In Which I Ramble About This Past School Year

Hello, dears!

This post is a bit late as I went on a serve trip with my youth group last weekend and spent most of this week trying to recover, haha. But here I am, and I never really posted a set schedule for when I’d post, so I suppose it doesn’t really matter anyway. ;)

The hydrangeas are opening up, the sun is streaming gorgeously onto the ottoman, and I can hear the birds through the open window (well, I can also hear someone weedwacking, but we’ll ignore that. (Is that what it’s actually called? Weedwacking? Or is that just Stephens-ese? I’ve got two sets of parentheses here, let’s move on from whatever it is I can hear outside to the actual subject of the post. Ahem ahem.)).

It’s definitely summer here in Ohio by now, and I finished 9th grade today! It’s always refreshing -and honestly a little melancholy, I love school and I had a particularly great year!- to be able to get a nice long break every year, and I plan on enjoying this one to the absolute max. ;) (stay tuned for a future post on how to enjoy your summer as much as possible by being intentional, it’ll probably get published in a week or two and I’m excited!)

Wow, long intro. Anyway, I always get asked what our homeschooling is like and what my favorite parts of the year were, so I thought I’d do a school year recap post, of sorts. Hopefully I can keep at a relatively reasonable length, heh. (Have I mentioned that I love school?? XD) I think I’ll share my entire booklist, give some thoughts on a few of my favorites, and then perhaps do a final summary of the main things I learned and enjoyed. This might be extremely boring, if so, my apologies…

Also, to clarify: Our way of homeschooling (the curriculum plan is here) is primarily reading based. I do (mostly) traditional math and Spanish, as well as some Latin, nature/art study, Bible, and music theory (plus a smattering of other things) with my mom and siblings, but my literature, history, citizenship, and most of my science and poetry I do by reading books, just a few chapters of each book per week.

Booklist

Here’s my giant (90% complete) book stack for this year, for you few people who are actually interested in seeing it. XD This includes most books my mom read aloud to me and my siblings, math, science, Latin, and my other 9th grade books that were divided into terms. This list is in no particular order:

• The God Who is There by Francis Schaeffer

• The Age of Revolution by Winston Churchill

• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin (obviously)

• John Adams by David McCullough

• The English Constitution by Walter Bagehot

• She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith

• The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

• Ourselves by Charlotte Mason

• Common Sense by Thomas Payne (shoutout to all my fellow Hamilton fans who now have a particular song stuck in their heads ;D)

• Why You Think the Way You Do by Glenn S. Sunshine (isn’t that the best last name??)

• A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland by Samuel Johnson

• English Literature for Boys and Girls by H. E. Marshall

• The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson

• Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif

• Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.

• How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Alder

• The Roar on the Other Side by Suzanne Rhodes

• Isaac Bickerstaff by Sir Richard Steele

• Days with Sir Roger de Coverly by Joseph Addison

• Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

• A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift

• Some Memoirs from the Life of Job by Thomas Bluett

• The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis

• Essay of Man by Alexander Pope

• Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift (yep, he wrote a lot)

• George Washington: A Biography by Washington Irving (look at that, name twins!)

• Are you Liberal, Conservative, or Confused? by Richard J. Maybury

• Longitude by Dava Sobel

• The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

• The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell

• God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew

• Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen

• Rights of Man by Thomas Payne

• Great Astronomers by Robert Stawell Ball

• The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling (the first couple books I read over last summer)

• Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose

• A Place of Quiet Rest by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

• The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis

• Faust by Johann Wolfgang van Goethe

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (finishing this summer)

• Emma by Jane Austen

• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

• The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

• The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis

• The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis (yep, he wrote a lot too)

• Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome

• A collection of Plutarch

• Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper

• The Giver by Lois Lowry

• The Anne of Green Gables series, books 2-5 by Lucy Maud Montgomery

• The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge (not quite done with this one yet either)

• The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (finallyyyyy!!)

• Dreams and Visions by Tom Doyle

• Grimm’s Fairy Tales by The Brothers Grimm

Highlights

I could probably do an entire post on almost every book I read this year, perhaps I’ll eventually do posts about my very favorites. (what do you guys think? Would that be interesting or not really? XD) Again, this is in no particular order.

• Anne of Green Gables, books 2-5, by Lucy Maud Montgomery

I cannot say enough about this series. I’ve read the first book many times over the year, but for some reason I was always too intimidated to read the rest in the series- my mistake! With each passing chapter I think I related to and loved Anne Shirley even more than in the last, heheh. (and don’t even get me started on Gilbert… *pines away* XD) I also just love L.M.M.’s style of writing. The descriptions, the way she paints a magical picture in your mind… you can hear the waves crash on the beach and hear the wind whisper through the trees along Lover’s Lane. I’ve literally taken pictures of entire pages that are just too perfect. I’m definitely looking forward to reading the next books in the series over the summer. But let’s move on. XD

• God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew

Oooh this was such a good one, my mom read it aloud to us. It was such a good reminder of how big our God is and how He can use anyone to accomplish mighty things for His kingdom. All you have to do is let go of control and trust His plan, it’ll change your whole life. :)

• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

This is a fun one, full of adventure and suspense and even some excellent romance and mystery. It’s set during the French Revolution, and gives a really interesting perspective on what it was like for the British to watch all of that play out just across the Channel. There are actually a bunch of books in the series, I’ve read the next 1 ½ and hope to read more this summer!

• John Adams by David McCullough

You guys. I’ve read plenty of biographies, but this one is by far my favorite (so far at least). It is masterful and riveting, which honestly is very unusual for a biography in my opinion. XD I got sucked in and it was hard to put the book down! I’m thinking of rereading it soon, this time with a pencil in hand to underline and write notes in the margins. :D

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Romance with generous dashes of wit and humor? My kind of book. I love that every character makes mistakes, the heroes and heroines are still flawed people that misjudge and act foolishly at times. It’s what makes them so relatable!

• A Place of Quiet Rest by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Sisters in Christ, read this book if you struggle finding motivation to have time with God every day! It’s full of wisdom and insight on not only how to have a fulfilling quiet time, but why to have one at all. I’ve made some changes to my own morning routine after reading it, and I’ve already seen the difference it makes in my everyday life. :)

In summary, this was an excellent year. I read a LOT of books written near or about the American Revolution, and it’s been incredible to learn so much about each Founding Father- they were not of one mind, as I used to think. XD It was pretty great timing, also, that I watched Hamilton for the first time right before starting this school year! History is awesome, y’all. ;D

I also learned quite a lot about what makes a book great instead of just good. It’s more than just finding the ideal plotline or developing your characters to perfection. There’s a difference between The Chronicles of Narnia and the latest YA fantasy series. But that's a post for another time. :)

I hope you enjoyed hearing about my year! Now what about yours? What were your highlights? I’d love to hear all about them ;) Have you read any of these books? For those of you who are in the same AO year as me, what were some of your favorites?

Thanks for reading! Until next time my dears, my ramble-readers,

-Alayna