Woke up to a clattery rain that might have been sleet, but wasn't quite. The dog did not want to go out in it, for which can I blame him? I didn't, either. Booted him through the door anyway, however.
We are on something of a backwards school schedule at the moment, with recess and extracurricular things like scout projects in the morning, and school after lunch. It seems to work.
Still reading Barbara Pym.
Put in an order yesterday for a mid-winter box from Dover Books: history coloring books and sticker paper dolls and a space-exploration kit and a book of short stories about samurai. I don't buy new books hand over fist like this all the time, but about twice a year I think we need some kind of care package to get us through either the bleakness of late winter or the soul-flattening heat of midsummer, and it's about that time that a new Dover catalog arrives in the mail. For a $50 order you get free shipping, and $50 buys you a lot of Dover books, so now we have this to look forward to.
OK, people are pacing behind me, waiting to waft my computer upstairs to the fastnesses of their rooms, for algebraic purposes. And it's time for lunch and school.
3 comments:
You know, I LOVE Dover books. And I keep giving them to my children. And my children...do not seem to like them very much.
I have failed, yet again, as a homeschooling mother.
Oh, well . . . some of the ones that I have thought were the coolest were real duds with my kids. When we do these mid-season-blahs boxes, I tend to let them do the picking-out, so it's like a little Santa arrival or something. That is why our coming box will contain a ton of sticker paper-doll books.
My teenager is the one who appreciates the historical coloring books and asks for them; also the historical paper dolls. The full appeal of those things is lost on anyone under the age of 12, at least (the teenager in question is 17 and graduating this spring, and she thinks a Renaissance Fashions coloring book is the coolest thing ever. The 6-year-old wants "Design Your Own Outfits" Sticker Dolly Book.).
We've had this same problem with Dover coloring books! And judging by the number I've found at secondhand stores, other moms have faced the same disappointment. On the other hand, I really enjoyed coloring Civil War Fashions, if no one else did. So maybe I should hold on to some of these until my kids are older?
For awhile I was getting emails with free pages from Dover books - seasonal. I wonder if you can still sign up for that service?
My only quibble is that some of their books - for instance I had a Dover Thrift version of Wordsworth's collected works for college - don't hold up well and have print that looks bloody. Would've been worth the change to shell out for a nice copy of Wordsworth.
Sally, I had a vivid dream the other night where I was lost in the forest and stumbled upon a little cottage where you and your family were on vacation. Lots of books and Victorian doilies and ephemera laying around.
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