"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is difficult to read a classic without pre-conceived notions about what my reaction to the book "should" be. However, I have to admit, I didn't like this book at first. I did think some of the prose was witty and beautiful, and as proof of that, there were several passages that were so well-crafted that I would read them out loud to the girls. The great description of Tom Buchanan comes to mind here. But I was frustrated because some of the characters' lines and parts of the plot didn't make sense to me. It started growing on me around the time Gatsby arrives on the scene and then I just had to read it all the way through. I couldn't decide whether I was pulling for Gatsby or not; at one point, he was sympathetic and at others, he was shallow and greedy. I suppose that's one of the things that makes F. Scott Fitzgerald so talented. Great depth of character.

I decided when I was finished that this was one of the books that improves on a second reading and I immediately started re-reading parts I liked, or parts that weren't clear to me at first. I'm giving it 4 stars for now, but I reserve my right to update my rating in the future. :-)

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Happy Birthday, Mom!

As you all probably know, Mom is always making us birthday posts on our birthdays, so this is Rachel making one for Mom! :-)

Happy birthday, Mom! Thanks for all you do for us every day! We love you so much!!

(Sorry, I don’t know how to make the pictures any bigger!)

The Mystery of the Unknown Artist

I was transferring the pictures from my camera to the laptop this morning when I noticed there were over 400 pictures.  Seemed like a lot of pictures, because I had just cleaned off the memory card a couple of days ago.  When I was browsing through the pictures, I came across a series of photos (125, to be exact) of a drawing and immediately thought it would make an interesting “movie.”  So, I dragged them all into MS Movie Maker and started playing it, at that point not sure what the final picture was, or who the artist was.  You’ll have to watch to the very end to find out (like I did!).

Young Hoosiers Piano Competition 2012

Back in the Spring, Rachel was on the fence about whether to compete in this year’s Young Hoosier’s Piano Competition.  Last year was her first year and she did very well, making it to the Finals, in spite of not knowing of the competition until about a month before the Preliminaries.  But it is a pretty big time commitment because although the preliminaries are in June, the finals are not until August.  So, that’s the majority of the summer wrapped up in practice and anticipation. 

During that first experience with the competition, we learned that all the finalists are invited to play a 30-minute public performance for the fairgoers.  Rachel realized that was her favorite part of the entire experience, but she still wasn’t sure if that was reason enough to enter the competition. We agreed to ask her instructor’s opinion on the matter, and she encouraged Rachel to enter, as long as the goal was not to win, but rather to get the piece polished enough to be competition-ready. So, Rachel decided to enter the competition, admitting that the major deciding factor for her was the lure of the 30-minute public performance.  :-)  The song she played was Muzio Clementi’s “Sonata, Opus 47, No. 2 in B Flat Major,” which was one of the first songs Ms. Kim had her learn when she started lessons last Fall.  When Rachel first heard a recording a someone playing the song, she said “I’m suppose to learn how to play that?!”  :-)

The public performance was scheduled for 12:00 noon on Saturday, August 11th and the competition time was at 4:08 that afternoon.  After a harrowing morning, getting everyone ready and out the door by 10:30, realizing on the way down that our camera’s memory card was left at home in the laptop, fighting State Fair traffic on a beautiful Saturday morning, hiking from the van to the Ellison Home & Family Arts building (probably a 15-minute walk at a pretty good pace!), we walked in to the building at 12:00 on the dot.  Despite all the rushing, Rachel was able to compose herself and put together a very nice public performance.  Mom and Dad got there about 2 minutes after we did.  (Our friends from church got there about 2 minutes after she finished playing!)  

Our friend asked if I made the name placard.  I explained to her that the company that sponsors the competition makes all the placards.  And besides, if I had made it, the font would have been about 500 point instead of 20.  :-D

Afterwards, we went up to the 3rd floor where the practice rooms are so Rachel could prepare a little bit more for the competition.

From there, we grabbed a bite to eat, then hit the cattle and saddlehorse barns until it was closer to show time.  Per Rachel’s wishes, the majority of us waited outside the performance room until she was done competing (good thing:  I could hear Trent between performances – the room was extremely quiet!.). I tiptoed in right before she played so I could record the performance with Mick’s phone. 

I took this picture right before she began playing:

and this one while she was waiting for the judges to finish scoring her…

She did a wonderful job!  And the judges agreed:  she placed 2nd!  We are so very proud of her and are glad all her hard work paid off!

  

“Mansfield Park” by Jane Austen

Back at the very beginning of our homeschooling journey, I was talking to an mom who was further down the homeschooling road than me.  At the time, Rachel was 6, Courtney was 4, Erica was 2 and Sarah was an infant.  This friend had 2 daughters who were 15 and 11 at the time.  She was talking about the demands of homeschooling and how tiring it can be and how, at the end of a recent grueling school day, her daughters wanted her to read a book to them. She was too tired, so they ended up reading the book to each other.  Now this part wasn’t the point of her story, but I had to stop her to make sure I heard her correctly. Your kids actually read out loud to each other?  I grew up in a big, close-knit family and we read a lot. But we never read to each other. Oh sure, maybe a funny or amazing line in a really good book, but not entire chapters or books out loud to each other. This was a revolutionary and pleasant thought to me, but at the time it seemed light-years ahead from where we were at that point. 

And suddenly, I blinked, and ten years had passed. And here are Courtney and Erica in their room last evening, reading this great classic out loud to each other.  Well, Erica is doing the reading and Courtney is working on some cross-stitching project.  (We have the book, but for some strange reason, they’re printing it off chapter-by-chapter from austen.com and reading from that.  :-) 

“The Montagues and the Capulets” by Prokofiev

When I started the Worley Family Library series of posts, I explained how I wanted many of my blog entries to be “slice of life” type entries.  It occurred to me last night while Rachel was playing the piano, that just like chronicling the books being read, I could chronicle the songs being played on the piano.
The song Rachel is playing here is one that we were introduced to during ballet lessons.  Ms. Hume uses the beginning and ending parts for the grande batte mente exercises and the middle waltz part for the   brushing waltz and travelling waltz exercises.  We have always liked the song, and came across it one day on YouTube, so that’s how we finally found out the name of it!  Who would’ve thought it was written by Prokofiev, who also wrote “Peter and the Wolf”? So this is one of the songs Rachel is learning just for fun. We all enjoy hearing her practice it and someone is guaranteed to start doing ballet as soon as the first few notes are played.  :-)

Just in case ...

after the last 2 posts, you might be thinking that we are hopelessly stuck in the early 19th century, we ended Saturday's ANOJA by watching the American swimmer Michael Phelps end his swimming career with a gold medal performance, bringing his total Olympic medals to 22 (18 gold)!!!