Category Archives: Potpourri

Books, movies and miscellaneous

Thomas Edison, Homeschooled Innovator

Posted on by
1

I just read an article called “Thomas Edison: Poster Child for the Home Schooled.” The author shares some interesting information about Edison, for whom school did not work at all. His mother’s love and concern are what helped Edison become an inventor and scientist instead of the failure his teacher predicted.

Edison led quite a life: a millionaire before he turned 40, he earned (and lost) several fortunes in different areas of business, including electric lighting, phonographs and motion picture production. It was Edison who famously said, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

I read a wonderful book about Edison while doing research for my upcoming book, Thriving in the 21st Century. I highly recommend it to adults and to young people who are interested in business and innovation. It’s called At Work with Thomas Edison: 10 Business Lessons from America’s Greatest Innovator by Blaine McCormick.

The Book of Virtues

Posted on by
Reply

There are always certain products that seem to be “in vogue” in the homeschool community. Some are fads, and others are of lasting value.

One book of lasting value that I bought when it was all the rage among homeschooling parents is The Book of Virtues. This anthology of classic character-building stories was assembled by former U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett.

It’s a hefty volume, handily organized by virtues, i.e. there are chapters on compassion, faith, loyalty, etc. In each chapter are stories and poems with the appropriate theme. I used to assign certain stories to my children whenever I thought a specific virtue needed to be emphasized (I know, obvious, right?) Reading these stories often led to some really good discussions among us.

This is a great book for reading aloud to your children, or for your own reading when you only have time to read a classic short story as opposed to a novel. Bennett later introduced other versions of this book specifically for younger children. But I think the stories in this book are useful for reading to or by all children.

The success of The Book of Virtues led to Bennett editing another book, The Moral Compass, which is similar to the first book except that the stories are grouped by subject instead of virtue. We kept both books, even though we’re almost done homeschooling, because the contents are so good. Give one of these volumes to your children on a rainy day and I think you’ll find them spending quite a while with it.

Picture Books vs. Chapter Books

Posted on by
10

An article in the New York Times suggests that sales of picture books for children are slumping because today’s overeager parents push their children to read chapter books instead.

Perhaps. But I’m in agreement with many of the article’s commenters, who say that picture books have simply gotten too expensive, especially given the current state of the economy. Many say they prefer to buy picture books at garage sales or check them out at the public library.

A commenter who’s a librarian notes that she checked the circulation stats of her library’s  picture books and discovered a 10% increase in check-out rates over the past year. That would seem to indicate that the commenters are on the right track and perhaps the writer of the article was blowing the issue out of proportion.

That said, you can go in any bookstore and see all sorts of books that are quite beautiful, but whose plot lines are lame, if they have plots at all. My kids’ favorite books usually had strong plots, ones that they anticipated every time we read aloud together.

What do you think? Are parents pushing their kids into chapter books, or is it just that picture books cost too much?

Where’s Chimpy?

Posted on by
2

The next time you buy a picture book for your small children, or for a young relative or a friend, would you consider buying Where’s Chimpy?

It’s the story of a little girl named Misty who can’t find her favorite toy, a stuffed monkey. It’s bedtime but she can’t go to sleep without him. So she and her dad retrace her steps and find an assortment of other treasures she misplaced that day before they finally find Chimpy.

I know this doesn’t sound like an unusually spectacular book, but here’s the thing: Misty has Down syndrome. She’s the main character of the story, and she’s in every photo in the book.

So little children who read this book (or have it read to them) will hopefully see Misty as a little girl, not someone with a disability. You know how little ones like to have books read to them over and over? Maybe after reading Where’s Chimpy? enough times, young children won’t think twice about Misty being any different from them.

And maybe, as they get older, instead of staring at other children with Down syndrome, they’ll smile at them, or maybe not even notice anything different about them. That would be cool….and a nice change.

BTW, we have a well-used paperback copy of Where’s Chimpy?, but I also have my own hardcover copy of this book because I like it so much.  🙂