Boys. Sometimes a theme shows up in the articles I find online in a given week. This week: Boys. Their curiosity. Their energy. Their learning styles. Their wonder. Their love. Their joy. So here’s to boys.

Around the Web

Little Men and How I Commune with Louisa May Alcott’s Ghost

Amy Marquis shares what she learned about raising boys from Louisa May Alcott.

• I am emotional about Louisa May Alcott. When I think of her I become misty. You may know her as the writer of Little Women and Little Men but to me she is the one who gave me permission to call myself a writer. In her preserved home, Orchard House in Concord, Ma, I walked the floors she and her artful, creative family walked. My feet tread the aging floors of a family of intellectual giants. I stared out of the window panes beside the piano which Louisa’s sister, Lizzie, played before her young death, and I heard the voice of the docent.
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7 am in Brooklyn

I first heard Joshua Luke Smith’s spoken word poetry last fall. It’s amazing. This essay on finding his way is beautiful and worthwhile for anyone who has ever wondered why the road is so long.

• It’s 7 am in Brooklyn. The Hudson River on my left moves gently, recovering from the night before. Murals of men I don’t know look down on me from the redbrick walls where they sit. People begin emerging from the shadows of doorways, darting towards the welcoming oasis of a coffee shop or eatery whose shutters have just lifted.
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Books for Boys

Jim Nicosia has a pretty straightforward list of criteria for his boy books list:

• Al I can say about this list is that I believe in books that:
  1) have an attitude that appeals to boys’ sensibilities (humor, sarcasm, wit, opinion)
  2) avoid didacticism (few boys like to be preached to)
  3) move at a pace that doesn’t put readers to sleep
  4) engage in some form of action, either physical or plot-wise
  5) have an element of practicality in them that boys can take with them after they’ve closed the book
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I Want My Son To Become A Better Writer

Joshua Gibbs explores what it means to become a better writer.

• It is the responsibility of every teacher of every subject (from rhetoric to English to biology) to discipline students in the art of writing. If we conceive of writing instruction as something appropriate only to literature class or rhetoric class, we have not conceived of writing properly.
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Around the Warren

Of Memory and Marsh-wiggles

Caitlin Clase helps us remember why we should remember.

• There were mountainous piles of pink clouds racked high above our heads, and my siblings were shouting to each other of the myriad wonders they envisioned there. I fought with the Summer breeze, trying to find our place in C.S. Lews’ The Silver Chair, as they cried out news of a dragon on the horizon.  Place found, they hushed in an instant, being all anticipation for the next chapter. My own anticipation equaled their own, though I was surprised to find it so.
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Don’t Forget the Good Book

Lesley Gore challenges us to remember Scripture as we fill our kids’ minds with good stories.

• For over a decade I’ve brought stories into our home, of good triumphing over evil, of light quenching darkness, of redemption and reconciliation and hope. And I do so in faith, that God will use them to capture my children’s hearts, making them brave and excited for Kingdom work.
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Something to Do with Your Kids

If you’re looking for a way to keep math going in the summer but still have a lot of fun with it, try this tesselations project.

Something to Watch

Turn off the lights, go full screen, turn on your sound, and experience a summer’s night.

Thanks for reading. We’re on your side.

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Carolyn Clare Givens

Carolyn Clare Givens is displaced Northerner exploring the foreign ways of the south.

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