First things first: freebie! Have you ever had one of those rooms that gets piled up and you end up just shutting the door on it for a while? You know, organizing it is more than you can take, and the rest of the family just keeps piling things in there? Time for a school…
Next in our reading series, let’s pick up an old dystopian classic, Animal Farm. This is not a children’s story, despite its moderately short length. Do not bother reading it to students without the background historical context. It is the perfect read directly after a study of communism! In the novel, a group of Farmer Jones’s…
I have been enjoying the DVD series “Teaching the Classics” by Adam and Missy Andrews. It is training for parent teachers, or anyone who is interested, to use the Socratic method to facilitate literary analysis of any story, by any student. Most of the material is familiar to me, but Andrew’s presentation is so concise…
Since my 15 year old is working her way through the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I have had the pleasure to watch these movies with her in the order that they were released, without months or years in between. As I watched Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War back to back, I was struck with…
Let’s read a short book. Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea is perfect for poolside or beach chair reading. Hemingway is the master of writing stories where not much happens, yet it keeps you turning page after page. He says so much with so few words. He seems Dicken’s polar opposite. There is a…
On our recent trip to New York City we visited the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). As big fans of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) I was surprised at Sunshine Doll’s request to go to MoMA instead (or Mooma as she previously thought it was called). She had studied the art movements in…
To Kill A Mockingbird. Time to pull it off the shelf and take another look. It is not only history, it is a timely look at racial tension and understanding. It is a beautiful coming of age story and a story of justice, a lack of justice, and doing the right thing. As we follow…
I’ve just returned from a wonderful vacation, if you are wondering why you haven’t heard from me in a few weeks. First we went to the FPEA (Florida Parent Educator’s Association) Convention, then an exciting trip to NYC, Cape Cod, and Boston, which I will write about next time. Right now I want to talk…
It’s that time of year again! It’s time to refresh and renew ourselves with some straight talk, some shiny, new resources still shrink wrapped and smelling like the printing press, and a few days away from home. This year we are privileged to have almost all of our co-op moms attending! Here are my tips,…
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