Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Lydia's Grade Eight: some things to do for school today

1.  Watch Anna Russell (in 1984) describing the plot of Wagner's Ring Cycle operas.  If anyone can handle those often un-lady-like stories and make them seem almost polite, it's Anna Russell. Her audience was obviously having a very good time too. (Some people, I don't know who, might still find some of the content offensive, so don't just hand them over to kids.)  (If you want to get just the gist of her stories--although you'd be missing the music and general mugging--you can read a transcript here.)



2.  Finish the chapter "Temptation" in Ourselves Book II. Charlotte Mason gets very tough on over-dramatized but insincere, misunderstood, or misapplied "repentance" here.  "...fourfold love and gentleness and service the repentant soul brings to God and his brother; but this is because he is glad: out of the joy of his heart there is nothing he cannot do; and, above all, he will away with the proud and sullen tears and regrets of so-called penitence."


3.  Read about the Egyptians and papyrus in The Story of Mankind.


4.  Work some more on deductive reasoning (math book).  If there's a big cube made out of a lot of little cubes, and each side is 12 little cubes across, how many little cubes are in the big cube, how many corner cubes, how many edge cubes, how many other outside cubes, and how many inside cubes that you can't see?

5.  Watch John Mighton's Ted Talk, live at CERN today. (Just Mama Squirrel watched that one.)

Penguin Syllogism found here.

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