A Taste of My Own Medicine

Less is More! Edit! Blah, blah, blah. I kept running my mouth about condensing studies. Blathering on about how simple it all could be. Now I will find out if it's really true.

Jorge decreed to me, the Queen of Packing, that we must travel "light." Last time we went to Australia for a two week trip, Sarabelle and Gracie shared one stewardess-sized, overnight wheelie suitcase and Elle and I shared another. Jorge could hardly squeeze his possessions into a larger-than-stowable-but-don't-tell-anyone-sized backpack. So don't tell me how to pack, mister. I showed him my one small row of books taking up one small shelf on just one of my bookshelves but he was not impressed. (And actually, these are all texts only, none of the reading booklist has been purchased yet.) "Light," he repeated.

"Oh. Maybe just math and Latin then. And maybe those little grammar books, they're really small. And the Iliad and the Odyssey, have to take those..."

"We can ship everything you need down there."

"But what about for in the car? I've got it all set up for traveling! One small trunk will hold it all..."

"Hon, the kids are going to be looking out the windows at volcanoes and stuff, not at their math books."

"Yeah, but..."

"Once we get settled they can start their schoolwork again."

"But you said that could be a month...!"

"Light."

(Whine)

So, bare bones. Could you do it? If you were only allowed one bookbag, what would your essentials be? Because we are allowed two bags each and I am taking something...

Elle: First Language Lessons and Silver Burdett Ginn's Mathematics (discovered in a pile of materials given to me by a first grade teacher friend) [3]

Gracie: Saxon 8/7 [3]

Sarabelle: Saxon Algebra 1 [4]

Gracie and Sarabelle: Henle Latin I [3], Harvey's Elementary Grammar (because it's very small) [2], Iliad [1], Odyssey [0] - MP3 of a radio dramatization, Bulfinch's Mythology [1], and because I'm getting a little crazy here, The Portable Greek Reader and The Norton Anthology of Classical Literature [2].

Grand total including texts, workbooks, and answer keys: [19]

Each of the girls will have her own three-ring binder with enclosed notebooks and art supplies for nature journaling and Commonplace Book writing. Mine will also include photocopies of maps of ancient Greece, discussion question pages from The Great Books Greek Year Study Guide, Teaching Company course guides and DVDs for Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition Lectures One through Seventeen and Twenty-one; The Iliad of Homer; The Odyssey of Homer

Herodotus and Plutarch, two authors I couldn't bear to leave out and are not covered by the anthologies, have been downloaded courtesy of Project Gutenberg.

I will also have my laptop and camera. That's pretty light, right? I know, I know, still a lot of fat to trim, and oh, but what about the writing texts...? Maybe I'll just take one to give myself some guidance for project ideas; make it an even [20]. That should easily fit into one small, stewardess-sized, overnight wheelie bag. Not quite "light", but definitely "light-er."

Say it with me now, "Multum non multa."