The Power of Free Voluntary Reading

Bedhead, pj's, a comfortable couch and a good book.

Homeschooling frees up more time for reading. Hours spent immersed in a book that you chose yourself, that you're reading purely for pleasure. No book report or quiz at the end. Reading, and enjoying reading, is the end in itself. A reader picks up grammar and vocabulary without knowing it. A child who reads a lot learns to structure sentences, and take pleasure in the rhythm of language.

Recently I started reading Stephen Krashen and watching his presentations. This site links to great resources about the benefits of free voluntary reading, from Dr. Krashen and others. There are studies that prove that reading for pleasure physically changes your brain, and makes it grow (increased cortical thickness). Common sense observation shows that free reading improves general knowledge, vocabulary, independence, language competence, writing, and motivation to learn. The research backs up and confirms common sense conclusions.

We have books stashed everywhere, and cozy corners that are good for reading. 

A whole row of Great Illustrated Classics. R got involved in the process of collecting them, hunting at thrift stores and looking online for used ones. This September she finished reading all of the 50+ ones we own. 

At age 11, she can read lots of classics in their unabridged versions. But the feeling of accomplishment, of collecting these books, setting a goal to read all of them and then reaching that goal, was a great motivator. I hope our house has a culture of books, an environment where they are valued and appreciated, and always available. We try to protect free time, so R has the time to choose books and to read as much as she wants.

We like to make a special event of listening to audio books together. Dickens is the best, especially with a good, expressive reader.

We're starting a collection of the lives of the saints. She has several saints' anthologies too. 

A treasured Christmas gift from my Dad this year. The Access to Shakespeare editions with facing-page translations in contemporary English. 

"A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end.You live several lives while reading." --William Styron.

This is a great shelf. Narnia, Lemony Snickett, Harry Potter, and Tolkien's books. My old copy of my favorite book as a kid, Harriet the Spy. 

I love this quote from Paul Auster: "Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head." I think it's a mistake for schools to fill students' days with "reading skills" instruction, vocabulary quizzes, and assigned books with a dreaded report as the reward for finishing. The free time so necessary for voluntary reading is eaten up by schools assigning hours of homework a night, and by parents overscheduling extracurriculars and lessons. The books we pick up for "pure pleasure," with the anticipation of escaping and going somewhere else for awhile, are where we learn to be literate. "To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life."  --- W. Somerset Maugham.

Smoothie and Sunbutter Cookies

We start most mornings with a smoothie. Thank goodness for the giant bags of frozen berries at Costco. Usually it's berries, Greek yogurt, spinach or other greens, flax meal, and an egg from our free range chickens. R asks for some sweetener in hers, honey or sugar. The cookies are grain free with sunflower butter and coconut flour. They're sweetened with honey, and the eggs and the sunbutter are good for protein in the morning. I think I can do better so I won't post the recipe yet.

We're also loving this green juice from Trader Joe's. It tastes mild and citrusy. R won't drink a green glass, but I can mix it in a smoothie and she can't tell. D calls that "Jessica Seinfelding it." I try not to be sneaky like that, but I'm not above it. Lots of greens and vitamin C for chilly January days and cold and flu season.

New Year's Beans for Good Luck and Prosperity

Traditionally it's black eyed peas or lentils that bring good luck when you eat them early in the new year. I hope Mario Batali's Braised White Beans count too. After soaking the beans for two days, I sauteed the vegetables in olive oil but cooked everything long and slow in the slow cooker. I added a smoked turkey leg and a small square of salt pork I had left over in the freezer after homemade baked beans. I added a defrosted a jar of turkey broth from Thanksgiving, scented with citrus and poultry herbs. These beans are so luxurious and melty.

I also roasted a spaghetti squash with some Irish butter and sea salt. We're learning that gluten free cooking is only tricky when it comes to baking. So far it's been a great way to refocus on produce, lean proteins, nuts and legumes, without reaching for easy carbs. D and R love their baked goods though, so I'm learning to work with "flours" that behave nothing like wheat.

Serving greens is traditional to encourage prosperity in the new year. So we also had a chopped kale and mixed greens salad with dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year!

Birthday Sunrise

As a child, I didn't like having my birthday and Christmas so close together. Once January 5 was over, it was such a long time to wait until all the excitement  rolled around again. But this year I'm glad to start two new years in one week.

2014 was not an easy year. Three hospitalizations and long recoveries, the final one causing us to miss our trip to New Mexico. For the first time in my life, I wasn't sitting around my parents' cozy stone fireplace with my brothers and their families for Christmas. That was hard for all of us. And yet it was a good year in many ways. I found out how much kindness and love there is among my family and friends. The deep well of prayer and generosity that surrounds our little family of three. I learned to be grateful for small things, to wake up and slow down and notice fleeting moments. I woke up to this birthday sunrise this morning.

The first pic I took with my camera, pulling on snowboots and D's heavy parka and scrambling to keep Charlie inside because it was early and he would bark and wake the neighbors. The grainy iPad shot above is what I saw from our bedroom window as soon as I opened my eyes. I spent a lot of time watching this tree from my bed this year. From green summer, to fall leaves turning and dropping their giant beanpods all over the grass. Then my favorite season, when snow falls softly on the black branches and blurs the edges of the pergola.

It made me laugh when the maudlin O. Henry story The Last Leaf popped into my head, where the girl watches the tree from her sickbed and predicts she will be dead when the last leaf falls. This is not a Last Leaf situation. It was a crisis that's over now. There shouldn't be any long term effects once I recover and get my stamina back. (It was gynecological, that led to pulmonary embolism---multiple blood clots on both lungs---that in turn led to profound anemia and more complications. All fixable with surgery, which is over now. No cancer or permanent damage to my heart and lungs, nothing chronic.) I was fortunate, and I won't forget that. I had been taking my good health for granted for many years.

We met another curve ball in October, when R was diagnosed with celiac disease. Again, we have been so spoiled with her good health. She's almost never at the doctor. But she had been kind of languishing since early summer. Strange symptoms, just not her rosy-cheeked, energetic and thriving self. I took her in a few times and all her bloodwork came back normal. Then they thought to test for celiac. We were surprised when she was diagnosed, but grateful to have an explanation.

I'd like to start the blog back up with a focus on gluten free recipes, and what we're learning about living with celiac. Overall it's been a good thing, an answer to our questions and a concrete way to get R back on the road back to feeling good. The improvement was dramatic once we cut out gluten. It's been interesting to learn a new way to cook. We're still homeschooling, and loving it. It's a different season of our lives, with an 11 year old instead of a little girl. I think there is a blog for that.

For today, it's a birthday I'm grateful to be celebrating, with my patient family who has put way too many things on the back burner for too long. This morning the sky exploded in color behind the tree that kept me company through those long, restless months. You don't have to look much farther for a sign that 2015 will be a different year. God is good, and we are happy.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Here is an old Irish blessing for each of you:
May the blessing of light be on you
light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you
and warm your heart
till it glows like a great peat fire.

 Tonight we had corned beef; carrots, turnips and apples glazed with apple cider; colcannon with cabbage, potatoes, spinach and scallions; and Irish soda bread. And Guinness of course.

One more blessing for good measure. This one was on the favors at our wedding:
Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you.

Homeschool Sick Day

102 fever for two days, poor kid. This is one of the great perks of homeschooling. Snow keeps coming down outside, I don't have to drive anywhere, no worries about missing schoolwork and having hours of make-up homework when she goes back. She's been reading a lot and even did some math online. But mostly sleeping and listening to me read Emma to her.

March Seedling Progress

Here is some of the progress since I started the first seeds on February 14.

The artichokes are up! Some of them. They are pretty tricky to germinate. The cardoons keep coming and everything looks  strong and healthy.

Leeks are just poking up. 

Salad greens, kale and broccoli varieties are getting ready to go out in the garden under frost cover, and free up space under the lights for the next round: peppers and eggplants.

Spinach (Bordeaux and regular green) and cabbages in the sunny front windowsill.

I'm trying to sprout sweet potatoes for the ornamental vines. If it works, I can transplant the slips when they grow out the top of the potatoes, root them in water, and have enough for my containers and a few for the flowerbeds. Next to them is Red Russian kale.