WorldLearning

Shannon at Phat Mommy has a terrific idea:
Many people’s eyes glaze over at the mention of homeschooling, as they envision a family of ten living on the homestead and wearing pilgrim-like clothing. Social misfits who’ve never heard the name Harry Potter. But alas, this is not the face of homeschooling that I know. And I [...]

Decoration Day: "with the choicest flowers of spring-time"

[No, I'm not a day late, I just thought I'd get the long weekends, white sales, and pool openings out of the way]
From General Order No.11, Headquarters, Grand Army of the Republic at Washington, DC, May 5, 1868, by Commander-in-Chief John A. Logan, establishing what is now known as Memorial Day:
I. The 30th [...]

If it’s Tuesday it must be Belgium

The dishwasher broke down several days ago but was a replaced by a shiny new model when the VP of appliances around here decided that after six-and-a-half years of heroic service a repair probably wouldn’t cut it. Very kind and coincidental of Sears to be holding a clearance sale of this year’s already outdated models [...]

Just enrich their lives

Roger Sutton at Read Roger has a post today worth your time, especially if you have a child at home. He’s been reading through an autographed advance copy of Marni Nixon’s I Could Have Sung All Night: My Story and offers the following from Miss Nixon on Leonard Bernstein, with whom she worked on [...]

Summer reading list time: Canadiana

While browsing around the other day looking for an audio CD version of W.O. Mitchell’s Who Has Seen the Wind, which seems to available through interlibrary loan only in audiocassette edition, I was reminded that online CanLit specialist Northwest Passages (based in real life in Vancouver) has what is probably the largest set of Canadian [...]

Fay Wray’s day

Today Cardston, Alberta, native Fay Wray was honored with her own stamp by Canada Post, as part of the “Canadians in Hollywood” series. The other stamps include Mary Pickford (who was Canada’s sweetheart first) and — I kid you not — Lorne Greene and John Candy.

Wake up and smell the cookies

Heidi at 101 Cookbooks offers up a recipe for Triple Chocolate Espresso Bean Cookies, which I think I can smell through my computer. Give the kids some homemade chocolate chip cookies, and save these for the grownups.

Melissa has a new blog

If you enjoy Melissa’s Here in the Bonny Glen, you’ll be happy to hear that she has a new blog over at ClubMom (co-founded in 1999 by then not-busy-enough Meredith Vieira), a paying gig no less, The Lilting House. As Melissa writes, Bonny Glen will continue to focus primarily on literature and the living [...]

Poetry Friday: To make a prairie

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,One clover, and a bee,And revery.The revery alone will doIf bees are few.
By Emily Dickinson (no. 1755)
As usual, Kelly at Big A little a and Liz B at A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy will have listings of the day’s poetic offerings [...]

Everything old is new again: Personifying punctuation and saving the endangered comma

Had a call from our friendly library lady today letting me know that my interlibrary loan copies of Talk to the Hand and the illustrated Elements of Style are finally ready for pick-up. Which was quite a coincidence — or maybe not, considering the way the publishing world works — reminding me of the July [...]

Road SCHOLA is here!

L. and family have surfaced on the other side of the world, and L. is already blogging here. Main page, with link for photos, is here. What else do you do when the jet lag wears off and you’re up at 3 a.m.?!

Impromptu reading festival

The past seven days have been a blur, but after one rainy day and the promise of several more to come before the weekend, I’m feeling ready to relax. And what better way than with some of my favorite online blogging friends, who’ve come prepared with a spontaneous carnival of books! Jen Robinson’s Book Page [...]

Long weekend report

Tom got the wheat in yesterday, and I got most of the vegetables planted, except for the potatoes, pumpkins, and zucchini, which need more room than my raised bed can afford; they’ll go in our garden plot at the corrals, and I also decided that I’d make a “sunflower house” there for the kids to [...]

New Latin curriculum comparison chart

Paula at Paula’s Archives has a brand new page with a Latin curriculum comparison chart, gathered up from discussions at the Well-Trained Mind K-8 curriculum board. I don’t frequent the boards, so I’m happy for this resource.
If you’re a classical homeschooler and you’re not familiar with Paula’s Archives, you and your kids are missing a [...]

Happy Victoria Day

Today is Victoria Day, which in Canada means that this is the long weekend known as the gateway to the summer, much like Memorial Day in the US. Also like Memorial Day in the US, the reason behind the long weekend has been pretty much forgotten. Not only is the occasion now known mostly as [...]

The 4th Carnival of Children’s Literature is up!

The Carnival is here, the Carnival is here!
In Canada, it’s the Victoria Day long weekend, so unless you’ve been spending your days outdoors gardening putting the crops in, sit back with a cup of coffee and enjoy the fun! I’m going to skim through the Carnival quickly now, and return tonight to savor…

There is no Frigate like a Book for summer holidays

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away …
(Emily Dickinson, no. 1263)
One of my favorite subcategories in children’s literature are those books about the locations of favorite books and stories, and it occurs to me that it’s a wonderful and particularly useful niche for this time of year, for those of us [...]

Poetry Friday: Bird Talk

Bird Talkby Carl Sandburg
And now when the branches were beginning to be heavy,It was the time when they once had said, “this is the beginning of summer.”The shrilling of the frogs was not so shrill as in the first weeks after the broken winter;The birds took their hops and [...]

Bubblicious

Because we’ve started cultivating in preparation for seeding, which we hope to have done by Sunday, and are up to our necks in things to do (not including a bridal shower tonight and attending the pioneer museum’s grand opening in town, a big deal because of the town’s centennial this year, and to which Laura [...]

Bon voyage,

best wishes, and safe travels to the Schola family — L., Jorge, and the girls — who depart Saturday, portable schoolhouse in hand, on their six-month grand adventure Down Under as they more than live up to the “ola” (Odyssean Learning Adventure) in Schola, from North Cape to the Bluff in the wop-wops. [...]