Wild Geese

Wild Geese
by Elinor Chipp

I heard the wild geese flying
In the dead of the night,
With beat of wings and crying
I heard the wild geese flying.

And dreams in my heart sighing
Followed their northward flight.
I heard the wild geese flying
In the dead of the night.

Betsy-Tacy

Every now and then I visit the Bonny Glen to see what's up in literature. The hobbits and I get caught up in swash-buckling adventures and it is good sometimes to see what the gentler folk are reading. Or to put it another way--sometimes I want to read something girly. I participated in the Betsy-Tacy read last October without blogging about it and thoroughly enjoyed all the books from the beginning when Betsy-Tacy meet to Heavens to Betsy which gets her through her freshman year of high school. This year I am reading Betsy in Spite of Herself, Betsy was a Junior, and Betsy and Joe. If you would like to participate stop by the wonderfully named blog--A library is a hospital for the mind and sign up. Or just start reading! These are very sweet books and will have you making fudge and singing along at the piano (or wishing you were).

The School Year

It was a rocky start this year. It seemed every time we got a routine going it was interrupted. I know this is the theme for homeschooling but it was even worse than usual this year. Things have settled down a bit and this is how our weeks are going...
Everyday we do math and Latin. On Monday we do poetry; on Tuesday we do art and Botany and Earth Science; on Wednesday it's music and Nature study; on Thursday it's health; and Friday it's geography. On most days we read, have spelling lessons and try to cover some history. Missing this year is Ocular Athletics and we all miss it. so I'm trying to fit it in somewhere.
I'll be blogging in more detail about the different subjects. Some things are going really well,like geography, some things are endured like spelling and some things need serious adjustment like music (not our best subject unless you count memorizing the lyrics to Toby Keith's greatest hits---which I don't!!)

Salamander

Joe found this beauty yesterday...

Summer Drift/Poetry Monday

We wrapped up school at the end of May and spent two glorious months enjoying the best summer weather for the last few years. After two wet, rainy summers this one has been hot, mostly dry, with one beautiful sunny day following another. But then drift set in.. Our days languished... Hobbits grew bored... So I started school which surprisingly was well received and we have finished one week already and today is the first Poetry Monday of the new school year (we started last Tuesday).

Piping Down the Valleys Wild
By William Blake

Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:

"Pipe a song about a lamb!"
So I piped with merry cheer.
"Piper, pipe that song again";
So I piped: he wept to hear.

"Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe;
Sing thy songs of happy cheer!"
So I sang the same again.
While he wept with joy to hear.

"Piper, sit thee down and write
In a book that all may read."
So he vanished from my sight;
And I plucked a hollow reed.

And I made a rural pen,
And I stained the water clear,
And I wrote my happy songs
Every child may joy to hear.

Moonflowers

We're shifting gears a little here at the Hobbit homeschool. Baseball is finished for the year and soccer has begun.(Soccer is much more low key!! No travelling to games!!)School paperwork is in the future. So is canning tomatoes. I guess I could be weeding but I'm going to pour myself a glass of iced tea, sit on the deck, and read Planet Narnia by Michael Ward It has been a lovely summer so far. And the moonflowers are blooming!

My Family and Other Animals

This is the best read aloud for boys who think they are too old for read alouds! It's great for summer too. This is my second time reading this one aloud...I only hope I retain my composure during the part about Widdle and Puke better than I did last time!