Tuesday Thoughts

Well. It has been quite a week. Many of you know that I have run the dynamic review team at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine for over eight years. The team is merging with the TOS Homeschool Crew and I am taking the helm of the ship. It is exciting and daunting and thrilling and terrifying all at once. :) There are about 200 crew members that blog their reviews and link up to the TOS Crew site. How cool is that? I am feverishly learning all I can and there is much to learn. Whew!

If you are interested in checking out these fine families, just click the HERE. I have a LOT to read! :D

Our new year was a lovely mix of frenzy, friendships, and good food. We had *two* celebrations. One was on the Friday night before the eve of the new year and one was the actual eve. Both events were terribly delightful, but wow, I think I am too old to do that again next year! I was quite exhausted come Sunday morning and listening to the excellent sermon was hard for me even though it was aimed right at me (proverbially speaking) as he discussed not provoking one's children to anger. I really do appreciate such sermons. It is so important to keep learning as a parent, to love the children God gives us, isn't it? I am so blessed by them. :)

In our science/history co-op, we are wrapping up our study of the Civil War. We have been using a variety of resources (Notgrass History, Time Travelers, History Pockets, and important literature resources like Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglas, The Last Brother: A Civil War Tale, Across Five Aprils, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Rifles for Watie) but probably the most moving and the one that has left its mark is Ken Burns: The Civil War. It was such a tragic war in so many ways, but the loss of life takes my breath away. May we never know such loss.

We are also studying Jay Ryan's, Classical Astronomy. What an excellent excellent book! I remember posts by Jay on a board I used to frequent that discussed the making of this book and now we have it. We also own his book, Moonfinder, and it explains the phases of the moon so that someone as dull as I can understand it. :D I love the night sky. I love the moon. I love that the moon we see is the same one that Abraham looked upon in the desert and that Jesus saw from his home. There is something powerful to me about that--that sameness of light in the sky that speaks to the glory of God. Jay brings much of that to life. I can't recommend his books enough.

I must be off. I have had a good homeschool day even though we didn't get everything done. Some days are like that, aren't they? However, it was a really good day.