Stone wall do not a prison make

Nor iron bars a cage." That is the start of a quote by R. Lovelace and a small but significant part of my homeschooling. Every week the kids have a quote to memorize. Some weeks it is a full poem, sometimes a Bible verse, but without fail they are memorizing different thoughts from different people. This year I have added a twist, on Wednesdays they write the quote down in a notebook and add their thoughts on it.  We've often discussed the quotes but this insures that actual thinking goes on. They have had to consider Ethel Barrymore's comment on the need to be able to laugh at oneself, they have seen more of Victor Hugo than the lines for "Hunchback of Notre Dame" that they are memorizing for HTT. We enjoyed the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper so much more after memorizing the poem and then anticipating the next part of the story. Memorizing quotes, writing them and reciting them takes very little time but has a long term, significant impact on how my kids think and see the world.To finish R. Lovelace's quote..."If I have freedom in my love and in my soul am free, angels alone that soar above enjoy such liberty." I want my kids to always have freedom in their hearts and minds, training them to think and filling their minds with the resources to do that is a very important part of why I homeschool.

Newly discovered "boy" books

Having grown up a girl then having three boys first, I have had to spend alot of time finding good"boy" books. Little House on the Prairie just does not hold as much appeal to my boys as it did to me. Boxcar children and Encyclopedia Brown went over well but I've had to really look.  I have very high standards for books. It doesn't have to be "High, classical literature" but I do need to want to read it, be able to read it aloud and want to tell someone else about it. I tend to skip formulaic books like the Magic Treehouse series and the Boxcar children series written after Gertrude Chandler Warner. Anyway, just discovered two new wonderful books. The Mad Scientist Club by Bertrand Brinkley. Wow! What a hoot! One funny adventure after another. Had me rolling with laughter and even the 14yo, who only wants to read facts, racing to read it.  The next is the Soup series by Richard Peck. How I ever missed these!! Wow! Funny! I was laughing so hard I had trouble reading it aloud to one of the twins! Great great books! 

Finally!

I am technically challenged, it's a fact of my life such as blonde hair and needing glasses. I've been asking my husband to help me make a blog for Science of Survival for months now. Finally I have one and am on it!! I plan to chat about great books that I've discovered for my kids, homeschooling, my new ideas for curriculum, and little extras. I'm under the pile( as if any homeschooling mom isn't) so this first one is just "hi I'm here" and a short side note of an idea. My oldest is studying Mark Twain right now. He's reading Huck Finn and we're discussing it. I also had him watch the Star Trek NG episode that had a Samuel Clemens character in it. My son loved it. It helped him understand the book and author more.