This morning Brianna and I read this haiku by Jack Prelutsky:
If not for the cat
and the scarcity of cheese,
I could be content.
We read the whole book (If Not for the Cat) and counted syllables and learned new words--very challenging vocabulary, but manageable in such tiny, delightful bites. When we read this first one, I asked Brianna if she knew what scarcity meant. She said, "Sure, it means there's not much of something. But I actually thought the word was scarce." Smile. She keeps exceeding my expectations. Then I read her a few of my favorite haiku in Japanese and English from some old books. We are going to try our hand at writing some haiku soon. She caught on to the whole syllable thing so well. I remember that being really hard for me as a child.
Brianna also got to go swimming at SMU with Angela yesterday--very cool. We're enjoying the last trails of our Middle Ages stuff for now. Yesterday we made an hourglass--ours was actually a 8 minute and 45 second glass. And we made some rosemary water with the fresh herbs that guys who cooked here recently left in our fridge. Medieval women used to splash it on to refresh themselves on hot days, and knights used it like aftershave. We also did a little experiment --rosemary was used as a preservative. We rubbed crushed rosemary on half a potato and left the other half alone. The rosemaried half actually darkened faster, so prehaps we were a bit too enthusiastic in our rubbing! I figure we will revisit the Middle Ages in a few years. I am hoping we can start constructing a timeline soon that will stretch along the upper edge of our hallway. We're not really jumping into another particular theme right away, just enjoying some loose ends like the haiku and fractions. We have several special events coming up at the end of September and the beginning of October: homeschool days at the Fort Worth Zoo and at Old City Park, a trip to a pumpkin patch/farm, the State Fair, Brianna's birthday, etc. Also, as the weather cools, we will be able to spend a lot more time out and about. Woohoo! The fun has just begun.