Stuff We Like :: 6.29.18
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
Learn more about our high school curriculum — and feel free to ask your own questions!
Shelli reviews a grammar curriculum that’s working great in her elementary homeschool.
one year ago: Suzanne is still on vacation, but you can read her raves about John Connolly’s Samuel Johnson series, one of her favorite summer binges. Plus: How to put together a DIY homeschool retreat
two years ago: 6 surprising signs you’re actually doing a great job homeschooling. Also: The pleasures of summer homeschooling
THE LINKS I LIKED
It has been a hard week in this department, so I am just going to link you to this library cartoon, which may actually be based on my office.
WHAT I’M READING AND WATCHING
I tried to start the Roman Mysteries series with my son, but he was bored after a few chapters of The Thieves of Ostia. I couldn’t stop, though, so I’ve been reading them through anyway — he doesn’t mind as long as it’s a pool readaloud.
I’m also reading Tristram Shandy again. I always forget how wonderfully weird it is!
RANDOM THINGS ON MY MIND
I am feeling so overwhelmed and stressed out by the state of the world right now, and honestly, it is hard not to give into despair. Here are some things I am doing that help, at least a little:
- Calling my representatives EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Even though most of them are pretty terrible and don’t really represent or care about my interests, I am not going to stop speaking up.
- And because my representatives are terrible, I am doing everything I can to help the great candidates running against them, including donating whatever time and money I can.
- I am quietly blocking other people — friends of friends I don’t actually know — who end up in my social media things saying cruel, stupid, or ridiculous things. I am saving my good fight for the people I actually care about and not letting myself get pulled into internet arguments that only leave me drained and frustrated.
- I am taking expensive but soul-soothing baths.
- I am going back and reading the most depressing Supreme Court cases — Dred Scott, Plessy v. Ferguson, Korematsu — and reminding myself that these cases have been overturned. History moves toward progress, even if it hits heart-wrenching bumps along the way.
- I am baking bread with my children.
- I am turning off the television and playing The Battle for Hogwarts with my children. (With the Monster Book of Monsters expansion pack!)
- I am believing in good.
