In Common is my Commonplace roundup – notable quotes from the week, and current reading list
My October reading stack is pretty hefty, with several longer term reads going on, but several titles that I have started this month and plan to finish this month as well (crazy!). I am trying hard to clear my TBR pile before 2019 – I have a few titles that have been in my TBR stack for a year or two, so I am determined!
I managed to locate my copy of The Lifegiving Parent which had gone missing over the summer, and even though I had gotten through almost half the book when it disappeared, I restarted it last week and expect to finish it up this week. I have worked through several Clarkson titles over the past two years and this one certainly doesn’t disappoint. This is a great guide for Christian parents going through the process of child rearing, discussing topics such as nurturing your child’s spirit, strengthening your child’s faith, and cultivating your child’s character.
“You cannot impress on your children’s hearts what is not already on your own.” (The Lifegiving Parent p. 52)
“We cannot really become lifegiving parents without taking seriously the call to model the life of Christ to our children.” (The Lifegiving Parent p. 54)
“It is ultimately about your showing them the abundant life of God through your own faith life and showing that you are diligent to grow in all the godly virtues that come out of your faith.” (The Lifegiving Parent p. 111)
“The more your children see the life of God in you through your faith, the stronger their faith will become.” (The Lifegiving Parent p. 117)
“Our words should be characterized by the fruit of the Spirit and be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled (see Galatians 5:22-23). Strictness, harshness, anger, guilt and legalism will not change our children’s hearts or shape their wills for the good, and in fact can close their hearts to us.” (The Lifegiving Parent p. 137)
I’ve also started reading John Holt’s Learning All the Time. This is a great book so far. It focuses on early learning in small children, and as I have come to expect from John Holt, he makes great points on how to approach early learning. In an earlier chapter addressing how little children learn to read, Holt makes the case for less intervention rather than more.
“Learning to read is easy, and most children will do it more quickly and better and with more pleasure if they can do it themselves, untaught, untested, and helped only when and if they ask for help.” (Learning All the Time, p. 8)
“People learn to read well, and get big vocabularies, from books, not workbooks and dictionaries.” (Learning All the Time p. 19)
“.. Young people want, need, and like to read books that have meaning for them, and that when such books are put within easy reach they will sooner or later figure out, without being ‘taught’ and with only minimal outside help, how to read them.” (Learning All the Time p. 28)
This week I’m finishing up Ed Stetzer’s Christians in the Age of Outrage. I’m hoping to dedicate a post to this book so I’ll hold off including notable quotes until then, but it has been an excellent read, one that I certainly recommend.
Current (Personal) Reads:
- The Soul of Wit – GK Chesterton on William Shakespeare
- The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook by Edmond Bourne
- The Lifegiving Parent by Clay and Sally Clarkson
- Learning All the Time by John Holt
- The Living Page by Laurie Bestvater
- Feardom by Conner Boyack
- Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L’Amour
- Christians in the Age of Outrage by Ed Stetzer
- Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dafoe
- The Wisdom of Wolves by Jim and Jamie Dutcher
- The Jewish Annotated New Testament by Amy-Jill Levine (ed) and Mark Z. Brettler (ed)
- Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock
- Driven to Distraction by Edward Hallowell
- Death by Living by N.D. Wilson
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (narrated by Kate Burton)
- Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville (narr. John Pruden)
- Ultima by Stephen Baxter
Current Read Alouds:
Michelle Home Scholar 