Recent Findings

In this post Anne gives a great review of Beowulf, "the oldest Epic in the English Languages", that makes me almost want to read it. I've read much about it before but nothing has tempted me to it like this review. Anne quotes Doug Phillip as describing it as "one of the ten most important works of Christian literature in history." This got me wondering what the other 9 are but I couldn't find a list. If anyone can point me to one I sure would appreciate it.

A couple of things at Lifestyle Homeschool caught my eye this week. Here is a great article on Reading Journals. I have tried many times over the years to get my kids to keep reading journals, and even to keep one myself. We would succeed for a while but then it would fall by the wayside. I wish it was something I had been more diligent about. In "Tweaking Homechool Methods for Highschool Students" and "Scope and Sequence The Discipleship Way" she shares how she gradually moves her children into taking more responsibilities for their learning. I loved these two quotes from these pages:

"If we don’t have a heart to heart relationship with our children by this stage this needs to be our priority - no school work comes close to the importance of our relationship with our children and their inner heart."
"By the time the children are getting towards their teens the discipline that previously was seen as “boundaries” set and monitored by the parents begins to become the young adults responsibility. Setting goals, monitoring progress, asking for help etc becomes their responsibility (and depends on their self discipline)"