Thoughts on some books I've read

[celticdragonfly]

I just yesterday finished No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting, by Anne L. Macdonald. I enjoyed the book. Hardback from the library, been having many of those lately, and they remind me why I love my bookstand on the table. I've found that I could read this book comfortably while eating, or while sitting in front of it with my knitting or crocheting, but yes, reading it with empty hands made me twitch. Why yes, I am the target audience!

I learned some interesting things. For one, the whole fuss of people pronouncing that "knitting was almost extinct, but look, now it's having an amazing resurgence!" happens over and over. The book was written in 1988; I find myself wondering what the author thinks of the current knitting resurgence. I was talking to Karl about how often that pronouncement gets made. He commented on the timing of the cycles, and says perhaps that's why I tend to find myself in a demographic hole of knitters. When I go to knitting meetups and such, (and hey, there's one tonight) I find many women significantly older than I am, my mother's age or more, and a group that are in early to mid 20s, and me. I don't meet other knitters my age. I *know* they're out there, but we seem to be demographically rare.

I also recently read Real-Life Homeschooling: The Stories of 21 Families Who Teach Their Children at Home, by Rhonda Barfield. Very interesting. She does make a point that these are anecdotal and illustrative, not necessarily demographically representative. So I am trying to avoid making too much stew out of the anecdotal oyster.

I do notice however, both in this book and in others I have looked at, that a great number of homeschooling families have a setup with one stay-at-home parent and the other parent having unusual employment - self employed, running their own business, or having a flexible job where their kids can come with them sometimes. So I wonder - is it that the help and flexibility of one parent (usually the father) being self-employed and more available makes homeschooling more likely to work out? Is it that a family already running a business finds it easier to make the conceptual jump to running their own school, too?

Given that there's no way Karl can run his own business, or work somewhere that he could take kids with him, is this bad news for us? I mean, if he was a contractor or something, sure, but that kind of thing just doesn't work with aerospace engineers.

Lots of variety in learning styles. I do NOT see myself going to the seriously "unschooled" style. I just don't think that would work for us. I like checklists, I like the reassuring idea of comparing a child against the public school curricula - not using them, probably, but being able to compare and say "yep, we're way ahead, bwahahah". I have a lot of interest in older style curricula, and in what was done in the old one-room schoolhouses. I know there's materials for those still available. I'd like to learn more about how they were used.

Hm, in that anecdotal selection, lots of families with lots of boys, or many boys and a girl or two. I wonder what the demographic numbers are on percentages of boys and girls in homeschooling. Just idly curious.

I'm reading another homeschooling book now, Homeschooling - The Early Years or something like that. I mostly don't like it. The layout is awful and distracting - lots of sidebar stuff, and every page or so has a sentence or paragraph that apparently the author was just too proud of, because it gets repeated in a gray box that interrupts the flow of text. I feel like it's being written for someone who can't read anything more complicated than USA Today, and I feel talked down to. Gah.

When I finish this batch of books, or get close to it, I'll go hit the library website and gather up more!

Comments

[marymont.livejournal.com]

A lot of the Texas Homeschool movement is very fundy Christian. If you can stomach that, and work around it, it's an excellent way to go.

First, and probably most important step: educate yourself about the program. Here are some helpful links.

http://www.thsc.org/
http://www.texashomeschoolers.com/txhs.htm
http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/regional/Texas.htm
http://www.homeschoolbookfair.org/

Aw, heck. Google Texas Homeschool and you'll find lots more.

Joining thsc is primo, though.

[archangelbeth]

Ah, pullquotes.

That may not be the author's choice. It may have been a layout/publisher decision. The latest GURPS books tend to have that format. I rather dislike it. I can read maintext. There should be some literary or fictional quote there instead, to add value...

(So I tend to have pullquote lists for the IN stuff, muwahahahaha!)

Essentially, having stuff like that breaks up the page, adds more interest, and lets people navigate the text by looking for those as "signposts." (E.g., something being near a piece of art, or a quote that looks like X.)

I dunno what it's doing in a homeschooling book, though.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Breaks up the page, yes. I don't find that it adds interest. It just makes it look cluttered and distracted, and makes me feel like I'm actually getting very little amount of value per page. (Large print and margins, too. They're supposed to be aiming this to parents with small children, not the children themselves!)

I'm glad I have it from the library and didn't buy it!

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

Yes, you have to be the master of "stet DAMNIT" if you want to override your editor. That said, there are still plenty of people who keep all their taste in their mouth.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm keeping an eye out for opportunities to shift toward software, which is much more tolerant of work at home, consulting, and bringing kids.

As for the frequency of boys--I can think of two theories. One being that families are willing to put more work into boys, the other is that the public schools are better suited to the average girl's learning style so there's less need to pull them out.

[technomom]

I don't think having two parents at home is necessary. I do think that having two or more inolved parents is important.

You can choose to be more or less structured - whatever works for you and your kids.

I think there may be more parents who end up homeschooling boys because boys are more likely to have overt problems in public school. I've met a lot of families who never planned to homeschool but do so because of problems their sons had with standard schools.

I need a bookstand.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

They carry the bookstands at Barnes and Noble - little wire things, not expensive. Sadly I'm not finding it on their website.

Home Educator's Resource store in Duncanville, TX

[p-o-u-n-c-e-r.livejournal.com]

the consignment, 2nd hand, and discount shop for textbooks and such -- just east on I-20 to the Cedar Ridge exit and about a mile or two south. They have a website which I forget but bet you can google. Yes, heavy on the Bible-based stuff -- Alpha Omega I think is one name publisher. But a broad spectrum of stuff including secular also on hand -- helps to have the material in your hands to heft and flip pages, don't you think?

"Funnix" is a good direct instruction software package for reading. Often available on e-bay. Once the student is reading, what'cha gonna do with the discs?

We like Saxon math, but many find it tedious.

The Core Knowledge people are doing better with their materials. A bit pricey.

VERY pricy is the "K-12" stuff from the William Bennett foundation.

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

How do you rate the Teach Your Baby To..." materials by Glenn Doman from the Gentle Revolution people?

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

I'm not familiar with them.