November

It's been a busy month here at SGS. A few of the highlights:

• Dagfari finished his drama class with a performance of a very short play, written by the kids in the class, and very loosely based on Fiddler on the Roof. The community theater group which sponsored the class was doing FotR this fall, so we got tickets to the real performance too. A decent performance, with some good singing talent... and a Cossack sheriff played by what looked and sounded like Barney Fife's first cousin :). D is now taking another acting class, this one in W-S, with a Commedia dell'Arte theme. It seems to involve a lot of improv and boys being silly, so of course he's having a good time.
  
• D's art class has also finished up for the semester. He had a really good instructor and has been inspired to do a lot of drawing and painting recently. His current interest is the Surrealist movement, especially Dali and Rene Magritte.
  
• We're winding up our study of Beowulf with a foray into Monster Theory. D is greatly enjoying this, as you can imagine. We won't bother seeing the new Beowulf movie, however, since my favorite Anglo-Saxon expert says it's not very good. Next up in literary studies: Macbeth, King James, and witchcraft in 17th century Britain.
  
• History studies have been eclectic this month. We've done some research on prehistoric humans (I guess this is technically anthropology), and have also dabbled in study of the Crusades. Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame, has a good series out on video.
  
• I still want D to start piano lessons soon, but the piano repair person stopped answering my emails after I told her the make (Remington) and condition of our piano. Apparently the Remington is kind of the Yugo of pianos. So I guess we got what we paid for there (it was free). From a musician's standpoint, we should probably chop it up for firewood. But since it's here and it sort of works, we'll use it for beginner lessons anyway.
  
• Math is still done infrequently and under protest, but D has decided that his new pre-algebra workbook is much better than the multiplication/long division he had been doing.
  
• Dagfari's current reading list:
• Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann. I'm reading this aloud as our bedtime book. It's about a flock of intelligent sheep who try to solve the mystery of who killed their shepherd. Very entertaining, not really a kids' book per se.
• Valley of Secrets by Charmian Hussey. I haven't read this one, but D says its good. The cover says it's an "ecological adventure fantasy".
• Macbeth by You-Know-Who (no, not Voldemort!). A re-read, but always good. The American Shakespeare Theatre is doing a production this winter.
  
• Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. D just started this. He says it's good, although it's got the ubiquitous Dead Mother theme. This doesn't bother D at all, though. Indeed, he claims that killing off, or at least dispensing with, the main character's mother is necessary for a good kids' book. Agree or disagree?
• Cats in Ancient Egypt by someone whose name I can't remember. This is research for a proposed documentary on Cats In History. If this project comes to fruition, we'll at least have plenty of actors.
  

Dagfari's Book Reviews: Mattimeo

Mattimeo
By Brian Jacques

Mattimeo is at first a naughty young mouse who is always getting into trouble. Even though his father Matthias, who learned what it is to be a warrior through battling Cluny, a terrible rat who tried to conquer Redwall Abbey, tries to pass his knowledge on to Mattimeo, the spoiled little rascal won’t listen. And so he has to learn the wisdom of a warrior the hard way, through slavery and hardship.
All through his perilous journey, Mattimeo’s friends look up to him as their leader, and even though he struggles to live up to their expectations, he succeeds in standing up to Slagar, their captor. Mattimeo even gives his companions hope while they are imprisoned in Malkariss, a place which is dreaded by all creatures, even the rats of Slagar’s troop.
After his terrible journey is done, Mattimeo finally is able to take up the role of protector of Redwall Abbey, like his father before him.
I enjoyed this heroic tale because of its wonderful characters. Slagar makes a very interesting villain, because he is much more intelligent than your usual villain, and he has a secret identity as one of the more minor characters from Redwall.

Halloween

We all had a good Halloween. The weather was perfect, as it usually is this time of year in NC. Dagfari finally decided to be a Redwall vole (see photo). This caused some confusion among our neighbors during trick-or-treating, which I think was his intention.

D also decorated the yard extensively. See here for more pics. Now that Halloween is over, he wants to build a model of the Mayflower to put in the front yard for Thanksgiving. I think this is somewhat beyond my crafting skill level. We may have to make to with falling leaves in the yard, until Christmas season rolls around.