13/01/2015: Books, books and more books

Once upon a time my shelves were tidy.

Our first week back following the Christmas holidays and, expecting there to be much excitement from the children, we decided to keep things simple with no organised activities. Out came the play doh, drawing materials and toys. Cue much running about and noise! We also had three new families join us, it was lovely to meet them.



A year a go we started our first session at Okeford Fitzpaine's village hall with a resource share and decided that this is an excellent way to start the year again. It's always good to be able to rummage through other peoples favourite resources for new or fresh ideas. We also had a swap/giveaway table and a sale table - I'm pleased to say that I came home with fewer books than I took with me.

Two titles were mentioned a couple of times as several of us had intended to bring them but for one reason or another didn't. It's a good job too as we would have been over run with copies! So here's my take on a quick book review for them.

Festivals, Family and Food; guide to seasonal celebration by Diana Carey and Judy Large

This book was recommended to me when I first started home educating. It is exactly what it says on the cover. Starting with Spring it moves through the seasons offering suggestions of things to make and do interspersed with short stories and poetry applicable to the time of year. It is a volume that I still enjoy reading myself (I've had it 10 years) but I must admit that it is dated (first published 1982) and some people may find the format within the chapters messy. Personally I enjoy the jumble of ideas and find that it is a great trigger for my own though I will usually end up searching for more information on the Internet rather than using ideas straight from the book. But despite this and because of the spark of inspiration that it gives me this book is firmly staying on my book shelf.

Festivals together; guide to multicultural celebration by Sue Fitzjohn, Minda Weston and Judy Large.

Unlike the previous book I must confess that this one has had much less use, the pages are certainly a lot cleaner! I can't really see why as it's format is similar to Festivals, Family and Food and I've had it for just as long but it doesn't seem to grab me. It's full of lots of short stories and relevant activities including a few songs and is actually much better put together but perhaps that is it's problem. It almost feels like a book of lessons to me, a text book to work through. It's staying on the shelf for now and I'm determined to give it another chance but if it doesn't pull it's weight over the next year it's for the chop.