Return of the Intentional Thrifter

Part One: The Stuff

Some doors have re-opened for us.

We have found a few treasures. Mr. Fixit's were mostly the kind that go into the workshop. These are mine:

A newer book about William Morris-style decorating

The Space Trilogy in hardcover

Vintage copy of Our Island Story (We have a newer one, but this was hard to pass up.)

Book of inspiration for Mr. Fixit

The box on the left is a set of tiny porcelain candleholders, plus red candles, slightly larger than birthday-candle size. You can see what they look like in the table photo.

Earrings

Jersey top

T-shirt dress (the scarf is just so you get an idea of the colour).  

Fringed scarf in bright pinks and greys

Part Two: The blue t-shirt dress that goes with everything

(The new scarf is okay here, but it's better with a grey dress)

Dollygirl's Grade Seven, Week Seven: Wednesday plans

Book of Acts, Chapter 12.  "So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him."

How to Read a Book, by Mortimer J. Adler: "Inspectional Reading I: Systematic Skimming or Pre-reading." How to use detective skills on an unfamiliar book. "First, you do not know whether you want to read the book.  You do not know whether it deserves an analytical reading....Second, let us assume--and this is very often the case--that you have only a limited time in which to find all this out."

Discovering Mathematical Thought, by Hal Torrance. "At a particular horse show people bring in their extra equipment for making trades. Boots, bits, saddle pads, and saddles are all actively traded at the show. If you wanted to trade for a saddle but had no bits to trade, what would be another combination that would work?"  (The relative value of the items is shown in a diagram.)

First History of France, by Louise Creighton:   "Charles the Great was not only a mighty conqueror, he worked hard to give good government to all his vast dominions.  He placed counts in the different provinces, to judge wrongdoers and to collect the taxes. He bade them treat every one with moderation, and be the defenders of the widows and orphans.  He...used to gather all the chief nobles, bishops, and abbots round him, to discuss the laws which he and his advisers had drawn up, which were called capitularies. With all those who came together Charles talked freely, trying to learn from each the condition of his country, joking with the young, and treating the old with respect and reverence."

Dictation prepared from First History of France.

Natural history: reading TBA.

Sewing time

Sigurd the Volsung, by William Morris (edited for schools)

THERE was a dwelling of Kings ere the world was waxen old ;
Dukes were the door- wards there, and the roofs were thatched
with gold :
Earls were the wrights that wrought it, and silver nailed its doors;
Earls' wives were the weaving-women, queens' daughters strewed
its floors,
And the masters of its song-craft were the mightiest men that cast
The sails of the storm of battle adown the bickering blast.
There dwelt men merry-hearted, and in hope exceeding great
Met the good days and the evil as they went the way of fate...

Easy Grammar Plus: finish work on direct objects, begin unit on verbs.

Sigurd the Volsung and Charlotte Mason

Sometimes a book is not all in its title.  Ask any homeschool parent who's tried to find a good copy of Heidi, or an unbutchered version of Robinson Crusoe, or who has muddled through the various translations of Pinocchio.

I mean, this is Cinderella.  Right?

This is Peter Pan.

And this is Ambleside Online's recommended edition of Pinocchio.

Or maybe this?

All right, let's be serious.

But it's not even as simple as going to the other extreme--looking for the longest, most authentic, smallest-print edition out there.  Sometimes--just sometimes--what the Parents' Union School used is a surprise.  Here's one example:  In Programme 92 (first term of 1922), the Form III students (middle school-ish) were asked to read "Sigurd the Volsung* by W. Morris (Longmans, 2/-)."  W. Morris is William Morris, that William Morris.

Okay.  Sigurd the Volsung is not something I'm familiar with, so I looked it up on Wikipedia.  Some connections there--yes, I do know something about the German version of the story--Wagner, Siegfried, the opera Rush went to see in The Saturdays, the big dragon and all that.  I looked closer at the summary of Sigurd, and...well, my goodness, besides sounding very long, there is also a lot of rather earthy stuff in there.  This is what seventh graders in 1922 were supposed to read?

I browsed through some book listings for sale, new and used; looked up William Morris's books on Project Gutenberg; found it all a bit intimidating.  The idea of reading Sigurd for school did not appear to have much to recommend it.

Then I looked at the Longman's edition on Archive.org.  It's from a series called Longman's Class-Books of English Literature.  The title page explains it all:  "With portions condensed into prose by Winifred Turner, B.A., and Helen Scott, M.A."

So that's  how they did it.  It's like a version of Shakespeare that includes a lot of the original text, but summarizes scenes here and there.  The text is still 126 pages long, but I assume that's somewhat shorter than the original.  There's a glossary at the end too.

All right--that we could do.

And that's why, sometimes, knowing a little detail like the publisher of a book can make all the difference.

They are gone — the lovely, the mighty, the hope of the ancient Earth :
It shall labour and bear the burden as before that day of their birth.
                    *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
Ye have heard of Sigurd aforetime, how the foes of God he slew ;
How forth from the darksome desert the Gold of the Waters he drew ;
How he wakened Love on the Mountain, and wakened Brynhild the
Bright,

And dwelt upon Earth for a season and shone in all men's sight.
Ye have heard of the Cloudy People, and the dimming of the day,
And the latter world's confusion, and Sigurd gone away.