For books this week, I finished The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte within an hour of finishing my scarf. I really enjoyed it and feel inspired to read more works by all three Bronte sisters. To that end, I started reading Wuthering Heights yesterday. Honestly, I am remembering why I put it down in the first few pages when I attempted it as a teenager and never picked it back up until now. I find Emily Bronte's prose to be quite dense and much less accessible than I found Charlotte Bronte to be (at least in Jane Eyer). This time I am determined to persevere and read it however, and as it goes on, I'm finding that I am adjusting to her style and enjoying it. I would say however, at this point both the boring stockinette in my shawl and reading Wuthering Heights are exercising my will and in the end will contribute to strengthening it (I've obviously been ingesting a bit of Steiner recently too). I do expect great rewards in terms of learning and feelings of accomplishment with both endeavors!
I'm also perusing Earthways: Simple Environmental Activities for Young Children which is apparently the only Waldorf book contained in our local library system. I think it has some ideas in it that we might try and I'm looking forward to delving into it a bit more.
W also has some favorite book selections to share this week. He has been loving his first two selections from the My First Little House Books series, Summertime In The Big Woods and County Fair. He is especially enthralled by the County Fair book and the part about the mules. W's daddy used to work with mules so they've been having lots of conversations about mules not being scary and daddy's even making plans to take W to visit the mules now. All of this warms my heart. I grew up heavily influenced by the original Laura Ingalls Wilder books and many of our family vacations when I was a kid revolved around visiting places where the Ingalls family lived. I have such vivid memories of those trips to this day. I hope one day to share a similar experience with W.
W's other selection is Ruth Brown's Ladybug Ladybug. We received our own copy of it in the mail this week. I've written about it before and it is a favorite in our house. This was a book W was heartbroken to return to the library so he's very excited to have his own copy which he wants to read multiple times a day.
I hope you find Wuthering Heights worth it. I really love it and have read it at least 5-6 times. It is hard to stick to at times but I just love all the craziness of the characters!
ReplyDeleteYour scarf is very sweet. I read Wuthering Heights years ago and I liked it once I got into it. I find our local library doesn't really have any Steiner/Waldorf books, although my daughter's school has a parent library where we can borrow Steiner books, which is handy. Jacinta
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind comments. I read more of Wuthering Heights last night and I'm glad I've stuck with it. It's getting really good! Loving the characters now that they are being introduced more.
ReplyDeleteThe system where we used to live didn't have huge amounts, but there were some. I'm really looking forward to getting involved with our local school here in the fall and hoping they have a parent library. Frequently I end up buying Steiner/Waldorf books anyways because I want them as references to look back at all the time, but I'm trying to use the library more instead of buying so many books.
When I was in high school, I went through a Bronte Period. Penguin used to publish a collection of the writing they did as children about their imaginary world. It is pretty fascinating.
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