If you do, I hope that you enjoy it! It's long, long, long, (I'm not even half-way through,) but every chapter is very short, so it's easy to read only a couple of pages and then put it down for later. My analogy for reading older books (first suggested by Alan Jacobs, in Breaking Bread with the Dead) is that it's like sitting down to dinner with hosts from a different culture. First, all you notice is the differences ("Oh wow - we're not like that anymore), but then, the more that you listen to your host, the more that you realize that people are just people, even from centuries ago. The eighteenth century may be known to us mostly for the Enlightenment, but there were noble people and prejudiced people, generous people and stingy people, funny people (they're the ones who write novels!) and boring people, just like nowadays. That's why I love reading older books. 🙂 I hope you're doing well, Kassia!

A job that I wish I'd pursued thirty years ago, when it first came onto my radar after a career inventory, is pediatric audiologist. At this point, I don't think that it makes any sense to pursue it now, though. Next up dream job would be to find some way to continue teaching, classical style.

Selkie, I just want to say thank you, from my tender animal-loving heart, for all that you do. 🙂 Mercy, you'd be a great one! May I be your first fairy goddaughter?

@BandH, if you can get your son into the PT for musicians place (even if it's after ortho urgent care), I highly recommend it. I'm not a bass player myself, but I've heard that left shoulder pain can be serious for bass players. (I once met a professional bass player who had surgery to remove a bone so he could keep playing - something about where the nerve is when the arm is lifted.) Good luck to your son!

Jean, thank you for mentioning this book. I'd never heard of it before! I just requested it from the library - it looks delightful!

Thank you, 8. I really appreciate your kind words. It's okay, though. Yesterday, I bumped into a 92-year-old friend who reminded me that the most important thing was that I gave my kids a good foundation ("health, principles, and education") before the middle school years. Ninety-two-year-olds can remind us to take the long view! Thanks for bringing up Hard Times as a book influencing homeschooling. I would bet that Louisa May Alcott read that book and was influenced by it too, when she wrote Jack and Jill. (You probably already know this - LMA's father, Bronson Alcott, was an educational reformer, so a lot of his reforms found their way into her books. If I had all the time in the world, I'd love to see if there is a connection between Bronson Alcott's trip to England and Dickens' views on educational reform, not to mention the possibility of Alcott's views indirectly influencing Charlotte Mason.)

@The Governess, I'm so glad that you checked in, because your reading lists always give me such inspiration. Thank you! I've been on an eighteenth-century kick lately. Last month I finished up The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett. Right now I'm reading Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. Both are lots of fun, in an eighteenth-century way.

Not sure how I'd answer the question, but related to it, I just read this quote from Thoreau a few days ago that may encourage others as they dream about how to best "make a living" for the rest of life: "It is remarkable that there is little or nothing to be remembered written on the subject of getting a living: how to make getting a living not merely honest and honorable, but altogether inviting and glorious; for if getting a living is not so, then living is not. " - from "Life Without Principle" (my italics) Wishing all of us work that will be honest, honorable, inviting, and glorious.

@popmom, I'm crying for your family's loss of sweet Trooper.

Jack and Jill by Louisa May Alcott Mrs. Minot, the wise mother of the book, announces to her two sons and the neighbor girl why they won't be returning to the village school that fall: "For the next two or three years I intend to cultivate my boys' bodies, and let their minds rest a good deal, from books at least. There is plenty to learn outside of school-houses, and I don't mean to shut you up just when you most need all the air and exercise you can get. Good health, good principles, and a good education are the three blessings I ask for you, and I am going to make sure of the first, as a firm foundation for the other two...There are to be some lessons, however, for busy minds must be fed, but not crammed; so you boys will go and recite at certain hours such things as seem most important. But there is to be no studying at night, no shutting up all the best hours of the day, no hurry and fret of getting on fast, or skimming over the surface of many studies without learning any thoroughly." I first read this book when I was in eighth grade, maybe 1982 or '83, long before "homeschooling" was a term anyone had ever heard of, but it was the first time that my mind was awakened to the idea that education could be very different from what I was experiencing in public school. Education could be meaningful, and could enhance life, rather than take away from it. I never forgot it. But, sadly, though I tried my hardest to give my kids this kind of education, they think I've been keeping them away from the daily kid party that they think public school is. I've given up. Both my kids will be in public school this fall.

I still love Pimpernel! And of course, if you read the book, you also have to see the movie with Jane Seymour. I even have several of the sequels.

@CalizzyThis may be a little too close to the "prairie" genre, but maybe not. Your daughter can decide. Christy by Catherine Marshall, is an old novel (written 1967, but the setting is 1912) of a young woman who goes to a rural town in Appalachia to teach. There's a little romance, and quite a lot of coming-of-age. The novel is "Christian", but it was written long before the contemporary heavy-handed Christian romance genre. I loved it as a teenager. In fact, I think I need to read it again!

Seconding Call It Courage - one of my son's favorite books!

@Vintage81, just want to second what Lori said. I'll never pass up an opportunity to recommend my favorite poetry resource: The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry (yes, that guy). (British spelling - if you're a stickler like me and want to scream about the second "L" in "travelled") The examples are very clear, and very, very funny. (Caveat: some of the humor is definitely for adults only. That's not my style, but I still laughed a lot.) Just my two cents: The main thing is, poetry is meant to be loved and enjoyed. I'd rather see a kid learn to love poetry so much that it gets memorized out of sheer delight, than be a teacher worrying about getting more output. Main thing: Have fun!

I know that I can just google this, but hopefully some of you may be able to direct me to the really worthwhile resources. Do any of you have a spine that would cover Romanticism in music, literature, and visual arts all together? That would be ideal, though I’d be happy to use something that treated the arts separately, if need be. I have lots of ideas for supplemental materials in my head, but I’d love to hear your suggestions for extras, as well. I’m definitely looking for something more specific than just an “intro to music history”, etc., class/text. College-level would be okay. (This is just preliminary research of my own for a possible future class to teach.) Any leads? Many thanks!

Since your kids want to know I can't highly enough recommend the "farm videos" (all BBC productions set in Britain, but this American family loved them!): Tales from Green Valley (Stuart era) Tudor Monastery Farm (episode 2, on - I can’t seem to find episode 1 on YouTube A Tudor Feast (Christmas) Victorian Farm Edwardian Farm Wartime Farm Wartime Farm Christmas Full Steam Ahead (development of the railroad) We loved these videos like crazy! I think you could make at least a whole semester of watching them one every couple of days.

Praying for you, your kids, your husband, and the families of the victims. @Mrs Tiggywinkle Again, just a little ray of hope: From what you've shared about your daughter in this thread and in the past, she is going to grow up to be one wise, wonderful woman. May we all learn from her good heart and quick mind!

Oh, one more: Please-please-please-please-please, if you are reading this post, listen to this song: Perhaps Love, by John Denver and Placido Domingo I've forgotten how beautiful this is. When it first came out and was playing on the radio all the time, I thought that the Denver/Domingo duet was weird, but the song is gorgeous. Wow!

@Kassia and @dirty ethel rackham, hugs to you both. I wish the three of us could all get together for support. Here is my April reading. Without meaning to, the theme became "fairy tales, myths, and legends": The Winter's Tale - this immediately rose to the top of my favorites of Shakespeare's plays! Undine, by Friedrich de la Motte, Baron Fouqué. Because after all these decades, I finally decided that I needed to find out what Jo March was looking forward to so much on Christmas morning! That book led to... "The Fantastic Imagination" (essay) by George Macdonald, because he thought Undine was the most beautiful fairy tale. So the George Macdonald essay led to... Phantastes by George Macdonald. Actually a second read, but the first was still not too long ago. It was much easier the second time. Because Phantastes references Arthurian legend so much, that led to a refresher from... King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green. I've read other Arthurian legend before, but not this one. Lots of fun!

Brava! I bet you were great! I'd forgotten about it for years, too, then if came back to me a few weeks ago. Enjoy! It means so much more to me, now, too. Glad it was mood-boosting for you, too! And thank you for posting the uke setting of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" - love it! @Tiberia, @wisdomandtreasures, and @marbel, thank you for adding your own favorites! I should let you all know that I'm really a classical music lover at heart, but I've just been on a nostalgia kick lately. Sometimes, you just need the musical equivalent of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Day is Done: ...Come, read to me some poem, Some simple and heartfelt lay, That shall soothe this restless feeling, And banish the thoughts of day. Not from the grand old masters, Not from the bards sublime, Whose distant footsteps echo Through the corridors of Time. For, like strains of martial music, Their mighty thoughts suggest Life's endless toil and endeavor; And to-night I long for rest. Read from some humbler poet, Whose songs gushed from his heart, As showers from the clouds of summer, Or tears from the eyelids start; Who, through long days of labor, And nights devoid of ease, Still heard in his soul the music Of wonderful melodies. Such songs have power to quiet The restless pulse of care, And come like the benediction That follows after prayer... I love all the great masters, but sometimes, Kermit and dear old Bob touch my heart better...

With world news, national news, local news, and personal news getting me down, I've needed something to lighten my heart, and thought I'd share these songs with all of you, in the hopes that they will cheer up someone else who needs a lighter heart, too. Music Box Dancer Sing, Sing a Song The Tree Song Today, While the Blossoms Still Cling to the Vine It's Not Easy Being Green What a Wonderful World. (surely one of the most heart-lifting songs ever written) (This one is just corny, but it always makes me laugh:). Would You Like to Swing on a Star Please feel free to add your favorites to this list. Wishing all of us hope.

Oh so many... Power Unseen: How Microbes Rule the World How I Killed Pluto: And Why It Had It Coming Death by Black Hole: and Other Cosmic Quandaries (anything by Neil deGrasse Tyson!) The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History (I'll probably add more to this list as I think of them.) Plus, a classic that still gets my very highest recommendation: Silent Spring (or any other of Rachel Carson's books) Tell your daughter to have fun, from this mom who was once a twelve-year-old science-loving girl, too!

Does this thread make you think that Anne Shirley could have avoided so much angst about not being able to wear pink, if only she'd gotten her colors done and found out that she was a lovely Autumn? Just so you all know, I love the season color analysis, and still (still!) have my original Color Me Beautiful book from the '80s. I'm very happy to be an Autumn myself.

You're right, of course! And I intend to, but that's another thread. Thank you for the encouragement!

I wish I lived the kind of life where I could say something like this. 🙂