Monday November 12/h2> Bella: math, composition (draft of a letter), read and narrate Story of the Church (about Pius X intervening to try to prevent WWI), I read and discussed an article on the Treaty of Versailles and post-WWI reparations. She’s reading The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt. Sophie: math, copywork, French, Child’s Geography Ben: math, […]
A.E. Stallings. I kept stumbling upon her poems online (mostly thanks to my friend the poet Sally Thomas who is perhaps Stallings’ biggest booster). Every one I have found and picked up like a treasure. This. . . this. . . this . . . this. . . Gradually I came to recognize her name, […]
An interesting brief article came to my notice this week about the figure or “archetype” of the “Susan” in juvenile fiction– The Susan: Story of an Archetype, and Why We Need Her by Alice Nuttall. It’s sparked a brilliant conversation online and I’m brimming over with thoughts that want to organize themselves into something more […]
Five from Andersen for T.G. I I see you as the little mermaid barefoot beside someone else’s marriage bed and longing, yearning for that closeness which you will never never never never have. (And dreams of children you will never carry All the voices that never will be heard and the lullabies […]
We’ve been reading Men, Microscopes and Living Things, which is a sort of history of biology for children. On the whole I really like the book. It’s well written and engaging. But the chapters on medieval herbalists and medieval bestiaries both raised my eyebrows a bit and sparked some interesting discussions as I questioned […]
Monday November 5 We started off the day at the dentist, which took up the whole of the morning. Afternoon stories: Began The Fairy Doll by Rumer Godden; Magna Charta; Louis de Montfort; Men, Microscopes and Living Things; Story of the World (Henry the Navigator); lectionary readings. Ben was very excited to help me cook […]
The clouds look like they could be snow clouds. But this early in November, probably they won’t shake down any soft feathers upon us. (Though far-away friends on Facebook are proudly sharing photos of white-dusted lawns and even a miniature snowman.) Beneath the clouds’ shadowy canopy the crabapples on the nearly leafless tree are a […]
“I knew little about Maud Plunkett. I knew I was here because the Major had trained us all as cadets. What I shared with his wife we shared as gardeners. I had wanted large green words to lie waxen on the page’s skin, floating but rooted in its lymph as her lilies in the pond’s […]
Time is going too fast, flying through the fall, I’m still not over summer. Where did it go? I don’t think we made it over to D.W. Field park once this year. But I guess we did go to Ned’s Point a bunch for Shakespeare and swimming. And when was the last time we made […]
Finished in October 1. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson I originally read this book ages ago. Maybe when I was in high school or college? I don’t think I liked it very much. So for years whenever anyone recommends it or it comes up in conversation I’ve remembered that I didn’t like it but thought: […]