With music recitals looming, things are ramping up here. Taylor will be playing "Wizards of Winter" (sample of song here). Hailey will be playing a really nice medley of several Christmas songs. The song Emma will play is one she just won first place with in a flute competition. They just played a small set for a church dinner and were asked to play a Sunday there at Christmas. YAY!  Commitment seems to be the current music theme, as they all seem quite serious about improving their skills. It is an amazing thing to watch develop.  

Current reads are as follows:

Taylor-  Les Miserable (assigned), Fellowship of the Ring (for the 2nd time-not assigned)

Hailey-  A Christmas Carol (assigned), Fellowship of the Ring, and she just finished A Tale of Two Cities

Emma-  A Wrinkle in Time (assigned), Sense and Sensibility and At the Back of the North Wind

and me- just finished David Copperfield (oh, how I love him) and A Tale of Two Cities which Hailey made me rush through so that we could discuss together-ugh!- currently reading Little Dorrit, and so the Dickensian theme continues...

We have begun a new writing program, Classical Writing, based on the classical methodology (progymnasmata). It is a fascinating concept/approach.

I am looking forward to the holidays and don't even seem to dread the thought of decorating. This bodes well. Bring on Thanksgiving.

Undertaking Latin was my last goal. It is undertaken. There is slow forward momentum in that arena. Next goal. Having read Bleak House and Great Expectations last year, having just finished A Tale of Two Cities and having just begun David Copperfield, I am ready to commit to my new goal. 

I want to read ALL of Dickens. Yep, every little piece of literature that silver-penned, narrative weaving genius wrote, I want to read. There. I said it.        

Okay... I will conceed, maybe, just maaybe I won't get to ALL of it, but a good chunk of it anyway.

So now my thoughts on the order are:

Finishing David Copperfield

Little Dorrit

The Pickwick Papers

The Old Curiosity Shop

Martin Chuzzlewit (who would not want to read a book with that title?)

I have no desire whatsoever to read Oliver Twist nor Nicholas Nickleby, and I have no idea as to why.

New goal revised edition: I want to read  SEVERAL more Dickens books. There. I said it.

Two of the girls are doing their Latin together. They are laughing about the sentences, each seeing how the other ended up translating them. My other daughter is conscientiously doing her state research for Delaware. There is no complaining. There is no moaning (at least not today). There is contentment, self-motivation, intellectual curiosity and solid relationships.

I love homeschooling.

   Hailey and I are reading it together.

     This one brutal on your soul.

If only I had had the opportunity to learn Latin in high school. Maybe it is better this way. I'm  sure I would have detested it then. I can apprecitate it now-really appreciate it.

My lovely daughter Taylor wishes for me to update my blog.

This counts as an update. 

Nashville, here we come! 19 days of Fine Arts Academy.

This will be quite an experience. It will be just us girls. (Ron will come on the weekends)

Annie Moses Band Fine Arts Summer Academy

It has been a long and arduous process but it is done. Done I tell you. Written in stone.

A Latin curriculum has been chosen and purchased.

(Rising ominous and haunting music...and dramatic pause for effect....)

Latin in the Christian Trivium

After buying and returning/reselling an inordinate number of curricula, I have settled on this one. Well, the girls had a large part of this process. They really like the flow and instruction in this one.

Let's see... I looked at Wheelock, Henle, Ecce Romani, Latin Alive, Latin Prep, First Form Latin--I'm sure there are others. This will work. This MUST work. One of the selling points for our needs is that it covers 4 years (I realize some of these others do also) and one of the girls is looking at wanting a minimum of 3 years.

The kicker to this is that hubby and I have decided to tackle this subject ourselves. GASP.

Maybe it was all the coffee we had just consumed which caused our brains to race in combination with some bad seafood which has effected our cognitive skills.

We start tomorrow, unless above mentioned influences have waned.

It is absolutely a riveting read, but I think I am done with the Greeks for a while. Maybe I will resume after a Haz-Mat psyche decontamination.

Sophocles and Aeschylus were obviously was working through some emotional baggage.

Sophocles

496-406 BC

Just finished Antigone by Sophocles.

Betrayal. Honor. Death. Familial issues (yikes!). Tragedy. Irony. Greek. Did I mention death and irony? Yep, it's all there.

I have to say though, it isn't quite a juicy as Orestia, but I enjoyed the irony in this one.

Antigone

Lord Frederic Leighton

1830-1896

My oldest daughter's math came today. Algebra 2 -Saxon. I feel confident a normal person would flip through it for about 10 seconds and then place it on the bookshelf until the time comes to hand it to said child.

nope

not me-     but why?

I've been doing Algebra 2 for the past 45 minutes. The compulsion to solve those equations is irresistable. I find it so very fulfulling to re-write the problem and step by careful step, factor or find the LCD, combine those like terms. ahhhh. It is so satisfying. The gratification factor is equivalent to completing a challenging crossword  puzzle. Hmm... maybe I should go back and try it in pen.

There is order to it. It is clean-no ambiguity. Now, granted, there are different approaches to the same problem, but one must still follow the procedure. Oh, how I adore the orderliness of a proceedure. .

I hear the unknowns calling. The function of y terms of x must be found. The square must be completed.

Then there is that beautiful quadratic equation-

So much can be resolved with that little fella. It doesn't help reduce my pile of laundry, but it certainly gives me something to do instead.

I'm putting this on the 'must read' list for high school (maybe earlier).

I quickly read through it in about an hour and a half and enjoyed pondering many quotes by Jefferson and other national founders. It also posed and idea that had never occured to me-and that is always a plus in a book.

Sacrifice with the idea of no return-that is not correct. There is always talk of sacrifice by some on certain sides of the political isle. Sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice it would seem.

Sacrifice: the destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else Merriam-Webster 11th Edition Collegiate

We do not sacrifice for nothing. Why are we asked to sacrifice for nothing?

That. is. not. sacrifice. 

Also, I apparently need to read the Federalist Papers next.

they. want. chickens.

I am re-reading Bleak House after watching the BBC mini-series. Having seen many books adapted into movies, I was a bit skeptical. Oh heavens! was I ever wrong. It was truly wonderful. I will not attempt to review or summarize, as Taylor did such a great job on her March 29th blog entry. It is a must see.

It has been a bumpy week or two here, but life has made quite the turn around. We are going to go to Annie Moses Fine Arts Academy in Nashville for 2 1/2 weeks in July.

God is good.