I think we have had our share of change over the past two weeks. Emily and I drove 14-hours from Michigan to New Hampshire last week. We are only here temporarily - just for a few short months.
Emily is helping me to puppy sit my Goddaughter's 10-week old terrier/dachshund mix, Charlie. This is her first time taking care of a puppy. She has been good about taking him outside, playing with him and going for short walks.
Another thing, of course, is the ocean!!! We drove up the coast this morning with the window slightly cracked to sniff that sea air. It was gray, a bit rainy, and a little gusty, but that did not take away from the splendor of the sights before us!
We had discussions about architecture and real estate while we drove along and I realized how important it is for me not to miss a single teachable moment while we are here.
As for the books..... (and web!)
In Language Arts we've been working on the Cornell Method of note-taking, building vocabulary, and using the nanowrimo workbook to gear up for the big writing event in November. She also read "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and has vocabulary from this as well as descriptive writing prompts.
In French we've been sharing a lot of giggles while trying to pronunciate words with the 'nasal' sounds. Again, we are not doing a formal French study since there is so much going on with other subjects and in our lives - but we are keeping active learning new words and phrases.
Emily always wants to do math first - because she really doesn't like it. I don't blame her. I only wish the math lightbulb would go off in her head and the numbers would come alive.
We are still reading aloud "Pride and Prejudice" - it will be a couple more weeks at least because we are only reading 1-2 chapters per day.
In science we she is learning about life cycles, food chains and then moved on to different types of land masses.
Finally poetry; we read several poems by Thomas Hardy - one that I had never read before about the Titanic.
The Convergence of the Twain
(Lines on the loss of the "Titanic")
I
In a solitude of the sea
Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.
II
Steel chambers, late the pyres
Of her salamandrine fires,
Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres.
III
Over the mirrors meant
To glass the opulent
The sea-worm crawls — grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.
IV
Jewels in joy designed
To ravish the sensuous mind
Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind.
V
Dim moon-eyed fishes near
Gaze at the gilded gear
And query: "What does this vaingloriousness down here?" ...
VI
Well: while was fashioning
This creature of cleaving wing,
The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything
VII
Prepared a sinister mate
For her — so gaily great —
A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate.
VIII
And as the smart ship grew
In stature, grace, and hue,
In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.
IX
Alien they seemed to be;
No mortal eye could see
The intimate welding of their later history,
X
Or sign that they were bent
By paths coincident
On being anon twin halves of one august event,
XI
Till the Spinner of the Years
Said "Now!" And each one hears,
And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.
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