On my journey to where I am now, I have run into some wonderful “counsel” along the way. One of the delightful moments was finding the readings of Charlotte Mason. She was born in the 1800’s and preached a completely unconventional gospel concerning homeschool. It is still unconventional, but this good news that she preached gave me wings in schooling my children.
Anyway, the search is on for “living books”** for my children. We LOVE the library and go every 2 or 3 weeks, if you did not know, the San Antonio Public Library has a wonderful online system through which you may hold up to 20 books at the library of your choice. They email you when the books are there and then you just can drop by at your convenience. Very nice! Especially if you have a quality book list for your children. No need to spend hours looking, just place the books on hold over the internet and then drop by when convenient. I find my children are naturally attracted to “junk food” books. Are yours? Did you know these exist? Just like junk food for your body there are junk food books for your soul. Keep an eye out for them. They sometimes are not necessarily “bad”, they just are not “living”. If left to our own devices, we will pick donuts over apples any day. But an apple a day, keeps the foolishness away. (Did you get that?) Sometimes as a parent, we have to PICK the apples. This takes a little more effort and proofing the books themselves...before handing them to our children. Or you can just get Honey for a Child’s Heart or one of those wonderful book lists from your school or Amazon and it will pick the books for you.
On top of the library, I would like to buy books. But let’s be real. I want the hardbound $20 edition of any book out there, (if available) at the rock bottom price. And, I will not spend my time on garage sales...too many kids and other responsibilities for that. So, the other day, I found the Book Cellar. This is a used book store located in the bottom of the Central Library downtown. It is only open from 11AM to 3PM Monday through Saturday. They have ALL kinds of books, but especially wonderful is the juvenile biography section and large children’s room. As well, I found a Classical Composers Mozart CD with his history and paintings of him inside of the cover. I have only been once, but i got 24 books for $30. Well, let’s tell the truth now. I got 25 books for $40. But the last book was for me, a HUGE picture/coffee table book on Israel. This was my most expensive item at $10. It was probably the most expensive book in the whole store. Books range in price from .25 cents to $1...my Mozart CD was $2...but a wonderful gift from God. I have been searching out some classical music to play while we have school and this is an especially good CD.
Yes, ladies, that time slot is a pain in the royal rear, (I think it’s open late on Thursdays (find out more: http://www.sanantonio.gov/Library/?res=1680&ver=true) but, Proverbs 31 says that the wise woman: 14 She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
and as far as I am concerned, good books are “food” for the soul and worth an extra trip when necessary.
**living books was a term coined by Charlotte Mason. “If we want the mind of a child to come alive, we feed him living ideas. Ideas reside in living books, which I Think has something to do with the intermingling of story, fact, and the author’s opinion or viewpoint...It was evident to her (Charlotte), over one hundred years ago, that children have a natural aptitude for literature, and she firmly believed that this should determine the kind of instruction we give them. Books of literary character, ...contain thoughts that are “fresh and finely expressed” written by those who love their subjects. In other words, an author takes much care in choosing his words so that he conveys the precise message he wishes his readers to receive. (A Charlotte Mason Companion; Personal Reflections on The Gentle Art of Learning, pp.95-97, Karen Andreola)
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