Green Apple's Blush: Week 14 - 2011 - Ready for Thanksgiving Break!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Week 14 - 2011 - Ready for Thanksgiving Break!

Well, with the darker days, I'm seeing a return of my son's anxiety problems. I was hopeful that last year's problems were just hormonal and wouldn't return this year at the same time, but they're back.... So we had a bit of a crisis this week, but I'm hopeful that he's pulling out of it now. I've got some recommendations for some things to try to help him with seasonal problems and I'm hopeful those will work out well for him.

We attended a fun afternoon workshop this week where all of us (literally all, as the moms got drawn in too, LOL) made colored glass suncatchers/ornaments. We've left them to be fused in the kilns and will pick them up shortly. I'm very excited to see how both our projects turned out (he did a dragon)!

All his classes are proceeding well. He has been working on an essay on the Yukon Territory, its geography, climate, and culture, which he will turn in on Monday. They are going to work on some short stories in class on Monday and then be homework free over the Thanksgiving break (yeah!).... He's out of algebra next week, too.... We just attended our end of semester co-op get together and that was nice....

Here are some books we've been reading this week:

He continued with The Yearling and is working on finishing up Bold Leaders of World War I. He read three more chapters in volume 9 of History of US, as well as three more chapters in Story of the World. He read Kids' Discover: Titanic.

TITANIC

http://www.kidsdiscover.com/product/104/TITANIC

I'm almost finished with The Yanks are Coming. I started a Reader's Digest condensed version of a book I read as a child that I wanted to cover before we went completely away from the late 1800's: The Johnstown Flood, David McCollough. I finished up readings related to WWI from The Encyclopedia of the US at War. I read more on the time period (worldwide) from Haywood's Atlas of Past Times (I LOVE this book!).... And I read more on personalities of the time period from First Facts About American Heroes, David King.

I think we will be ready to move on to discussions about the Bolsheviks and Fascism when we get back from our Thanksgiving break next week. I hope everyone has a good holiday!

Regena

3 comments:

Unknown said...: I love the kids discover magazines, and I'm thrilled to see those are still used by an 8th grader! I'm getting them from the local library for free after they take them out of their catalog and the readings/pictures are wonderful.; November 19, 2011 at 10:10 AM
MissMOE said...: Great list of resources---have a great holiday week!; November 21, 2011 at 11:47 AM
Kristie said...: I just said a prayer for your son. I hope whatever he's dealing with gets better. I'm going to have to check out The Atlas of Past Times...looks interesting. Happy Thanksgiving!; November 22, 2011 at 12:28 AM

The Planting of the Apple Tree, William Cullen Bryant

Come, let us plant the apple-tree.
Cleave the tough greensward with the spade;
Wide let its hollow bed be made;
There gently lay the roots, and there
Sift the dark mould with kindly care,
And press it o'er them tenderly,
As, round the sleeping infant's feet,
We softly fold the cradle-sheet;
So plant we the apple-tree.

What plant we in this apple-tree?
Buds, which the breath of summer days
Shall lengthen into leafy sprays;
Boughs where the thrush, with crimson breast,
Shall haunt and sing and hide her nest;
We plant, upon the sunny lea,
A shadow for the noontide hour,
A shelter from the summer shower,
When we plant the apple-tree.

What plant we in this apple-tree?
Sweets for a hundred flowery springs
To load the May-wind's restless wings,
When, from the orchard-row, he pours
Its fragrance through our open doors;
A world of blossoms for the bee,
Flowers for the sick girl's silent room,
For the glad infant sprigs of bloom,
We plant with the apple-tree.

What plant we in this apple-tree?
Fruits that shall swell in sunny June,
And redden in the August noon,
And drop, when gentle airs come by,
That fan the blue September sky,
While children come, with cries of glee,
And seek them where the fragrant grass
Betrays their bed to those who pass,
At the foot of the apple-tree.

And when, above this apple-tree,
The winter stars are quivering bright,
And winds go howling through the night,
Girls, whose young eyes o'erflow with mirth,
Shall peel its fruit by cottage-hearth,
And guests in prouder homes shall see,
Heaped with the grape of Cintra's vine
And golden orange of the line,
The fruit of the apple-tree.

The fruitage of this apple-tree
Winds and our flag of stripe and star
Shall bear to coasts that lie afar,
Where men shall wonder at the view,
And ask in what fair groves they grew;
And sojourners beyond the sea
Shall think of childhood's careless day,
And long, long hours of summer play,
In the shade of the apple-tree.

Each year shall give this apple-tree
A broader flush of roseate bloom,
A deeper maze of verdurous gloom,
And loosen, when the frost-clouds lower,
The crisp brown leaves in thicker shower.
The years shall come and pass, but we
Shall hear no longer, where we lie,
The summer's songs, the autumn's sigh,
In the boughs of the apple-tree.

And time shall waste this apple-tree.
Oh, when its aged branches throw
Thin shadows on the ground below,
Shall fraud and force and iron will
Oppress the weak and helpless still?
What shall the tasks of mercy be,
Amid the toils, the strifes, the tears
Of those who live when length of years
Is wasting this little apple-tree?

"Who planted this old apple-tree?"
The children of that distant day
Thus to some aged man shall say;
And, gazing on its mossy stem,
The gray-haired man shall answer them:
"A poet of the land was he,
Born in the rude but good old times;
'Tis said he made some quaint old rhymes,
On planting the apple-tree."