Reading List on the Net {06.12.15}

A Depression-Era Medicinal Plant Map of the United States- This just looks really neat. I've attempted {not succeeded well} to become more knowledgeable about common plants that can be used for medicinal purposes.

Morality, Myth, and the Imagination- This post was from 2009 but it is something that will be covered in the upcoming 2015 Charlotte Mason Institute Education conference {next week!}. The entire theme of the conference is nurturing moral excellences. I don't recall how I came across the post but am glad that I did. Brandy links to a book that will be discussed at the conference- Tending the Heart of Virtue. The very last paragraph in the post is spot on, I think.

In what way can we best prepare the imagination to attempt greatness?

5 No-Cost Tricks to Sell Your Home Faster- No, we aren't moving {yet} but we never really know when we will. We've generally done well when it comes to showing our homes to sell but Dave Ramsey has some pointers that I'd not thought of, such as setting the table for two. My biggest focus is always that it is clean, which is #1 on this list. *smile*

A study by the Real Estate Staging Association found that homes staged before listing received an offer in just 23 days on average. That’s 87% faster than those who waited months after listing to bother staging.

This is Adolescence: 18- You'll have to read this and apply it to the 18-year-olds that you know personally but I can understand many of the conundrums that 18 presents. It is amazing how that number can signify so much change, when it is really just a number. When my daughter turned 18, I honestly think she thought great amazing things were going to happen right then. I am not disregarding her feelings because I guess I felt the same. {I grew up vastly different than she did and my "18" came much earlier.} This helps me to see how others must feel- and I am sure I will when my boy turns 18, because I think it will be closer to what is presented than what I've experienced with my daughter- when they come to the age of 18 with their children.

Eighteen leaves little gashes on my heart, like stinging paper cuts, as time winds down and we no longer have months or years but rather weeks and days. I miss him before he is even gone and I grieve once he has left. Eighteen drifts slowly away the summer after graduation and then one morning I load up the car and he is really gone, and I can do nothing more than help him on his way.

Why So Poky?- This article talks about poorly written children's stories, featuring prominently The Poky Little Puppy. He simply does. not. like. this book. But his daughter loves it. It has been entirely too long since I've read this book but I did indeed read it to my kids. I can't say they "loved" it as his daughter seems to, but his point is that best selling children's books aren't necessarily good books. The point below that children have no standards is somewhat try; let to themselves they will consume junk rather than nutritious food. It can be applied the same to the great ideas gathered from good books as opposed to twaddle and junk books.

Their sales are sustained in perpetuity by nostalgia alone...Millions of people enjoyed The Poky Little Puppy as children, because it was cheap and because, being children, they had no standards. They grew up to be parents, remembered the book fondly from childhood, and purchased it for their own children. It’s an intergenerational cycle of crap, and it’s the reason The Poky Little Puppy and The Little Engine That Could and God knows how many more terrible books have been in print for three-quarters of a century. 

Taking the Plunge into Living Science- Going on 6 years of homeschooling and I still have not quite got the hang of 'living' science. I think this year hopefully will be a step closer in that direction. The part seems the most difficult to implement for us is the notebooking {Joy calls them journals}: Getting them to put their knowledge and understanding down on the paper. There is a concern on their part, I think, that their drawings are right or perfect, when what I am looking for is more the concept is firmly in place. It seems so strange to me that now that Fox is going into 11th grade we will focus more on living science, but I don't think it is too late. Joy's post is very encouraging. No quotes from it because I want to quote too much!