deal with, they are merely surviving. We keep them broken and see the result. There is no easy fix for a country with these deep seated problems, there is no fix for the schools when the families are broken. I know that has often been your stance here on LMLD, I just had to give my two cents worth. Collectively, how do we stem the tide? I choose to home school, fixing it for those that I have control over, but what of the rest? Thanks for these links, and these thoughts.
anel says
Dear Auntie Leila. The Mother’s list of books that your link of your home town library refers to, seems not available at present. Will it become so in the near future? Thanks for a wonderful host of links, as usual.
Leila says
anel, this post http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2013/06/the-like-mother-like-daughter-library/
has now been updated (at the bottom) — the booklets may be ordered directly from the author. The info is there now — thanks!
Donna L. says
I have read two of the articles…Legos and Quality Education….
I’m glad you linked both of them together—had I missed the first, I may have tossed our “summer break” in favor of diagramming sentences and learning/relearning basic math and grammar until the next school year to make certain my kids are well-educated…how do you know you are really teaching *what ought to be learned*?
Leila says
Donna, don’t forget those old primers I’ve posted about in my various reading/writing homeschooling posts. There IS a collective memory about this — you just have to go further back to glean what it is, ignoring the hyped-up, anxiety-producing lists of today.
It’s not about stuffing information INTO them — it’s about giving them the environment and opportunity to learn to teach themselves!
Tia says
on your pancake recipe,what, do you think, is the maximal proportion of whole wheat flour or possibly buckwheat flour that could be incorporated without severely compromising flavor? These recipes sound quite tasty and my kids are pancake fanatics, but I try to do whole grains to control my own blood sugar. If I make them all white flour pancakes, I typically have to eat only a tiny portion.
Do you think you could do half-half? Or 1/3 whole wheat, 2/3 white?
Leila says
Tia, my advice would be to make a quarter batch with say, half and half, and see how it is. You can always adjust that amount and then next time plan accordingly.
Sometimes I use the mix as written and add a cup of whole wheat flour to the two cups (say) of mix I’ve scooped out. I may add a little more baking soda to compensate for the extra flour and then, good to go. It’s very flexible, so do experiment with it.