"And how about the colors, Frederick?"

This week we had lovely warm fall weather which when I was growing up and we were unenlightened we called "Indian Summer." Now we know better and call it "global warming." 

Anyhow.

Every year when we get this perfect weather my brain puts me into the Leo Lionni book Frederick. 

Today it went up to 79 and the sky was blue and the sun was golden and so warm it felt like gentle toasting and you can feel your skin making vitamin D. 

And you know it is the last you are going to feel this till probably the end of May. Or maybe even June. So, today I am Frederick, gathering colors and words for the longness and greyness of winter.

A Literary Road Trip

Last night I finished reading Leif Enger's Peace Like a River. If you haven't read it, read it. If you've read it, read it again. This book packs an incredible lot of Truth into a novel, and his use of English is amazing. His words about miracles are bright and new.

My three favorite quotes on the first reading, the things that immediately called forth a YES! from inside me:
* No miracle happens without a witness. Someone to declare, Here's what I saw. Here's how it went. Make of it what you will.
* Once traveling, it's remarkable how quickly faith erodes. It starts to look like something else - ignorance, for example. Same thing happened to the Israelites. Sure it's weak, but sometimes you'd rather just have a map.
*Listening to Dad's guitar, halting yet lovely in the search for phrasing, I thought: Fair is whatever God wants to do.

Benedict Holmes

I have loved Sherlock Holmes since I met him in junior high school. Now I am enjoying the Benedict Cumberbatch series - so much fun.

The other night I realized one reason I like the way he is dressed, his scarf, and his hair - he reminds me of another literary character I love: 

Watch out for baobabs, Benedict!

Praying Our Geography

Teaching geography is one of those things that frustrates me in homeschool. I am not good at it. I believe in using maps to look things up and only know the barest outlines, which I consider in a constant state of flux, whether due to politics and war or earthquakes and other disasters shaking things up and making my hard-earned knowledge out-of-date.


But this year we hit on a simple system that I like. We have used the prayer calendar from Operation World at breakfast to give us the "country of the day" -- only actually, they each get three days, which is handy for weekends and days when we just don't get everything done. I am increasingly convinced of the importance of building in margin (not margarine, I use butter and olive oil, but margin). 


So, we look at the country of the day and mark it on an outline map in a little folder each Bananalet has. We also have a big world map hung in the dining room to help us out a bit. Then we read the corresponding entry in the Operation World book, summarizing where it gets a little dry. The big hit here is trying to guess what the per capita income in each country is when we get to that part in the entry. Miss Dance usually guesses low, Devastatingly Handsome just a bit high, Mr Music one dollar on one side of one of the two of them (so he often wins) and Miss Dog Lover looks over my shoulder to see if she can see it before guessing.  :-P


Then, we check these two wonderful books for entries on the country of the day or any of its people groups:


Window on the World

and


Material World

It has been a fun, relaxed approach to learning about the world, and has helped (at least me) to grow in gratitude for what God has given us here in Bananaland and to picture and pray for a wide variety of needs in other countries.