Hans Heysen, Camille Saint-Saens - Carnival of the animals, John Donne - Temple

Another lovely still life by Hans Heysen this week.  So many bright colors against that dark background.  Do you grow zinnias?  I like how they have so many colors and they stay nice for a long time after you cut them....  Lots of different colors and kinds of fruit here, too.  A bunch of grapes makes a fun painting project.  Colored pencils or pastels would work as well as paint.  Notice how each grape has different colors in it and that wonderful white spot for a reflective highlight.  Good practice at looking for what color a thing really is, not what it looks like....

Continuing this week with Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens, Here is the playlist you can start wherever you left off last week, or listen to your favorites again.  Can your children start to pick out some of the animals by hearing the piece of music?  

I'm finding John Donne's poetry a bit difficult, but thought provoking.  The pieces we're memorizing take on the most meaning as we recite and think them through.  Today's poem is based on the Biblical account of Jesus in the Temple with the teachers of the law when he was 12.  

                        TEMPLE
With His kind mother, who partakes thy woe,
Joseph, turn back ; see where your child doth sit,
Blowing, yea blowing out those sparks of wit,
Which Himself on the doctors did bestow.
The Word but lately could not speak, and lo !
It suddenly speaks wonders ; whence comes it,
That all which was, and all which should be writ,
A shallow seeming child should deeply know ?
His Godhead was not soul to His manhood,
Nor had time mellow'd Him to this ripeness ;
But as for one which hath a long task, 'tis good,
With the sun to begin His business,
He in His age's morning thus began,
By miracles exceeding power of man.