Sweetness and Light

Warm and Cozy Learning

The beauty of November has begun with the wonderful celebrations of last week.  We gratefully Kept the Company of Saints and prayed fervently for Souls and will continue to do that all year through.

November has also brought with it a new chill in the air and although our afternoons have been gloriously sunny we've started this week with a new tradition of warm and cozy learning in the afternoons. 

After busy mornings of lessons and choice time we pray the Angelus and have our lunch.  Then I settle our littlest in for his nap. When we know that he's slumbering peacefully, we light a fire and everyone chooses a handcraft of sorts.  For Violet and I it's our new found joy in knitting, or practicing crochet, which we just taught ourselves, or maybe it's some cross-stitch needlework or embroidery. 

Over the weekend I tried to show Seamus how to crochet and knit a little but try as he might, his sweet hands just couldn't quite manage it (yet).  I think I will start him on some harder stitching work as he has already mastered the Stitching Basket I have for him!  Violet also showed Matthias how to cross stitch on a pattern she's been trying to finish, he did pretty well. 

For the boy's choice however, it's lego building time!!  As our sweet one snoozes, we listen contentedly to a well-chosen Audio book, this week it's Wind in the Willows narrated by the delightfully talented Jim Weiss. 

The fire's crackly warm blaze enkindles our hearts and our souls as we all enjoy this cozy time together. 

Here is a run-down of other things we'll be enjoying during November:

More Saints: Lives and Illuminations by Ruth Sanderson

Lingua Angelica Song Book and CD (Memoria Press)

More Buddy Bread Baking (although not by the fire ;-) and other Family Cooking Projects

Rounding out our Spoon Saints Collection and Clothes Pin Apostles & Holy People

Violet has coined our time Stitches & Stories which is quite telling!  What kind of Warm and Cozy Learning do you have going right now???   

Teatime With Shakespeare

As our new year unfolds before us we have resumed our Tuesday Teatimes and with a very special guest this year, Shakespeare!  He will be present in poetry and prose and of course in all his ever famous plays, and scene will unfold upon scene for a lovely visit and perhaps a Scone or two!

I have been slowly collecting Shakespeare books and Poetry for the past year knowing that we wanted to embark on a year long study of this remarkable and yet mysterious man.  So far we've delved into his lovely poems from this beautiful book.  I really like the Poetry for Young People series and this one is no exception for its beauty and likeability.  Another book I discovered by accident at my library is by Aliki:  William Shakespeare & The Globe.  It is creatively written as a play of Shakespeare's life and gives good solid information.  We've previously read The Bard of Avon by Diane Stanley and it was also good, but a bit lengthy for a single tea-time read-aloud.  For this reason I have decided that we'll take a good long time to discover all we can about this interesting fellow and enjoy many facets of his writings, plays and how he became such a legend in modern literture and history for all time!

Here are some links I have found helpful for Shakespeare:

Folger Shakespeare Library

Shakespeare 4 Kidz

Shakespeare at Ambleside Online

Shakespeare Quotations Recommended by Mater Amabilis for Copywork

So come along with us, we'd love to have you join us for Tea, and Shakespeare too!  Enjoy!