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, I'm excited to be with you again today for another episode of our Summer Book Club series. I have been thinking about how much I love to read as a grown up and how much I love to read as a child.

For childhood me, reading was a pleasure, a pure pleasure, almost a passion when I found books that really captured my mind. I could easily lose myself in a book and disappear for an entire afternoon or even most of the day in the summertime. I was often transformed by the books that I was reading.

I became a prairie girl who only got one peppermint stick and a penny for Christmas. I swam with the dolphins. I joined a wagon train headed west. I solved mysteries as an amateur sleuth. And along the way, in all of these books that I read, I learned a million odd bits of information, stuff I never intended to learn, stuff I didn't even know I was learning.

I picked up all sorts of insights on odd foreign culture and historical references and weird color names and so, so many vocabulary words. I was growing rich without knowing it. And that's what reading does. It transforms us while we're not looking. That's why it's really important to be careful what you read.

It gets in your mind. It changes you. So this summer, I'm encouraging you to read with your children. See what's going in their minds and what's going on in their minds. Take in good stories and inspiring biographies and interesting tidbits from travel books and science books and hobby manuals and talk about what you read and how it makes you feel and what you've learned and what you think about it all.

Reading is a gateway to growth. So this summer, go and grow together as a family. It's the best gift you'll ever give yourselves. Today, I want to read three selections, three short stories, chapters for you from our Copper Lodge Library, Exploring Insects with Uncle Paul. This is a great read aloud.

It's good for morning basket time or family read alouds whenever you do it. And the subjects in Exploring Insects with Uncle Paul, you will find this fall to be a really great companion to what you're learning in our Foundations Essentials program. But today, I'm going to read you three stories.

And then I'm going to give you some conversation starters, some questions that you could use as jumping off points from your reading that might lead you on another voyage of discovery with your children. So you guys sit back and listen and get ready for The Kettle from Exploring Insects with Uncle Paul.

Now, this day, Mother Ambrosine was very tired. She had taken down from their shelves kettles, saucepans, lamps, candlesticks, casseroles, pans, and lids. After having rubbed them with fine sand and ashes and washed them well, she had put the utensils in the sun to dry them thoroughly. They all shone like a mirror.

The kettles particularly were superb with their rosy reflections. One might have said that tongues of fire were shining inside them. The candlesticks were a dazzling yellow. Emile and Jules were lost in admiration. "I should like to know what they make kettles of. They shine so," remarked Emile. "They are very ugly outside, all black and daubed with soot.

But inside, how beautiful they are." "You must ask Uncle," replied his brother. "Yes," assented Emile. No sooner said than done, they went in search of their uncle. He did not have to be entreated. He was happy whenever there was an opportunity to teach them something. "Kettles are made of copper," he began.

"And copper?" asked Jules. "Copper is not made. In certain countries, it is found already made, mixed with stone. It is one of the substances that is not in the power of man to make. We use these substances as God has deposited them in the bosom of the earth for purposes of human industry.

But all our knowledge and all our skill could not produce them. In the bosom of mountains where copper is found, they hollow out galleries which go deep into the earth. There, workmen called miners, with lamps to light them, attack the rock with great blows of the pick, while others carry the detached blocks outside.

These blocks of stone in which copper is found are called ore. In furnaces made for the purpose, they heat the ore to a very high temperature. The heat of our stove, when it's red hot, is nothing in comparison. The copper melts, runs, and is separated from the rest. Then, with hammers of enormous weight, set in motion by a wheel turned by water, they strike the mass of copper, which, little by little, becomes thin and is hollowed into a large basin.

The coppersmith continues the work. He takes the shapeless basin and, with little strokes of the hammer, fashions it on the anvil to give it a regular shape. That is why coppersmiths tap all day with their hammers, commented Jules. I had often wondered, when passing their shops, why they made so much noise, always tap, tap, tapping without any stop.

They were thinning the copper, shaping it into saucepans and kettles. Here, Emile asked, when a kettle is old, has holes in it, and can't be used, what do they do with it? I heard Mother Ambrosine speak of selling a worn-out kettle. It is melted, and another new kettle made out of the copper, replied Uncle Paul.

Then the copper does not wear away. Well, it wears away too much, my friend. Some of it is lost when they rub it with sand to make it shine. Some is lost, too, by the continual action of the fire. But what is left is still good. Mother Ambrosine also spoke of recasting a lamp, which had lost a foot.

What are lamps made of? They are of tin, another substance that we find ready-made in the bosom of the earth, without the power of producing it ourselves. And I'll continue reading the next chapter, Metals. Copper and tin are called metals, continued Uncle Paul. They are heavy, shining substances, which bear the blows of the hammer without breaking.

They flatten, but do not break. There are still other substances which possess the considerable weight of copper and tin, as well as their brilliancy and resistance to blows. All of these substances are called metals. Then lead, which is so heavy, is a metal, too, asked Emil. Iron also, silver, and gold, queried his brother.

Yes, these substances and still others are metals. All have a peculiar brilliancy called metallic luster. But the color varies. Copper is red, gold, yellow, silver, iron, lead, tin, white, with a very slightly different shade from one another. The candlesticks Mother Ambrosine is drying in the sun, said Emil, are a magnificent yellow, and so shiny they dazzle.

Are they gold? No, my dear child. Your uncle does not possess such riches. They are brass. To vary the colors and other properties of the metals, instead of always using them separately, they often mix two or three together, or even more. They melt them together, and the whole constitutes a sort of new metal, different from those which enter into its composition.

Thus, in melting together copper and a kind of white metal called zinc, the same as the garden watering pots are made of, they obtain brass, which has not the red of copper, nor the white of zinc, but the yellow of gold. The material of the candlesticks is, then, made of copper and zinc together.

In a word, it is brass and not gold, in spite of its luster and yellow color. Gold is yellow and glitters, but all that is yellow and glitters is not gold. At the last village fair, they sold magnificent rings whose brilliancy deceived you. In gold, they would have cost a fine sum.

The merchants sold them for a sue. They were brass. How can they tell gold from brass, since the color and luster are almost the same, asked Jules. By the weight, chiefly, gold is much heavier than brass. It is, indeed, the heaviest metal in frequent use. After it comes lead, then silver, copper, iron, tan, and, finally, zinc, the lightest of all.

You told us that to melt copper, put in Emil, they needed a fire so intense that the heat of a red-hot stove would be nothing in comparison. All metals do not resist like that, for I remember very well in what a sorry way the first leaden soldiers you gave me came to their end.

Last winter, I had lined them up on the lukewarm stove just when I was not watching the troop tottered, sank down, and ran in little streams of melted lead. I had only time to save half a dozen grenadiers, and their feet were missing. And when Mother Amberzine thoughtlessly put the lamp on the stove, added Jules, oh, it was soon done for.

A finger's breadth of tin had disappeared. Tin and lead melt very easily, explained Uncle Paul. The heat of our hearth is enough to make them run. Zinc also melts without much trouble, but silver, then copper, then gold, and, finally, iron need fires of an intensity unknown in our houses.

Iron, above all, has excessive resistance, very valuable to us. Shovels, tongs, grates, stoves are iron. These various objects, always in contact with the fire, do not melt. However, they do not even soften. To soften iron so as to shape it easily on the anvil by blows from the hammer, the smith needs all the heat of his forge.

In vain would he blow and put on coal. He would never succeed in melting it. Iron, however, can be melted, but you must use the most intense heat that human skill can produce. And now, Week 10's reading, Gold and Iron. Some metals never rust. Such a one is gold.

Ancient gold pieces found in the earth after centuries are as bright as the day they were coined. No dross, no rust covers their effigy and inscription. Time, fire, humidity, air cannot harm this admirable metal. Therefore, gold, on account of its unchangeable luster and its rarity, is preeminently the material for ornaments and coins.

Furthermore, gold is the first metal that man became acquainted with long before iron, lead, tin, and the others. The reason why man's attention was called to gold long centuries before iron is not hard to understand. Gold never rusts. Iron rusts with such grievous facility that in a short time, if we're not careful, it's converted into red earth.

I've just told you that gold objects, however old they may be, have come to us intact, even after being in the dampest ground. As for objects of iron, not one has reached us that was not in an unrecognizable state. Corroded with rust, they become a shapeless, earthy crust. Now, I will ask Jules if the iron ore that is extracted from the bowels of the earth can be real, pure iron, such as we use.

Hmm. It seems to me not, uncle. But if iron, at any given moment, is pure, it must rust with time and change to earthy matter, as does the blade of a knife buried in the ground. My brother seems to reckon correctly. I agree with him, said Claire. And gold?

Uncle Paul asked her. It is different with gold, she replied, as that metal never rusts, is not changed by time, air, and dampness. It must be pure. Exactly so. In the rocks, where it is disseminated in small scales, gold is as brilliant as in jewelers' boxes. Claire's earrings have not more luster than the particles set by nature in the rock.

On the contrary, what a pitiful appearance iron makes when it is found. It's an earthy crust, a reddish stone in which, only after long research, can one suspect the presence of a metal. It is, in fact, rust, mixed more or less with other substances. And then, it is not enough to perceive that this rusty stone contains a metal.

A way must still be found to decompose the ore and bring the iron back to its metallic state. How many efforts were necessary to attain this result? One of the most difficult to achieve. How many fruitless attempts? How many painful trials? Iron, then, was the last to become of use to us.

Long after gold and other metals, like copper and silver, which are sometimes, but not always, found pure, that most useful of metals was the last. But with it, an immense advance was made in human industry. From the moment man was in possession of iron, he found himself master of the earth.

At the head of substances that resist shock, iron must be placed. And it is precisely its enormous resistance to rupture that makes this metal so precious to us. Never would a gold, copper, marble, or stone anvil resist the blows of the smith's hammer as an iron one does. The hammer itself, of what substance other than iron, could it be made?

If a copper, silver, or gold, it would flatten, crush, and become useless in a short time, for those metals lack hardness. If of stone, it would break at the first rather hard blow. For these implements, nothing can take the place of iron, nor can it for axes, saws, knives, the mason's chisel, the quarry man's pick, the plowshare, and a number of other implements which cut, hew, pierce, plane, file, give, or receive violent blows.

Iron alone has the hardness that can cut most other substances. And the resistance that sets blows at defiance. In this respect, iron is, of all mineral substances, the handsomest present that providence has given to man. It is preeminently the material for tools, indispensable in every art and industry. Claire and I read one day, said Jules, that when the Spaniards discovered America, the men of that new country had gold axes, which they very willingly exchanged for iron ones.

I laugh at their innocence, which made them give such a costly price for a piece of very common metal. I think I see now that the exchange was to their advantage. Yes, decidedly to their advantage. For with an iron axe, they could fell trees to make their dugout canoes and their huts.

They could better defend themselves against wild animals and attack the game in their hunts. This piece of iron gave them an assurance of food, a substantial boat, a warm dwelling, a redoubtable weapon. In comparison, a gold axe was only a useless plaything. Well, if iron came last, what did men do before they knew of it, asked Jules.

They made their weapons and tools of copper. For like gold, this metal is sometimes in a pure state so that it can be utilized just as nature gives it to us. But a copper implement having little hardness is of much less value than an iron one. Thus, in those far-off days of copper axes, man was indeed a wretched creature.

He was still more so before knowing copper. He cut a flint to a point or split it and fashioned it to the end of a stick. That was his only weapon. With this stone, he had to procure food, clothing, a hut, and to defend himself from wild beasts. His clothing was a skin thrown over his back, his dwelling a hut, a hut made of twisted branches and mud, his food a piece of flesh, produce of the chase.

Domestic animals were unknown, the earth uncultivated, all industry lacking. And where was that, asked Clare. Everywhere, my dear child. Here, even in places where today are our most flourishing towns. Oh, how forlorn man was before attaining, by the help of iron, the well-being that we enjoy today. How forlorn was man and what a great present Providence gave him in giving him this metal.

Just as Uncle Paul finished, Jacques knocked discreetly at the door. Jewels ran to open it. They whispered a few words to each other. It was at about an important affair for the next day. I hope that you enjoyed those three short stories from the Copper Lodge Library edition of Exploring Insects with Uncle Paul.

But you know, the best part of reading, to me, is that it doesn't have to end when you finish the story. You can talk about it. You can prime the conversational pump and keep the story going. After you read these stories, you might say, and look around, what do you have at home that's made out of copper?

Go through your cabinets. Go through your kitchen cabinets. Look at the decorations in your home. What do you have that's made out of copper? What do you have that's made out of gold? Do you have anything made out of brass? Can you compare it with something made out of gold?

Is one heavier than the other? Do you have anything made out of silver? And then talk with your kids. Where did these things come from? Are they heirlooms that you got from your parents or from grandma and grandpa? Did you buy them at the store? Did you find them at the antique store?

Did you make any of them yourselves? What are the characteristics of those metal objects? Which ones of them get dull? Do any of them get rusty? What is tarnish? And what does it look like? And how do you get rid of it? Which of those objects are hard? Which are the hardest?

Talk about or do a little research on where do we find metals? And then how do we make other metals? Which metals are mined near where you live? Have you ever visited a mine? Could you find one to visit? Where are the mines in your state or your area located?

And what kind of tools do miners use? Can you find pictures of them? If you can visit a mine or a mining museum or even a natural history museum, you may be able to look at or even touch some of the implements that miners use. What about coppersmiths? Have you ever watched a coppersmith work?

Do you think you could find one to observe? Maybe they would let you hold their tools. You could, after reading these stories, go back and pick up some of the words that were unfamiliar to you, some metal vocabulary. What is or? What about luster? What do you have to do?

What kind of training do you need to become a miner? What are tongs? Who uses an anvil? And what do you do to get rid of rust? Consider this quote, "All that glitters is not gold." Do a little research. Where does that quote come from? What did it mean in the context of our stories about metals?

And what might that quotation mean metaphorically? Is there a lesson that we could learn, both from our metal stories and from other pieces of literature? And then it might be a lot of fun to think about how life changed for people as metals were discovered. How did people live before they had hard, strong, resilient tools?

What would we do today without metals? Look around. Sit still in your house or wherever you're sitting and just look and see how many things you can see that are made out of metals. Think about what could be used instead of metal to make that object. Would it stand up as well?

Use your imagination. What else could you use to make the objects of metal that you see around you? What else would you like to make if you were a coppersmith or a blacksmith and could make tools or other implements out of metal? Hopefully, this gives you some scope both for your imagination and for curiosity, things that you might like to explore as a family in another book, in your neighborhood, at a museum, maybe even online.

Go and explore together and let your reading from today be a gateway into more conversation. If you are looking for other stories to read, I want to remind you that the Copper Lodge Library includes a lot of titles. And new to the Copper Lodge Library this year is a volume called English Epic Poetry.

It has a collection of stories, including selections from Canterbury Tales, selections from Paradise Lost, from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. You can build a family culture of reading by enjoying these stories together and having meaningful conversations about wisdom, about virtue. Even the less overtly religious poems include Christian themes like courage and forgiveness and the right use of power, things that will get some good conversations started at your house.

So don't just stick to the Copper Lodge titles that I've been sharing with you this summer. Branch out and check out English Epic Poetry. And I will see you guys next week. Bye-bye.