Max Beerbohm, b. 1872, was an English satirist, critic and caricaturist. Quotation of the day: “Anything that is worth doing has been done frequently. Things hitherto undone should be given, I suspect, a wide berth.”
I’d like to look at one book of caricatures by Beerbohm entitled Rossetti and His Circle because I’m interested in Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, and the Pre-Raphaelites. I wrote here about the movie that first piqued my interest in Rossetti and his circle of friends.
I think every available wall in our home has a bookcase–many of them floor to ceiling.
I have all my paperback murder mysteries—mostly Agatha Christie and Rex Stout and Dorothy Sayers–on a small black metal shelf. One of my bedroom walls is covered in bookshelf, and it houses many of Engineer Husband’s science and math books. We have another large shelf full of children’s science books, another with US History-related books, and another world history related books.
In the living room we have a shelf full of Picture Book Preschool books, another with fiction, and another with mostly Bibles, commentaries, and art books.
We have holiday books, cookbooks, foreign languages and biographies shelved in the gameroom, and each of the urchins has a shelf for school books. Oh, and there’s more fiction in Organizer Daughter’s bedroom, and more picture books in the boys’ room. And I still have books in boxes in the garage.
I’m ashamed to say that our shelves don’t look neat; we have a bad habit of stacking things on top of the books in the shelves–notebooks, a radio, videos, a rolled-up poster, science supplies. I can see these things just in the bookshelf next to my computer.
Last but not least, I forgot about the books waiting for a home that are stacked behind my closet door.
What’s a bibliophile to do? Build more bookshelves.
Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. You can purchase a downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.
WEEK 35 (Aug) CITIES
Character Trait: Meekness
Bible Verse: Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5
1. Isadora, Rachel. City Seen from A to Z. Greenwillow, 1983.
2. Burton, Virginia Lee. The Little House. HoughtonMifflin, 1942.
3. Tresselt, Alvin. Wake Up, City. Lothrop Lee, 1957, 1990.
4. Keats, Ezra Jack. Whistle for Willie. Viking, 1964.
5. Munro, Roxie. The Inside-Outside Book of New York City. Dodd, 1985. OP
6. Lenski, Lois. Sing A Song of People. Little Brown, 1985, 1987.
7. Ransom, Candice. The Big Green Pocketbook. HarperCollins, 1993.
Activities : Take a bus ride in the city. Talk about all the things you see. When you get home, you may want to write a story about your experience.
LaShawn Barber is giving advice about blogging, and I think it’s good advice. She says,
Everyone and his mother are blogging. To stand out, individual bloggers will need to “niche blog.” That is, pick a topic you know a lot about or want to know more about, find out what’s currently out there, and more importantly, what’s not, and start filling in the gaps.
The problem is that I don’t want to blog that way. Is this a litblog or a homeschooling blog or a political blog (yes, I air my views on that topic sometimes) or a Christian inspirational blog or . . . Well, it’s all of the above and none of the above and more. I know that if someone comes here looking for a book review and finds me blogging about a day in our homeschool or vice-versa, that reader might be less likely to come back. Or what if a young guy who’s interested in a Christian perspective on the news reads one of my mommy posts? Or a movie buff finds my list of 105 Best Movies Ever and comes to Semicolon expecting more of the same, only to find me talking about books, books, and more books.
Well, sorry, guys, but I do this for enjoyment, not for stats or for the money (what money?). So I’ll just keep blogging about whatever suits my fancy and hope that it suits some of you, too. I just don’t fit in a “niche”—so I guess I’ll remain an insignificant little semicolon. However, everybody needs a semicolon every once in a great while.
Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Everyone else is percolating right along, but it’s lunchtime, and the two middlers, Brown Bear Daughter (10) and Karate Kid (8), have only finished their Saxon math lesson and listened to me read the Bible aloud. We eat lunch, courtesy of Organizer Daughter, and then I herd the two slowpokes back to the table to do handwriting, easy grammar and dailygrams, copywork, multiplication practice worksheet, and a history workbook called Story of the USA. A lot of our lesson plans come straight out of the Fourth Grade Sonlight curriculum, but I modify and cut and move stuff around as I feel necessary.
We’re reading two books aloud right now: Diary of an Early American Boy by Eric Sloane and Imprisoned in the Golden City by Dave and Neta Jackson. After we finish reading, Brown Bear Daughter and Karate Kid do a lesson in Cost Benefit, Jr. by Stephanie Herman, an economics curriculum I received as a gift for review purposes and liked so much that we’re using it in school this year. They still have to take turns reading their reader, a biography of Thomas Jefferson, and then we’re done–just in time for Karate Kid to get ready for karate, or Kuk Sool Won as it’s called at the place where he takes lessons. (It’s a Korean thing.) Karate Kid is a brown belt, and he says he’ll be a black belt before he’s twelve. Betsy Bee, Z-baby, and Brown Bear Daughter watch Cyberchase, a math show on PBS while I take Karate Kid to his lesson.
Dancer Daughter and Brown Bear Daughter both have dance tonight, and I still have to put supper (stew) on to cook sometime in between playing taxi. I sometimes think we’re way too busy, but if you have eight children and each one of them does only one outside activity, you still have a lot of taxi service to do. Dancer Daughter (almost 16) and Computer Guru Son (almost 18) are both taking driver’s ed from their dad in the evenings and on Saturdays and whenever they can work it in. That’s one class I gladly leave to Engineer Husband. He also tutors kids (his own) in math as needed, and he teaches science to Brown Bear Daughter and to Karate Kid in the evenings. They’re finishing up the Apologia Botany book right now, and my house is full of “plant experiments” that I must be careful not to disturb.
Our evening is a whirlwind of supper, dance, science, baths, and trying to go to bed at a decent hour. We don’t make it—again, but as Scarlett once said, “I’ll think about that tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day.”
Having disposed of the older set, figuratively speaking, in Part 2, we return to the younger four: Brown Bear Daughter (10), Karate Kid (8), Betsy Bee (6), and Z-Baby (almost 4). In our last installment, I sent Brown Bear Daughter and Karate Kid to the table to do their math lesson. They didn’t actually start because they were discussing how to build a space ship out of furniture and blankets–or some such project–so I had to not-so-gently remind that it was math time not space ship time. I’m working on the gentleness, which is a certified Fruit of the Spirit, but usually I find that a firm tone of voice, slightly louder than usual, gets more results.
I sit down with Betsy Bee to read her reader, Part 2 of Jake and Mike Take a Bike Hike. Those who have been through this set of readers six times already, as have I, will recognize this story immediately as part of that sparkling series of books associated with the curriculum Sing, Spell, Read, and Write. I do not fall asleep while Bethy Bee is sounding out words such as b-i-k-e and c-a-k-e and r-a-k-e. We are, as you can guess, studying the “silent e,” and all kidding aside, I find that teaching a child to read, seeing the words on the page come alive, is one of the most rewarding parts of homeschooling for me–if I can just stay awake long enough to see it happen.
Bethy Bee and I continue with school by doing her Miquon math, her Sing, Spell, Read and Write workbook, and her Explode the Code workbook. She likes workbooks. Then, she asks for a break. She’s actually about finished for the day, but she doesn’t know it since she hasn’t learned to distinguish schoolwork from other work or from play. We’re also reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder, mostly for Betsy Bee in the evenings, although the other “youngers” listen, too. Some coloring, lots of play, and her classes at co-op on Friday mornings and that’s about the extent of Besty Bee’s schooling at this stage.
Brown Bear Daughter and Karate Kid are still working on their math lesson. Z-Baby wants to do school; she also wants to watch television. I resist the TV idea and sit down to work on her alphabet book with her. We’re working on the letter “B” this week. We draw or paste a big B in the middle of of page 2 of a spiral notebook, and then one of us draws or glues pictures of things that start with “B” on the page. No, I don’t have a genius; she doesn’t really know what starts with “B”. I just tell her. We read a Picture Book Preschool book, and she loses interest in school and goes to play/make a mess with Betsy Bee. Something with water and Barbies.
Brown Bear Daughter and Karate Kid are still working on their math lesson. To speed them up, I threaten no afternon activities unless they finish all their school work for the day. Brown Bear Daughter gets serious about the math lesson, and Karate Kid follows her lead. Hooray! we’re done with Saxon math. We celebrate with a short break. I check my email and make a phone call. The math finishers start some project that they won’t want to put down in order to finish up the rest of their school work.
To be continued.
He was born August 17, 1786, the fifth of nine children, in a small cabin near the Nolichucky River in Tennessee.
When he was twelve, he spent four days in school, had a fight with another boy, and left home to escape a licking from his dad.
In addition to the four days, he had only six months of formal schooling.
He was married twice, had two sons, fought the Creek Indians, served in the Tennesse legislature, and then became a US Congressman.
His rifle was named “Betsy,” and his motto was: “Be always sure you are right, and then go ahead.”
If you’ve figured out who it is with a birthday today, you also know, of course, when and where he died. Hint: I’ve seen the place, and my children know the stories of the men who died there.
Eldest, the second book in the Inheritance Trilogy by homeschooled author Christopher Paolini is due to be released a week from today on Tuesday, August 23rd. I probably won’t read it until it hits the library, but my library system is fairly speedy in the acquisition of new books. So maybe in a month or two I can tell you what I think of this second book. Or you can just read it and decide for yourself.
My review of Eragon, the first book in the trilogy.
After prayer and Bible reading, Brown Bear Daughter (grade 5) and Karate Kid (grade 3) are sent to the gameroom table to do their math lesson. We start with the math lesson going by the theory that doing the hardest task first makes for a shorter school time. This theory does not always work out in practice. Both Brown Bear Daughter and Karate Kid are working through Saxon Math 5/4. They’re on lesson 60, and I hope they will finish by Christmas, doing four lessons a week.
The older children scatter to their bedrooms to start on their school. All three of the young adults in the house work independently, only coming to me for advice and help very infrequently. I try to keep an eye on what they’re doing and keep their transcripts up to date. Organizer Daughter (grade 9) is taking one online class, Spanish 1, this year, one class with a teacher at our church (English/Bible/History), and one class at our homeschool co-op (Physical Science). Engineer Husband is teaching the Physical Science lab on Friday mornings at co-op. Organizer Daughter is also doing Saxon Math. She’s about finished with 7/6 and hoping to finish Algebra 1/2 this year.
Dancer Daughter (grade 11) is taking two classes online: Grammar and Composition and Music Theory. She’s doing her chemistry lab at co-op, and she’s working through Saxon Algebra 2. She’s also taking the British Literature class and the Worldview class that I’m teaching at co-op. She also dances about six hours a week–more about that later.
Computer Guru Son is a senior this year, and he’ll be taking his first college classes at the junior college near us. He’s taking Government and College Algebra this fall, and if he does as well as I think he will, he’ll take another couple of classes in the spring. He’s also in my British Literature class and my Worldview class. And he’s got a few other loose ends to tie up before he graduates.
To be continued tomorrow.
What ever happened to . . . Rubik’s Cube? I remember when these were popular, about twenty-five years ago. But according to this firebug, some people are still trying to solve Rubik’s Cube. And he derives a spiritual application:
One of the things you quickly learn is that you can’t move one piece without affecting at least one other piece. And most moves displace at least three pieces. It’s a three-dimensional object lesson about the inevitability of causes and effects, as well as an effective illustration of the principle of 1 Corinthians 12:25-25: any body composed of multiple members is still one body, and whatever effects one member affects the whole body.
I never managed to even get close to solving a Rubik’s Cube. I’ll bet Engineer Husband could do it.