Unit Study: Dickensian Christmas! and so we finish:

Well, since we are pretty much finished with Christmas break (we'll start back up on Wednesday ....), I thought I would post an update on our Dickensian unit:
1.  books read:  we read four of the five books in our collection ...

• A Christmas Carol; and watched a couple of different versions:  Alistair Sims as Scrooge (excellent as only he can be!), George C. Scott as Scrooge (pretty darn good althought Scott is a bit too healthy), Disney's animated take (with the voice of Jim Carrey and surprisingly good if a bit scary -- too spooky for little ones?).  The writing in this one is marvelous to read-aloud and the story is classic!  We thought the best film version (that is, closest to Dickens' words) would have to be, surprisingly, the Disney version!
• The Chimes; and watched a claymation version (only 28 minutes) that was fabulous!  Actually kept to the story and especially the message of the book.  This is a great story that is often overlooked in Dickens' collections -- well worth reading ... and reading aloud to the kids makes the story come alive for them.
• The Cricket on the Hearth ; we watched an animated version of this done in the 70s that only kept the title and a few characters' names but otherwise was NOTHING like the original story, which was GREAT!  This was a bit rough -- had to plow our way thru the first section ... than Dickens had us and we were hooked!
• The Battle of Life; maybe, since this was our fourth Dickens book and Christmas was waning, the kids (and I) didn't like this as much as the other three.  It's a good story, just a bit yawn-inducing ... obviously Dickens was getting paid by the quantity and not necessarily the quality of his writing on this one.

The kids balked at reading yet another meaningful Dickens novel, The Haunted Man, and since it was just after Christmas, I decided to wait on that one ... maybe spring it on them next year?  We also ate VERY British Christmas delicacies including roasted chesnuts, sherried fruit cake (which I loved but the kids could take or leave), and other delicacies.  We also read "Pickwick's Christmas" (chapter 28 of the Pickwick Papers)  and watched BBC's Pickwick Papers; this is a marvelous version of the book and we really came to love Pickwick and his cohorts.  And no Christmas would be complete without watching the Christmas show from BBC's All Creatures Great and Small (season 2, episode 14)... Sigfried decides to have a real old-fashioned Christmas with holly and mistletoe and all the trimmings and is able to slip in a prank on Tristan; classic!

We hope you enjoyed your Advent and Christmas units ... any suggestions for a theme for next year?
 

Unit Study: Dickens and Weeks 2 and 3

Last week we read the second Christmas novel penned by Dickens:  The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New One In.  This is a beautiful ghost story, with echoes of his A Christmas Carol, with the themes of love and family and charity.  It's a particularly interesting read for those of us who don't see government programs for the poor as the solution -- Dickens would definitely be in our camp.  This is really a good read and the enjoyed it and understood the point!  Dickens' writing is so fun to read aloud.

We also learned more about the history of Christmas, with a particular emphasis on the Victorian/Dickensian celebrations.  We watched Christmas Unwrapped: The History of Christmas , which is an interesting DVD that describes the history of Christmas since pre-Christian days through to today.  This video includes descriptions of the major influences on current practices (especially important for our study:  Prince Albert's bringing the tree from Germany, Christmas Cards in Britain and Dickens' influence on "traditional" celebrations.) Note: this is a very secular look with only a nodding reference to Christ!

Another resource we used was the book, The Man Who Invented Christmas, by Les Standiford. I read the book for background information but then read-aloud the end of Chapter 14 and all of Chapter 15 which describes Dickens' influence on Victorian Christmas from food to decorations and activities.  The book quickly points out that Dickens was anti-organized religion so his books and writings don't include any reference to the theological side of Christmas but rather the spirit of the holidays -- charity and love for all.

The 28th chapter of Dickens' Pickwick Papers gives a wonderful description of the reveling of a wealthy folks over a Christmas weekend.  Pickwick and his friends jump right into the revelries with dancing and eating and drinking Christmas wishes at midnight!

This week we read the third Charles Dickens Christmas novel: The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home.  The Dickens version is NOT to be confused with "the original TV classic" done in 1967 and using the voices of Danny Thomas, Marlo Thomas and Roddy McDowall.  The video (which we borrowed from the library and wasted an hour watching) is also called "Cricket on the Hearth" but has very little to do with the original story.  If you can, get the book!

One thing we've been doing while I read these books to the children is having them working on Christmas crafts:  individual nativity sets (started on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, with our baby Jesus figures blessed at Mass on the 3rd Sunday of Advent -- I'll post pictures of the finished sets), ornaments and Christmas gifts for family and friends.  The crafting element has been a wonderfully fulfilling time for the kids this year -- I think  they're just the right ages to really enjoy the hand-work and their items are beautiful.

Next week we'll be reading The Battle of Life: A Love Story and finish Dickens' Christmas novels during Christmas week by reading The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain: A Fancy for Christmas Time.

Enjoy your last week of Advent!  We sure are having a wonderfully creative and active Advent ...

 

Unit Study: Dickensian Christmas!

So, we've started our Dickensian Christmas unit on the 1st Monday of Advent (11/27/10).  We started out by reading A Christmas Carol ... a classic that would help the kids get used to Dickens' sentence structure and language -- a stave a day meant that we finished the book (novella) in this first week.  Each day, we had copywork from that day's chapter and the kids also drew a picture to accompany the copywork.  I chose the copywork by how each one summarized the chapter:

• I have always thought of Christmas time … as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time … -- Stave I
• Mr. Scrooge it was … His partner lies upon the point of death, I hear; and there he sat alone. Quite alone in the world, I do believe. -- Stave II
• “They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “This boy is ignorance. This girl is want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy…” -- Stave III
• “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.  I will live in the Past, the Present and the Future.  The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.  I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.” -- Stave IV
• He was at home in five minutes.  Nothing could be heartier.  His niece looked just the same… Wonderful party, wonderful games, wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness! -- Stave V
We also watched an excellent A&E Biography on Charles Dickens.  This was a very well-done biography, covering his early life all the way through his "first break" and on to success and then despair and a sad old age.  We watched the dvd on Monday before we even started reading, making sure we would get the era and man set in our minds before beginning the reading.
 
To finish off the week, we watched the latest Disney version of A Christmas Carol -- this is animated (computer graphics) and is the closest I've seen to the actual Dickens' text.  It is quite scary in some of it's elements ... particularly the Ghost of Christmas Future -- but because it's computer graphics (rather than live action), the makers of the film could be much closer to the text.  For instance, this is the first film version that shows the Ghost of Christmas Past as a candle flame that extinguishes itself as it finishes its mission.  Excellent but definitely not for the under 8 set!
 
Next week, we will read the Christmas Party chapter in Pickwick Papers, read The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New One In.  We'll also discuss the aspects of a Victorian-era Christmas (a bit of history there) and why Dickens is considered the "father" of Victorian Christmas celebrations -- a case of being in the right place at the right time! We'll also start making some Victorian-style decorations and possibly a dish or two. 
 
Blessings and hope your first week of Advent ... whatever you're studying ... was as successful and enjoyable as ours!
  

Advent 2010: Stir-up Sunday

One of the great things about doing a unit study is the fun things we get to make and eat!  We always make fruitcake for Christmas (soaked in bourbon ... does it get any better than that?).  But this year, because of our Dickensian Christmas unit, I decided to hunt for a more traditional British Christmas Cake.  I found a lovely one online that steeps in sherry (altho you could use brandy (which makes me ill) or whiskey (which I didn't have)) for a few weeks and when ready to serve is covered in a layer of marzipan (YUM!) and than a fondant casing (we'll see about that!).

Anyway, the tradition is that the First Sunday in Advent is "stir up Sunday" ... meaning that if you started it steeping on the first Sunday by Christmas it would be nice and ripe! 

So here ya go:

 

Make sure that when stirring clockwise that you make a wish for Christmas!

Here's the recipe I used, with slight changes to the original from Delia Smith ...

Traditional Christmas Cake (makes one 8” round or 4 small loaf pans)


10oz. box dried currants
1 cup raisins
1 cup golden raisins
4 oz. container of diced candied orange peel, candied citron, AND candied lemon
1/2 cup cream sherry (+ more for “feeding” over the next few weeks)
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
grated zest 1 orange

The night before you want to bake the cake, combine the raisins, currants and candied fruit and pour the sherry over all. Stir well and leave at least 6 hours ….

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.

Cream the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition. Add the flour, the spices and beat until just combined. Finally, fold in the fruit, the pecans and the zest with a wooden spoon.

For 8” round: Line with parchment paper (I cut out a circle for the bottom by tracing, then cut a strip to wrap around the edges) and pour in the batter. Pat down, making batter as flat as possible. Place another circle of parchment paper with a hole cut in the middle making sure circle is about an inch larger all round; secure paper to pan with yarn.

For small loaves: spray well with Pam. Using a cup measure, scoop 2 cups of batter per loaf (this will fill the pan). Pat down and make sure it’s in there solid. Cut parchment paper to fit top (with about an inch all round to fold down). Cut a diamond in the center of each piece of paper. Fold around filled loaf pans and secure with cotton yarn.

Bake in the oven for 2 hours (loaves) or 4 -4.5 hours (round), or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan, then poke with skewers and pour some sherry over the top. Soak cheesecloth in more sherry, and wrap the cake thoroughly. Store in an airtight container for a week or two, “feeding” every few days with more sherry. The character of the cake will change with aging, making it more and more confection like the longer it ages.

Here's a link to the marzipan recipe and the fondant icing that we'll probably use: 

http://savour-fare.com/2009/12/22/fruitcake-part-ii-making-it-pretty/

Prayers for a holy, healthy and happy Advent 2010!  And have a happy Stir-Up Sunday!

 

The end is near ... a new beginning starts tomorrow!

Today is the last day of the liturgical year.  Which can only mean one thing:

Tomorrow is the FIRST SUNDAY of ADVENT!

We LOVE Advent around here ... lots of work and fun as we prepare our house, our minds and our souls for receiving the Christ Child on Christmas Day.  I always try to do some of our "old" traditions and incorporate some news one.  For instance, this year we won't be using the our Jesse Tree but instead will be (FINALLY) crafting our own Nativity figures while reading Franciscan Christmas by Kathleen M. Carroll -- this book explains the Franciscan and Christian spirituality of each piece of the traditional creche.  Our figures will be simple, primitive and yet, elegant for their simplicity!  We'll return to using our Advent Blocks as that is such a great way to encourage us to think about the saints, doing for others, reading/working together and just generally getting us ready for Christmas.

We've chosen our patron saints for the next year -- this year, the theme is Dominican Saints (there are TONS of these folks) and I've already got the patron-saint holy cards framed and on the family altar:

Dh's patron for the year -- ironic since St. Albert is patron of scientists, philosophers and theology students!

BamBam got St. Dominic

String Bean drew St. Margaret of Hungary (whose feast day is the same as LegoManiac's bday!)

Lego Maniac drew Pius V -- interesting since LM has always thought the whole Battle of Lepanto thing was cool!

I drew St. Rose of Lima -- my high school's patron and she's also patron saint of needleworkers and World Youth Day 2011!

We've also chosen our theme for the next year ... which starts tomorrow:  CHARITY will be the buzz-word around here with scripture verses, magisterial teaching, and other quotes on Charity being learned throughout the year.  "CHARITY" in it's Catholic sense meaning full self-giving because each of us is a child of God, or as defined in the Catechism (1844):


The first quote we'll learn is from St. Albert the Great (which is also on dh's patron saint holy card):

This is the picture we have up in the dining room (right above the altar) so that we can remember it ... memorize it ... own it and use it in our daily lives!

In the schoolroom, we'll be prepping for Christmas by doing a unit based on Dickens' Christmas novels (there were 5!) and learning all about the Victorian era and work toward celebrating a Dickensian Christmas (with, of course, a Catholic slant!).  I'll be posting our Advent unit study as we go ... including recipes, crafts, decorations and gifts that we'll create as we learn how Dickens' view of Christmas permanently changed the way most folks looked on Christmas.  Here's a quote which sums up Dickens' idea of Christmas:

"But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.

Come join us on our journey as we go toward Bethlehem and the morning of the Babe's birth.  May your Advent journey be blessed ... and know that you are in our daily prayers.

Unit Study: For the Birds!

Well, spring has definitely sprung around here with gorgeous blue skies and 72-degree days!  For our first day back after Easter break, we are starting a new cross-curriculum unit on Birds.  Today we started with learning about the consummate bird naturalist ...

John James Audubon (1785-1851)

We started our study by reading two picture-book biographies that are excellent introductions to this amazing man: 

• Jacqueline Davies' The Boy Who Drew Birds is a great overview of Audubon's first interests in birds just after arriving in America from France and how he satisfied his curiousity through research and field work
• Jennifer Armstrong's Audubon: Painter of Birds in the Wild Frontier starts later in Audubon's life when he is already starting his quest to paint all the birds of North America.  The illustrations in this one are amazing (done by Jos. A. Smith, a professor of fine arts at Pratt Institute in NY) as are the end notes that the author and illustrated wrote.

We also pulled out our copy of the Audubon's Birds of America so the kids could see the product of Audubon's talents.  I've got a collection of Audubon's own journals, John James Audubon: Writings and Drawings, coming from Amazon later this week so that we can read about his work in his own words. 

As we develop this unit and see where the trails take us ... we'll post the info here.  I want to end up with a big cross-curriculum unit that will end our formal school-year with a fun and active (and outdoorsy!) project.