Sweet Harvest Homestead

Every year the R.I.F (Reading is Fundamental) program would come to my school and set up thousands of new books on tables in the gymnasium.  They would generously let each student pick out not one, but two books.  These books were not for borrowing, but for us to keep forever.  That thrilled me to no end because I dearly loved reading and loved the look, feel, and smell of a brand new book.   I would go home and devour the book in one night.   I still have all of those books from those carefree school days.  After all, they were treasures to me then and still are.  Sweet, simple gifts like that make the best memories. When we first started our homeschooling journey, I was lucky to read a paper by Carole Joy Seid, a veteran homeschooling mother, on the benefits of not only reading but being read to.  My Daddy read to us often when I was a child and when he wasn't reading from a book, he would recite a short story or poem from memory.  He was a radio broadc