Anne, Lennie, and Harry

Strewing is a homeschooling concept that I love. Strewing means to scatter or spread things untidily over a surface or area. In my definition, it means to set things out that I think the children will find interesting, but I fear that if I give them the item, they will reject it out of hand.

This may be an indication of my own personality quirks, though I was intrigued to see that Zoe shows some of the same trait. The trait I’m referring to is a dislike of being given direction or ordered.

Some might think of their input as “advice,” but to those of us with a low tolerance, it is seen as an order.

Thanks to this trait, I almost missed Anne of Green Gables; Zoe nearly missed Harry Potter; and I’ve still never read Of Mice And Men.

One of my best friends in pre-college school was Jenny Davis. Jennifer Jo Davis and I very nearly had the same first and middle name and matching initials. (“Jo” is my mother’s middle name, and if I hadn’t been given my maternal grandmother’s middle name “Elizabeth” as an olive branch, I would have been Jennifer Jo Dickerson.) Since Jenny and I were often in the same grade, along with Jennifer Lynn Wilson, we were “assigned” names by our teachers each year. Jenny got to be “Jenny,” Jennifer got to be “Jennifer W.” and I was “Jennifer D.” I believe this led to my years of trying out multiple spellings of my name to try and find my own identity.

Anyway, that HUGE digression is a way of indicating that I knew Jenny well, I liked Jenny a ton, and I valued her as a friend. We were in the talented and gift program together (Yes, a little name-dropping there.), as well as band, the same reading and math groups, etc., etc.

Jenny came to school one day in upper elementary and told me I HAD to read this book she had just finished, Anne of Green Gables. She may even have brought her copy for me to take home and read. For weeks she asked me if I had read it. I just could not get over the hurdle of being told what to read. Just.Can’t.Get.Over.It.

As my mother and husband can both tell you, I absolutely detest being told what to do if it is something that is my decision to make, or if I’m driving, or about my children. I cannot properly put into words how much I hate it. I will cut off my own nose to nip it in the bud.

Again, enough digression. So, Jenny told me again and again how much I would love this book, and I just couldn’t hear what she was telling me.

But, for some reason, probably after she stopped telling me, I read Anne. And fell in love. And have loved her ever since. And have multiple sets of the whole series because they have been loved to death by my eldest and me.

Fast forward a lifetime to Monkey and Harry Potter.

I thought she’d like it. She had no interest.

Best Bud Alex told her she’d like it. She had no interest.

This went on for a long time.

Then, when we were visiting Alex and her family on our way to Disney, Alex made Monkey a bet.

“I win this game, you read the first Harry Potter.”

Alex won and the rest is history.

Monkey loves HP, as does Buster.

But, I’ll stick with strewing because it works best for us. Sometimes we’ll pick something up and let it into our heart, and sometimes it just isn’t the right time.

As for Lennie, in high school Jennifer W. told me I HAD to read Of Mice And Men. Maybe if she had just put it in my locker…