Adventures of The Haven School for Boys: Where to Begin?

You may find yourself confused about the St. Patrick's Day hats. We chose to ring in the New Year with Dublin, who said hello to 2012 at 4:00 p.m. our time. Now THAT'S a New Year's celebration hour worth toasting.

Rocket Balloons--many of which now decorate the neighbors' trees

A new year! Where to begin? One foot in front of the other, I suppose. And so we did just that. Left, and then right. And it wasn't nearly as painful as I anticipated! While we savored every minute of vacation, and saturated our days with the celebration of Advent and the blessing of family, most of these minutes were spent outside our usual routine. As such, it was a blessing to fall back into the predictable, safe rhythm of the work week. I am sure you have all heard that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but you must also know that all play and no work makes Jack a mere toy. So, we begin.

Our "Five in a Row" read this week was Grandfather's Journey, a story about a young man who, throughout his adult life, finds himself pulled between the land of his birth (Japan), and the land he comes to love (America). His grandson, Allen Say, makes his own journey to America as he comes into adulthood and finds himself troubled with the same dilemma of the heart..."The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other." We explored Japanese culture a bit through the folding of origami and the reading of The Paper Crane. It was a saving grace that I found instructions for a boat that only required three folds. We "waterproofed" our boats by rimming the bottoms with crayon. They did indeed float, before all meeting their tragic ends. Alas--there is a reason why boats are not made of paper.

We are fully immersed in medieval times around here, as I am reading aloud a Newberry Title published in 1949, entitled A Door in the Wall. A young boy who aspires to be a knight like his father, falls ill with what I deduce to be polio, and finds himself tragically crippled--without hope of pursuing his training. His father is fighting a war, and his mother waits upon the queen, so he is nursed back to health by a generous-hearted monk in a nearby parish. This is as far as we have come, and James is reading aloud from his own expository reader about, what else, KNIGHTS! During our daily breaks, it is not uncommon to find him in the ensemble below, or outside jousting with the dog.

I must really be out of the swing of this blogging business, because I haven been at this entry for over an hour now. My bed beckons, as today we hiked a beautiful trail within our local Indian Canyons. Remind me to post some pictures. Until then, here are a few others from last week. Here's to hoping that you are appreciating your return to "the grind" as much as we have. It is a blessing to have a sense of purpose, yes?