Sunday

This morning I opened the curtains to a Novemberish fog, but having their friends over today has kept the children busy for hours and hours with practically no input from me. So, I've had time to bake, plant young perennials, clean the bathroom (properly) and write out lesson plans for the week and I still don't feel hurried in the least. Very different from usual!
A slow, relaxed weekend after what was a speedy quick week. On Friday morning even the children were saying "Is it really Friday already, last Friday seems like yesterday?"
On Saturday morning we went to the library, amongst the many books with titles such as "Silly Billy's Flying Underpants" I saw one called "Oranges in No Man's Land", by Elizabeth Laird. The story is set during the civil war in Beirut and is about a girl who ventures across the no mans land to get medicine for her grandmother. It is a very short, simply written story, only 115 pages and the plot goes little further than setting up for and describing the incident mentioned above. But within that it does contain a lot of detail about the child character's experience and lack of understanding about the war. I did find it a little odd that the child's name was Ayesha, and yet she was described as a Shia from the south of Lebanon. But maybe this was away of making an anti-sectarian point, as this was a strong theme in the book. I think I will read it to the boys, its an easy read, but they probably wouldn't read it by themselves because of the central character being a girl. They will dismiss books very superficially, pretend they don't like them, but then I'll hear them discussing the book, comparing the characters and so on. In this way I know they do actually enjoy these things! When we have tried books that really were boring for them we've stopped reading after trying a few chapters!
Anyway, this story will present lots of opportunities for discussion, and a chance for some general knowledge history. It will have to wait for a while in the queue of books waiting to be read however....