O Oriens

O Morning Star,

splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness:

Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

O Clavis David

O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel;

you open and no one can shut;

you shut and no one can open:

Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house,

those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

O Radix Jesse

O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples;

before you kings will shut their mouths,

to you the nations will make their prayer:

Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.

Book Review - The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart

Read aloud to the 9yo

The Good

Nicholas stands up to many bullies both for himself and other children.  He works hard, is a good friend and empathetic.  At multiple points Nicholas recognizes how a child must be feeling just by the look on their face, and he is very attuned to other people's emotions.  He keeps a cheerful attitude despite extensive problems.  He learns sign language in order to communicate with a deaf girl.  He finally realizes that not all people are any which way; that no one is completely good or evil or right or wrong, and this shows itself in increased empathy.

The Bad

There is lying in the story, or stretching of the truth.  The adults are incredibly blind to the cruelty of the bullies.  Nicholas and his friend sneak out after dark many times, and Nicholas makes a copy of a master key and lets himself into rooms to read documents and generally be nosy.  There are references to parents dying (the children live in an orphanage), to siblings dying in 'the war' (this is a parallel land so not a war we have experienced), to a large company cheating a poor family out of money, and various other indignities.  Children are forced to wear 'dunce caps' and other outdated styles of punishment.  Nicholas is locked in his room.  He experiences nightmares and refers to the old woman in his dreams as 'The Old Hag'.

My Thoughts

You can read my thoughts about the first book in The Mysterious Benedict Society series here.  This title is a prequel to all the other Society books and follows the childhood story of Mr. Benedict, who in all the other books takes a firm back seat as a boring adult (useful in the story primarily to bring all the children together and provide access to things the children need).  I was never particularly taken by Mr. Benedict as an adult, frankly; I think the author intended it to be that way, for us to focus our interest on the children and how they solved mysteries.  But in this story he twists that on its head and makes us remember that every stodgy old adult was once also a mischevious, odd, brilliant little child themselves.  And we loved it!  Following Nicholas through his trials and tribulations and adventures and so forth was compelling and heart wrenching and wonderful.

The story focuses on Nicholas arriving at yet another orphanage - he seems to go through them rather quickly.  He comes expecting the worst, and it is pretty clear that he will get it.  His nemesis comes in the form of a gang calling themselves The Spiders, who are cruel, but mostly in stupid and rather unimaginative ways, although in typical Stewart fashion he builds a lot of dark, gloomy suspense into the story to make you think much worse things will happen than actually do.  Nicholas soon discovers that the director of the orphanage has discovered a diary which belonged to the original owner of the mansion, and the diary makes repeated reference to 'a treasure'.  The director is determined to find the treasure but now, so is Nicholas.  He is certain that with enough money, he can finally escape the endless round of dreariness that is his life, and make a fresh start.

Nothing in the book really ends up being as clear cut as we initially think, and there are several instances where we have a sharp about-turn in the story and the way things might have gone is altered drastically.  The story does have several parts where things rather...drag is a harsh word but yes, drag.  At least, comparably.  Certainly not in a way that would make you feel as if the story wasn't worth reading - just that there are bursts of excitement and interest and then several chapters of nothing much of note.  But in essence - an excellent book for the 8-12 set who don't mind a bit of creepy atmosphere on occasion.

O Adonai

O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel,

who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush

and gave him the law on Sinai:

Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

O Sapientia

O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,

reaching from one end to the other,

mightily and sweetly ordering all things:

Come and teach us the way of prudence.

Learning Notes (Dec. 7-15)

A few things that tagged along at the end of last week that I didn't mention in the previous learning notes, plus everything (I can remember, at least) that we did this week, too.  Enjoy!

Stuff we did!

We played with slime and putty!  I will admit, here and now, that I do not understand slime.  I mean, playdough you can play with, but slime is just this gross goop that does nothing.  And it looks like mucus.  And it's incredibly expensive.  I dunno.  I don't get it.  But anyway, my children had never played with slime before so I picked some up just to say we'd experienced it.  Shudder.  The putty was no better, although it was even more expensive, made a rude noise when you squeezed it, and was slightly less mucous-like.  I have looked and can't find pictures online of whatever brands we bought (the slime was glow-in-the-dark and the putty was 'galaxy' coloured).  Kids are gross.  The end.

We listened to audio stories from Adventures In Odyssey!  (The children got volume...46?  I think?  as an early gift).  Audio stories just make the drives so much faster.

We started forcing bulbs in the kitchen!  At the end of the summer I let the hyacinths naturally dry up and lose their leaves, and then I wrapped them in newspaper and stuck them in the back of a crisper drawer in the fridge.  Last week I took them out and let them warm up on the counter.  And now I've put them in a shallow dish with water on the table.  We're talking a lot about bulbs!

The 7yo got onto a hand-sewing-cloth-bags kick, so she spent a lot of time doing that.

The 5yo wanted to practice writing out all of her letters and numbers.  She filled pages and pages with these.  We took the opportunity to review the first 30 lessons of Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

The 5yo got a Prodigy math account set up and I reviewed the children's math work - they're doing well!  They all got to play math games on the computer this week.

Places we went!

 - The 7yo had a dentist appointment, the 9yo had a piano lesson, and on the Wednesday we welcomed my mother for a respite visit.

 - We went on a nature walk and discussed our Advent reading about rabbits, how quickly the snow dissolved when you breathed on it, and how to camouflage yourself in the winter.

"I wonder why those mourning doves are in such a big flock

 but some are in one tree and some are in another.  

I wonder if the ones up in the tall tree are lookouts 

for the ones in the spruce, who can't see as well.  

What do you all think?"

 - We practiced our graphing by going to a restaurant and recording how many people came in or out wearing a hat, a hood, or having just a bare head.  This book is great for those sorts of hands-on math outings, if you need suggestions for things to do outside of the house in a mathy way.

We had a dr. appointment, shoveled snow for ourselves and neighbours, went to the hardware store to buy a new windshield wiper and install it on the car, cleaned the house together, went to a Christmas party and made crafts there, returned our library books and took our some new ones, cooked...

Books we read!

We finished this one as a group read-aloud (see my review of it here):

And the 9yo and I continued on with this one:

New group read-aloud was started!

Advent read alouds, various other read alouds, books in general...

We read about ancient Australian Aboriginal culture, the history of the Maori diaspora,
and the Frankish peoples united under Clovis.

Conversations we had!

What are the pros and cons of graphic novels versus completely print novels?  What are the differences between comics and graphic novels?  That hot foods are common in hot countries because they make you sweat when you eat, which cools you off.  Electrons, protons, neutrons, and the Large Hadron Collider.  How the atomic bomb worked.  If 'c' and 'k' and 'ck' (and others) all make the same sound, why have that many options?  

"Mama, the colour white absorbs less heat than other colours!"

"Hey Mom!  So assuming you had been born with a hole IN your head, and someone could reach in and touch your brain, did you know that you couldn't feel that?  Because the brain doesn't have nerve receptors!"