Homeschooling Ourselves
Considering JunkMale and I both attended government high schools (although JunkMale was at a "good" public school, and he also went to a private Christian middle school), it might not surprise you to learn that we are not as well-educated as we wish to be. One area in which we are both sorely lacking is in literature. We both enjoy reading, but are far behind in our reading of classics. We could also use some work on memorization - I believe I was only ever made to memorize two sections of Shakespeare in high school, and neither one was very long. I do not believe I ever had to memorize anything else other than a Bible verse here and there. I believe the situation was about the same for JunkMale. Add to that the fact that one of us (I'll leave you guessing who) has difficulty with memorization to begin with, and becomes very stressed when told he/she has to memorize long passages, and you can begin to see why we might want to do some self-education.
Who says you need children to begin homeschooling, anyway? We have decided (or rather, I suggested the idea, and JM was not averse to it) that there is no time like the present to make ourselves 'learned'. We have a list of books to be read and Scriptures to be memorized, which should take us at least a year to complete.
I should add that reading classic novels has not exactly been on the top of JM's priority list - ever. However, after reading the first book on his list (Animal Farm), he declared it 'pretty good'. He also remembered that many years ago he had to read Frankenstein in school, and was surprised at just how good it was. So, with these two positive experiences in mind, he now seems a bit more excited about the whole project. Still, he is hesitant to read the 'girl books' (at least, he'd much rather read the 'boy books'), so we decided to break the list of classic books up into two lists: one for him and one for me. JunkMale doesn't have as much free reading time as I do, so we'll have to see how much he is able to read per week.
I intend to post our progress every Monday, because if I don't, we are likely to do this for a few days and then completely forget about it. Of course, this might happen with or without weekly updates....
Read this week:
JunkMale
Animal Farm (completed)
Starship Troopers* (re-read, in progress)
*Although this was not on our official list, JM insisted that this was a classic. If you disagree, please take the matter up with him. ;-)
Harmony
Animal Farm (completed)
Little Women (in progress)
Memorization work for this week:
Psalm 119:11
Luke 12:15
Categories:
education
My dh has been impressing me lately with his reading of the classics. He went through nearly all of mine by Christmas (as he has actually read all of his own books, which is far better than I ever did with my own collection), and then got a number of new ones as gifts that he's been working through since then. He may be able to suggest some particularly good ones for JunkMale -- nearly all are "boy" type classics.
If JunkMale is familiar with the comic book series or movie "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," he might enjoy reading some of the novels that those characters were based on. I think "King Solomon's Mines" made it onto my dh's (eventual) list that way.
My husband refuses to read...the only thing he reads is the Bible. Not so bad I guess if there is only 1 book out there you are wanting to read. I LOVE to read...I just need the time for it. I love many of the classics but have a "craving" for biographies and historical fiction. I just joined paperback swap and while I did get a book for my dd (who reads books like its going out of style) I am searching for one for myself :)
Angela
I am still trying to read books from my junior English list. I still have a long way to go, but maybe I will get through Emma before the summer is over. I have tried to finish that many times, but school keeps getting in the way.
I completed Starship Troopers early yesterday morning and am slightly more than halfway through The War of the Worlds (an eBook). I expect to finish that within the next couple of days.
Because I didn't feel like sitting at the computer the whole evening reading an ebook, I started on C.S. Lewis' Space trilogy yesterday with a flesh-and-blood borrowed copy of Out of the Silent Planet
We listened to Starship Troopers on a long drive to Colorado a few years ago. Steven loved it; I was less impressed.
Animal Farm and Little Women are both excellent!
I think I'm about to start reading Thoreau's Walden. I've never read it, and I have a degree in English! There's just no way to cover every great classic within the educational system, no matter how good that system may be.
I tried reading (or rather, listening, as it was an audio book) C.S. Lewis's space trilogy, but I just couldn't get into it. I hope you enjoy it more than I did!
Another book y'all might find interesting is The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. It's a classic, and it's the reason we have government standards for our food now!
Ewokgirl: My mom suggested The Jungle, too. I told her I'd read some excerpts in high school, and that I'd rather JunkMale read the whole thing thank-you-very-much. I'd rather not be sick. ;-)
I think my sister read Walden in college. Honestly, I greatly prefer fiction. However, some day I intend to read at least some of the greats of non-ficiton.
I did start reading Walden, but I have lost my copy in the move to the Great North. *sigh* I wasn't terribly far into it, as I recall, but I'd like to start into it again one day.