Pinocchio update

I am now the mother of two toys (possibly a toy soldier and a ball, or two balls, or two soldiers, but definitely no wind-up ballerinas) and a Pleasure Island child. We don’t have to make rehearsal tomorrow afternoon, but from Wednesday to Friday, the kids have some long rehearsals. The boy toys from 3:45 [...]

Nifty resource, and cheaper than a trip to DC

I read this weekend that the U.S. National Archives and Google have teamed up to digitize and make National Archives holdings available free to all online. This means anyone with a computer can now have access to historic movies, documentaries, and other films in the Archives.
You can check Archives’ holdings at the official National Archives [...]

Hey, kids, let’s put on a show

The Missoula Children’s Theatre travelling group arrives in our nearby teeny tiny little town this afternoon with a van packed to the gills with costumes, props, and scripts, ready to cast the fractured fairy tale version of “Pinocchio”. All three little hams are eager to participate (Davy, at five, is finally old enough), but we’ll [...]

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming

Today it’s back to (home)school, the more formal, Well Trained Mind way, rather than the unschooling way we adopted in early December, when the kids (and I) set aside the books in favor of Christmas crafts, baking, and stories. And then travel/island school, which was heavy on the phys. ed. and unschooled science.
I threw a [...]

Food for thought

Click here to learn more.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig (belatedly)

We’ve been home now for nearly a week, since Sunday night. The bags are unpacked, the laundry is washed (but not all folded and put away), children reunited with favorite toys and books, our own beds collapsed in, and old daily rhythms rewelcomed.
We had a wonderful time with my parents and had a chance to [...]

Discovering The Edge of the Forest

Remember earlier today when I was moaning about the fact that for nearly a year, as long as I’ve known about blogs, I had missed two great kid lit ones? Well, I’m happy to say that in my desire to catch up with Chicken Spaghetti and Big A little a, and the rather coincidental desire [...]

A new discovery (er, make that two!)

While writing yesterday’s poetry entry, I did some Googling and ran across a new-to-me blog, dedicated to one of this household’s consuming passions, children’s literature. Kelly’s Big A little a has lots of yummy things, including book reviews from around the world and some wonderful links.
I was especially glad to find Kelly’s post on the [...]

Poetry sings

On the way out of Toronto last month, I was gifted by the airport hotel with the Sunday New York Times, where in the Book Review section I was even more thrilled to find a tiny mention of the new book and CD set, Poetry Speaks to Children, edited by Elise Paschen.
We’re big fans [...]

Speaking of Jane Austen…

…this is going to be the soundtrack of our days for the next possibly very long while, and some of us are exceedingly pleased.*Carl Davis’s music is gorgeous, and if you aren’t bothered by the fact that not all of the pieces from the broadcast made it on to the disc or that the piano [...]

Who is your Jane Austen?

Of course, I didn’t even know I had my own Jane Austen, but then I haven’t yet read The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. But reading through the newly revamped AustenBlog with the elegant new JA font, I discovered that I do, and so do you. Thanks to Fowler, you can [...]

A Common Reader/The Akadine Press RIP

I made a timely but sad and unpleasant discovery today, now that we’re back home and I have a computer at my regular disposal. I feel as though a friend has died, and I sincerely wish James Mustich all the best.
There’s a lesson to be learned here, and that’s to patronize our small, independent [...]

The first Carnival of Children’s Literature

Melissa, at Here in the Bonny Glen, has prepared the very first Carnival of Children’s Literature and there should be lots for everyone to enjoy, whether you’re looking for something different for a family readaloud or a new treasure for your independent reader, or just wondering what others might think of some of your favorite [...]

Celebrating Darwin Day: Many happy returns

Here’s the official Darwin Day website, with all sorts of links to and about Charles Darwin and his Origin of the Species.
It includes links to an essay about Darwin’s Influence on Modern Thought from Scientific American. All sorts of interesting things in the Essays section, including an essay by Oxford University biologist Richard Dawkins [...]

Swimming School

One area of our homeschooling that’s blossoming while we’re away is phys ed.
Thanks to my parents’ pool, and without too much interference from the rain and wind (as Davy explained, “You’re going to get wet anyway”), the kids have been having lots of fun and also making steady progress with their swimming, diving, [...]

More Julie

Just because it’s my blog, and I can:
Julie Powell’s latest blog, added to the blogroll on the right, too. I came too late to blogs, last year, and only twigged to the Julie/Julia business while looking for Christmas books for my mother, most of which tend to center around (other people) cooking. [...]

More carnival fun

The sixth Carnival of Homeschooling is up and ready to go. Enjoy! Since I’m in a part of the world where Carnival is a big deal — and it’s the kind celebrated with rum and soca music, not with popcorn and midway rides — I’m going to enjoy it with a pina colada [...]

For the liberty of unlicenc’d printing

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”
John Milton, “Areopagitica”
Last week, I just happened to find on my parents’ shelves their copy of Where There’s a Will: Thoughts on the Good Life by Rumpole creator and former barrister John Mortimer; it came out the other [...]