Double Review - Providence eLearning Digital Publications: Pride and Prejudice & Frankenstein

I'm behind in posting, but more importantly I am behind in my reviews. 

For the record, I am paid to review books from Providence eLearning.  However, I am under no obligation to review them here.  I do that for your benefit.  And, I think they are a valuable asset to the homeschool, high school teen. 

Being well-read means, to me, that you have read the Classics.  You know, those books that have been read over and over again, year in and year out - that's a classic. And, it you can tie technology into it, well then, I'm all in!

Last September, I had the privilege of reviewing Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.  I think this story has a bad rap, thanks to the movie industry. The only movie close to the story is from 1931.  And it missed the mark.  Frankenstein is a monster (in size) book and it took a while to review.  While I was not thrilled with their choice of having a woman narrate (in the audio narration) this amazing story of a man, writing about a man found, in search of a man made, running from humanity.  This is a masculine story, and I will be honest, this was my ONLY disappointment about this book.  I learned so much, from a literary perspective - about the author, the time period in which this classic was written and literature itself.  Professor Lasseter has a great way of tying old literature in with the modern world.  The video production work was very well done, too.  I highly recommend that all BOYS read this.  Girls could learn a thing or two, too, like this girl did.

Next, in March, I had the glorious pleasure of rereading and reviewing one of my very favorite books, Pride and Prejudice.  The audio narration was SPLENDID!!!  The narrator dramatized the reading, changing voices for the various characters and had an English accent, just as I would have expected.  It felt like Jane Austen was reading the book to me as she would have read it.  Again, Professor Lasseter did a most excellent job of bringing to the surface much of what is not spoken in the book.  Really, after reading this book as many times as I had in the past, you would think I had it all figured out.  He brought several things to bear I had missed in the past.  All I can say is Bravo!

I really wish there was more material available of this caliber.  I just finished reviewing Le Morte d'Arthur, my husband's very favorite book.  It was spectacular.  They abridged the book, in way very pleasing to this homeschool mom.  I will follow up later with a review of that...stay tuned.

Catholic Readers

Brand new - Old books!

Folks, it has come to my attention that I have been disappointing my audiences with a lack of good CATHOLIC material.  I intend to correct that situation immediately!

I have been pouring over the free books at books.google.com and have found a wealth of Catholic school books!  I think one of the most exciting finds is that there are ENTIRE series of readers available from Primer level to Fifth level (middle school).  They are FREE.  They are Catholic.  What more could you ask?  Because they are public domain, you can download them and then print them (have you ever seen FinePrint?) OR read them on your tablet or PC. 

The three I recommend are:
Young Catholic's Illustrated Readers by the Catholic Publication Society
The Ideal Catholic Readers by Sister Mary Domitilla
Standard Catholic Readers by Mary E. Doyle

They are filled with virtue stories, biographies of Bishops, Saints and Martyrs, science and history.  Enjoy!

Review of Macbeth - A Video Enhanced iBook from Providence eLearning

This was the fourth book I reviewed for Providence eLearning as a consulting project, and the fourth I will review here.

My daughter just finished a student review of this book for Providence eLearning.  I didn't want to review it before she finished because I didn't want my review to influence her opinion of the book.

I love Shakespeare.  However, I've read Shakespeare for pleasure and not because I was required read it in school.  One disappointing aspect of my education was that I really read very little GOOD classical literature in high school.  I had more good literature in Catholic middle school I attended (thank you, Mrs. Schlub!)  I grew up in the age of Judy Bloom.  Instead of reading Shakespeare, we read Rumblefish.  I don't despise Youth Literature.  However, I think it should be pleasure reading, not required reading.  Shakespeare should be required reading.  The reason Shakespeare isn't required is because people fear it and because there are not many good literature teachers out there that can bring Macbeth to kids in the way Mr. William Lasseter does in the iBooks available from Providence eLearning. 

Providence eLearning's Macbeth utilizes many of the great features of iBooks.  All iBooks have auto define, highlighting, note taking, etc.  However, added features of Providence's iBooks include narration by Mr. Lasseter as well as video interpretation of the text. His voice and teaching skills are truly showcased by this book. There is also a hypertext glossary of many of the more difficult or archaic terminology as well as character descriptions and relationships.  Also, the video production values are great. There are also questions to "Check Your Understanding" after each video interpretation.

And, don't think that technology spoils the beauty of a Shakespeare tale.  Besides being able to listen to Macbeth as if it were a play (because Mr. Lasseter changes his voice for different characters), it features some old illustrations that I really enjoyed. 

This month, I was struck by how much my kids really need iBooks like this.  I am a big fan of Socratic discussions.  However, I can't always get other homeschooling kids the same as my kids on board to read the same books we are reading at the same time.  And running four different book clubs while leading a group of high school students through the Iliad and the Odyssey, I just didn't have the bandwidth to cover these titles with my kids.   So we don't have discussion groups for the extra books.  The kids appreciate Mr. Lasseter's reflections and interpretations of the text.

I highly recommend this iBook for high school students because of the level of vocabulary and dark themes.   

Review of Beowulf: An iBook from Providence eLearning

 

I'm sorry in the delay in getting these reviews out to you.  Reviewing these textbooks has been guilty pleasure for me and I've been delinquent in sharing them with you. 

This was the third book I reviewed for Providence eLearning as a consulting project, and the second I will review here.

I haven't read Beowulf in over thirty years.  And, when I read it as a ninth grader, I really didn't care for it because I thought it was for boys.  Ha! 

Two years ago, I was reintroduced to Beowulf when we read Mary Pope Osborne's Favorite Medieval Tales for my boy's book club.  Whatever was lost on me in the ninth grade was found!  I enjoyed her exposition of the story and promised myself to go back to it.  This summer, I participated in an adult book club on-line and our first read was none other than Beowulf.  That was about two weeks before I got to review Providence eLearning's version of Beowulf. 

Providence eLearning's translation was very close to the Tolkien translation that I read for the book club.  I was very surprised by how much more I got out of the book after listening to the video lectures that followed every few pages of text.  Not only were the videos useful, but the audio narration with the names pronounced correctly was more helpful than almost anything.  I really don't do very well guessing pronunciations in other languages. Just not my skill.  Mr. William Lasseter, the English Chair at Providence Academy, is the instructor and narrator.  His voice and teaching skills are truly showcased by this book. 

The video "enhanced" textbook is a boon to homeschoolers.  Any student that doesn't have a discussion group or is working through this text on their own will find great value in this iBook.  The lectures and video production are well done.  Old book illustrations were used along with other great artist renditions of the tale.  The video production is a beautiful synthesis of new technology with a medieval tale and fine art.  Having the ability to look up words on the fly, check the glossary, check your understanding and have the text narrated to you all enhance your experience.  While the video piece is wonderful, I would be doing you a disservice not to mention all the other perks of using an iBook.  This textbook would be helpful to high-schoolers assigned the task of reading Beowulf.

This epic tale is wonderfully told and explained in this rendition of Beowulf.   I highly recommend this engaging iBook. Bonus - it's on sale right now at the iTunes Store for $6.99.

Review of The Poetry of William Blake: An iBook from Providence eLearning

 

This was the second book I reviewed for Providence eLearning as a consulting project, but the first I will review here.

I had no idea what to expect in reviewing this book as I didn't know much about William Blake other than one poem, The Tyger.  That was quickly remedied as the instructor spent time in the Preface giving information on him (Authorship and Context) that was extremely helpful in understanding how to approach his poetry and art.  Blake was not just a poet.  Blake was a particularly precocious child who was educated at home by his loving mother.  His artistic temperaments and interested were fostered by his parents.  He actually was trained in a trade as an engraver at a young age, which paid off in his later work when he would not only write poetry but illustrate it as well.  He would create prints, writing the poetry backward on the plate.  Then he and his wife would come back after printing with the engravings and hand paint each page with water colors.

Blake's poetry is beautiful and many poems touched me deeply, especially after the instructor's skillful interpretation.  This book also included other artwork by Blake.  The book is a beautiful balance of poetry, interpretation and appreciation of Blake's work.  I highly recommend this iBook.  Currently, it is on sale on iTunes for $6.99!

The Next Generation in Digital Learning...iBooks From Providence eLearning

First of all, I apologize for my absence.  I've been busy with health things, family activities and a short-term job!

I feel blessed to have fallen into a consulting gig that seems too good to be true.  This consulting gig involves critiquing several great works of literature via an iBook format.  It's no secret I love using the iPad and iPod in our classroom, so this was a great opportunity for me. 

DISCLAMIER:  My employment with Providence eLearning was not contingent on marketing their books here on my blog.  I did ask permission to talk about their products after I review them and was given their go-ahead. My compensation is not dependent on a favorable review.

As you all know I love literature and base much of my homeschooling curriculum on Great Books and Good Books as well as Classics.  I run book clubs because I feel that children get the most out of reading great literature from discussing it and as a result learn more.  Socratic circles allow children an opportunity to not just discuss the book, but to explore other people's opinions and develop critical thinking skills.

Here are the titles I've reviewed so far and here is a link to what is available:

The company producing the iBooks is Providence eLearning.  This group is taking classical literature and enhancing it; making it accessible to all learners, regardless of whether they are in a classroom or not.  They will be tackling other subjects in the future.  So far, I am extremely impressed.  This is a boon for home educators as this makes difficult literature approachable to all and at a really, really reasonable price.  What is that price?  Only $9.99.  Amazing low price and there is so much content!

First, let me tell you about the advantages of using an iBook format.  The iBook format allows the publisher to include audio narration, audio foot notes, video, photo galleries, hyperlinks, the ability to take notes and mark up the book with highlighting.  So what happens when technology meets Classical Lit?  Amazing things!

The books offer features that our homeschooled kids might miss not going to a traditional school, to whom lecture and discussion are not readily available. Providence eLearning has done a great job providing a self-led approach for great literature.

• They get a video lecture from a professor of Literature, specifically, William Lasseter, the English Chair at Providence Academy, a Roman Catholic K-12 College Prep school here in the Twin Cities.  He's not just a Lit Prof.  He also has experience as a Shakespearean actor, which means he's a dream to hear.  
• There are many questions to "Check Your Understanding" along the way.  
• They get audio narrations.  Can I just say hurray?  I have a kid with some visual difficulties.  One of the reason he loves the Kindle is that he can resize the text and/or turn on the Text-to-speech function.  However the nasty computer voice drives me up a tree, so he uses ear buds.  Now, the iBooks do not allow for easy text resizing.  That is an issue with the iBook format, not the Providence materials.  However, I would trade that for being able to listen to a Shakespearean actor read classical literature any time.
• They have the ability to look words up on the fly by touching the word.  A definition pops up automatically, allowing the student to not lose their train of thought while in the text.  This is one of my favorite parts of all e-reading devices.
• They get a hyperlinked table of contents that allows them to easily go to any section.
• They get a glossary that is not only text based definition, but often a "Wikipedia-like" entry for each term.
• They get photo galleries.  Providence eLearning does a nice job of using the photo galleries to show pictures of the authors, and classic works of art pertaining to the material.
• They get introductory material that prepares the students for what they will learn before the learn it.
• They can highlight text in a variety colors and make notes that can be translated to flash cards.  That's a feature available through iBooks.

I heartily recommend these for advanced middle school, high school, college and adult learners.  I picked up many things and was reminded that "Great Books" and great literature are timeless.  I hope they continue on this project.  The books are a wonderful value.

Being a picky homeschool mom, the only thing I wished they had was more questions.  Providence eLearning has informed me they have a Moodle site they are considering making available to iBook users for a fee.  Considering the cost of the iBooks from Providence, I have no beef with the smaller volume of questions than I would like.  There are questions often throughout the text.  I would just like to see more end-of-section questions.  However, to get those things, I would pay more.  The amount is more than adequate for the price.

On a personal  note,  when I had a free moment here or there, I was drawn back to working on my reviews of these books, not because of a time constraint, but rather because I enjoyed it so much.

Check back soon as I will give a review of each of the four books I've read so far.  My current read is Macbeth.  I will do that review last.  But in the mean time, check out Providence eLearning's web page for the books I'm reviewing and if you have an iPad, go download a sample of the iBooks.  They are available for free.  Just put Providence eLearning into the search tool in iBooks.

Girl's Book Club Year-by-Year

My oldest daughter, who helps with my middle daughter's book clubs asked an important question:
What's next for them?  So, we came up a year-by-year plan.  I thought I would post it here and ask for feedback.

2nd Grade
American Girl - Josephina
3rd Grade
American Girl - Felicity
4th Grade
American Girl - Kirsten and  Kit
5th Grade
Anne Pellowski Series of books
6th Grade
Hilda Van Stockum - Mitchell Series & Cottage at Bantry Bay Series
7th Grade
Louisa Mae Alcott Little Women Series
8th Grade
Anne of Green Gables
9th Grade
Baroness Emmuska Orczy Books

10th Grade
Jane Austen Books

What do you think?  I'll be back soon with my boy's series to see what you think of those.

A Sneak Peak at Socrates Meets Homeschool Mom

I did a talk about using the Socratic Method for literary analysis at RMCHEC this month.  For those that attended, I had a book list available on the handouts.  I didn't expect to run out of handouts.  So, I'm posting some of the information here.  The handouts will end up on the RMCHEC site.

First, the book list includes links to either FREE resources, the vendor link or the amazon.com entry for the resource:

Apology by Plato

Teaching the Classics by Adam and Missy Andrews

The Gift of Fire by Richard Mitchell

Deconstructing Penguins by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone

Trivium Mastery by Diane B. Lockman

The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar and Rhetoricby Sister Miriam Joseph, C.S.C.,Ph.D.

Paideia Program by Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren

How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren

Classics in the Classroom by Michael C. Thompson

A Beginner’s Guide to the Socratic Seminar by Jerry Chris,Ed. D.

Benét's Reader's Encyclopedia by Bruce Murphy

Don’t forget! You can use Cliff Notes or Sparknotes AFTER you have read the book yourself.

Things to remember:

Literature Analysis:

1 Goal:

1.       Teach children to understand Literature and uncover the message the Author has hidden for them.  By learning more about the human condition, we grow closer to God.

2 Rules:

1.       YOU must read the book.

2.       Be sure YOU can answer the questions you are prepared to ask first!

3 Step Lesson Plan:

1.       Read the book.

2.       Discuss the book and fill in the analysis form.*

3.       Write a report or paper.

Poetry:

·         Take Poetry one line at a time.

·         Context and Authorship is still important. 

·         Great opportunity to learn and start identifying Literary Style like alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, and poetry form.

I hesitate to tell you the truth, but it must be told.

Have you thought the books of Plato are above you?  Perhaps you thought it would take too long?  Maybe you don't think you need to read Plato, but have you given him a chance?  If not, why?

A Classical Education encourages one to understand our Western Civilization from the roots up and that includes the writings of the Greeks.  I thought I would have a hard time understanding it.  I thought "what would I learn that I haven't read somewhere else?" 

If you have not read Plato, I implore you to take one hour and read, what I believe to be the most important piece he's written, as it pertains to our vocation as home educators.  You should read Plato's Apology.  What is stopping you? It is not an apology in our everyday understanding of the word.  It is apologetics, the defense of a belief.  This very brief writing is an account of the trial of Socrates in 399BC.

Plato’s account of the examination of Socrates have so influenced thought in the more than two thousand years since Socrates’s death, that Alfred North Whitehead said the entire history of western thought is nothing but a series of footnotes to Plato.  It is by this careful, questioning examination that we learn and influence our souls and minds. 

Socrates didn't write.  Any accounts we have of Socrates are from the writings from Plato.  From these writings, we learn the methods of Socrates and his main contention:

Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy exhorting anyone whom I met after my manner, and convincing him, saying: O my friend, why do you who are a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens, care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all?  Are you not ashamed of this?  And if the person with whom I am arguing says: Yes, but I do care; I do not depart or let him go at once; I interrogate and examine and cross-examine him, and if I think that he has no virtue, but only says he has, I reproach him with undervaluing the greater and overvaluing the less.  -Plato, Apology

The Socratic method is Socrates' gentle way of respectful questioning to search for the truth and to achieve an improvement of the soul.  This method can be applied to any subject.  

“The unexamined life,” Socrates said, “is not worth living.” 

Mortimer Adler, in his "Paideia Proposal" (Paideia means "nurturing the whole child") suggests taking one entire day per week for nothing but Socratic Seminars.   A Socratic Seminar is dedicated time to ponder and question a particular subject, topic or literary work.  If you could employ one tactic to ensure your children learn to care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of their souls, take time for a Socratic Seminar.  I recently spoke to the headmaster of a prestigious, Catholic high school in our area.  He firmly believes the capstone of a Classical Education is the Socratic Seminar.  So you wonder, how do you, a homeschool mom pull it off?

Perhaps the possibility of getting a group of students together to discuss a topic or work of literature just doesn't exist for you.  That would be the ideal way to pull off a Socratic Seminar.   Maybe you could employ the Socratic Method within your regular school day instead.

If you are unfamiliar with this method, I would encourage you to take the time to read Plato's Apology.  Read it twice.  Read it three times.  It won't take you long.  It's only 30 pages in it's entirety.  You won't regret it and you will understand why it's imperative to use the Socratic Method with your child.  If I can't convince you, let Socrates.  The next time your child asks you a question about something they are working on, even a Math question, instead of giving the answer, take the time to ask questions and help the child find the answer on their own, with your gentle guidance.  Like Socrates.

 I hesitate to tell you the truth, but it must be told. - Plato, Apology

p.s.  If you would like to see the Socratic Method in action, watch the 1973 movie "The Paper Chase."
p.p.s.  A copy of the Apology is available on line here.

Technology meets the Classical Literature List

I'm currently composing a list of classical literature for my homeschool. I'm using a wide variety of sources, including the Accelerated Achievement curriculum CD, The Latin Centered Curriculum by Andrew Campbell, Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum by Laura Berquist, The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessi Wise, the curriculum lists from Ambleside as well as suggestions from Books to Build On by E.D. Hurst and book lists from Creation to Present: A Catholic World History Resource by Marsha Neill.   

What I am doing, really, is finding out what books are available for download for the Kindle.   We got one because one of our children has a vision difficulty.  The Kindle allows you to increase both the font size and line spacing on the screen.  It also has a text to speech option with a headphone jack.  Probably the best feature for me is the fact that you can move the cursor to ANY word on the screen and it brings up the definition from the built-in dictionary in the header or footer, allowing you to keep reading instead of having to put down the book to look up the words. 

The Kindle has been an object of contention lately because everyone is enjoying using it.  Really, I didn't think I would like it, but I, too, am one of the contenders.  My emerging reader is using it to look up words in the dictionary and have it read the definitions to her.  My super speller is having fun using the Kindle for word games like Word Smith or Word Up (like solitaire Scrabble).  My husband takes it with him to Adoration to read a book he has downloaded.  I am using it to keep up with my book club reading.  The Little Women book club books are all pre-1920, therefore public domain.  So, using the browser in the Kindle (new test feature), I can go to Project Gutenberg and download directly from the website to the Kindle.

I have some pros and cons for anyone considering a Kindle for their homeschool.

Pros:

• Reasonable cost at $139.  It's the cost of 10-20 books I would have normally bought in paperback, ones that are freely available already.
• Very user friendly - my 7 year old figured it out in 5 minutes
• Great for visually impaired individuals - text-to-speech and the ability to adjust font size and line spacing
• Holds mp3's so if you like to listen to music while reading, you may do so
• Very easy to organize books.  We have them organized by reader.  Each user has a book folder.  It uses real pointers, so that there is a pointer from each person's folder to the bookso multiple readers may have the book in their folder at the same time.
• Web browser allows for easy download
• Downloads a variety of content (mobi, mp3, doc, pdf) via the USB cable
• Downloads a variety of content via users' kindle account (you email the file to your kindle account and the file is downloaded the next time the Kindle connects to a wireless network)
• Kindle downloads are cheaper than the actual paper books and always backed up on your account online
• The eInk technology is very readable in sunlight and I simply bought a clamp on book light for reading at night while nursing the baby.

Cons:

• It has a web browser, which can't be turned off or moderated (no content filtering allowed)
• Can't download mp3's via the web
• Haven't found a good protective cover that allows me to use the text keyboard easily.  We've resorted to just using a neoprene sleeve while not in use (and most of the time it's not in the sleeve).
• You can't share books among Kindles.  Not a problem for us since we only have one but we may find it troublesome in the future.
• .pdf files are hard to adjust to fit the screen.  All the content from Accelerated Achievement is .pdf, so I've had to download originals from Project Gutenberg to make them more accessible and easy to use.
• If drop it, we're done for...

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I will.  I am considering an iPad as well, since it is multi-functioning.  I have had Apple products in the past and found their "ease of use" almost condescending.  I come from a Unix, command-line world, folks.  I'm always suspicious of things that are "too easy".  Now, that being said, I am all for making things accessible for the kids.  I just don't want to have to port everything to Apple and I'm not a fan of mixed platforms.  When I was in the desktop support field (20 years ago), mixed platforms were my biggest nightmare.  But, I'm willing to give it a try since things have changed tremendously since then.

Update to Boy's Book Club Listing

I ran into a little trouble this week with some of the planned reading for my Boy's Medieval Book Club.  We were planning on using _The Mabinogion_ by Sioned Davies for our next book.  I took this recommendation from my very favorite curriculum guide, Latin-Centered-Curriculumby Andrew Campbell.  I made a major mistake in not reading that particular version of the book prior to recommending it because it was specifically called out in the curriculum guide.

The Mabinogion is a group of Welsh/Celtic myths surrounding King Arthur, passed down orally and written at a later date.  Lady Charlotte Guest translated them in the 1800's.  I had read her translation and found the vocabulary too challenging for our 5th-9th grade boys.  So, I took the recommendation from the book because Campbell specifically called out the Davies translation because of the wonderful introduction and awesome vocabulary guide.  He also said any "in-print" version of the Mabinogion tales were acceptable.  To his credit, he recommended a children's version,  Tales from the Mabinogion by Gwyn Thomas and Kevin Crossley-Holland.  However, that version is out of print and sadly looked a little more juvenile than my group would like.  They resisted the first book, Favorite Medieval Tales by Mary Pope Osborne because some felt it was rather "baby-ish".   It really was well done, but these are boys who want some meat to their reading.  So, I mistakenly picked The Mabinogion (Oxford World's Classics) which is clearly written for adults based on the content (sexual in nature) in many of the stories.

To his credit, Andrew Campbell exchanged several emails with me.  He indirectly chastised me (rightfully so) for not reading it before recommending it.  He did offer me some good advice about proceeding, however.  Here it is:

• Unfortunately there really is no way to sanitize these stories to remove all references to pre-Christian morals. The Arthurian legends themselves center on adultery as the reason for the fall of Camelot. People have different levels of comfort with this aspect of older literature. Campbell said he once taught the Arthurian legends to a group of very devout Catholic children, grades 4-7. They simply noted how unfaithfulness led to tragedy for all of the characters.  They didn't dwell on the topic, but he said they didn't avoid it entirely either.
• Now obviously if there are boys in the group who don't yet know the facts of life or recognize euphemisms for sex, the passages in the Davies version would no doubt confuse them.  Check in with the other parents (and yourself!) and ask whether they would be comfortable with the story as it is. If not, it is certainly fine to skip it.
• When it comes to the Arthurian legends themselves, you can always focus on the better-known stories: the sword in the stone, the founding of the Round Table, Lancelot (as a knight, not in his relationship with the queen), Galahad and the Grail. 

 So, lesson learned.  We are skipping it for now.  I am quickly trying to decide how to proceed so we don't miss our next reading deadlines.  Stay tuned!

2010-2011 Book Club for 5th - 8th Grade Boys

Medieval Book Club

 UPDATE:  We replaced The Mabinogion with Men of Iron by Howard Pyle.  The version of The Mabinogion we were going to use was to advanced (in more than one way) for this age group.  Men of Iron is an excellent replacement, or you could use Tales of the Mabinogion instead.










Join us as we immerse ourselves in medieval European legend with the stories of King Arthur and Robin Hood.  We will meet once a month.  We will use the Socratic method of literary analysis to discuss each book.  We welcome young men in 5^th – 8^th grade. 

Here is our reading schedule.  Please have the reading done BEFORE the meeting date:

Oct. - Read Favorite Medieval Tales by Mary Pope Osborne

Nov. - Read the Introduction, Translators Note and Chapters 1-5 of The Mabinogion by  Sioned Davies Oxford University Press

Dec. – Read Chapters 6-11 of The Mabinogion by  Sioned Davies Oxford University Press (Click to see the link on Amazon.com)

Jan. - Read the author’s note, Book 1 and Book 2 of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green

Feb. - Read Book 3 and Book 4 and the epilogue of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green

Mar. - Read the prologue and Chapters 1-15 of The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green

April - Read Chapters 16-24, plus the epilogue of The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green

2010-2011 Book Club for 9-12 year old girls

Little Women Book Club

Join us in reading the Little Women Trilogy by Louisa May Alcott.  We will meet once a month to discuss approximately 200 pages worth of reading.  We’ve included the schedule below.  Each book discussion will include a Socratic style literary analysis along with some stitching and snacking. 

Here’s our schedule:

Oct.  Preface and Chapters 1-15 of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Nov. Chapters 16-32 of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Dec. Chapters 33-47 and the Afterword of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Jan. Read the beginning through the chapter called Naughty Nan of Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

Feb. Read from Pranks and Plays through the chapter called Goldilocks Nan of Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

March Read from Damon and Pythias to the end of the book of Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

April Read Chapters 1-10 of Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott

May Read Chapters 11-22 of Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott

Yes, in truth, there is beauty.

In season three of the original Star Trek series, there is an episode  called Is There in Truth no Beauty?  My husband thinks otherwise. 

To say my husband has no hand in educating my children would be lying.  He brings a tremendous amount of resources to the table.  He's more educated and better read than I am.  Here is an example.  He uses Star Trek to educate our children and introduce them to important pieces of Classic Literature and important periods in history.  Or perhaps he just wanted to have an excuse to watch Star Tek with the kids.  You decide.

Ed. Note:  He started this project in 2009 and it is still a work in progress.  

References

http://trekguide.com/tos1.htm

http://www.treknation.com/episodes/tos/

http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/shakespeare/star.trek.html

www.wikipedia.org

Season One, 1966-67

#	Title	Description	Analysis
101	The Cage (pilot)	After being tricked by an illusionary distress signal, captain Pike escapes from his captors who wanted to use him and his crew to rebuild their world."	Note that some components of this, such as referring to the second in command as “Number One” were used later in The Next Generation The actress who played Number One was recast as Nurse Chapel, and also as Gene Roddenberry’s real-life wife!
102	Where No Man Has Gone Before'	"When the Enterprise nears the galactic barrier, two crewmembers develop telepathic powers which threaten the ship."	Explores a common theme within Star Trek and other science fiction:  what if our abilities advance faster than our ability to control them?
103	The Corbomite Maneuver'	An alien ship threatens the Enterprise with destruction, causing Kirk to use a ruse to trick the opponent.	Essentially a lesson in the merits of playing poker rather than chess.  This is a common theme across all Star Trek iterations. It establishes for the first time that, all things being equal, intuition is more valuable than logic or intellect.
104	Mudd's Women	Kirk rescues Harry Mudd, a pirate, and the three beautiful women who are his cargo, en route to a lithium mining colony.	Parental Warning:  ultimately scores points for advocating “the beauty within”, but not before showcasing the objectification of women.
105	The Enemy Within	A transporter malfunction splits the captain into a good Kirk, who can't command very well, and an evil Kirk, who makes passes at Janice Rand and manipulates the crew	Pure Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide, Robert Louis Stevenson
106	The Man Trap	A shape-shifting "salt vampire" which seduces its victims by appearing as someone attractive to them comes on board.	Parental Warning:  the creature is pretty scary for younger ones.
107	The Naked Time	The crew contracts a disease which brings their repressed emotions to surface, causing a young lieutenant to shut down the engines and leading Kirk to fear he can't command the ship.	This story line is revisited in “The Naked Now” episode in ST: TNG Shows what happens when one loses their moral compass; their inhibitions
108	Charlie X	When the Enterprise transports Charlie, an adolescent human with powerful telekinetic abilities, back to the Federation, he makes crewmembers vanish and takes frightening steps to make Yeoman Rand fall in love with him.	Parental Warning:  one brief image really frightens younger ones, when one crew woman’s face is completely blanked out and she can’t speak or breathe Good lesson on proper etiquette for treating women
109	Balance of Terror	The Romulans destroy an outpost and Kirk pursues their commander, whose cloaking device enables his ship to vanish from sensors.	Retelling of the classic WWII movie “Run Silent, Run Deep”.
110	What are Little Girls Made of?	Kirk pursues the missing fiance of Nurse Chapel, who has survived underground with the help of androids from a vanished civilization.
111	Dagger of the Mind	While delivering supplies to a facility for the criminally insane, Kirk is taken hostage by a power-hungry doctor who uses a neural neutralizer to control the minds of his patients.	Title is a reference to MacBeth, William Shakespeare See “Animal Farm”, George Orwell See the Zimbardo Prison Study:  http://www.prisonexp.org/
112	Miri	On a planet of decades-old children, one of whom develops a crush on Captain Kirk, the away team becomes infected with a genetically engineered disease that prolongs youth but kills adolescents.	Lord of the Flies Parental Warning:  creepy make-up effects showing lesions
113	The Conscience of the King'	When the leader of a traveling theatrical troupe is suspected of being a genocidal governor, the suspicious deaths of people who could identify him concerns Kirk - especially since he's one of the survivors.	The title is a reference to Hamlet. There is more in this episode as the main plot concerns a traveling troupe of Shakespearean actors
114	The Galileo Seven	An away mission led by Spock falls victim to a disastrous crash on a hostile planet, where Spock and McCoy fight over the ineffectuality of his strictly logical approach to the situation.	Rather lame, actually
115	Court Martial	Kirk is put on trial for negligence when the computer records contradict his logs about the death of a crewmember during a shipboard crisis.	Mediocre
116	The Menagerie, Part One	Spock takes over the Enterprise and faces the death penalty to take his former Captain, who has been horribly disfigured in an accident, to a planet where an alien race has learned to turn thoughts into reality.	Contains footage from the pilot episode, called “The Cage”, featuring a bellowing Spock.
117	The Menagerie, Part Two	During Spock's court martial, Kirk learns of his predecessor Captain Pike's encounter with the illusions created by a race desperate for breeding stock to help them rebuild their planet.
118	Shore Leave	The crew takes shore leave on an idyllic planet, but when people's fantasies begin to come true - deadly as well as benign - Kirk must evade his own demons to solve the mystery.	Alice in Wonderland Don Juan This one is really fun
119	The Squire of Gothos	A powerful alien named Trelane abducts crewmembers for his amusement, but when Kirk refuses to play his games, Trelane puts him on trial and prepares to execute him.	Lesson in Einstein’s theory of relativity
120	Arena	When the Enterprise encroaches on alien space in pursuit of a ship that apparently helped to destroy a Federation outpost, Kirk finds himself and the leader of the alien vessel, the Gorn, stranded on a planet where they are forced to fight for supremacy.	Contains an overt chemistry lesson Many ancient wars were averted in this same manner; Prince Caspian is the latest example.
121	The Alternative Factor	The crew meets two nearly-identical men named Lazarus, one from their universe and one from an antimatter universe with the potential to destroy both universes should they come together. Kirk must work with the Lazarus not of his own universe to trap the other, a madman, in a void between the universes with his twin, thus keeping everyone else safe.	The name Lazarus was not an accident, as one can arguably refer to the Gospel account of Lazarus for a deeper understanding of this episode. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Discussion of parallel universes
122	Tomorrow is Yesterday	When a black hole sends the Enterprise back in time to the 20th century, an air force pilot who spots the "U.F.O." is beamed aboard when the Enterprise must destroy his ship and its weapons. Kirk must return the pilot to his own century, yet find a way not to disrupt the timeline, before he can try to return to his own era.	Time travel paradox
123	The Return of the Archons	The Enterprise pursues a missing starship's crew on a planet ruled by a being named Landru, which takes over their minds to make them part of a passive, complacent society	Frankly, a dig at organized religion
124	A Taste of Armageddon	An arrogant ambassador places the Enterprise in the midst of a civil war between two planets fought entirely by computer, which reports the casualties so that people can voluntarily report to disintegration chambers without their societies risking physical destruction.	Another heavy-handed anti-war message
125	Space Seed	Kirk and his crew find a "sleeper ship" of genetically bred superhumans, led by the ruthless 20th century dictator Khan Noonian Singh, who tries to take over the ship with the help of a 23rd century archaeologist who falls in love with him.	KHAAAAAN! Refers to despots in the past and future history of civilization, including Napoleon and Hitler Milton’s “Paradise Lost” is referenced at the end.
126	This Side of Paradise	Humans are kept safe on a planet bombarded with deadly radiation by a spore which has the side effect of making people blissfully content. Spock is reunited with an old friend who uses the spores to make him fall in love with her, but when Kirk realizes that the price for paradise is an end to exploration, he determines to recover his crew from the spores.	A smiling, laughing Spock; weird Moral:  seeking only contentment squelches innovation and progress
127	The Devil in the Dark	A creature that can eat its way through solid rock is killing miners on a distant outpost.	“No Kill I” Important biology lesson, distinguishing between carbon-based versus silicon-based life forms
128	Errand of Mercy	Sent to establish an alliance with the peaceful, unsophisticated planet Organia which is located strategically between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, Kirk is disgusted to find the inhabitants apathetic to the presence of Klingons on their world.	Lesson in the tyranny of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) concept
129	The City on the Edge of Forever	An accidental drug overdose sends Dr. McCoy on a disastrous trip through a time portal, where he changes the course of Earth's history. Kirk and Spock pursue him into the past, where Kirk falls in love with a social worker whose life plays a pivotal role in the events McCoy will affect."	The one with Joan Collins Time travel One of the best
130	Operation: Annihilate!'	Kirk's brother's family is devastated by an interplanetary crisis of mass insanity and Spock is attacked by one of the creatures which caused the crisis. McCoy must find a way to kill the aliens without destroying their hosts before the creatures can take over the galaxy	We think of this as the flying pizza’s episode Biology / neurology lesson