Animal Farm

My girls, and a couple of their friends, read Animal Farm last week (by George Orwell). We had a book discussion on Friday.

It was fabulous. The girls did a great job recalling detail and describing the actual story. Some even drew parallels to slavery in America and even Obama's name was mentioned (without any prompting, I might add). When I asked them to consider the holocaust and this book... the lightbulb went on and they went bananas. They saw the similarities between characters in the book and Hitler and the Jewish people and the German people and even the SS troops.

It was all there and they "got it". Discussing a book is wonderful ... the sharing of ideas is exhilarating. The give and take and immediate feedback is quite rewarding. I enjoyed it immensely. I think the girls enjoyed it too.

We are going to watch The Crucible on Friday. I wanted to read this "classic" and I am having difficulty finding copies. I own my own tattered copy from high school, but I truly thought it would be in every library.. not so. As it is written in play format... the movie may be an acceptable alternative. I thought this would be interesting as the main characters are girls who accuse others of being witches when they themselves are caught doing what they shouldn't.

The power of words, doing what is right and good even when it isn't easy, taking responsibility for ones actions... all good topics for discussion.

These are the moments when teaching is fun!

Hours reading history in front of the fire while my girls knit and sew... that was our afternoon today and it was lovely.