Weekly Review

Music Appreciation

If you haven't ever listened to the dulcet tones of Peter Ustinov, you're in for a treat. We bought a CD 'Peter Ustinov Reads the Orchestra' a long time ago and I haven't ever come across it anywhere else.  When I discovered that someone had put it on YouTube, I thought I'd share it here. It's about 30 minutes long and is a wonderful narration on the instruments of the orchestra. I prefer just to listen to the audio but the video is quite nicely done and it's ideal for young children.





Art Appreciation/Picture Study

Earlier this year we visited the art gallery and I found some art books published by Phaidon that I thought would be ideal to use for Picture Study - a good variety of paintings from the artist with  lovely, good-sized colour reproductions. They didn't have any books on artists I wanted to study but I took a photo of the book and searched when I got home and found Book Depository has a good selection of them for the same price.

Reading/Audio Books

I didn't realise Moozle hadn't read The Phantom Tollbooth before, so she started reading it today. Quirky and fun, written in 1961, it's recommended for ages 8 to 12 years, but it's one of those books that appeals to all ages, adults included.

Moozle's been reading Kim by Rudyard Kipling (Ambleside Online Year 5) so I put together some background information/history/general interest related to India during British rule to help with understanding and appreciating Kipling's book.

We enjoyed listening to The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard while we were out and about in the car. It's a good choice for car listening as the chapters are almost a short story in themselves, so if one child isn't there, we can just continue and the missing person doesn't lose the plot and and can join in with the next chapter. I wrote about it here.

Shakespeare 

After Macbeth and Hamlet everyone was ready for a comedy. I chose The Comedy of Errors because I found the Arkangel audio recording at our library. It's Shakespeare's shortest play and the full text is here.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas is a book I bought a couple of years ago and its 624 pages have sat on the bookshelf unread - until this week. I was pushed to start it after both reading Ruth's inspiring review at A Great Book Study, and hearing how much a friend at church enjoyed it also.

The Martian by Andy Weir, was recommended to my husband and me by our son, Mr T (he's in his mid-twenties) but before we could get a hold of the book we watched the DVD. There aren't many movies my husband and I both like - our tastes are so different - but we did enjoy this one. Basically, a group of astronauts get caught in a violent storm on Mars and in the chaos, one of them is believed to have been killed. The others make the difficult decision to leave the planet, believing there was no hope of the missing man's survival. Well, he does survive, and has to work out a way to contact NASA and use his wits to keep alive until he can be rescued. Some language but considering his situation, it's not inappropriate! The first couple of sentences in the book contain expletives, but that's not the overall tone of the book. It's a great story, the movie (M rating in Australia) was excellent, and I loved the music! (e.g. Starman by David Bowie).

Poetry

Benj, Moozle and I went to our homeschool park day this afternoon and on the way home we dropped in to see Zana who is house sitting for a few weeks. Somehow we got into a conversation (probably related to food and what we were going to have for dinner) that recalled a poem all the kids learnt when they were young. There's something very gratifying about these shared memories:

There Once Was a Puffin

Oh, there once was a Puffin
Just the shape of a muffin,
And he lived on an island
In the bright blue sea!

He ate little fishes,
That were most delicious,
And he had them for supper
And he had them for tea.

But this poor little Puffin,
He couldn’t play nothin’,
For he hadn’t anybody
To play with at all.

So he sat on his island,
And he cried for awhile, and
He felt very lonely,
And he felt very small.

Then along came the fishes,
And they said, “If you wishes,
You can have us for playmates,
Instead of for tea!”

So they now play together,
In all sorts of weather,
And the Puffin eats pancakes,
Like you and like me.

by Florence Page Jaques

Linking up at Weekly Wrap-up

 

Beauty in the Homeschool

'Beauty will save the world.'

 Fyodor Dostoevsky

We listened to an inspiring and refreshing message a few weeks ago on Beauty. I've been thinking about it ever since and this week it was in relation to the small moments in our day when we allow the loveliness of music to flow into our lives.
I was very fortunate to have a dad who always sang - folksongs mainly, and it's been something I wanted to give my children as part of their heritage, but I always thought it was just my little quirk; a way to pass on something personal.
Classical music was in a different category in my mind. Perhaps because it was described as  'classical' it seemed a more valid inclusion in our homeschool week. But I didn't have a personal link to classical music. My exposure to it was virtually nil when I was growing up but I was aware that I had a deficit and I set out to repair it.
When I came across Ambleside Online and saw that Folksongs were part of the curriculum, a cultural heritage which has a beauty of its own and should be passed on to the next generation, I began to see my little passion differently and allowed myself to give it a place of importance in our days. Not to feel that it was taking up space that should be filled with something more important.

I've taught my children all the Scottish songs that were part of my heritage, and the songs of Australia as well as those of other nations. They really are a door of discovery into the life and history of a country.

This week we've been enjoying a new folksong, 'Over the Hills & Far Away,' sung by John Tams. It has been adapted from a traditional English song written in the late 1600's and used as the theme song for a British mini-series of the Napoleonic Wars, 'Sharpe.' The series is based upon books by Bernard Cornwall. I haven't seen the series but I love the song!

O'er the hills and o'er the main
Through Flanders, Portugal and Spain.
King George commands and we obey
Over the hills and far away.

We've spent a couple of months listening to the music of Anton Dvorak and this week I read aloud some excerpts of his life from The Gift of Music by Smith & Carlson.
Dvorak (1841-1904) was born in what was Czechoslovakia at the time, and is credited as being one of the most human and loveable of the great composers. His music rose up from the wellspring of his Czech identity and in later years when the country of Czechoslovakia was overrun by Communist Russia, his music enabled the true spirit of the people to rise above the oppression they were under.

We were reading about his hard work and perseverance in his attempts at composition and how he kept himself warm by burning his early compositions which he wasn't happy with in his stove.
This sentence made me smile as I've been going through Dawn's ebook on Charlotte Mason's motto, 'I Am, I Can, I Ought, I Will' with Moozle:

"If I ought, I can" might well have been the motto of Dvorak, and he had a firm, inner conviction that he would eventually succeed as a composer. Dvorak was a hard worker and determined to overcome.

We've been listening to his music each day and these are some favourites:





















How we fit this aspect of Beauty into our week:

Know the why - see the AO link above on Folksongs and also this short article from the University of Florida. And - 8 Reasons You Should Listen More to Classical Music.


I've used CD's especially of folksongs if I have them. The library can be a good place to find folksongs of various nations.

I have a playlist on an iPad in the kitchen and Moozle listens when she's emptying the dishwasher in the morning.

I play them when we're making lunch.

Benj has them on his computer & he often listens while he's doing copy work or writing in his commonplace book.

I link the folksong to the history we are covering if I find something suitable.

Old Town Square, Prague, Czech Republic, 2015

No matter what nation dominated them, the saving factor for the future of Czech music and dance was that the country remained obstinately Czech, and they kept in their hands a torch by which Smetana and, after him, Dvorak lighted fires that the whole world could see.

The Gift of Music

Psalm 27

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after;
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord...

Linking up with Weekly Wrap-up

A Peek into our Place - and a Girl Graduates

 A Learning Journey

Education is an Atmosphere

Education is a Discipline and a Life...
  
And yesterday - her reward for four years of hard work...Zana finished her degree in November last year and this was her 'official' graduation ceremony.

 

 It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt, 1910 

An Impromtu Jam Session

 I really miss this. It used to happen most days but now with the older two married and three studying or working full-time, it only happens big time on the weekends. I didn't always feel like listening to the racket they made but it was worth the inconvenience and noise. My 'reading room' turned  into a music studio, but it is one of my greatest pleasures to have everyone playing music together.

 Benj has been reading through Isaac Asimov's, Understanding Physics in conjunction with Apologia Physical Science. This is an experiment he did on Newton's Third Law:

 

a












This website reviews Asimov's books (he wrote many). This one is highly regarded and has some good reviews on Amazon. It also comes as three separate volumes:

Benj went to the Royal Easter Show with his older brother & a group of friends. He came home with hundreds of photos. He thought I'd appreciate this one:

And from Moozle after our reading of  Plutarch's Life of Timoleon...

 A Syracrusian's Soliloquy on a Tyrants Statue

A man stood looking at a statue in his house. He said, "O thou wicked thing! I am glad that I sell thee tomorrow! Indeed, I should have sold thee before, when the tyrant fled. But I waited too late, ah, never mind. I am indeed grateful that I sell thee on the morrow! Thee and the one who thou art made in likeness of have wronged me sorely. Tch, tch, he was a very bad man. I wonder who will buy thee, hm........Maybe... Aha! Malisianio Cornierio He was very attached to the tyrant! If he buys it.........I wonder........well, well! Glad am I to sell thee! T'will rid me of the memory of him! The tyrant was very ugly, and so are thee! The tyrant had a round face, with a nose like a hawk's beak,and large pale eyes, he hardly had any eyebrows! Thou art the very likeness of him! Tut, tut! If no one buys thee, I will reduce thee to a heap of rubble! I will denounce Cornierio if he buys thee!" So saying, he left the house leaving the idol sitting where it was. The next day people saw in the newspaper that Malisianio Cornierio had been denounced by Litianio Katierio, for aiding and abetting the tyrant in his work of being a cruel ruler. The newspapers said that Katierio had denounced Cornierio when Cornierio had come to buy his idol, saying, "Thou art a foul traitor, and I denounce thee in the name of the populace, for aiding and abetting the tyrant in his work of destroying the city!" Cornierio had replied, "Why dost thou accuse me of being a traitor, I helped the tyrant only to gain favour, and see if I could help the city, and thou dost accuse me now when I buy this idol only to gain pleasure when I reduce it to a heap of rubble!"

He was arrested and his statement searched, and was found that he was lying.

                                                                          THE END

(She hasn't quite got the idea about paragraphs.)

Linking to:

Finishing Strong and Weekly Wrap-Up