Twelve Projects for 2009

Dec27

Last year instead of resolutions, I thought in terms of projects, lots of projects that I wanted to complete in 2008. I wouldn’t say I was any more or less successful with my projects than most people are with resolutions, but I like the tradition anyway and plan to to continue it this year. So here are my twelve projects for 2009, with evaluations of how I did on some of the same projects in 2008.

1. BIble Reading Project. Last year’s BIble reading project was a qualified success. I didn’t read every day, and I didn’t study the books and passages I chose as intensely as I wanted, but I did read and study some. This year’s BIble reading plan is the same as last year’s: choose a book or part of a book of the BIble for each month of the year, read it daily, and study it using some good study tools. Take notes in my Bible and maybe this year in a journal, too. The selections for this year:

January: II Samuel 1-8 Last year I read and studied I Samuel, so II Samuel seems to be next.
February: I Thessalonians
March: II Samuel 9-16
April: II Thessalonians
May: II Samuel 17-24
June: I Timothy
July: Joel
August: II TImothy
September: Amos
October: Titus
November: Psalms 1-5
December: Psalms 6-10

2. Pulitzer Project. This one will have to be a repeat from last year since I read only one of the books on my list, The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty. I didn’t review it because I didn’t really care for it much.

3. My Newbery Project for last year was also something of a bust. I think I got stuck because the winners for 1925 and 1926 were both story collections, and I don’t like story collections. I may skip the storybooks and get back on track this year.

4. My Madeleine L’Engle Project also failed to get off the ground last year. I think I just have so many good books to read, and not enough time. Anyway, this is another one I want to try again this year.

5. Operation Clean House. I figure if I take a room or area of the house and concentrate on that section each month, I might get somewhere with the de-cluttering and cleaning. Maybe.
January: My closet and dressing area.
February: The rest of my bedroom.
March: Front hallway and entryway.
April: Living Room.
May: Kitchen.
June: Laundry room.
July: Half of the gameroom.
August: The other half of the gameroom.
September: Front bathroom.
October: Z-baby’s bedrooom.
November: Karate Kid’s bedroom.
December: Sit back and enjoy my reorganized home?
I might even, if I’m brave enough, post before and after pictures to keep myself motivated.

6. LOST Reading Project. I really want to get back to this project this year.

7. The U.S. Presidents Reading Project has a list of all of the U.S. presidents and suggested reading selections (non-fiction) for each one. The challenge is to read one biography of each one. I would really like to start this project this year.

8. American History Project. In conjunction with the U.S. Presidents Reading Project, I’ll be teaching American history at home and at co-op next school year. So I’m working on planning a high school level literature/history class for co-op and condensing the Sonlight third and fourth grade curriculum suggestions for American history into one year for my little girls.

9. Poetry Project: I would like to get my urchins memorizing and reading poetry. I would like to read and memorize poetry. I would like to have more Poetry Parties.

10. Prayer Project. I need to spend some daily concentrated time in prayer and meditation. My plan is to pray and read my Bible before I get on the computer each day so that I can bathe all these projects and all my children and my husband in prayer.

11. Book Club Project. I’m really, really, truly starting my book club this year. We’re having our first meeting to discuss the books for the year this afternoon. If any of you are interested in participating (virtually), email me at sherryDOTearlyATgmailDOTcom, and I’ll send you the details. I’ll also be posting the book club selections for each month of 2009 here at Semicolon soon.

12. VIdeo Project. Engineer Husband and I are s-l-o-w-l-y watching the series Band of Brothers at night after the urchins are asleep. After we finish those videos, we’re planning to watch the HBO adaptation of David McCullough’s biography of John Adams, recommended here.

Bonus Project: I’ll keep blogging, the Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, and I’ll keep you all updated on all my projects for 2009.

Christmas in South Dakota, 1910

Dec17

She unwrapped an unwieldy bundle, covered with newspapers. Out of it fell a giant tumble weed, its spiny leaves dried on its skeleton stalk; its bushy top mounted on a trunk made of a broomstick. “Do you think that would do fer a Christmas tree?” she asked.

Becky looked at the dry bush with softened eyes.

“I thought maybe I could use some plum brush fer a tree, went on the child. “But I just hate the switchey look of’em for Christmas. So when this whopper tumble weed came along last fall it stuck in our chicken wire, and I hung it up in the barn. It dried just that way, and I thought maybe the children would like it fer a tree. The little ones never seen no pictures of one, even, and they wouldn’t know if it wasn’t just like. I got a pail of sand to stick that broomstick down in. I could hang the popcorn and the light strings on the tumble weed, and put the rest around it. Do you think that would work, Miss Linville?”

“I’m sure the children would love it.”

~The Jumping Off Place by Marian Hurd McNeely

Last night and today I have been enjoying this story, first published in 1929 and republished this year by the South Dakota State Historical Press for a new generation of readers. (The cover pictured here is from the older edition since the new paperback cover is not available at Amazon.) Little House on the Prairie fans who have exhausted Ms. WIlder’s canon and all its spin-offs, should try this story of a family of four orphan children who take up a homestead in South Dakota, determined to hold down their claim for fourteen months until they can gain title to the 160 acres of South Dakota farm left to them by their beloved Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim’s death at the beginning of the story gives the children a grief that is slow to heal, but the words and plans that he left them guide them in their new life on the prairie.

The Jumping-Off Place was a Newbery Honor book in 1930. (Laura Ingalls WIlder didn’t win her first of four Newbery Honors until 1938.) It’s a wonderful story of pioneering on the Great Plains in the early part of the twentieth century. Only one caveat: one of the characters does use the phrase “ni— work” to refer to the hard work of making a life on the prairie, a phrase I’m sure was common usage in that time and place, but offensive to modern ears nevertheless.

The book is for a bit more mature readers than those who first come to the Little House books. Ms. McNeely doesn’t sugarcoat the drudgery and suffering that those who settled the Great Plains had to endure. In one scene a baby dies of snakebite in a poverty-stricken dugout home, and fifteen year old Becky, the oldest of the four children, helps to lay out the body of the little girl and prepare it for burial. Some of the settlers are kind and helpful to the children, while others are mean and ornery. I think older children (ages 11-14 or so) who like this sort of tale will read anxiously to see if and how the children hold their claim and become part of the new Dakota society.

Other read-alikes in the pioneering children and young adults genre:

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson. Another Newbery Honor book, reviewed here at Maw Books Blog.

By Crumbs It’s Mine by Patricia Beatty.

My Face to the Wind: The Diary of Sarah Jane Price, A Prairie Teacher. Broken Bow, Nebraska, 1881 by Jim Murphy

West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi, New York to Idaho Territory, 1883 by Jim Murphy.

Any other suggestions?

The American Patriot’s Almanac by William Bennett and John Cribb

Dec16

I just got this book in the mail from Thomas Nelson publishers, and I wanted to get a review posted before it’s too late because I think it would make a wonderful Christmas or New Year’s present for anyone interested in American history or any homeschooler or teacher of American history. As soon as the book came, Brown Bear Daughter was browsing through it, reading me excerpts, partly to avoid finishing her math lesson, but also because she was genuinely interested in the short vignettes from U.S. history.

The book consists of a story for each day of the year related to events that occurred on that date. For instance, for today, December 16th, Bennett and Cribb recount the story of the Boston Tea Party which took place on the evening of December 16, 1773. Then, underneath the short four paragraph account, there’s a list of other events that also happened on December 16th.

I have a similar book called On This Day in History, but what I like about this one is its unabashed Americanism and willingness to mention, and even feature, Christians and spiritual heroes as well as secular ones. For example, the entry for October 5th tells about the Great Awakening and about preacher Jonathan Edwards who was born on that date. Another entry features the first American-born Catholic saint, Elizabeth Seton. Also, I think the entries in The American Patriot’s Almanac are more kid-friendly and interestingly written to draw you into the story and inspire further research.

In addition to the page for each day of the year, there are extra features scattered throughout the book: Flags of the Revolutionary War, The History of the Stars and Stripes, Fifty All-American Movies, Flag Etiquette, The Declaration of Independence (text and history), The U.S. Constitution (text and history), The Gettysburg Address, The Emancipation Proclamation, The Pledge of Allegiance, The American’s Creed, songs and poems of American patriotism, and the written words of various prayers for America called Prayers for the American People. You get a lot of information here, a lot of bang for the buck, packed into 515 pages, including an index.

The American Patriot’s Almanac isn’t a chronological look at U.S. history, but I plan to use it daily next year as we study through the history of our country chronologically. These daily nuggets will review or preview what we’re studying and help me to reinforce the meaning of the events that make up our history. I”ll be using it for blogging, too, since I like to feature birthdays of famous people and events in history. Can you tell that I’m really excited about this book?

Thanks to the folks at Thomas Nelson for sending me a copy of this book for review.

Christmas in Arizona, 1902

Dec12

“In 1902 an Act of Congress officially opened for land claims what had previously been the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. One fellow, upon hearing the news, immediately rushed there to stake his claims on December 25, Christmas Day. He then rapidly rode on horseback to file them the next day at the government office.”

This eager beaver land claim is what gave Christmas, Arizona its name.

~The Naming of America by Allan Wolk

Christmas in New Jersey, 1776

Dec7

“The attack was set for Christmas night, December 25-26, when most of the Hessians would be drunk or exhausted from the day’s celebrations.

About twenty-four hundred Continentals began marching toward the Pennsylvania side of McKonkey’s Ferry several miles upstream from Trenton late on Christmas afternoon. Paths down to the river were covered with snow. In the failing light, Washington saw the snow marked by the bloody footprints of those who went without shoes. None complained; it wouldn’t have done any good.

It hadn’t been a merry Christmas for those gathered on the shore. Miserable and homesick, they stood about in groups, waiting to board the boats. Rain began to fall, then wet snow. The temperature dropped. All they had to cheer them were the words of Tom Paine’s latest pamphlet, printed in Philadelphia three days earlier.

*****
As the shivering troops waited, Washington had the pamphlet read to them. Paine’s words went to their hearts like flaming arrows.

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he who stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph . . . “

~The War for Independence: The Story of the American Revolution by Albert Marrin.

Poetry and Fine Art Friday: 1492

Oct10

Johnny’s Hist’ry Lesson by Nixon Waterman

I think, of all the things at school
A boy has got to do,
That studyin’ hist’ry, as a rule,
Is worst of all, don’t you?
Of dates there are an awful sight,
An’ though I study day an’ night,
There’s only one I’ve got just right –
That’s fourteen ninety-two.

Columbus crossed the Delaware
In fourteen ninety-two;
We whipped the British, fair an’ square,
In fourteen ninety-two.
At Concord an’ at Lexington.
We kept the redcoats on the run,
While the band played “Johnny Get Your Gun,”
In fourteen ninety-two.

Pat Henry, with his dyin’ breath –
In fourteen ninety-two –
Said, “Gimme liberty or death!”
In fourteen ninety-two.
An’ Barbara Frietchie, so ’tis said,
Cried, “Shoot if you must this old, gray head,
But I’d rather ‘twould be your own instead!”
In fourteen ninety-two.

The Pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock
In fourteen ninety-two,
An’ the Indians standin’ on the dock
Asked, “What are you goin’ to do?”
An’ they said, “We seek your harbor drear
That our children’s children’s children dear
May boast that their forefathers landed here
In fourteen ninety-two.”

Miss Pocahontas saved the life –
In fourteen ninety-two –
Of John Smith, an’ became his wife
In fourteen ninety-two.
An’ the Smith tribe started then an’ there,
An’ now there are John Smiths ev’rywhere,
But they didn’t have any Smiths to spare
In fourteen ninety-two.

Kentucky was settled by Daniel Boone
In fourteen ninety-two,
An’ I think the cow jumped over the moon
In fourteen ninety-two.
Ben Franklin flew his kite so high
He drew the lightnin’ from the sky,
An’ Washington couldn’t tell a lie,
In fourteen ninety-two.

How many historical errors, aside from the obvious dating errors, can your children find in Johnny’s poem? I find at least six, maybe ten, depending on what you count as mistakes. It’s a good exercise in spotting historical inaccuracies. I’ll start you out:

1. Columbus never even saw the Delaware River.

Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix

May2

Advent: December 7th

Dec7

Every year on this date, my mom would ask me, “Do you know what today is?”

“Christmas? Almost Christmas? The beginning of Christmas?”

I eventually learned that December 7th has nothing to do with Christmas. Go here for an article by Maggie Hogan on commemorating this “date which will live in infamy” in your homeschool.

The book Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii, 1941 by Barry Denenberg is one of the Dear America series from Scholastic. Go here for more information on the book and some activities to accompany it.

Other books for children and young adults:
Air Raid–Pearl Harbor!: The Story of December 7, 1941 by Theodore Taylor

A Boy at War: A Novel of Pearl Harbor by Harry Mazer

World War II for Kids: A History with 21 Activities by Richard Panchyk

Links:
Phil at Brandywine Books: The Last Survivors of Pearl Harbor.

Michelle Malkin: Remembering Pearl Harbor.

George Grant posts Franklin Roosevelt’s December 8th “Date Which Will Live in Infamy” speech, broadcast on radio worldwide.

From Hawaii, Palm Tree Pundit comments and links to a few others who remember this date.

Children’s Fiction of 2007: Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

Nov26

I was prepared to like this new historical fiction novel by Newbery award-winning author Christopher Paul Curtis. After all, Bud, Not BUddy, the book that won the Newbery in 2000, is a great story. In fact, I was not disappointed, although I must say that the book starts out a little slowly. I read someone’s review of the book comparing it to The Great Brain series (sorry, I don’t remember who), and the book does begin with that flavor. Elijah is an eleven year old boy living in a settlement for free (escaped or bought out of slavery) Negroes in Canada just across the border from Detroit, Michigan. The year is 1860, and the name of the settlement is Buxton. (It’s a real place, by the way. A little of its history is recounted in the author’s note at the back of the book.)

In the first few chapters, Elijah gets into all sorts of scrapes because of his fra-gile constitution or because of his typical boylike mischief. He runs from an imaginary “hoop snake”, scares his mother with a toad frog, and finds out he has a gift from God, the gift of “chunking rocks” quite accurately. The story reads like a typical boyhood adventure story, with a bit of an atypical setting.

About midway through the tone and plot turn serious as Elijah learns to get past being fra-gile in order to help a friend redeem his family from slavery. There’s also a great discussion of why it’s inappropriate for even black people among themselves to use the n-word. Elijah casually uses the word “nig—” to refer to himself and his friends, and his friend Mr. Leroy jumps all over him, saying, “How you gunn call them children in that school and you’self that name them white folks calls us? Has you lost your natural mind? You wants to be like one n’em? You wants to be keeping they hate alive? . . . You thinks just ’cause that word come from twixt your black lips it man anything different? You think it ain’t choke up with the same kind of hate and disrespect it has when they say it? You caint see it be even worst when you call it out?”

Elijah learns his lesson, and I think the author meant for there to be a lesson embedded in there for kids of today, too. Derogatory terms have a history; words have meaning; sticks and stones and words can all hurt.

The entire book is written in first person from Elijah’s point of view, and it’s all written in dialect like the language Mr. Leroy uses in the above quotation. Some kids may have a little trouble with the dialect, but I don’t think it will be too bothersome. I thought after I got used to it that it gave the book a sense of history and transported the reader back in time as well as or better than any other device the author could have used.

As I said, the ending turns serious and pretty much heart-rending. This is not a book for younger readers, and older ones (grades 5-8) may have some challenging questions about what happens in the book and about the dark side of U.S. history. That’s a good thing, but be prepared for the discussion.

Wonderful story. Probably a Newbery contender. Nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born October 27th

Oct27

“For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.”

“There are two things that I want you to make up your minds to: first, that you are going to have a good time as long as you live – I have no use for the sour-faced man – and next, that you are going to do something worthwhile, that you are going to work hard and do the things you set out to do.”

“Don’t hit at all if you can help it; don’t hit a man if you can possibly avoid it; but if you do hit him, put him to sleep.”

“I don’t think any President ever enjoyed himself more than I did. Moreover, I don’t think any ex-President ever enjoyed himself more.”

Theodore Roosevelt became president at forty-two, when William McKinley was assassinated. Although he wasn’t the youngest man ever elected president (Kennedy, age 43), Teddy was the youngest to become president. When TR’s second term was over, he was still only fifty years old, making him the youngest ex-president, too.

T.R., b. 1858, is my favorite of all the presidents. I don’t say he was the best or the wisest or the one I would most agree with politically, but he would definitely be the most interesting dinner guest of all the presidents. Which president, or first lady, would you invite to your home if you could?

Semicolon

Books we must have though we lack bread.

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