Every road trip should have a soundtrack.   That’s what I think anyway, even if I usually crave the quiet, and even though most of our road trips are spent listening to an audiobook.

I still like to have a musical theme for my road trips, and often a variety of themes. 

Driving to Chicago, in time for the Blues Festival that colors the climax of Yolonda’s Genius (see Kayla’s Review,) I thought about playing the blues.  Instead, we mixed it up with a variety of musical genres, from Jazz to Hip Hop, and we added in a stop at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

I think, actually, that this was an inspired way to introduce a story that is about the nature and recognition of musical genius.

On The Beat

When I insisted on playing the audio cd with Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry With a Beat, my kids wanted to know what did Hip Hop had to do with anything.  This wasn’t Rock and Roll, and it wasn’t the Blues.

Then, I asked them to read aloud poems from Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes.  (See Lesson Plan on Langston Hughes and the Blues.) Well, there was no great revelation, more of a slow buildup of understanding, trying to connect the ideas that lyrics could be poetry, and that vastly “different” musical and literature genres can share common elements and influences.

Both helped set the stage for the next stop on our Yolonda’s Genius Tour.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Cleveland, Ohio

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is huge, and the exhibits suck you in, so that you find yourself spending hours watching documentary videos, listening to songs, or reading informative posters.

I had planned to just spend a couple of hours at the museum, but we ended up spending most of day.  It was that interesting (although my 9yo son wasn’t as much of a fan as my teen daughter and I.) 

Somehow, with promises of free T-shirts, I persuaded both kids to fill out an Activity Guide.  I was glad I did, as this forced them to spend a little time learning about the early influences of Rock and Roll.  Otherwise, I’m sure they would have bypassed The Roots of Rock and Roll: Blues, Gospel, R&B, Country and Folk, even though this was one of the most useful exhibits for understanding the themes in Yolonda’s Genius, especially the idea that genius lies in creating something new out of the old.

We also watched a couple of films – Mystery Train, Kick Out the Jams (with mature content) -  that I thought did a great job of showing how artistic geniuses, those who are breaking new ground, are often not appreciated at home, at least not until they achieve fame elsewhere.  Picture Janis Joplin defiantly returning to her small hometown.

Dancing In The Streets

By the time we arrived in Chicago, we’d already heard the book, and discussed it at length.  Now, it was just time to appreciate the setting, the music, and the food (as Yolonda seemed to try every food tent at the festival!)

And, to pretend for just a moment, to be lost children like Yolonda and Andrew when they were scheming to go backstage.

From Mississippi To Chicago

Checking into the Essex Inn, a stately but moderately priced hotel with a magnificent pool (an important criteria for the kids!), we met a fellow traveler who happened to be one of the headliners at the Blues Festival, Terry “Harmonica” Bean. 

I was tempted to ask him if he’d ever been a misunderstood genius, like Yolonda’s harmonica-playing little brother, but I manage to show a little restraint.  Not much, mind you, but a little.

Our hotel was located across from Grant Park, the site of the several stages that are part of the festival, but Terry is from South, and he would perform on the Mississippi Juke Joint stage.

See, this is where I started seeing those connections, as if I could miss them.  It’s only two years since I took the kids on our first major road trip, a Spring Break vacation spent exploring the subject of Kayla’s state report, Mississippi.

Kayla had decided that what she most wanted to learn about was Elvis Presley, who was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.  As part of that project, we visited the Tupelo museums where we learned about his various musical inspirations, including the folk, country, gospel, and blues influences.

We also drove to the Crossroads, and visited  Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club  and the Blues Museum along the Delta Blues trail, before heading to Sun Studios and Graceland. 

On that road trip, and again on this one, it’s been fascinating to discover the way music connects across geographic and other boundaries, and to see how it is used as a tool for change.

Rock and Roll Resources:

• Rockin’ Lesson Plans – Connecting music with Language Arts and Social Studies.
• General Reference – Popular Music Studies.
• Student Activity Guides – Grade-specific scavenger hunt activity guides.

Related Articles:

• Alex: Review of Yolonda’s Genius
• Kayla: Yolonda’s Genius and her impressions of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Read Across America Road Trip:

• Read Across America Road Trip Begins In NYC
• How To Plan A Read Across America Road Trip
• Reading On The Road

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In a way, we’ve been preparing for this Read Across America Road Trip for years, as we explored the setting of the children’s book du jour.  From My Side of the Mountain in the Catskill Mountains, to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry in Mississippi, we’ve had a grand time following the footsteps of fictitious children.

Most recently, I revisited another storybook travel favorite in New York City as we shared it with my second child. This was an excellent dress rehearsal for our cross-country road trip, combining learning and fun into a jam-packed day.

Discovering The Mixed-Up Files

I first discovered From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, a story about a pair of siblings who run away to the Metropolitan Museum, as a recent college grad, while working as a paralegal in a big New York City law firm.  I had decided to restart my children’s book collection, a casualty of too many overseas moves, and wanted to enlarge it by soliciting my friends’ childhood favorites.

One of my co-workers, a recent Yale graduate, was a native New Yorker, who grew up in Manhattan’s tony Upper East Side.  This was a girl of privilege, accustomed to the finer things in life, who could truly appreciate that some kids aren’t cut out to run away to the woods.  Some children require 5-Star lodging, and nothing less the priceless furnishings of a world-class residence will do.  I guess it’s no surprise that this friend’s favorite children’s book was the E.L. Konigsburg classic.

Visiting The Metropolitan Museum of Art

I have many fond memories of visiting The Metropolitan Museum of Art as a young adult, but it’s a different experience visiting with kids.  You’re forced to slow down, and find ways to make the works of art accessible and interesting.

The Met provides lots of programs and self-guided tour material to help you find the right hook, including The “Mixed-Up Files” Issue of Museum Kids.  You can use this guide to plan what to see within the overwhelmingly vast collections of the Met. 

On this visit, I used this guide and the suggestions in Storybook Travel, but added my own flare.

Stopping At The Cloisters

You might think it’s too much to visit two art museums in one day, but, alright, you’re right.  It’s too much, but that’s how I travel.  Sometimes I go overboard in my travel plans.  That’s just how I do things. 

Since we were driving into the city, on a daytrip in May, I couldn’t resist a stop at the Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum’s uptown branch, and one of the few places in NYC that offers free parking.  I wanted a peek at the gardens, and this seemed like a good way to introduce our kids to the Renaissance art that provides the mystery in The Mixed-Up Files. 

Our first stop was in the Garden Cafe.  After three hours on the road, I was desperately in need of a cup of coffee, and the kids needed a little pick-me-up as well.  Not that I needed an excuse to sit by the garden.

I had the sense to keep our time at the Cloisters brief as I didn’t want to overwhelm the kids.  I told them we would just stay long enough to find an angel like the one that inspired Claudia.  Surprisingly, we had no luck finding an angel sculpture, but we recreated scenes in the book as we visited a chapel, and later snuck into a student tour.

As I said, we didn’t stay long, and we were soon on our way to the main branch of the Metropolitan Museum, where parking isn’t free, but it’s convenient.

Following Claudia’s Footsteps

I like to let the kids lead the way in museums, so I handed over the Met’s Mixed-Up Files Issue, and did my best to keep up as the kids ran to find the exhibits mentioned in the book.   They soon discovered the urn and sarcophagus where the runaway children hid a trumpet and satchels:

While the beds that were featured in the book are no longer on display, this bed was appropriately opulent:

Mostly, we ended up exploring the Egyptian Wing.   Even though it wasn’t part of the book, we visited the oh so dramatic Temple of Dendur.  Afterwards, we lost ourselves in learning about the Egyptian artifacts, just like the children in The Mixed-Up Files, even slipping into the recessed rooms to escape detection.

No tour of the Mixed-Up Files is complete without a look at the blue silk chair that inspired the book.  When we found the chair, we read aloud the passage from E.L. Konigsberg in the Mixed-Up Files Museum Kids where she tells us that she got the idea for the story while visiting the Met with her children, and noticing a popcorn kernel on a blue silk chair in the Hotel de Varengeville period room.

This is also a good spot to stop and discuss story inspirations, before wandering and searching for our own story starters.

Usually, when we explore the Mixed-Up Files setting, we include a visit to the Medieval Armor exhibit.  This time, I forgot about the armor, in favor of a more current armor, that of the Costume Exhibit – The Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion.

This didn’t have anything to do with the Mixed-Up Files, but it was interesting, and I knew it would appeal to my daughter.

An Army Marches On It’s Stomach

I find that these kinds of expeditions always go better when everyone is well fed.  The Met offers several options for feeding the family, from the diverse options in cafeteria, to the very elegant cafe near Greek and Roman exhibits.

On this day, we chose to dine outside of the Met.  Sitting on the front steps, we enjoyed hot dogs and shish kabob, while listening to a jazz band. 

Later, we left our car parked at the Met, to walk through Central Park, before heading west, to go to my kid’s favorite NYC destinations – Dylan’s Candy Bar and Serendipity 3, home of the frozen hot chocolate:

On Climax, Not Setting

The reason we were at the Met was that my son’s book club was exploring The Mixed-Up Files as part of an ongoing project to read/work through the assignments in Deconstructing Penguins: Parents, Kids, and the Bond of Reading.  So far, the book club has learned about protagonists, antagonists, and setting.

Although you might expect that they would explore the story element of setting with this book, the authors skipped the obvious to discuss climax instead.

I have to admit that we haven’t discussed climax with the kids as our visit did not lend itself to challenging lessons.  We went with the obvious, and talked about how setting affected the story, especially in contrast to the other runaway story, My Side of the Mountain.

More Book Club Questions (from 100 Books For Girls To Grow On by Shireen Dodson):

• Why does Claudia want to run away from home? Have you ever felt like doing that? Why?
• Why does Claudia call running away a “great adventure”?  What’s your idea of a “great adventure”? Why?
• Why is the statue of the angel in the museum important to Claudia?
• Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler observed that “often the search proves more profitable than the goal.”  What do you think she means by that?  Have you ever experienced that?

Not So Mixed Up

Even though we’ve temporarily tabled our discussion of climax as a story element, the authors of Deconstructing Penguins make a strong case for arguing that the Mixed-Up Files is really about discovering that “what distinguishes people from one another is effort, what they put into things.”

I found their conclusion to this section insightful, especially as we venture forth on a summer long road trip of discovery:

You know, the way Claudia felt at the beginning of this book – bored, uneasy with herself, wanting to be different – is not unique to her age…You may feel that way when you are seventeen, or twenty-seven or thirty-seven or eighty.  And if you feel that way, art is not the only place to turn for help.  You can go to science or math or music or history or literature – anyplace where you can learn, so long as your effort is genuine.  Because the act of learning helps people grow on the inside, so that you can find out who you really are, and what you are capable of, just like Claudia.

Related Articles:

• Book Babes: A Mother Daughter Book Club
• Exploring My Side of the Mountain, Part 1
• How To Plan A Read Across America Road Trip
• Reading On The Road

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My daughter, and her Tween friends, had no interest in reading Louisa May Alcott’s  Little Women, the treasured novel of my youth.

I thought, mistakenly, that the Book Babes, our Mother Daughter Book Club, would be eager to read Little Women, as it was at the center of a book that we all adored, Heather Vogel Frederick’s  The Mother Daughter Book Club.  Anticipating a pleasant road trip to the Louisa May Alcott home, the real setting for this fictional account, I expected that the girls would delight in reading the book first.

“Too long” and “Too boring” whined the same girls who soon after devoured all four mammoth Twilight books, and whose squeals at the movie premiere recalled the Beatle’s glory days.

I wheedled and cajoled to at least get my daughter to read the book.  I even tried to read it aloud, but at 650 dense pages, with little time for read aloud, we didn’t get too far.

Nearly a year passed, before the perfect opportunity to cram this book, no, sorry, to lovingly share this literary gem as an audiobook presented itself in the form of a twenty hour road trip to Florida.

It took nearly the entire trip to hear this very long book.  At one point, several hours into the book, my son asked, “Aren’t they women, yet?”

Little by little, I noticed that both kids, despite claiming to ignore the book, were clearly following the story.  Barbara Caruso does a beautiful job of breathing life into the characters, and the kids were not immune to this engaging account.  By the end of the book, they were fully involved in questioning Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March’s choices.

Discussing Little Women

Since our road trip took place the day after watching the Twilight movie, which was after reading the entire book series, Bella Swan, Twilight’s heroine, kept popping into our discussion.

• Little Women begins with the sisters celebrating a very simple Christmas, as their father is serving in the Civil War, and the family has fallen on hard times.  Even so, the March family gives up everything they have to a family that has less than they do.  Do you admire this altruism?  Would you give up all your holiday gifts to help someone in need?  Does Bella do anything that is as noble?
• How are the sisters in Little Women, living in the 19th century, the same or different to the girls you know, or to Bella?
• Each of the sisters had a different “Castle in the Air,” or daydream.  Describe their ambitions, and discuss whether they achieved their dreams.    How are the Little Women’s dreams similar or different to Bella’s?  Would you want the same things?
• Each of the sisters had a “major character flaw: Meg, vanity; Jo, a hot temper; Beth, shyness; and Amy, selfishness.”  How did they overcome these flaws as girls, and again as women?  Does Bella have a character flaw, and does she try to overcome it?  Do you think you have a flaw, and how are you working to overcome it?
• Why do you think the book was titled “little women?” How would you like to be labeled a “little woman?”  How do you think Bella would respond to being a called a “little woman?”
• Should Jo have married Laurie, or should Laurie have done something different to win Jo’s love?  Do you think all the sisters and Bella chose the right husbands for themselves? Why or why not?

Mixing History and Service

Next on our itinerary, a road trip to visit Orchard House, home of Louisa May Alcott, in nearby Concord, MA!  The holidays are a perfect time to visit as the home displays the “festive simplicity” of the Alcott family, and this year we can look forward to a Holiday Program that:

…honors the service and sacrifice of our nation’s military personnel and their families, drawing upon not only the beloved classic, Little Women (the first half of which is set during the Civil War), but also Hospital Sketches, Louisa May Alcott’s highly acclaimed work detailing her real-life Civil War nursing experiences.

This year, December through February, we can even bring donations for US troops as Orchard House takes up a special collection.

Tween Take On Little Women

While my children initially weren’t thrilled to listen to the Little Women audiobook, they found it very entertaining.  It definitely made our road trip fly by!

Audiobook To Avoid:

At the same time that I downloaded Little Women from itunes, I also purchased the A Little Princess as narrated by Rebecca Burns.  This was the worst reading of a story that I have ever heard.  Ms. Burns’ monotone rendition nearly put me to sleep, not a good thing while driving.  A Little Princess is one of my all-time favorite children’s books, so I’ll have to find another version to share in the car.

Related Articles:

Reading On The Road – Ideas for selecting and discussing an audiobook; book discussion questions for Animal Farm.

Confessions of a Twilight Mom – My, admittedly biased, review of the Twilight series.

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Official Twilight Movie Trailer

Virile Vikings, Dark Hunters, Dragon Lords – I love them all! Paranormal romance with its supernatural alpha heroes, fantastical heroines, magical twists, and requisite happy ending is my favorite escapist reading.

I’m a big fan of Paranormal Romance, but when it comes to Stephanie Meyer’s phenomenally successful Twilight Saga, I probably wouldn’t bother to read them if not for my daughter.

I like my romance heroines to be adults, with a little history and worldly experience under their belt. And, I like them to be old enough to engage in steamy scenes, legally.

Nevertheless, my twelve-year-old daughter just had to read the series, and I let her. She is old enough that I trust her to handle reading most books. Of course, that means that I have to read them as well so that we can discuss them.

The Twilight Saga – Books One Through Four (Spoiler Alert)

1. Twilight (2005) – Bella Swan moves in with her dad in Forks, WA after her mom remarries. At first, she hates living in dreary Forks, until she falls in love with her high school biology lab partner, Edward Cullen.

Edward is the stereotypical romantic lead: rich, handsome, and hard-to-get. He is also a vampire who forgoes human blood for catching his animal prey in the wild.

As an educator, I can’t help but despair that Bella is a former advanced student who is making no effort to prepare for college in the critical Junior year, and her love interest is a 100-year-old, Harvard-educated vampire, who is merely coasting through 11th grade. Neither shows any desire to develop interests or to do anything with their lives. What a waste of human, natural or supernatural, potential!

2. New Moon (2006) After a birthday party mishap where the Cullen Family vampires nearly lose their resolve to abstain from human blood, Edward decides to leave Stella so that she can have a normal life.

Pathetic Bella falls into a deep depression over the departure of her teen soul mate, and can’t manage to do anything until a new love interest – Jacob Black, the shape shifting Teen Wolf – helps her out with her suicidal mission to ride a motorcycle.

Bella and Edward reunite when he threatens to kill himself in a melodramatic showdown with the all-powerful Volturi vampires in Italy.

Again, it’s Bella’s senior year in high school and she is doing nothing to prepare for college, or any other aspiration. Even worse, she blows her college fund on renovating a motorcycle deathtrap. She is so entirely dependent on the men in her life that she can’t imagine anything on her own. How can any mom read this without wanting to smack some sense into the girl?

3. Eclipse (2007) As Bella anticipates her high school graduation, she is torn between conflicting love interests. She can choose death and immortality as Edward’s vampire wife, or life with Jacob the wolf shape shifter.

At the oh-so-mature age of eighteen, she is determined to make an irrevocable decision. Not once does she consider pursuing any other interests, life ambitions, or an independent life.

Of course, she chooses to forsake all her friends and family, and possible career ambitions, to become a vampire. The only thing holding her back is that Edward insists on marriage, before sex or vampirism.

The amazing thing is that Bella’s mom is even more idiotic than she is. Renee, the mom, tells her that she is wise beyond her years, and that she is making the right choice in getting married right out of high school. As I read this, I couldn’t help imagining that this was a Teen’s interpretation of what an ideal mom should say – and not what any real mom would actually say.

4. Breaking Dawn (2008) Bella and Edward finally get married, and consummate their union on their honeymoon. Or, at least, it’s suggested that they have had sex as Bella gets pregnant.

Then, again, as Bella ends up full of bruises, perhaps it’s not surprising that my daughter thought that she got pregnant from being punched by the vampire.

Not only are they expecting a baby, it’s a fast-growing half-human, half-vampire fetus that is expected to kill its human mother. Unsurprisingly, now Bella puts all her energy, and life expectancy, into protecting her baby.

Yup, can’t tell you how thrilled I am that the heroine is a young mother, with no life ambition, who just wants to be a wife and mother and spend an eternity doing nothing in particular. Exactly the role model that I want for my daughter – NOT!

Fortunately, my daughter could care less about the romance aspect of this story. She just likes the idea of supernatural beings with magical gifts. Oblivious to the male/female interplay, she was interested in scenes where the Cullen clan displayed other-worldly powers.

I suppose I should be grateful that my daughter’s interest is in acquiring even more gifts and talents, and not so much in being swept away by Prince Charming.

Questions I’m Discussing With My Daughter

1. Is it smart to forget about school and focus all your attention on one boy?

2. Why do you think Charlie, Bella’s Dad, wanted Bella to spend time with a variety of friends?

3. Should you depend on a guy to sweep you away and support you for the rest of you life? Like a Prince Charming or Wealthy Vampire?

4. Does Bella have a healthy relationship with Edward, Jacob, or any of her friends?

For more Book Club Discussion Questions, see Twilight Questions, New Moon Questions, Eclipse Questions, or Breaking Dawn Questions.

What Do You Think? Would you allow your 12-year-old to read it? Why or why not? If so, what would you discuss with your child?

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Isn’t he a heartthrob?  Shane Bradford, my little sister’s first child, was born on October 8, 2008, weighing in at 8 lbs 4.6 ounces, and 22 inches long.

We can’t wait to meet him in person! Unfortunately, it’s going to be a while before the cousins can get together.  With one sister in California, another in New York, and the rest in Florida, family reunions are rare occasions.

In the meantime, I’m putting together a gift basket of our favorite read aloud baby books.  These are books that we truly loved reading over and over again.  Hopefully, it won’t be too long before I can start sharing them with my youngest nephew:

Moo Baa La La La is one of several books by Sandra Boynton that are just plain old fun to read.  We started reading it nightly when Kayla was just a few weeks old, and by the time she was a toddler she was singing along to this and our other favorite Boynton books, Barnyard Dance and But Not The Hippopotamus.

Pat The Bunny, by Dorothy Kunhardt, is the sweet, classic baby book that was loved to death by my first child, and had to be replaced for the second. By then, we also received a copy of Pat The Puppy that somehow seemed more appropriate in our household.

Babies and parents, we all got a kick out of Alexandra Day’s Good Dog, Carl and the notion that a Rottweiler could do the babysitting. 

We kept hoping that our Labrador would take on the diaper duty, but he was never as “helpful” as Carl.

Is Your Mama A Llama – It’s the rhymes that had my little ones asking for this one again and again, but it’s the sweet ending that made me want to share it with them.

Jamberry – by Bruce Degen.  It’s a silly story about a boy and a bear searching for berries, but I always end up smiling and tapping my feet as I read it. 

A Few More Favorite Board Books:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar – by Eric Carle

Sheep In A Jeep – by Nancy E. Shaw

Good Night, Gorilla – by Peggy Rathmann

Good Night Moon – by Margaret Wise Brown

Guess How Much I Love You – by Sam McBratney

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? – By Bill Martin Jr.

More cousin blog posts:

Introducing… – The cousins.  Four sisters, living in three states, trying to keep the cousins in touch.

Kissin’ Cousins – Danielle and Isabella at Dana Point, CA.

Homeschooling In Chaos – Homeschooling the cousins on vacation.

Easter Hats – The cousins list gets a little longer when you include second cousins (my cousin’s kids): Atticus and Audrey.

Who is the typical American family?  -   And, when you include the children of friends who are like sisters, well, I can’t include them all today but here are Joshua and Jamie!

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Should I home school?  Should I? Shouldn’t I?

Back in 2006, home schooling was a foreign idea.  I vaguely knew one neighbor who home schooled some of her kids, but I had no clue how it worked.  No idea how to start.

I just knew that the public school wasn’t working out for my kids, and all the advocating and volunteering in the world wasn’t going to make a difference in the foreseeable future.

Fortunately, my homeschooling neighbor is a friendly sort, who was happy to meet with me and share her knowledge and experience.  She calmed my fears, showed me her “classroom” and organization, gave me copies of New York’s required documents, and she lent me a book.

I took the book home, thinking that I would skim through it and return it promptly.  Instead, I found that I was tagging every other page of Cathy Duffy’s 100 Top Picks For Homeschool Curriculum: Choosing the Right Curriculum and Approach for Your Child’s Learning Style.

The name pretty much says it all, but at that time I didn’t know what I was getting into.  I didn’t realize that homeschooling has more flavors than a Baskin-Robbins:

… traditional textbooks, Charlotte Mason/real books education, classical education, unit study, unschooling, independent study, working under an umbrella program, or an eclectic mixture of approaches.

I haven’t seen Bubblegum Flavor Homeschooling, but it’s probably out there.

It can be overwhelming.  Fortunately, Duffy takes a goal-oriented approach to help you:

… determine what your children need to learn.  You decide what methods to use.  And you set up your own schedule.  Then you find the curriculum that has the content and methodology that fits your agenda, and you use it on your timetable.

This book is fabulous.  It lays out what you need to know to begin homeschooling in a way that makes sense.

It will help you find the material that you need to teach you child, so that you maximize the ultimate benefit of homeschooling – the ability to truly individualize learning for your child.

You’ll see your options clearly, so that when you make a choice, it will be a well-informed choice.

And, when you hit road-blocks, you can come back and find all the best detours as well.

The Best Books In My Home School Library

A relaxed alternative in Deschooling Gently, Learning Passionately

Discover The Well Trained Mind, core curriculum for a Classical Education, in Is It a Book Review or Affiliate Marketing?

Take a peek into my Homeschool Library in Are You Living By Learning?

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Many, many years ago, young and in love, and long before marriage and the 2.5 kids, Dave and I went on a month-long trek through India and Nepal.

Even though we had to carry everything on our backs, I lugged a highlighted and tagged Lonely Planet Guide because I wanted to ensure that I wouldn’t miss a single thing on this once-in-a-lifetime journey.

To this day, we joke about places that “no lover of art and architecture should miss.” For us, this conjures a 15-hour trek, while suffering bouts of diarrhea, to see a temple that looks very much like all the other temples that we’ve visited.

Still, I usually carry 2-3 guidebooks on vacations. Not because I plan to hit every tourist spot, but because I want to know enough about them to make an informed decision.

Similarly, I’ve acquired shelves of books on education, including many on homeschooling. Not because I could, or would, implement every suggestion, but because I want to learn enough to make good choices.

Deschooling Gently – Essential Reading For Parents, Educators

As Tammy Takahashi, author of Deschooling Gently: A Step by Step Guide to Fearless Homeschooling, defines:

Deschooling is seeing the “official” school guidebook as supplementary material, so we can circle our own destination.

I’ve read many school and homeschool “guidebooks.” It’s my job, as a parent and home educator, to find out about the best practices and resources within school settings, as well as the diversity of options outside of traditional or alternative schools.

Unfortunately, so much information can leave a bewildered parent educator frantically trying to make one perfect choice amongst a forest of great options.

This is where Deschooling Gently is invaluable. Before addressing the concerns of new, or experienced homeschoolers, Tammy counsels the reader to:

Use what works, and leave the rest. Find the part of yourself that might be afraid, but moves forward anyway. Everything you need to make homeschooling work is already inside you. It’s my hope, that this book will help you find the fearless homeschooler that you have in you, and let it shine through.

For that advice alone, this is a book that should be on any parent or educator bookshelf. And yet, there is so much more.

Deschooling Gently – An Alternative Homeschool Guidebook

Decrying the Homeschool Guidebook Approach, in which home educators (like me) drive themselves nuts seeking expert opinions and “the best way” to educate, Tammy provides a relaxed step-by-step Deschooling alternative.

I’m not going to describe the entire book, there is so much that is worthwhile, that I would end up quoting it all.

However, just to give you a glimpse into the comprehensive nature of this non-guidebook, I’ll list the chapter titles as they are also the Steps to Deschooling:

1. Create a Foundation before Deschooling
2. Redefine Curriculum
3. Exploring Options in the Real World
4. A New Kind of Schedule
5. Teach Your Child As If No Other Exists
6. Creating Family Educational Goals
7. Get Hooked Up, Get the Kids Hooked Up
8. Become a Student of the World
9. Don’t Keep Records, Keep a Journal
10. Evolve Gently Into a New Homeschooling Life
11. Step Away from “Deschooling”

A Very Subjective List of Highlights of Deschooling Gently

On Curriculum -

Tammy has a lot to say about curriculum, much of it enlightening and liberating. However, I was especially struck by this suggestion:

…we can expand our definition of curriculum to include things that have no concrete product, such as communication, playing, volunteering, exploring and observing, which encourage our children’s unique abilities to shine.

Isn’t this notion at the heart of raising a lifelong learner? A person who knows himself, his interests and abilities, and who is genuinely curious and passionate about learning?

On Doubts and Fears -

Among others, Tammy hit on my greatest fear: What If My Child Misses Something?

Fortunately, she also provides a sensible response. Basically, she reminds readers that there are many paths, but you can only follow one at a time. She advises them to embrace whatever choice they make and realize that “whichever path they take, they are going to be OK.”

On Educational Goals -

I especially agreed with Deschooling Gently’s emphasis on family as the starting point for setting any goals, including educational goals. Your family goals can provide the framework necessary for your educational goals.

However, I like the author’s own list of educational goals, and can see our family embracing a similar list. Really, the third item on the list is one that is at the heart of my personal mission:

1) For everyone to be honestly successful in their day to day lives, and to have confidence that they will continue to have success no matter what paths they choose.

2) For everyone to have the knowledge of how to obtain information, who to ask for help and to be confident enough to pursue knowledge in their own way.

3) For everyone to love learning, whatever that may be.

4) For everyone to be the person that they are, and receive unconditional love no matter where their interests and personalities take them.

5) To make sure that everyone has a sense of pride in who they are, what they’ve done and are able to live a life of integrity.

6) For everyone to genuinely love to be alive.

A Deschooling Checklist

Now, if the highlights aren’t enough to drive you to the bookstore or my Amazon link, then I’ll leave you with Takahashi’s final checklist that I’m posting in a place of honor where I drink my morning coffee:

12 Signs You’re Done Deschooling

1. The kids wake up every morning generally happy and looking forward to what the day brings.
2. When you look at a curriculum, or class, or book, or field trip, you have a pretty good idea if your kids will enjoy it or not.
3. You see yourself as a learner too.
4. You often have “Wow, my kids are so interesting!” moments.
5. You know what your family philosophy is, and what “learning” and “success” mean to you, independent of what it means in the world around you.
6. Your kids aren’t afraid to bring up the topic of school.
7. You love being around your kids.
8. When you think about learning, you’re excited and enthusiastic.
9. You realize that “doing a good job” has little to do with how many boxes you check off your to-do list.
10. You feel like you belong in the world.
11. Education and life mesh with everyone’s personalities, interests, and abilities.
12. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, you trust your children, you trust yourself, and when change challenges you, that trust keeps everyone strong.

These are wise words to live by, and to parent the children who will someday be the adults that you want in your life. These will be the people who will change the world for the better.

On Living By Learning On Homeschooling Books:

Discover The Well Trained Mind, core curriculum for a Classical Education, in Is It a Book Review or Affiliate Marketing?

Take a peek into my Homeschool Library in Are You Living By Learning?

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On Day 4 of The 30 Day Challenge, we were introduced to one way to make money online – affiliate marketing.

Step One – Finding Stuff To Sell And Test Video

It’s a tad sleazy, but the idea is to earn a commission by driving readers to a product website. And, if they buy something, you’ll get a larger piece of the pie.

To get our feet wet, and to assess the sales potential of items related to the niche we selected previously, we were asked to find related products within one of two affiliate programs, ClickBank or Amazon.

Well, I’ll tell you right now, I’m not encouraging anyone to buy ClickBank products. I wouldn’t buy any of that ***, and I’d hate for anyone to waste their money there.

Now, Amazon, on the other hand, that’s a marketplace I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. I love it so much that I had to take the Amazon Button off my toolbar, because it’s just too tempting to hit 1-Click ordering when I spy another book that I MUST have.

Step Two – How To Write Your First Piece Of Slippery Copy Video

Anyway, getting on with The 30 Day Challenge program, our next assignment was to write copy that would compel a reader to buy the chosen product.

In this video, Dan Raine, of The Immediate Edge, walks you through writing gripping copy. Basically, he recommends writing a short piece that follows this general format:

Discover the real value of _____. If you’re a _____, this is the essential guide that will literally save you thousands of dollars. Get your copy today!

As I watched this video, I thought of all the times that I’ve mentioned books on this blog, and I wondered to what extent did I entice the reader to purchase those items.

Looking At My Copy

I went way back into the archives, to one of my first articles, when I asked, Are You Living By Learning?

In that post, I provided a list of some of the books in my homeschooling library. A list. Titles and authors. No more. No copy. Nada.

In my defense, that’s all I ever need to find more books to buy. I can tell from the title if it’s worth investigating, or not.

Is It a Book Review or Is It Affiliate Marketing?

So, to practice my new skills, I thought I would try to write copy for some of my most worthwhile homeschooling books. However, there is a reason that I didn’t go into Advertising. I suck. Big Time.

Succinct hyperbole just isn’t my thing.

The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide To Classical Education At Home – by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise.

I picked up this classic when my first child was in 3rd Grade, just to see what I could do to supplement some of the holes in her education.

Beware, this is a dangerous book. It has propelled me on an odyssey that culminated in switching schools for one child, and homeschooling for another.

This book provides comprehensive coverage of a classical education, with book lists within each subject that are sorted by age-level.

It’s well worth the purchase just to get the chronological resource list for ancient to modern history, but you’ll also find that this connects to the resource material in literature, science, art, and more.

It’s only drawback is that it is exceedingly comprehensive. It would be unbearably exhausting to try to to cover all the material. Even the authors discourage you from trying this insane notion.

As a reference resource; however, The Well-Trained Mind is unparalleled.

Okay, that’s my best shot. What do you think? Would you buy this book?

The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, Revised and Updated Edition: Susan Wise Bauer, Jessie Wise: Books ISBN: 0393059278 ISBN-13: 9780393059274

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