Thursday, May 15, 2014

Grateful!

After a week and two days of anxious waiting, Ed got a call from the doctor's office today to tell him that the results of the (very unpleasant) biopsy he had last Tuesday were negative! He does not have cancer! There was much rejoicing.

Aside from that, things have been going along pretty placidly around here. Travis and I are having another go at Plato's Republic, and, not surprisingly, he is getting more out of it when he is not also scrambling to get the reading done for literature and history assignments! Actually, so am I. We are listening to the Great Courses lectures by Roochnik on the Republic along with our reading, and they are Wonderfully helpful in helping us see how Plato's ideas apply to modern issues. Poor Katie feels left out -- she says she wants to discuss Plato too, but I've told her she'll have to wait her turn (Travis would be more than willing to let her take his place, but I'm sure he'd regret it later in life. Maybe.)

I am planning, though, to include her in as many of our literature discussions as possible next year. While it is probably better for Travis to be forced, in a one on one discussion, to express ideas (and to have ideas) about the books we read, I can only enjoy so much squeezing blood from a turnip. Katie, on the other hand, is passionate about books. She has opinions, and also a spectacular memory for the details of a story. So, as I think about what we'll study next year, I'm doing my best to find adapted versions for Katie of the books Travis will be reading.


 I also have Martin Jenkins' version of Gulliver's Travels . I think she'll be able to read The Tempest and Much Ado About Nothing, since she's watched the movie versions, and I plan to get her No Fear editions, just in case. For Henry V I'll just have her watch the video (the Hiddleston version, though Travis and I will watch the Branagh too!). I have my eye on some appealing versions of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and of Beowulf for her, also. Thanks to the bookish wonderland that is Amazon -- I'm spending too much time over there, cruising the "stacks" and hunting for bargains -- I think next year's book discussions are going to be much more rewarding than the ones with my sweet co-op class this past school year!


*Katie says I should tell you that she just finished Lloyd Alexander's Illyrian Adventure and she loved it. Although she also says that nothing much happened in it!

No comments: