Changing The Way We View The World

The Mayflower and The Pilgrims' New World by Nathaniel Philbrick

Education for us is all about reading. We read a lot together and on our own. During our "school time" we always have something that we are reading aloud, usually mid-morning. I read, they eat second breakfast. We have read funny fiction and we have read some serious non-fiction. We recently finished one of our serious non-fiction selections. We have been reading this since the beginning of the year, at the beginning of the year we could only read a few pages before they were begging to move on to funny fiction, but the more we talked about the book, the more we noticed that we had constructed in our minds a false account of these colonists, as well as their Native American friends and foes. Something happened about a month ago... the story clicked and they wanted to know more and more and more. I wasn't starting the discussion, they were. They were interrupting me to make observations and ask questions. I would stop reading and they would beg for more and more. It wasn't uncommon for us to read this book for an hour at a time. The kids would have their sketchpads or play-dough to keep their hands busy and we would get to work at uncovering the story.

This book is at times not the easiest read aloud, I would find myself tongue tied. Some books read aloud smoothly and others require some time and work to uncover the rhythm. But we were okay with the shaky rhythm because we were in love with the adventure and story. We realized that even though we had already discussed in history a couple of times that Europeans had already visited North America, we still believed that these Europeans arriving on the east coast speaking English was a shock to the Native Americans. But the story Philbrick presents is one in which the Native Americans see these strangers and are concerned and frightened because they believe these white men have come to take vengeance for the deaths of some white men they just killed. We meet Native Americans that peak English, just like in Charlie Brown and watch alliances created and destroyed. We learned about King Phillips War and the many mistakes made by both the colonists and the Native Americans.

After reading this I was even more convinced in the necessity of reading non-fiction aloud with my kids. Its easy to make time and read Henry Huggins, but making time to dive into a book like this takes a little bit more resolve. I'm already creating a list of non-ficiton to work our way through that coincides with history, probably too long, but..... the more to choose from, my dear.

Silverback

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

We LOVED this book. We could have read it in one sitting and then started over and read it all over again. Though we would have had to take a break and dry our eyes and blow our noses. It was one of those books that transcended age and gender and interests. It is the story of friendship and ingenuity. It is the story fighting for what we believe to be right in spite of the consequences.

I loved Ivan's voice, it didn't take long for me to feel as if I were sitting with Ivan, the gorilla, having a conversation, learning to see the world through his eyes. Its books like this that make me wonder. Its books like this that make me ask questions of myself and of my kids. Am I willing to go out on a limb for the good of a friend regardless of the consequences for me? Do I see injustice and fight or do I let somebody else take care of it? Great conversation starters. After it was over and I had choked out the last chapter, the kids asked if there was another book, they couldn't believe it was over, that this where the story would end. I believe any good book creates a hunger in us to read more, discover more, uncover more about ourselves and the rest of humanity.

At War

Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis 

by Sandra Steingraber

This book wasn't a quick read for me (which was what I thought I was getting myself into).  It took some thought, actually a lot of thought and caught me by surprise.  I'm a closet environmentalist, I have a lot of opinions, but I'm also not generally eager to share my opinions.  They are not always popular (might have something to do with my state of residence) and tend to make me look crazy.  Okay, so although on every personality test I take I want to answer...."I don't care what people think", deep down I do.  Deep down I get all tied up in knots when confrontation arises, deep down  I want people to think I'm smart, deep down I want people to think I am sane.  And at the same time, I am the kind of person that has a strong sense of values, a strong sense of wanting to fight for what I believe in.  My insides are at war.... should I tell people that I think plastics are killing our kids and may correlated to some really destructive behavior.... should I tell people that fish are dying and I think it might be our fault.  And then I read a book like this and I want to go to war... I want to fight for our planet... this ball floating in the space that God so graciously gave us and asked us to take care of.  I know all the arguments for why Christians believe that environmentalists are crazy, but when I take the time to study the information.  I still come down on the side of "lets get rid of plastics", fracking may not be the best option and vinyl floors may not be all they're cracked up to be.  Okay and I also did a little happy dance when the President addressed climate change.

Back to this book... she made me think!  I love anything that makes me think, whether I agree or disagree, just the act of making me think will make me fall in love with a book.  I learned some new things about some scary chemicals.  I realized again that we have willingly jumped into a sea of chemicals made by corporations that care more about their bottom line than my children and we have done it  without putting up a fight.  We have said, sure, I'll let you feminize my boys, feed them neurotoxins and possibly decrease their IQ.  We are country full of really intelligent people but we are also a county full of really busy people and really busy people will do anything for convenience.  They will microwave food in plastic, eat the newest food created in a lab (my newest quotable...."if it was made in a lab, it needs to be digested in a lab" - Hungry for Change), they won't think twice about throwing clothes in a dryer or what kind of chemicals they are putting on their lawn... busyness leads us down roads we would never consider walking down if we took a minute to think before we chose our paths.

Steingraber is a great blend of scientist and mother and manages to combine the two points of view.  I appreciated that she delved into the science and took the reader on a journey.  I left the book, knowing that I needed more information  that I needed to put a little more thought into the products I was buying and the choices I was making.  I knew at the end that as a spiritual being I needed to seek out wisdom, to call out for it.  I also know that as I'm waiting on God and allowing Him to guide my decisions and the changes we make in our home that He quietly whispers, "Don't let yourself become consumed with a spirit of fear, but know that I will help you take care of your kids.  I will help you make the right choices."  Maybe someday I will come out of the closet and fight or maybe the frontlines for me will always be my home and I will stick to fighting right here for my kids.