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2017-12-17 Home Front: Culture Wars

This Week in Books, December 17, 2017

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Posted by swksvolFF 2017-12-17 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 I need to stop by Barnes & Noble to pick up the Frog and Toad collection. I remember liking it when I was young, and the trailing daughters did in their turn. Startship Troopers needs no comment — I grew up reading him, and that one is in my re-read cycle.

The comments about the history book (and series) on Amazon are interesting. Apparently Mrs. Bauer wrote them to be a home schooling series, which explains additional workbooks. But volume 1 is intended for first grade, volume 2 for second grade and so forth, to build a solid foundation of historical knowledge before going into depth on individual periods in the higher grades. Unlike swksvolFF I do like broad sweep of history books, as they put more particulate knowledge into perspective. I wish I’d had these or something like it when the trailing daughters were young — I would have added it to our bedtime story list, to be read a chapter at a time.

Posted by trailing wife 2017-12-17 13:28|| 2017-12-17 13:28|| Front Page Top

#2 Cutthroat game of Sorry! with the kids.

There was a book which just ruined that genre for me called 'A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. Maybe it is good, and if so I hope someone urges me to give it another try, but I didn't match with the tone, I already knew the content, and it was a thing so the people who thought I should read it kept hounding me until I set the book down and told them no more.

The problem I had with 'Shutup!' in The Dream was not that it is inappropriate, but very appropriate as, my take on it, Toad was telling his ego to take a hike, as his ego was becoming so self absorbed his best friend was being chased away. I just switched to 'Be Quiet!' or 'Go Away!' as my prudish self did not want my pre-teen going around the classroom telling people to shutup.

Wife and I had a hard talk about education and we decided we would at least supplement the kids' education. Among other subjects, I was handed History. We would read a chapter or two each night, and hit the workbooks, which are fun.

Posted by swksvolFF 2017-12-17 20:37|| 2017-12-17 20:37|| Front Page Top

#3 Good for you guys!

My parents were academics, so supplementation was a way of life when I was growing up. Questions they didn’t have answers to merited an immediate exploration of the Encyclopedia Britannica or my mother’s college textbooks. Nowadays my cell phone gets more exercise looking things up on the internet than making phone calls. ;-)

I continued the family tradition — and drove trailing daughter #2 a bit crazy because I insisted she work to meet my standards rather than the lower standard required by her teachers to get an A. Td #1 strove always for mastery, so it wasn’t an issue.

Posted by trailing wife 2017-12-17 22:31|| 2017-12-17 22:31|| Front Page Top

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