Books You'll Use with Yor Grandkids

[Hunter]

If your kids want you to help homeschool your grandkids, which books that you are now using, do you think will still be worth using? What about the great-grandkids? And the great-great?

 

Are you choosing a single-generation or multi-generational focus? Do you expect your kids to homeschool or even have time/interest to have kids at all with the education/careers that you are preparing them for?

 

Do you think there is value in a family educating with the same books generation after generation? The smaller and strictest Amish communities believe it to be of particular value to maintain as many books as possible generation to generation as they believe it strengthens community and increases teacher productivity. Can the same be said for homeschooling families?

 

In 100 years, do you think the newest or the oldest books you are using will be the most useful?

[kalusignan]

Interesting question. Short answer: I don't know.

 

I have fond memories of my mother reading The Pokey Little Puppy, Mr. Popper's Penguins, and The Chronicles of Narnia (among others) to me and my siblings as a child. Those were some of the first books I insisted on reading aloud to my dc. I guess in that sense it was a memory/experience I wanted to pass down to my children.

 

I don't have expectations for my children to homeschool, and if they do, I would love to be involved, but I don't think I could put expectations on them about what books to use. I really enjoy picking the books (and curriculum) I use with my children, and I wouldn't want to take that away from them.

 

I can see in theory how using the same books would increase productivity for the teacher, since they would be familiar with the content and method from their time as the student.

[EKT]

I have no expectations about my daughters' future choices. (That is, I in no way expect them even to have children, let alone homeschool them. Raising and homeschooling kids is something I love, but my daughters may make different life choices, an act I would, of course, fully support.) I know what you mean, though, and I would love for them to homeschool future kids (since it's been such a great experience for us thus far). I'm actually quite optimistic that my daughters' generation will be able to both work in a career and homeschool as modern models of work, family, and education continue to evolve. I want them to have the power to shape their own lives. 

 

When I did my annual January muck-out/"spring" cleaning of the house, I was tempted to hold onto curriculum we've outgrown for this very reason. (Math U See Primer, etc.) But, I told myself that chances are very good that my girls will have their own ideas about homeschooling and would want to make those choices for their own kids. (Plus, I'm sure there will be endless curriculum choices available to them by that point!) What I WILL hang onto, though, is literature. A great novel is a great novel and I have grand visions of my future grandkids coming to my house and having free rein of grandma and grandpa's awesome home library. :-) So, no, I will not hang onto curriculum, but I will hang on to outstanding picture books, novels, and non-fiction. 

[HomeAgain]

I have set resources aside for my own children to use with theirs or to play with at Grandma's house. :)

 

100 EZ Lessons

Bambino Luk

a movable alphabet

SOTW

You Wouldn't Want To Be...

Lakeshore kits

A diagramming sentences book that is beautiful

LOF

Anno books

a spindle box, c-rods, and MUS blocks

Montessori early learning toys

various writing tools (stencils, d'nealian books, slates..)

 

I don't care if any of it *does* get used again.  These are all things my children loved using, and so I'll keep them so they can introduce them to their kids if they want to, or to have in the play room at our house. :)

[Free Indeed]

I have saved tons of literature, but the only curriculum I have saved is:

Five in a Row

Reading Made Easy

Life of Fred

SOTW

If they choose not to use it that's fine too. But we have memories with these, and they may choose to share it for that reason alone.

[Tanaqui]

We don't have materials for elementary school because we're only homeschooling due to the local middle school being, in a word, atrocious. I really hope that when they're grown, the kids live somewhere where they have a viable public school option for each stage of schooling rather than having to homeschool by default. (But I also hope they live in the neighborhood, so I guess what I really want is for all schools everywhere to be great?) If they do decide to homeschool, I want it to be a choice rather than a necessity, you know?

 

Do you think there is value in a family educating with the same books generation after generation?

 

Not really. Many of the books I loved as a child, despite being "classics", I now both find problematically racist and somewhat inferior to quality children's books written today. I wouldn't dream of subjecting a modern child to outdated science and geography books, as I frequently was in school due to lack of money for new textbooks. As language changes, I hope that modern foreign language curriculum includes terms and grammatical constructions that have been common since I learned the language. That leaves... what, history and strict instruction in reading and spelling? Our historical perspectives change as well, so even that is something I wouldn't necessarily say should be taught with older materials just because they're traditional.

 

If the materials are good, then there's value in using them. But if they're just okay, then it doesn't matter which you pick each generation, you know?

[lllll]

nm

Edited January 31, 2016 by - 8 95

[Raifta]

So far I have not saved any curriculum, even the ones that I have enjoyed and both kids have enjoyed (SOTW, LoF come to mind).   I figure that if I can resell for $ that's probably worth more than saving them for the slim possibility that one of my kids might want to use them in the future.

 

I keep books - some board books, more picture books, lots of chapter books.  And games.  We still have fairly easy games in the house so that 1.  if we have younger guests we can play these games with them and 2.  I can play them with potential (way way in the future) grandchildren.

[Arcadia]

I would keep Aesop Fables and A Children Garden of Verses even though it would be easy to get from the library or Gutenberg.

 

I won't keep curriculum but I would keep musical instruments that are still in good condition.

 

I wish my dad had managed to keep the chinese classics that were in comic form but cockroaches have ate through them.

Edited January 25, 2016 by Arcadia

[My3girls]

Literature yes, but curriculum no. 

[Hobbes]

Speaking from the other side of the equation, I've appreciated a lot of the curriculum my mother saved from homeschooling us and passed along to me. I'm using/plan to use the reading curriculum and readers she gave me, some geography materials, art curriculum, piano books, spelling (maybe), and a lot of literature. She didn't save heaps, just things she found particularly worthwhile and I'm glad that she did!

 

So I'd say it's a valuable thing to do if you have space, have curricula you feel are especially useful, and won't be offended if your kids choose not to use it. My parents don't assume that their kids will homeschool, but they certainly are an excellent support now that we do! They are also a positive support to my brother's family who is using public school, so it's a good dynamic as they are supporters of their grandchildren's education in general.

 

From a continuity standpoint, I don't know how necessary it is that kids and parents keep using the same curricula, but it sure is fun when I remember the reader stories from my childhood. :) And sharing the literature I read and remember is so nice. For me, it matters that the worldview of our studies are consistent, but not necessarily the specific curricula.

[wintermom]

I'm keeping all my Sonlight literature, as well as other classics, for my grandkids (whether they get homeschooled or not). I'm guessing that the books with wonderful illustrations will definitely be useful. I'm not sure what direction technology will take in terms of older chapter books, though.  

[regentrude]

I see no inherent value in a family using the same books for generations.

 

Great works of literature that survived the centuries and have stood the test of time will retain their educational value. As will great math books. Maybe - but that is with question mark - introductory physics texts and some foreign language grammar materials. Anything that is affected by scientific progress or touched by social trends will not be suitable.

 

I see how dramatically society changes. My grandmother met the last German emperor. My parents were born in Nazi Germany. They went to school in a communist society. When Stalin died, my dad was made to stand and say why it would have been better he had died instead. I lived through heavy socialist indoctrination which was reflected in all texts. The wall fell when I was a college student. My children grew up in the United States of the early 21st century.

Very few books from their grandparents' schooling would have been suitable.

 

(ETA: lest anybody think "well, that was over there in Europe": in the US, women have been allowed to vote for less than 100 years. Civil rights movement, feminism, cold war - all this will have been reflected in books. Racism, misogyny, homophobia...  I hope that when my grandkids are born and ready to be educated, we made some progress in those areas that will be reflected in the books they have to read.)

 

Materials reflect the times in which they are created. History weeds out those that do not have relevance beyond their period.Those that touch on the fundamentals of the human condition, beyond specific societal constraints, survive. Much of literature becomes only suitable as a history lesson, but not beyond that.

Many of the books that deeply spoke to me as a teen are incomprehensible to my own children, because their circumstances are different, and the problems we wrestled with in my adolescence are so remote from their problems. (And by incomprehensible I mean that, of course, they can read and understand the words, but without the cultural background, they cannot understand the deeper meaning behind the stories.) Those books deserve a place in libraries to be studied by scholars and students of history; they do not have a place in my grandchildren's rooms.

 

I shall keep Art of Problem Solving, and my library of classics. Not because I think I will homeschool my grandkids, but because the AoPS books are works of sheer beauty and elegance.

Edited January 25, 2016 by regentrude

[zarabellesmom]

I'm collecting the illustrated Harry Potter books for my grandchildren (I hope I have grandchildren, but that's not really up to me). I know that's not a curriculum, but that's the only kind of thing I would keep. I wouldn't like anyone picking homeschool materials for me and I wouldn't want to children to feel that they either had to homeschool or if they did homeschool that they should use my materials. Picking curriculum is a big part of the fun!

 

Ok, I will keep the Beast Academy Guide Books. I guess that kind of counts.

[Hunter]

Homeschooling is shifting so greatly. If I asked this question to the homeschoolers of the 80's and 90's I would have gotten such a different response.

 

People that have even a single book they have held dear for generations tend to naturally extend that to other books. Even people that have held onto a piece of land for generations even if they are not booklovers, seem to have a multi-generation focus to the schooling they do even if it is little schooling. I'm thinking KJV-only families and homesteaders as stereotype examples.

[regentrude]

Just realized I did not answer the other part of your question:

 

Do you expect your kids to homeschool or even have time/interest to have kids at all with the education/careers that you are preparing them for?

 

No, I do not expect my children to homeschool their children - if they have any. I hope they will have access to quality schools so that they have an actual choice whether they wish to homeschool or not.

I am not homeschooling because I am ideologically invested in the idea. I am homeschooling because the available schools did not meet my highly gifted kids' academic needs and at some point I had no other choice.

 

I do not know whether they will have children. DS wants to, DD currently does not. I did not, either, when I was 18. The right time for me to want children was not until my late twenties.

I do not see that education and career has to mean no time or interest in children. I am quite happy having a high level of education, a career, and my children. One can have both. All women in my extended family did and do.

I think the single most important ingredient in the decision will be whether they find a partner with whom they can imagine raising a family. I very much wish them that they do - whether they end up having kids or not.

 

Edited January 25, 2016 by regentrude

[FO4UR]

Interesting question.

 

A side answer to a question you didn't ask, but I think it's applicable to what you are digging for...I want to make a list of books to send off with my kids when they leave the house. I want to pass on some of life's lessons, some ideas about humanity and character, that cannot be understood until adulthood. My idea is similar to a Hope Chest, but it's going to be full of books.  

 

To answer your actual question, yes, I have a list of books that I will keep forever.  I may gift a new set someday to grandkids if I ever have any.  My list will be mostly literature as well.  I will keep back a copy of Miquon, my set of Happy Phonics, my CM 6 book series, grades 4-6 of the CWP...???

 

 

 

[Hunter]

Some of the smaller Amish groups use McGuffey's Readers for grades 1-6 and then Pathway Readers for grades 7 and 8. Even though Pathways is about Amish children, they feel that children using the same books as their grandmothers is more community building than reading books about other Amish children. But in grades 7 and 8, children are beginning to interact more with modern CUSTOMERS and it is felt that books that include modern children helps in these modern financial enterprises. It interested me to see these groups break up the series and why.

[Hunter]

I do think literature stays relevent longer than textbooks. I don't think autobiography ever becomes irrelevant as history.

 

I do think some math books are classics even if the applied math gets outdated, especially if the text focuses more on non-applied math. Even though Ray's is older than Strayer-Upton, I think in another 100 years Ray's will still be of value, not to the extent of Euclid, but it does an amazing job of explaining the base ten Hindu-Arabic number system.

 

Akin to the hope-chest of books, do some of us prepare our children for a life time of books beyond being academically ready for college classes?

 

I've seen people here struggle through a couple years of Latin, hoping they have broken their child into a multi-generational ability to reclaim Latin study, the same way some immigrant families just try to get their kids living in the USA no matter how badly they live.

 

I'm on a cell phone that is malfunctioning badly. I am forced to post in spurts with little editting. Sorry.

[regentrude]

, do some of us prepare our children for a life time of books beyond being academically ready for college classes?

 

Of course - isn't that what we try to do when we attempt to instill a love of reading from infancy?

I have not read countless hours aloud to my kids and bought them shelves full of books to get them "ready for college" - but to share the joy in stories, books, reading, because that is part of my life. And I hope that having grown up in a house full of books, they will be prepared to embark on a  book filled life. Seeing my 16 y/o spend his money on books and read in his spare time makes me think I have succeeded (and about DD who inhales books and reads literary criticism on vacation I never had any doubts)

Edited January 25, 2016 by regentrude

[Hunter]

Homeschooling methods that use classic books--do they ever get outdated? Using progym exercises with Aesop's Fables has been enthusiastically resurrected after almost 100 years of being banished from the accepted educational practice.

 

Webster's Speller was never gone, but lost ground to sight words, to be resurrected again with the old schoolers, to lose ground to O-G and maybe what appears to be the start of a bit of backlash to O-G and a return to more syllable style phonics again. I'm sure some families never stopped using it. Some of the strictest Amish didn't, but most converted to what 4blessingmom uses in the 1930's and still use it today.

Edited January 25, 2016 by Hunter

[Hunter]

Of course - isn't that what we try to do when we attempt to instill a love of reading from infancy?

I have not read countless hours aloud to my kids and bought them shelves full of books to get them "ready for college" - but to share the joy in stories, books, reading, because that is part of my life. And I hope that having grown up in a house full of books, they will be prepared to embark on a book filled life. Seeing my 16 y/o spend his money on books and read in his spare time makes me think I have succeeded (and about DD who inhales books and reads literary criticism on vacation I never had any doubts)

Is there ANY multigenerational focus there, or does it 100% end with your child's benefit from the books?

[EKT]

I have set resources aside for my own children to use with theirs or to play with at Grandma's house. :)

 

A diagramming sentences book that is beautiful

 

 

Sorry to hijack this post, but I'd love to know what book this is! Thanks! :-)

[regentrude]

Is there ANY multigenerational focus there, or does it 100% end with your child's benefit from the books?

 

I am pretty certain that a young person who loves books will pass on the love to the next generation. Just as I credit my parents for fostering an environment in which I could develop a love of reading (growing up in a house where walls are filled floor to ceiling with thousands of books and given free reign of this library tends to do that).

 

But I did not do anything for my kids with the thought that this would benefit any grandchild I might later have.

First and foremost, I did what came natural to me: share the things I love in this world with my kids. That's why we read, that's why we hike and rock climb, that's why we go to museums and concerts: because I want them to experience the wonderful things in the world that enrich my soul. I did not do these for utilitarian reasons because it is "good for them", and I most certainly did not do it with grandchildren in mind. I did it because it brings me joy.

 

Edited January 26, 2016 by regentrude

[Hunter]

Sorry to hijack this post, but I'd love to know what book this is! Thanks! :-)

Me, too! I missed that when scrolling on a tiny phone screen. That is not a hijack! Which books are classic? Why?

 

Strayer-Upton is cheap, and oh SO handy for students living out of backpacks and on the move, but I don't see it as classic, like I do Ray's. Handy and useable, but not classic.

[Rush]

I think everything will be outdated, except literature of course :)

but my kids are very young, 7 & 5

If your kids want you to help homeschool your grandkids, which books that you are now using, do you think will still be worth using? What about the great-grandkids? And the great-great?

Are you choosing a single-generation or multi-generational focus? Do you expect your kids to homeschool or even have time/interest to have kids at all with the education/careers that you are preparing them for?

Do you think there is value in a family educating with the same books generation after generation? The smaller and strictest Amish communities believe it to be of particular value to maintain as many books as possible generation to generation as they believe it strengthens community and increases teacher productivity. Can the same be said for homeschooling families?

In 100 years, do you think the newest or the oldest books you are using will be the most useful?

 

[FO4UR]

Akin to the hope-chest of books, do some of us prepare our children for a life time of books beyond being academically ready for college classes?

 

I've seen people here struggle through a couple years of Latin, hoping they have broken their child into a multi-generational ability to reclaim Latin study, the same way some immigrant families just try to get their kids living in the USA no matter how badly they live.

 

 

 

Yes, I am preparing them for a life of reading as a means to comprehending and understanding life, and writing as a means of communicating their own ideas.  They may never attend college.  I hope that they do, but if they left my house today (the big three) they would have a better education (in the most important ways) than I did at 18yo.  

 

I went to an excellent high school and was well-prepared for college.  I was not prepared for life. I was blind and ignorant to many things more important than calculus and research papers.

 

Latin?  I took Latin in high school.  My kids are not climbing Parnassus.  (Maybe I should wait to speak for my youngest.  She's smart as a whip, and I've learned a few things on her big siblings.)  But, I do want to pass on at least as much as I had so that my grandkids have the option.  Actually, we live quite close to some wonderful teachers of Greek & Hebrew...maybe it's not too terribly late for my big three???  (eternally hopeful.  Ha!)  I want to keep the connection even if I cannot manage the actual climb, but we won't be giving up our literature or hand-work in favor of Latin.  In fact, this year Latin is optional.  Only my dd10 is choosing to do Latin.  She is largely memorizing vocabulary.

 

Perfection is the enemy of the good, right?  I am not capable of perfect x4.  We can build on Good.  We have many years left to build.

[LivingHope]

Strayer-Upton is cheap, and oh SO handy for students living out of backpacks and on the move, but I don't see it as classic, like I do Ray's. Handy and useable, but not classic.

Strayer-Upton Practical Arithmetics books 1 & 2 (and 1/2 of Foerster's Algebra) were my teens' math books before getting into Art of Problem Solving online classes. Those little books are classics to us because they did every.single.problem in those two 495 page books.

[Lilaclady]

AOPS although by the time my kids are done with them, they will all be tattered and I will have to buy new ones for the grands.

In all honesty I am not keeping books for grandkids. I bought all the books we have now- mostly used and if the grandkids need some hopefully will be able to buy them then.

[HomeAgain]

Sorry to hijack this post, but I'd love to know what book this is! Thanks! :-)

 

It is the First Whole Book of Diagrams.  It's simply laid out, with clean pages that show just examples progressing to more difficult sentences as you go through the book.  Every page in the first half is almost poetic, having you read through bits of prose or simple instruction as you see the sentences being diagrammed.  It's trimmed with small ink sketches where needed, not too much to overwhelm, but just enough to enhance the examples. :)  Others may not think it beautiful, but it is one of, if not the loveliest books on the subject I've yet to find.

[Guest]

I will continue to preserve, repair, and, if necessary, scan the books that ds24 has asked me to save for his kids. However, I will no longer mention specific titles and whether or how I use his favourites with his younger brother as I did not enjoy being ridiculed on the internet or the implication that using these titles is "educational neglect".

 

My mother will be liquidating her personal library when she moves into an apartment in a retirement community this coming year. We have a family canon of books that are part of my children's heritage.

 

 

 

[73349]

Oh, that would never have occurred to me, Hunter. What an interesting question.

 

First, I only have one DS, and so I while I do hope that I will be a nana someday, I don't feel at all certain of it. He may want to homeschool kids if he has them, but it will also depend on what his spouse thinks. I'd be happy to help if I'm around.

 

I can definitely see myself encouraging DS and DDIL to shop from my shelves if they'd like, and offering commentary, but I don't see handing them a box of books of my own accord. I'm definitely not keeping things with that intention. I pass a lot on (to my BFF who has a toddler, to the Book Samaritan, or via sale/consignment). I have really only been keeping things I might use to tutor. I can't think of any book I consider an heirloom, except our baby books and the family history my grandmother typed up.

 

I don't have any books from when my parents were kids, either.

[wintermom]

Is there ANY multigenerational focus there, or does it 100% end with your child's benefit from the books?

 

My dad's parent's house burned down, destroying any chance of multigenerational books or materials from that side of the family.  I have some piano books that my mom used in her youth. I LOVE seeing the prices! 75 cents for a music book that would cost at least $20 now. If I can preserve these books, they'd be great to pass on to my dc. Luckily, Beethoven, Grieg and Mozart are all going to be around for many more generations. She also has a song book full of old Norwegian folk songs. Definitely going to pass that one along, too!

[In2why]

Just literature and even that isn't classic heavy. I love books, but there are many classics that I don't find sacred, and there are some books I think every single child should read for a shared experience. These I have kept and always will for cuddles and read aloud time or for them to read.

[Hunter]

Mostly I don't mean the exact physical copy. I mostly mean investing in the TITLE, and repurchasing any copy, as needed, if possible.

 

But, yes, while we are at it, talking about saving and hoarding physical copies, especially OOP books.

 

I really love using some titles that I think will remain easy to reaquire after every purge and crisis that leaves me bookless. I drool over instructions on how to use Aesop's Fables, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Shakespeare, Plutarch, and the KJV Bible, as I don't imagine that I will never be able to aquire these titles.

 

Tonight I was reading some kids books on modern banking to make sure I know better what has and has not changed in banking since Strayer-Upton and Ray's.

 

Handbook of Nature Study--I think that will still be useful for a long time to come.

 

That diagramming book looks beautiful to me too.

 

Henle Latin--I cannot imagine that not working well for a long time to come.

 

Even if we don't think our future will include biological grandkids, does anyone just function multi-generational? Regentrude says she finds it natural and enjoys some things with her daughter but it stops there. Are some of us wired to naturally take it a bit farther? To feel natural and grounded pulling out HONS and Henle and Ray's not just because they still work and link us to the past, but maybe because they make us feel linked to the future as well even if it won't be these physical books and maybe not our blood, but connected somehow just the same?

 

I'm writing all over the place and being unfocused. What else is new. :lol: But I just have some stuff floating around in my head and figured why not put some of it out there for discussion.

[Hunter]

Do history textbooks feel outdated quicker when they are more didactic?

 

I'm just bringing up the term "chronological snobbery" as a google term for anyone newer to TWTM forum that hasn't heard of it.

[LivingHope]

We have nearly 100 Random House Landmark History books. I don't see these going out of style; my boys have already read them all. I guess we may still be doing this homeschooling thing when we start having grandchildren, especially since my first born is turning 18 this April when my youngest will be just ten months old. So, I'll be saving my anthology collections: My Book House, Journey Through Bookland, Tappan's The Children's Hour, Through Golden Windows, Picturesque Tales of Progress...

 

I love my Edwin Way Teale nature/seasons books as well as my two Edith Holden Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady books.

 

My favorite books that I cannot part with are a hundred year old copy of Stepping Heavenward, The Chestry Oak by Kate Seredy (1948 edition), and The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. And I will always own James Herriot's Treasury for Children, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Lord of the Rings. Robert McCloskey picture books too, of course.

 

ETA: How could I forget Ralphy Moody's Little Britches series! I'd better stop there before I start mentioning Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels, various poetry anthologies, Shakespeare, David McCullough's biographies, Churchill's History of the English Speaking People...the end.

Edited January 26, 2016 by LivingHope

[theelfqueen]

I have beautiful issues of Anne of Green Gables, Peter Pan, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, etc... They were special gifts to me and I'd love to share them with a grandchild. Also, I will be that grandmother who buys full sets of the Narnia books and lovely leatherbound issues of the Hobbit....

 

Homeschooling is irrelevant here -- my grandkids will get beloved books!

 

I'd hope if my kids homeschool their kids that I'd be able to bite my tongue and let them make the decisions they thought best... but I'm not good at biting my tongue LOL

 

Edited January 26, 2016 by theelfqueen

[Loesje22000]

So far dd wants to go to college, work, marry and get children.

She wants to homeschool her children, and sometimes she does not allow me to sell some books.

Her Dutch Reformed History curriculum is an example, she still read those textbooks for fun in bed :)

We keep a lot of literature.

I sell science textbooks a.s.a.p.

I think I'll keep our Omnibus books and our reading series (BJU & CLE)

We also kept Minimus for Latin.

I think I keep stuff you also can use for after-schooling or we have fond memories on.

 

if dd will change her mind it is fine too, but so far it is one of the stronger thoughts in her life.

[Hunter]

Do you think using certain curricula like AO or Omnibus encourage multi-generational thinking?

[EKT]

It is the First Whole Book of Diagrams.  It's simply laid out, with clean pages that show just examples progressing to more difficult sentences as you go through the book.  Every page in the first half is almost poetic, having you read through bits of prose or simple instruction as you see the sentences being diagrammed.  It's trimmed with small ink sketches where needed, not too much to overwhelm, but just enough to enhance the examples. :)  Others may not think it beautiful, but it is one of, if not the loveliest books on the subject I've yet to find.

 

Thank you so much! :-)

[Holly]

The only things I'd save would be FIAR and our educational toys/games like Geopuzzles, pattern blocks, MUS blocks, Lincoln Logs, etc.  

[wintermom]

The only things I'd save would be FIAR and our educational toys/games like Geopuzzles, pattern blocks, MUS blocks, Lincoln Logs, etc.  

 

Oh yes!! I forgot about the math "toys" that I don't want to part with. These I will definitely keep for the grandkids.  

[lllll]

nm

Edited January 31, 2016 by - 8 95

[regentrude]

Do you think using certain curricula like AO or Omnibus encourage multi-generational thinking?

 

What do you mean by "multigenerational thinking"?

[wintermom]

Mostly I don't mean the exact physical copy. I mostly mean investing in the TITLE, and repurchasing any copy, as needed, if possible.

 

But, yes, while we are at it, talking about saving and hoarding physical copies, especially OOP books.

 

I really love using some titles that I think will remain easy to reaquire after every purge and crisis that leaves me bookless. I drool over instructions on how to use Aesop's Fables, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Shakespeare, Plutarch, and the KJV Bible, as I don't imagine that I will never be able to aquire these titles.

 

Tonight I was reading some kids books on modern banking to make sure I know better what has and has not changed in banking since Strayer-Upton and Ray's.

 

Handbook of Nature Study--I think that will still be useful for a long time to come.

 

That diagramming book looks beautiful to me too.

 

Henle Latin--I cannot imagine that not working well for a long time to come.

 

Even if we don't think our future will include biological grandkids, does anyone just function multi-generational? Regentrude says she finds it natural and enjoys some things with her daughter but it stops there. Are some of us wired to naturally take it a bit farther? To feel natural and grounded pulling out HONS and Henle and Ray's not just because they still work and link us to the past, but maybe because they make us feel linked to the future as well even if it won't be these physical books and maybe not our blood, but connected somehow just the same?

 

I'm writing all over the place and being unfocused. What else is new. :lol: But I just have some stuff floating around in my head and figured why not put some of it out there for discussion.

 

I think that the exact physical copy being passed down would have more meaning, at least sentimental attachment, but also in terms of the differences in printing styles, illustrations and covers of books and materials. I'm much more attached to my own copies from my youth of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings than the new editions available today, and if I had to buy replacement copies I'd rather go to a used book seller and by something closer to what I had.

 

I did buy a new, clean copy of The Anatomy Colouring Book for use with my children, as the one I had for uni was coloured in. I'm guessing that anatomy won't be changing too much over time. ;)

[Guest]

I have thought about this. There is something to be said for having a common set of references ( I mean--things to talk about. Instantly understood metaphors.) between family members. And memories! My kids love LOVE that Gramma used to read The Lorax to Daddy just like I read it to them. That is to say, over and over and over and over :-D

 

It frustrates me that my sister never knows what I'm talking about because we haven't read the same books. We don't have the same foundational knowledge or basis for understanding the world. And the books really are THE difference.

[Hunter]

Definition. :lol: I don't know exactly.

 

My boys spent the second half of their childhood growing up as the 5th generation of their family to live in that house. Their great-great grandparents, great-grandfather, and his cousin died in that house. Their grandfather and two of his brothers were born there and they know why and know the story of the oldest sibling who was born in a hospital.

 

My boys played on the same floor that had toy wheel marks in it their grandfather laid down at the end of the Great Depression, and got in trouble for. We stored food for the winter on the same shelves that genrations before us had stored food on. My husband tilled the same ground and tended some plants and trees that had survived. And ripped up a few plants to get yelled at by his father and uncle.

 

The extension of the garage had a crack that was covered with ivy. Great grandpa was drunk when he built the extension to house the new bigger car when cars got so much bigger after WW2.

 

My boys thought more multigenerational about most things after moving into that house and leaving behind the other more affluent yuppy town and rented modern duplex apartment. That house and the people who came to visit seeped into their bones.

 

We attended conservative Christian churches and the church was a link with a long past. My youngest started studying a lot of Greek and Latin. Another powerful link, especially when reading books in those languages and even doing some of his math in Greek from Euclid and other Greek math books.

 

My boys thought differently than their peers and even their cousins. Their cousins were exposed to some of what my boys were exposed to and were fascinated rather than rejecting, for the most part. The cousins knew they were the first to be raised not full-out to sustain the family and to instead be seeking more self-full goals, that were likely to take them a distance away.

 

People are more accepting of this type of story than a newly converted Christian family that does more home ec with their girls than textbook math and science. And some people think both stories are neglectful.

 

Mult-generational can mean a LOT of things. But number one kids are even born at all. I guess that needs to be part of any definition.

[lllll]

nm

Edited January 31, 2016 by - 8 95

[Hunter]

I have never had the luxury of stability that many here enjoy. But all my life, there have been books. For me as a child, there were international moves where all the belongings were in just 1/4 of a suitcase or half a trashbag.

 

I was born in a county that battles mold, roaches and termites. Individual copies of books were not hoarded by individuals, but we bought cheap paperbacks and handed them around. The TITLES were a shared experience.

 

When I am anxious, I sometimes go to Barnes and Nobles and just walk down the aisles reading the titles, and I feel more grounded. So many copies of those titles have passed through my hands over the decades. So many memories of siblings, step-siblings, me and my friends, tutoring and Sunday-School kids, neighbor kids, and my own boys. People of the USA and people of the colony. Welfare slums, mansions, fishing shanties, house-boats, modern apartments, family homes, prep-schools, slum-schools, homeschool.

 

But some of those titles span it all. Maybe the only thing to span it all. It all comes together in Barnes and Nobles. I feel whole there.