A Homely Place to Learn

Our family has always been big fans of libraries. We have had relations with multiple libraries that accomplish different functions: we have our pick-up library that is close to home, where we send and receive books very frequently. Then we have our cultural connection, the library where we go principly for events like concerts and book groups. Then there are the libraries which are so homely and welcoming that they act like a home away from home. I gather this morning in a library like this.

Concord Free Public Library in historic Concord, MA, provides a place to rest in the morning while my children all participate in a nearby theatre camp. Besides books, there are ample spaces to study and meet, and the overstuffed chairs provide a place to even doze a little and rest one’s weary bones.

Today I check out a local author and read Thoreau’s Walden Pond. His emphasis on simplicity and looking for life that is truly real and not mere opinion is more contemporary now than when he wrote it almost two centuries ago.

His words make me grateful for such a place to pause and remember the deeper meaning of our lives. Glory to God for the freedom to live deliberately.

Introducing the Farm Church Library!

40883715423_fbc36b0479_kEver since we saw our first Little Free Library on the beach at Cape Cod, our family has been envious. We love books, but especially free books, and the democratic concept of engaging the open public with your particular collection that you have outgrown is just too appealing.

We founded our own Little Free library on Sunday, April 28, 2019 to commemorate Pascha (Easter). We decided to call it The Farm Church: “Farm” because my father made it out of 200 year-old wood from our original family farm in Gibsonburg, Ohio; “Church” because it is constructed in the shape of the church and so many of the books we will donate to it concern matters of theology and the world to come. We also offer an assortment of children’s picture books, other religious texts, and classics. Continue reading

A Feast for the Eyes, Ears, and Heart

44676146662_340d0ac3ee_kFor my yearly Back-to-School post, I would like to reflect on our family’s love for out loud reading. Good strength to all in your September return to learning. God bless your studies in this new school year!

It is not enough to love good books. It is not even enough to promote literacy among our youth. For what good is literacy if our exercise of reading is confined to the private, self-contained world of silent reading. Reading, especially to children, should be an event, an out-loud occasion for bonding around a shared narrative. Continue reading

Love Your Local Library

For my yearly Back-to-School post, I would like to brag about our tradition of local libraries in America. Good strength to all in your September return to learning. God bless your studies in this new school year!

bangor-public-library-520b21653b418ebeJust moved to Syracuse, NY with the family, and one of our first official acts was finding the local library and obtaining a card for borrowing. My children who are of age all proudly sport their own card in their private wallet. I am determined they have this long before they ever have cards for spending money.

It is amazing to me that in all the national discussion about reforming education, no one ever seems to include the local libraries. All this talk about testing and standards, but no one includes the place where literacy is the most treasured and guarded gift. Continue reading

Forgotten Treasures

But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.

― C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism

snowedinOf all the children’s picture books we have read or reviewed for our yearly  Best of the Best, none stands out more dearly to me this time of the year than a tale about a family in the early 20th century in the American Wild West. They settled in one of the most desolate regions of the West, the open, wind-swept prairies of Wyoming, and the story opens with their yearly ritual at the onset of winter: saying goodbye to their community schoolhouse, buying gobs of paper and pencils at the town store, and raiding the local library for pounds of books to last them through the isolating months ahead of closed roads and home-bound activity. Continue reading

What Libraries Mean to Me

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Children’s Library in Moscow

Books! Books! Libraries are the place we get books. How could we live without libraries? A lot of information comes from books. When books started to appear someone thought “Where should we keep them?” Then people found the key: libraries! If you need to study a subject (for example), just ask a librarian she/he will help you find the right books. Whether at home or in Russia, we always find our local library.