Lego Ships

After reading the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Steven started to make ships. This is his Dawn Treader They are becoming more elaborate all the time

Peter Pan

We finished reading Peter Pan a couple of weeks ago. So we had to get the Disney version and watch it. So of course we then had to find the best song that they cut from that one. Never Smile at a Crocodile.



I love the legalese.


Peter Pan from the book really is exactly what I do not want my children to be. Selfish, forgetful, arrogant, and thoughtless.
Throughout the book, Barrie portrays children "gay and innocent and heartless." This has always bothered me. Yes, children are innocent and self-centered, but heartless?

This is actually one time I like the Disney version better. Peter is an elf of some kind; "the spirit of youth" instead of a five or six year old boy who just refuses to grow up. I did like the 2003 Peter Pan movie. It places Peter and Wendy at an age where they would be entering puberty. That makes more sense to me; the prospect of growing up is very real at that point and can be a little scarry.

Peter and the Wolf

My main purpose in posting this is so that I will have it handy.


I really like the story of Peter and the Wolf. One, I like Russian music, but I love how Prokofiev tells the story musically. I enjoy the musical conversations. I'm not fond of the fact that Peter ignore his Grandfather's warning, but the rest is great.

Well several years ago I found this copy of the story in book form by Vladimir Vagin at the library. I think I have mentioned before that I am rather particular in my art appreciation. I love Vladimir Vagin's art work. It is beautiful and I am always amazed a the detail. We checked it out from the library so many times it was laughable. I finally bought it. It is one of the kids's most asked for books at reading time. At the end of the book, Vagin included the musical themes of each character, and I always have to sing those too. So they know the story, they are familiar with the toons, but they don't get to hear the whole thing very often. Hence this link with Leonard Berstein and the New York Philharmonic.

Update

I have been rather quiet lately. I have been trying to stay away from the computer. I seem to be on it so much. Between homework, banking and all around keeping up with the world, I am not being a very good example of limiting my screen time. I would write a lot more if I didn't have to be on the computer to do it. We finished reading the Little House series and read the Narnia series. I remember Mom reading them to us but I didn't remember the stories. We have had fun with them. I loved The Last Battle. I almost didn't read that one because I knew it would be hard and sad, but I LOVED it. The ending was so beautiful. And to think I almost missed out on all of those wonderful discussion with the kids about staying strong, doing right when no one else will, Anti-Christs and having faith. Now we are reading Laddie. I haven't read this one in several years and now I can share it with my kids. We have been having swimming lessons twice a week since the beginning of February. They are really enjoying it. Our pool has school age lessons during the day by request. This is great because they end up with small classes. There is only one other family with kids in the same classes. It is good, but I still haven't figured out how to do anything else in the day when we get back; my rhythm is all off. Jonny went down to Olympia for some training last week. He was gone the whole week.

That is as far as I got. I should probably post it or else I never will. 3/27/11

Reading

After we finished Pinocchio, we started on Heidi. Have I told you how much I love that book? I love that book! It is so sweet, she has such faith, and she blesses everyone she meets. Of course there is the not so subtle 'nature can heal anything' theme, but I go for that anyway. I was really struck this time with the simplicity of how they lived. I am going into minimalist mode anyway, so that is probably why I noticed it so much.

Then we started on the Little house books. I didn't know if the boys would like it especially after just reading a girl type book (Heidi), but they are liking it. We have read the Big Woods, Prairie and Plum Creek, now we are reading On the Shores of Silver Lake. When it snowed last week, they begged me to make the snow candy Laura described in Little house in the Big Woods. You cook the candy and then dribble it on snow in curlicues. Well ours looked more like spiders, but it was pretty good. Not the best molasses candy, but not bad. I would like to try it again with real maple syrup.

But I am inspired again how simple they have it. I walked around the house today tempted to chuck just about everything. It wouldn't take much to get me to do it: just a little encouragement.

Agency is a beautiful thing

After the interruptions of summer and moving, Steven reverted back into Core Phase in his education. He was not ready to have anything required of him and was just in play-learning mode. It took me a bit to catch on to what what happening. In my mind he should have been eagerly in love of learning phase spending his days on learning all sorts of things. Well, I decided to back off and give him the space he needed to get back to where he was supposed to be. So about 6 weeks went by with my battling between thinking he really should be doing more and knowing he needed time. Why do I doubt myself?



Well shortly before Christmas, he kind of started to get back in the grove. Then that silly Diary of a Wimpy Kid came along. He started reading like crazy. I had to make him turn off his light at night so that he would get a little sleep. When he was done reading those books as fast as he could get his hands on them, he went over and picked up The Jungle Book of all things. Now that book is NOT necessarily easy reading!! But he is sticking with it and enjoying it.


That Diary thing also got him wanting to write in his journal more, but he feels self conscience about his spelling. So he has been asking to work on that too. I am amazed at the amount of spelling practice he is going through. He is reading his scriptures a lot and reminding me when we forget. He is finding passages he wants to underline and is even quoting stuff. He did say that reading his scriptures helps him understand the older language in The Jungle Book.



I am grateful I gave him the space he needed. I could have decided he needed to be studying more and require more of him. But not only would it have been a battle and not fun for either of us, I could not require all that he is doing now: he is asking for this stuff. He is now back in his Love of Learning and it is stronger than ever.

I love agency education!

Naya Nuki

I have been wanting to do some reading on survival skills in our schooling. Things like weather, map and compass, finding water, and making shelters, that sort of thing. It finally occurred to me to compile a list of "survival classics" of not just how to books, but of literature that talks about such skills.
We finished reading Naya Nuki: Shoshoni Girl Who Ran. We loved this story. Naya Nuki was a friend of Sacagawea, they were kidnapped by another tribe together. Naya Nuki was determined to escape and return home. This book tells of her kidnapping, escape, and 1000 mile journey to freedom. The kid was 11! I was so impressed with her detailed planning, her courage, and how well she relied on her instincts. Steven couldn't wait to get to the end and the other boys actually paid attention a bit. A wonderful little story.

Pollyanna

We just finished reading Pollyanna this week. I had never read it before and was only familiar with the Disney movie version. So I shouldn't be surprised at the story line changes, right? I absolutely loved this book. Pollyanna is a wonderful example of how one person can make a difference in the lives of others, how ones life affects the lives of others, and how simple happiness and gratitude is contagious. Steven even cried. This is definitely a new personal classic.