Waterloo; the History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles by Bernard Cornwell is an up close and highly readable account of one of the most famous battles in history.
Cornwell is a best-selling British author who penned the Sharpe's series which was made into a BBC series starring Sean Bean. Cornwell is considered an expert on the Napoleonic Wars. Since this past week commemorated the 200th anniversary of that epic battle, I thought I'd read more in depth about it. I am not usually a big military history reader, though I have become more so lately simply because I've been reading a lot of memoirs or biographies in the last decade or so. Anyway, one thing this book taught me is war is horrifying and grotesque and we should always remember that humans are willing to slaughter each other on the slightest wave of emotion.
Napoleon, who arose to power in the chaos and brutality of the French Revolution, caused the deaths of millions of people. After fighting all over Europe for 20 years or so because he was monomaniacal and the French didn't have anyone else as clever to lead them, he finally got caught and sent to live out the rest of his life as king of the little island country of Elba. Not content with that, he launched a comeback campaign, which a huge portion of the French populous embraced because things had gotten kind of boring after his exile. And so about 50,000 more people lost their lives for no good reason whatsoever.
Cornwell is right up front about how confusing military speak and descriptions of battles can be. And they are very repetitive as well. How many times can you explain that then this group of soldiers launched canisters or cannon balls or musket fire and people's heads were blown off, brains splattered, limbs torn away, men falling right and left screaming in terror and agony. Yes, well that is what happens for four days and Cornwell walks us through it all.
The leaders on both sides of the battle made blunders. Napoleon made more than Wellington. He seemed to have lost his instinct for military strategy. He relied very heavily on his own former genius, his belief that he had good luck, his generals who made some bad mistakes and finally on his undefeated Old Guard, who for the first time collapsed and fled the field in panic thus ending the battle. Two of Napoleon's major mistake-makers were his youngest brother Jerome and his formerly always brilliantly reliable, general Ney who basically just kept screwing things up. He ended badly too. While other aides to Napoleon played the political game right and rose to power after their defeat at Waterloo, Ney wound up being shot by a firing squad eventually. I guess he was sort of a scapegoat.
The big contrast is between Wellington's style and Napoleon's. And this just goes to show you how easy it is to manipulate popular opinion. Napoleon's men adored him and yet he cared nothing about them. He was a master of rhetoric in the bad sense of the word. Wellington was a silent, introverted formal man, who would not allow his men to cheer him and prized order above all. However, Wellington always thought in terms of how he could spare the most men's lives. He thought more defensively in terms of strategy. He picked the battle field because it had a wide flat valley with hills that he could place his men behind to protect them from artillery. He always thought in terms of having an escape route. Retreat was better than senseless slaughter. And yet he had never lost a battle!
Napoleon might have been different in his younger days, but now he sat way in the rear on a hill with a spyglass watching the battles and receiving messages. Wellington, on the other hand, was in the thick of things and really risked death quite heroically. He was like George Washington in that he just happened to not get shot. His aides died around him as he rode to and fro rallying his men. Because he was so stern and well respected, his presence kept the men orderly and focused even in the midst of all the chaotic blood, guts, noise and smoke. Napoleon also wrote some rather unclear messages to his generals in the field, who quite understandably didn't get what he wanted. This caused further problems as you might guess.
There are many heroic stories; the Scots seemed to be especially courageous in battle. The book contains many first hand accounts culled from various memoirs and letters. Even though this battle is one of the most studied in military history, many actual facts are still unclear. One thing I didn't understand is that Cornwell would quote some rallying cry of some general as his men went into charge, yet on the next page, I'd read that the battle was so noisy the men couldn't even talk to each other. So I really don't understand how generals gave their orders to the men?
Finally, after page after page of men stabbing, slashing, shooting and beaning each other, Napoleon sends in his Old Guard to win the battle field, but he's too late. Wellington's forces have been reinforced with the newly arrived Prussian Army. The reliable and brave Old Guard are too little, too late. They realize the situation and for the first time ever in their long service to Napoleon, panic and flee. The battle is over. Napoleon is defeated.
Cornwell ends there and wraps up the story quickly, telling what happened to the various generals and leaders we've been following. I wish he had said how they took Napoleon himself. I guess the author assumed that was already known, but I don't. Wellington did not like war at all. He found the blood, gore and death horrific. He collapsed in tears when he heard Napoleon had been captured. He never glorified war and said that victory was horrible - because of all the corpses and destruction any battle must entail. He did things out of a sense of duty and not out of a sense of lust for fighting. He said he never wanted to fight again. Instead he went into politics and even became prime minister but unfortunately was seen as rather a failure there. His reputation was made though - the glorious general who lead the British and the Prussians to victory over Napoleon.
I am glad I read this book, but it was hard. I really don't like violence and killing. For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
The Case of Jennie Brice - Book 24
The Case of Jennie Brice is a quick, enjoyable read by one of my favorite authors, Mary Roberts Rinehart. This was published in 1913 and I am always startled at how modern the writing is, even if the day to day details are quaint because they are so old fashioned.
Mrs. Pitman was a member of a genteel, first family of the City of Pittsburg. But she is now in reduced circumstances. She eloped with Mr. Pitman when she was very young and was disowned by her family. Now she is a poor widow who makes her living by renting out rooms to boarders in the river district of Allegheny City (which was subsequently made part of Pittsburg.) During the especially bad flood of 1907, she suspects one of her rather low-life boarders of murdering his wife, Jennie Brice. But this isn't just a simple murder!
The opening scenes are eery and surreal because of the flood. Everything is told from the immediately likable Mrs. Pitman's point of view. Things are puzzling, creepy, and at times humorous. We meet a cast of characters and the story moves along at a good pace. I was engrossed from the first sentence and read it in two days.
A very enjoyable, light mystery; well written. Mary Roberts Rinehart never disappoints.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Mrs. Pitman was a member of a genteel, first family of the City of Pittsburg. But she is now in reduced circumstances. She eloped with Mr. Pitman when she was very young and was disowned by her family. Now she is a poor widow who makes her living by renting out rooms to boarders in the river district of Allegheny City (which was subsequently made part of Pittsburg.) During the especially bad flood of 1907, she suspects one of her rather low-life boarders of murdering his wife, Jennie Brice. But this isn't just a simple murder!
The opening scenes are eery and surreal because of the flood. Everything is told from the immediately likable Mrs. Pitman's point of view. Things are puzzling, creepy, and at times humorous. We meet a cast of characters and the story moves along at a good pace. I was engrossed from the first sentence and read it in two days.
A very enjoyable, light mystery; well written. Mary Roberts Rinehart never disappoints.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
A Charlotte Mason Inspired High School Plan
As much as I love unschooling (my own version of it!) in the younger years, when high school rolls around, we tend to tighten up. There are many reasons for this: 1) the precedent set by our oldest who declared she did not like unschooling and that if she didn't have a hard reason to get up the morning, she knew she just never was going to! My husband and I could both sympathize because as my husband said about himself, he operates on the principle of inertia. If he's in bed, he doesn't get out of bed unless forced to. If he is working he becomes a workaholic who can't stop until he has to. He's just like that. I am not like that. But I still need structure or I tend to go off and daydream and neglect my duties. I excel at starting things and then drifting off. So an external obligation makes me more responsible. Anyway, the oldest really wanted to go to college and she was determined to do a regular 4 year program to get her there. Not that she didn't resent some things. She balked at higher math, but other than that, she was game for the whole rigamarole of earning those high school credits. 2) Rick and I really want our kids to be able to say without any hesitation that they are high school graduates, even though they didn't attend school and we pieced our own program together (instead of enrolling in a program). 3) We really do want our kids to be poised to attend college upon high school graduation, if they choose to. They don't have to choose to. They can take a gap year (as Will did) or try college and decide it isn't for him (as Josh did), but at least we are not holding them back from doing the regular expected thing if they want to.
The Charlotte Mason approach isn't too difficult a transition though for the kids. We've always done lots of read alouds and copy work. And we often are involved in co-ops or outside classes anyway. So things wind up just tightening up, getting a little more intense and also there is now an expectation of tangible learning product that are more traditional, like writing essays, taking tests, completing labs, etc.
So for the first time ever in my homeschooling career, I will have two high schoolers and no one in the younger grades. Sob. I really have a sense of mourning. But I am trying to take that in stride and focus on doing what needs doing now.
The hardest part for me, is maintaining my zeal and energy levels so that I can systematically and consistently maintain the structure necessary to get everything done in a timely way. It is really hard to figure out all the moving parts and how they will work together. So I am only planning for the first semester with the idea that things will take some tweaking and that they may change substantially the second semester.
The key for me is fitting everything into our schedule so that we know when to do what. If it is too complicated or too much an overload, too forced, it soon starts to drop out of the days, first by accident and then later simply because there isn't enough will to force it back into the day.
Here's my tentative schedule:
Before breakfast: prayer is the Morning Offering, then the daily scripture reading and meditation from The Word Among Us, then we listen to Saint of the Day at American Catholic
Breakfast school: Periodic Table of Elements videos put out by the University of Nottingham.
Poetry readings from: Stories in Verse (I have an old used edition; The Art of Poetry; The Harp and the Laurel Wreath
Musical Note Reading: MusicTheory.net
Aristotle for Everybody (AfE)
Optional video on Fridays - we can go without a video or perhaps the kids can show me something or maybe I'll show them something I've stumbled across during the week.
Mid A.M: Copy work will come from Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric
Math: for Becky - Chalkdust Geometry; for Sean - Saxon Algebra II
Break time is for showers (me), snacks (no one eats big breakfasts around here), getting outside, making phone calls, getting a quick chore or two done.
Rhetoric: This is going to be a combination of reading about Rhetoric and actual writing. Since the kids are taking Speech from Homeschool Connections - I am going to wait to see what kind of writing requirements that course has and then blend in my own stuff around it. For reading aloud about Rhetoric I am planning on utilizing The Art of Manliness' Classical Rhetoric series as well as Shakespeare's Use of the Arts of Language by Sister Miriam Joseph. If I need to supplement any writing (I am aiming for an essay a week) then I plan to rely on our previous training from The Lost Tools of Writing. And I might supplement that with excerpts from The Office of Assertion and The Writer's Workshop.
Lunch school (this is different each day):
Monday - Theology audio (to give myself a break from reading out loud and to give my kids a break from listening to me!) - maybe some C.S. Lewis or Peter Kreeft to listen to during lunch. I am thinking Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters and Kreeft's Prayer for Beginners. Also Brother Laurence's Practicing the Presence of God.
Tuesday - lunch at our homeschool co-op
Wednesday- Sean and Becky both have their Homeschool Connections Speech and Communications class at noon, so lunch will probably be eaten before then while prepping for the class.
Thursday - Becky and I will be at Aquinas Learning having lunch and getting ready for Latin class.
Friday - 12:10 Mass nearby and then eat lunch out
Chemistry - Sean is taking a class in Chemistry on Tuesday mornings. The textbook is A Beka Chemistry. While Sean is doing his homework on Monday afternoons for that class, Becky can work on her Latin homework. The text for that is Henle. Latin class is at Aquinas Learning on Thursday afternoons at 2:00. Becky will be an aide with the Parva class from 12:30 to 2:00 and then in class with me (I am mentoring the Latin II class) until 3:00. If the same schedule holds for her Voice Lessons, she'll have voice at 3:30. That means we have to skedaddle out of Aquinas Learning immediately to get her to her lesson on time.
Physics - Becky finished the first half of Physical Science which focused on Chemistry. We've been loosely following Kolbe's syllabus. She'll focus on the second half, Physics, for her 9th grade year.
U.S. History - both kids are taking a Tuesday afternoon class in U.S. History. The textbook is The American Odyssey; A History of the United States. They'll also probably do homework for that on Monday afternoons or evenings.
Computer Languages - instead of continuing with Latin, Sean wanted to learn computer languages, so he's in a Homeschool Connections class for that which meets Tuesday nights at 6:00.
Bass lessons - hopefully, Sean will continue with bass lessons. I am making it a requirement that everyone has to be studying music formally in some capacity.
PT - physical training. This is Sean's PE. I don't have anything lined up for Becky. However, her American Heritage Girls Troop is working on a dance badge and she also has become keenly interested in dance because of her musical theater experience. I don't know if she'll be in a formal class for this, or if we can piece together AHG activities, participating in more musical theater, plus other physical activity and make that all add up to PE.
Philosophy - our philosophy this year with be a combination of Aristotle for Everybody by Mortimer Adler and this Great Courses lecture series taught by Father Koterski. We'll just watch one lecture each Friday.
Book club - I am not sure what extra reading will be needed for the Speech and Communications class or for the U.S. History course (perhaps the teacher will ask the kids to read a couple of supplemental books in addition to the textbook). So I've come up with a tentative list. I am aiming for a book every 3 or 4 weeks with a focus on the modern era. All this is subject to change. We'll meet on Fridays (or over the weekend; this can be flexible) to chat about what we've read. Here's my list:
The Charlotte Mason approach isn't too difficult a transition though for the kids. We've always done lots of read alouds and copy work. And we often are involved in co-ops or outside classes anyway. So things wind up just tightening up, getting a little more intense and also there is now an expectation of tangible learning product that are more traditional, like writing essays, taking tests, completing labs, etc.
So for the first time ever in my homeschooling career, I will have two high schoolers and no one in the younger grades. Sob. I really have a sense of mourning. But I am trying to take that in stride and focus on doing what needs doing now.
The hardest part for me, is maintaining my zeal and energy levels so that I can systematically and consistently maintain the structure necessary to get everything done in a timely way. It is really hard to figure out all the moving parts and how they will work together. So I am only planning for the first semester with the idea that things will take some tweaking and that they may change substantially the second semester.
The key for me is fitting everything into our schedule so that we know when to do what. If it is too complicated or too much an overload, too forced, it soon starts to drop out of the days, first by accident and then later simply because there isn't enough will to force it back into the day.
Here's my tentative schedule:
Mon
|
Tues
|
Wed
|
Thurs
|
Fri
|
Sat
|
Sun
|
|
Before Breakfast
|
Prayer, Scripture,
Meditation,
Saint
|
Same
|
Same
|
Same
|
Same
|
||
Breakfast
School
|
Elements video;
poetry
|
Elem.
video; poetry
|
Note reading; AfE
|
Note reading;
AfE
|
Optional video;
AfE
|
||
Mid A.M.
|
Copy work; math; break; rhetoric
|
Copy work; Chem class (@10) or physics at home for B.
|
Copy work; math; break; rhetoric
|
Copy work; math; break; AL
|
Copy work; math; NL video
|
||
Lunch school
|
Theology audible
|
Lunch @ SJN
|
12:00 HSC on line Speech class |
Lunch @ AL
|
12:10 Mass; Lunch out
|
||
Afternoon school
|
Chemistry; U.S. History prep; Latin homework
|
U.S. History @ SJN
|
Latin hmwk
|
Latin II
|
Book club mtg
|
Any home-work
|
|
AHG/PT
|
Latin club 2x
|
Bass lessons
|
Voice (@3:30?)
|
||||
Evening school
|
Finish anything needed;
prayers; Independent reading
|
6:00 Sean HSC Comp. Language
class;
Ind. reading
|
CLC
Ind. reading
|
Work on any home
work; Ind. reading |
Any home-work
|
Before breakfast: prayer is the Morning Offering, then the daily scripture reading and meditation from The Word Among Us, then we listen to Saint of the Day at American Catholic
Breakfast school: Periodic Table of Elements videos put out by the University of Nottingham.
Poetry readings from: Stories in Verse (I have an old used edition; The Art of Poetry; The Harp and the Laurel Wreath
Musical Note Reading: MusicTheory.net
Aristotle for Everybody (AfE)
Optional video on Fridays - we can go without a video or perhaps the kids can show me something or maybe I'll show them something I've stumbled across during the week.
Mid A.M: Copy work will come from Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric
Math: for Becky - Chalkdust Geometry; for Sean - Saxon Algebra II
Break time is for showers (me), snacks (no one eats big breakfasts around here), getting outside, making phone calls, getting a quick chore or two done.
Rhetoric: This is going to be a combination of reading about Rhetoric and actual writing. Since the kids are taking Speech from Homeschool Connections - I am going to wait to see what kind of writing requirements that course has and then blend in my own stuff around it. For reading aloud about Rhetoric I am planning on utilizing The Art of Manliness' Classical Rhetoric series as well as Shakespeare's Use of the Arts of Language by Sister Miriam Joseph. If I need to supplement any writing (I am aiming for an essay a week) then I plan to rely on our previous training from The Lost Tools of Writing. And I might supplement that with excerpts from The Office of Assertion and The Writer's Workshop.
Lunch school (this is different each day):
Monday - Theology audio (to give myself a break from reading out loud and to give my kids a break from listening to me!) - maybe some C.S. Lewis or Peter Kreeft to listen to during lunch. I am thinking Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters and Kreeft's Prayer for Beginners. Also Brother Laurence's Practicing the Presence of God.
Tuesday - lunch at our homeschool co-op
Wednesday- Sean and Becky both have their Homeschool Connections Speech and Communications class at noon, so lunch will probably be eaten before then while prepping for the class.
Thursday - Becky and I will be at Aquinas Learning having lunch and getting ready for Latin class.
Friday - 12:10 Mass nearby and then eat lunch out
Chemistry - Sean is taking a class in Chemistry on Tuesday mornings. The textbook is A Beka Chemistry. While Sean is doing his homework on Monday afternoons for that class, Becky can work on her Latin homework. The text for that is Henle. Latin class is at Aquinas Learning on Thursday afternoons at 2:00. Becky will be an aide with the Parva class from 12:30 to 2:00 and then in class with me (I am mentoring the Latin II class) until 3:00. If the same schedule holds for her Voice Lessons, she'll have voice at 3:30. That means we have to skedaddle out of Aquinas Learning immediately to get her to her lesson on time.
Physics - Becky finished the first half of Physical Science which focused on Chemistry. We've been loosely following Kolbe's syllabus. She'll focus on the second half, Physics, for her 9th grade year.
U.S. History - both kids are taking a Tuesday afternoon class in U.S. History. The textbook is The American Odyssey; A History of the United States. They'll also probably do homework for that on Monday afternoons or evenings.
Computer Languages - instead of continuing with Latin, Sean wanted to learn computer languages, so he's in a Homeschool Connections class for that which meets Tuesday nights at 6:00.
Bass lessons - hopefully, Sean will continue with bass lessons. I am making it a requirement that everyone has to be studying music formally in some capacity.
PT - physical training. This is Sean's PE. I don't have anything lined up for Becky. However, her American Heritage Girls Troop is working on a dance badge and she also has become keenly interested in dance because of her musical theater experience. I don't know if she'll be in a formal class for this, or if we can piece together AHG activities, participating in more musical theater, plus other physical activity and make that all add up to PE.
Philosophy - our philosophy this year with be a combination of Aristotle for Everybody by Mortimer Adler and this Great Courses lecture series taught by Father Koterski. We'll just watch one lecture each Friday.
Book club - I am not sure what extra reading will be needed for the Speech and Communications class or for the U.S. History course (perhaps the teacher will ask the kids to read a couple of supplemental books in addition to the textbook). So I've come up with a tentative list. I am aiming for a book every 3 or 4 weeks with a focus on the modern era. All this is subject to change. We'll meet on Fridays (or over the weekend; this can be flexible) to chat about what we've read. Here's my list:
*Lord of the World – Robert Hugh Benson (September - 4 weeks)
My Family and Other Animals – Gerald Durrell (3 weeks – 1st
part of Oct)
Animal Farm – George Orwell (2 weeks – last part of Oct.)
*Shakespeare Pick – (4 weeks – all of November)
*The Man Born to be King - radio play by Dorothy L. Sayers (Advent/Christmas season)
P.G. Wodehouse pick (January - 2 weeks)
Lord of the Flies – William Golding (Finish up January -2
weeks)
The Man Who Was Thursday - G. K. Chesterton – (February - 3 weeks)
Ray Bradbury pick (end of Feb - first part of March)
A biography of a 20th century saint – (Last two
weeks of Lent/Easter week) Perhaps Edith Stein?
*Til We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis – (April - 4 weeks)
Agatha Christie pick (May)
*I really want to read these. They may turn out to be the only ones we do, if there is a lot of assigned reading in the Speech and History classes.
Sunday, June 21, 2015
You Did It to Me - Book 23
God is so good. Even in really tiny, insignificant ways. It's amazing. The last book I read was Happy Are You Poor, which left me feeling really troubled and paralyzed and guilt-ridden. Right when I was at the peak of my turmoil I chanced to pick up this book, You Did It to Me, and it turned out to be the perfect follow up book. I was running out the door to take Becky somewhere, and I knew I'd have to wait for her so I'd have time to read (I want to say it was for her voice lesson. It's only 30 minutes and about 15-20 minutes away, so usually I just sit in the car and read. It's good reading time). Anyway, I grabbed my Kindle but then realized it was almost out of charge. I had about 30 seconds to come up with another book. So I blindly grabbed for a book on my bedside table (which is covered in books) and took off. I can't even remember how I got this book. I must have bought it some time ago or maybe Will gave it to me a while ago. Anyway, it was exactly what I needed to read. Exactly.
Father Gaitley writes in a very different style than Father Dubay. In a way he is less intellectual, though he is still intelligent! But this book is about Mercy in Acton. So Gaitley doesn't dwell on proving why Christians should be detached from material things, instead he pretty much sets out the premise that Jesus will judge us on what we do for the least of our brothers, so how can we, right now, orient our lives so that we are doing things for the least among us. While Father Dubay is abstract and philosophical, Father Gaitley lays out a game plan and then coaches us through, so that we can really accomplish it. It is so helpful!
Initially Father explains what mercy is and what the works of mercy, both corporal and spiritual are. He talks about different ways to understand them. Then he organizes his book into six categories: 1) giving food and drink to the hungry and thirsty; 2) welcoming the stranger; 3) clothing the naked; 4) visiting the sick; 5) visiting the imprisoned and finally, 6) almsgiving. At the end of each section is a list of 'action items' to brainstorm through to see what action you can practically take in your life. It could be something as simple as vowing to smile more at people, to pray more, to volunteer for something, to give money for a particular purpose. The end of the book is a nuts and bolts plan to put all the preceding into action. The very end of the book has various important prayers. Along the way, you get a lot of theology delivered in a very conservational and easy way.
The biggest disappointment in the book is that Father keeps referring the reader to MercyPages.org for ideas on how to help others, but the page doesn't really exist. It is an empty page at the Marians of the Immaculate Conception website. I guess Father thought that there would be an accompanying website but somehow it never got off the ground? However, he still gives you enough ideas otherwise, that this really doesn't effect the overall helpfulness of the book in imagining and then putting into practice works of mercy in everyday life.
Towards the very end of the book, Father Gaitley takes on the idea expounded on by Father Dubay, that Christians are required to give from their own need and not just out of their surplus. But being more interested in the practical, Father Gaitley zooms right in on pragmatic advice. He says the usual expectation is tithing. If you can give more, great! Aside from tithing, he also advises starting small in personal practices. He tells of a project he was involved in while at college. He gave up sodas for a year, and he took the money he would have usually spent on soda and gave it to a crisis-pregnancy center. Practices like this require some sacrifice and orient us to living out mercy in our lives. He says do things like this and start a personal Mercy Fund, where you keep the savings from your regular sacrifices and then give to the needy. And Father Gaitley doesn't disparage giving time and energy either. He says another way to detach ourselves from our own comfort is to give of our time; his example is someone giving up a comfortable evening at home in front of the TV to teach catechism at their parish.
This is a great and practical book that I know I'll refer to time and again. It was really just what I needed to read and it has inspired me greatly.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Father Gaitley writes in a very different style than Father Dubay. In a way he is less intellectual, though he is still intelligent! But this book is about Mercy in Acton. So Gaitley doesn't dwell on proving why Christians should be detached from material things, instead he pretty much sets out the premise that Jesus will judge us on what we do for the least of our brothers, so how can we, right now, orient our lives so that we are doing things for the least among us. While Father Dubay is abstract and philosophical, Father Gaitley lays out a game plan and then coaches us through, so that we can really accomplish it. It is so helpful!
Initially Father explains what mercy is and what the works of mercy, both corporal and spiritual are. He talks about different ways to understand them. Then he organizes his book into six categories: 1) giving food and drink to the hungry and thirsty; 2) welcoming the stranger; 3) clothing the naked; 4) visiting the sick; 5) visiting the imprisoned and finally, 6) almsgiving. At the end of each section is a list of 'action items' to brainstorm through to see what action you can practically take in your life. It could be something as simple as vowing to smile more at people, to pray more, to volunteer for something, to give money for a particular purpose. The end of the book is a nuts and bolts plan to put all the preceding into action. The very end of the book has various important prayers. Along the way, you get a lot of theology delivered in a very conservational and easy way.
The biggest disappointment in the book is that Father keeps referring the reader to MercyPages.org for ideas on how to help others, but the page doesn't really exist. It is an empty page at the Marians of the Immaculate Conception website. I guess Father thought that there would be an accompanying website but somehow it never got off the ground? However, he still gives you enough ideas otherwise, that this really doesn't effect the overall helpfulness of the book in imagining and then putting into practice works of mercy in everyday life.
Towards the very end of the book, Father Gaitley takes on the idea expounded on by Father Dubay, that Christians are required to give from their own need and not just out of their surplus. But being more interested in the practical, Father Gaitley zooms right in on pragmatic advice. He says the usual expectation is tithing. If you can give more, great! Aside from tithing, he also advises starting small in personal practices. He tells of a project he was involved in while at college. He gave up sodas for a year, and he took the money he would have usually spent on soda and gave it to a crisis-pregnancy center. Practices like this require some sacrifice and orient us to living out mercy in our lives. He says do things like this and start a personal Mercy Fund, where you keep the savings from your regular sacrifices and then give to the needy. And Father Gaitley doesn't disparage giving time and energy either. He says another way to detach ourselves from our own comfort is to give of our time; his example is someone giving up a comfortable evening at home in front of the TV to teach catechism at their parish.
This is a great and practical book that I know I'll refer to time and again. It was really just what I needed to read and it has inspired me greatly.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Showing Us How to Christian
Thank you, beautiful people of Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, for showing us how to Christian. Thank you for your generous love and the clarity of your vision. You have your eyes on Christ and his glory is reflected in your amazing actions. Turn the other cheek. Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. You have taken up your brutally painful cross and followed Christ. You short circuited all the enraged would be exploiters of this tragedy, who would use it to fan the flames of hate and divisiveness. You are a blessing to our country and our world! May God keep you strong! May the Holy Spirit continue to show you how to speak to us of his love. May Jesus be with you night and day, ever at your side, loving you all the more for your faithfulness to his Word. May those martyrs now in heaven look down on you and in gratitude watch you as you honor their legacy of devotion to Christ.
The video of the bond hearing
Peggy Noonan wrote a beautiful piece.
The video of the bond hearing
Peggy Noonan wrote a beautiful piece.
Friday, June 19, 2015
Horror and tragedy again
I woke up this morning feeling so suffocated by despair. I guess I shouldn't have read a list of the Charleston church victims before I went to bed. It crept into my sleep and made me feel so dark and so heavy. Of course atrocities happen all the time anymore. Beheadings, shootings, ISIS raping little girls, a woman carving another woman's baby out of her womb, that was especially gruesome. The same day apparently some Jewish extremists poured gasoline over a nun and priest and tried to light them on fire. Somehow they got away, but perpetrators did manage to burn an ancient church. What seems to add to the disturbing nature of this latest American horror for me is the racial hatred that underlies it. This in the era where we elected an African American president. My country! One step forward, two steps back. I guess in my mind it is one thing when it is police vs. suspects, even though that is complicated enough. Unfortunately, there is police corruption and brutality. That's a fact. But then there is the other side. My niece is married to a police officer and her stepson just became an officer. They seem like good people and the stress of knowing that any day while in the line of duty of trying to keep order and protect innocent people, you could be killed, well that takes more courage than I've got. I admire them for answering that call of service.
When I saw the photo of the boy-man who did this terrible shooting the first thing I thought was he looked like the shooter in Sandy Hook. Another odd looking, young for his age loner. His parents divorced. His stupid parents letting him have a gun. A history of trouble.
And right away of course you have the gun control issue whipped out. One side saying if he didn't have a gun, he couldn't have done this and the other side saying, if someone in that church had a gun, they could have stopped him. I am so tired of the same old political games. Both sides, like the Washington Post and the National Review, both seemed especially vulgar and unseemly in their glee at using the incident to sling hatred and recriminations. Really the Washington Post writers were practically peeing in their pants they were so excited. The South! White against black!
Why, oh why are people still racist? It is the stupidest, ugliest thing.
The most handsome and noble thing was that a black man, someone who had recovered from a terrible gang shooting, went to the shooter's facebook page and posted the most beautiful Christian message on it. Love wins. What a saint that man must be.
I keep especially thinking of the oldest victim, 87 years old. Who shoots an old southern church lady? They are about the most charming creatures around. I hope she is with Jesus in paradise right now. I hope she is singing and whooping it up in a gospel choir with her Lord and Savior and all the angels. I hope they all are.
Lord have mercy.
When I saw the photo of the boy-man who did this terrible shooting the first thing I thought was he looked like the shooter in Sandy Hook. Another odd looking, young for his age loner. His parents divorced. His stupid parents letting him have a gun. A history of trouble.
And right away of course you have the gun control issue whipped out. One side saying if he didn't have a gun, he couldn't have done this and the other side saying, if someone in that church had a gun, they could have stopped him. I am so tired of the same old political games. Both sides, like the Washington Post and the National Review, both seemed especially vulgar and unseemly in their glee at using the incident to sling hatred and recriminations. Really the Washington Post writers were practically peeing in their pants they were so excited. The South! White against black!
Why, oh why are people still racist? It is the stupidest, ugliest thing.
The most handsome and noble thing was that a black man, someone who had recovered from a terrible gang shooting, went to the shooter's facebook page and posted the most beautiful Christian message on it. Love wins. What a saint that man must be.
I keep especially thinking of the oldest victim, 87 years old. Who shoots an old southern church lady? They are about the most charming creatures around. I hope she is with Jesus in paradise right now. I hope she is singing and whooping it up in a gospel choir with her Lord and Savior and all the angels. I hope they all are.
Lord have mercy.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Pilgrim's Inn - Book 22
Last night when everyone had gathered for prayers, I announced that I had found the perfect name for our future riverside house. This is our dream for our retirement. We want to move out of this traffic-jammed, much too expensive area to a tranquil place with a river view. I will look out at said view and birdwatch, when not working through my very high stack of tbr books. Rick will boat and fish. It'll be big enough that all our children will flock there to visit and maybe even live there. I announced I wanted to name this future refuge "Herb of Grace." They all gave me blank stares! Obviously, they had not just finished reading Elizabeth Goudge's novel, Pilgrim's Inn (which was originally published in England under the title of Herb of Grace).
This is the second book in the Eliot Trilogy by Goudge. I read the first book, The Bird in the Tree back in April. It is now after the war but times are very hard in England. Nadine is still trying to be a faithful wife to George while her love for David lingers painfully. David has had a nervous breakdown from the horrors of the war. Lovely, imperious Grandmother Lucille to the rescue! She contrives to get George to buy the ancient Inn that is for sale near her estate of Damerosehay. The family moves there and just as in so many other Goudge novels, the old building has a magical healing quality that slowly and lovingly leads everyone, especially those most troubled into a deeper understanding of life and love.
The book really is a like a large ensemble cast movie, where we get the perspective of many of the family members or people closely associated with the family. We see things from Lucille's point of view, Nadine's, David's, Sally's, Tommy's, Annie-Laurie's etc. But even so the main characters are really Nadine, David and Sally. The theme is how hard fidelity is, but oh how much it is worth!
I swallowed The Bird in the Tree in one ecstatic gulp. I took longer to read this one and I must say in the middle I found myself not quite as enchanted as usual. I was having a hard time with the character of John Adair and his relationship with Nadine. And when the book got rather dreamy and supernatural, I wasn't prepared for it and it took me a bit to embrace it. But. . . . as I kept reading, it got more and more wonderful. It has a very happy ending!
Goudge's books are all full of Christian imagery and Christian theology, so they are very satisfying on a spiritual level. And this one worked especially well on that level.
Two thumbs up! Next up (well at some point soon) the last book in the trilogy, The Heart of the Family.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
This is the second book in the Eliot Trilogy by Goudge. I read the first book, The Bird in the Tree back in April. It is now after the war but times are very hard in England. Nadine is still trying to be a faithful wife to George while her love for David lingers painfully. David has had a nervous breakdown from the horrors of the war. Lovely, imperious Grandmother Lucille to the rescue! She contrives to get George to buy the ancient Inn that is for sale near her estate of Damerosehay. The family moves there and just as in so many other Goudge novels, the old building has a magical healing quality that slowly and lovingly leads everyone, especially those most troubled into a deeper understanding of life and love.
The book really is a like a large ensemble cast movie, where we get the perspective of many of the family members or people closely associated with the family. We see things from Lucille's point of view, Nadine's, David's, Sally's, Tommy's, Annie-Laurie's etc. But even so the main characters are really Nadine, David and Sally. The theme is how hard fidelity is, but oh how much it is worth!
I swallowed The Bird in the Tree in one ecstatic gulp. I took longer to read this one and I must say in the middle I found myself not quite as enchanted as usual. I was having a hard time with the character of John Adair and his relationship with Nadine. And when the book got rather dreamy and supernatural, I wasn't prepared for it and it took me a bit to embrace it. But. . . . as I kept reading, it got more and more wonderful. It has a very happy ending!
Goudge's books are all full of Christian imagery and Christian theology, so they are very satisfying on a spiritual level. And this one worked especially well on that level.
Two thumbs up! Next up (well at some point soon) the last book in the trilogy, The Heart of the Family.
For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
How to Be a Curriculum Minimalist
Homeschoolers love curriculum. They love leafing through catalogues, talking, talking, talking about curriculum, checking out new curriculum, going to curriculum fairs. A whole publishing industry has sprung up for homeschoolers and new ones come along all the time. People even identify themselves by their curriculum. Are you a Sonlight user? A Seton homeschooler? Konos? A Beka? In Catholic circles we've got Seton, Mother of Divine Grace, Catholic Heritage Curriculum, Kolbe, Our Lady of Victory and more. These curriculum providers have it all thought out for you, so you the mom only have to plunk the kid down at the table and make them move their pencil and voila! Education!
I do think curriculum serves its purpose, but I think its purpose is pretty narrow. I think a lot of times those curriculum providers are feeding into our anxieties and the 'need' to keep up with the Joneses. We homeschoolers are always worried about whether the kids measure up to other kids. We want them to excel. We want to prove that we can do this home education thing. We are gung ho about this project of ours. We want to plan ahead. Parents with kids who are two years old will ask questions about preschool curriculum. It's like city people who have eaten factory produced food for so long, they forget that you can go and pluck an apple from a tree and eat it. Or catch a fish in a stream and fry it up over a fire. And that fresh food is probably far more nourishing than the boxed kind. And it tastes better too! But it isn't as convenient. Or real. Have you ever thought about how much trying to find the perfect curriculum is really a function of our consumerism? If we buy something, it will make us happy.
So here is my first premise, you don't really need planned curriculum to learn. People have been learning without planned curriculum for a long, long time. Lesson plans and educational activities and that kind of stuff is made up and part and parcel of the factory learning approach to education that has dominated our landscape since the advent of public schools.
Curriculum can have its place, though. But wouldn't it be better to see if you really needed it before you spend the money, instead of assuming you do? What if your child picks up reading from being read to? What if your child is one of those natural spellers? What if your child loves to write without any prompting? What if your child loves to think mathematically? Maybe, if you step back a bit and don't rush things, you'll see you don't need a pre-digested program. Or maybe you'll realize that one beautiful curriculum that everyone is enthusing about will actually turn something that is a delight into a chore. There is that danger. So maybe curriculum should only be a response to your child's passion or inquiry or desire for a skill.
I recently re-watched a Ken Robinson youtube video. I guess I had first seen it a couple or more years ago. He talks about how modern public education is based on two concepts: linearity and conformity. That is what the scope and sequence in planned curriculum are based on too. They expect children to learn in a linear fashion, which is not how 99% of learning takes place. It does not move along in assembly line fashion. It is, as he says in his talk, an organic thing. We don't need a factory, we need a farm where we plant seeds and then create an environment where the seeds can grow and flourish. We also don't want conformity. Healthy societies depend on the diversity of talents that all its members have. Not everyone should be white collar clerks. We need all types of learners and workers. The end goal of education is not college or test scores but a flourishing human being who thrives, loves and lives deeply whatever his passion or walk in life turns out to be.
Watch this video because he really says it so much better than I ever could.
****************************
But then again, you will probably need something to help you along in particular subjects. But even here curriculum isn't the only answer. Instead of following some other person's scope and sequence, maybe you could just teach yourself how to teach reading or writing or arithmetic and then just pass that information along to your child when the time is right, like when it comes up in the real world or the child asks you about it or when it occurs to you, the mom, hey maybe it is time to learn such and such. I am thinking here of early childhood, before the high school level.
You know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. I bet you remember basic fractions, decimals and percents. You might remember some basic geometry. Anything you don't remember you can look up! Higher math though I do think takes systematic study. I think a good textbook works really well for Algebra and up. But this doesn't mean that in pre-school you need to sit down with your child every day and 'do math' in order for the child to study Algebra when they are 14.
This is true for all the traditional skill subjects:
You know how to read. If you don't remember any of your phonics rules you can rely on something like Phonics Pathways to steer you through.
You know how to write, by which I mean form letters. You just need to read a brief handbook on how to form letters to get the pedagogy behind handwriting, then you can focus on copy work to teach penmanship (and spelling, vocabulary, literary devices, grammar and punctuation).
You know how to write, by which I mean put an idea into sentence form. So much of this sort of writing is pushed on kids too early. Better to wait until they have a little spelling and grammar via lots of reading and read alouds and actually have something they want to say, before making it a requirement to learn how to craft an essay. You don't need to learn to write paragraphs in 2nd grade so you can be an eloquent writer when you are 18. It simply isn't necessary and in fact often backfires. There has been all this emphasis on early childhood education, basically stripping children of their natural childhood, ignoring their developmental needs, their own personal trajectory and talents, and it is wrong. Don't buy into it! Both intellectually and financially!
The heart of homeschooling is not curriculum The heart of homeschooling is being in a family that encourages wonder and exploration within wholesome limits. It is participating in family life which consists of conversations, read alouds, chores, projects, arts and crafts, living one's faith in a tangible way, interacting with the community. And then you can add a little preplanned help now and again to this rich cultivated loam in the garden of your family.
Here are 12 resources that may help you in learning how to teach:
The Three R's by Ruth Beechick - Ruth Beechick is a Christian educator. I don't subscribe to her brand of Christianity but she wrote this slender, brilliant book that gives you the simple nuts and bolts needed to educate your child in the 3 R's of reading, writing and arithmetic.
Phonics Pathways - this book is good for beginning phonics up through high school spelling.
Bob books - these are great beginning phonics readers. You can just use these books to sit by your child and help them sound the letters out.
Games for Reading and any other Peggy Kaye books. She's got one on math, one on writing and more. These are resources you can just pick and choose from as you feel the call for your particular children.
Teach Me to Do It Myself or other Montessori guides for the home, like those by Elizabeth Hainstock, etc. Incorporating Montessori type activities into your home life gives a creative outlet for your parental anxiousness to get this schooling thing going! And it also gives your child the chance to learn through play in developmentally respectful ways.
Donna Young's Handwriting resources - Donna Young is a wonderful woman! She created all these resources for other homeschoolers and then made most of them free on line. God bless her!
Jim Trelease's The Read Aloud Handbook - read to your children! They will learn so much!
Honey for a Child's Heart - this was the first book about books for children that I read. There many other valuable book lists out there in internet land nowadays. So this really is just one choice of many.
Children Who Are Not Yet Peaceful - This book is written by a Montessori teacher who worked with emotionally troubled children. However, it is so much more than that! It is about respecting children, not rushing them, creating a place of safety so they can bloom and learn to manage their own emotions. For me it served as an invaluable parenting book as a parent who tries to home educate.
Project Based Homeschooling - This book shows you how to let your children explore and learn through taking their projects seriously. It hits just the right tone and is very practical.
Khan Academy - forget how to do long division? Don't remember Newton's laws? Sal Khan to the rescue! God bless him too!
Teaching the Classics - How to read and discuss literature deeply. Really helpful!
For the newbie: once you get some wisdom and experience under your belt, you'll begin to feel more comfortable in the role of teacher and mentor. It truly is just an extension of your parenthood. All parents are teachers, but homeschooling parents are teachers of more subject matter. That's the only difference. So essentially, you already know how to do this thing! You just need to build on what you already have. It is all a beautiful process. Keep joyful, keep it real, learning will happen, not in a linear way, but in an almost magical organic way that will have you looking back in amazement.
I do think curriculum serves its purpose, but I think its purpose is pretty narrow. I think a lot of times those curriculum providers are feeding into our anxieties and the 'need' to keep up with the Joneses. We homeschoolers are always worried about whether the kids measure up to other kids. We want them to excel. We want to prove that we can do this home education thing. We are gung ho about this project of ours. We want to plan ahead. Parents with kids who are two years old will ask questions about preschool curriculum. It's like city people who have eaten factory produced food for so long, they forget that you can go and pluck an apple from a tree and eat it. Or catch a fish in a stream and fry it up over a fire. And that fresh food is probably far more nourishing than the boxed kind. And it tastes better too! But it isn't as convenient. Or real. Have you ever thought about how much trying to find the perfect curriculum is really a function of our consumerism? If we buy something, it will make us happy.
So here is my first premise, you don't really need planned curriculum to learn. People have been learning without planned curriculum for a long, long time. Lesson plans and educational activities and that kind of stuff is made up and part and parcel of the factory learning approach to education that has dominated our landscape since the advent of public schools.
Curriculum can have its place, though. But wouldn't it be better to see if you really needed it before you spend the money, instead of assuming you do? What if your child picks up reading from being read to? What if your child is one of those natural spellers? What if your child loves to write without any prompting? What if your child loves to think mathematically? Maybe, if you step back a bit and don't rush things, you'll see you don't need a pre-digested program. Or maybe you'll realize that one beautiful curriculum that everyone is enthusing about will actually turn something that is a delight into a chore. There is that danger. So maybe curriculum should only be a response to your child's passion or inquiry or desire for a skill.
I recently re-watched a Ken Robinson youtube video. I guess I had first seen it a couple or more years ago. He talks about how modern public education is based on two concepts: linearity and conformity. That is what the scope and sequence in planned curriculum are based on too. They expect children to learn in a linear fashion, which is not how 99% of learning takes place. It does not move along in assembly line fashion. It is, as he says in his talk, an organic thing. We don't need a factory, we need a farm where we plant seeds and then create an environment where the seeds can grow and flourish. We also don't want conformity. Healthy societies depend on the diversity of talents that all its members have. Not everyone should be white collar clerks. We need all types of learners and workers. The end goal of education is not college or test scores but a flourishing human being who thrives, loves and lives deeply whatever his passion or walk in life turns out to be.
Watch this video because he really says it so much better than I ever could.
****************************
But then again, you will probably need something to help you along in particular subjects. But even here curriculum isn't the only answer. Instead of following some other person's scope and sequence, maybe you could just teach yourself how to teach reading or writing or arithmetic and then just pass that information along to your child when the time is right, like when it comes up in the real world or the child asks you about it or when it occurs to you, the mom, hey maybe it is time to learn such and such. I am thinking here of early childhood, before the high school level.
You know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. I bet you remember basic fractions, decimals and percents. You might remember some basic geometry. Anything you don't remember you can look up! Higher math though I do think takes systematic study. I think a good textbook works really well for Algebra and up. But this doesn't mean that in pre-school you need to sit down with your child every day and 'do math' in order for the child to study Algebra when they are 14.
This is true for all the traditional skill subjects:
You know how to read. If you don't remember any of your phonics rules you can rely on something like Phonics Pathways to steer you through.
You know how to write, by which I mean form letters. You just need to read a brief handbook on how to form letters to get the pedagogy behind handwriting, then you can focus on copy work to teach penmanship (and spelling, vocabulary, literary devices, grammar and punctuation).
You know how to write, by which I mean put an idea into sentence form. So much of this sort of writing is pushed on kids too early. Better to wait until they have a little spelling and grammar via lots of reading and read alouds and actually have something they want to say, before making it a requirement to learn how to craft an essay. You don't need to learn to write paragraphs in 2nd grade so you can be an eloquent writer when you are 18. It simply isn't necessary and in fact often backfires. There has been all this emphasis on early childhood education, basically stripping children of their natural childhood, ignoring their developmental needs, their own personal trajectory and talents, and it is wrong. Don't buy into it! Both intellectually and financially!
The heart of homeschooling is not curriculum The heart of homeschooling is being in a family that encourages wonder and exploration within wholesome limits. It is participating in family life which consists of conversations, read alouds, chores, projects, arts and crafts, living one's faith in a tangible way, interacting with the community. And then you can add a little preplanned help now and again to this rich cultivated loam in the garden of your family.
Here are 12 resources that may help you in learning how to teach:
The Three R's by Ruth Beechick - Ruth Beechick is a Christian educator. I don't subscribe to her brand of Christianity but she wrote this slender, brilliant book that gives you the simple nuts and bolts needed to educate your child in the 3 R's of reading, writing and arithmetic.
Phonics Pathways - this book is good for beginning phonics up through high school spelling.
Bob books - these are great beginning phonics readers. You can just use these books to sit by your child and help them sound the letters out.
Games for Reading and any other Peggy Kaye books. She's got one on math, one on writing and more. These are resources you can just pick and choose from as you feel the call for your particular children.
Teach Me to Do It Myself or other Montessori guides for the home, like those by Elizabeth Hainstock, etc. Incorporating Montessori type activities into your home life gives a creative outlet for your parental anxiousness to get this schooling thing going! And it also gives your child the chance to learn through play in developmentally respectful ways.
Donna Young's Handwriting resources - Donna Young is a wonderful woman! She created all these resources for other homeschoolers and then made most of them free on line. God bless her!
Jim Trelease's The Read Aloud Handbook - read to your children! They will learn so much!
Honey for a Child's Heart - this was the first book about books for children that I read. There many other valuable book lists out there in internet land nowadays. So this really is just one choice of many.
Children Who Are Not Yet Peaceful - This book is written by a Montessori teacher who worked with emotionally troubled children. However, it is so much more than that! It is about respecting children, not rushing them, creating a place of safety so they can bloom and learn to manage their own emotions. For me it served as an invaluable parenting book as a parent who tries to home educate.
Project Based Homeschooling - This book shows you how to let your children explore and learn through taking their projects seriously. It hits just the right tone and is very practical.
Khan Academy - forget how to do long division? Don't remember Newton's laws? Sal Khan to the rescue! God bless him too!
Teaching the Classics - How to read and discuss literature deeply. Really helpful!
For the newbie: once you get some wisdom and experience under your belt, you'll begin to feel more comfortable in the role of teacher and mentor. It truly is just an extension of your parenthood. All parents are teachers, but homeschooling parents are teachers of more subject matter. That's the only difference. So essentially, you already know how to do this thing! You just need to build on what you already have. It is all a beautiful process. Keep joyful, keep it real, learning will happen, not in a linear way, but in an almost magical organic way that will have you looking back in amazement.
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