Some Good Reads

Came across a few articles lately that are very good reads... and since I'm not sharing stuff on my Facebook page, I thought I would link them here.

In Praise of Catholic Homesteading
I so want to do this.
"God speaks through things He has made, and it seems that the more we are surrounded by things we have made the harder it is to hear Him."

Quality Education is not Rocket Science
This speaks to why memorization of information is not a bad thing for young children - that it is a natural ability of theirs.  We employ this in our homeschooling by memorizing prayers, beautiful poetry, nursery rhymes, Bible passages, Shakespeare passages, hymns, and math facts/skip counting patterns.  It is not drill-and-kill, it is simply done as part of our natural rhythm each day.
"One of my favorite professors in graduate school grew up on his grandfather’s farm in Saskatchewan, back in the days when a wheat farmer would spend long hours behind the plow.  He told us that his grandfather’s neighbor spent those hazy hours sometimes reciting Milton’s Paradise Lost.  He had gotten it by heart.  Notice what great difference there is between the phrases “learning by rote” and “getting something by heart”?  You cannot do such a thing without considerable intelligence and love."

Legacy of Motherhood
I love this one because it starts with my favorite Chesterton quote of all time: "“How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe?  How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No. A woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.” A short read, check it out!

The Work of a Child
And finally, this one on letting children learn at their own pace - that providing them with large quantities of great literature is enough.
"One thing I knew and often reflected on is this: The salvation of his soul did not depend on his reading ability."

Enjoy!