Our preparations for church camp are in the frenzied "just one week to go" stage. Which means busy, busy, busy. But we're still finding time to have some summer fun with friends (swimming! cookouts!).
We've been on a summer schedule for school (priorities: math, reading, some Latin) but once we get home from camp we'll start again in earnest. I like to kickstart our return to routine in August. It doesn't mean we won't continue to do fun summer stuff, but it will give us the flexibility to take off later in the year.
So August = new books (if the kids have finished a particular book or set of lessons I don't have them start the new one until August) and back to a routine (like trying to get things finished in the morning so we have most of our afternoons free).
But right now just thinking about all that is a little overwhelming, so let's get on with the linkage.
Learning
- Can We Just Admit College is a Giant Ponzi Scheme? by Joy Pullmann at The Federalist. This is actually a post from June, but I forgot to share it. You can bet that Philip and I are examining all facets of this college question now that our oldest is...gulp...a sophomore.
- Two posts from the Read the World Summer Book Club caught my eye recently. The first is Growing Up in South Africa (so interesting to get a glimpse of homeschool life on another continent!) and the second was Read the World: Europe because of all the resources Jamie shares for studying my favorite continent (other than the one I live on...)
Living
- Three Ways You Can Help Bring Healing to America Starting Now by Kathryn Watson at Relevant. Hopeful, thoughtful, and practical.
- The Dangers of Pursuing Your Passion Sarah Hahn at Relevant. I appreciated this corrective.
- How to Keep Your Friends When Life Happens and interview by Liuan Huska with Emily Langan. The bad news: it's harder than you thought. The good news: it can be done. (See Better Together for more on this subject.)
- Why Gender-Neutral Child-Raising is a Terrible Idea by Rachel Lu at The Federalist. It's crazy that we have to point this out now, but "gender-neutral" is not really neutral. It's hostile to masculinity and therefore boys. I'm all for civilizing our sons and raising them to be GOOD men, but not for denying who they are created to be. (You can see some of my early wrestling with this question here: Two Things This Mom of Boys is Learning.)
- Pokemon Go in a Fractured and Flattened World by Trevin Wax. There are plenty of stories about this new phenomenon on social media and the news these days but I appreciated Trevin's perspective.
Loving
- Another Trevin Wax perspective that I found thought provoking: Christian Music Radio is More Theological Than You Think. (Yes, we do listen to some CCM around here.) The comments section is interesting too (particularly the point about a lot of the music being good and much of the DJ patter / spiritual advice being...not great).
- What a 73-Year Old Reader's Digest Says About America's Future by Jenni White at The Federalist. The last paragraph which says, in part: "Confucius is credited with saying, 'To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.' Maybe it’s time to follow that prescription." Is some of what I was thinking Wednesday: A Beautiful, Hopeful Character.
- "These are Such Terrible Times" by Lenore Skenazy at Free-Range Kids. A little perspective.
- Found this one via Longform (because yes, it's long): Marie Kondo and the Ruthless War on Stuff by Taffy Brodesser-Akner for The New York Times Magazine. Kondo is still fascinating to me. (See my first reaction to the book here: What Marie Kondo and L.M. Montgomery Taught Me About Homemaking)
- How God Messed Up My Happy Atheist Life by Nicole Cliffe. Grace still amazes me. (And I have to admit that stories like this one kind of make me want to read "The Hound of Heaven" or Chesterton or Lewis again.)
On Living Unabridged this week: Delight Directed Learning for Mom
What caught your eye this week?
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