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Each summer, Oxford University Press USA and Bryant Park in New York City partner for their summer reading series Word for Word Book Club. The Bryant Park Reading Room offers free copies of book club selections while supply lasts, compliments of Oxford University Press, and guest speakers lead the group in discussion. On Tuesday 22 July 2014, Jenny Davidson, Professor of English at Columbia University, leads a discussion on Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park.

What was your inspiration for choosing this book?

The book I’ll be talking about is Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park. It doesn’t tend to be a favorite with readers, though I’ve always loved it; I especially appreciated it when I was a graduate student, as there is something about the status of the novel’s protagonist Fanny Price as hanger-on and dependent relation that resonated with my own station in life! I write a little bit in my new book Reading Style: A Life in Sentences about how there is a perfect Austen novel for every stage of life: I loved Pride and Prejudice the most when I was young, Sense and Sensibility as a teenager, Emma in bossy adulthood, and Persuasion now that I have fully come into my own professionally as a literary critic. I am not a huge fan of Northanger Abbey, but I do love Austen’s juvenilia, the short tales like Love and Friendship and so forth. I think in many ways they show us how we might want to read the novels of Austen’s adulthood.

Did you have an “a-ha!” moment that made you want to be a writer?

I wanted to write books for as long as I can remember. (Here is the evidence: it’s my first known work, age three or so, as dictated to my mother.) I wrote compulsively throughout childhood and adolescence, but it wasn’t until my first year of college that I realized that though I really still wanted to write novels as well, my true vocation would be as a professor of literature. It still seemed an almost insurmountably long road, but from that point onward I was sure what direction I should point myself in.

Which author do you wish had been your 7th grade English teacher?

Well, many authors would have been very poor teachers – but I would have to say Anthony Burgess, whose book 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 was my guide for reading throughout my teenage years. He would have been disreputable – unreliable, frequently hungover – but brilliant. Gore Vidal would have been another interesting one to have in the classroom.

What is your secret talent?

Punctuality. I have a very bad sense of direction – all places look the same to me, and I can get lost even in places I know very well – but it is easy for me to be on time and also to have a sense of how time’s passing. You would have to ask my students to know if this is really true, but I pride myself on not wasting their time in class and ending a little early whenever possible.

What word or punctuation mark do you most identify with?

The exclamation point! I do have a soft spot for the semi-colon, of course, and I can’t do without commas and periods. I am also rather partial to the em-dash and the hyphen, each of which has its own charms. I will hyphenate whenever possible.

Where do you do your best writing?

The truthful answer: anywhere with no Internet! I like to go to a cafe where there’s a bit of background buzz – easier for me to concentrate against a backdrop of minor noise than in full silence – and either write by longhand, with no distractions in the way of the internet.

Do you read your books after they’ve been published?

No, but I sometimes have to look up something or remind myself of what exactly I said in the past. My novel The Explosionist was written because I’d fallen in love with Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials books and Garth Nix’s Sabriel books, and was haunting the bookstore wishfully hoping for something similar. When there really wasn’t anything new along those lines, I realized that I would have to write it myself.

Do you prefer writing on a computer or longhand?

I am still on longhand for a lot of draft-writing. Occasionally I have a project that seems to call out for typing rather than handwriting, but it’s less common. The couple things I always write on the computer, that come easily and enjoyably and wouldn’t feel the same in handwriting: blog posts and lectures.

What book are you currently reading? (And is it in print or on an e-Reader?)

Just finishing Alice Goffman’s wonderful On the Run, which I highly recommend. I love my Kindle Paperwhite, and read most of my pleasure reading on it these days. My apartment is also full of stacks of library books right now that I’m dipping into to make a new fall-semester syllabus.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

I have toyed with the idea of taking up “kitten socializer at animal shelter” as a secondary job description. More seriously: neurologist; epidemiologist; copy editor. It would be hard for me not to be an academic of one kind or another, though I suspect I’d be in the hard sciences, computer programming or mathematics if I weren’t a humanist.

Jenny Davidson is a Professor of English at Columbia University in the City of New York. She is interested in eighteenth-century British literature and culture; cultural and intellectual history, especially history of science; and the contemporary novel. He latest book is Reading Style: A Life in Sentences. She blogs at Light reading.

For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford’s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. You can follow Oxford World’s Classics on Twitter and Facebook. Read previous interviews with Word for Word Book Club guest speakers.

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By Jenny S. Martinez

Today, 25 March, is International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. But unfortunately, the victims of slavery were not all in the distant past. Contemporary forms of slavery and forced labor remain serious problems and some reputable human rights organizations estimate that there are some 21-30 million people living in slavery today. The issue is not limited to just a few countries, but involves complex transnational networks that facilitate human trafficking. Just as in the past, international cooperation is necessary to end this international problem.

International law played a key role in ending the transatlantic slave trade in the 19th century. In the year 1800, slavery and the slave trade were cornerstones of the Atlantic world and had been for centuries. Tens of thousands of people from Africa were carried across the Atlantic each year, and millions lived in slavery in the new world. In 1807, legislatures in both the United States and Britain — two countries whose ships had been key participants in the trade — banned slave trading by their citizens. But two countries alone could not stop what was a truly international traffic, which quickly shifted to the ships of other nations. International cooperation was required.

Beginning in 1817, Britain negotiated a series of bilateral treaties banning the slave trade and creating international courts to enforce that ban. These were, I suggest, the first permanent international courts and the first international courts created with the aim of enforcing a legal rule designed to protect individual human rights. The courts had jurisdiction to condemn and auction off ships involved in the slave trade, while freeing their passengers. The crews of navy ships that captured the illegal slave vessels were entitled to a share of the proceeds of the sale of the vessels, creating an incentive for vigorous policing. By 1840, more than twenty nations — including all the major maritime powers involved in the transatlantic trade — had signed treaties of various sorts (not all involving the international courts) committing to the abolition of slave trading. By the mid-1860s, the slave trade from Africa to the Americas had basically ceased, and by 1900, slavery itself had been outlawed in every country in the Western Hemisphere.

“East African enslaved people rescued by the British naval ship, HMS Daphne (1869)” via The National Archives UK on Flickr.

While treaties today prohibit slavery and the slave trade, international efforts at eradicating modern forms of slavery and forced labor trafficking are inadequate. Looking to the lessons of the past, international policy makers should consider implementing a more robust system for dismantling modern day slavery. A system of property condemnation with economic incentives for whistleblowers could again be used to leverage enforcement power; someone who turns in a human trafficker could be entitled to a share of the proceeds of a sale of the trafficker’s assets. Similarly, international courts could be used in especially severe cases. Enslavement is a crime against humanity under the statute of International Criminal Court, and severe cases involving transnational trafficking networks with large numbers of victims might meet the criteria for ICC jurisdiction. Violent acts in wartime are more visible international crimes, but the human impact of enslavement is no less severe or deserving of international justice.

It is not enough to remember past victims of enslavement; to truly honor their memory, we must do something to help those who are enslaved today.

Jenny S. Martinez is Professor of Law and Justin M. Roach, Jr., Faculty Scholar at Stanford Law School. A leading expert on international courts and tribunals, international human rights, and the laws of war, she is also an experienced litigator who argued the 2004 case Rumsfeld v. Padilla before the U.S. Supreme Court. Martinez was named to the National Law Journal’s list of “Top 40 Lawyers Under 40.” She is the author of The Slave Trade and The Origins of International Human Rights Law (OUP 2012), now available in paperback.

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Loads of catch-up to do! I haven't posted since the beginning of the Plague that laid us flat for a while, and then my parents were here, and then we had a crazy-busy end of the week last week. I won't remember much, but there were some odds & ends I wanted to jot down:

Rose read Freaky Friday, The Year of Miss Agnes, Ella Enchanted.

Jane is back on an Arthur Ransome kick, also Chronicles of Prydain, Pat of Silver Bush, 1 2 3 Infinity (a science book beloved by her paternal grandmother).

Bean is on a Roald Dahl binge. We are still reading Half Magic together, the two of us.

Latin is going well. Rose saw a line in Betsy Bird's Fuse #8 blog post today about children not being able to memorize anymore (Betsy was saying that the little girl reciting Jabberwocky in a YouTube clip belies that statement), and Rose snorted and began reciting prayers in Latin. Heh.

Dinners: I made Giada's baked orzo dish, SO GOOD, but Jane didn't like the onions and Rose didn't like the peas and I don't remember why Bean didn't like it but she didn't. They are crazy. It is wickedly delicious and I've been living off the leftovers all weekend.

Scott had to go to Wondercon in San Fran this weekend. Wah. His plane should be be boarding soon for the return trip. In his absence, we were couch potatoes all day Friday (cold day) but worked like bees yesterday. Washed, dried, folded, put away every scrap of laundry in the house. Cleaned out his closet. Trimmed three heads of hair (big girls). Other stuff I can't remember.

Wed Feb 13: canceled piano & Journey North b/c of illness.

Thurs Feb 14: the day Jane passed out and had to go to the ER.

Fri Feb 15: the day Rilla scalded herself with a cup of tea

Sat Feb 16: Grandparents & niece arrive!

Sun Feb 17: sick kids are mostly better, grandparents take them to Mission Trails, Scott takes me to Eddie Bauer outlet where I scored a great dress for $12. Yeehah! I think that was also the day we used my Olive Garden certificate?

Mon Feb 18: Scott has day off but is coming down w/ the plague.  Parents take big girls whale watching. No whales to watch. But much fun had by all, except Beanie's nose.

Tues Feb 19: Last day of visit. Scott was home sick.

Wed Feb 20: piano, speech, Journey North, Shakespeare rehearsal

Thurs Feb 21: art museum workshop at Balboa Park. Speech. Little Flowers. Grocery store. Scott had class.

Fri Feb 22: first regular day at home in two weeks! We stayed in pajamas a long time. Did Latin, math, Jane read Brendan Voyage, Beanie read Whittington. Rose wrote long letter to a friend. Scott flew to SF that afternoon, so we said goodbye to him in the morning.

Sat Feb 23, yesterday, the big housecleaning.

Sun Feb 24, today! Mass. Games. Worked on my ripple stripe blanket. I have completed a whopping 5 1/2 rows in a month. Snails the world over are dazzled by my speed.

Tues:

Sick kids! Rose & Jane have fevers, sore throats. Nevertheless, a productive day.

Rose:
Latin
Famous Men of Rome
Understood Betsy
cursive

Jane:
algebra
MC
Churchill
Plutarch
Once & Future King

Bean:
RA Half Magic
italic
Timez Attack
read alones:  Matilda
Burgess Bird Book
Once Upon a Time saints, Ambrose

All but Jane (who was dizzy) went for a walk before lunch. Worked in yard, also: beginning to think veggie garden.

Rose made most of dinner.

Wednesday:
piano
Journey North
practiced math facts (Bean & Rose)

Thursday:
Latin for all
French for all (in car) (and I'm thinking we'll not be sticking w/ the French for long, but it's fun to be learning a few basic words and phrases at least—I was sent these materials for review (Memoria Press) and they are very good, but between ASL and Latin we're sort of languaged up)

Jane:
Ivanhoe
extra Latin with me: Latin Book One
read Josephine Tey's Daughter of Time ("Mom, it was a fascinating book!")
Plutarch: cont. Poplicola

Rose:
worked all day making her own calendar, complete with color illustrations—gorgeous!
read Betsy's Wedding

Beanie:
read alone: Once Upon a Time Saints (St. Alice)
RA: Half Magic

Lots of outdoor play time w/ scooters.

Wonderboy: (he really is old enough to deserve his own notes)
speech therapy—is doing so well w/ the new therapist. They are working on conditioned responses to help improve his performance in the hearing-test booth so we can make sure his aids are set at the best possible levels.

In the afternoon, we made dinner for some friends who have a new baby. Rose was my main kitchen helper and Jane had baby duty. :) In the car on the way home, we listened to some King of the Golden City.

All: long discussion of Jewish history

Jane:
algebra
Latin
Life of Spider (but we are going to drop it now)
Beautiful Girlhood
looked at sewing books in search of a project

Rose: math

Latin

sewed patch on jeans
piano

Beanie:
math
RA Our Island Story: Edmund Ironsides & narration
RA 50 Famous: Inchcape Rock
read alone : Burgess Bird Book

piano, Shakespeare (practiced scenes), began Journey North.

Didn't I write this already? I think Rilla must have zapped a post before she Gohked on Bonny Glen. Hmm.

Let's see.
Jane: Latin, Brendan Voyage, How to Read a Book, Once & Future King.

Rose: more cursive.

Beanie: Our Island Story, Ben Franklin (Rose listened in) (oh and then we looked up Poor Richard's Almanack & found first edition scans, very cool!), Half Magic, read alone Burgess Bird Book.

science lab: speed, velocity, acceleration

Jane: read Landmark History, oral narration
worked on math related to sci lab

Bean: read & narrated Fisherman & His Wife
RA of Half Magic
copywork

Rose: cursive practice

Latin all round

Bean:
handwriting
50 Famous: Black Douglas (and narrated)
OIS: Ethelred (and narrated)
read alone Burgess BIrd Book (thinks the characters fight too much)
Aesop, fox & grapes
poems
Ben Franklin

Jane:
began Brendan's Voyage
Ivanhoe
Churchill (with me, then wrote narration)
Bede (alone, oral narration)
Plutarch: more Poplicola (good discussion of capital punishment afterward)

Looked up lictor & fasces
Looked at A STREET THROUGH TIME (all girls)

Lunch, then spent allll afternoon at the ophthamologist. Oh boy.

Yesterday was devoured by a hospital trip. G/I for Bean and WB, long wait, labs, arrrgh. But done now. So.

This morning we were signed up for another art museum workshop and once again had to cancel. The little ones are runny-nosed and coughing, and WB's coughing kept Jane up half the night, and so it goes. This is why I don't like to sign up (and pay) for events months in advance...it is impossible to predict whether we'll actually be able to participate when the day arrives.

But we've had a nice morning. Jane and I read Plutarch and Churchill, and then she read Bede and Landmark Hist of the American People, and she is currently typing up some narrations on those.

Beanie read and narrated "A Laconic Answer" and the Jenny Wren chap of Burgess Bird Book. "If anyone thinks her mom scolds a lot, she should read about Jenny Wren! Now THERE'S a scolder!"

Heh heh.

Her narrations are very good (and entertaining). Her vocabulary is a constant delight these days, and I get so many deja vu moments taking me right back to when Jane was her age. Yesterday the doctor asked her about a symptom and Bean answered, "Well, it varies." The doctor could not stop remarking upon her vocabulary, and it made me laugh because by now I take her big words for granted.

We (she wanted me to help) sketched a house wren for her nature book and she colored it—brightly, not accurately. A parrot-colored house wren is a charming sight indeed.

WB had his first session with the new speech therapist today. Went as well as we could hope, under the circumstances. I really like this ST and think the boy get on well with her once he adjusts to the change.

Home for a brief while, then back out for Little Flowers and Trader Joe. I watched the Barefoot Contessa make a goat-cheese-and-roasted-red-pepper sandwich the other day and could not get it out of my mind. It was tres yum. For the record.

I think I forgot to record Tuesday's readings:

Jane read Lewis and Churchhill.

Bean: Aesop (Eagle & Jackdaw); 50 Famous Tales (Damon & Pythias); Ben Franklin; poems; Our Island Story.

Rose: Old Yeller; John Smith (Sir Francis Drake); Secret of the Andes.

Science.
Home for lunch, then
dropped girls at Lickonas (thanks much)
and took littles to IEP meeting.

Long meeting. Went well. Annual review, much to discuss. Am switching WB to a speech therapist in the deaf/HOH preschool program. Have worked with her a couple of times before. She's aces. Will make the switch immediately; first session Thursday. Will be bundling some audiology services in w/ speech to see if we can get more accurate results in the boy's hearing tests. He hasn't been terribly cooperative during the tests since we got here, so we aren't sure if his aids are at the optimum thresholds.

Wed Jan 9

piano
trip to Children's: Jane got her cast off. (Hurrah!)
and that was the day!

Thurs Jan 10

Beanie:
RA Ben Franklin
narrated ant & grasshopper
MUS
Blue Fairy Book

Jane:
finished Watership Down
algebra
Age of Chivalry

afternoon:
doctors appt for Rilla and WB. Dropped girls at Sanchezes first, hung out there afterward: lovely.

Fri
ballet (Jane) & playground
got home, Rilla had fever
spent afternoon cuddling her, watching food shows with girls
didn't make it to KZ's baby shower that night, alas

Sat & Sun: all of us had come down with a gicky cold.

All:
Luke

Rose:
RA Foster's World of John Smith (intro)
RA Classic Poetry, "All the world's a stage" monologue fr. As You Like It
disappeared to work on her ongoing typing project; I have no idea what this is

Beanie:
Aesop Ants & Grasshopper
RA Blue Fairy Book "Little Red Riding Hood" (She thought the ending dreadful—no rescuing woodcutter in this version, just gobbled-up Red & Grandma. "The poor mother! Can you imagine if I went off to Grandma's house and you never saw me again?")
Golden Children's Bible
Loyola Bk of Saints, began Eliz of Hungary
She gave a beeyootiful narration of "Bruce and the Spider," which she read herself yesterday
Read alone: Herriot's Treasury for Children, first story

Jane:
did Latin
RA began Plutarch's Poplicola
began Bede
she read chap of Marshall's Eng Lit (about MacPherson's Ossian translation), told me all about it, SO interesting, led to great discussion & online reading about MacPherson & Dr Johnson—will blog about this)
written narrations/notes about the Plutarch & Bede

lunch, quiet time

cocoa & the last of the gingerbread men (our Epiphany treat), nice chat around the table

reorganized R & B's drawers, ugh ugh ugh

Speech
Science lab

Rose:
RA Secret of the Andes ch 1

Beanie:
RA Our Island Story, Alfred & Cowherd (heard before when she was very small)
50 Famous Stories, Bruce & the Spider

Jane:
Adler ch 1
Lewis MC ch 1

watched first lecture in Joy of Numbers series

All:

Water Music (Handel)

Read lots to Beanie, mostly favorite old picture books.

Scott is reading the girls THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER, our annual tradition.

Overhauled the bedroom, looks so great!

Wonderboy's teeth were pulled. He is in tiptop form now.

Picked up the baby sweater I began (gulp) in Virginia. Am almost finished now, but last night made a terrible discovery: when I went to sew the arms & sides together, I found that the left front placket was two inches longer than the back of the sweater. How did I do that??? I am attempting to fix this by unraveling several rows, but that meant I had to unravel & refasten the trim as well. Now the bottom edge of the front placket looks ragged. I might try adding a row or two of trim around the bottom of the sweater. The other problem: this was meant to be a newborn sweater, but it looks like it might fit Rilla. Whoops. I had a baby in mind for it, but she'll drown inside this thing.

Finally bought a new vacuum (using my ClubMom points for Home Depot gift cards). Not the Dyson I was drooling over, but it's better than a broom.

Played loads of Sorry with the girls. Enjoyed it more than Sarah did! ;)

After having Scott home for two four-day-weekends in a row, I am feeling positively bereft today now that he's back at work.

Oh! One more thing. The most amazing baby ever. Yesterday the kids were out in the backyard. Rilla started crying for no apparent reason. Rose turned a few cartwheels to cheer her up. Baby laughed and the tears were gone. She trotted inside and went to the dishtowel drawer, got herself a towel, held it to her cheek. Big solemn eyes looking up at us over the towel. What is she doing? I asked. She lifted the towel away. Scott said, Did she get stung?? Big red welt on her cheek, and sure enough, a little pinprick hole in the center. Rose remembered seeing a bee nearby just before Rilla began to cry. She has seen me give the other kids towels (with ice) when they get bumps. I guess she figured she would self-treat the injury. Bravest baby ever.

Forgot to say that last night, after Christmas dessert (a pudding pie, for which I seem to have quite accidentally cultivated a reputation with the children in our circle of friends, it being the dessert we included with some new-baby meals we prepared in recent weeks; after the delivery of the third pie, I sensed that my own children were plotting a mutiny if the first mate/galley cook didn't bestow the same victuals upon them as upon their chums) we curled up to watch, as a family, selections from one of Scott's Christmas presents from me: a DVD of Bill Cosby's best-known stand-up routine, the one where he serves his children chocolate cake for breakfast. Everyone howled; Jane laughed till she cried. I remember watching the same performance with my parents when I wasn't much older than cake. It was funny then; it's even funnier now that I understand exactly what he's talking about.

So that was Christmas.

Today we sorrowfully saw Scott off to work—having him home for a four-day weekend was wonderfully like old times. We have adjusted well to San Diego, but we will never stop missing the days when daddy worked at home.

Everyone seemed a bit off kilter with the day-after-Christmas letdown, so I thought that instead of a free-for-all we'd have a bit of read-aloud time to snap us back into shape. It worked nicely. I pulled out Charlotte Mason's OURSELVES, which I began long ago but we fizzled out on. I've been meaning to return to it, and the time felt right. They were interested and we found lots to talk about. I hope I can stick with it this time.

Then Beanie wanted a Christmas story, so I asked her to pick a book from the pile of Christmas picture books on the hearth. Rose chose Jan Brett's THE WILD CHRISTMAS REINDEER. After that we all drifted our separate ways for a while. Rose and Bean had much playing to do, and Jane dove headlong into her pile of Muse back issues. (Thanks, Mom & Dad—with her crafting abilities impaired by the cast, this box full of long-desired reading material couldn't have come at a better time.)

After lunch we played a couple of games of Uno and then the girls tried out their new Mousetrap came. I'm thinking the first time is the most fun, discovering how the contraption fits together. They loved it.

I don't know what else. The day ran away. I don't think we went outside at all, though it was nice and sunny. East Coast conditioning still runs deep; the day after Christmas is for snuggling inside with all your lovely books and things.

Tomorrow Wonderboy goes back to the dentist. I am so thankful we made it through the holiday without an infection. His gum is really looking a mess, and it keeps bleeding. Ugh.

This post doesn't know what it wants to be. It's chattier than I usually get here, but then again I've left out so much Christmas stuff and it would be kind of jolting to plop it down on Bonny Glen. I think I'm in a bit of blog flux these days. Lilting House was fun but felt very public, sort of formal, like I had to use my company manners. I feel that way sometimes at Bonny Glen too, knowing readers are coming there to look for information about my books and might be puzzled by all the chitchat about playing Uno with my kids.

I was going to catch up, but I see I haven't posted here since in a whole month. How did that happen??

Well, I should jot down some notes just so I remember what happened when. Let me see. Last time I wrote was the day before Shakespeare Club. Oh! And the day Max Sanchez was born! So:

Nov 28, Wed. piano, Shakespeare, Scott had class.

Nov 29, Thurs, softball. Was that the day the two Muslim moms from the park came over to look at Math-U-See? If not that day, the next week. Very fun afternoon, comparing notes.

Nov 30, Fri. Ballet, art class. Began the St Andrew Christmas novena but didn't last many days! Oh yes, and I think this was the day we discovered Scrabulous and I had games going with Scott, Jane, and Rose. Plus we played a game of real Scrabble on the floor. Or was that the day before? LOL.

Dec 1, Sat. My first Saturday at Adoration, I think. Except it turned out the Blessed Sacrament was in repose and no one knew why. (Hmm, now I'm thinking that was actually the last Sat in November. I suppose it doesn't matter, but it's scary how quickly the details fade away.) Scott wrote about the baby. I think I went shopping.

Dec 2, Sunday. Don't remember anything specific.

Dec. 3, Monday. Speech. Science. We did lots of stuff in the car that day, I recall. French, Latin. Picked a symphony for the week—was that the week it was Beethoven's 9th? Or was it the Bach. Oh, I know. I made notes somewhere on what Scott said about the Beethoven. Meant to post it. It'll be dated in drafts.

Dec 4, Tues. No memory, but we would've done math and ASL that day.

Dec 5, Wed. Oh I remember this day! Scott's last night of class! He had two papers due. We had piano in the morning and then Clorissa came in the afternoon to be a mother's helper. She kept an eye on the younger two while the girls played and I read Scott's papers. It was dark when I drove Clorissa home, so the kids and I had a good time looking at Christmas lights.

Dec 6, Thurs, the feast of St. Nicholas. I remember we spent an hour hunting for our St. Nick tape and couldn't find it. What else. Latin & French. And the last softball workshop at the park, so was this the day the two moms came over?

Dec 7, Fri. Ballet, art class. Finished the St. Louis de Montfort preparation for Marian consecration.

Dec 8, Saturday, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Adoration. Consecration. Mass at St Ephrem's that night, awesome. Poured rain that day. We went through a drive-through for milkshakes on the way home, and watched in surprise as the cashier handed our shakes to the truck in front of us and the guy drove off with them! Led to a great talk with girls, of course.

Dec 9, Sunday. The boys' birthday. Chocolate biscuits for breakfast, sausage soup for supper. Fun day.

Dec 10, Monday. Speech, science. New French lesson in the car.

Dec 11, Tues.  Latin, math in the morning. Clorissa in the afternoon. Dug out the Christmas decorations from the garage.

Dec 12, Wed. Our Lady of Guadalupe. Piano. I think we saw Max for the first time that day! Shakespeare Club. Worked on scenes.  Went to Mass at St. Ephrem's with Rose that night. Procession to the shrine afterward.

Dec. 13, Thurs. Feast of St Lucy! Candle-crowned girls served our traditional sweet rolls to daddy in bed.

Dec 14, Friday. Ballet recital. I think that was the day we made dinner for the Sanchezes?

Dec 15, Saturday. My mom arrived, woohoo! Scott & Wonderboy picked her up at the airport. Later that day was his tumble and the frantic rush to the dentist. :( Much later that afternoon I had time at church.

Dec. 16, Sunday. Scott took girls to Christmas tree farm, Jane fell, hurt her hand.

Dec 17, Monday. So nice. :) Scott took my birthday off work. We drove to Julian. Back home for dinner and cake. Great day, despite kids' injuries. (Jane had science in the morning as usual. WB had speech too.)

Dec 18, Tues. Mom left but not till afternoon.

Dec 19, Wed. Piano recital. Then took Jane to dr for xrays.

Dec 20, Thurs. Took Jane (and all) to orthopedist. Best moment: the tech comes in to get the case history. Asks where the injury is. Me: "Her left pinky." Jane: "Yes, left pinky, proximal phalynx." Tech's eyebrows shoot to ceiling. Heh. Also that day (night), went to Erica's for what I thought was a little Christmas gathering of mom friends and discovered a birthday party for me instead! So nice!!

Dec 21, Friday. Christmas Pageant at nursing home. Made dinner for Grimms. Feel like there was something in the a.m., but I don't remember what!

Dec 22, Saturday. Adoration. Shopping.

Dec 23, Sunday. Mass.

Dec 24, Monday. Family drive to Julian.

Dec 25, Tuesday. Christmas!

Monday

speech
Jane--bones
all--French in car

Bean practiced music notes in car as well.

Lots of game time for all girls. Sim City, I think, and other things. Oh, and after dinner they crowded around me while I played Eight Letters in Search of a Word. All were helping, but it was Beanie who astonished us with her suggestions. She got "recycled"!

Later, quick run to Target for cheap pansies.

Scott is reading PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH to B & R

Tues

Latin all around.
Rose: Latina Christiana lesson 2  (Was sent to me to review, and Rose leaped at it. Literally. She likes the format.)
Jane: LFC

Started read-aloud of THE TWENTY-ONE BALLOONS to Rose & Bean. So excited! Such fun! Much animated chatter about the presidential train vs. Air Force One; Prof. Sherman's honor and fidelity to his oath not to tell the tale of his adventures to anyone before the Western American Explorers Club in SF. The girls were impressed by his integrity in resisting even the pressure of the President of the U.S. to break that promise.

Rose wants to start our own Explorers Club, starting with a visit to Mission Trails. "We can tell all about the adventure afterward!"

Read Beanie a few chaps from FIFTY FAMOUS STORIES RETOLD. William Tell, Geo. Washington (the cherry tree). Strikes me that Washington's father is the real hero of that tale. His expensive new tree, the only one of its kind in this country, doubtless shipped from overseas, laid flat in a moment?  And when the boy confesses, he has the presence of mind to commend the child's honesty and courage? Well done he.

Lolcats pic of "hypotenuse cat" reminded Jane of passage in STRING, STRAIGHTEDGE, AND SHADOW about the guy who measured a pyramid by comparing his shadow vs. his height to the pyramid's ditto. She read me that passage and several others. What a gem that book is, never on the shelf; she cannot do without it for a day, it seems.

Rose is reading Supergirl.

Bean playing computer game.

Jane sewing something, Christmas presents I think.

New sound cards for Wonderboy. Played the game with Rilla, which he so enjoys.

WEDNESDAY:

piano
Shakespeare Club


THURSDAY:

piano
Math
French
Latin
Jane: read chapter of Marshall lit book
Rose: typing lesson
Jane: typing lesson
softball
Little Flowers

Well, this little blog has been sorely neglected of late, hasn't it. I guess we've been so busy learning that I haven't had time to record our learning notes!

Let's see, I ought to be able to catch up for this week at least. We've taken a traditional classical drift lately. I got a stack of review materials from Memoria Press, and the girls liked the look of them. :)

MONDAY:

Science lab

Home to deal with the non-working freezer. We had discovered at midnight the night before that it wasn't functioning. Everything defrosted. I started cooking meat like crazy—in the middle of making Tastefully Simple stuff for that evening's surprise double baby shower / TS catalog party. Cooked ALL DAY LONG. The landlord came to look at the freezer and we all thought the problem was with the icemaker staying in an open position. The fridge side seemed to still be fine--the butter wasn't softening, etc. So I cooked all day and stored about six meals in the fridge before dashing off to the party.

As for the children, it was, shall we say, an unschooling day. ;)

The TS party was a blast. :)

TUESDAY:

Ha! It wasn't just the freezer! Now the whole fridge was kaput, and all those meals I cooked went bad in the warm fridge. Arrrrgh. I am kicking myself for not bringing them to the shower for distributing among the pregnant ladies.

Our awesome landlord called to say a repairman was on the way, so the girls and I settled in to do some Latin.

Latin is going really, really well. Jane continues to alternate between LFC and Latin Book One. Rose was mostly finished with Prima Latina when the Latina Christiana review materials arrived. She started LC yesterday and was quite enthusiastic, which was nice, as she's the one whose enthusiasm for this subject comes and goes.

We also did the first lesson in MP's First Start French. Long story there as to why French all of a sudden, when we've been fooling around with German and Spanish for years, and I speak zero French. Our main languages for study are Latin and ASL. I'd love the kids to learn Spanish as well, esp. now that we live here, but we haven't persevered in that study the way we've plugged steadily away w/ Latin and sign. This little foray into French will be brief, I'm sure, but we'll learn some basics and some common phrases--the same kind of thing they know in German and Spanish. Never hurts to know how to say "Hello, I like your red hat" in someone's native tongue.

Because we are preparing for Beanie's First Communion, we have stepped up catechism this year. I've printed out a lot of things for notebooks a la Alice's brilliant FC notebook concept. We begin each day with these homemade prayer books.

Read more Famous Men of Rome. The girls marched up and down the hall chanting:

753 B.C.,
The year Rome came to be!

Our silly little rhyme to help us remember the date.

Then the frigeratorpairman came (Daddy, I put that one in just for you--we've been singing the song all week!) and voila! We have cold storage once more. I spent the next two hours cleaning out all the spoiled stuff. The fridge is empty but chilly. :)

Fed the sourdough starter.

Rose and Bean broke out the new MP copybooks (more fun stuff to try out).

Jane worked all afternoon on catching up for Little Flowers. She is still trying to earn the badges for the petals the group did together before we moved here. She's getting there!

I think that's it for the day. Was that it? See how quickly the details escape me?

Hoo boy. Welcome to San Diego!

I'm going to start w/ today (Wed 10/24) since we're doing some actual lessons. If I don't jot down what we did, I'll forget.

Took a little break from obsessive fire news watching. The younger girls played a Sculpey game for most of the morning. After lunch, we settled down to work.

All:
Rosary.
Practiced Act of Contrition to prepare Bean for 1st Penance in a few months.

Jane:
Latin—big review. Verbs, 4 principle parts. Present tense verb endings. Noun endings, 1st declension: a, ae (feminine). Noun endings, 2nd declension, masc and neuter. Reviewed sum/to be.

Math—worked for a very long time on a probability experiment of her own, involving testing how many times each different center-square on the Rubik's cube will turn up when she rolls it like a die. Lots of charting and testing. She was deeply absorbed in this for over an hour.

Rose:
LOG subject/predicate page.
MUS Gamma 10E
GD Ital page.

Beanie:
practiced skip counting 3s
reviewed place value w/ me (decimal street)
GD Ital page
Read half of St Patrick story in Our Island Story

That's today (so far), but needless to say there has been a whole lot of learning going on this week, with the wildfires...we all know a lot more about San Diego County (geography, terrain) than we did before. And firefighting techniques, Santa Ana winds, nature's burn cycles, map reading, etc.

Even had a little practical Latin sneak in there—

"Mom, does 'mandatory evacuation' mean they are trusting you to get out?"

"No, it means you are required to leave."

Puzzled face. "But that doesn't make sense. Mando, mandare, mandavi, mandatum—I entrust, to entrust, I entrusted, entrusted."

Which led to a talk about what a mandate is, and how it has to do with being entrusted with the power to make a decision, which then becomes mandatory...which of course leads to all sorts of talk about government and politics.

It has indeed been a most educational week so far, even though we can't leave the house because of the smoky air. (And we are THRILLED that we are not required to leave the house!!)

Monday 10/15
Jane: botany experiments
sketched in nature book

Tuesday 10/16
Big math morning for everyone. Rose learned her times-9s.
Jane read Story of a Soul.
Read Thumbelina to Rose & Beanie (was a must after seeing the lily pads at Balboa Park last week).
(Rose thinks the ending is most unsatisfying. "She never goes back to her mother! Her poor mother never knows what happened to her!")
Piano
Beanie did Rosetta Stone German

Wed 10/17
Piano
Jane crocheted Wonderboy a hat.

Thursday 10/18
Art workshop at SDMA (took littles to science center)  (LH post)
Little Flowers

Friday  10/19
Games
Beanie read Dahl's THE WITCHES
Jane is working on a new crocheting project.
Rose worked in her garden.
Art class.

Math, math, math. For once Jane got stumped in algebra and I got to be the big hero, helping her out. Never mind that I had to watch the MUS lesson myself to figure it out.

Rose is working on area. (Say it with me: "When you're doing area, don't forget to squarea!") Beanie is six or seven lessons into MUS Alpha and has her plus-twos down pat.

Then Rose vamoosed to do her Rose thing, and Jane read ROYAL ROAD TO ROMANCE and worked on Latin.

RA to Jane & Bean: YOUNG PEOPLE'S STORY OF FINE ART (William Hogarth section)
Looked up Hogarth prints online.

PT evaluation for Wonderboy this afternoon, which means a playdate for the girls.

Jane: dissected parts of plant, viewed under microscope

All: listened to more JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH on audio

Went to Museum of Man at Balboa Park. Mayan exhibit, contemp. African artists, Egypt, Kumeyaay Indians.
Then walked to Lily Pond & Botanical Building. Spent long time at the fragrance collection & the carnivorous plants. Afterward, walked to the big fountain by the Fleet. Gorgeous.

Piano practice.