GANEIDA'S KNOT.

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Quaker by conviction, mother by default, Celticst through love, Christ follower because I once was lost but now am found...

Thursday, May 5, 2011

"Wear these bright jewels, belovèd Beowulf;..."

Homeschooling is weird you know ~ especially when you get up there in the rarefied stratospheres of higher education.  Take learning styles.  You'd think they'd get a little more flexible the older a child got but no.  At least not in Star's case.  Star is set in steele. She is still the ADD kid who learns as she bounces off the walls & never seems to be paying attention to anything & swears black & blue education is for the piskies & no~one needs an education after grade 5.  She has a point ~ but let's face it, most educational facilities are glorified babysitting clubs & what is everyone else supposed to do with their kids?

Anyway, I've heard it all from this kid & I've decided she just likes lighting my fuse to watch me spark.  We started back on Monday ~ which Star later discovered was a public holiday which meant, in Star's universe, she shouldn't have been working & she was!  And I am most unpopular because I decided without consultation Star might as well use her brain to wrestle with Beowulf & Anglo~Saxon England this term.  It's pretty bloodthirsty all round which should have appealed but naturally doesn't.

Now Star deserves the Oscar for iconic whining.  How that child can go on & on about the dullness of her academic schedule because it doesn't matter what we choose invariably it is incredibly boring.  And having whinged ~ & whined ~ & moaned & groaned; having sighed & sobbed & produced every dramatic trick in her not inconsiderable repertoire this is what Star ordered for her light reading this term: I believe I've already mentioned The Lord of the Flies.  To that add: Wuthering Heights, Emma, & Don Quixote.   If I had actually requested she read any one of these books I should have heard all about the torture of her poor innocent mind & my cruelty to children but because she chose to read this...well, that's a whole 'nother matter, ain't it!  She also ordered everything the library has on Alfred & Anglo~Saxon England & Debussy's Clare d'Lune. 

And there you have it folks!  The end result of years of homeschooling.  Despite herself my Star knows how to educate herself.  What I am rather interested to see is how she does with the German text I found on my shelves ~ which is all in German with no translation. [that's what Google is for!]  because I really don't want to have to buy a text.  So far she seems to be managing.  I told you she had brains.  She just likes sitting on them. Six terms to go!  Oh, my!

9 comments:

loving, laughing and learning said...

well i must be really mean i started little miss back last week after only 1 week break though we did take monday off lol. 6 is good its dingle digits. I think I scared my teacher with my lack of mathematical ability during our home visit but so far so good, you may just be missing out on a pretty good guy.

Ganeida said...

LLL: So I'm told ~ but, you know, 6 terms to go & counting down. I just want to navigate these waters with the lest drama possible when I have a drama queen extraordinaire! lol

seekingmyLord said...

Interesting choices Star has made in light reading. :D

I am seeing more and more of that self-education coming out in my daughter. I used to question the idea of radical unschooling, but I now can at least appreciate that how it can work, although my daughter would probably not pursue learning any more math on her own. I think I have found a comfortable mixture for us both...at least for now.

Gerry Snape said...

a truly great choice of books there!....well done!!

Ganeida said...

Seeking: I'm not brave enough for radical unschooling but more & more elements of unschooling have come in because they work for my child. I think she's learnt nothing & I joke about her education but the other side of that reality is how clued in she is to all sorts of stuff because she watches, listens & participates in the world around her.

Gerry: lol I haven't read some of what is on my daughter's list ~ & my degree is in this stuff. ☺

Jeanne said...

What a magnificent year of reading you have in store...you are going to join her, aren't you? We're reading Playing Beatie Bow, Kidnapped, Black Beauty and Pollyanna. Lovin' it.

Ganeida said...

Oh Jeanne! Will I go down in your estimation if I admit I don't like one single book on this list? Lord of the Flies is just grubby. Truly one of the most awful books I've ever read. Want to discuss the moral & ethical results of individual choices then I'd vote for A Clockwork Orange ~ which is absolutely brilliant & difficult & asks the hard questions. Two are essentially romances. I don't read Romance. Ugh! And then there's Don Quixote, whom I tried & didn't get very far with.

The same would be true for your list. Hated Beatie Bow, Black Beauty & Kidnapped. Loved Pollyanna. What people love or hate is very subjective but I suspect I really dislike the Victorians & their ilk with their long meandering sentences that wander aimlessly & end...anywhere. lol Yet I loved Catch 22 I considered trying Star with that...Moment of passing insanity.

I read Beowulf for pleasure before I was out of high school & only wish I could read it in the original with its alliteration & thumping rhymes whereas poor old Star wants to know why she's got to read it at all & tells me I'm the weirdest person on the face of the earth. Hardly that, methinks. I'll read Donne or Eliot all day but Dante leaves me cold & I'm ho~hum about some of Shakespheare. All different but a nodding aquaintance with all of it will never go astray.

Pen Wilcock said...

Interesting minds. Thine and hers both. This is a rich and fertile context for learning. Education can't help but happen in that context. Blessings on your new term. And yes, I think you owe her a day off in lieu of that public holiday! And maybe you deserve one too ;) xxx

Ganeida said...

Ember: Thank thee! ☺ Educating this child exhausts me & we get plenty of time of as a result. I believe she has math coming...:(

As for the other...I insist on talking. lol Poor Star. She tries to block me out but I can be very hard to ignore when my dramatic streak kicks in. Heehee.