I have so many little matters to tell you of, that I cannot wait any longer before I begin to put them down.
Posted in Children's Books on Nov 16th, 2010
Continuing in my defense of the importance of literary excellence… 2. We aren’t relativists when it comes to art. We believe in artistic standards of excellence. We who hold to absolute standards of truth shouldn’t suddenly become relativists when it comes to art. The beauty of the humanities is that an individual’s enjoyment of a […]
Posted in Children's Books on Nov 15th, 2010
Last week I started off our thoughts on children’s literature by discussing the moral values we require from a children’s book. This week I’ll touch on our controversial contention that literary excellence matters just as much as moral content. 1. High-quality writing and artwork reflect the excellence of the Creator. We want our kids to […]
Posted in Children's Books, Tommy on Nov 12th, 2010
Posted in Children's Books on Nov 9th, 2010
Yesterday I started off by talking about what we define as morally excellent literature for our kids right now (3 1/2 and 1 1/2). Um, isn’t this a bit limiting? A lot of the great literature of the Western Canon doesn’t match up with Biblical Truth. We’ll be reading a lot if it as a […]
Posted in Children's Books on Nov 8th, 2010
If you didn’t know, Derek and I are passionate about children’s literature. So several months ago, I had a long conversation with some dear friends about what kinds of books we’re having our kids read. Derek and I want our kids only to read books that are both morally and aesthetically excellent. Some of our friends don’t find […]
Posted in Children's Books, State College on Oct 19th, 2010
One of the best parts of being in a small town in the middle of the mountains is that we really get to see the changing of the seasons. I remember reading Charlotte Mason in Chicago and thinking, “Tommy doesn’t see enough nature to be able to do any of the activities she recommends!” Well, we’re […]
Posted in Children's Books, Elizabeth, Tommy on Sep 24th, 2010
Posted in Books, Children's Books, Elizabeth, Tommy on Sep 22nd, 2010
This is what we’ve been doing for the past week… Staying in our PJ’s all day, reading. Except today we all got dressed and went to Bible study, where I managed to last two hours without blowing my nose. Poor Derek has it the worst now. My laundry basket is full of handkerchiefs. So I’m […]
Posted in Children's Books, Elizabeth, Family, Tommy on Mar 16th, 2010
I’ve been so busy with Tommy that I haven’t had time to put up some cute pictures from the weekend. So here we are…Saturday morning reading, and a little girl starts to crawl!:
Posted in Children's Books, Homeschooling on Dec 31st, 2009
For fun, here’s a round-up of some of our favorite new discoveries this year… Best New Children’s Book—The Greatest Skating Race by Louise Borden This book combines all of my childhood passions–ice skating, the Dutch Resistance, and running away from Nazis. We discovered it at a random bookstore in Willmington, OH, because it was signed by […]