Daybook - October

Reading - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. This book had me at the levitating girl. It's audacious, managing to mix themes of moral responsibility and war with Welsh mythology, time travel and shape changing. Riggs also shakes in a drop of coming-of-age. It's the story of Jacob, grieving the death of his grandfather Abe, once a child refugee from the Holocaust, and exploring the truth or otherwise of the fantastic stories Abe told him as a child. It held me right until the last chapter; cynical, Riggs has left the narrative hanging, ready for Book Two. I love a series, but this debut author mishandles his ending in a way that someone like Susan Cooper, more respectful of her audience, does not.

Listening - it's been a Joni weekend, with a dash of Natalie Merchant and a pinch of Liz Phair.

Making - Lucy and I are making skirts this week - floral, gathered at the waist, mid-length, decorative pockets. We washed the fabric and cut out the pattern days ago, but got derailed by illness. Sewing is like a horse for me; I have to keep getting on (with) it. Otherwise I get scared of the machine again and procrastinate.

Planning - to finish the our home schooling reregistration documentation. That's a mouthful! Our programs are planned and printed. I'm battling annoyance at recent changes which mean we no longer get a visit from an Authorised Person - I enjoyed those visits, talking over our programs, chatting about books and resources - but must now register by documentation. This means an unearthly amount of photocopying, wasteful in the extreme. It also means a certain amount of ill-feeling towards the Board of Studies, for saving themselves work and in the process, adding to mine. Not to mention their insistence that I provide a full application and program for Arwen, even though she has two months of home schooling left.

Hoping - for a cheering week. I'm shrinking back in dread of the month. After the holidays it contains too many appointments and re-re-scheduled surgery. Not nice.

A Thought -

"War is not women's history."

 - Virginia Woolf

Day Book

Reading - Snowy and I have moved on to The Borrowers, which is a read-aloud dream - short chapters and lots of dialogue. The girls have been reading Shakespeare on Toast by Ben Crystal - an actor's look at Shakespeare, his plays and his language. It's funny and instructive. And I'm still reading them DragonKeeper by Carole Wilkinson in the afternoons. Not quite sure how the girls are feeling about this one - to be fair, it is a little more 'Let's learn about China by reading this book' than 'Can't wait to share this novel with you!'

I just finished Elizabeth McCracken's The Giant's House. I loved it for McCracken's ability to advance the narrative through character rather than plot. She writes a beautiful sentence as well, though for me, the book's ending failed to convince. It makes a neat companion to The Room by Emma Donaghue which was also an amazing exercise in style. Not sure what to read next. I'm dipping in and out of Dickinson - Selected Poems and Commentaries by Helen Vendler but I also want another excellent novel.

Doing - Lots this week. Open Night at the high school yesterday - overwhelming for Arwen, interesting for me. And an interview with the Principal tomorrow. A new homeschooling Mum over for lunch today to chat about approaches and resources. I always make those offers in the right spirit and then start to dread them closer to the time, but it's good to share ideas and experiences. I would have been so happy if someone had invited us into their home when we first began home schooling. Iceskating and playdates on Friday and in between, a stack of school work. And yoga. It turns out Snowy likes yoga. Who knew ?
And inspired by  this post
Snowy may soon be having a park adventure of his own.

Making - Lucy and I have both started our squares for the 702 Knit In, in a timely manner. We may actually finish this year! I'm not in much of a making mood. Even bread seems uninspiring at present. Perhaps I'm too busy making plans and appointments. I've got lots of poems floating around in my head but can't seem to settle to getting them down on paper.

Planning - to find out if there is an Australian supplier for MCT.
To gently encourage the- girls to accept doing some social activities separately, in preparation for next year. Working out a lesson plan for King Lear at book club next week. To get on top of Snowy's screen time. Putting together a middle-school Thoreau unit, CM style, which I think is going to work well and will share here soon.

A Thought -

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."

- C.S. Lewis

Daybook

Listening - I've just finished listening to a serialisation on Radio National of Susan Maushart's new book, "The Winter of Our Disconnect", about the six months she and her teenage children spent digital-free. Trying to go six hours without gadgets here is hard enough. We used to be such Luddites; I don't know what happened to us. I do know that I enjoyed Susan's book, even if it is a little pun-heavy.

Reading - too many blogs. See above. My favourites at the moment ? Blogs that remind me of life a few years ago when we spent a lot more time doing hands-on  projects together.. Here http://www.gsheller.com/2010/10/our-beeswax-fun.html or here http://snowflakesinthevalley.blogspot.com/2010/11/beltane.html

Creating - safer ground here. Poems. Plans.

Wondering - about the ethics of spending a huge sum on money on the health of a ( very sweet, much loved, still young ) guinea pig.

Researching - mines, darkness, rescue equipment.

Hoping - that the guinea pig is miraculously cured by morning.

A thought  - When you want to teach children to think, you begin by treating them seriously when they are little, giving them responsibilities, talking to them candidly, providing privacy and solitude for them, and making them readers and thinkers of significant thoughts from the beginning. That's if you want to teach them to think. --Bertrand Russell

Some pictures I'm sharing -  our most recent hands-on moment - a sun print made by Snowy. To my shame, we only did this project because I needed to write about it for the HEA magazine 'Stepping Stones'. Bad mama! Must..Do..Better. We were supposed to plant sunflower seeds this week but the birds ate them. Not from the soil - we didn't get that far - but from the packet...

Daybook

Listening - to The Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank on Radio National. It's more affecting than simply reading the book, perhaps because the voice of the reader echoes and amplifies the voice of the author.

Reading -.just finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Which really. Bugged me. With its short. Staccato. Sentences. Nice conceit though, of Death being haunted by humans.

Creating - helping the girls make this for a friend.

Wondering - how long it would take for untended vegetation to take over a city.

Researching - trying to hunt down a well written narrative history of the 20th century for Lucy, who doesn't want to wait until she's in Yr 11 to delve deeper.

Hoping -  to regain some enthusiasm for cooking. Or at least a tolerance for cooking.

A thought - My second favourite household chore is ironing.  My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint.  ~Erma Bombeck
 

Daybook

Listening to - Kasey Chamber's new CD, Little Bird, especially the title song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq9On3uYI8Q

Reading - An Alison Lurie novel, borrowed from my sister, Foreign Affairs.

Creating -  plans for a Jane Austen themed book club next term.

Wondering - how long I have until Snowy  catches chickenpox. Arwen is better but Lucy came down with it today.

Researching -  Tuckman's theories of small group development. Novels dealing with relational aggression.

Hoping -  to have a finished bathroom by the middle of the week. And for the house fairy to come by and deal with the layers and layers of renovation dust.


A thought -  'Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew.'
- Saint Francis de Sales