Today was cold and grey and I loved it. It was just the sort of day to put on
My Room in the Trees and sit at the kitchen table cutting up apples for applesauce.
Charlotte came home from school talking about Columbus Day. I'll take a break from Halloween books to share this beautiful one by the D'Aulaires. We read part of it at naptime.
Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire 1955
It's nice to learn history this way, told in a story with beautiful pictures that capture the spirit of adventure and determination that Columbus had. Madeleine hates Christopher Columbus (because he was cruel to the natives and began sending them back to Europe as slaves.) I think he was deeply religious but had plenty of flaws and failings. And while Leif Ericson may have beat him to North America, there's no doubt that his voyages changed the world.
There once was a boy
who loved the salty sea.
He would be a seaman when he grew up.
He would not be a weaver like his father,
who sat all day
in a dark, little shop
weaving yarn into cloth.
A ship would be his shuttle,
the waves his warp,
the wide bounding sea his loom.
