Book Recommendations and Odds & Ends

Today for history we read George Washington's Breakfast and I have to say it is an AWESOME little kids' book about George Washington. It manages to touch on a ton of quick facts about George Washington without you really realizing it's teaching you anything. And it's just a cute fun book, that left the girls asking when we can go to the Smithsonian (which we've been to, but it's been awhile), Mount Vernon (which I've been thinking for awhile now, they'd enjoy (and I wanna go too, it's pathetic that it's so close (relatively speaking) & I haven't been since I was a kid), just need to find the time & such), and when we can make a breakfast like George Washington ate (I won't give away the ending by telling you what that is LOL), which should be pretty easy to accomodate them on. Anyway, most of the books we've read for history this year have been great, but this one just really struck me as teaching alot without really seeming to.

Now for the other homeschool moms (and really any Christian mom of school age or younger kids), for quite awhile I've been eyeing The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach but just couldn't quite fit it into the budget (I love books, but I like to get them cheap LOL), I couldn't decide from reading the description and excerpt if it would really be worth getting, I already fully agree that making the Bible the center of all our schooling (and all that we do) is the way to go, and I couldn't decide if this book would add enough practical ideas on HOW to do that to be worth the purchase price or not. But, when I noticed that it's on sale (and apparently it's going up a little each day because I bought the ebook this weekend for $15 and now it's $18) I decided to go ahead & get the e-book. Since it's a 500+ pg book I haven't finished it yet, but what I HAVE read is excellent. I'll admit I just skimmed the section on fear of homeschooling because, while it may have to do with my kids still being so young, I really don't have any fears that I can teach my kids & they'll turn out ok (this might also have to do w/ the fact that for the most part I feel that the useful things I learned in school were often learned in spite of "school" not because of it, and that perhaps the most useful thing I learned in school was the result of having a less than ideal teacher because that taught me to read a book & learn on my own w/o having to rely on the teacher & I figure that's one of my main educational goals for my kids too, to teach them to think for themselves and be able to look up information and process it as needed). Anyway . . . so I can't speak too much to that section, but there is a large part of the book (well, a large part of the first half of the book, since I'm about halfway through at this point) devoted to the history of education/religion and how it all kind of ties together. Showing how America's education system is influenced much more by the Greek & Roman models than it is by the Hebrew model and how the Hebrew model is more in keeping w/ the way Jesus taught and encouraging us, as "teachers" to move away from the pagan models typically used in schools (including Christian schools) and move toward the Hebrew model. Anyway . . . even without the practical applications of how to keep all education Bible-centered (I haven't gotten to that part to see how useful it is), I feel like just what I've learned about WHY, as a Christian, I would most definitely NOT want to be teaching my children (or have them taught) based on the pagan models, is worth the purchase price of the e-book. And like I said, it's on a good sale now (50% off) so now's the time to snatch it up if you're interested. I'll try to remember to write a "proper" review once I've read the whole book.

Other odds and ends around here:

The weather was WEIRD today! In the 60's!!! The girls enjoyed being to play outside w/o coats & such.

Yesterday we went and cut down a live tree. The girls LOVED it!! And they (w/ a little encouragement from me) chose a great tree for the space we have (tall & skinny is a good thing in a small space). So now we have a Christmas tree and it's finally starting to feel abit like Christmas around here.

I know there were other odds & ends I meant to mention but can't think what they are now, oh well . . .