January

Happy Inauguration Day to all! Half an inch of snow and icy roads have given Dagfari and me two extra hours at home this morning, so I can finally catch up on our January doings.
Last week we had a much-anticipated (by me anyway) Bookmarks event-- an appearance by author Geraldine Brooks. As usual, we were all quite involved in the planning and execution of the author talk and accompanying receptions. It all went extremely well--Brooks is a wonderful speaker and charming person--and D got a signed copy of People of the Book to add to his collection (though I warned him off reading it until he's considerably older--definitely not a kid book).
Dagfari, meanwhile, has gotten back into the swing of things, schoolish-wise. He's been moved up to Ballet 2 (from Ballet 4), which is proving a much better match for him. Latin and science class have started up again. The latter is biology this semester, and D is enjoying keeping a nature journal with lots of sketches. He's still very interested in Spanish art, particularly Spanish Baroque. We made a trip last Saturday to the NC Museum of Art, which has a major expansion project underway. D was at first highly disapproving of the new building (did I mention that he dislikes change of any kind?), but after looking it over carefully and reading an interview with the architect, he now grudgingly approves.
And today, well, we'll probably devote the school day to a civics lesson and watch the festivities in D.C., while looking for J & G (presumably quite bundled up!) in the crowd.

Spring '09 classes at SGS

We had an exciting trip to Michigan for Christmas, with lots of snow (also wind, sleet, rain, ice, and fog-- you have to love Grand Rapids weather!). Dagfari had a great time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Lots of presents, cookies, dogs-- the usual holiday fun.


Dagfari entertained himself on the ride home with Peter and the Shadow Thieves on CD (thanks to Grandpa & Grandma Bos) and Prince Caspian on DVD (thanks to Grandma Brink). Now that we're home, he and ProfDad are working on getting Aunt Ann and Uncle Rich's telescope set up.

The new year is here, so it's time to start planning for the spring semester. Dagfari wants to take two ballet classes per week this semester and also start violin lessons. He'll continue with his Latin tutor, homeschool science class (biology this time), and history with ProfDad (continuing with the Renaissance). We're probably going to set up sessions with an English lit/writing tutor too. And one of his student minders will work with him on computers and math. Tutoring seems to work really well for D. Really, the hardest part of homeschooling now is not getting D (and parents) overcommitted.

In his spare time, D is still obsessed with art history. I'm thinking we may need to find a college student mentor for this, since it's really outside my area of expertise. We're hoping to make return trips to the National Gallery and the Met this spring too. Oh, and maybe study some astronomy, if we can master the telescope.

Nutcracker review

Nutcracker weekend was a great success! Dagfari did an amazing job-- his performance was totally spot on each time. I'm not sure where he gets his dancing ability or stage presence. Certainly not from either of his parents. At any rate, it appears that ballet will be a major part of the SGS curriculum for the foreseeable future.

Nutcrackers

The Nutcracker ballet is definitely our theme for this December. Dagfari's ballet school did selections for its fall recital last Saturday (his class did the Russian dance), and we went to see the NCSA production last night. And D is playing the title role of Nutcracker/Prince in a production this coming weekend. This came about because the daughter of a friend is playing Clara in this Nutcracker (which is put on by a dance school in Reynolds Auditorium), and there are no boy students in the school to play her prince. Rehearsal has been pretty intense-- basically ballet every night for a month, with a bit of a break for Thanksgiving. And he's giving three performances this weekend. Makes the whole end-of-semester/holiday season even busier for everyone, but D is having a great time, so it's worth it.
The SGS curriculum this month is mostly just ballet and art history. Sinterklaas gave D the DVD set of the BBC Private Life of Masterpieces series, which is interesting even for the non-art obsessed in our household. And he spends many hours each day practicing his dance steps, which is a bit dangerous what with the Christmas tree in the living room and kittens dashing around all over the place. Michigan relatives can look forward to a private performance over the holidays, I'm sure. Start clearing floor space now!

Catching up on October

OK, so Thanksgiving is almost here, and I haven't even caught up on my October posting. So in a nutshell, our major excitement in October was a visit to the Maryland cousins and D.C. area art museums during ProfDad's fall break. J and G, and their parents, were wonderful hosts as usual, and we had a great time. We also visited the Baltimore Museum of Art and the National Gallery, which was a great thrill for the budding art historian. The homeschooling thing is really paying off-- Dagfari pretty much gave us a guided tour of the museums and filled us in on the history, techniques, and significance of many paintings.

In keeping with the art theme for the month, David went out on Halloween as Vincent VanGogh. This costume was received very well (we seem to have a fairly artistically literate neighborhood) and earned him extra treats from an appreciative art teacher neighbor.

Obamarama!

Lots of excitement in the past month, which I'll need to catch up on soon. But this week SGS is winding up an intensive civics unit! Dagfari had been suffering from election fatigue (who hasn't?) and was less than enthusiastic about political signs in our front yard detracting from his Halloween decor. But the actual election was so exciting that he was quite won over. D was the one following the electoral results on both the NPR and MSNBC websites on Tuesday night, and he now has a much better understanding of the electoral college than I did at any time before November 2000. We all stayed up for the acceptance speech, and we celebrated again today when NC was finally declared officially blue. I like the fact that this is the first presidential election D will really remember.

D is now having a mock election with his stuffed animals (who are a contentious bunch), in which the big issues are national security, regulation of the candy mining industry, and an overhaul of the currency system. If the art history thing doesn't work out, I'm beginning to think D may have a future as a policy wonk.

El Greco to Velazquez

We went to see this exhibit at Duke yesterday. Spanish baroque art, quite impressive. D is reading through the exhibit catalog today. I still have trouble appreciating El Greco-- I always think his people look like they've been painted on silly putty and then stretched-- which probably just proves that I'm an artistic philistine.

But it was a really interesting exhibit in many ways. Paintings were arranged by genre so as to contrast how different artists interpreted the same themes. We highly recommend going, if you're within driving distance of Durham.

Dagfari's recommended background reading: How to Read a Painting: Lessons from the Old Masters, by Patrick De Rynck.

Dagfari's impressions of the exhibit:
"This exhibit not only captured the spirit of the art of the time, it captured everything that happened. One of my favorite paintings was Velazquez's "The Immaculate Conception". Velazquez has captured an air of tranquility in a scene that is full of motion and religious drama. I also liked Eugenio Cajes's " Christ at Calvary", which was a common theme and composition. Compared to similar paintings, Cajes's work has a feeling of loneliness, and the black background gives an air of cold and of night. I am hoping to go back and see it again!"