Poetry Friday: Four years, four dream variations by Langston Hughes

Dreamsby Langston Hughes (1923)
Hold fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreamsFor when dreams goLife is a barren fieldFrozen with snow.
Dream Variationsby Langston Hughes (1924)
To fling my arms wideIn some place of the sun,To whirl and danceTill the white day is done.Then rest at cool eveningBeneath a tall [...]

A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants

Just a quick note, since we’re in between birthdays — my lovely cake with the yellow roses is all gone, and I’m making Daniel’s tonight for his big “lucky seven” day tomorrow — not to mention off to town to run some quick errands and make it home in time for lunch before our semi-annual [...]

Read to me this morning by child number two

from The Happy Birthday Present by Joan Heilbroner, pictures by Mary Chalmers (An I Can Read book):
“Davy,” said Peter.
“Do you know what day it is?”
“Yes, I do,” said Davy.
“It is today.”
“No, silly,” said Peter.
“It is Mother’s birthday.”
“We must tell her!” said Davy.
“She knows,” said Peter.
“I am going to get a present for her,” said Peter.
“May [...]

A new lap dog for George

From today’s Globe & Mail:
The media will be banned from CFB Trenton today when the bodies of four Canadian soldiers killed over the weekend in Afghanistan return home.
The decision to mirror a practice that is controversial in the United States follows an announcement on Sunday that the flag on the Peace Tower will not be [...]

This week’s Carnival of Homeschooling is open for business

at The Common Room, at heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com. Many thanks to the Headmistress for a wonderful job, especially despite all of the pesky technological obstructions.
By the way, while you’re there, don’t miss the Headmistress’s basic tutorial on a Charlotte Mason education from earlier this month.
As always, you can find the archives to the previous homeschooling carnivals here.

New Math + 30 (Years) = Reform Math = Still Fuzzy After All These Years

Squeaking in before the end of Math Awareness Month….
As a former victim of the old New Math — I still remember my father the Oxford graduate looking over some incomprehensible homework and telling me, “You’re on your own, dear” — I’m a bit sensitive when it comes to math and arithmetic instruction, knowing full well [...]

Growing with Grammar, now in Canada

Just received the latest homeschool curriculum catalogue from the folks at Academic Distribution Services (ADS) in B.C. and am delighted to see that they now carry Growing with Grammar/Grade 3, on page 19, and at a price of $37.50 CAN (for the student manual, workbook, and answer key), which compares very, very favorably with the [...]

Hello, Moon, Hello, Hurds

If you and your family happen to find yourselves in Rhode Island in the next couple of months, stop by the Rhode Island School of Design Museum for “The World of Clement, Edith and Thacher Hurd: From Goodnight Moon to Art Dog“. The exhibition, which opened yesterday, begins with a 17-foot-long mural of the Great [...]

Happy day, earth

O Earth, Turn!by George Johnston
The little blessed Earth that turnsDoes so on its own concernsAs though it weren’t my home at all;It turns me winter, summer, fallWithout a thought of me.
I love the slightly flattened sphere,Its restless, wrinkled crust’s my here,Its slightly wobbling spin’s my nowBut not my why and not my how:My why and [...]

More Poetry Friday fun

Quick — hop over to Fuse #8 for a wonderful recommendation and review from my favorite New York City children’s librarian. Fuse #8 calls A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms, edited by Paul Janeczko and illustrated by Chris Raschka, “the most useful of poetry tomes I’ve found in [...]

Poetry Friday: Lines for my children now that the grass is greening up…

and our school moves outdoors:
From“Lines Written for Gene Kelly to Dance To”by Carl Sandburg
Spring is when the grass turns green and glad.Spring is when the new grass comes up and says, “Hey, hey! Hey, hey!”Be dizzy now and turn your head upside down and see how the world looks upside down.Be dizzy now and turn [...]

Power to the people

The other day Susan at Chicken Spaghetti posted a link for a School Library Journal article on questioning authority, with the quote, “Kids need to be skeptical of the curriculum. It’s the only way to develop a balanced view of the world.” Which of course was like dangling a chocolate truffle in front of me. [...]

The croc hunters

Not that kind. After farm chores yesterday, the kids and I went looking for this, the prairie crocus (Anemone patens), considerably more fuzzy than its Dutch cousin. We went to the one pasture yesterday where they like to grow and found that the crocuses are up, but not yet blooming. At the [...]

Make mine pecan pie

Three cheers for Bloglines! I was thrilled to see that long-lost Natalie surfaced today with news on the opening of The Homeschool Cafe: four Mississipi magnolias — Natalie, Nancy, Alasandra, and Lioness — holding forth on politics, educational issues, and general discussion. They promise that the coffee is always on and the desserts are [...]

Dream on

A friend wrote me about Richard Morin’s “Unconventional Wisdom” column in last Friday’s Washington Post. You decide if the study qualifies as either unconventional or wisdom.
“Learning the Wrong Things from Poetry”
Fill your house with books if you want little Billy or Beth to growup to be an academic all-star. Shakespeare is good. But stay awayfrom [...]

Step right up, to the Carnival of Homeschooling, Week 16

The latest Carnival of Homeschooling is up, at About Homeschooling (homeschooling.about.com) today. The theme for this week is “Practical Solutions for Homeschool Struggles.” Thanks, Beverly!
If you need to catch up on your reading, archives from the previous Carnivals of Homeschooling are here.
Next week’s Carnival will be hosted by The Common Room, (heartkeeper.commonroom.blogspot.com).

I want one too…

L. at Schola has a “portable schoolhouse” for their upcoming trip to New Zealand. She writes that “it’s beautiful in an obsessive-compulsive kind of way, the girls’ three 5″ binders containing notebooks, sketchbooks, mini whiteboards, and drawing and writing supplies, and mine with its study guides, answer keys, CDs, and even more supplies.”
As someone [...]

Happy Easter early

A happy Easter to all.
The kids colored close to four dozen eggs today (yes, we’ll be enjoying devilled eggs and egg salad sandwiches for the next while): regular old tablet dyes (from Dudley, similar to the Paas variety in the U.S.); bunnysaurus eggs, as Daniel called them, with a bit of vegetable oil added to [...]

A little something for Poetry Friday…

and for Melissa, on the arrival of new baby girl.
Sistersby Eleanor Farjeon
“Come!” cried Helen, eager Helen.“Time enough,” said careful Ann.But oh, the lilac-buds were swellingAnd all the birds had started telling –“Listen! look!” cried eager Helen,Pointing where the spring began.“Well, and what of that,” said Ann.“Something’s happening — oh, let’s go!”“When it happens we shall [...]

Luscious links, or, an Easter basket of treats for adults

Lots of wonderful things to read this weekend:
Stefanie at So Many Books has a terrific piece on the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest, which encourages high school students to memorize and perform great poems, and the recent NPR piece on it. Rather like a poetry bee, in that the state winners wind up in [...]