May in Review
And I thought April was a month of light reading! This month, the only new books I managed to read were the boy’s “school books”—William O. Steele and D’Aulaire. Littlest Brother and I are still plugging away at Howard Pyle’s Robin Hood. I am also reading aloud Holling C. Holling’s Seabird and Ralph Moody’s Man of the Family. For myself, I continue to enjoy Charlotte Mason’s Home Education, and I’ve also begun reading a friend’s copy of Ezzo’s Babywise. Otherwise, it has been studies on essential fatty acids and the controversy over soy foods. Thank goodness for Delius and Gershwin.
My fancy was tickled by a tiny cup of white tea perched
on the enormous textbook Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease.
Studying is so much nicer with tea and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
Books Read This Month
These are books that I read entirely for the first time this month.
Caje wishes his father would settle down and live in a house like other people, but Jared is a woodsy and always will be. The two hunt game, sleep in hollow logs, and flee hostile Indians. But after noticing strange signs of the coming winter, Jared makes the surprising decision to visit family. Caje enjoys living on a farm, but he worries about whether he fits in, and he worries about how he will pay his aunt and uncle for the food and shelter. When the winter threatens to overtake them all, Caje learns the valuable lesson of give and take.
This was not my favorite of the Steel books, as it is less tightly written and slower paced. There is repeated mild language: dang, darn, heck, etc. [Spoiler!] The father leaves his son with family without saying good-bye. This ‘kindly’ abandonment may disturb sensitive children. [End of Spoiler!]
I didn’t think that the boys fully appreciated this book, because they were so eager to start Man of the Family, the sequel to their beloved Little Britches. Nevertheless, they gave Winter Danger high ratings. Here are their reviews.—
Third Brother (aged 10): (✩✩✩✩✩) You should read Winter Danger. There are Chickamauga Indians and a big brown bear. I liked it because Burd likes to sing and is funny.
Littlest Brother (aged 7): (✩✩✩✩) It was good that Jared, Caje’s father, took him to his aunt, uncle, and cousins. He killed a big animals and saved them from starvation. It ends a cliff-hanger, so I gave it four stars. There were only two parts that I didn’t like. [He felt it would spoil the story to let you know what these were!]
This is another D’Aulaire biography that brings together great text with great illustrations. It introduces young Americans to the Father of their country, from his boyhood, to his work as a surveyor, to his masterful soldiery in two wars, to his Presidency. The boys took turns reading aloud and narrating; they were enthusiastic, though (being history buffs) they were annoyed by one inaccuracy. Here are their reviews:—
Third Brother (aged 10): (✩✩✩✩✩) I would give this six stars if I could. It was very interesting, and it taught me things I didn’t know about when George Washington was a boy. They made a mistake. When Washington crossed the Delaware, there were no Redcoats—just Hessians, mercenary soldiers from Germany. Also, the Americans wanted Washington to be king. When he refused, they made him President.
Littlest Brother (aged 7): (✩✩✩✩✩) You should read this; it is very exciting. George Washington after the war became Farmer Washington, which is what he liked best.
Other Books
These are the books that I revisited or did not read completely.
This book features the portraits of eighty individuals from various regions and traditions, with the food and drink they consume in a single day. We are given a glimpse not only into diet, but into the different cultures and communities around the globe. (My family enjoyed looking at the pictures, but didn’t do more than browse the text. This book inspired us to take our own portraits with a day’s worth of food. It will be a fun health project!) This book follows Hungry Planet, a collection of family portraits with a week’s worth of food.
These reading lessons for young students were the first in a popular geography series by the remarkable educator Charlotte Mason. “An effort is made,” she wrote in her preface, “to treat the subject with the sort of sympathetic interest and freshness which attracts a child to a new study.” Concepts introduced in this conversational little book include: how the earth’s motion causes day and night, the seasons, and climate, and how to use a compass and map. “Easy verses”—by Jane Taylor, Coleridge, Shakespeare, and others—are included to introduce some of these concepts with “pleasant poetic fancy.”
This book contains forty-one reading lessons for Standard II students (Grade 2?). Class I in Mason’s schools (Grades 1-3) had two ten-minute geography lessons weekly. Mason suggests that children go through the book twice. Questions and answers for the lessons are given as a summary. There is some outdated information easily edited; many of the texts available online have various typographical errors.
This book is in the public domain. The cover image is my own design, as I am currently updating the text and illustrations for modern students. This is a pleasant “school book” I look forward to using someday with my own children. I also hope to compile a teacher’s guide to teaching geography and using this and other living books. Email me for further information.
Music
“This is probably not very Protestant of me,” I admitted to family. But this song from Via Crucis caught my attention during an Easter radio program; I mentioned it last month. Soon I’ll buy their version of Canarios; I am something of a collector of that piece!
This quintessentially American piece was brilliantly showcased in a recent concert my family attended. Reminded of how much I loved Gershwin, I promptly added his Rhapsody in Blue to my iPod. It cheered the hours I spent studying essential fatty acids.
Ja Nons Hons Pris. Modo Antiquo. ✩✩✩✩
Read more about this historic song by Richard the Lionhearted in my post “Ja Nuns Hons Pris.”
Saltarello. Arany Zoltán. ✩✩✩✩
The Saltarello was a lively dance of the Renaissance. This is one of the pieces I am to learn on the recorder. Maybe I can convince my siblings to learn the dance.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012