— 1 —
Almost done. MAN I am ready to be done with this. It’s not a huge project, but it’s been in the front of my brain for two months and I’m ready to think about something else. I should finish it this evening (Friday), thank goodness, because I have possible articles about Better Call Saul and Walker Percy on the horizon over the next few weeks, a trip to plan, plus an actual paper book to read and a television show (season 2 of the BBC’s Happy Valley) to watch.
Oh. Taxes. Thanks for reminding me.
I wrote about Dorothy B. Hughes here – her The Expendable Man was very interesting, dealing with racial issues and abortion in a mid-century context, in ways that might surprise you. I wrote about season one of Happy Valley here – also with a surprising life-related angle.
Yeah, yeah. An exhortation, too. I’ll get to it. I’ll let everyone else have their say, first. More efficient that way.
— 4 —
As usual, the Homeschool Daily Reports become less daily by the end of the week. Some highlights: After “The Open Window” he read “The Interlopers” also by Saki. I said, “Where you surprised at the ending?” He said, “No, because you know the story couldn’t happen without something bad happening.” This time I printed out an unadapted version the first time around, and I used this as a supplement for discussion. Part of the discussion (and I mention this just to show you how the Homeschool Rabbit Holes work) began with the concept of the omniscient narrator. Well, first off, he didn’t know what “omniscient” meant, so we picked it apart, along with omnipotent and omnipresent. We talked about how those are attributes of God. Then we swung back around to literature, looked for evidence in the story of an omniscient narrator and then talked about other examples of non-omniscient third person narration, and then touching on first person point of view.
— 5 —
I think we’re done with copywork, and will do only dictation from now on. The blogger at this site said that is what she does – go to this link for a good explanatory series on copywork/dictation – and it struck me that yes, it’s time. He’d gain much more from writing passages being dictated (after studying them) than copying at this point. So this week, I had him grab the book he was currently reading – Spy Camp – and pick out a passage he liked. He found one, he copied it yesterday, and then I dictated it to him today. The lessons contained in this sample were spelling of a couple of challenging words and the use of punctuation within quotation marks.
Watched some videos over the last couple of days. Highlights were:
The Hip History video on the Indian Removal Act.
Brain Scoop on explaining taxonomy via candy, water beetles and Death Rocks. Love Emily Graslie!
For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain’t the Lyceum!
Whew, you have a lot going on! The Sylacauga Marble Festival is happening now (through Saturday the 16th) and Jim is there carving again. I’ll be over a couple of times in the next week to check progress. Let one of us know if you want to revisit the marble goings on.
Oooh…good to know! Let me know when you are going to be there, if you want.
Ugh. Taxes. We just did that. It was awful.
Sent you an email.
“Yeah, yeah. An exhortation, too. I’ll get to it. I’ll let everyone else have their say, first. More efficient that way.”
Hey, there! Welcome to the club. Come on in. Sit down. Take your time. There’s plenty of room. Only two of us here…;-).
I’m really looking forward to reading what you have to say on Walker Percy. How about a read-along?