In Light of the Current Political Scene

In Credenda Agenda 20:1, Douglas Wilson references historian Christopher Dawson as saying,

" . . . the Christian church lives in the light of eternity and can afford to be patient."

Lewis is 4!

This Sunday we had the family birthday party with all four grandparents, Aunt Brittany, Princess (Aunt Brittany's dog) and a truck cake in attendance. Everyone had lots of fun. Happy Birthday, Lewis!

I Knew I Liked that Kid

Yesterday, Lewis (whose favorite color for at least the last year has been yellow) announced that he was changing his favorite color to blue. He went on to explain, "It's going to be blue for a while, and then I'll change it to red." He's efficient (at least when crossing letters) and a planner (at least as far as color preferences are concerned). I see great potential here.

Boswell on Friendship

In need of some treadmill reading recently, I grabbed our copy of Bennett's Book of Virtues off the shelf and opened it in the middle. I landed in the chapter on friendship and have been enjoying much of the content there. Here's a good quote from James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson:

" . . . friendship becomes insensibly old in much less time than is commonly imagined, and not many years are required to make it very mellow and pleasant. Warmth will, no doubt, make a considerable difference. Men of affectionate temper and bright fancy will coalesce a great deal sooner than those who are cold and dull."

She made me do it.

Anyone who knows the kind of emphasis I place on training my children to be helpful AND who also knows my inherent dislike of ironing will have trouble believing this . . . but I really didn't intend for Anna to start ironing at age five. It was all her idea. She has watched and "helped" a few times over the last several months, and last week she asked to do something on her own. I told her I didn't think there was anything she could handle, so she went and checked my ironing spot. "Can I do that blue shirt?" That was last week. This week she did that same shirt again along with another similar one on her own initiative. This could be really good! (And she will be turning six in a couple months.)

Homeschool World

Well, now I've fully experienced my first homeschool conference. I volunteered at registration for nearly three hours, checked out the exhibition hall, attended a couple workshops and general sessions, and did the used book sale thing (dibs on which provided my selfless motive for volunteering). The thing I enjoyed most was hearing Andrew Pudewa. He makes a lot of sense.

http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/

I'm not jumping on his writing curriculum bandwagon at this point, but I am thinking of trying to dig up some of his talks somewhere for Titus to hear. He does well with the differences between male and female learning styles, the importance of music to cognitive development, and prioritizing the twin pillars of the classics and mentoring in education. What's more, he is a homeschooling father of seven who does not have access to television in his home.

Our Up-and-Coming Efficiency Expert

Lewis, our resident nearly-four-year-old, was practicing lower-case "f's" in his Pentime workbook today. (I would put up a link to this resource, but it is purveyed by those who have convictions against such modern tomfoolery.) Upon finishing, Lewis showed me his work. I praised his efforts but was about to helpfully suggest that he make the necessary cross strokes when I realized that he had done one solid line from left margin to right, crossing eight or ten letters with a single stroke. A man after my own heart!