Classical Education in Action!

Happy day! This leadership education stuff is working. Today while the kids and I were wrapping Randy's birthday present, Colin started making an obnoxious noise. Robyn ran away screaming, "Siren!" When he quit and she came back, I casually mentioned that in Homer's "The Odyssey," a Siren is an enchantress that sings a beautiful song and anyone who hears it gets trapped and dies.
I also said that it was in one of the Great Books. A little while later, Colin brought me the Great Book of Homer and asked me to find it. I was surprised that he bothered to find the book and I was even more surprised when I was able to find a little bit about the Sirens in the book. We read a small part that Odysseus was told to put melted wax in the ears of his men so they wouldn't hear their song and if he wanted to hear it, he would need to tie himself to the mast tightly so he couldn't get trapped by their song. Odysseus was warned that if a man became enchanted, he wouldn't be able to return to greet his wife or children. Colin wanted to know how a guy could get away after he had been enchanted, but they can't get away once they are trapped. I think their ships get wrecked on the rocks near the island and they drown, but some people think that the Sirens are cannibals and they eat the men. We then talked about how sin and following Satan could be like listening to the Sirens - once you hear it/try it/ see it... you could get trapped in it and it could keep you from your family just like the Sirens would trap the seamen so they couldn't return to their wives and children.
It was an interesting conversation. The Sirens can be likened to many things so I am sure that the discussion will continue. Too bad I haven't read the Odyssey since AP English and I didn't learn quite as much as I should have back then. Anyway, discussing it with my son motivated me to keep studying the classics.

The Great Books are a 60 volume collection of the Great Books of the Western World from Encyclopedia Britannica. Randy and I got them off Ebay last fall and have been working on studying them since. It is supposed to take ten years to get through them all, but at the rate I am going it may take 30 or more. Randy is reading Plato and I am working on Shakespeare.

Randy has also been working on learning about salt water aquariums, teaching himself the guitar, and learning more JAVA with the websites he's created and the Lego Mindstorms robot. He is starting a 3 credit class at BSU next week. Somehow he still finds time to work a 40+ hour week, keep up on the honey do list, run races, and spend time with his lovely wife and children. He's amazing!! I have been reading for my 5 Pillar group (a book club of sorts that studies the Classics and leadership education). We have read Animal Farm, Pride and Prejudice, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and The One Minute Teacher since I started attending in September. We have both been trying to get the lessons read for Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood before church each week so we get more out of the lessons. All this study sure keeps us busy, but all our studying makes for great conversations at our house. I love it.

As a family we have been reading the Book of Mormon before we start the morning Children's Miracle Music (I still LOVE these CDs!), a bible story after the night CD and then listening to classics before bed (either book on CD from the library or me reading). We have read Little House in the Big Wood, The Best Christmas Pagent Ever, and we will finish Little House on the Prarie tonight. We haven't decided what to read next, maybe another Little House book. The discussion that results from our reading is really cool. I love the questions that the kids ask. I especially love the Little House books because they cover soooo much - geography, history, homemaking skills, manners..... When the kids are not using their manners, I can say "Children are to be seen and not heard" or "no singing at table" and it's a fun gentle reminder because of what we've read and discussed. I don't really expect my children to follow all the rules that Mary and Laura had to follow - they are welcome to talk and ask questions, but they are not welcome to be annoying or rude. The Best Christmas Pagent Ever was great to learn the Christmas story in a very memorable way. We read the book and then watched the movie and talked about which was better. We added a few "Sha zams" to Christmas story in Luke 2 when we read it on Christmas Eve. The scripture study has been a real blessing in the discussion that results as well. We recently studied the Sermon on the Mount and talk about the wise man and the foolish man. (Even Grace knows the Wise man and the Foolish man song.) Now when something comes up all I have to say is, "Where are you building your house?" It really helps me to not get upset and the kids (especially Colin) to not get defensive. That's the beauty of classics! I am finally getting the "liken" part of scripture study as well as anything else we learn.

I have to run, I am using all my study time to blog!