Religious Devotion

7 February 2012

I started reading The Chosen by Chaim Potok this morning and by the end of the day I was nearly all the way through it. Of course, that meant I didn't do anything else all day.  It was computer day for the kids and they were happy that I didn't restrict the amount of time they were allowed to play. Ah well, I will finish the book tomorrow and get the house fully cleaned then.

Usually my kids go a little wild when I spend the day reading (or listening to an audio book as it has been in the past), but this time they were well behaved. There was not fighting or arguing to speak of and the house was pretty well still intact by the end of the day. My little Em crawled around and played by my side while I read. She had a little bit of a fever and a runny nose; I'm pretty sure she is starting to cut her first teeth. The poor baby.

I am already looking forward to re-reading The Chosen as well and looking up all of the Hebrew and Yiddish words and phrases to find their meanings. The devotion the characters in this book have to their religious studies is astounding and impressive. I am going to try to incorporate at least ten minutes of scripture reading into our hour of reading time before bed. It will be a good thing not only for the kids, but for myself as well.

Booklist

25 January 2012

Today I read the appendixes in the book A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille and have found that I really need to take two months to prepare myself to teach my kids with this method. We went to the library and I let each of the kids pick out 2 books and I checked out my person list of assigned reading. The books I checked out are as follows;

The Lonesome Gods by Louis L'amour
Little Britches, Father and I Were Ranchers by Ralph Moody
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Laddie, A True Blue Story by Gene Stratton Porter
Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery
The Black Stallion by Walter Farley

I started reading The Lonesome Gods first because several of my immediate family members love Louis L'amour and I had never read his work before. When I looked at the list of titles of 200 of the suggested classics I recognized most of them, though I am ashamed to say I had only read two of them and both of them before the age of ten! I have a lot to learn, but I am excited about it now. I have a reason to read these books. I will learn from them, they will be my mentors.

On a side note, at church on Sunday I was asked to be the coordinator for the 8-11 year old girls Activity Day once a week. I am excited for this opportunity to serve my community and to get to know the young girls in the neighborhood. Ra will be eight this summer and it will be a great opportunity for her to make new friends and for me to be able to get to know her friends as well. I hope to be able to use some of what I have learned from the TJ Ed and Charlotte Mason in these activities.