Will's Birthday - 19 years old today

My latest love

I treated myself to this lecture series by The Teaching Company.  I've been eyeing it for years now and I finally decided I was worth it (and it was on sale!) so I bought it.

I have been speed watching it; 3 or 4 lectures a day.  I am in love!  With the topic and with Dr.Seth Lerer who is  a wonderful lecturer.  The whole thing is fascinating.

So far the kids just kind of come by and watch for a few minutes and then wander off, so I have no idea if I'm actually 'strewing' anything here.  But I'm only up to lecture 21.  I've been telling them my latest daydream is to go back to school and get a Masters in Linguistics.  They kind of think that is a cool idea.  However, I'm not sure my husband thinks so, as he's the one who is trying to save for higher education for our five children, two of whom will be in college next year, with the remaining three close on their heels.  And the oldest has already announced she's thinking of law school!  Ah.  Sigh.  But I can dream, can't I?

Hamlet (Ignatius Press Critical Edition - Book 32)

Josh and I finished up his Church History and Literature class this week. I finally got all the way through Hamlet! I'm quite proud of myself. I have seen the play and I have read excerpts but I've never sat down and read the whole thing from beginning to end.

I always feel very small when I read Shakespeare. There is so much there and I know most of it is going over my little ole head. But the sheer number of familiar lines from this play plus the almost painful tension as it slowly moves to its dramatic end, made it a very enjoyable read for me.

But I really want to talk about this Ignatius Press Critical Edition. If you are tired of postmodernist professors writing cockamamie literary analysis that makes you roll your eyeballs at their narrow, deconstructionistic, biased bunk, fret no more! I loved reading both Joseph Pearce's wonderfully in depth Introduction and the several essays at the end of the book. I especially enjoyed Crystal Downing of Messiah College's essay entitled: Reading Hamlet and Richard Harp's of the University of Nevada, essay entitled The Nobility of Hamlet. In fact I've decided that Professor Harp is brilliant because he clarified to me why I was always dissatisfied with seeing Hamlet's problem as one of indecision. I also enjoyed Andrew Moran's essay, Hamlet's Envenomed Foil which really illuminated the tension between Protestantism and Catholicism that Shakespeare so cleverly and brilliantly unfolds in this play. He is not sympathetic to Hamlet though and that bothered me a bit, because I really see Hamlet as the hero. My daughter is a student at the University of Dallas and had Professor Moran as a teacher. I thought his essay was well written.

So get thee to a nunnery, er rather, Ignatius Press and read this edition of Hamlet!

For more 52 Books in 52 Weeks go here.

More of what we are up to!

Whew! It's been quite a week.

Austrian student is here. Raphael doesn't speak English quite as well as Florian did and he's much shyer. This means there are lots of long silent pauses. LOL! I tell myself we are all earning social skills here! Except Becky who decided she would HIDE from him for the first 3 days. Anyway, he was here for Wednesday and Thursday night but now he's over at someone from his program's house nearby for his orientation. Today they take him into DC all day for touring. Lucky for him, the weather is supposed to be beautiful. So far we took him to Tysons Mall, he's walked around our little town, we've taken him to Mass and a youth group meeting and Will took him to Great Falls. He's very jet lagged and has yet to eat dinner with for he crashes about 6 p.m. We'll pick him back up on Sunday morning.

Hannah is having a great time at the National Right to Life Committee Conference in Jacksonville FL. She got to meet Abby Johnson. She heard a lot of the Republican hopefuls. She enjoyed Herman Cain for his style of speaking. She said she thought there was going to be an altar call afterwards! She said everybody else just sounded like politicians making a campaign speak. Pretty dull. She did like Michele Bachmann who has had 22 foster kids! And she thought Ron Paul was different in that he didn't make a campaign speech so much as launch into the history of abortion and his time as an ob-gyn. She found the whole thing a very interesting sociology experiment.

Will's job looks like it isn't working out. Sigh. Apparently, there are a lot of weird politics and the office manager is mad that the drs hired Will and a couple other guys to take care of the filing problems. So they ask them to come to work and then the office manager tells them to go home. The doctors actually seem cowed by her! So anyway. . . silly stupid stuff. We are still trying to figure out a little problem with Berklee's admissions. I wrote an email to HSLDA but haven't heard back.

Josh and Sean both zipped through their CATs. Yeah, so they are officially done. Still have to get Miss Becky Boo to cooperate. She is going through one of those intense learning periods where she only wants to read. She's been talking about how she can't remember before when she couldn't read (um, pretty much Christmas!) I mean she could read some but she stumbled all the time and would only read under duress!) She's now read 2 Harry Potter books. She spends hours in her bed reading. I mean all day. I told her it was like having a shadow of Becky in the house instead of the real girl. She thought that was pretty funny. She still has no interest in learning any math. And the unschooling side of me says that is how it should be. All her energy right now is focused on reading. However, the practical side of me says we've got to take this darn CAT, so could you please listen to me for 5 minutes so I can impart some knowledge on how to divide numbers? I'm really tempted to just give her the test and let the chips fall where they may.

Becky got reevaluated by the Vision Therapist and did very well. Still having trouble with reversals but other than that very good results. So I think she's going to stop VT in a couple of weeks.

Josh got a 660 on his Biology SAT. He was aiming for 650 and above so he was very pleased. He's going to take Chemistry next year from the same teacher. I had to go to a parents meeting this week and I think he's really going to like it.

Josh also is going to have another archery lesson today with 4H and then we go to the Workcamp Mass tonight at 5:30. Tomorrow morning he's off to PA for the week. I'm worried about him because I just don't know how he'll deal with constanting being with people. He's so introverted.

Sean has a friend sleeping over. They are still asleep of course. It's early right now. Sean has been getting really into table tennis. We ignored our ping pong table (that fits over the pool table) for a very long time in preference for playing pool. But someone a couple weeks ago put the ping pong table on and Seano has been getting people to play with him especially Rick). He's really good. He's been playing with Raphael too and Raphael was impressed by him.

Oops! I hear talking. I think Sean and his friend are awake!

Josh and I finished reading Hamlet. Wow, that Shakespeare sure was good! I've been watching a great Teaching Co. lecture series called The History of the English Language. I've decided I want to go back to school and get a degree in Linguistics. It is fascinating.

I have a new plan for keeping up with my Latin. I have Wheelock's in my bathroom. every time I go in I review something for a couple of minutes!

Poor Rick has been made practice head of the electric lawyers in his firm. This is a rotating job among all the members of the electic practice group. It is actually a royal pain and Rick has to deal with office politics in a way he hasn't had to before. For ex. a long time paralegal is moving so they wanted to have a going away party. This has led to all kinds of tussles over how much to spend, etc. etc. He's already tired of it and he just got made practice leader. He got to meet with a congressman this week to discuss a particular case. It was cool going up to the hill he said, but the congressman couldn't have been more bored by the whole highly technical electric utility rate issue. Really, the aides and wonks run things, the Congressman just okay stuff. They are so busy being politicians they really don't know issues in any real substantive way.

So that's all for now!

What we are up to

Lots of big and little stuff happening around here:

My Aunt Jackie has gone up to Maine for 3 or 4 weeks. She's got a house up on there right on the ocean just a couple of miles from the Canadian border. It was quite a logistical and emotionally trying time trying to get everything set for her to go. It is kind of peaceful now that she's gone. I think I needed a little break. Having her move in really changed a lot of our household dynamic and inevitably caused some strain, I think the the most for me. I'm glad we did it but it is nice to have a little break!

I was not planning to do this again this summer but we wound up taking another Austrian student in for 3 weeks this summer. We pick him up from the airport tomorrow. Eek, taking in outsiders into one's home is very humbling, at least for me. I am not a good housekeeper, very cluttery and disorganized, nor am I a good cook (I forget to feed people on a regular basis) and well, my family is quirky. So all that gets exposed. We had such a wonderful experience with Florian last summer though and it is only 3 weeks, so I hope Raphael will enjoy his stay here with us.

Hannah got an internship with The National Right to Life Committee in Washington DC. Last week she got to meet Justice Alito and get a tour of the Supreme Court. Her job is to research euthanasia issues including at NIH's library. Tomorrow in the a.m. she's flying down to Jacksonville to help with the annual conference. So she'll leave in the a.m. and Raphael arrives in the afternoon!

Will got a part time job as a file clerk at a doctor's office. His friend's mother is a doctor. He's kind of job sharing with two other guys, his friend and another guy they know. So that's made life interesting. I'm glad he's finally gainfully employed outside the home. I think it is/will be a good experience for him.

Josh is finishing up his last 10th grade subject, Lit/History. We are reading Hamlet and doing the last two chapters in History of the Church. Then he has to take the CAT and then he's off to work camp next week. The group is going to some town in PA.

Sean is still adrift a bit. He's been playing a lot with his friends, playing video games, learning all he can about arcade games and their history, development and demise. He's also lately been talking a lot about whether DC or Marvel Comics have better superheros. He said he plans to reread the 3 Mysterious Benedict Society books. He just reread Holes for the 3rd time.

Becky is completely into Harry Potter. She's started reading the books on her own in addition to her dad reading them to her and listening to them on audio! She is a Harry Potter expert! Today she has her first homeschool girls basketball game. It's an informal thing.

For me, I've gotten involved in starting up an Aquinas Learning Center and it looks like it is going to take off in the Fall. I also am helping to start a new 4H club in our town. Whew!

We've been watching a lot of movies lately. Sean wants to watch all the Charlie Chaplin and Mark Brothers movies. We rewatched Ducksoup a few weeks ago and we watched A Night at the Opera last night. We hadn't seen that one before (well, I had a long time ago). We also watched The General with Chaplin a few days ago.

Calico Captive by Elizabeth George Speare - Book 31

I really love Elizabeth George Speare.  This was the onepopular book that I'd heard about but hadn't yet read.  My kids and I have loved The Sign of the Beaver, The Witch of Blackbird Pond and The Bronze Bow all by Speare.  The last title, I recently reread to my younger two for Lent.  So I really wanted to finally read Calico Captive.  It only took me a couple of evenings to read it, but I thoroughly enjoyed Speare's storytelling again.

Miriam Willard is a young lady who lives with her sister and brother in law on the frontier of New Hampshire during the French and Indian War.  She and the family are taken captive by the Indians and after an arduous and frightening journey up into Canada are sold to the French.  She then must cope with the many changing circumstances she encounters from being a servant, to a companion to a spoiled, rich girl, to eking out a living as a dressmaker before finally being released.  The story is complex and all the details and complications ring true to life.  Speare based it on the real life journal of Miriam's sister.

Two thumbs up.

See 52 Books in 52 Weeks for more reviews.

Continuing with the Moffats - Books 29 and 30

We have thoroughly enjoyed reading Eleanor Estes books this spring.  We read her two books about the Pye  family.  We also read her book The Moffats. Now we've completed The Middle Moffat and are just about to finish up The Moffat Museum.  All these books are set in the town of Cranbury,  Connecticut a fictionalized New England town right around the time of World War I.  We were thrilled when Uncle Bennie Pye (a celebrity of sorts in the town because he was born an uncle) became friends with Rufus Moffat.  It is fun to pick up the cross-references in all the books.

These books make me nostalgic for childhood.  The children's adventures are not extraordinary but understated and so full of quiet humor and sweetness.  The chapter on Slyvie's wedding made me cry.

We highly recommend these charming books.

Go here for more 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Joan of Arc by Mark Twain-Book 28

This book took me so long to finish.  It really dragged out pitifully.  It was hanging over my head all month and I completely had to postpone my Poetic Knowledge Book Club stuff.  I just dropped out of that abruptly because for some reason I couldn't get through this book!  And I had to finish it as I was reading it with two high schoolers as well.

I am pleased to announce our victory!  We all completed the book and, even more, we all announced we thought it was a really great book!

Yup.  Mark Twain can really write.  He brings the character of Joan of Arc alive brilliantly.  She is real, human and holy at the same time.  The story is told through the eyes of her childhood friend and later page and secretary.  I loved that Mark Twain could write about a holy person so well.  I think that is the test of a great writer.  So often truly good people come off as sanctimonious or wimpy in the hands of a mediocre writer.  Twain also gets his trademark humorous characters in as well, mostly in the character of the Paladin and his comrade Noel who is always there to egg him on.  There are a host of other colorful characters as well.

I had tried to read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court last summer but I found it very anti-Catholic and thatt turned me off Twain.  Reading this book there is not a whiff of Anti-Catholicism so I think, perhaps, that Twain brilliantly was showing his Connecticut Yankee's prejudice and not his own.   I'm kind of in awe at how well and completely he can maintain a particular character's point of view.

The story of Joan of Arc is a curious one, how this ignorant peasant girl should rise to head the army of France to lead victory after victory, how she was captured and how the English and some particularly evil men of the church conspired against her.  Mark Twain spells it all out fully.

I am sorry I had such a bad attitude towards this book in the beginning.  I under-appreciated it at first but my appreciation grew as I continued reading and by the end of the book, I was glowing with it!

For more 52 Books in 52 Weeks go here.

Wednesday Photo

Our beautiful, sweet, smart, lovable Sheltie, Tillie.

Tuesday Photo

Candid shot:  Will's reading On the Road and Becky's reading her  Spider Magazine.

This week in photographs

In an attempt to get myself back to consistent blogging, I've decided to post a picture from each day of this week.

Here's Monday's:

Whiteboard art

Unschooling Highlights

Is today really Friday?  How did that happen?  This is just going to be a scattered remembrance of  what went on this week. . . . Let's see.

• Monday was Memorial Day.  We spent the weekend going to our local annual fair.  I think Saturday all five kids biked there (a couple of miles).  That's was kind of cool.  Hannah was the inspiration for this trek.  I think they all had fun.  On Monday itself, I can't remember much of anything except that Josh and I did our Latin homework.  I actually timed how long it took:  3 hours.  
• Rick relented about reading Harry Potter 5 to Becky.  They've been deep into it this week.  Becky is completely enthralled.
• Sean and I have taken walks almost every morning.
• Hannah is really into dieting and exercising.  She's met new people at her internship and has been going to daily mass.  There's a church a block and a half away from her office.  She's been reading up on euthanasia in the Netherlands.  Grim subject!
• Will has been watching lots of movies.  Two that he's talked about are Gone with the Wind and Love and Death (Woody Allen).
• Josh finished his Biology requirements.  He had gotten an incomplete for the class because he didn't turn in completed labs for the 3rd and 4th quarters, but he spent almost all day yesterday finishing that up.  So hopefully he'll get his grade.  Today is his last Biology study group.  Tomorrow he takes the SAT subject test in Bio.  Afterwards lots of kids are meeting at the Silver Diner to celebrate.
• Josh and I are still chugging through Joan of Arc.   Why is it taking us so long to read?????  It's really gumming up the works of my reading plans!
• Last night all the kids, sans Joshua, went to see Kung Fu Panda II.  They said it was much darker than the first one and not really as good.
• Yesterday Becky had a little girlfriend over to play.  It was so funny to hear them talking.  They were analyzing Shakespeare.  The little girl was talking about As You Like It but Becky wasn't familiar with that one.  Then they talked about how dumb Romeo and Juliet were, killing themselves and all and how the Capulets and Monagues were dumb to keep fighting like that.  Then they discuss Hamlet and how in tragedies everybody dies all the time.  Later on they were playing hangman with each other.  Very cute.
• We ran lots of errands this week, though we still need to get shoes/sandals.
• We might be breaking off from our too huge 4H group and forming one closer (in our little town instead of the next one over).  I am excited about the possibilities there.
• Sean and Becky have been working on math more this week in prep for CAT.

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can remember right now!

Oregon Trail

Sean and I had a lot of fun playing Oregon Trail.  I've heard about this game for years now but never got it.  Sean got an app for my ipad a couple days ago and we sat down and played together last night.  We had fun.  Here's a link to a youtube review of the game.

Here's a link to the app itself.