Today's Rabbit Hole:

(This is our living room from about 1 to about 2 today. Speaking parts are not evenly divided…everyone is talking over each other all the time…questions are all theirs..)

History time: Constantine….text mentions Lateran…remember St. John Lateran?

….yeah..and remember the beggar who got thrown out while we were there because he was being so aggressive?

..oh, yes, I remember…okay…Constantine divided his empire among his sons….

….how? How was it divided?…Don’t know…let’s look at a map….

Boy, Greenland is big -it’s as big as Africa…

….well, no it’s not.  Let’s learn why….

(several minutes spent on the Mercator projection)…

…..globe is brought up from downstairs.  Globe falls apart. Screwdriver is sought.  ”Righty tighty/lefty loosy” is discussed…

……..do you know what it means to say “clockwise?”  No?  (Explained)…

………..oh…so when coach tells us…(go out to front porch to get basketball)..to do it clockwise, this is what he means (rotating basketball around self…clockwise)…

……….basketball returned to front porch….globe is now in hands of 2nd grader who has rejected Greenland in favor, of course, of Mexico…..

…………..What are the biggest countries in area? (his question)  Answer is researched for several minutes.  Differences between various lists are noted.  Smallest country (Vatican City) is noted.  We’ve been there is noted.

……..Russia is in both Europe and Asia….how? Okay, let’s find out…let’s find other countries that are in two continents….(which brings us back to Constantinople for a moment)

…what is it with this Australasia/Oceana business? When did these become continents (that’s me wondering)..

………how cold does it get in the North Pole? (research.  Find differences between temps in N & S Pole. Discuss why. Higher altitude and less sea water in the south = lower temps. In case you were wondering.)

…..how many people live in Greenland anyway?  How many in Iceland?  (we look it up)

…..What language do they speak in Iceland?

………..answer is found.  Photographs of Iceland are marveled at.  Fun fact: Icelandic Patronymic surnames. Didn’t know that.   I think about the time I was in the checkout line at Publix in Florida behind a guy visiting from Iceland.  He said that Icelanders are only allowed to leave the country once every seven years or something.  I swear I wasn’t hallucinating, but I’ve never been able to determine whether that’s even remotely true…So I don’t mention it.

….Back to Constantine.  Chi-Rho is reviewed, as is “messiah” and anointed one.

………Next section in book is on St. Jerome.  6th grader narrates important information back to me while I trace Jerome’s life travels on a map – pretty impressive.  We look at representations of St. Jerome in this book.

……..2nd grader wanders away and starts drawing epic Aztec (I think) picture on new-extra-large sized drawing paper.  (He finishes it later.  It is called, “The Ritual of the Jaguar”)

……..I contemplate starting The Tempest, but decide science would be easier on my brain.  Two hours and two science experiments (one failed) and with them deep into trying to make a communications system  of some sort, I am not sure.

..All of this is after lunch…after the math, the grammar..the religion.

Like I said:  Rabbit-Hole Schooling is what I’m going to call it….

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