Draft posts

Does anyone else get a kick out of reading those posts which are just too personal to publish, but which sit there in the list with 'draft' beside them? Every so often I do something to them to make them ok to publish, or decide to delete them entirely.

There is always a reason why I wrote them, generally a moment of enthusiasm which would just annoy most other people. If my brother were to spend the evening chatting here every week I'd share it all with him! He gets it and is full of ideas too.

Reading out loud to children

I would like to do a survey on here in the comments boxes. The question is:

What book(s) are each of your children asking you (not anyone else) to read to them right now, this week? Answers listed by child's age only, no names. Exclude any externally imposed or chosen books, just spontaneous "I really want this one!!" requests.

1. Age 16 - no requests for reading out loud any more.

2. Age 14 - Casino Royale by Ian Fleming, no others.

Over to you....

Fishing

'"He is two feet longer than the skiff," the old man said. The line was going out fast but steadily and the fish was not panicked. The old man was trying with both hands to keep the line just inside of breaking strength. He knew that if he could not slow the fish with a steady pressure the fish could take out all the line and break it.

He is a great fish and I must convince him, he thought. I must never let him learn his strength nor what he could do if he made his run. If I were him I would put in everything now and go until something broke. But, thank God, they are not as intelligent as we who kill them; although they are more noble and more able.'

from 'The Old Man and the Sea'
by Ernest Hemingway

Counting good things

Last year sometime I read about the concept of counting up to 1000 gifts, ie good things that I see each day. It was from Ann Voskamp's blog, inspired by a dare from a helpful friend of hers and probably a tool many have used over the eons in different ways.

It was odd getting to the magic 4 digit number and realising the obvious, I'm now carrying on with numbering through dates like 1066. I'm still in the second millenium. I may alter to simply doing a list for each day after I hit 2011.

Each year S is given a massive tome of a desk diary by a generous company. It is exactly right for me. I used to use it to note narrations, ie things T and H told me about, a doable version of the Charlotte Mason narration technique. It also held nature observations, but now it is just for 'things I am grateful for' last thing at night.

To counter gratitude I am still working on a daytime alternate version, a problems book, where each problem can be numbered and given a page where I note ideas for tackling it. For me this is a way of being real about the not so good aspects of life and giving them a home rather than worrying around them and carrying them in my head all my waking hours.

It took time for me to learn how the gratitude book worked best for me and it is still taking time for me to find the best way of using my problem book. At the moment I am in a non action phase with it, but I know that when I come back to it I will have moved on in some way and will be closer to using it well for me or finding a different method.

March

From the chapter on March:

'The great spotted woodpecker - a completely medieval bird, like a joker, or a jester with mask, cap and bells. The black and white skullcap, the deep red velvet tail. the barred, flamboyant costume and the outsized conk of a beak, absurdly vigorous in its hammering. How on earth does it stabilize its brain?

from 'Notes from Walnut Tree Farm'
by Roger Deakin

My cup runneth over

T quoted this to me today, or I did to him, as his hot chocolate splurged all over the sides of the mug and we took out the glass plate to clean it.

I explained it was from the Bible, (mind you it doesn't sound Shakespearean, hymn-ly or nursery rhyme-ish so it just couldn't be from anywhere else!) and it seems we are creeping ever closer to actually opening ....The Book Itself.... to see what great stories and quotes lie within.

Limits

Now I have my hour a day at my laptop, there are so many hours left over!!!

Over the past couple of weeks I have found a way to create a form of structure and rhythm for myself. I find it very dull to have the same duties each day.

So, each day now has a topic for me to read and enjoy to any extent I want:

Monday - Geography
Tuesday - Sciences
Wednesday - History
Thursday - Economics/Graphs
Friday - Politics
Saturday - Art/Photography
Sunday - still undecided

Some of this may influence the purposive conversations with H and T, but it's for my own well being first and foremost. (Oxygen mask and all that.)

The power of Wikipedia

I have donated to Wikipedia a couple of times in the past. T scoffed at this and didn't really believe me. Now I'm even more likely to donate again because T told me that reading about the as yet unsolved mysteries of black holes on Wikipedia fired an interest which he is determined to take to degree level. Wow, and double wow. Thank you to all those people who write and edit it.

H said a couple of days ago 'Everybody loves reading' as he was sitting welded happily to his laptop in the kitchen. There are wiki articles about the games he particularly likes and they are up to date.

Always Room

There's always room for another blog on my side bar linking thing. It's amazing how many beautiful people there are blogging away often or infrequently.

I was just looking at my books, wondering which one I'm reading at the moment. Then I realised I prefer wriggling, kicking writing hot from the stove of the internet. Until my eyes get a tired sort of feeling and I have spent enough time in the endless vortex. Then I switch to here and now in this very room.

How many mixed metaphors can I put into one post? Sorry for the bad writing!

So what

So what on earth will I read my way through in the second smallest room in our house next year?

The Bible?
My unread books, that rather includes most of the Bible!?

Maybe I will collect the candidates and lay them out on a table in the drawing room. Between Christmas and New Year I will consider them and make my choice. That's generally a peaceful, being time of year round here.

But first I still have 106 pages left of the book I'm savouring this year. I can't believe it. The book gets longer the more I read it! The never-ending book, rather like our ever-young cat Snowy. We always thought he must be about 18, but then he'd be a year older and look the same, so we said he was still about 18!

Someone somewhere blogged that they will not buy any more books in 2011, and will focus on the clearly embarrassingly large heap of treasures they already have at hand.

So what is my purpose in reading each day anyway? There's the real question to answer.

Reading aloud

Just this week I have had the opportunity to read aloud to H. Long may this last. As we know it takes two to tango, so if his enjoyment of my voice and the books available wanes, that will be the end of that for who knows how long. I never thought he'd want this again so I am thrilled.

H asked me to read out from a website too. I think I know why, it had white text against a black background and was murder to focus on. When I looked at the walls and curtains all I could see were odd horizontal lines for a few seconds. I found out all about the variables in the writing of the code for a game.

Book Medicine

I went on a mercy mission to my favourite book shop. T asked for the latest Cherub book and the latest Terry Pratchett. He read the Cherub one this afternoon and is whizzing through the Pratchett as I write.

Someone on another blog mentioned buying books on the offchance her children would want to look at them. I used to do this when T and H were little, but have got out of the habit, feeling it was wrong to buy books they didn't like, a waste of money. When I mentioned this to T he loved the idea, so I picked up 2 unfamiliar books at the same time.

Some of the unschooling discussion lists have mentioned creating abundance in this way, not considering it a waste, but considering it a worthwhile expense to collect interesting items for the house. Even if things are not used right away thay are there and are available. I will try to spend more time in charity shops again.

Maybe it is time for me to try doing more reading out loud to H. As the younger brother he has the advantage of a house full of books for someone a little older than himself. We couldn't have planned it better.

When he was younger he demanded I read out to him every day for literally hours. Morning, noon and night. We spent a lot of time cuddled up together doing this.

Reading books

I am trying to relax when I read a book I don't agree with 100%. Even if the style of writing implies that I the reader also think the same way as the writer, I have free will and an ability to simply see that and just take what I need from the text.

I do find it mentally tiring to be reading with that sort of detachment. It is so much easier to read and agree with everything. Then I have the feeling of being understood, which is always nice!

Since starting to home educate I have had to engage with authors in several different fields, while engaging with the issues in real life at the same time. Assessing a whole field and learning the vocabulary at the same time is hard work. Within each field there are a range of approaches. Judging these for real, not just as a university level academic exercise, is what mums do.

Sometimes I want a holiday from the responsibility and the worries. Now I am 45 I can see that many adults do not know the answers and haven't the grace to simply say so. Interacting with anxious adults who feel they want to tell me what to do is a real old waste of my precious time and sanity. Not in a good mood at the moment!

Gentle reading

for me is The Plague by Camus. I whizzed through half of it last night. After my hip went all sore I reckoned it would take my mind off it. The plague is in China at present and my hip is right here, so much more immediate.

Anyone want a spare leg, I don't want it anymore!