Mt. Hope Academy @ The Live & Learn Studio ~ September 2013

Lola: preschool, Leif: 2nd grade, Luke: 4th grade, Levi: 6th grade (oh, my!!)

Food for Thought

:: George Orwell’s Despair by Russell Kirk @ The Imaginative Conservative (A very interesting explanation of why I disliked 1984. While I have appreciated many other dystopian books (The Giver, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World), I found 1984 to be devoid of hope.)

Orwell saw the Church in disrepute and disorder, intellectually and morally impoverished; and he had no faith. He could not say how the total corruption of man and society would be produced; he could not even refer to the intrusion of the diabolical; but he could describe a coming reign of misrule wonderfully like the visions of St. John the Divine. He saw beyond ideology to the approaching inversion of humanitarian dogmas. All the norms for mankind would be defied and defiled. Yet because he could not bring himself to believe in enduring principles of order, or in an Authority transcending private rationality, he was left desperate at the end. A desperado, literally, is a man who has despaired of grace.

::  From Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

“It’s not books you need, it’s some of the things that once were in books…Three things are missing.

“Number one: Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You’d find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion…Well, there we have the first thing I said we need. Quality, texture of information.”

“And the second?”

“Leisure.”

“Oh, but we’ve plenty of off-hours.”

“Off hours, yes. But time to think?…The televisor is ‘real.’ It tells you what to think and blasts it in. It must be right. It seems so right. It rushes you on so quickly to its own conclusions your mind hasn’t time to protest, ‘What nonsense!’”

“Where do we go from here? Would books help us?”

“Only if the third necessary thing could be given us. Number one, as I said: quality of information. Number two: leisure to digest it. And number three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two.”

Quality, texture of information. Leisure to digest it. And freedom to act on what we learn from the interaction of the first two.

Sounds like an Andrew Kern lecture to me… Or a Stratford Caldecott book:

Fahrenheit 451 p. 164

“And when they ask us what we’re doing, you can say, We’re remembering.”

::  You Can’t Do Simple Maths Under Pressure (a fun online game—see if you can beat it!)

::  The map that shows where America came from: Fascinating illustration shows the ancestry of EVERY county in the US @ Daily Mail

::  No Happy Harmony: Career and motherhood will always tragically conflict by Elizabeth Corey @ First Things

"We are limited, embodied creatures. These limits mean that we cannot do everything to its fullest extent at once, and certain things we may not be able to do at all."

::  When your children’s dreams are different than your own @ Simple Homeschool

“No matter how happy our childhood, we always want our children to have it better than we did. We want more. More choices, education, opportunity to explore interests, freedom for them to soar and realize their full potential.  I don’t know what grand scheme I had in mind for my eldest, but I wanted him to soar!”

::  I’m an introvert and I don’t need to come out of my shell @ The Matt Walsh Blog

"Maybe it’s a stretch to try and connect techno and roast beef with our society’s obsession with being extroverted, but I think it all grows from the same root: We’ve decided that small talk is better than real talk, noise is better than silence, and we’d all rather be — or we’d rather our kids be- Tony Robbins than, say, Leonardo Da Vinci (a notable introvert)."

::  The awesome books my literature students read @ Write at Home (because you know I love a book list)

::  Stories Are Makeshift Things @ CiRCE

"John Gardner wrote that 'The great artist . . . is the [writer] who sees more connections between things than [ordinary people] can see.' I finally think our need for stories is our need to find those connections, and to have confirmed for us the theology we hold secret in our heart, that even the least of us are necessary to the great universal plot in ways we hadn't imagined."

::  School Is No Place for a Reader @ Canadian Notes and Queries

During library period in grade 4 the librarian teaches the children computer skills: making their names appear in various colours and fonts on the screen and designing brochures. At the end of the period there are a few minutes to check out two books. Most children decline the offer. The child sees a book she wants high on the top shelf and asks the librarian to reach it for her. “No. You can’t have anything with a yellow sticker. They are too hard for you. You might be able to read it, but you wouldn’t understand it. Pick one of the books with green stickers.” Green stickers mark the spines of The Magic School Bus, The Babysitters’ Club and The Pokemon Guidebook. The book the child has just finished reading, Oliver Twist, is not in the library at all.

Which leads us to…

::  Shakespeare’s Language and the Evolution of Human Intelligence @ CiRCE

The reason we can’t understand Shakespeare or read the King James Version of the Bible or grapple with Milton or almost any poetry is because we systematically school children in our culture to become increasingly stupid. Charlotte Mason uses the term “stultify” to describe what we do.

::  Some Thoughts on Jaden Smith’s Tweets on Education @ Write at Home

If Jaden meant that education in this country is a mess that needs to be revamped, I’m with him. If he meant that knowledge-hungry teens seeking to satisfy their cravings through independent study at home is better than the insipid fare offered in too many of our nation’s schools, I’ve got his back.

::  Oregon test scores nose-dive, 40 percent of high school juniors failed writing @ Oregon Live

Reading performance dropped in every grade from third through eighth. Passing rates in math fell in five of seven grades tested, including 3 points in third grade and 2 points in seventh grade.

:: Math and the Nature of Reality @ Classical Conversations

“So think about this: do poems follow rigid logical forms? How about allegories? What about irony? These are all forms of thought which contain truth, but do not lend themselves to the analyses of formal logic and mathematics. Nonetheless, logical positivism became one of the most powerful driving forces in modern philosophy. And with it, came the death of many of the deeper forms of human thought in academics and, to a lesser extent, society as a whole.”

::  The complementarity (not incompatibility) of reason and rhyme @ Quantum Frontiers (physics + poetry = lovely)

::  Students Who Get Moving Boost Memory, Study Finds @ Education Week

::  Six Words You Should Say Today @ Huffington Post (fantastic parenting advice!)

::  Let’s be gentle with each other. Let’s read each other’s signs. @ Mamamia (Yes, let’s.)

::  Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy @ Wait But Why

Paul Harvey, a University of New Hampshire professor and GYPSY expert, has researched this, finding that Gen Y has "unrealistic expectations and a strong resistance toward accepting negative feedback," and "an inflated view of oneself."  He says that "a great source of frustration for people with a strong sense of entitlement is unmet expectations. They often feel entitled to a level of respect and rewards that aren’t in line with their actual ability and effort levels, and so they might not get the level of respect and rewards they are expecting."

 

Lists and Lessons

 

Classical Conversations (Cycle 2) Weeks 1-4 Foundations classes (includes public speaking). Essentials: (Levi and Luke)

Faith:
Telling God's Story, Year Two: The Kingdom of Heaven
Buck Denver Asks: What's in the Bible?
Independent Bible Reading

Math:
Teaching Textbooks (Levi—level 6, Luke—level 5, Leif—level 4)
Life of Fred (Kidneys, Liver, Mineshaft, Fractions, Decimals and Percents, Elementary Physics, Pre-Algebra with Biology)

Logic:  

Science:
The Oregon Garden field trip
CC memory work (biomes, consumers, food chain, natural cycles)
The Magic School Bus: The Food Chain (DVD)
Food Chain Frenzy (The Magic School Bus Chapter Book, No. 17)
Desert (Eyewitness Videos) (+Arctic & Antarctic, Seashore, Pond & River, Ocean, Jungle)



P.E.:
Swim team practice
(hiking and swimming) 
 
Fine Arts:
CC Drawing
Joyful Noise Choir (weekly rehearsals + music theory homework)

Language Arts:
CC memory work (parts of speech, pronouns)
Essentials (Levi and Luke) grammar
IEW Medieval history-themed writing 
All About Spelling (Levi and Luke: level 4, -step 13; Leif: level 2, -step 7) 

Latin:
CC memory work (conjugations)
Song School Latin DVD (Leif)
First Form Latin DVD lessons (Luke and Levi (Levi completing workbook lessons), lessons 1-3) 

Spanish:

Geography:
CC memory work (Europe)

History/Literature:
Renaissance Faire
CC memory work (timeline and history sentences)
The Story of the World Volume 2: The Middle Ages (Ch 14-15) 
Man Who Loved Books by Jean Fritz, illustrated by Trina Hyman (Saint Columba)
The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow (historical fiction, chapter book)
Myths Of The Norsemen by Roger Lancelyn Green (literature)
Nordic Gods and Heroes by Padraic Colum (literature)
Favorite Norse Myths by Mary Pope Osborne (literature)
Odin's Family: Myths of the Vikings (literature) (library)
Leif Eriksson
Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky
Leif's Saga: A Viking Tale
Leif the Lucky by D'Aulaire
Viking Times (If You Were There)
History News: The Viking News
Viking Adventure
Who in the World Was The Unready King?: The Story of Ethelred
The Edge On The Sword (historical fiction, chapter book, Levi IR)
The King's Shadow (historical fiction, Battle of Hastings, chapter book, Levi IR)
William the Conqueror
Hastings (Great Battle and Sieges)
Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction by Macaulay
Cathedral (DVD)
Cathedrals: Stone upon Stone
Don't Know Much About the Kings and Queens of England (William the Conqueror)
Famous Men of the Middle Ages (selections)
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (literature)
The Kitchen Knight: A Tale of King Arthur (literature)
Merlin and the Making of the King (literature)
Knight prisoner: The Tale of Sir Thomas Malory and His King Arthur (literature)
King Arthur (Eyewitness Classics) (literature)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (historical time-travel fiction, *literature, Levi-IR, 540 pages)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Tolkien (*literature, read selections aloud)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Selina Hastings (literature)
Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady by Selina Hastings (literature)
(And other King Arthur books…)
The Princess Bride (DVD, just for fun)

Literature Studies:

Miscellaneous Picture Books:
Non-fiction:
Fiction:

(I didn’t keep a close track of independent reading this month!)

Levi’s Free Reading
Chasing the Prophecy (Beyonders) by Brandon Mull (library)
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
Messenger by Lois Lowry
The Prince And The Pauper by Mark Twain

Luke’s Free Reading

Leif’s Free Reading

Miscellaneous:
McDowell Creek Falls (hiking and swimming)
OAKS Amusement Park
House Rock (hiking and swimming)
Birthday parties
The Oregon Garden
Football
Renaissance Faire (and outdoor movie night with friends) 
Bowling with charter school friends

Mt. Hope Academy @ The Live & Learn Studio ~ August 2013

(Maybe I should get our summer round-up list posted now that it is September and we’re gearing up for a new start!)

Food For Thought

 

 

::  Teachers, Remember to Breathe: 4 Books Worth Reading as School Begins @ CiRCE:

“As another school year begins, teachers once again begin spending themselves, pouring themselves out to nurture the souls of their students. But it is an oft-forgotten truth that we breathe out what we breathe in, and far too many teachers spend the school year in a state of constant exhale, an unfortunate reality that is just as problematic for students as it is for their teachers. Teachers, parents: don't forget to breathe deeply.”

::  The Ultimate Backseat Bookshelf: 100 Must-Reads For Kids 9-14 @ NPR Books. This is an interesting list with a ton of family favorites. The age range is tough. There are many books listed that would be great for 9 and under, and several that should be read closer to 14 and up. There are also a few books on the list that we won’t be reading. What do you think of the list?

::  Ten Things I learned From Loving Anne of Green Gables @ Los Angeles Review of Books:

“But while Harry and Lucy and Dorothy offer heroism, they offer it only when the right contexts, and the right mentors, present themselves. Anne, however, has no Dumbledore or Aslan to initiate her into a larger understanding. Instead, Anne herself is the portal — the tornado, the wardrobe — who helps the characters around her understand that the “mundane” world, itself, was always already full of deep magic.”

::  Harry Potter, Homeschooling, and a Pink Professor @ The Mango Times (on engaging the culture—must read):

‘Theory of engagement with the world is and should be taught, yet for some families that is where they stop (and this is where I swing down a few branches on the tree).  Here's what I've personally witnessed:  These families never use their training in the real world.  In an "us vs. them" mentality they continue to sterilize their children by raising them to avoid any engagement with the world.  They disengage from anything to do with popular culture instead of entering the culture equipped with a Christian worldview and practicing the skills of defense (read: Gospel living).  After pulling away from the philosophies of the world, they never return to engage the world with sound Biblical philosophy.  Even after equipping their families with the tools to engage, their energies are spent avoiding the world and living in a "secure risk-free way."’

::  C.S. Lewis as Student, Apologist, and Story-Teller: Convocation Address at Augustine School @ The Imaginative Conservative:

Reading good and beautiful and imaginative stories is not simply “filler” between the real classes like math. Rather, reading good stories is at the heart of a real education. Lewis made clear that real, or true education must be concerned with the training of a student’s sentiments, their dispositions. Ultimately, education must be concerned with the students’ heart. Lewis can write—turning to our namesake, Augustine: “St. Augustine defines virtue as ordo amoris, the ordinate condition of the affections in which every object is accorded that kind and degree of love which is appropriate to it.” Lewis goes on: “Aristotle says that the aim of education is to make the pupil like and dislike what he ought.”

::  A Place for Conversation @ CiRCE

"Made in the image of God, the Storyteller whose tale is spun through history in real lives and real events, people need stories. We thrive upon them, find our place in them, and are taught through them. We all need dialogue and conversation: from my own young children and my high school students to us “grown-ups” who have been taught to forget."

::  Has Fiction Lost Its Faith @ The Rabbit Room (Interesting links and discussion in the comments.)

::  Peace Hill Press status update on Facebook (If you haven’t “liked” them, you are missing out on some of the best entertainment on Facebook):

‘Look, we're all about the classical education. We've got "Art for art's sake" tattooed on ourselves in Homeric Greek, next to the picture of Socrates and the diagram of a compound sentence. But that DOES NOT mean that every student needs to go to a four-year liberal-arts university and major in Early English Literature. If they all did that, we'd starve in the dark. Rather than try to make your budding engineer or technician into a poet, help her become an engineer who writes well or a technician who reads.’

::  The STEM Crisis Is a Myth @ IEEE Spectrum (good stuff):

'Emphasizing STEM at the expense of other disciplines carries other risks. Without a good grounding in the arts, literature, and history, STEM students narrow their worldview—and their career options. In a 2011... op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, Norman Augustine, former chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin, argued that point. “In my position as CEO of a firm employing over 80 000 engineers, I can testify that most were excellent engineers,” he wrote. “But the factor that most distinguished those who advanced in the organization was the ability to think broadly and read and write clearly.”

::  School Has Become Too Hostile to Boys @ TIME Ideas

‘Across the country, schools are policing and punishing the distinctive, assertive sociability of boys. Many much-loved games have vanished from school playgrounds. At some schools, tug of war has been replaced with “tug of peace.” Since the 1990s, elimination games like dodgeball, red rover and tag have been under a cloud — too damaging to self-esteem and too violent, say certain experts. Young boys, with few exceptions, love action narratives. These usually involve heroes, bad guys, rescues and shoot-ups. As boys’ play proceeds, plots become more elaborate and the boys more transfixed. When researchers ask boys why they do it, the standard reply is, “Because it’s fun.”’

::  Schools put genius child in special ed, tell mom he can’t learn. Now he’s free, and he’s on track to win a Nobel Prize. @ The Libertarian Republic. (I greatly enjoyed both videos in this post. I had a huge smile on my face all the time. Our new motto, perfect for classical education, is “Learn, think, create.”) 

::  Writing the Right College-Entrance Essay @ The Wall Street Journal:

My students always asked me, What should I write about?

I'd answer: You are a student of the world. What is it that moves you? What incites you, enrages you? The first-person pronoun is a mighty tool. Use it.

::  40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World (fascinating!!)

 

::  It’s Good To Know Stuff, Part 1 @ Write at Home

“There’s an assumption underlying the question, Why do I have to know this? The assumption is that the purpose of acquiring knowledge is to use it in some practical way in the future. The implication is that there’s no point in learning something that you aren’t going to eventually use. How may of us have complained that we spent all those years learning algebra (or history, or biology, or British literature, etc.) but never once used it in our everyday lives? If that’s true, was our classroom experience simply a waste of time?”

::  It’s Good To Know Stuff, Part 2 @ Write at Home

“Deep down we all love to know stuff.”

::  It’s Good To Know Stuff, Part 3 @ Write at Home

"And keep in mind that it’s not necessary to get a college degree in the arts in order to benefit from them. It makes sense to get your degree in computer engineering, get a job that you find fulfilling and rewarding, and pursue the arts at... your leisure. It’s silly to think one can only learn about music and fine art by studying it in school. There are museums and libraries and websites and organizations of all kinds that can help us pursue knowledge of these things."

::  A free e-book from Write at Home: Top Ten Mistakes Teen Writers Make

::  Kids, go to college or you’ll die alone in misery @ The Matt Walsh Blog (Go read the whole thing. It is outstanding. And funny.)

"Education is something that happens in buildings specifically designed for that purpose. Then, after a few years, you walk across a stage and — POOF! — you’re educated. You’re done. Education complete. You are officially an educated person. You completed all the steps, followed the path, solved all the puzzles, made it to the final boss and killed him, and now you’ve beaten the game. Time to kick back and take it easy!"

::  1912 Grammar Test for 8th Graders @ Grammar Revolution

::  10 Simple Things You Can Do Today That Will Make You Happier, Backed By Science

8. Plan a trip - but don’t take one

As opposed to actually taking a holiday, it seems that planning a vacation or just a break from work can improve our happiness. A study published in the journal, Applied Research in Quality of Life showed that the highest spike in happiness came during the planning stage of a vacation as employees enjoyed the sense of anticipation.

::  Foreign words with no specific English translation, describing experiences we all have [11 pictures] @ 22 Words (delightful) 

::  7 Secrets of Highly Happy Children @ Huffington Post:

"When it comes to kids, people just don't think about happiness enough these days. They think about success. They think in comparisons. They think about milestones, graduations and shiny trophies... They think about things like redshirting a potential Kindergartener -- not so that he will be happy, but so that he will have an advantage on the playing field or in the classroom."

::  Obvious Secrets @ CiRCE (In response to the above article):

‘Hurley's "secrets", for the most part, were once universally practiced patterns of life.  Among the seven enumerated (told you the title gives it away) are regular eating and sleeping patterns, and cultivating active, well-used imaginations.  She also adds just enough terrible advice to keep it interesting (see #4 on her list where she labels foot-stomping, public temper tantrums as simple "expression" and encourages parents to let it happen).’

::  How To Talk With Your Sons About Robin Thicke @ Eric Clapp

::  So, There Was Someone ELSE On The Stage, Right, People? @ Some Ordinary Readers 

::  23 Signs You’re Secretly An Introvert @ Huffington Post (Yes, yes, and 21 more yeses…)

You may not pick up your phone even from people you like, but you’ll call them back as soon as you’re mentally prepared and have gathered the energy for the conversation.

"To me, a ringing phone is like having somebody jump out of a closet and go 'BOO!,'" says Dembling. "I do like having a long, nice phone call with a friend -- as long as it's not jumping out of the sky at me."

::  America's Real Criminal Element: Lead @ Mother Jones (surprising. fascinating.):

"If childhood lead exposure really did produce criminal behavior in adults, you'd expect that in states where consumption of leaded gasoline declined slowly, crime would decline slowly too. Conversely, in states where it declined quickly, crime would decline quickly. And that's exactly what she found."

::  Study Shows Millennials Are More Forgetful Than Seniors @ Huffington Post:

‘"Stress often leads to forgetfulness, depression and poor judgment," she said. “We find higher rates of ADHD diagnoses in young adults. This is a population that has grown up multitasking using technology, often compounded by lack of sleep, all of which results in high levels of forgetfulness.”’

::  With Little Kids, You Take Trips, Not Vacations @ Huffington Post (okay, this one won’t stretch your brain, but I feel the need to put in a hilarious treat for those of you who brave my long list of posts and make it to the end…):

"We turned on some music to drown out the crazies in the back, and said a silent prayer of thanks for our life (not really, but refraining from losing it at your screaming kids while on road trips counts as prayer). There will be seasons for vacations, sometime in the future. But the season in which we live right now involves trips. And we will take more of them, to God be the glory, great things he has done."

 

Lists and Lessons

(I tried to keep accurate lists, but it was August, after all…)

Faith
5-day Good News Club

Math
Mathtacular 4: Word Problems (DVD)
Teaching Textbooks
Life of Fred: Kidneys, Liver, and Mineshaft
Beast Academy

Logic:
Logic in 100 Minutes (Levi watched this workshop video while reviewing The Fallacy Detective from Logic camp last month.)   

Science:
Two-day rock science class
Two-day plant science class
Focus On Middle School Geology Student Textbook (Real Science 4 Kids) (Excellent review and depth for recent geology studies)
Earth Science: Rock 'N Learn DVD (re-watched, excellent review)
Human Body (Rock N Learn DVD)
Eyewitness DVD: Human Machine
Eyewitness DVD: Skeleton

P.E.
Swimming

Fine Arts:
Maestro Classics: The Sorcerer's Apprentice (CD)
Maestro Classics: The Story of Swan Lake (CD)
Do Re Mi: If You Can Read Music, Thank Guido D'Arezzo

 

History, Literature, Historical Fiction:
The Story of the World Volume 2: The Middle Ages (Ch 11-13) 
The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (Levi, assigned pages)
The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History (Luke, assigned pages)
Anna of Byzantium (historical fiction, Levi-IR)
Do Re Mi: If You Can Read Music, Thank Guido D'Arezzo (The true story of the medieval monk who formulated the system of musical notation.)
Ali, Child of the Desert (fictional picture book, Sahara and Morocco) (library)
What About Me? retold by Ed Young (Ancient Middle East fable, literature) (library)
The White Stag by Kate Seredy (literature, legend of Attila the Hun, Hungary)
Hidden Tales from Eastern Europe (literature)
Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Spain (literature)
Anno's Spain (lovely wordless picture book)
The Most Magnificent Mosque (picture book, historical fiction, when Moors ruled Spain)
Son of Charlemagne by Barbara Willard (historical fiction, chapter book, Levi-IR)
Marguerite Makes a Book (picture book, historical fiction, book making in medieval France)
Valentine and Orson (retelling of medieval French romance, read aloud, literature)
Old French Fairy Tales by Comtesse De Segur (literature)
World of King Arthur and His Court: The: People, Places, Legend, and Lore (literature) (library)
*The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White (Levi and Luke both read) (literature)
The Minstrel in the Tower (historical fiction, easy chapter book)
The Sword in the Tree (historical fiction, easy chapter book)
The Whipping Boy (historical fiction, easy chapter book)
The King's Equal (fairy tale, easy chapter book)
The Midwife's Apprentice (historical fiction, easy chapter book)
Dick Whittington and His Cat by Marcia Brown (picture book legend of Richard Whittington, c. 1400-London)
Whittington by Alan Armstrong (chapter book legend of Richard Whittington, c. 1400-London, Levi and Luke-IR) (library)

Literature Study:
Book Detectives literary analysis book club ~ Yoshi's Feast by Kimiko Kajikawa (library)

Levi’s Free Reading:
(A bunch of re-reads plus…)
The Hunters: Brotherband Chronicles, Book 3 (library)
The High Skies Adventures of Blue Jay the Pirate (library)
Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds (library)
101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith (library)
The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (library)
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (library)
Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce (library)
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron (library)
Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet (library)
Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce (library)
Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce (library)
Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce (library)
The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull (library)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car by Ian Fleming
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again by Frank Cottrell Boyce (library)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time by Frank Cottrell Boyce (library)
Leepike Ridge by N.D. Wilson (library)
Son of the Black Stallion by Walter Farley
Jakarta Missing by Jane Kurtz
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh

Luke’s Free Reading:
(He read parts of a bunch of books, but had trouble finishing them.)
The High Skies Adventures of Blue Jay the Pirate (library)
The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (library)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car by Ian Fleming
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again by Frank Cottrell Boyce (library)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time by Frank Cottrell Boyce (library)

Leif’s Free Reading:
(He’s reading a bunch, but mostly books we have on hand and I haven’t kept track.)
Magic Tree House #49: Stallion by Starlight (library)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car by Ian Fleming

Miscellaneous Picture Books:
Non-Fiction:
Galileo's Leaning Tower Experiment (library)
A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin (library)
Mary Walker Wears the Pants: The True Story of the Doctor, Reformer, and Civil War Hero (library)
The True Adventure of Daniel Hall (library)
Diego Rivera: An Artist for the People (library)

Fiction:
The Three Golden Keys by Peter Sis—(This author is pure magic. This story is “the reworking of three classic Czechoslovakian fairy tales into a haunting illustrated fable of his lost childhood in Prague that is also a deeply felt allegory of the reclamation of a Czech cultural identity after forty-five years of Communist rule.”) (library)
Apples to Oregon: Being the (Slightly) True Narrative of How a Brave Pioneer Father Brought Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries (and Children) Across the Plains (library)
Once upon a Time (South Africa) (library)
One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey (One of my all-time favorite children’s book authors/illustrators) (library) 
Humphrey, Albert, and the Flying Machine by Kathryn Lasky (library)
King Arthur's Very Great Grandson (library)
Everybody Bonjours! (library)
Inventor McGregor (library)

Extras:
The last concert in the park
Weekend Swim Meet in Bend (including camping out, splash park, and lots of hanging out with friends)
5 days of Good News Club with friends
Choir auditions
A day on the water
Family reunion
Foreigner concert in the park
Art and Air Festival, Young Eagles flights
Cool Pool with Friends
Several play dates

Mt. Hope Academy @ The Live & Learn Studio ~ July 2013

Food For Thought

Here is a buffet for you—all sorts of good things to digest. Take your time.

::  I Wonder: Work, Art, and the Deeper Meaning of Life by Somer Salomon @ Transpositions:

“Wonder, however, acknowledges first that we exist in a created reality bigger than ourselves.  In this way, Pieper maintained that the proper beginning for both the arts and philosophy is an openness to this created reality - and the highest form of understanding is then received as a gift from the Creator.[3]  Pieper writes that art and philosophy “cannot be accomplished except with an attitude of receptive openness and attentive silence - which, indeed, is the exact opposite of the worker’s attitude of concentrated exertion.”

::  Artists: Don’t Just Work; Be at Leisure! by Somer Salomon @ Transpositions:

Instead, Pieper maintains that the arts are most definitely rooted in leisure. Pieper insists that we have forgotten the true meaning of leisure, from which springs richness, fullness of life, existential meaning, and happiness.  Leisure is not idleness or even relaxation (both of which Pieper ironically says are other forms of work).  Instead, leisure is the openness to the given world, an attitude of considering the things before us in a celebratory spirit.  Ultimately, Pieper maintains, leisure is rooted in the idea of festival!  Festival is humanity’s chance to rejoice in our being and offer thanks for our lives; it is the joyful homage we bring to the Creator for the harmony of his world and our place in it.

:: “If we knew that all our students wished to be corporate executives, would we train them to be good readers of memos, quarterly reports, and stock quotations, and not bother their heads with poetry, science, and history? I think not. Everyone who thinks, thinks not. Specialized competence can only come through a more generalized competence, which is to say that economic utility is a by-product of a good education. Any education that is mainly about economic utility is far too limited to be useful, and, in any case, so diminishes the world that it mocks one's humanity. At the very least, it diminishes the idea of what a good learner is."
-Neil Postman, The End of Education

::  Beyond Newspaper Chewing: Why it Matters What is Read in High School (Part I of II) by Russell Kirk @ Crisis Magazine (Incredible article. Click on the link to read it in full. Here is a small taste.):

“Genuine relevance in literature, on the contrary, is relatedness to what Eliot described as “the permanent things”: to the splendor and tragedy of the human condition, to constant moral insights, to the spectacle of human history, to love of community and country, to the achievements of right reason. Such a literary relevance confers upon the rising generation a sense of what it is to be fully human, and a knowledge of what great men and women of imagination have imparted to our civilization over the centuries. Let us be relevant in our teaching of literature, by all means—but relevant to the genuine ends of the literary discipline, not relevant merely to what will be thoroughly irrelevant tomorrow.”

:: Beyond Newspaper Chewing: Why it Matters What is Read in High School (Part II of II) (A proposed “humane letters” book list for high school students. I enjoyed this nugget.):

“Fiction is truer than fact: I mean that in great fiction we obtain the dis­tilled judgments of writers of remarkable perceptions—views of human nature and society which we could get, if unaided by books, only at the end of life, if then.”

::  On Teaching From a State of Rest @ Amongst Lovely Things:

“We homeschooling mothers worry over everything. We worry that we aren't doing a good enough job, that our kids aren't progressing, that they aren't reading as well as they should be. We worry that they won't develop the study skills they need, won't do enough science experiments, won't read enough Great Books, won't get good SAT scores, won't won't wont. We worry about who they are hanging out with and how well they are eating and if they are getting enough sleep. We worry that the curriculum we've chosen isn't a good fit, that it isn't challenging enough, or maybe that it's too challenging. We worry that we aren't teaching Latin and everybody else is teaching Latin, that our child is two math books behind the other homeschooled kids we know, that we haven't done enough poetry or nature study or grammar.”

::  A Game-Changing Education Book from England by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. @ Core Knowledge (Read the excellent preview of her book at Amazon using the “Look inside” feature: Seven Myths about Education):

“The author gives evidence from her own experience of the ways in which potentially effective teachers have been made ineffective because they are dutifully following the ideas instilled in them by their training institutes. These colleges of education have not only perpetuated wrong ideas about skills and knowledge, but in their scorn for “mere facts” have also deprived these potentially good teachers of the knowledge they need to be effective teachers of subject matter. Teachers who are only moderately talented teacher can be highly effective if they follow sound teaching principles and a sound curriculum within a school environment where knowledge builds cumulatively from year to year.”

::  The End of the Matter! @ Odoro Amoris (Clearly coming from a place of mother-anguish.)

::  Nine Throw-Away Ideas With Which to Think by Andrew Kern @ CiRCE Institute

“When we listen to a song or composition, the composer creates a tension by creating a gap in the form that our very soul strives to fill. When he brings about the resolution, we feel joy. The same thing happens on a math equation.

“A poet will adopt a form and find that he needs more content to fill in a verse. This will generate ideas that would not otherwise have been discovered.”

::  English Metrical Law by Stratford Caldecott @ The Imaginative Conservative:

“[W]hat good prose has in common with good poetry is music, “harmonious numbers,” and specifically rhythm. (Flaubert is famously said to have worked out a rhythm for the final pages of Madame Bovary before coming up with the words.) Rhythm or metre is a mathematical structure, a structure of repetition and variation. It creates a shape in time, a dynamic flowing movement that carries the mind along with it. If prose lacks rhythm, it leaves us behind. Our attention is too easily diverted from the direction the author intends us to move.”

And

“[H]e also argues that the best poetry does not follow the rules tamely and as if mechanically, but will convey feeling by constant little tensions with the underlying structure, little departures from the standard pattern. (The same is true in music. It must constantly surprise us in little ways; which it can only do if the form to which it basically conforms creates a framework of expectation.) Thus “there seems to be a perpetual conflict between the law of the verse and freedom of the language, and each is incessantly, though insignificantly, violated for the purpose of giving effect to the other.”

::  The Three Rules of Work by Lisa Bailey @ Classical Conversations:

“However, when I read that Albert Einstein once posited that there were three rules of work, I had to pause to consider his position. As I pondered, I realized that the genius was right and that these rules for work might well be rules for homeschooling, too. The rules are elementary and surprisingly easy to remember: out of clutter find simplicity, from discord find harmony, and in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

::  5 things I hate about homeschooling (& how I deal with them) by Jamie Martin @ Simple Homeschool

“Fear of not enough time keeps many from considering home education. After all, how could someone possibly keep a clean home, educate multiple kids, work part-time, have a strong marriage, and stay sane at the same time?”

::  Coming Soon to Theaters near You! Saxon Advanced Math by Jennifer Greenholt @ Classical Conversations (so funny)

“Our Mother Tongue would be a heartwarming production co-written by Nicholas Sparks and Alex Kendrick, and starring Rachel McAdams and Kirk Cameron. The Smiths are just your average American family: Dad (a newspaper editor who works a bit too hard), Mom (a high school English teacher who worries about the future of her profession), and their children (tech-savvy teenagers who could not care less about the written word). Then, a devastating accident brought on by texting while driving threatens to destroy the family. Enter an inspiring therapist (Sean Connery), who uses sentence diagramming to restore the son’s fine motor and cognitive skills. As the Smith family works through classes of words and kinds of sentences, they rediscover their love for one other as well as the power of the English language.”

::  My Summer with Percy Jackson by Kathy Sheppard @ Classical Conversations:

“The fake “little g” gods of Percy Jackson provide a springboard to discussion concerning our God. Riordan does a wonderful job representing the “little g” gods in the way that the ancients portrayed them. They are always intervening and scheming, just like in the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid. They are anthropomorphic (i.e., they act exactly like humans) and have human imperfections such as greed, lying, selfishness, and extreme hatred. They are bumbling, always fighting, and have no foresight into the future of people. They were created instead of being a creator.”

:: 6 Homeschooling Misconceptions Erased @ Simple Homeschool (excellent article!):

“Like any other parent, I’m driven to provide my children with the essential ingredients that lead to lifelong happiness and success. Late at night, unable to sleep, I’ve entertained my share of doubts. What if homeschooling will limit their chances? I finally realized I was looking at it from too narrow a perspective.”

:: From Brave Writer on Facebook. (If you haven’t liked her page, do it. Her thoughts and posts are intelligent and encouraging.):

"We are the lucky ones. We have work, love in our lives, and the personalities to not settle. We look for ways to grow, improve, and become people who make contributions that last and matter.

"We don't give in to the status quo. We aren't content to do 'what we've always done' just because we've always done it.

"We aren't afraid to take risks, even though sometimes we feel afraid. We aren't worried that others 'won't understand' so much so, that we stay in situations that aren't healthy or good for us, or our loved ones.

"We are willing to try hard and harder, and we are willing to rest when we need a rest. We make changes when they need to be made.

"We have friendships and optimism and hope for the future and our good health. We are the lucky ones."

::  Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School @ The Atlantic:

“A study released last year in the Journal of Human Resources confirms my suspicions. It seems that behavior plays a significant role in teachers' grading practices, and consequently, boys receive lower grades from their teachers than testing would have predicted. The authors of this study conclude that teacher bias regarding behavior, rather than academic performance, penalizes boys as early as kindergarten. On average, boys receive lower behavioral assessment scores from teachers, and those scores affect teachers' overall perceptions of boys' intelligence and achievement.”

::  Pleasure and Practice in the Literature Classroom @ The Art of Poetry:

“I start every class having students recite either a poem or a prose passage-they do this 3-4 times in a semester.  This gives them a direct intimacy with the language and it gives the listeners a certain relation to the language as well-receiving it as a gift from another human being.  IT also starts our class on the right foot-a liturgy of beginning, if you will, we we are reminding ourself of the importance of the words of these beloved writers, taking them in, making them part of our meanings.”

::  Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills @ NPR:

“It turns out that all that time spent playing make-believe actually helped children develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function. Executive function has a number of different elements, but a central one is the ability to self-regulate. Kids with good self-regulation are able to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline.”

::  Meaning Is Healthier Than Happiness @ The Atlantic:

“Cole and Fredrickson found that people who are happy but have little to no sense of meaning in their lives — proverbially, simply here for the party — have the same gene expression patterns as people who are responding to and enduring chronic adversity. That is, the bodies of these happy people are preparing them for bacterial threats by activating the pro-inflammatory response. Chronic inflammation is, of course, associated with major illnesses like heart disease and various cancers.”

::  The Right Kind of Happy @ The Economist (same song, different hymnal as my friend Pam says)

“THE Greek founders of philosophy constantly debated how best to live the good life. Some contended that personal pleasure is the key. Others pointed out that serving society and finding purpose is vital. Socrates was in the latter camp, fiercely arguing that an unvirtuous person could not be happy, and that a virtuous person could not fail to be happy.”

::  16 Fancy Literary Techniques Explained By Disney @ BuzzFeed (Actually quite helpful!!)

5. FOIL
Definition: A character who illuminates the qualities of another character by means of contrast.
Example: Gaston’s combination of good looks and terrible personality emphasizes Beast’s tragic situation. The former is a monster trapped inside a man; the latter a man trapped inside a monster.

 

Lists and Lessons

It was a busy month, and I tried my best to keep track of our reading lists at least. (The boys did a little math here and there, as well.)

Language Arts: 
All About Spelling
Penpal Letters

History/Literature/Historical Fiction:
The Story of the World Volume 2: The Middle Ages (Ch 3-10) 
The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (Levi, assigned pages)
The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History (Luke, assigned pages)
Hostage Lands by Douglas Bond (historical fiction, Roman Britain 3rd century A.D., 228 pp, Levi-IR)
Augustine, the Farmers Boy of Tagaste (Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.)
Against the World: The Odyssey of Athanasius (373 A.D.) 
Beowulf: Dragonslayer retold by Rosemary Sutcliff
Across a Dark and Wild Sea (Ireland in 521 A.D., Columcille, writing books by hand) (library) 
The Book of Kells: An Illustrated Introduction to the Manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin
The Secret of Kells (DVD, Netflix and Amazon streaming)
The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane (historical fiction, monasteries, making colored ink) 
Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola (library)
The Story of Saint Patrick (400s)
Patrick: Saint of Ireland
Saint Patrick: Pioneer Missionary to Ireland
The Life of Saint Brigid: Abbess of Kildare
Saint Ciaran: The Tale of a Saint of Ireland 
Augustine Came to Kent (historical fiction, Augustine of Canterbury, 597 A.D., 179 pp, Levi-IR) 
Fin M'coul: The Giant of Knockmany Hill (Irish legend, literature) 
Scottish Fairy Tales
The Holy Twins: Benedict and Scholastica (480-547 A.D.)
Who in the World Was The Acrobatic Empress?: The Story of Theodora
How the Monastery Came to Be on the Top of the Mountain (Romanian oral tradition)
Byzantine Empire (Explore Ancient Worlds) (library)
The Byzantine Empire (Exploring the Ancient World) (library)
The Real Santa Claus by Marianna Mayer
One Thousand and One Arabian Nights retold by Geraldine McCaughrean (literature)
The Story of Sinbad the Sailor and Other Tales
Science in Early Islamic Cultures
Empress of China, Wu Ze Tian: Written by Jiang Cheng an ; Illustrated by Xu De Yuan
The Silk Route: 7,000 Miles of History 
Ancient China (See Through History) (library)
Through Time: Beijing (library)
Maples in the Mist: Poems for Children from the Tang Dynasty (library)
Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Imperial China (Magic School Bus) (library)
We're Riding on a Caravan: An Adventure on the Silk Road (library)
The Crane Wife (Japanese Folktale) (library)
Little Oh (Japanese Folktale) (library)
Cool Melons-Turn to Frogs!: The Life and Poems of Issa (Japan) (library) 
Chieko and the Pine - A Japanese Folktale (DVD) (library)
The Boy Who Drew Cats adapted by Margaret Hodges (Japanese Folktale) (library)
The Pumpkin Runner (Australia) (library)
The Story of Rosy Dock (Australia) (library)
Through Time: London (library)

Literature Study:
Book Detectives literary analysis book club: The Raft
The Golden Ass of Lucius Apuleius (adapted from the Latin original and appropriately retold for younger audiences)

Levi’s Free Reading:
Re-read the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull (4 books) (library)
A World Without Heroes (Beyonders) (library)
Seeds of Rebellion (Beyonders) (library)
100 Cupboards (100 Cupboards, Bk 1) (library)
Dandelion Fire: Book 2 of the 100 Cupboards (library)
The Chestnut King: Book 3 of the 100 Cupboards (library)
The Dragon's Tooth (Ashtown Burials #1) (library)
The Drowned Vault (Ashtown Burials #2) (library)
(Here is an interesting article about 100 Cupboards and N.D. Wilson at The Rabbit Room. I’ve used many of their book selections for Levi this month.)
Auralia's Colors (The Auralia Thread Series #1) (library)
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (library)
Reread first three books in the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik
(Note: If anyone uses Levi’s book list as a reference, Temeraire is not a children’s/young adult series. I am merely listing the books he reads, not wholeheartedly endorsing them for all children/teens.)
Empire of Ivory (Temeraire, Book 4) (library)
Victory of Eagles (Temeraire, Book 5) (library)
Tongues of Serpents (Temeraire, Book 6) (library)
Crucible of Gold (Temeraire, Book 7) (library)
The Bark Of The Bog Owl (The Wilderking Trilogy) (library)
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (library)
The Outcasts: Brotherband Chronicles, Book 1 by John Flanagan (author of Ranger’s Apprentice series) (library)
The Invaders: Brotherband Chronicles, Book 2 (library)
Pages of History, Volume Two: Blazing New Trails (historical fiction from Veritas Press, 1500s to the present)

Luke’s Free Reading:
100 Cupboards (100 Cupboards, Bk 1) (library)
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (library)
Pages of History, Volume Two: Blazing New Trails (historical fiction from Veritas Press, 1500s to the present)
The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull (library)

Leif’s Free Reading:
More progress!!
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Pippi in the South Seas
Pippi on the Run
Dominic by William Steig
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (library)
(Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Magic Tree House…

My Reading!:
His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, Book 1)
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (library)
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (library)
Birds by Aristophanes
100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson (library)
The Duel by Anton Chekhov
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery

Miscellaneous Lovely Picture Books:
Non-fiction:
Diogenes' Lantern (The Greek philosopher)
Diogenes (The Greek philosopher…as a dog)
Wise Guy: The Life and Philosophy of Socrates (library)
On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein (library)
Fiction:
The Treasure by Uri Shulevitz (library)
Picture books by William Steig

Extras:
A full day of science camp (including shark dissection) (Luke and Levi)
Three days of logic camp using The Fallacy Detective: Thirty-Eight Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning (Levi-3 days, Luke-1) 
Star-gazing with Great-Grandpa (and time spend with both Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma)
Weekly+ get-togethers (potluck, volleyball) in the garden with family and friends
Monday evening concerts in the park
A week of VBS for the boys (Levi volunteering)
(Russ out of state for two weeks!)
A day in the mountains, a day on the water
Play dates with friends, birthday party, swim practice
All sorts of good stuff…