(upbeat music) - Welcome friends to this episode of the "Everyday Educator" podcast. I'm your host, Lisa Bailey, and I'm excited to spend some time with you today as we encourage one another, learn together, and ponder the delights and challenges that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime. Whether you're just considering this homeschooling possibility or deep into the daily delight of family learning, I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us.

But don't forget, although this online community is awesome, you'll find even closer support in a local CC community. So go to classicalconversations.com and find a community near you today. Well, listeners, welcome back to the second week of our Summer Book Club series. I hope that after last week's readings, that you enjoyed some read aloud time with your family and found a whole new world of conversation opening up to you after you listened to some of the stories from the Kings of Rome.

Today, I'm gonna be reading to you some selections for another one of our Copper Lodge Library Cycle 1 selections, Exploring Insects with Uncle Paul. Now, I know that some of you might not really want to explore insects, but we're gonna see if we can't find something that's bigger than bugs about reading together as a family.

Let's talk for just a second. Why read together in the summertime? I have to confess that to me, that's like saying, "Why breathe in the summertime?" Reading together is just something that my girls and I, and my girls and my husband and I just naturally did. I think because my husband and I were big readers, we just enjoyed reading with our girls from the time they were very little all the way up through their adulthood.

We still, when our girls come home with their husbands, we still sometimes we'll sit around and read something together as a family. Why do we do that? Obviously not because they can't read for themselves. We read together as a family to build rapport. It is really a lot of fun when we read something together because we all get something different out of it.

And some of us like the selection and some of us don't, and we can all share our reasons why and why not. So we build, we read together to build rapport. I remember reading with my children when they were young and even when they were older because it was really important to me to build their imagination muscles.

When I was a little girl, I think that I lived in my head a lot. I loved to play outside with my friends and I loved to play doll house and I loved to play Barbies and I loved to make up stories with my friends and we would run around the yard, run around the neighborhood being detectives or pioneers or pirates.

I wanted my girls to have a strong imagination and we discovered early on that reading together really built their imagination muscles. Sometimes they would want to stop in the middle of the story and say, but what would that look like? Or how could we do that? And many afternoons when I turned them out of the house to play after our school day was over, I could look out in the backyard and discover that they were playing whatever story we had read earlier in the day.

And I knew then that it worked, that their imagination muscles were getting stronger. We read together as a family to go places together that maybe we couldn't go in real life. We explored lands across the world through the books and stories and articles that we read together. That's what I did when I was a little girl.

I learned about Persia when I read stories of princesses and about canals when I read stories that were set in Venice. And I learned about different times and different customs. And so when we read together as a family, we had that travel experience together. One of the reasons, one of the best reasons for reading together in the summer is that it gives us a reason to slow down and rest.

There's so much that our kids want to do in the summertime. My kids always wanted to go to the pool or they wanted to go play with a friend or they wanted to go play in the creek or they wanted to go play tennis or they wanted to go to the movie or they wanted to go to the hobby store or get some craft, go, go, go, do, do, do.

Sometimes it's really good for us to rest, rest, rest. And reading is a good way to get your children to take a break and to sit down together in the shade of a tree or in your air conditioned home or snuggled up under a blanket on a rainy day.

It just gives you a reason to slow down together. Reading together in the summer is really important. You can introduce new ideas when you and your children have a little extra time for those ideas to marinate. I mean, think about marinate, I know it's a cooking word, but what's the point of marinating a piece of meat?

Well, you soften the piece of meat. You can tell what kind of cuts of meat I'm used to buying. Okay, so marinating will soften and tenderize that piece of meat. Marinating can add notes of different flavors to that piece of meat. Ideas need to marinate. Sometimes they need to soften up a little bit so that we can chew on them a little more readily.

Sometimes we just kind of need them in the back of our mind so that our subconscious works on them a little bit, or we think about them a little bit at a time until we come to the realization of what we really think or feel about that idea. Sometimes we do that together so that we can get an idea from one another of different flavors that might influence how easily we can assimilate that idea into our thinking.

One good reason to read aloud with your children this summer is to give some structure to your freedom. You know, at the beginning of the summer, we are all, all about being free. We don't have a schedule. Maybe at your house, you have one or two things you still do together or still do at a certain time, but by and large, for most of us, the summer is free from a schedule.

But you know what I always discovered when my kids were young and there was no schedule for a protracted amount of time? Boredom set in really quickly. Bored kids sometimes became contentious kids. Sometimes they became overwhelmed. Sometimes they became overstimulated because their desire was to do, do, do and go, go, go, and that's not sustainable over the long haul.

So reading aloud together as a family will give some structure to our freedom and bored kids and bored or overwhelmed or overstimulated parents need that too. Here's what I would say to you about reading as a family. If you've never tried it before, try it. You might just like it.

My suggestion for you this week, I think I said already is to check out our Copper Lodge Library book, "Exploring Insects with Uncle Paul." Now this is the cycle one resource and you know, in the fall, we will, all of us everywhere, be entering into cycle one and this would be a great read aloud, a morning read aloud, maybe a before nap time or rest time read aloud that would go along with a lot of the cycle one memory work that you'll encounter this year.

Why? Now, those of you out there who are saying, "Thank you very much, I do not like bugs. "I don't want insects. "I don't think my children are going to enjoy any of that." Uncle Paul is not necessarily a story. So it's not like the echoes, fairy tales, fables and poems.

The Uncle Paul book is, it's a group of children who interact with their Uncle Paul, but it's about real things, the real world, things that you and your children could go out and find in God's beautiful world as well. So why Uncle Paul, Exploring Insects with Uncle Paul? Because it teaches us to marvel at the world and God's creation is so worthy of wonder.

This book will really reacquaint you with how marvelous the world is and how many pieces there are that you don't consider very often. Why read Uncle Paul, Insects? You might meet creatures in the pages of this book that you otherwise wouldn't. Maybe some of these insects don't live near you, or maybe you've never taken the trouble to look under things and find some of these insects.

Another good reason to pick up Exploring Insects is that your children who love made-up stories and travel stories and fairy tales actually like to hear about real things too. You will be able to collect specimens from the real world because you'll know what creatures are out there that you could look for.

If you pick up the Uncle Paul series, you will also be able to start your real world book collection, collecting books about the natural world as well as literature books. And listen, reading these stories will absolutely encourage you and your children to go outside and look at the world in a new way.

I have two selections from Exploring Insects with Uncle Paul that I would love to read with you today. So call your kids or pause the podcast at this spot and then ask your kids to come and listen with you if you'd like to. You could even use this as a read-aloud for them.

I am going to read two selections, one chapter entitled "Spiders," and then the next story, which is called "The Apira's Bridge." The Apira's Bridge, okay? So here we go. And then after I read, I'm gonna give you a couple of tips, a few pointers for encouraging conversation and activity after you read, okay?

Here goes. Exploring Insects with Uncle Paul, "Spiders." One morning, Mother Ambrosine was chopping herbs and cooked apples for a brood of little chickens hatched not long before. A large gray spider, letting itself slide the length of its thread, descended from the ceiling to the good woman's shoulders. At sight of the creature with long, velvety legs, Mother Ambrosine could not suppress a cry of fear and shaking her shoulder made the insect fall and crushed it under her foot.

"Spider in the morning stands for morning," she said to herself. At this instant, Uncle Paul and Claire entered. "No, sir, it is not right," said Mother Ambrosine, "that we poor mortals should have so much useless trouble. 12 little chickens are hatched out for us bright as gold. And just as I am preparing them something to eat, a villainous spider falls on my shoulder." And Mother Ambrosine pointed with her finger at the crushed insect with its legs still trembling.

"I do not see that those little chickens have anything to fear from the spider," remarked Uncle Paul. "Oh, nothing, sir, the horrid creature is dead. But you know the proverb, spider in the morning, mourning. Spider at night, delight. Everybody knows that a spider seen in the morning is a sign of bad luck.

Our little chickens are in danger. The cats will claw them. You'll see, sir, you'll see." Tears of emotion came to Mother Ambrosine's eyes. "Put the little chickens in a safe place. Watch the cats and I'll answer for the rest. The proverb of the spider is only a foolish prejudice," said Uncle Paul.

Mother Ambrosine did not utter another word. She knew that Maitre Paul found a reason for everything and on occasion was capable of pronouncing a eulogy on the spider. Claire, who saw this eulogy coming, ventured a question. "I know in your eyes, all animals, however hideous they may be, have excellent excuses to plead.

All merit consideration, all play a part ordained by providence, all are interesting to observe and to study. You are the advocate of the good God's creatures. You would plead for the toad, but permit your niece to see they're only an impulse of your kind heart and not the real truth.

What could you say in praise of the spider? Horrid beast, which is poisonous and disfigures the ceiling with its webs. What could I say? Much, my dear child, much. In the meantime, feed your little chickens and beware of cats if you want to prove the spider proverb false." In the evening, Mother Ambrosine, her round spectacles on her nose was knitting stockings.

On her knees, the cat slipped and mingled its purring with the tick-tack of the needles. The children were waiting for the story of the spider. Their uncle began, "Which of you three can tell me what spiders do with their webs, those fine webs stretched in the corners of the granary or between two shrubs in the garden?" Emile spoke first.

"It is their nest, uncle, their house, their hiding place." "Hiding place," exclaimed Jules. "Yes, I think it is more than that. One day I heard between the lilac bushes a little shrill noise. (Emile squeals) A blue fly was entangled in a cobweb and trying to escape. It was the fly that was making that noise with its fluttering.

A spider ran from the bottom of the silken funnel, seized the fly and carried it off to its hold, doubtless to eat it. Since then, I have thought spiders' webs were hunting nets." "That is even so," said his uncle. "All spiders live on live prey. They make continual war on flies, gnats, other insects.

If you fear mosquitoes, those insufferable little insects that sting us at night till they bring the blood, you must bless the spider, for it does its best to rid us of them. To catch game, a net is necessary. Now, the net to catch flies in their flight is a cloth woven with silk, which the spider itself produces.

In the body of the insect, the silky matter is, as with caterpillars, a sticky liquid resembling glue or gum. As soon as it comes in contact with the air, this matter congeals, it hardens, and becomes a thread on which water has no effect. When the spider wants to spin, the silk liquid flows from four nipples, called spinnerets, placed at the end of the stomach.

These nipples are pierced at their extremity by a number of holes, like a sprinkler of a watering pot. The number of these holes for all the nipples is roughly reckoned as 1,000. Each one lets its tiny little jet of liquid flow, which hardens and becomes thread. And from 1,000 threads stuck together into one, results the final thread employed by the spider.

To designate something very fine, there is no better term of comparison than the spider's thread. It's so delicate, in fact, it can only just be seen. Our silk threads, those of the finest textures, are cables in comparison, cables of two, three, four strands, while this one, in its unequaled tenuity, contains 1,000.

How many spider's threads are required to make a strand of the thickness of a hair? Not far from 10. And how many elementary threads, such as issue from the separate holes of the spinneret? 10,000. To what degree of tenuity, then, the silk matter can be reduced that stretches out in threads of which it takes 10,000 to equal the size of one hair.

What marvels, my children, and only to catch a fly that is to serve for the spider's dinner. Now, also from exploring insects with Uncle Paul, the Epirus Bridge. Here, Uncle Paul caught Claire looking at him thoughtfully. It was evident that some change was taking place in her mind. The spider was no longer a repulsive creature, unworthy of our regard.

Uncle Paul continued, "With its legs armed with sharp-toothed little claws "like combs, the spider draws the thread "from its spinnerets as it has need. "If it wishes to descend, like the one this morning "that came down from the ceiling "onto Mother Ambrosine's shoulder, "it glues the end of the thread to the point of departure "and lets itself fall perpendicularly.

"The thread is drawn from the spinnerets "by the weight of the spider, "and the latter, softly suspended, "descends to any depth it wishes, "and as slowly as it pleases. "In order to ascend again, "it climbs up the thread by folding it gradually "into a skein between its legs. "For a second descent, "the spider has only to let its skein of silk unwind, "little by little.

"To weave its web, "each kind of spider has its own method of procedure, "according to the kind of game it's going to hunt, "the places it frequents, "and according to its particular inclinations, "tastes, and instincts. "I will merely tell you a few words about the apira, "large spiders magnificently speckled with yellow, "black, and silvery white.

"They are hunters of big game, "of green or blue damsel flies "that frequent the water courses, "of butterflies and large flies. "They stretch their web vertically between two trees, "and even from one bank of a stream to the other. "Let us examine this last case. "An apira has found a good place for hunting.

"The dragonflies, or blue and green damsel flies, "come and go from one tuft of reeds to another, "sometimes going up, sometimes down the stream. "Along its course are butterflies also, "and horseflies, or large flies that suck blood from cattle. "The sight is a good one. "Now then, to work.

"The apira climbs to the top of a willow "at the water's edge. "There, it matures its plan, an audacious one, "the execution of which seems, psh, impossible. "A suspension bridge, a cable, "which serves as support for the future web, "must be stretched from one bank to the other. "And observe, children, "that the spider cannot cross the stream by swimming.

"It would perish by drowning "if it ventured into the water. "It must stretch its cable, its bridge, "from the top of its branch without changing place. "Never has an engineer found himself in such difficulties. "What will the little creature do? "Put your heads together, children. "I'm waiting for your ideas." Hmm.

"Build a bridge from one side to the other "without crossing the water or moving away from its place? "If a spider can do that, it's cleverer than I am." Thus spoke Jules. "Then I too," chimed in his brother. "If I did not already know," said Claire, "since you've just told us "that the spider does accomplish it, "I should say that its bridge is impossible." Mother Ambrosine said nothing, but by the slackening of the tic-tac of her needles, everyone could see that she was much interested in the spider's bridge.

"Animals often have more intelligence than we," continued Uncle Paul. "The apira will prove it to us. "With its hind legs, it draws a thread from its spinneret. "The thread lengthens and lengthens. "It floats from the top of the branch. "The spider draws out more and more. "Finally, it stops.

"Is the thread long enough? "Is it too short? "That is what must be looked after. "If it's too long, "it would be wasting the precious, silky liquid. "If too short, it would not fulfill the given conditions. "A glance is thrown at the distance to be crossed, "an exact glance, you may be sure.

"The thread is found too short. "The spider lengthens it by drawing out a little more. "Now all goes well. "The thread has the wished-for length and the work is done. "The apira waits at the top of its branch. "The rest will be accomplished without help. "From time to time, it bears with its long legs "on the thread to see if it resists.

"Ah, it resists. "The bridge is fixed. "The spider crosses the stream on its suspension bridge. "What's happened then? "This. "The thread floated from the top of the willow. "A breath of air blew the free end of the thread "into the branches on the opposite bank. "This end got tangled there.

"Behold the mystery. "The apira has only to draw the thread to itself "to stretch it properly and make a suspension bridge of it. "Oh, how simple," cried Jules. And yet not one of us would have thought of it. Yes, my friend, it is very simple, but at the same time, very ingenious.

It is thus with all work. Simplicity in the means employed is a sign of excellence. To simplify is to have knowledge. To complicate is to be ignorant. The apira in its kind of construction is science perfected. "Where does it get that science, Uncle?" asked Claire. Animals have not reason.

Who then teaches the apira to build its suspension bridges? No one, my dear child. It's born with this knowledge. It has it by instinct. The infallible inspiration of the father of all things who creates in the least of his creatures for their preservation ways of acting before which our reason is often confounded.

When the apira from the top of the willow gets ready to spin its web, what inspires it without the audacious project of the bridge? What gives it patience to wait for the floating end of the thread to entwine in the branches of the other bank? What assures it of the success of a labor that is performing perhaps for the first time and is never seen done?

It is the universal reason that watches over creation and takes among men the thrice holy name of Providence. Uncle Paul had won his case in the eyes of all, even of Mother Ambrosine. Spiders were no longer frightful creatures. Now, I hope you enjoyed the two stories that I read you today.

I want you to know there are more stories about spiders and spiders' webs and even what spiders might do with their webs inside the pages of "Exploring Insects with Uncle Paul." I think that you might be fascinated. Mom and dad, remember that there are lots of ways to start great conversations and great explorations with the reading that you do with your children.

One thing you might have noticed as you heard the story, there are some words in the story that your very young children might not be familiar with, and even your older children might have trouble reading on their own. But the glorious thing about reading aloud is that you, as the parent, can use your voice to give explanation for these words.

And so in the context of the story, your children are able to figure out what unfamiliar words mean. The cool thing is that this increases our children's listening level while their reading level may not quite catch up yet. It's another great reason to read aloud with your children. One of the things that you could do with your children is to go back and ask them, do you know what these words mean?

You might want to talk about prejudice or the word merit. Some of your little children might not know the word designate, okay? Looking back through these, you might want to find a picture of a spider and locate its spinneret. Maybe you'll have to explain what a skein is, a skein like we have of yarn.

There are all kinds of things that you can do to expand the vocabulary of your family by reading aloud. There are also questions that you can ask your listeners, questions like those that we practiced last week using the five core habits of naming, attending, memorizing, expressing, and storytelling. The simplest thing to do is to ask your children, what creature is this story about?

Who are the people in the story? How are they related? You might even ask them, what do you think the spiders in the story looked like? Some of the descriptions are given for us. So you can name the creature and name the people, but naming is also about exploring categories.

That's one of the cool things about our foundation's memory work. We don't just give our children things to memorize, we put them into categories so that our children are building structures for their mind palaces. Structures of categories that allow them to put things into the categories and add to from time to time, always having a spot to place new information.

So you could explore some of these categories. Are spiders insects? What else is an insect? What is it that makes them insects? What are the characteristics that designate an insect? You could go outside and find some spiders. If your children are ready to move after they've spent some time listening, go outside and find some spiders.

You could even talk about how you feel about this task. How do you feel about spiders? Do you feel like Mother Ambrosine felt or do you feel like Uncle Paul felt about spiders? Mother Ambrosine in this first story, muttered a proverb about spiders. What is a proverb? Maybe you would want to explore proverbs with your children.

What is a proverb? Are they really true? What are some of the other proverbs that you and your family may have heard before? After you hear these stories, your children might really be curious about how spiders construct their webs. And are all spider webs the same? It seems like Uncle Paul was saying that spiders make their webs different ways to suit different purposes, different neighborhoods, if you will, or different prey that they might be trying to catch.

Why can't we make a spider web? You could explore that. You could even get some string and encourage your children to try to build a web that looks like a web you could find outside. You could, if you and your children are interested, look at the anatomy of a spider.

What are the parts of a spider that allow it to build a web? Could you draw a spider after you do some of your research? Uncle Paul makes a big deal that a pirate makes a suspension bridge. Now, there are all kinds of bridges. Maybe you and your children would like to explore the different kinds of bridges that exist and how they are constructed.

What do spiders and bridges really have to do with one another? Have you ever built a bridge? Maybe your children have done a science activity building a suspension bridge before, or maybe they would like to do it with you after you read this story. Do you think you could use the spider's plan to build one?

Hmm, maybe you want to explore what other kinds of spiders there are. Where do spiders live near you? What kinds of spiders live near you? And what kinds of spiders live far away that you would never see unless you looked one up in a book? What are some useful things that spiders do or that spiders produce?

Uncle Paul gave us some ideas about how spiders might be seen as helpful to us. Here's another idea. If you were going to write a story about a spider family, what would their names be? If you were going to write a story about a spider family, what would their names be?

What are some spidery names? Maybe you want to be a little more philosophical. Why do you think God made spiders? What purpose do they serve in God's wide world? Maybe reading about these spiders has made you eager to look for other spider resources. If you go to the library or go to the bookstore or maybe even browse the books you already have, I bet you'll find a lot about spiders.

Here are some other spider books. There's the fiction books, "The Beloved Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White, Eric Carle's "The Very Busy Spider" is especially appropriate for your littlest listeners. "Anansi the Spider, a Tale from the Ashanti" by Gerald McDermott is a great, beautifully illustrated tale from another land. And there are lots of nonfiction books.

From the picture-driven fun facts to National Geographic books for kids of all ages. There are all kinds of ways for you to explore spiders that maybe you've never given much thought to before. You'll listen to the story on "Exploring Insects" from Uncle Paul. So I hope that you enjoyed this session of the Summer Reading Club, where we looked at the Copper Lodge Library book, "Exploring Insects" with Uncle Paul.

I'd encourage you to take a look at the other Copper Lodge Library tales that we have. We have lots of titles. One of our newest is "The Secret Garden." If your kids are excited about observing nature and going outside to look for a spider or planting some seeds, or maybe taking over a section of your backyard, "The Secret Garden" might really pique their interest.

This is a beautiful tale of children who become the gardeners of a long-neglected and secret garden. And the Copper Lodge Library edition is a great way for you guys to begin building a library of beautiful books that can serve your family with delight for years. So take a look at the Copper Lodge Library, especially "The Secret Garden." And I will look forward to reading together with you again next week.

Bye-bye. (gentle music) you you