Quote for the day: Gazing is hard work

Mary Cassatt, Children at the Seashore

"A child of two will gaze at a butterfly or an engine, become absorbed with pebbles on the shore, picking them up in handfuls and putting them into a bucket, then slowly taking them out in handfuls and dropping them pensively on to the beach...The mind should have the time and the opportunity to gaze. This involves hard work. the powers of the mind are dependent on repeated action for proper use No intimacy can be formed without effort. There must be vision and action, the two parts of knowing."

~~ "It All Comes Down to Education," by Mary Hardcastle (Charlotte Mason College). Parents' Review, Vol. 53, no. 7, July/August 1942, pp. 209-218

Crayons' Year 5: A quiet Friday

On today's homeschool menu:

Singing "Holy Holy Holy" (not the Heber hymn, the Schubert Sanctus that I learned during a brief stint in the Presbyterian Church of Canada)



Singing "Ontari-ari-ari-o" (we usually sing something Canadian on Friday mornings)

Online math game

Reading about William Tyndale in Makers of the English Bible

Short keyboard (music) lesson

Plutarch's Life of Dion, half of lesson 4. King Dionysius keeps the philosopher Plato trapped in his palace in Syracuse, and sends Plato's older friend Dion off to Greece, because he wants Plato to be his (and only his) best friend forever. 300ish B.C. is not that far removed from the experience of some ten-year-olds!

(short break here)

Picture study: Mary Cassatt, Woman and Child Driving.

Cursive writing practice

Silas Marner, most of chapter 10, and written narration

Lunchtime:  reheated minestrone, bagels, and Magic Milkshakes (Mama Squirrel recently received the lovely gift of a Ninja blender, so we're making things we haven't had for awhile)

Helping shovel snow, and sliding down our hill

That's about where we're at now...some things left to do like laundry and cleaning.  Also we're going to work in a chapter of Ballet Shoes.

And it's the weekend!