There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.
Where the Sidewalk Ends,
Shel Silverstein
I am reading a book my sister in law recommended on homeschooling called Real Learning, by Elizabeth Foss. I am finding it encouraging in as far as it helps define why a parent would choose to homeschool, what some specific, overarching goals should be for the homeschooling parents, and a beginning explanation of how to create an atmosphere of lifelong learning in the home. This book has made the idea of homeschooling a little more real, yet less intimidating at the same time for this mama. I have especially enjoyed Foss' elaboration on Charlotte Mason's philosophy on forming literate, passionate learners. Her approach to books and reading makes so much sense to me. Passionate learners must begin with passionate readers. Children should be introduced to good literature early on, and only good literature. They shouldn't see learning as confined to a lesson in the morning or afternoon. Instead, learning should be a lifestyle. Thank goodness, I kind of knew some of this intuitively, but this book has helped me with further my understanding of learning as an atmosphere. She says this: "The books in the home are not confined to the learning room but are easily available in every room in the house. They are in baskets in the family room, the living room, and the bathroom. They are on bedside tables, in bags to take to the pool, and on tapes int he car. And they are not the dumbed-down, insipid books that Charlotte Mason would call "twaddle." They are books of high moral qualitym full of worth ideas and fine language. They are living books."
At first, when I read this I didn't really know what "twaddle" would be. I started to get nervous that some of the books we have gathered for Louisa so far might qualify as twaddle. I also thought, "well, come on, if it is a book, and she enjoys looking at it, what's the problem?" Over the last few weeks though, I have found myself paying closer attention to the books we have and the ones I see on the library shelves. I notice when it comes to language, vocabulary, story structure, illustration, and moral messages - all children's books are not created equal! Thankfully, most of the books people have given to Lou (with a few exceptions of hand-me-down books that I intend on conveniently 'misplacing') have been classics or solid children's literature. I don't think we own too much "Twaddle" at this point :) I am grateful to have figured this out early on, because it means I can do a better job filtering through the books I want to buy or check out from the library for my children. When I was growing up, I think my mom did a really good job of getting good books into our hands, especially when we were younger. She even kept all of the books I read as a child, so I'm really grateful to her for that! I also feel equipped to go out and find good literature without having to spend a fortune. (Though sometimes I think it would be so nice just to go out and buy brand new copies of every beloved children's book out there!) But it's true that I love thrift store shopping, garage sale hunting, and half-price-book looking - and that is way more fun than just logging on to Amazon.com, right?
Over at Like Mother Like Daughter, Leila did an excellent series on how to give children good books. Take a look if you're interested.
I have to admit, I could never get into the habit of reading to Louisa as a young baby. It was partly, I think, because Louisa was a grabby, put everything in her mouth baby (like most babies :) But it made it difficult for me to have the patience to sit and read her a story. She didn't seem interested in looking at the pictures at all. She would rather just eat the pages. I felt guilty about it, because every single gosh darn parenting book or magazine says "You have to read to your baby!" Well, it took a long time, but now we are now in the habit of reading every day, at multiple settings in a day. Louisa also picks up books and looks at them on her own, quite often in fact. She likes to get 'cozy' with a blanket and pillow and usually surrounded by a few toys, and look at a book. She has her favorites. Mike and I love how she has already memorized some parts of books...."They left the house at half past nine. And the smallest one was Madeline!"..."They broke their bread, and brushed their teeth, and went to bed." Also, the great thing is I won't have to feel guilty about not reading to a baby again, since the rest our babies will get the benefit of listening to us read to the older ones. Josephine loves "reading" her books, and remarkably she doesn't really try to eat them! She also sticks close by whenever Lou and I pick up a book to read, and I know she is listening. It's a beautiful thing.
"The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her, and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling, who took a cab and nipped in first, and so he got her. "
Hehe; see? Super sweet. This is something I look forward to as our children get older - reading aloud some great classics all together as a family. I know as a child I loved it when our teacher read to us at the end of the day. I always looked forward to it the most.
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