Homeschooling moms, that is. Although anyone can enjoy these lovely books, both fiction and nonfiction, I picked them out especially to encourage and enlighten homeschooling moms who might want a reading jumpstart in the summer to re-inspire them to the work and the joy of teaching and guiding young minds and hearts.
Fiction:
Quaker Summer by Lisa Samson. Heather Curridge is having what some would call a “mid-life crisis”, but she just feels as if her life is empty and at the same time, full of the wrong things. When Heather meets two elderly Quaker sisters and imbibes of their wisdom, she begins to see where she has taken a wrong turn in life and perhaps what she can do about it.
The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge. Londoner Mary Lindsay inherits a house from an elderly cousin whom she met only once when Mary was just a child. Nevertheless, she feels a deep connection to the house and to her deceased cousin, and she very uncharacteristically and impulsively decides to quit her job and go live in the house in a rural village in the north of England. There Mary learns the meaning of love and sacrifice, and she begins to pass on that heritage to another generation of children. Any of Elizabeth Goudge’s novels would make good summer reading material, but this one seems especially appropriate for a long summer afternoon of slow reading. In a hammock.
A Garden to Keep by Jamie Langston Turner. Elizabeth Landis, the wife and the narrator in this book, is about fifty years old and dealing with a severe case of empty nest syndrome. Her son, Travis, has gone away to college for his freshman year, and her husband Ken is absent a lot, too, travelling for work or playing golf or just absent in spirit while bodily present. Elizabeth has a Christian conversion experience at the beginning of the book, probably the least developed and believable part of the story, and then she finds out that her new faith and her marriage are to be tested to the limit.
The Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara. I read this “novel of the American Revolution” last year, and I must say I found it to be fascinating. Mr. Shaara’s father wrote the Pulitzer prize-winning Civil War novel, The Killer Angels, the basis for the movie Gettysburg (excellent summer reading and watching), and after father Michael Shaara’s death, Jeff Shaara continued to write novels about America’s wars, bringing the historical characters who lived through and fought those wars to brilliant life. In The Glorious Cause it is George Washington who takes center stage, as well as British General Cornwallis, American General Nathanael Greene and a host of lesser characters who nevertheless fill out the story and never become card caricatures. Books like this one are such an aid to imagining and understanding America’s history and the legacy of our heroes.
Nonfiction:
Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, & My Journey Towards Sanctification by Cindy Rollins. I laughed. I cried. I identified. Cindy Rollins, mother of nine homeschooled children, mostly boys, has written an honest, but also encouraging book about what it was really like to homeschool a large family in the 1980’s and 1990’s homeschooling culture. Cindy (I feel as if we’re first-name-friends although we’ve never met in person) is honest about the things she’s learned along the way, but never jaded or dismissive of her younger self or of homeschooling families who work every day, although imperfectly, to get it right and teach their children to know the Lord.
Different: The Story of an Outside-the-Box Kid and the Mom Who Loved Him by Sally and Nathan Clarkson. Nathan Clarkson started out different as a baby, not sleeping, screaming for no apparent reason, fussy, difficult. And as he grew, the differences grew, too. He was eventually diagnosed with a whole alphabet soup of differences: ADHD, OCD, ODD, plus some learning differences, personality quirks, and a strong will. Put it all together, and you’ve got an array of problems and diagnoses, but Sally Clarkson, Nathan’s mother, had to learn to appreciate the person inside Nathan, help him deal with the issues that his differences caused, and also show him that God made Nathan Clarkson for a purpose, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, even with his many differences. Told in the alternating voices of mother and son.
The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer. One of my all-time favorite classic books about seeing your role as a homemaker in a new light.