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July 25, 2008
Sixteen
Yesterday was our sixteenth anniversary.
There was no Def Leppard show in town, so we had to make do with other arrangements. Luckily, just for last night, Eric Idle was in town performing "Not the Messiah" (an oratorio about the life of Brian) with the National Symphony Orchestra. It was fun - good music, thoroughly irreverent, funny. The soloists were wonderful, and Eric Idle does a good Dylan.
What impressed me most, though, was the venue itself. Wolf Trap is a nice little amphitheater in what is actually a National Park. I think it seats about 7,000 total, including lawn seating. It's pretty (which is too often lacking in amphitheaters), and acoustically very nice. You can bring a picnic with you if you have lawn seating. We had house seats (nice ones!) for this show, but in the future I think we're going to pack up a picnic and head for the lawn.
Wolf Trap offers quite a range of productions, including musicals, opera, and every kind of music. We just missed Mark Knopfler and the Indigo Girls (not together); Jethro Tull is about to play. There's a Beethoven night I might take Aidan to. Next month Les Mis will be there.
I can't afford to live here.
Posted by lynx at 8:24 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
July 23, 2008
We're Here
Well, we're here. The trip was nice, in that it was an easy drive, and no cars died. The move was fairly awful - the truck loaders in Michigan never bothered to show up, and the unloaders in Virginia might as well not have showed up, making the move much more of a do-it-yourself thing than it was meant to be. Verizon took a full 17 days to get our phone and internet connection correct (though they did make sure to bill me promptly).
But we're here. The house is nice. The neighborhood is nice; it's one of those older neighborhoods, where neighbors greet you and kids actually play with each other up and down the street.
I'm guessing that you can grow anything in Virginia. I've got a little garden patch out back, in which tomatoes are growing of their own accord. Impatiens keep popping up throughout the lawn. And there's a huge patch of uncontained spearmint (tended by bees as big as cows). This makes me happy. Anyone who plops mint into their yard is not going to be overly concerned about my freeform gardening methods.
Posted by lynx at 8:59 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
July 4, 2008
Happy Independence Day!
Elisheva has a wonderful post to remind us of what this country meant by independence: The Crimes of the King.
Happy "Hey, Partial Freedom is Really OK Too" Day doesn't have quite the same ring to it.
Posted by lynx at 7:51 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 2, 2008
Lingua Latina/Henle Latin
I thought I'd take this out of the comments and post it where it might be more generally useful.
I've been asked about Lingua Latina and Henle Latin: when to start, what to buy.
For Henle, you need the First Year Latin
Lingua Latina
Now, you'll have to bear with me, as my books are packed and I'm relying on memory.
• The CD will provide you with the audio of the complete text, plus all the exercises in an immediate self-correcting format. I find this to be an essential tool for our studies.
• Colloquia Personarum will provide you with extra reading, keyed to each chapter - not essential, but a good extra.
• Latine Disco has helpful pointers and explanations for each chapter - I find it useful. I don't think it's essential, but it is useful.
• The College Companion will lay out all the grammar for you. You need this.
The one other item I don't have and think would be useful is Latine Doceo
Lingua Latina is difficult to teach if you don't know Latin. With my current knowledge (I would guess that I'm at high school Latin I level) I can teach up to Cap. X, maybe XV, of Lingua Latina (in contrast, I'm comfortable with nearly all of Henle I). You can teach yourself with LL, but it will help if you're very motivated.
Lingua Latina teaches through a reading method - if you had the right teacher, it would be an immersion method. The text of Lingua Latina contains no English at all. You learn vocabulary through context and picture clues. You learn to read and understand Latin very well this way; however if you are not being led by a good teacher, you are going to have to find a way to learn the grammar yourself. That's where the College Companion comes in.
However, since I first started Latin with Henle, which is a direct, grammar-intensive approach, I like to use Henle for grammar. I prefer to go through Henle first, learning as much grammar as I can absorb. Then I turn to Lingua Latina and learn to use that grammar, and to read fluently.
If you learn a language best through reading and inductive grammar, you may find Lingua Latina and the College Companion to be all you need. If you are like me and need more explicit grammar instruction, my advice is to spend some time with Henle, or Wheelock's first. I found Wheelock's to be overwhelming as a beginner; Henle is much more approachable. However, Henle is thoroughly Catholic, so take that into account. With Henle, you will learn how to fight the Gauls, and understand the Mass - each useful, in its own way.
Edited to add: John from Memoria Press commented to remind me about MP's Henle Study Guides. They had completely slipped my mind. We used one with Connor and found it to be very beneficial. I do recommend them, especially if you are beginning Henle in the middle school years.
Posted by lynx at 12:05 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 1, 2008
Move -6 Days: Short Thoughts On Parenting
You know what stinks about being a parent?
Your kids will never, ever - well, not until they are themselves parents, if then - understand just how far you've come in overcoming your own personal issues.
No one who knew me, say, in high school, would ever dream that I would have the patience of ten saints with my children. None of you who knew me then would ever believe the amount of things I can laugh off, blow off, and let go. My kids have no idea how good they have it. Is that fair? Of course it's not fair.
One day, when they open up the dryer to find an empty bottle of India ink and an entire load of now polka-dotted clothes, they should be so lucky to have the strength to toss the clothes in the trash and go on with life, without even yelling a tiny bit.
On a related note, I am so glad I don't have to parent without technology. I'm so glad I don't have to parent without an iPod. I'm so glad I can say, "Look, kids, Mommy will be fine ... just let me listen to my headphones for 15 minutes, very loud;" they disappear, I find something with really impressive guitars, and what do you know? Life is better.
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