2 Statesman Book Reviews

The U.S.Constitution for Everyone (Perigee Book)

by Jerome B. Agel, Mort Gerberg

History comes alive-in this illustrated guide to the Constitution and all 27 Amendments.

¥ Which state refused to send a delegation to the Constitutional Convention?
¥ Why was the Convention held in secret, with sentries at the door?
¥ What are the 27 Amendments?

The U.S. Constitution for Everyone relates how the "traitorous" Founding Fathers wrote the nation's supreme laws and how the thirteen Disunited States became a more perfect Union. A must for students of American history and for everyone who'd like to know more about the supreme laws of our nation.


My Opinion:

This book made the Constitution more interesting, a little more easily understood and gave important history surrounding the constitution and the amendments.


Common Sense

by Thomas Paine

"These are the times that try men's souls," begins Thomas Paine's first Crisis paper, the impassioned pamphlet that helped ignite the American Revolution. Published in Philadelphia in January of 1776, Common Sense sold 150,000 copies almost immediately. A powerful piece of propaganda, it attacked the idea of a hereditary monarchy, dismissed the chance for reconciliation with England, and outlined the economic benefits of independence while espousing equality of rights among citizens. Paine fanned a flame that was already burning, but many historians argue that his work unified dissenting voices and persuaded patriots that the American Revolution was not only necessary, but an epochal step in world history.


My Opinion:

After reading 1776 Thomas Paine became a real person to me. I really enjoyed this as it brought me to these times. I saw a very close correlation between England at that time and the US Government now and how we need to develop the passion for the Constitution like our forefathers developed then.

A "New" House

Just a quick, fun little post.

I am in the middle of my six month purge. I'm giving myself a full week to accomplish this, as I have always thought it had to be done in a day and never finished - I usually ended up with a bigger mess than I started with!

So we've been moving furniture to fit our new needs, throwing stuff in the suburban to take to the local thrift store, and filling the back of the truck with all of Mom's papers that's she's been afraid to toss. I am pleased with the progress.

Apparently though, not as excited as my son. He came in the first day I moved the furniture around and said, "Mom, are we getting a new house?" his eyes wide with wonder.

"Yeah!" I affirmed. "Cool, huh?"

He nodded and left the room.

Well, yesterday he came back through - the house is really starting to take shape at this point. He runs over and tugs on my blouse.

"Mom! I LOVE OUR NEW HOUSE!"

And I didn't even have to endure a move. ;)

Reading Quotes

"Could we give one gift to every child
We should choose the love of books"

-William Frederick Bigelow

Works alluded to in Monte Cristo (Part 1)

I'm now half way through The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I have been compiling a list of works mentioned throughout the book thus far. I'm sure there is more, but these are the ones that stood out to me and that caught my interest. I will break it up into parts. I hope this interests others out there as well. These are all going on my to-read list! ;)

Arabian Nights: Tales from One Thousand and One Nights

Throughout the book the Count of Monte Cristo is either called by a character or two from this book or hinted that he belongs in the book. He called himself Sinbad the Sailor for a time.

Caesar: Alexandrian War. African War. Spanish War

Mentioned in his conversation with M. Villefort regarding chemistry and health.


By The Abbe in the Chateau D’if

Thucydides
Xenophon
Plutarch
Shakespear
Spinoza



Thucydides (Thoukydídēs)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides

A Greek historian and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century B.C. war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 B.C. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" due to his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work.

Quotations

• "But, the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it."[42]
• "The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."[43]
• "It is a general rule of human nature that people despise those who treat them well, and look up to those who make no concessions."[44]
• "War takes away the easy supply of daily wants, and so proves a rough master, that brings most men's characters to a level with their fortunes."[45]
• "The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and ambition; and from these passions proceeded the violence of parties once engaged in contention."[46

Books
The History of the Peloponnesian War (English)


Plutarch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutarch

Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus[1] (Greek: Μέστριος Πλούταρχος), c. AD 46 – 120 — commonly known in English as Plutarch — was a Roman (of Greek ethnicity) historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist.[2] Plutarch was born to a prominent family in Chaeronea, Boeotia, a town about twenty miles east of Delphi. His known works consist of the Parallel Lives and the Moralia.

Books

The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives (Penguin Classics)
Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans (Modern Library Series, Vol. 1)
On Sparta (Penguin Classics)
The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives (Penguin Classics, L286)
Alexander the Great
Selected Lives (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature)
The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives
Roman Lives: A Selection of Eight Lives (Oxford World's Classics)
Greek Lives (Oxford World's Classics)
Essays by Plutarch
Plutarch Themistocles (Bryn Mawr Greek Commentaries)
Moralia
Plutarch's Advice to the Bride and Groom and A Consolation to His Wife: English Translations, Commentary, Interpretive Essays, and Bibliography
Themistocles

Spinoza

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Spinoza

A Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death. Today, he is considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy, laying the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism.

Books

• ca. 1660. Korte Verhandeling van God, de mensch en deszelvs welstand (Short Treatise on God, Man and His Well-Being).[15].
• 1662. Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione (On the Improvement of the Understanding). 1663. Principia philosophiae cartesianae (Principles of Cartesian Philosophy, translated by Samuel Shirley).
• Gallica.
• 1670. Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (A Theologico-Political Treatise)
• 1677. Ethics (Penguin Classics)
• 1677. Hebrew Grammar.

Poetry for Children

"Do you know what is wrong with people who never read nursery rhymes? I will tell you. When little boys and girls grow bigger and older, they should grow from the outside, leaving a little boy in the middle; even when they are quite grown up, the little child that once they were should be within them. But some unlucky people grow older from inside and so grow old through and through."

We have been reading several poetry books as a family. The book Honey for a Child's Heart has a section about Poetry which inspired me to get back on track with reading the children poetry aloud. We're currently reading "The World of Christopher Robin" by A.A. Milne as a family and we love the silliness of them.

Some other wonderful poetry books aside from our favorite Dr. Suess:

Randolph Caldecott's Picture Books- mostly nursery rhymes, but pictures are magnificent!

Works by Edward Lear:

The owl and the pussycat
A book of nonsense
There was an Old Man--: A Gallery of Nonsense Rhymes
Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets

Hilaire Belloc:

Cautionary Tales for children

Robert Louis Stevenson:

A Child's Book of Verses

What wonderful children's poetry books do you have to add to this list?

Library Excursions

We have gone to many of the local libraries here and I just wasn't finding a large enough selection for my tastes, so we travel to Raleigh, which is about an hour away and joined their library system. The cost was $25 for a year, which I think is affordable.

We go up either weekly or every other week and it is a family night affair. We spend all the time we wish at the library and then have dinner at a favorite deli or Mexican restaurant.

We each get our books according to the book list I listed previously and the time period they are studying. It keeps us organized. We also try to get a few audio books as well.

Our Homeschooling is Always Improving

I recently found and loved the guidelines set in The Well-Trained Mind. It goes along with TJED so well, but I needed a more rigid idea of what needs to be done for my kids but with the classical mentality that I love and feel strongly about. I've been ordering some of the books suggested.

In addition I have a friend, a mentor, who owns hundreds of Classic children's books I had NEVER even heard of! I thought I had at least a mediocre idea of children's literature. I found that I am but a babe, a child myself in this wide world of classical children's literature. I spent two separate days copying all of the book titles in her many bookshelves. I still have another day or two to go to finish. I have hundreds of books on my list to get. When I have some extra time I will be sharing this list. She then took me to the numerous used book stores and helped me pick out additional titles of children's classics to get, many for $1 or less.

Two of those books are from the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series of which there are four, I believe. We begun reading the first one aloud. I highly recommend this book! It is an easy to read aloud book meaning it is easy to imitate the characters and it is enjoyable. My five year old and up absolutely love this book and beg me to read just another chapter. Even my husband laughs with the kids during some of these funny adventures. We have read almost half of the book in three separate sittings, so it is also a quick read. I am so glad we found this series!

M, my almost eight year old daughter, is listening to the CD that is the audio companion to The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. She loves it and the songs that go with it. I love hearing the younger children repeating all the alphabet sounds too.

Hope your homeschooling life is going as well!

Classical Music: Johann Strauss

Johann Strauss II (October 25, 1825 – June 3, 1899; German: Johann Baptist Strauß; also known as Johann Baptist Strauss, Johann Strauss, Jr., or Johann Strauss the Younger) was an Austrian composer famous for having written over 500 waltzes, polkas, marches, and galops. He was the son of the composer Johann Strauss I, and brother of composers Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss. He is also the most famous member of the Strauss family. He was known in his lifetime as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century. He revolutionized the waltz, elevating it from a lowly peasant dance to entertainment fit for the royal Habsburg court.

I recently purchased "Johann Strauss Jr Most Famous Waltzes". What a beautiful compilation of his works. It contains over and hour's worth of music that is invigorating and makes you want to dance.

We listened to it again last night while I was cooking dinner. The younger girls were so inspired that they all dressed up in their ballerina outfits, tutus and all and danced around the house. We love all of his music. Our absolute favorites are:

"Tales from the Vienna Woods"
"Roses from the South Op. 388"
"Fruehlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring)"


May I also say he was quite a LOOKER! ;)

Listen to it, I promise you'll love it!!! Johann Strauss was a genius of a musician!



*Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Strauss_II

Library Subjects List

These suggestions came from the book "The Well Trained Mind". I loved them so much I decided to implement them in our homeschool library trips:

Each child picks out one book in each of the following subjects:

*One science book
*One history book
*One art or music appreciation book
*One practical book (i.e. hobby, craft or "how-to")
*One biography or autobiography book
*One classic novel
*An imaginative story book
*One book of poetry

The kids can pick out any title, but they have to have something in each category. Each child has a week to read each book before they go back again the next week.

Behavior Modifications and Sensory Diets

I'm intending for this post to be "educational" and hope to give you a good laugh at my expense.

Last week I reclaimed our school room. I scored some desks off of Freecycle, we had cleaned and decluttered and I was motivated to make our school room a fun, inviting place that the kids would WANT to be in. Bonus for me: all the desks match. Yay!

I've also been reading a lot lately on Autism and three things stood out to me. Behavior modification, sensory satisfaction and structure. So, armed with this grand new information and my imagination, I sat down to several projects last week. I'm passing them on for any of you to use if you think it might be helpful.

First up was our Behavior Modification. Who doesn't like a reward for good behavior or a job well done? I started a token economy. I used some pennies, an envelope decorated in stickers and a spinner. This is how we set ours up.

10 pennies for each kid
1 8 space spinner (you could make one out of cardstock and a brad, or I bought a pack of them for a dollar at Walmart)

The rules were that they had to earn 5 pennies for a break and 10 pennies for a big reward.

1 penny = assignment completed.
2 penny = if the assignment was completed inependently
5 penny = 10 minute break. Use the spinner.
7 penny = small treat (like M&M or animal crackers)
10 penny = 30 minutes computer time, outside play, art project (like painting, playdough)

For the spinner at the 5 penny mark (if needed, you can revert to the spinner if you need chores done, or more school work, or a big, unusual job).
1. 15 minutes educational game on computer
2. Sensory box (tell you about that in a minute)
3. Listen to MP3 player
4. Play a board or card game (Memory, Clotheline, Go Fish)
5. Coloring book
6. Free Play
7. Snack
8. Play outside or free play if inclimate weather

Tokens were paid for 5 and 10 penny activities. 1 token was also paid for crying, physical contact, and frustration violence (hitting table, tearing up paper, kicking furniture).

Now, for the Sensory Diet. Ugh. Ok, maybe this would have worked with some better quality balloons and may I suggest you allow this activity only with supervision like a hawk.

First, I made a sensory box. This is kind of like the I Spy bottles and pillows you see, only they get to use their hands to rake through the contents. I used a medium size plastic drawer, so when we were done, it goes up and away and the little kids actually do not know where I've hid it.

Ingredients:
1 bag uncooked rice
1 bag uncooked each red beans, black beans and split peas
Small, blunt objects laying around the house. I used a marble, flat ended screw, coins, bottle nipple, erasers, paper clips, baby spoon, colored popscicle sticks, dice, small car. Anything you can think of to put in there and can be buried by the rice and beans.

I let them comb through it with their hands. I had to watchful of the 4 years and under set because they had a tendency to throw it up in the air and fill their pockets and try to bury their arms in the box.

Next on the list for the Sensory Diet were stress balls. I read this idea and thought WOW! What a great idea. Ok, not so much anymore. I know the purpose these should be for, but like I said, I think I needed better quality ballons.

Materials:
Quality balloons (probably not something you would get from a Dollar Store)
Flour
Corn Syrup
Rice
Water
Sugar
Empty, dry soda bottle
Funnel
A partner

1. Using your funnel, fill up your soda bottle with about a cup and a half of your desired ingredient.
2. Blow up your balloon. Have your partner pinch the base of the balloon to keep air in while you stretch the opening over the soda bottle's spout.
3. Pour the ingredients into the balloon. Some, like the corn syrup, will flow automatically, but you will have to tilt the bottle so you get some air flow/resistance that allows the ingredient to transfer to the balloon.
4. Remove the balloon carefully from the bottle.
5. Allow the air to slowly leave the balloon and tie it off.

Lessons learned:
First, do not think that funnel will somehow be a good idea using it just with the balloon. Things did not enter a deflated balloon easily, so when I thought I would blow it up and stick the funnel full of cornstarch into the balloon, I didn't account for air leaving the balloon and blowing corn starch all over my kitchen. Or the rice having to be prodded and pulled into the balloon 3 bits at a time. Or the corn syrup oozing out over the balloon because my funnel was cracked and the balloon didn't stretch out (did that 2 times before learning my lesson). Or that sugar is slightly heavier than the funnel it was in and made a huge mess when I fumbled the balloon and funnel together when my fingers and wrists cramped up and dumped sugar all over myself and the floor. Or that once I figured out the best way to get the stuff into the balloon was with the soda bottle and a partner, not to let the air out of the balloon too quickly, or once again, flour was blown all over the kitchen. Also, water and corn syrup do not mix. They separated in the balloon. I found this out after I thought that if I added water to the balloon, like you would if you were filling a water balloon, the cold water separated the syrup and it was heavy on the bottom and squishy on the top.

Lessons learned after the kids got a hold of the stress balls.
Do not let the kid that LOVES the bumpy texture of the rice ball sleep with it. He woke up in a pile of rice.
Do not let them leave the house with the corn syrup filled stress ball because one they throw it at someone or something, it will probably pop and make a huge, sticky mess.
Do not let them take their rice filled stress ball into the tub with them.
Do not let husbands play with the flour filled balloons because the balloons are too delicate for the kind of strength that a husband would use to release their stress with. Be prepared for flour to explode all over your dark green couch.
Teach your children what the balloons are for: they are NOT for target practice, dodge ball, catch, chewing on, or poking with pencils, scissors, nail clippers or toothpicks.

So, there you go. A fun filled day of stress balls, boxes filled with a potential recipe for disaster, and spinners to reward good behavior. Two of the things are working for us anyway, but I think I'm staying far away from the stress balls for now.