- Always listen to books on tape in the car. Get them from the library.
- Stories are easier to listen to and retain than non-fiction.
- Look up whatever you’re listening to on Sparknotes.com or Bookrags.com for professional commentary that is always profound.
- Read tons of classic literature – children’s as well as adult.
- Get a list of the 100 or 1000 world’s greatest books, and read them! Then you can join the “great conversation” of inquisitive people throughout history, and talk to others about great books. Even when you’re down, you can be relating to other people and eras through books. Lists of people’s favorite books are great resources!
- Focus on history, religion and philosophy – it’s how we can learn the most wisdom.
- Newspaper – focus on the editorial page – it sums up the news and will motivate you to find out more.
- Read news magazines such as Time and Newsweek, that give background.
- Make Arts & Letters Daily your www homepage.
- Watch documentary films – they may seem boring at first, but you’ll get drawn in, and learn a lot.
- Study foreign languages whenever you can – it’s the ultimate multiculturalism.
- Education should be one of the greatest joys in life.
- Memorize the basics of every field.
- Familiarize yourself with all the library’s resources – databases for research, and other libraries in your system that you can borrow books or tapes from.
- Get to know your teachers. Become friends with them. Ask them about their lives. Tell them about your life.
- Read books about homeschoolers – the ultimate educators.
- Anything you want to learn well: outline it. Or create a graphic representation (picture, Venn diagram, chart, etc.)
- Have children narrate (orally summarize) everything you read aloud or watch on TV.
- When you read, first go back a chapter and mentally summarize what you’ve read so far.
- Keep a reading log throughout your life. Your reading can be a source of great pride.
- Join Toastmasters to improve your public speaking.
- Don’t just read books and watch movies – discuss them. “The activity itself is never enough” (or whatever Tribes says). Discussion is an art … it has to be deliberately pursued … You learn so much more and appreciate things so much more when you and your family or friends are honest about your thoughts and feelings about books and movies.
- TV makes you stupid.
- Go to all these weird things and develop your shadow side: Whole Being Weekend, Esalen, Learning Annex, etc.
- When you read a book, or even listen to one on tape, you’re investing a lot of time in it. Therefore, I always research books carefully before reading them, by reading reviews on Amazon.com. I only read uplifting books; not cynical ones.
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Daria Doering 
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