Laddie - I finally finsished it!

[Jeanine]

I have picked this book up many times, but I keep getting distracted and do not finish reading it.

When my DH read the book he seemed to hint at something going wrong at the end, so I read it in anticipation of a sad ending. It did not end sad at all. Maybe I got confused and he was talking about little britches, that one ends sad.

I really love the natural education of little sister. I love how she has so many poems of the McGuffey readers memorized. I purchased the McGuffey readers and we have had fun with them so far. Also inspired by little sister, we have been having allot of fun with poems in our homeschool. We read and memorize poems in our devotional. And now my kid s have started writing their own poems. We have been having allot of fun with this. I posted their poems on their blog.

I love how well trained the characters of little sisters family are. I cant get over this remark by mother"with all of our twelve never has there been one who and nine months of age did not stop crying if it's father lifted his finger, or tapped his foot and told it to." Goodness I need to work on my 2yo more.

I also LOVE the conversation that Mother has with Mr. Pryor it truly inspired me on womanhood. Mother is a great womanly example in general.

Speaking of her husband to Mr. Pryor
"But he is the whole of the kingdom, and the King to boot."
"Lucky man!" he said (Mr. Pryor) "All of us are not so fortunate."
This reminds me to always talk about my husband in the most positive way to people outside of our family. Especially to other women in the church talk very positive about my DH, because they are married to husbands, and they will tell what I say. And my DH will have dealings in the church with their husbands.

Mother speaks about educating her children to Mr. Pryor "From the start we have rigorously guarded our speech and actions before them. From the first tiny baby my husband has taught all of them to read, write and cipher some, before they went to school at all. He is always watching, observing, studying: the earth, the stars, growing things; he never comes to a meal but he has seen something that he has or will study out for all of us. There never has been one day in our home on which he did not read a new interesting article from book or paper; work out a big problem, or discuss some phase of politics, religion, or war. Sometimes there has been a little of all or it in one day, always reading , spelling, and memory exercises at night. He has a sister who twice in her life has repeated the Bible as a test before a committee. He, himself, can go through the New Testament and all of the Old save the books of the generations. He always says he considers it a waste of gray matter to learn them. He has been a schoolmaster, his home his school room, his children, wife and helpers his pupils; the common things of life as he meets them every day, the books from which we learn."

Well there is a great quote about how to educate your children if I have ever heard one :).

Oh, I love this section there is still more to quote.

"Before any daughter has left our home for one of her own, she has been taught all I know of cleanliness about a house, cookery sewing, tending the sick, bathing and dressing a new born. She has to bake bread, pie, cake, and cook any meat or vegetable we have. She has had her bolt of muslin to make as she chose for her bedding, and linen for her underclothing. The quilts she pieced and the blankets she wove have been hers. All of them have been as well provided for as we could afford. They can knit, darn, patch, tuck, hem, and embroider, set a hen and plant a garden. I go on vacation and leave each one to keep house for her father a month, before she enters a home of her own. They are strong, healthy girls; I hope all of them are making a good showing at being useful women, and I know they are happy, so far at least."

Wow how I do wish I spent more of my childhood learning to be a mother, instead of shipped off to school and missing all of the daily rhythm of the household.

There is also a great quote where she talks about how she makes her home as beautiful as possible but I can not find it right now.

Books like these makes me long for the old times. And inspires me in new ways to bring what was good about those days back into my life today.

Jeanine
“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” ~ Aldo Leopold

[Salinda]

Wow Jeanine,
I now really want to read Laddie. I love the last quote about what to teach her daughters. I think it is such a lost thought in our lives to teach that running a home takes work and knowledge. As a society we tend to focus so much on what secular education they are receiving and what job to prepare them for. While I believe in my daughters learning everything they can about the world in which they live, they also need to understand the role of being a wife and mother. When we fail to educate our daughters in this way, and then our families in society are falling apart can we really be surprised? And it seems from the first quote that the father is greatly involved in the education of the children. I think that is so important and missed very often even in homeschooling families. Definetly gave me things to think about!! Thanks for sharing

Salinda

[Debbie]

I just finished Laddie a week ago and all of my favorite quotes are the ones you mentioned. I also enjoyed the part where little sister was explaining how a school room should be, "The roads crossing our land were all right, and most of the others near us; and a road is wonderful, if it is taking you to the woods or a creek or meadow; but when it is walking you straight to a stuffy little schoolhouse where you must stand up to see from a window, where a teacher is cross as fire, like Miss Amelia, and where you eternally hear things you can't see, there comes a time about the middle of April when you had quite as soon die as to go to school any longer; and what you learn there doesn't amount to a hill of beans compared with what you can find out for yourself outdoors. Schoolhouses are made wrong. If they must be, they should be built in a woods pasture beside a stream, where you could wade, swim, and be comfortable in summer, and slide and skate in winter. The windows should be cut to the floor, and stand wide open, so the birds and butterflies could pass through. You ought to learn your geography by climbing a hill, walking through a valley, wading creeks, making islands in them, and promontories, capes, and peninsulas along the bank. You should do your arithmetic sitting under trees adding hickorynuts, subtracting walnuts, multiplying butternuts, and dividing hazelnuts. You could use apples for fractions, and tin cups for liquid measure. YOu could spell everything in sight and this would teach you the words that are really used in the world. Every single one of us could spell incompatibility, but I never heard father, or the judge, or even the Bishop, put it in a speech." This almost makes me want to throw everything out that we have and spend every nice weather moment outside somewhere. I had borrowed it from the library, but I am going to buy it now to add to our shelves. We're also going to read it this summer as a family. It is one of the best books I've read in a long time. We are somewhat new to home schooling (were in our 3rd year) and I'm slowly shifting from schooling at home to home schooling. We're much better then the first year, but this book helped me to see we still have a ways to go. I need to get off of the 'now we're doing school' mindset and just look at life as a learning opportunity for all of us, not just the kids. Just like the father does in sharing something everyday with them from something he's read, both my husband and I need to share more of what we learn with the kids and not just wait until it fits in their 'school curriculum'.
Debbie :D