Books and bookshelves

I am a book fanatic.  In my basement where we have our classroom I have the room lined with bookshelves.  The question is how do you organize it so you can find a book when you want one.  At one time I thought about card cataloging them like the library does but I don't have that kind of time on my hands.  What to do then?  I separated them by category.  I have a shelve of all history books and they are on the shelf in chronological order.  I also labeled the inside of each book with a time period or date to help keep them organized.  The shelve of the classics I have alphabetized by author.  Our science books are organized topically and my religious books are separated by reference, biography/autobiography and then misc. My last shelf is fiction, just for fun and that is arranged by reading level and those books are labeled in the cover also, well for the most part. It isn't perfect but it works.

Dating and Courtship

http://www.courtshipnow.com/

Here is the link for the web site about courtship. 

Courtship and Dating

I have just finished reading these two fabulous books, "Arms of Love" and "Surrender". They were written by Carmen Marcoux and her website is www.courshipnow.com. A brief summary: The journey of a homeschooling family into the dating and courtship world. The books incorporate the teachings of the Catholic Church into these issues. They are fiction and a very easy read. I wept through the entire first book, "Arms of Love". This is an area that I feel I could have done a better job in preparing my older children for but now I am ready. Thanks to my friend Carrie for the suggestion. If you haven't read them, get them. My 14 year old daughter is almost finished with "Surrender", for someone who doesn't like to read she can't put them down.

Great Books

Arms of LoveSurrender

Changing my focus a little

After some consideration I have decided to change the name of my blog. I couldn't even remember the name. I also want to include some other topics that are of interest. Although gobbeledegook is pretty much what my brain feels like these days.

Do Hard Things

I have been reading some really good books lately. My latest is "Do Hard Things" by Alex and Brett Harris. If you haven't heard of it I would encourage you to read it. It is written by two teen brothers about starting what they refer to as a rebelution in our country. This means stepping out of the teen stereotype of we are teens and it is our chance to have fun into do hard things. As I have been reading it I can see how both of my boys have been influenced by the teen stereotype. They have learned how to get by but they could be doing so much more. When people compliment you and tell you how you are doing such a great job the tendency is to stop there even when you know you could do better. These teens recommend that you always reach higher and do things that force you to move out of your comfort zone.

I can especially see how this has affected one of my sons. He could be accomplishing so much more but the expectations are so low for our teens that it appears that is doing really well. I have been accused that my expectations are too high but I have noticed even since my children were little that the more you expect the more they do. This could lead into a whole new discussion. Just a little commentary on this great book. I am actually reading out loud to my children.

Web site that does and ACT - SAT comparison

This one of many links that compares the ACT and SAT test scores. If I read it correctly the writing portion of the tests is not included. I believe the writing portion on the SAT has a bigger impact on the final score than it does on the ACT. I may not be accurate on this but this is what it seems. The writing on the ACT does not really seem to change the final score. I say this because my sons English and writing scores varied by 30% and his final ACT score remained the same.

http://www.eguidancecounselor.com/act_sat_comparison.htm#SCALE COMPARISONS