Play

"If a child has been able in his play to give up his whole living being to the world around him, he will be able, in the serious tasks of later life, to devote himself with confidence to the service of the world."
~Rudolf Steiner

from Simplicity Parenting

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On the Bedside Table

image via here

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

I am enjoying this one so far.  Took me a minute to get into it, but about halfway in, it's now the first one I pick up when I settle in to read.

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Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne & Lisa Ross

Yes, this one is still in my stack...it has taken me a little longer than usual to get through it, but what I have read is good.  I am seriously still working on purging and simplifying our house and specifically the toys and activities that Jones has to play with.  

I am looking more and more into Montessori-type activities, and finding that many of the "practical living" activities are things he already enjoys the most anyway- like sweeping, pouring his own cup of water, and "threading" items--the boy adores fitting things together!

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Just ordered Blue Nights by Joan Didion from half.com.  After reading The Year of Magical Thinking, I am enamored of Ms. Didion.  

And, after reading this book review by a friend of mine, I am really wanting to read Gone Girl.

What's on your reading list for the rest of this fleeting summer?

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Reading Lately

As life settles back into a new-but-familiar-normal, I've found great comfort in again reading before sleep each night.  While I was pregnant I was so sick and tired all of the time, that upon day's end, all I wanted to do was sleep.  My mind barely focused on anything superfluous of work and child-rearing.

Excited to read again, here's what is on my bedside table right now--all holding my attention pretty equally so far:

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 My boy is 15 months old already...

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I got interested in re-finding this one on my bookshelf and actually reading it after watching Midnight in Paris a couple weeks ago.  Really liked the film, and loved all the references to literary and art figures from the 1920's.  If you dig that sort of thing too, you should also read this.

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 And, for a light beachy-read, this one is easy and enjoyable.  I loved Giffin's Something Borrowed and Something Blue, and this one is pretty good so far too.

These 2 are en route to my home as we speak:

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This one intrigues me because I went to summer camp for 2 weeks once in my life and was terribly homesick the whole time.  Then, I went off to college and, again, was terribly homesick for the first semester of Freshman year.  After that, something clicked and I haven't been homesick more than a day in my life since, never again during college, and never during my year living in San Francisco.  As a parent, I want to learn how to cultivate a sense of adventure, and to save my child from the homesickness I endured...or learn if that's possible.

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Feeling the need to purge our lives of so much stuff these days...hoping this one can help.

What are you reading?  One of my favorite things about summer is having more time to read in the sunshine...I need some more to add to my list, so please, comment away.

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