Why on Earth Would You Want Your Child to Read?

A friend of mind sent the following to me:

How do you expect kids to listen to their parents when Tarzan lives half naked, Cinderella comes home at midnight, Pinocchio lies all the time, Aladdin is the king of thieves, Batman drives at 200 mph, Sleeping Beauty is lazy, and Snow White lives with 7 guys. We shouldn't be surprised when kids misbehave, they get it from their story book.

Not only do they get that from their story books, but also a belief in magic, in aliens, that kids are smarter than adults and on and on.  So, do we discourage the reading of children's books?  Should they only read about historical events and figures?  Should the Bible be their only source of reading at all?  Of course not.

Let's start with the Bible, in my venerated and valuable opinion should be first and foremost in our children's lives.  Besides the most important fact that it teaches morals that they will never get in any children's book (especially more modern writings), the Bible is exciting!  A young shepherd boy defends his entire nation against a giant and then the boy later becomes the leader of that nation.  In a seven day period an entire planet is reshaped and repopulated with the most beautiful creations imaginable.  A man goes on a voyage and is swallowed by a giant sea creature only to be spit back out on land three days later, unharmed.  A God becomes a man in order to turn men into Gods.  Can you imagine any little boy not loving these kinds of stories?   Best of all, they are all true and all teach something valuable.


What about other historical figures and events?  Most major historical events seem to involve war.  Yes, there are many events that are of the utmost importance that don't.  The colonization of America, at least at first. But seriously, sitting here wracking my brain, I can't seem to think of any.  Even the land runs that made the settling of Oklahoma possible were marred by people who felt they needed to cheat and cross the lines early to stake their claims-Sooners.  (One good reason to be a Longhorn fan.) If I want my son to read about Benjamin Franklin, and not the one that was my junior high boyfriend, it has to be a highly sanitized version.  This goes for many of our founding fathers.  Also for the many kings and queens of the past.  So many were adulterers, murderers, and egomaniacs.  Almost makes you wonder why we would want them to learn about such things.

Now to children's stories.  Have you looked to buy a book for you child lately?  For boys you have sorcery, dragons, video game characters, and mythology.  For girls it's vampires, getting boyfriends, and fairy tales.  While I fume every time I try to buy my son a new book, I just have to be thankful that my daughter is grown and not reading the trash available to young girls.

Here are a few of the books that I have bought over the past couple of years:

The Mysterious Benedict Society- by Trenton Lee Stewart -a trilogy telling the story of 4, very intelligent children brought together by Mr. Benedict to help save society from the evil Mr. Curtain.  We've read all three and Elijah has read them several times.  He has a new book coming out soon that tells the story of Mr. benedict as a boy.

The Dangerous Book for Boys and The Field and Forest Handy Book.  The first one is a newer book with all the great things that boys used to learn to do before political correctness set in.  The other is copy righted in 1906.  It was written by the founder of the Boy Scouts of America (What would he think today of his organization?) and has lots of information about camping, kite building, pier building, how to pack a dog for use as a pack animal.  We are just getting into this one.  I got it at Bass Pro Shop.

Lots of condensed classics-Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Prince and the Pauper-many more as well.

Childhood of Famous Americans series-  Just as the name implies, it tells about famous Americans as children.  Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson are two we've read.  Also, since these are about these figures as children, you don't have to explain to them that Babe Ruth as an adult was a gluttonous drunk and womanizer.

Finally we have bought several biographies from a home school book seller.  We have everyone from Alan Shepard and Ronald Reagan, to Laura Ingalls Wilder and Christopher Columbus.  There are geared towards children, so those who do need some sanitizing get it without loosing the most important facts.  This series is called Heroes of History.

Finally, finally.  He also reads a set called the Bible Stories.  They are not a dumbed down version of the Bible.  You as a parent could learn a lot from them.

So, there's my rant and my input.  I hope you find some of these books and enjoy them as my as we have.

“There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all.” - Jacqueline Kennedy

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read.” - Mark Twain

“The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.” - Abraham Lincoln

Summer Camping 2-Sipapu

Looks a little different in January
His snowboard jump
Thumper
Lift area
Up stream from the ski area
MMM
Back at the cabin-okay so this part of the trip is not technically camping
the stream that runs through the ski area

Summer Camping-Colorado

Getting there
Lake Fork Trail Head
On the Move
Rock Lake
Wild Strawberries
Rock Lake

Filtering water
Bed-Much needed after the first day!
Nothing burns like a fire!
Glassy water-Big Lake
Beaver dam beginnings
 Cutthroat or Cutbow-we weren't sure, so we threw it back
Building his own fire pit
My first (and only) trout!
Sweet potatoes
Doesn't get any fresher, unless you go Bear Grylls style!

Still snow-capped

What a Day

Yesterday was a different day altogether.  I awoke in the morning to hear the rain falling.  My first thought was "Yes!".  The next thought was "Oh, no!"  Two big events were happening that day.  One, by the time I had rolled out of bed, had started.  The Memorial Marathon in OKC.  Now, I didn't worry for myself, (it seems I may never make it to another one) but for the thousands of runners, 6 in particular.  I could hear occasional thunder and just hoped that it was closer to our house than it was to them.  The second was a wedding that was to take place that evening.  An outdoor wedding no less.  There was still plenty of time for it to dry out before the ceremony, but it was supposed to stay cool.  Downright cold for May 1st.  I'm not sure how either turned out, but I made sure to pray for all of them.

Later that morning we headed to downtown OKC for the first of the second round games of the NBA playoffs.  (It was still raining and there was still lightning and the marathon was still on.  We passed several runners who were finished already.  Cold, wet, yet mostly smiling.  These were surely ones who had participated in the 5k walk or the first leg of the relay, but they had participated and remembered why this marathon is run.)  Anyway, as we were walking to the arena in our emergency ponchos, I just had to think about my friends running and hoped they were still at it.  Unlike teh three previous home games, it was dead outside of the arena.  There had been only a very smallblock party planned because  it lies on teh marathon route.  Since it was raining, even that was cancelled.  It just seemed to kill some of teh normal spark, the game stunk by-the-way.  I think players from a parallel universe showed up for the Thunder.  Oh well, there are 6 more chances to win 4 games.

We missed baseball practice and the wedding since we got home too late to prepare for either one.  We don't generally make it to a lot of weddings.  Knowing what they symbolize we ought to try harder, they just aren't our thing.  Isn't that so lame?  I think from here on out I will resolve to go to more.

Finally the evening ended with some long overdue news.  Bin Laden was dead!  I hope that people don't think that this is over with by any means.  There are still thousands of those men out there who want to see us dead just as much or more than he did.  It's jsut nice to see that our government stuck with it and saw it through.

A Little Touch of Color

Purple pansies are some of my favorites

Medieval Fair

Friday, we took a few hours to head to Norman for the annual Medieval Fair. No small feat since this is one of our busiest times of the year. For years I have wanted to go to it, but usually didn't know when it was being held until it was too late. (This year I have marked on the calendar many of the events I want to make it to, but never seem to remember. Hopefully that will help.) We had a great time with our friends. The boys really love knights and all that goes along with them. I got a little adult conversation in the deal as. There were many vendors selling wooden swords and shields. Some booths were informational, like the one about vikings. You could purchase all sorts of period clothing, and some not so period. Think Keira Knightley as Guinevere. There were a lot of things to see and do and we didn't see or do half of it. I guess that means we'll have to go back next year!

http://medievalfair.org/

Just Some Miscellaneous Stuff

First of all, I managed to spell "miscellaneous" right the first time.  Considering how often it is abbreviated and that I've had a rum and coke, that's pretty nice!  (I think I will leave the rest of my misspellings and typos in this just so I don't get too cocky, and you ca nsee how much i de[end on spellchecck, it's rather sad.  Wow even just in that last sentence!)

last week on my yahho home page there was an article about the greatest inventions ever.  There was one glaring omission.  The self-cleaning oven.  If you have ever had to clean an oven the old-fashioned way, you will understand why.  Now, while the smell will run you out of the house, it is well worth it!

So clean! And no woek!!

So how many of you have children who seem to end up with more food on their clothes than in their mouths?  Okay, those who are under three years-old don't count.  it seams no matter how hard we try to get Elijah to take smaller bites, lean over the plate, poke with the fork instead of scooping, he gets someting on him every meal.  Well, tonight I tried a new tactic.  To set teh stage, he had some fresh strawberries and scrambled eggs for dinner, he even cooked his own eggs.  jeff and i weren't hungry, so we left him to himself (first mistake, I know) at the kitchen bar.  A few miutes later he came to the office with his hand over his chest like he had been shot.  Then we say the strawberry red all over his white, t-shirt.  This was purposely done so that he looked wounded.  I had to turn away and laugh because it was rather creative of him, then we had to get onto him for it.  That;s when I decided it was time for him to learn how to remove stains from his own laundry.  We filled up teh sink, got some detergent and he got to scrubbing.  At first it was neat because teh stains turned purple when we put the detergent on them, but then we (he) had to sscrub.  A little less fun.  That is his new chore.  EWe'll see how it goes.

We also clipped teh chicken's wings this morning.  We usually do thattwice a year.  It is just usually much warmer.  We do this to keep them out of teh garden once we close all the gates.  They will fly over the fence if we don't and scratch up every plant in the garden.  This doesn't hurt them.  It would be like clipping your fingernails.It was cold and early.  How cold?  Well, i put on the Carhardt and teh ear warmers.  How early?  I still hadn't had a shower.  You may want to avert your eyes.

On a mission

Clueless

She's fine, other than she can't fly now.  Not that chickens do much of that anyway.

Wow, looking back at this post, I really do make a lot of typos.  And there were quite a few that i corrected out of ahbit as i went along.  And i apparently don't hold teh shift key down long enough when I type "I".  As you can see.  I won't subject you to that again!