September Fables 1

“He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, Shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭29‬:‭1‬ ‭

There once was a regal rooster, raised from chick to cockerel in the same yard. He knew his yard and all his lands around. He knew where his yard ended and where the wilds began. Every day he would climb to the very top of the barn, survey all his domain and call to the sun. And the sun would rise. The rooster thought himself very fine indeed.

Everyday, too, he would descend from the peak and scuttle across the yard to the gate to see his lands beyond. Then the farmer would tromp across the field pick him up just as he reached the outer edge. The farmer picked the rooster up and gave him a swat before launching him back into the yard. It was a great indignity.

Everyday as the shadows of dawn receded, the chicken would summit the high barn. And everyday as the farmer walked out for his chores, the same cock would waddle across the yard to his swat. Day in and day out the rooster surveyed, scuttled, and was swatted. He never turned, but got sniffier about it every time.

One day the farmer was sick in bed and he did not get up when the rooster crowed. The rooster descended from above and strutted, neck long to the gate, anticipating the swat.

He went straight out the gate and into the wide wide world.

But at that moment a stealthy wolf seized the moment and charged the bird. He hit him so hard the rooster’s stiff neck broke. The wolf enjoyed a robust stew that night and said, “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, Shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”

What School Looks Like: September 2023

We started Morning Liturgy around 7:15. E walked out the door part way through, so win on beginning well.

We sang our church hymn for the month, God is Our Refuge and Our Strength, after reading through the poetry of it for a week. This year our church gave out a small pamphlet of each hymn for the month until next July. Glory be. We have collected many and tucked them everywhere.

We read Proverbs 2:1-9 as our school verse followed by our school song Who Would True Valor See by John Bunyan.

We champed through the Heidelberg 1. Then my children charged out of doors down the trail to see dad off and get extra kisses. It is Tradition.

After looping all the children back together, we had to practice saying silly words and Mother Goose rhymes in unison before trying for the Lord’s Prayer and Bible Recitation. I also want to have either the Ambleside hymn of the month here or another collection of common hymns we sing in church. Probably the latter. We sing between 7 and 10 hymns and Psalms during a service. It is hard for a child to follow along if they don’t have the music, but if they do, it almost carries them.

We did family prayer after the Lord’s Prayer, practiced one verse recitation with everyone together, and then read out the second question of the Heidelburg Chatechism.

Then we closed that section with the Apostle’s Creed which the children knew from church. Again, the hardest part is unison.

We read Proverbs 28 and I told a fable based off of v1 with my oldest following suit.

Then we listened to Aikendrum for Folk Music and read Autumn Fires by Robert Louis Stevenson and Eternity by William Blake. At the very end we sang Psalm 137, our current church Doxology, and G(8) gave the canon part his best shot. End of the real liturgy section.

G read D(5) Only One Woof by James Herriot and I began the process of doing a narration with D - he can find one part and work backwards, but we need to do that and then do it a second time forwards.

I sent kids round on chores and gave D a copy work lesson.

Then we took the puppy and all five kids out for a nature walk:

Waist high tansy and chickory all down the street with low lying morning glory and spindly puple things. Apple and maple trees all tangled in old growth line our street. We visited the Post Office where they took down five maples over the weekend, so we looked at them and talked about some reasons to take down big trees. We finished off our walk along the creek and back around only to find that we had taken one of our cats with us. She yowls at us for leaving the house, especially when I walk somewhere. Once she followed me half a mile to a farmer’s market. I had to turn around and take her home, so she wouldn’t hurt herself.

So on the return we added a cat to the puppy/ child line.

Back home we settled the puppy and broke out the history. This is formally morning time. I took a long narration from G covering the last three kings (all Edwards) in review. He requests a map of Bannockburn. Then we read Sluys and started in on the Hundred Years War. We did a narration.

There were math block castles, nature drawing, and tortilla making. Broke for Narnia Lunch (ch11/12 of TLTWTW, read the next chapter of Robin Hood, and now the kids are listening to a chunk of Peter Pan.

One math session left for the day.

Further Up and Further In

Life in Five Senses by Gretchen Rubin

Rise to the Beauty of the World

Category: Not Being A Gnostic; How to be a Better Human

I like Gretchen Rubin, but I like people who can use themselves as guinea pigs and write about it. and she’s delightful because she can notice her extremes and turn towards a more moderate position. But her extremes are the virtuous pagan’s - she is more likely to work too hard or force everyone to not eat sugar, so the direction she needs to push is funny in our passion crazed culture.

In this book she’s really working hard to engage with the body she’s been given because she will lose it. She realizes she’s using it as a car for her brain and she is losing time with things like her eyesight. So each section leans in to a sense, but she never gets bawdy or racy.

At the very end she reveals she did try Iowaska (no idea how that is spelled), so my prayer is she doesn’t take a Michael Pollan trajectory, but it isn’t really here.

This book is fun and helpful, good for those who need help with nature study, not going so fast you don’t see, and not being an ingrate.