Add to LibraryThing

Well, now I don't know what to think. Apparently you can add to LibraryThing from Amazon. That's cool (better than nothing) but I'd really like it to add from any source. Unfortunately, it doesn't. And just as I was getting happy because I saw that there was an option to highlight and click, I read the page and that option is old and doesn't work for the updated version of the browser. However, I did pay good money for LibraryThing so I'm going to find a way to make this work for me! I'll update should there be any changes.

Wow, almost a month!

Almost a month has passed since I last posted! Not cool, I know.

Anyway, we went to the zoo as we do a few times a year. Once again, I was reminded why we go so randomly. The gorillas looked so sad. If you didn't hear about it when it happened, read about why the gorillas aren't happy. While the zoo now claims that the gorillas have recovered from that incident, I don't think so. They always seem distant and sad, a few times one or two have been angry.

Maybe it is just me but I don't feel right about keeping animals that act so like humans locked up. They can speak to us, they can actually use a language and talk to us. Not like dogs or horses or any other animal, gorillas can learn sign language and carry on conversations with humans. Yet we keep them locked away like criminals.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned Shelfari before but it is a great option to LibraryThing which I am becoming less enchanted with. I like some features of LibraryThing but it isn't as pretty a set-up as Shelfari and it is a lot easier to add books that you don't know about (the groups have group shelves!) than LibraryThing. Though maybe I'm not utilizing LibraryThing to it's full potential. I've already paid for a lifetime membership to LibraryThing (though Shelfari lets you add unlimited books for free) so I'll keep at it and maybe (hopefully?) it'll get more user friendly.

Starches Only, Please!

I can't force Fin to eat. I have to accept that fact. Today I made stuffing, chicken breasts, cornbread, and carrots (boiled, yuck, but Dul likes them that way and anything that keeps me from pulling out my steamer/rice cooker combo if sushi isn't in the making keeps me happy) for lunch. I thought that at least Fin would eat the stuffing since it has a bread base but no such luck. He likes his starches simple and in a form that he can easily shovel into his mouth hence his love of cornbread.

I'm not keeping up with Library Thing very well. I've been so busy just trying to keep up with reading the books, much less cataloging them. Just realize that our book list is a couple weeks behind. I'm attempting to tag them as best I can for ease of use. So when I enter new books and I don't have time to tag, I just enter unread. Some of those books are unread and some we've read but either way they'll get new tags as soon as I get around to it or, for the ones that are truly unread, once we've read them. I'm going to slowly add reviews also probably starting with the ones we've loved and the ones we've hated.

I've taken my books out of the Library Thing account and I've started a Shelfari account for the books I read for myself. Shelfari is completely free, no need to buy a membership after 200 books added. It is also prettier and the search function seems to go faster on my pathetic dial-up connection. I usually get the book that I put in also instead of having to wade through other books that aren't even titled what I put in or just breaking down and using the ISBN to find the book. (By the way, PSA: It is not ISBN number. The "N" in ISBN stands for number. Thank you and have a nice day.)

One Child Policy Homeschool is a blog by a mom living in China and homeschooling her daughter. Be forewarned, it is hosted by the evil Homeschool Blogger site (if you don't know, they support the Pearls and their abusive parenting techniques) however, don't think less of the blog for it, she is in China afterall which bans most of the other blogging sites. Anyway I've been reading it a lot lately and it has turned me on to lapbooking. I'd read about it before but this blog really put the idea into action for me.

Beginning a Formal Education

I forgot my password to Library Thing so I had to start a new account. Lesson learned: Always add an email address even if you don't want to so that you can retrieve your forgotten passwords when needed. Or at least let Firefox remember your passwords for ease of use.

Making a new account reminded me that I hadn't updated to a lifetime account yet. If this were just something for myself I wouldn't have done it but because I'm using it to keep track of information for home schooling I went ahead and upgraded. Now I can add as many books as I like. That's great because we've already reached the limit of 200 books that the free accounts get. I've been keeping track on my computer and haven't gotten around to adding the books to Library Thing but I'll do that in the next few days.

I'm debating buying Singapore Math for Fin and Dul to begin a math program. Singapore is cheap and I've heard great things about it.

This Monday Fin and I are beginning kindergarten. We've done some warm up but I've gathered enough of my basic curriculum to go ahead and get serious. It will still be very relaxed, I'm just adding a little sit down work in English and math. Right now we're using various math workbooks that I've bought over the years for the math. For English we're using Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading . Dul and I will be starting at the beginning, Fin is beginning to read so we'll skip the first few lessons that would surely bore him and we'll get started with the lessons that start teaching words.

With the rate that Fin is progressing right now I'll take a guess and say that we'll start the first grade materials this winter when he turns five. Of course, everything will be entirely at his pace so it may be earlier or later than that. I've chosen to take an eclectic Classical approach. Traditionally that would mean that I'd teach a classic language (Latin or Greek are the most popular) as the kids' foreign language. That presents itself as a problem as I've already made the decision to help my children be bilingual at the least. Because of that I've decided to put off the classic language until later years. I'm teaching the kids to read and write in English first. First grade will bring German reading/writing and after that will be Spanish. I also think that Mandarin or Japanese (I'll let each child choose between the two) writing should come before the classic language so we're looking at introducing it closer to middle school than elementary. I may just skip it entirely but I'm not going to make a formal decision on that now.

Library Thing

I'm going to try out Library Thing. Basically I'm going to use it to keep a running list of the books that we read. I'm starting from today as it would be much too big a project to go back over every book we've ever read. I've added a widget to the side that shows the recent books we've read and also a search function so you can search my "library". It seems really cool! Something I didn't know about Library Thing: You can access it from your cell and search your library. That is great because I often find myself at the book store not knowing if I already own a book. Now if only there were a way to separate books you've only read from books that you've read AND own!

Ah, I just read that you can only add 200 books for free, after that you need to buy a membership. The lifetime membership says that it is $25, however it also has an option for $19. I'll probably be buying that soon as we'll get to 200 books in no time.