For Beslan, School No. 1

No. 645by Emily Dickinson
Bereavement in their death to feelWhom We have never seen –A Vital Kinsmanship importOur Soul and theirs — between –
For Strangers — Strangers do not mourn –There be Immortal friendsWhom Death see first — ’tis news of thisThat paralyze Ourselves –
Who, vital only to Our Thoughts –Such Presence bear awayIn dying — [...]

Their Island Story

“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”
Rudyard Kipling
One of my favorite places to procrastinate, er, get ideas for our classical homeschooling is the Tanglewood Education website. One of the books I’ve been toying with adding to our collection is An Island Story by H.E. (Henrietta Elizabeth) Marshall, [...]

Give me the splendid silent sun

We’ve had about four inches of rain in the last two days, bad enough that there were “heavy rainfall warnings” on the radio and television. But it seems to be over. I hope. For now, at least. But there’s been quite a bit of damage (nowhere near on the scale of central Europe though), and [...]

Very loud, very slow, very simple — and very busy

More coincidences in my life out here on the prairie. First I read about Edward Tufte in the “Low-Tech Chic” (yup, that would me) article in Maclean’s magazine. Tufte and other “modern Luddites” (yup, me again lol)
make a clear distinction between rejecting technology a priori and test-driving innovations with a critical eye. In [...]

It’s definitely not popsicle season any more around here…

We’ve had two inches of rain in the past two days (and the clouds look socked in for tonight) and the mercury hasn’t budged above 50 degrees. And a heavy rainfall warning on the radio for tonight and tomorrow. Ah, August in Alberta. At least it’s not snow lol.
But I have a pot of soup [...]

A coincidence?

I think not.
As the Kansas Board of Education gets ready to decide whether to allow the latest incarnation of creationism, this arrived in my inbox today:
Dear Reader,
In the annals of American humor, Will Cuppy (1884-1949) deserves a chapter all his own, but, with characteristic caginess, he instead lurks among the footnotes, now and then emerging [...]

Living history

For her birthday this year, Laura decided she wanted a family adventure instead of a party. More than happy to oblige instead of planning another tea party for half a dozen little girls and their mothers and assorted uninvited siblings, we spent a warm sunny Sunday yesterday at Fort Edmonton Park, 160 acres in the [...]

An experiment

If this works, this is where we went and what we did yesterday. If this doesn’t work, I won’t be surprised at all and it’s back to the Luddite drawing board.

From Bridget Jones to Shakespeare in one fell swoop

I was getting tired of the cool, rainy weather so feeling rather hopeful about encouraging an Indian summer I picked up the “Summer Double Issue” (August 1, 2005) of Maclean’s magazine yesterday at the library.
Had fun reading Robert Mason Lee’s article about the newish book, Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare [...]

Possibly a vg thing

I’ve been annoyed for a few weeks now after finding out (thanks to AustenBlog) that Helen Fielding’s new Bridget Jones’s Diary in The Independent is a subscriber-only perk at the website. Bloody cheek. (Though why is it I don’t seem to have a problem with the idea of paying for plane tickets to have Colin [...]

Good moon rising

I wasn’t planning on blogging tonight but as I was sitting at my desk sorting through photographs I caught a glimpse, through the screen door, of an orange moon rising over the trees and into the navy sky. Absolutely gorgeous.
Makes it just the teensiest bit worthwhile that it’s already dark enough (sob) at 9:25 [...]

My swimming stars

The kids spend so much time in pools and in swimming lessons that for the past few years I’ve been training them and me not to get too wrapped up in patches (received for passing a level) or stickers (received when you don’t pass) or passing or levels. It’s the skills and proficiency, and enjoyment [...]

Lions and elephants and reparations, oh my

Ordinarily I have a great deal of respect for Cornell but one Professor Josh Donlan is giving me, out here on the Canadian prairie, second thoughts. Not to mention the heebie-jeebies. Aren’t coyotes, cougars, bobcats, and black bears on my doorstep enough? Will I really have to contend with lions, cheetahs, and elephants stalking the [...]

An honest-to-goodness literary event in our neck of the woods

A real live author — in fact, one the kids and I have read (and within the past year and for astronomy no less) and liked — is coming to our library this evening for a storytelling presentation about stargazing and myths. We are excited, all of us, very much so.
Joan Galat is the author [...]

Hey, ME too…

Found on the Postscript page in the new issue of Real Simple magazine, an excerpt from Philip Done’s 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny: Life Lessons from Teaching:
The main reason I became a teacher is that I like being the first one to introduce kids to words and music and books and people and [...]

Eight is great!

Happy birthday, babycakes. How you went from being a tiny little thing in my arms to the long-legged, horseback-riding, swims like a fish, history-mad child with such eclectic tastes (Tchaikovsky, the Beatles, rhubarb, ancient Greece, Ukrainian dance, Milton Meltzer, “O Brother Where Art Thou”) still mystifies Daddy and me :).
This with candles, and this, [...]

Swimming Lessons (and a Rumplestiltskin-like fit at the end)

The kids have just started their second week of swimming lessons yesterday at the local college pool. They’d been looking forward all year to being in the pool again, and are quite the little fish. Most families around here sign up the kids for just one week, but I tend to think that one week [...]

Worn-out words

I was folding laundry, changing sheets, and listening to Cross Country Checkup on the radio this afternoon. The questions for today: “There are about half a million words in the English language. Some say it’s the richest vocabulary in the world. Yet we hear the same words and catch phrases over and over again. [...]

The hard way to summon the Tooth Fairy

Pollyanna Laura fell out of a tree this afternoon.
We had gone up to our corrals to the potato/raspberry patch to do some weeding and get potatoes for supper, and the kids had gone into the woods to play “bear”. All of a sudden there was yelling, a crash, and howling. The damage isn’t as bad [...]

More summer beach reading and avoiding eyestrain

Made a fun discovery the other day — David M. Bader’s latest, Haiku U.: From Aristotle to Zola, Great Books in 17 Syllables. Bader is very silly, very funny, and a smart aleck, to boot.
As he writes in his website, “Why spend weeks slogging through The Iliad when you can just read the [...]