The Trolls

Instantly one of my favorite books, not only for it's fresh and accurate take on the absurdity of family life, but for it's absolute uniqueness in having a final sentence that stays with you for weeks.

(Spoiler Alert)

The girls loved the silly family stories and quirky aunt who told them, evident as we shared our favorites.

We talked about characters, and plot, and other elements that just came off as fun. But I think it was setting that held the crux of it all as our discussion naturally pulled us to ask the girls things like:

Where father grow up? Canada
And where did he live now? Ohio
How do those two settings differ? One is wild and green and near the ocean. The other is flat in town.
We then pulled out a US map to see where these two places actually were.
Do you think the distance between the two geographically is supposed to mean something in the story? The father tried to forget where he came from, to distance himself.

Do you think the Trolls were real? Yes/No
If they were real, what do you think the Trolls were? Wild things that took away and never gave back.
So what did they take away and never give back? Their brother.
How do you know? Because after that he never bragged or followed them around again.
What do you think the author is trying to say with this book?

Robin of Locksley

I began to understand Robin Hood's character better in stories with my first Y2 student 2 years ago.

This version is from the My Book House set which any Charlotte Mason fan would drool over. I found my incomplete set at my 'local charity donation boutique'. It has I think 12 in all and is based on classic stories to progress with childhood years. I am on a quest to track down my missing volumes, and someday they will all be mine....

We read a version of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle (angle choirs-I adore this man--almost as much as Robin Hood himself).

 It fortuitously has explanations in the sidebars so you can know the difference between a crow and a daw, and what a "butt of ale" actually is (though discriminating Y2 students prefer "barrel, mom. It just sounds better." Plus we can color the black & white woodblock prints, although I would have preffered Pyle's still....

We listened to blackstone audio- OK, but a bit boring honestly.
But, it's my reading (and explanations after laughter subsides) that we return to.

We watched Eryol Flynn in black and white. OK
Then Disney (VHS) Robin Hood and His Merry Men. My favorite, by far.
Now the awakened Y2 student "Whose your favorite person mom? Mine's Maid Marion-I didn't expect her to be so bad--wearing boy clothes and messing up Robin Hood's shooting and joining with Robin Hood" I think feisty just isn't her vocabulary yet.

Then we came upon this book of the ballads and gorgeously illustrated.

 

 

Cardboard Cathedral part II

 

 This is an example of several things:
1-A Medieval Cathedral with flying buttresses, stained glass, and transverse architecture.
2-A creation I was way more into than my kids were.
3-A school project I can drop, unfinished, without any guilt while the fun is fading.

 

But it was still fun.

Here are some of the pieces before I hot glued them together:

 

 

Tower

 

 

Side and buttresses; these were simply stuck into the slits I cut in the sides. They didn't even touch the ground and were what I like to think of as a truer flying buttress.

 

 A detail of the Bible stories in the windows (Noah's Ark, David & Goliath, Moses and the staff/snake)

 

People going to church above the "cat rooms where the dead people are."

That's catacombs, dear, and those are the columns in between.

 

And a view from above. It's a lot simpler than it looks, glued in only 7 places. I just realized I had scored the top half of the walls and was going to hot glue them to a peak...maybe it will happen before the dumpster recycling bin, maybe not...

 

 

Night Heron of the Morning

9am
Local Park
Spring has Sprung!

Such a noticeable difference in the sounds of the place now. Bird calls everywhere, getting worms, mating, building nests. No tropical jungle, but for here, a big difference. Just a week after the trees have blossomed.

So we go the wetland boardwalk, and at the beginning I see this white reflection. We creep up on this never before seen bird and watch it fly from the water to a tree and sit to watch us.

Mockingbird decided to name it a Blue Fisher even though we later learned it was a Black-capped Night Heron. I love that name, I must think of someone I can name that...it sounds so tidy yet mysterious.

Last time we went we saw the pond's muskrat for the first time swim the entire length of the pond.
It's just thrilling to me that a place you frequent weekly for three years can still hold so much to be discovered.

Charlotte Mason is like that for me. Layers and layers of knowledge and connections to be discovered. I think that is what I love most about her approach- letting the student discover it and make it their own. Not something introduced to you to the point that all mystery and personal investment is obliterated.

On a Wild Turkey Chase

Not chicken scratch, turkey tracks. About two weeks apart, we discovered a flock of 40 turkeys in the same section of Alpine Loop. A recent snowfall made it a lot cooler than we were prepared for-the valley-dwellers that we are.

 

 

But finding this flock was worth it. The Tom strutted blue & red faced out in the middle of the road and their tracks were easier to photograph than they were...

 

Still, it's fun to see something so very wild, just living naturally. There's just something so exciting about finding something in the world that has always been there, yet never personally witnessed on this scale before. This  South Carolina Cooperative Extension website was very informative on them. In the flock we saw only one mature Tom, but there must have been more as this was a winter flock still banded together. (Tom tail up in left third of picture between 2 trees)