Ruben Writes:
This week we continued to have a great time around Fletching, going on walks, playing with friends and Cola, as well as doing school work.
I have been working very hard at math and I have just gotten into Fractions (my dad’s preferred type of math).
The other day we went on my favorite walk so far in the South Downs. The walk was around a hilltop called Black Cap. Mia and I played a fun Hobbit game where we snuck up on mom and dad and pretended to be Elves.Black cap’s history is very cool. There are some burial mounds that are very sacred dating back to the Bronze Age and the time of the Saxons. An army followed this route in 1264 to battle with King Henry III’ s men in the battle of Lewes. It is cool to think that you are seeing the same views as people from that period. Mia, Dad and I found loads of flint. Dad and I created an axe out of a lumpy piece. Flint has an amazing number of uses. I have seen houses in this area made of flint, used in a similar way to brick. People in ancient times used it for its sharp cutting edges such as axes and chisels. Dad saw a picture on the internet that compared a flint to a razor blade and it was uncanny how much sharper the flint is. Struck against steel flint can create sparks for lighting fires. It is an amazing rock and there is so much of it around this area but it is still unknown exactly how it is formed. Flint was very valuable and it was mined and shipped as far away as the eastern Mediterranean.
We went to church to hear some Epiphany Music and readings, it was very beautiful. Also part of the program that night was “The Ringing of the Bells” the purpose was to ring out the evil and to ring in the good for the New Year as in Lord Tennyson’s poem.
In Memoriam
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out thy mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
-Lord Alfred Tennyson
A Harpist accompanied the group of voices for this concert. The Harp that was played was a very imposing instrument. The seven-pedaled monster was huge but had such a elegant sound. The harpist (or “Harpie”, as dad says) sits down and tilts it towards oneself and strums the forty-seven strings!
We watched Schindler’s List res recently. It is interesting that a quote from the Jewish Talmud "Whoever saves one life saves the world entire." is the same as a quote mentioned by my home school teacher from her Muslim tradition. “If you kill one person it is like you have killed all of humankind and if you save one person it is as though you have saved all of humankind”. At the end of the movie: Schindler’s List, Scindler was given a ring with that quote engraved into it.
We went to a really cool bookstore in Haywards Heath and I got to meet an Author/Illustrator for the book: Curd The Lion. It looked like a really cool book with all the weird creatures based on places in and around Sussex!
Hope you are enjoying your New Year so far in 2012!
Ruben
Mia writes:
Happy New Year!
We went to a really fun New Year’s party where there were a lot of fun games played. It was my first time staying up until midnight and joining in the count down. My favorite game was an old traditional English flour game. It is a game of skill (and a bit of luck) On a large plate is a large cake made of just flour with a chocolate malteser on top. Using a knife, players take it in turn to remove sections of flour away from around the chocolate ball. The person who causes the chocolate to fall into the flour has to pick it out using their mouth only! In the end the person who got the chocolate has a flour face.
We have been going on many beautiful walks with the dog that we are taking care of. Cissbury Ring, is an old iron age rampart where a100 pound gun was fired from during the second world war. The gun was fires all the way out to sea at enemy ships more then 300 miles a way! There were stone age flint mines dating back 5-6,000 years. Flint was used to make tools and it is believed that it was exported as far as the Eastern Mediterranean. We went on another National Trust Park walk called Black Cap on the South Downs. Armies followed this route in 1264 to battle with king Henry III. There were burial mounds also here, dating back to the bronze age and Saxon period. It reminded me very much of my book the Hobbit which I am now done reading. I am now reading The Lord of the Rings. Ruben and I played a game where I was Bilbo Baggins and he was an Ogre and we were following the ogres who were mom and dad.
I have been doing lots of math lately and have been mastering long division and practicing my Multiplication.
Mia
