Ocular Athletics--The Perfect Game

This week we read The Perfect Game from Tremendous Trifles....

Croquet by Ken

Croquet is fun unless you are playing with someone who knows the rules. Also, if you are playing with someone who is annoying, croquet mallets come in handy.

You know, if I was the best player in the world it wouldn't be any fun because I could just hit the ball and easily go through the wicket. But if you are bad like me you have the pleasure of hitting the ball again and again. So you see, being bad at croquet is more fun than being good.

Amateurism by Joe

Amateurism is the playing of sports for pleasure. Amateurs are usually younger than professionals and it is not that uncommon for them to become professionals. Almost everyone is an amateur at something. I ,for instance, am an amateur baseball player, basketball player, an amateur golfer and an amateur soccer player.

Amateurs do not get paid, they play for fun and the possibility of some day being a pro. Olympic athletes are amateurs and don't get paid, Olympians are sponsored by companies such as Subway or Wendy's and in return they usually have to act in their commercials.

If you play a game such as croquet you can call yourself and amateur croquet player. In case you have never played croquet I will now explain the rules. To play croquet you must maneuver a ball through a series of nine wickets using nothing but a hammer. You try to get your ball through the wickets in as few turns as possible. Every time you go through a wicket you get an extra shot to try to go through the following wicket. You win the game by being the first through the first seven wickets, hitting the turning stake and going through the next seven wickets.

If you hit another player's ball you get two extra shots from where your ball is on the ground or you may pick up your ball and place it next to the ball you hit. Once you put your ball by the other ball you hit you may either take two shots from there or put your foot on your ball and then hit it with your mallet in such a way that the other ball rolls away and then you take one shot from your ball's resulting location.

Croquet is a fun game but it can drive you utterly bonkers if you are not any good at it.

On the Matter of Croquet by Adam

Have you ever played croquet? Well, if you have I guess the question is, did you like it? Then the next question would be, were you good at it? If you answered, yes, yes, no in that order, you are probably a lot like me. I'm awful at the game. Yet an irrational love of the confounded activity follows me through my summer days; but even so I don't spend my summer mallet in hand whacking a colored ball around the backyard. Far from it. If I did that I would quickly become proficient at the game and that is a fact I sincerely dread. I have played people who were good at the game who have played me once and quickly moved on. I would finally be able to celebrate getting the ball through the third wicket and he would be coming back around, barreling through wickets like a truck on the freeway, his pose perfect, his face somber, and his ball going through yet another wicket. I must say though, who do you think had a better experience? Me, who had a record time of thirty minutes around the court, or my somber adversary, who deemed it counter-productive for me to even continue the match? However, I can tell you that victory is not my objective nor, of course, is defeat. But the slow, methodical and often frustrating route of the game is quite enjoyable. I play for the fact of playing. I find that when the dog steals my ball and finally drops it at the next wicket it is not only helpful but exceedingly amusing.

The February Slump

It's February...that time of year when we are all tired of school! It seems like spring is a thousand years away and nothing will be fun ever again! I've been homeschoolig a long time and I'm no longer taken by surprise by mid-winter malaise. This year we have put Latin and Algebra in stasis and are reviewing Latin songs and prayers and the twins are doing the tests from Saxon Algebra by way of review as none of us can stand the thought of stuffing our brains with any more new concepts!!
Hopefully, we will be refreshed and ready to resume rigorous studies in March.

Ocular Athletics

Mythology by Adam

When I think of mythology I usually see dwarfs and minotaurs and large creatures that try to eat people. Of course what daydream is complete without a large, green, scaly dragon blowing fire every which way and generally causing great havoc in its close vicinity? The heroes of mythology, Theseus, Heracles, and Jason, to name a few, championing the cause of Good and slaying her oppressors who carry the standard of their lord, Evil. These heroes were role models for ancient societies and still are today. For everyone knows that old stories never die, even as long as I think about them. They will endure the hard years that we can not and so are still there on the book shelves in the library and in your mind.

Of all the different stories out there that make up mythology, I think I like Greek mythology the best. With all its quarreling gods and fiendish monsters, evil men, pure hearted maidens, and brave heroes, it is a mix for the mind of fiction lovers like me. People who like the repeated stories of good versus evil are at home in the great, golden halls of Greek imagination. If I ever need to think up a story of my own and I need an evil villain all I have to do is look in a book of Greek mythology and there is always the perfect villain in those pages.

If you pick up a piece of good fiction and read it you will most likely find Greek monsters in it, like a mantacore or a hydra or a niemian lion, or maybe a gorgon. But the choices are almost unlimited if you add Norse and Egyptian mythology to the mix. Think of it, every culture has its own stories and all of them are well imagined if some being a little out of the ordinary don't exactly strike our fancy.


Chalk by Ken

Chalk is good for drawing and getting your hands covered in colored dust. Mom read a bit of G.K.Chesterton's book yesterday. It was about a piece of chalk.

Oh, wait! It's supposed to be me writing about chalk, isn't it? Thank you for being patient.

Also yesterday, my brothers and I drew with chalk. I drew a devil, a helmet, a sword, a beach, and several skulls. Oh, yes, and a weird cow.


An Epic Ballad on the Contents of My Pockets by Joe

For times of much strife
I have a large knife
When it's not in my pocket
I've probably lost it
It is always sharp,
And it could ruin a harp
It's got a side clip
So it won't slide around
A knife of this kind
Is not commonly found.

For times of much cold
I have in my pocket
A flame maker bold
This lighter of mine
Is cased in wood, very fine
It has my very long name
Carved deep in the back
I got it at the Benezette store
I call my valiant maker of flame
Left Footed Jack.

Ocular Athletics--revisited

Our writing has been a little non-existent this year. We have had our collective noses to the grindstone and are making great in-roads in Latin and Algebra but have not had a lot of extra energy for anything creative. Blah! However, Jen over at the 4Real forums has started a study of Chesterton's Tremendous Trifles. I asked the guys if they wanted to sign on and got a very enthusiastic response. The first essay was A Piece of Chalk where Chesterton writes of drawing with chalk on brown paper. We used pastels on old bags but it was fun. (Something we were having to little of on these dark,snow less, winter days!) Tomorrow we write!

The Dissection Question

Yesterday's poem got me thinking that it was time to order frogs for the Biology lab's dissection unit. The reaction I got from the twins was, "Seriously, Mom??" You see, they went to deer camp this fall for the first time and they helped field dress and butcher 6 deer, one all by themselves. (I'll spare you the pictures but it was delicious!) I could only agree that dissecting a frog would be a bit of an anti-climax after all that. So, thanks, Cousin Rande, for the awesome anatomy lessons!!

Poetry Monday

The Frog
by Hilaire Belloc

Be kind and tender to the Frog,

And do not call him names,

As 'Slimy skin' or 'Polly-wog,'

Or likewise 'Ugly James,'

Or 'Gap-a-grin,' or 'Toad-gone-wrong,'

Or, 'Bill Bandy-knees.'

The Frog is justly sensitive

To epithets like these.

No animal will more repay

A treatment king and fair,

At least so lonely people say

Who keep a frog (and by the way,

They are extremely rare).

Oh! My!

Columbus Day Weekend

We had a great time at our family cabin this weekend! It was perfect, warm days perfect for swimming ( in October!!) and clear, cool nights perfect for star gazing! Here's a picture of three hobbits in a boat....oh wait! Make that two in a boat and one in the water!!

It's Betsy-Tacy time again!

October is Betsy-Tacy month and once again I will be doing some nostalgia reading. Sarah at A library is a hospital for the mind is hosting the Maud Hart Lovelace reading challenge. Last year I was spending a lot of time at the the hospital with my mom who was dying of cancer ( and old age, she was 93) and it was a blessed relief to fall into Betsy's world for a few hours. It was a bookmark in time too as my grandmother would have been about the age of Betsy's older sister and it was easy to imagine life before the World Wars and radios when nearly every house had an upright piano! This year I'm reading Betsy and the Great World and Betsy's Wedding. I never encountered Betsy as a child and read my first book three years ago for the first challenge. I have enjoyed every one!

Updating the picture

I guess it was time! The hobbits sure are growing up! And Saint Anthony seems to have gotten much smaller!

School Days

We've been hard at work here in Hobbiton. Working on the three L's--Latin, logic and logarithms. We've been studying plants and bugs including this dangerous and disgusting one that has taken up residence in the pond in the back yard. They have been eating our frogs and polliwogs. It squeaks when caught. (use gloves!!)We've been reading our way through Churchill's The Birth of Britain, The Brendan Voyage, and The Merchant of Venice. (I love the Ambleside site although I don't really follow it...)

I really like Traditional Logic
from Memoria Press. I bought the DVD's and we are moving along quite nicely. Although one of the hobbits will keep writing "sillygism".

Our days are also full of chopping wood, archery, nephew/grandbaby adoring, and of course lots of reading!

Not Back to School Day

Until recently a friend hosted a Not Back to School picnic on the first day of public school. Alas, she moved to Texas and I am not so good at organizing things. We are celebrating not going back to school in a quiter way. The twin hobbits are small game hunting with their dad who happens to have today off. Little Hobbit (well, not so little Hobbit as he turned 12 a couple of weeks ago!) and I will spend the morning puttering about the yard looking for interesting bugs. I hope eveyone has enjoyed not going back to school this September!

Poetry Monday

Summer Drought
by J.P. Irvine

Yet, ere the moon, as brass the heaven turns,
The cruel sun smites with unerring aim,
The sight and touch of all things blinds and burns,
And bare, hot hills seem shimmering into flame!

On outspread wings a hawk, far poised on high,
Quick swooping screams, and then is heard no more:
The strident shrilling of a locust nigh
Breaks forth, and dies in silence as before.


Note: I found this gem in the Hawk section of Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study.

Faire Day!

We spent the day at the Great Lakes Medeaval Faire. Joe bartered his chain mail for a really awesome sword! Everyone had a great time!(I don't know why the antique car was there!?!

Budget Hobbits

I'm joining the Hobbit party!

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/07/27/wsj-tea-party-hobbits-need-to-go-back-to-middle-earth-or-something/comment-page-1/#comments

Extreme Hand Crafts

The hobbits learned how to replace a roof this summer. A great life skill and a much needed home repair. And nobody fell off!

Poetic Knowlege Chapter 7 ( Fini)

This is the second half of the last chapter of Poetic Knowledge. It's been a very interesting journey. I like this book, struggle to understand some of it, and think that James Taylor is on the right track. He suggests starting small schools with a couple of like minded teachers. They would carefully read a book, somehow creating a whole curriculum from it and pass on a liberal education to their few students. Well....maybe for a literature class. I agree with Charlotte Mason that a curriculum should be varied and not go off on (too many!) rabbit trails. What Taylor describes sounds very much like A Thomas Jefferson Education. This also sounds good in theory, but unless we hope all our kids get jobs as liberal arts professors this is not enough. The facts are that our children and especially our sons will have to get jobs that hopefully will support a family. This means math and science, and not just what can be picked up by reading Carry on Mr. Bowditch. We are not independently wealthy here and my kids have relied on scholarships to get through college and to get the good scholarships you have to score well on the SAT and to do that you have to study algebra, geometry, and Latin! Those subjects are hard and require work to master. But learning to work hard is a great skill for college and life!

That said, I think this is a wonderful method for a literature or history class! To read a book carefully, discuss its fine points, place it in time and geography, analyse its characters and plot, this is the best part of homeschooling! Especially with teenagers who definitely have opinions and want to share them! We didn't do this with many books. With my daughters it was Pride and Prejudice and with my oldest son it was With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz. This one was especially interesting as we knew next to nothing about Polish history but we learned alot reading this very rich trilogy: politics, religion, military strategy, even farming, but not much math!

I once had a teacher like this in Junior High. Our regular English teacher suffered a heart attack and was replaced by a young woman right out of teacher's college. She led our class through The Odyssey and then Great Expectations. It is one of the few classes I remember. She made all the characters come alive. Sometimes she read out loud and sometimes we took turns reading. I can still picture Odysseus tied to the mast to hear the sirens or Pip walking down a foggy street to Miss Haversham's house. Just once though in 12 years. The rest of my teachers were a pretty bland bunch. I think homeschooling is one of the very few options for our kids to have this kind of discussion. Even in college it is rare.

To quote Taylor,"The end of education is the cultivation of the senses, the imagination and the will." I whole heartedly agree with that. But, I think it can and should be done in a family and a community. For an education to be "something very much like perfection" it has to be like a banquet, and a banquet is carefully prepared. It definitely is not a rush of activities and media diversions. I hope we have time enough to have both lively literary conversations and still get a handle on algebra and Latin translations.

More on this discussion at A Healer's Geste.

Nature Study--Snapper

The boys found this guy (gal?) in the road this morning. Actually, I think it might be a female as I read that they tend to migrate a bit (for a turtle) to lay their eggs. We relocated her (him?) in the pond out back. I'll let you know if we have little turtles later!!

Poetic Knowlege Chapter 7

This is the last chapter of Poetic Knowledge and all the previous threads are coming together. I am enjoying reading what James Taylor has to say about teaching and schools. I've been homeschooling for quite awhile now and am still looking for ways to tweak the process. Is there a better way to teach Latin? Immersion is not an option! (and my kids enjoy chanting conjugations anyway!)Is there a biography we just have to read? What about map work?? It's constant. But reading the first half of this chapter has been soothing to my home school spirit. I think homeschooling is poetic by nature. I even believe that the parents who home school with workbooks (oh! the horror!) are poetical in the way they keep their kids wrapped in family life.

I particularly liked this quote,"If poetic experience first plays upon the beautiful, the wonderful, the proportionate thing that is intuitively pleasing to our senses, where are we to find this beauty in the noise, glare, and glitz, the noxious air, the tasteless food, the vulgar democratization of manners, the desensitization of emotions and resulting wanton violence from suburbs to cities to nations, that so inform the life of the twentieth century." Where indeed, if not in our homes? Certainly not in our public schools which drain our resources filling themselves up with computer labs and gyms and sports arenas but defund the art room and the library (Oh, I mean media resource room!). I was reminded of my old elementary school which was recently torn down and replaced by a much more modern facility of steel and cement blocks. The old school was built in the early 1900's and made of mellow red brick. It had huge windows framed in walnut.Most of the classroms faced the maple lined street. What I remember most from those days is sitting in class and watching the seasons change from those windows. And also the play ground games that are forbidden now--Red Rover and Dodge Ball. But mostly I remeber being bored and wishing I could just go home and play!

Poetic Knowledge and the Integrated Humanities Program

This week we started chapter six which describes the Integrated Humanities program instituted by professors Quinn, Nelick, and Senior at the University of Kansas during the 1960's. This gets to the nitty gritty of how they tried to return poetic knowledge to the university system which was lacking then as well as now. Forty years ago these professors realized that their students had been deprived of a poetic childhood and were in need of poetic experiences. The program they began seems a model of gentleness to me. To quote Taylor," The professors knew that a materialist society, with all its utilitarian goals that suffocate the poetic nature of the human being, had rushed many of the students through childhood, that time of leisure in which the wonders of reality are encountered simply as wonders." The pragmatist in me understands why parents would complain that the classes provided in these programs were hardly necessary for a college degree but the romantic in me would loved to have attended!

As the discussions between the professors about various classics (carried on during a leisurely lunch, pg. 149) was described I was reminded of listening in to conversations conducted by my parents and aunts and uncles around the dinner table when I was a young girl. Not that they discussed the great books! But, they were all raised in a time before electronic media (my mother was born in 1917) and they were all expert conversationalists and were filled with stories of a childhood that moved mostly at horse speed. A ride in the rumble seat was still fondly remembered in the 1970's! I think we have TV to blame as well as Dewey's ideas for the mess our national education is in. We just don't know how to converse anymore. Our story telling abilities have atrophied.

I will end with this quote by Professor Quinn,"Mistake me not: wonder is no sugary sentimentality, but, rather, a mighty passion, a species of fear, an awful confrontation of the mystery of things." This program was bold as well as gentle. We can't recreate it in our homes but it is a valiant example to us for what can be done!

Memorial Day 2011

The Color Guard.


Our veterans.