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Breathing Life into Learning at Home

Living Ideas and Atmosphere

Outline and Notes

 

 

I.          Welcome

            Thanks, resources, packet

 

II.          Introduction

A.      Education is an Atmosphere, Discipline, Life

B.     What today’s talk will cover:  Atmosphere and Life (Living Ideas)

 

III.         Living Ideas:  The Life Breath of an Education

A.      What is an idea and just why it is so important?

i.                     Ideas are the sustenance of education

ii.                   Ideas are the genesis of all thought

iii.                The life of the mind grows on ideas alone

 

B.     Ideas and the REAL goals of education or “Just why are we homeschooling, again?” 

i.                     Begin with the end in mind- future roles of our child

ii.                   It is about primary 3 things: Relationships, relationships and relationships!

iii.                  Learning to learn and the self-educated child

 

C.     How living ideas really work in our home and learning

                                                               i.      Forming a relationship with ideas

                                                             ii.      Real-life examples of ideas at work and play

                                                            iii.      The duty of parents (our job)

                                                           iv.      The duty of children (their job)

 

IV. Atmosphere of the Home:  Setting the Stage for Bountiful Learning

A.      Relationships FIRST

B.     Creating a living, learning atmosphere

i.                     The physical atmosphere

1.      Bring in beauty

2.      Bring in order

3.      Reduce static and noise

4.      Transform your home into your family’s oasis

5.      Enrich your home with living ideas- everywhere!

     

ii.                   The emotional atmosphere: compassion-encouragement-interest

1.      Keep your emotional tank full

2.      Model kindness and respect

3.      What’s the Magic Potion?.. dedicate TIME to your children

4.      Create an atmosphere that encourages and values learning

1.      Be curious

2.      Model learning

3.      Legitimize their learning and projects

4.      Encourage questions

5.      Devote time (margin) and energy to chasing rabbit trails

 

D.     Filling Your Home with Living Ideas and Making Connections

 

i.                      How to put our children in touch with ideas

                                                                           i.      Through lessons

                                                                         ii.      Through life (Atmosphere and Masterly Inactivity)

1.      Mom’s involvement is not optional- and it’s too fun to miss out on

2.      How do I know they are learning?

 

ii.                   Living Books

                                                                           i.      How will I know a living book?

                                                                         ii.      Build your own library

1.      Become a ‘book-hound’

2.      Organize yourself

3.      Review likely book candidates

4.      Slowly buy and build

                                                                        iii.      Make reading a part of your family’s life

1.      Model reading

2.      Create traditions

3.      Have books available everywhere!

4.      Read Literature Alive by Cay!

 

iii.                  Other Living Idea Resources- (some Charlotte never dreamed of!)

1.      Life

2.      People

3.      Media

4.      Nature

5.      The World

 

                                                                         ii.      Strewing ideas everywhere- creating your home’s own learning lifestyle

 

 

E.     Summary- Enjoy this Lifestyle

i.                     Know your children, journal, track their growth

ii.                   Enjoy your second education as your children enjoy their first.

 

 

Strewing Living Ideas Throughout Your Home

Enriching the Atmosphere

 

From the: Charlotte Mason Support Group Meeting

Living Ideas brainstormed by attendees

August 13, 2001

 

Mushrooms:  finding them in the neighborhood and identifying

Rooting avocado seeds and watching and measuring them as they grow

Window Nature Study:  from our windows, watching birds, butterflies, hummingbirds and identifying them

Parakeet:  brining one into the family, reading and learning about their nature, care and personality

Learning Chinese.  Communicating with Chinese people and forming relationships with them

Watching butterflies- life cycle, identifying different types.  Attracting them to our yards

New baby in the house!

Nature Walk- for older child, don’t label it such, just go out and explore

Black Beauty (Anna Sewell)  The first living book that a new homeschooling family loved!

Solar System- check out books from the library, use a globe and other models

Luna moths- study cycle.  Let the moths go back into nature

Virtues

Charlotte’s Web (E.B.White)- spiders, animals, nature

Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) slavery

Robinson Crusoe- compared to movie “Castaway”

Turtles- observing

Plant flowerbed to attract butterflies

The Secret Garden (esp. good for nature lovers)

Miracle on Maple Hill

Sign of the Beaver

Bird watching- has field guides available to identify birds

Thornton Burgess books

Child-made book:  Gecky the Gecko

New kitten, dog in home.  Learn about and develop friendship.  (Something to Do, Something to Love, Something to Think About)

Go to Benihana and watch Japanese cooking.  (“Mom, what a great experience!”)

The Lord of the Rings on cassette tape-  BBC production

What ever your passion is will rub off on your children

Lamplighter books

Tales of the Kingdom and Tales of the Resistance by Dave and Karen Mains

Minute Boys of Lexington and Minute Boys of Bunker Hill

Watching doodlebugs

Moody Gardens

Hero Study- Helen Keller:  book on tape of her life, go to Helen Keller Festival, Miracle Worker Play, learn sign language

Learn about other cultures:  China

Dad traveled to Asia- brought children chopsticks and they learned to use

Madeline dolls dressed in different costumes of the world

Language-  Sound Beginnings- 6 languages

Slaves- dramatize our chores as compared to the life of a slave…

History of the Alamo- Santa Anna LOPEZ

Thomas Edison childhood

Music in life:  Cricket in Times Square (compare to cricket sound to a violin)

Evening at Pops- PBS, Sundays at 4pm

Child-make book:  First Tooth (name correct?)  The adventures of a first lost tooth complete with author’s bio at the end.

Make up stories with characters from books we have read

Open hospitality in our homes- meet handicap and learn compassion

  

 

Breathing Life into your Learning at Home

Living Ideas and Atmosphere

 

Book Reference

 

Charlotte Mason Reference Guides

 

The Original Homeschooling Series                        Charlotte Mason                      Charlotte Mason’s own words

The Charlotte Mason Companion                            Karen Andreola                       General CM Application- good starter book

For the Children’s Sake                                           Susan Schaeffer Macaulay  Lifestyle and overall goals

A Charlotte Mason Education                                  Catherine Levison                   How to do CM- easy to access- good starter book

More CM Education                                                 Catherine Levison                   More and expanded how to do CM

A Charlotte Mason Study Guide                              Penny Gardner                        Excerpts from original series by area with study questions

Literature Alive!                                                       Cay Gibson                             How to expand and enjoy living books in your home                                                                                                                             www.houseofliterature.com

Through the Years with Charlotte Mason                               June Butchee                          www.oocities.org/junebutchee

Real Learning- Education in the Heart                     Elizabeth Foss                         Application with many real life excerpts

                 of the Home                                                                                            www.4reallearning.com

 

 

Other  Homeschooling  and Parenting Books

Dumbing Us Down                                                  John Taylor Gatto                    Well explained case against public schools-by former

                                                                                                                                                award winning teacher

How to Really Love Your Teenager                       Ross Campbell                        Great how-to book- applicable to teens,

                                                                                                                                                pre-teens and all relationships

How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and                        Faber and Mazlish                   Great how-to book on communication

                Listen so Kids Will Talk

Siblings Without Rivalry                                           Faber and Mazlish                   Excellent  book on reducing sibling rivalry

Wisdom’s Way of Learning                                     Marylin Howshall                     Very deep instorpective book on reasons,                                                                                                                                                            motives, method of homeschooling

                                                                                                                                www.homeschooloasis/lol_how_to_obtain_lol_bks.htm

A Mother’s Rule of Life                                           Holly Pierlot                              Bringing order, peace, spirituality to your home

                                                   

 

Living Ideas:

Do you think any of these people had some good ideas?

 

Famous Homeschoolers (source:  Internet list- not verified)
 

Educators                                                                                        

Frank Vandiver (President - Texas A&M)

Fred Terman (President - Stanford)

William Samuel Johnson (President Columbia)

John Witherspoon (President of Princeton)

 

Generals

Stonewall Jackson

Robert E. Lee

Douglas MacArthur

George Patton

 

Inventors:

Alexander Graham Bell

Thomas Edison

Cyrus McCormick

Orville Wright & Wilbur Wright

 

Artists

Claude Monet

Leonardo da Vinci

Jamie Wyeth

Andrew Wyeth

John Singleton Copley

 

Presidents

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

John Quincy Adams

James Madison

William Henry Harrison

John Tyler

Abraham Lincoln

Theordore Roosevelt

Woodrow Wilson

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Inventors

George Washington Carver

Pierre Curie

Albert Einstein

Booker T. Washington

Blaise Pascal 

 

Statesmen

Konrad Adenauer

Winston Churchill

Benjamin Franklin

Patrick Henry

William Penn

Henry Clay

 

United States Supreme Court Judges

John Jay

John Marshall

John Rutledge

Composers

Irving Berlin

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Anton Bruckner

Felix Mendelssohn

Francis Poulenc

 

Writers
 
Hans Christian Anderson

Charles Dickens

Brett Harte

Mark Twain

Sean O'Casey

Phillis Wheatley

Mercy Warren

Pearl S. Buck

Agatha Christie

C.S. Lewis

George Bernard Shaw

Religious leaders

Joan of Arc

Brigham Young

John & Charles Wesley

Jonathan Edwards

John Owen

William Cary

Dwight L. Moody

John Newton

Others

Charles Chaplin - Actor

George Rogers Clark - Explorer

Andrew Carnegie - Industrialist

Noel Coward - Playwright

John Burroughs - Naturalist

Bill Ridell - Newspaperman

Will Rogers - Humorist

Albert Schweitzer - Physician

Tamara McKinney - World Cup Skier

Jim Ryan - World Runner

Ansel Adams - Photographer

Charles Louis Montesquieu - philosopher

John Stuart Mill - Economist

John Paul Jones - father of the American Navy

Florence Nightingale - nurse

Clara Barton - started the Red Cross

Abigail Adams - wife of John Adams

Martha Washington - wife of George W.

Constitutional Convention Delegates

George Washington - 1st President of the U.S.

James Madison - 4th President of the U.S.

John Witherspoon - President of Princeton U.

Benjamin Franklin - inventor and statesman

William S. Johnson - President of Columbia C.

George Clymer - U.S. Representative

Charles Pickney III - Governor of S. Carolina

And many more….

 

 

Quotations Reference

 

(All quotations are by Charlotte Mason from the Original Series unless otherwise noted.)

 

“Who in the world wants to hear actors talk?”   H.M Warner , founder of Warner Brothers Movie Studios in 1927

 

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”  Charles H Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents (1899)

 

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”  Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM (1943)

 

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”  Ken Olsen, President Digital Equipment Corporation (1977) 

 

“Do we have to know this for the test?”  Millions of kids…

 

Ideas:

“Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life…The life of the mind grows on ideas.”

 

Philippians 4:8  

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Vol 2 pg. 29

 

 “Now that life, which we call education, receives only one kind of sustenance; it grows upon ideas.  Living ideas.” Vol 2 pg 39

 

“Education is a life; that life is sustained on ideas; ideas are of spiritual origin; and,

          'God has made us so'

that we get them chiefly as we convey them to one another. The duty of parents is to sustain a child's inner life with ideas as they sustain his body with food”. Vol 2 pg. 39

 

“Let information hang upon a principle, be inspired by an idea.” Vol 6 pg 25

 

“The initial idea begets subsequent ideas; therefore, take care that children get right primary ideas on the great relations and duties of life…The child has affinities with evil as well as with good; therefore, hedge him about from any chance lodgment of evil ideas...Every study, every line of thought, has its 'guiding idea'; therefore, the study of a child makes for living education in proportion as it is quickened by the guiding idea 'which stands at the head.'”

Vol 2 pg 39

 

“The Life of the Mind grows upon Ideas––Now that life, which we call education, receives only one kind of sustenance; it grows upon ideas. You may go through years of so-called 'education' without getting a single vital idea; and that is why many a well-fed body carries about a feeble, starved intelligence; and no society for the prevention of cruelty to children cries shame on the parents.”  Vol 3 pg 80

 

 

Stale Information:

 “We feed them upon the white ashes out of which the last spark of the fire of original thought has long since died. We give them second-rate story books, with stale phrases, stale situations, shreds of other people's thoughts, stalest of stale sentiments. They complain that they know how the story will end! But that is not all; they know how every dreary page will unwind itself. I saw it stated the other day that children do not care for poetry, that a stirring narrative in verse is much more to their taste.”  Vol 3 pg 121

 

Relationships:

 

With God:

We have touched upon two groups of these relations––his relations to the universe of matter and to the world of men. To complete his education, I think there is but one more relation to be considered––his relation to Almighty God. How many children are to-day taught to say at their mother's knee, to learn from day to day and from hour to hour, in all its fulness of meaning––'My duty towards God is to believe in Him, to fear Him, and to love Him with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength..Vol 3 pg. 89

With others:

“Perhaps the main part of a child’s education should be concerned with the great human relationships”.  Vol 3 pg. 80

 

With the world:
But we have not yet done with his relations with mother earth. There are, what I may call, dynamic relations to be established. He must stand and walk and run and jump with

ease and grace. He must skate and swim and ride and drive, dance and row and sail a boat. He should be able to make free with his mother earth and to do whatever the principle of gravitation will allow. This is an elemental relationship for the lack of which nothing compensates. Vol 3 pg 79

 

 

Real Education:

 

CM:  Perhaps the main part of a child’s education should be concerned with the great human relationships”.  Vol 3 pg. 80

 

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

William Butler Yeats

 

“Let information hang upon a principle, be inspired by an idea.” Vol 6 pg 25

 

  “.. give your a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information; for the child who grows up with a few dominant ideas has his self-education provided for, his career marked out.”  Vol 1 pg. 174

 

“People are naturally divided into those who read and think and those who do not read or think…”  Vol 6 pg. 31

 

“It is the urging of self-education of children..the getting of knowledge and the getting of delight in knowledge are the ends of a child’s education.”  Vol 3 pg 242

 

“Education should be aimed at giving knowledge “touched with emotion”.

 

 

Self Education:

 

“It is the urging of self-education of children..the getting of knowledge and the getting of delight in knowledge are the ends of a child’s education.”  Vol 3 pg 242

 

Science of Relations:

“What is education after all?  An answer lies in the phrase- Education is the Science of Relations.  I do not use this phrase in the sense that things are related to each other and must be careful to pack the right things in…together they may make a strong clique or “apperception mass’.

What we are concerned with is the fact that we personally have relations with all that there is in the present, all that there has been in the past and all that there will be in the future- with all above us and all about us- and that fullness of living expansion, expression and serviceableness, for each of us, depend upon how far we apprehend these relationships and how m\any of them we lay hold of.  ….

 

Parent’s Duty:

“..in this great work of education parents and teachers are permitted to play only a subordinate part after all. You may bring your horse to the water, but you can't make him drink; and you may present ideas of the fittest to the mind of the child; but you do not know in the least which he will take, and which he will reject..”Vol 2 pg 127

 

“…first, to put him in the way of forming these relations by presenting the right idea at the right time, and by forming the right habit upon the right idea; and, secondly, by not getting in the way and so preventing the establishment of the very relations we seek to form…

.

…The child who learns his science from a text-book, though he go to Nature for illustrations, and he who gets his information from object-lessons, has no chance of forming relations with things as they are, because his kindly obtrusive teacher makes him believe that to know about things is the same thing as knowing them personally; though every child knows that to know about Prince Edward is by no means the same thing as knowing the boy-prince…

“We study in many ways the art of standing aside.” Vol 3 pg 66

 

Children’s Duty:

“As we have already urged, there is but one right way, that is, children must do the work for themselves. They must read the given pages and tell what they have read, they must perform, that is, what we may call the act of knowing.”  Vol 6 pg 99

 

Order and Habit:

“The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days; while she who lets their habits take care of themselves has a weary life of endless friction with the children. All day she is crying out, 'Do this!' and they do it not; 'Do that!' and they do the other. 'But,' you say, 'if habit is so powerful, whether to hinder or to help the child, it is fatiguing to think of all the habits the poor mother must attend to. Is she never to be at ease with her children?' Vol 1 pg 136

 

Emotional Atmosphere:

CM:  “… the fussy parent, the anxious parent, the parent who explains overmuch, who commands overmuch, who excuses overmuch, who restrains overmuch, who interferes overmuch, even the parent who is with the children overmuch, does away with dignity and simplicity of that relationship which, like all the best and most delicate things in life, suffer by being asserted or defended.”  Vol 3 pg. 29

 

“Emotional stability and self-control do not just happen.  You must prepare yourself to cope with emotional strain and frustration. … To maintain a healthy relationship…and keep communication open you need to be in good control of yourself, especially of your anger. “ How to Really Love Your Teenager  by Ross Campbell pg 55

 

“Anger is hard to control if your spiritual life is not sound”. ibid pg 56

 

“Children are born persons.”  Preface to Original Series

 

 “Always remember that persons matter more than things.  Don’t say anything that will leave a sting.” CM

 

“ A student at her college said. “The first thing that struck me as Miss Mason’s marvelous courtesy- she knew only the bare outlines of our previous lives, but she spoke to us all as ‘persons’ and helped us to be dignified by treating us with dignity.”

Charlotte Mason Study Guide, Penny Gardner pg. 2

 

Lessons:

“The very limitations we see to our own powers in this matter of presenting ideas should make us the more anxiously careful as to the nature of the ideas set before our children. We shall not be content that they learn geography, history, Latin, what not,––we shall ask what salient ideas are presented in each such study, and how will these ideas affect the intellectual and moral development of the child. Vol 2 pg 127

 

Masterly Inactivity:

“…. I wish to bring before parents and teachers the subject of ‘masterly inactivity’… We try to dominate them too much, even when we fail to govern and are unable to perceive that wise and purposeful letting alone is the best part of education.” Vol 3 pg 27

 

 

Living Books:

 

“If a child’s book is great, it will be interesting to an adult as well.” C. S. Lewis

 

 

Strewing Living Ideas Throughout Your Home

Enriching the Atmosphere

 

Here are some ideas….. you can probably think of lots more!

 

1.       Throw a book on the couch.. for the kids to ‘find’

2.       Leave interesting things in strategic places-games, books, crafts…

3.       Keep a big bulletin board full of new things- articles, pictures, postcards…

4.       Talk about everything- strew thoughts out loud

5.       Strew people- invite them over

6.       Stock the back seat of the car- a great place to read and think

7.       Read the newspaper or periodicals together

8.       Order magazine subscriptions- surprise kids or let them choose

9.       Send your children mail addressed to them.. with an ‘idea’ inside

10.   Go through the mail together (they will learn about credit cards for sure!)

11.   Plant reading material in the bathroom- remove everything else

12.   Put up marker board in kitchen- quotes, thoughts, trivia, goals…

13.   Read aloud randomly or planned- during meals, at bedtime or just  when it strikes you…have them read passages to you

14.   Go to garage sales, let kids buy a treasure and discuss it

15.   Putter around a used book store

16.   Rent a bunch of documentary videos and leave around

17.   Collect books of lists and quiz each other

18.   After listening to your children talk about questions they have or new things they are interested in, check out some library books on just that subject and have them appear at home

 

 

Breathing Life into Learning at Home

Living Ideas and Atmosphere

 

How I Set about Building a Home Library

- from an email sent to Literature Alive Yahoo email list

 

When  I began homeschooling  I knew from my reading of Charlotte Mason  and Susan Schaeffer Macauley (For the Children’s Sake)  and other influential books,  that I wanted to build our learning lifestyle on great books. I wanted a wide variety of living books: classics, biographies, fiction, picture books, etc.   I knew I could use the library and did, but I also knew I wanted to start building our home shelves for easy and permanent access to many good books.

 

 The first thing I did was try to inform myself about books.  I did not read much as a child and did not have lots of titles in my mind- I was starting at square one. I  joined some good email lists such as  Cmason, then CCM  on the YahooGroups and began reading and gleaning, and asking for suggestions by subjects we were interested in.   I also began doing searches and collecting book lists. I started a binder and would print out all the good book lists  from websites (such as Peanuts and Popcorn, MacBeth's Durham’s site 4Reallearning,1000 Great Books,  Sonlight ,etc) and put them in the binder to have at hand.  I looked at books about books:  Honey for a Child's Heart, Landscapes with Dragons, Let the Author Speak, as well as book lists in other books, such as the Charlotte Mason Companion, etc.

 

I gave some booklists to my boys and asked them to highlight books they might want to try.  I also would highlight the ones I had heard good things about or looked interesting.   When we were on a particular subject of study the binder was very helpful, too as many booklists are sorted by area.

 

The first years especially, I really kept my eye out for books. It became my hobby (obsession?)  and was always in the back of my mind.   I bought a 5x7 address book with tabs for each letter of the alphabet and in it I began  my” Little Black Book of Books”. Every time I heard of a title/author  recommended I wrote it down. I would keep the book in my purse to write down more titles and to look for books when out. This way if a new book was ever mentioned or if I found myself at a place with likely books, I had my reference right with me!

 

I would haunt used book stores (still do) and look in my book to know what to look up. I often took my personal time on weekends or evening with my husband was with the boys, or when they were  playing with friends  so I could be alone to think.  It took me a lot of thought.. to look through a book and see if it was something we would like- I could not do that with a bored 2yo in tow...:o  I found that time was very valuable because I got to know the books and authors and was forming my own relationship with the books and beginning to find old friends in books that I found on lists or in stores over and over again.  I really began to enjoy the whole process!

 

I also loved to spend my time at the local Barnes and Noble which has a café inside.  I would take my Little Black Book of Books, order a Mocha Latte and sit and peruse all the classics and other neat  books I could find.  I would sit in the café and read and look and take notes. A busy mom’s dream!  The books were brand new and shiny and I could read at ease.  I would decide pro or con and either buy them there (with my 20% teacher discount and no shipping) or plan to buy them elsewhere used if I felt I would be able to find them at a better price. I have fond memories of my ‘Mother Culture” time there.  When the boys got older, they would join me and would search for their books while I searched for mine. We would often spend lazy afternoons at ‘our’ Barnes and Noble- great memories.

 

Barnes and Noble is also very good about ordering in almost any book I can imagine.  If I called in, they will look it up, tell me if it is in stock and if not will order it from the warehouse or publisher.  They will hold it and I can go in and look at it at my leisure. If I decide against it for any reason, they cheerfully just put it on their shelves to sell to others.   This has been an awesome way to check out books at leisure before buying.  They also have a very easy return policy and a few times I have taken a book home for a few days to have a good long look before deciding and possibly returning.

 

Our library also has on-line access so I can order many books there and check them out before buying.  I can search all our Harris County branches and they will bring it to my local branch and hold it for me.

 

On line at www.amazon.com is a good place to look at books,  too as you can often peak inside and get a good feel for the book by reading a few sample pages.

 

When the kids were little my focus was picture books.  I made myself find a place for them to be so I could go alone to the library and think peruse and stock up on dozens of books per trip. Doing so is nearly impossible with a toddler in tow!   Back then I gave myself the gift of weekly trips to bring home good books. At one time in Ohio we had 100 books checked out at once (no limit at the Centerville, Ohio library!)  We went through picture books like crazy, but I checked every one for content by skimming the pages.   We had a bad experience with a picture book that had inappropriate pictures. It doesn't take long to do a quick read through of a picture book.. so I always did.  For picture books, I mostly checked out just want looked interesting, though I did look for special books I found on lists, too. I have always been blessed with libraries with a large selection of picture books from which to choose. 

 

After a few years of “book-hounding” the same titles came up over and over... the cream rises.. and soon I didn't need my little black book with me all the time - I recognized many titles and would spot familiar ones on sale. I was building a knowledge base and relationship with the books.

 

After I became familiar with the books I would decide if it was something I wanted on my home library shelf or not.  I consider the public library *my extended library*.. always there if I need a book within a few days.... but there are certain books I want at home on my shelf ready for the ready reader- ready for that ‘magic moment’ one of my sons is ready to launch into something new.

 

I want a good supply of reference books- trail guides, history, lists  (which are great books and conversations starters!), books of ideas. Many of these I would find at used book stores and I gave them to the boys for birthdays and Christmas.  I consider these to be some of the most important books to have around. for creating the atmosphere I wanted and available to peruse at any time.

 

As I became more familiar with titles, I began to build my fiction library, mostly with classics. Classics come for all ages.. and I use that term for any well-written book.  I usually found these out from my book lists, or got favorites I kept hearing about on lists or other recommendations.  I collected many of these from our local Scholastic book warehouse semi-annual sales or from used book stores.  I just bought Joan of Arc by Mark Twain and about a dozen other classics last week from BookLand used bookstore.  (For those of you who live locally, it is at Steubner Airline Road and Louetta Road in Spring)

 

If we get a book from the library and the kids really like it, I may get a copy of that too, for our shelves. That was the case with 101 Dalmations, and the boys have read it over and over.. always there to re-read when they are in the mood...

 

Oh, now my latest  "me-time"  is to hit the garage sales early Sat morning.  That is the day my husband  makes pancakes for the boys so I have all morning to myself.  I have picked up What Ever Happened to Penny Candy for a quarter and 3 brand new Redwall series books for a dollar!

 

I think the key to building a home library on the cheap is to somehow know what you are looking for (my Little Black Book of Books was my big help!) and always keep your eyes open for the bargains.

 

It is an ongoing project and lots of fun... and the Internet has really educated me - through e-lists and websites... of good books.

 

Hope this helps..

 

Cindy