Election Day

Today we choose our president and the legislators who will govern us for the next two or four years. It's exciting and I loved being able to line up with fellow Americans to exercise this right. Earlier we shared some resources for explaining the election to your students. You can find those here.

Of course, every eye is on the outcome of the presidential election and I've come to realize that it isn't just every American eye. Living overseas has allowed me to see how our votes affect those around the world. When I was abroad in 2008 Europeans were very much tuned in to the election and it was fascinating to discuss their opinions about American government, elections, and presidents.

Today I thought it would be fun to share some resources on the presidency. The video below does a great job of explaining the history of the presidential residence, the White House.

Whitehouse.gov has a great introduction on each of the presidents and their wives.
The interactive tour of the White House is also very interesting. Did you know they have their own flower shop?

And, since we're book people, we thought we'd list some of our favorite biographies on our very first president:

George Washington by Ingri and Edgar d'Aulaire

George Washington's World by Genevieve Foster

George Washington, Frontier Colonel by Sterling North

George Washington's Breakfast by Jean Fritz

And if you want to get to know President Washington in his own words, you have to check out this book. It's a treasure and provides a window into Washington's thought process as well as the time in which he lived. 

Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior by George Washington

You may also enjoy:

Back to the Beginning: How We Got Started

Back to the Beginning: OK, now I have a huge pile of books! What should I do with it?

Back to the Beginning: OOP

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Karana's cave believed to have been found!

Photo Credit: Steve Schwartz, U.S. Navy

When I was a young California girl I was fascinated by the story of Karana, the Lone Woman of San Nicolas and heroine of Scott O'Dell's classic, Island of the Blue Dolphins. Karana was a Native American woman who survived the massacre and evacuation of her tribe. She lived alone for over eighteen years on the windblown and desolate island known as San Nicholas.

Now it appears that the cave she lived in has been discovered! Steve Chawkins from The LA Times reports that Steve Schwartz, a Navy archaeologist, has been searching for the cave for twenty years and now believes he has found it. I find this so exciting! You can read more details in the article as well as access maps and other information.

If you have not read Island of the Blue Dolphins, I highly recommend it. It's a heartbreaking and inspiring tale of resourcefulness, courage, grit, and strength. Karana represents a heroic archetype that is lacking in so many of our contemporary children's stories.

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Scott O'Dell (1898-1989) wrote other wonderful stories of historic men and women and I would recommend all of them! As one of the most respected authors of historical fiction, he was awarded the Newbery Medal, three Newbery Honor Medals, and the Hans Christian Andersen Author Medal, the highest international recognition for a body of work by an author of books for young readers. If you've ever been curious about the history of the American west, O'Dell is the author you want to start reading.

Cruise of the Arctic Star

In The Cruise of the Arctic Star, O'Dell takes a voyage up the length of the California coast in his cedar-hulled offshore cruiser named Arctic Star. With his wife Elizabeth along as skilled navigator and cook, a friend Del as cohort and deckhand, and an unpredictable hired hand named Rodney Lambert, the crew journeys up the coast and experiences first hand the delights and drama of life at sea along this beautiful shoreline. Along the way, the author relates the colorful narratives of California's past through the stories of men and women like Cabrillo, Viscaino, Junipero Serra, Kate Sessions, Kit Carson, Jedediah Smith and many more. Drawing from journals of other notable visitors like Richard Henry Dana, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Sir Francis Drake, readers are given a window into life in California hundreds of years ago.

O'Dell offers readers dramatic incidents seldom featured in text books on California history - like the worst peacetime disaster in the history of the United States Navy that occurred in the treacherous Jaws of the Devil near Point Conception. Readers will delight in the story of Jedediah Strong Smith's wrestling with a grizzly and the wilderness friend who stitched his ear and face back together - with no anesthesia, of course! Pirates have to play a part in a land so rich in coastline - and they do, with buried treasure on a Southern California isle known as Dead Man's Island. The stories of the discoverers, explorers and settlers of California have never been drawn so delightfully as they are under O'Dell's pen. With his love of his native state, his knowledge of the landscape, sea life, and historical past of this region, O'Dells work continues to stand as an important contribution to the rich literature of the Golden State.

Zia

Zia is the sequel to Island of the Blue Dolphins and follows Karana's niece as she navigates the traditional world of her mother and the contemporary world of a rapidly changing California. A poignant follow-up to Karana's story.

You may also enjoy:

Our Longing for Connection

Our Philosophy and What Others Say About Our Curriculum

Celebrity in Light of Historical Context

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What I'm Reading

I was asked to do a post on what I'm reading these days. The stack above represents the readings I'm working my way through for the first semester of a graduate degree I've begun working on. It looks like an intimidating stack to this bibliophile and I must admit that reading is taking up the majority of my time these days! As a homeschooler, this isn't really a new thing but in the 10+ years since college I'd definitely gotten used to reading whatever I want and am finding assigned reading to be a bit more cumbersome. My undergrad degree from Hillsdale College was great preparation for this "Great Books" graduate degree and I find myself wishing I had kept more of my class notes.  

This semester I’m taking three classes. The first is Plato and Augustine and I’ve been reading some Hesiod as well as The Republic. The class will be starting City of God in a few weeks and I'm looking forward to that.  I’m really interested in this course as we’re discussing justice, good, and politics. The dueling notion of earthy and heavenly cities and how those idea affect our lives is fascinating to me. It has reinforced my belief that an educated citizenry is absolutely essential for the existence of a good government. Reading these books that have existed for millennia certainly puts our political situation into proper perspective. 

My next course is Dante and Milton and we’ve read a couple of Aristophanes plays to establish classical ideas of comedy. We’ve finished Dante's Comedy and I loved re-reading the Inferno. Purgatory and Paradise were new to me and I really enjoyed Purgatory. Dante is challenging to me because I'm much more of a prose girl and the tercet format Dante used sort of lulls me to sleep. This week I'm breaking open Paradise Lost and think it will be fun to contrast Dante’s comedic vision of the world and afterlife with Milton’s tragic vision. 

Finally, I’m taking an Old Testament survey course that will take me through the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Hosea, Judges, Ruth, and Samuel. So far I have found this course to be amazing. The professor ties everything to the New Testament showing how it all foretold the coming of Christ. It sort of boggles my mind in a lot of ways and I’m finding it stretching. So far my class has read through Genesis and Exodus and I've been working my way through Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy this week. I must admit that I have found listening to these particular books much more engaging than reading them. I find that for my learning style, I get more out of listening to these particular books. There is a lot of repetition and you can tell that they were originally part of an oral tradition so I've been using this website to listen to them while I cook or clean. Very glamorous, right? 

I will admit that this amount of reading is challenging to me. I find that some days it feels like drudgery and it's all I can do to focus my mind on the words that seem to be blurring into each page. In order to ensure that reading does not become something I no longer enjoy, I have also joined a couple of book clubs. I find that if I can mix up the reading a bit the academic continues to be pleasurable and I get more out of the non-required reading. Does that make sense?

So there you have it, my current reading. What are you reading? Do you find that keeping up with your children and student's reading is all you can manage on top of regular life? If reading is an escape for you or something you cannot live without, how do you make time for it? 

You may also enjoy: 

A Dangerous Trend for Boys

Unstructured Creativity a.k.a Boredom

Homeschooling as Equalizer

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Author Feature: Jeanne Bendick

"If I were a fairy godmother, my gift to every child would be curiosity." -Jeanne Bendick

When we were starting out on our publishing adventure our main focus was finding great treasures of yesteryear and bringing them back in to print for a new generation of young readers. The first entirely new book that we commissioned was Along Came Galileo by Jeanne Bendick and it was an absolute pleasure to be able to work with such a talented author and illustrator.

Excerpt from Along Came Galileo

Born February 25, 1919 in New York City, Jeanne learned how to draw from her maternal grandfather, an artist himself. She had this to say about his influence in her life: "Grandpa Charley was my hero, a scholar and an artists, gentle patient, full of humor, and endlessly generous with his time." He also sparked her interest in science with weekly trips to the American Museum of Natural History and it was from these hours together that she would be inspired to make scientific principles accessible to young minds. She later attended the New York High School of Arts and Music and graduated from the famous Parsons School of Design in 1939. She helped pay for her tuition by working as an illustrator at Jack and Jill, a children's magazine, as well as teaching children's art classes. When she graduated she was given an opportunity to study in Paris for a year but World War II was tearing apart Europe at the time and she decided to stay at home. Bendick went on to write and/or illustrate over one hundred books and has gained a reputation for her thorough research, engaging texts, and endearing illustrations.

Along Came Galileo

Bendick has explained her work in the following way: "One part of the job I set for myself is to make those young readers see that everything is connected to everything-that science isn't something apart. It's a part of everyday life. It has been that way since the beginning. The things the earliest scientists learned were the building blocks for those who came after. Sometimes they accepted earlier ideas. Sometimes they questioned them and challenged them. I want to involve readers directly in the text so they will ask themselves questions and try to answer them. If they can't answer, that's not really important... Questions are more important than answers."

Archimedes and the Door of Science

I have personally loved Bendick's books for over 15 years and am enchanted by her ability to take complex principles and break them down into accessible parts. If you're wanting an introduction to ancient science and those first brilliant minds who observed the laws of nature, you have to check out Archimedes and the Door of Science. Galen and the Gateway to Medicine opens a window into the dynamic and crumbling world of the Roman Empire in the second century. Along Came Galileo is one of the best ways to show your students how Galileo turned the world of science on its head. Throughout all the titles Bendick's simple pen and ink drawing bring the stories to life. 

Galen and the Gateway to Medicine

Our big sale is a great time to be able to stock up on these titles! Check it out here, it ends on the 29th so be sure to take advantage while it lasts! And while you're at it, check out titles from our other favorite authors:

Author Feature: Genevieve Foster

Author Feature: Ingri and Edgar d'Aulaire

Author Feature: Albert Marrin

Author Feature: Brinton Turkle

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History Points: The Cuban Missile Crisis

October 24, 1945

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Gathering together all sorts of resources to understand this confusing period in American history, The New York Times in conjunction with John F. Kennedy Library and Presidential Museum has put together  a great resource for teaching high school students about the 13 day standoff. You can read a brief introduction to the events here. Once you've read that, I would recommend checking out the interactive website here. The Times has also put together a fantastic archive of photographs from the era that really brings this whole era and event to life. 

And don't forget to check out our sale! It's a great opportunity to build that family library and try some study guides you've been wanting to check out. 

Check out our Facebook and Pinterest pages. And if you've enjoyed this, please feel free to share using the buttons below! 

In case you missed it:

Education as a Revolutionary Movement

Homeschooling as an Equalizer

What is Most Important in Education? 

BFB Sale!!

Check out our First-Ever Discount Sale! 

15% Off Everything (excluding packs) for one week only! 

October 22-29th. 

Get books, maps, timelines, study guides, cds, all at 15% off our already discounted prices! 

See our website for more details!

Use discount code: BFBSALE

Does not apply to packs.

Been wanting to check out some of our products? This is a great opportunity to do just that while saving money. 

Some of our favorites:

Get inspired with some great resources.

Check out some of our favorite authors: Ingri and Edgar d'Aulaire, Genevieve Foster, Albert Marrin, James Daugherty, Brinton Turkle, and many more. 

Or pick up a couple study guides you've been thinking about trying.   

 Hurry, sale ends October 29!

Opting out of standardized testing.

Photo credit: Diana Zavala for The New York Times

"Dear Teacher, Johnny Is Skipping the Test" from The New York Times this week is a fascinating article on some parents' approach to required standardized testing. While all the parents in this article have their children enrolled in public schools, I find it encouraging that they're taking a stand against the state and federal love-affair with standardized tests. We've talked a lot about standardized testing on this blog and its affects on educational focus and outcomes and I think that those unintended consequences are making their ways into peoples homes and that means people will start to notice.

I would love to hear your thought on standardized testing. What have your experiences been? Is it required for home educators in your state? Do you find it helpful for evaluating your students?

For those of you who missed it, Monday's blog entry was an encouragement to all of you who believe education is essential in the fight against ignorance and oppression. Your work is changing lives. 

And, as we had talked about writing a little bit ago, I thought you would enjoy this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education on the importance of written expression. 

October 19, 1765

The Stamp Act Congress, or First Congress of the United States,  drew up a Declaration of Rights and Grievances in response to the British Parliament's passage of The Stamp Act. This foundational even in American history does not get a lot of coverage but it was at this point that the American colonists expressed their unhappiness and disgust with their treatment at the hands of the British. It was in this document that the colonists demanded rights we barely even think about today such as:

• No taxation without representation
• Trial by jury
• American colonists possessed the same rights as Englishmen
• Parliament could not represent the colonies without granting them voting rights. 

To learn more about the Stamp Act and the early movements of the American Revolution, check out the following titles:

America's Paul Revere by Esther Forbes

A More Perfect Union, The Story of Our Constitution by Betsy and Giulio Maestro

Boys and Girls of Colonial Days by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey

The Forth of July Story by Alice Dalgliesh

History Stories for Children by John Wayland

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

Have a wonderful weekend! 

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