Carnival of Homeschooling, Schoolhouse Rock edition

Melissa at The Lilting House rocks, and so does the latest edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling.
I may not have the time to read through the Carnival right now, but I know what I’ll be humming under my breath all through the fair! Thanks, Melissa!

Even more sporadic blogging ahead

The fair starts on Thursday with the big parade and runs through Saturday at midnight; the kids and I will be there for most of it, from riding on the museum’s parade float to the fireworks that will celebrate our town’s and the fair’s centennials. Tomorrow I’m helping at the exhibit hall to accept entries [...]

Time to relax with the fifth Carnival of Children’s Literature

Kelly at Big A little a has done a wonderful witchy job getting the latest Carnival of Children’s Literature ready. In keeping with her witchy theme, Kelly quotes the witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth:
Oh, well done!I commend your painsAnd everyone shall share in the gains.And now about the cauldron sing,Like elves and fairies in a [...]

Warm work bee

The Saturday before the fair is always the big work bee at the fairgrounds. The sheep folks ready the sheep barns, the horse folks horse barns, and this year the beef folks were helping to put up new, large cattle barn. Of course, it had to be 35 degrees Celsius yesterday while they were putting [...]

Poetry Friday

For my footsore boys and girl enjoying long summer evenings…
No Bedby Walter de la Mare
No bed! No bed! we shouted,And wheeled our eyes from homeTo where the green and golden woodsCried, Come!
Wild sang the evening birds,The sun-clouds shone in our eyes,A silver snippet of moon hung lowIn the skies.
We ran, we leapt, we sang,We [...]

Now it’s Cool Boys for a hot summer’s day…

reading on the hammock, with a glass of lemonade perched precariously on your stomach.
Jen Robinson at her Book Page, who took on the masterful job of compiling a list of 200 Cool Girls of Children’s Literature, has now turned her attention to Cool Boys. Check out the lists so far (here and [...]

Some answers, kind of sort of

The kids found the body of my little grayling kitten after supper in the bale yard, and it’s likely he met his end via the fanbelt in the truck. The kids have each offered to share their kittens with me.
The ducklings are probably pintails. No more hatched since this morning, but we still have [...]

Hello ducky

Some more good news this morning — one of the wild ducklings just hatched, and another seems to be on the way out of its egg. Much excitement around here and marvelling at how very, very small our new housemate is. We’ll let it dry out and fluff up and see if we can [...]

July goings-on

I thought I’d better take a few moments to post an update, before I completely fall off the blog wagon.
The weather hasn’t been too hot, though that’s about to change today, but it’s been dry enough that the crops are starting to “burn” and turn white, which of course is no good for yields. At [...]

Come to the Fair!

The 5th Country Fair of Homeschooling is ready and waiting for you!
Lots of great to stuff to read, unless you happen to be busy watering the garden and preparing for next week’s real live Country Fair, in which case the reading will keep very nicely tucked away in its home.
Thank you, Susan!

The homeschooling Country Fair’s call for submissions

log thoSusan at Imperfect Genius has graciously offered to put together the July edition of the Country Fair of homeschooling next week. Submissions are due by next Tuesday, July 18th, 5 pm EST; you can post them in the comments here or email them to Susan (at imperfectgenius at gmail dot com). Not [...]

Continuing today’s French theme: Plus ça change…

or, how do you say “Tossing textbooks” en français?
Yesterday my father sent me The New York Times article on the latest on textbooks, “Schoolbooks are Given F’s in Originality” (register for free or use Bug Me Not). Sadly but not surprisingly, the 2005 edition of the high school text <a style=”color: rgb(0, [...]

Poetry Friday: Bastille Day edition

Be Like the Birdby Victor Hugo
Be like the bird, whoHalting in his flightOn limb too slightFeels it give way beneath him,Yet sings,Knowing he hath wings.
Links a la francaise, poesie plus:
French page of the Poetry International Web
Bibliomania’s collected French verse online
And two handy blogs if you’re planning a Paris vacation (or wish you were): Secrets [...]

Drat, I’m it

I’ve been tagged by Frankie at Kitchen Table Learners for a “five things meme”, and since I’m still feeling guilty about the unfinished book meme LaMai tagged me with over the Christmas holidays, I will indulge Frankie this one time!
Five things in my fridge:milk (two four-litre jugs)a large bag of garden lettucea large bag of [...]

The July Carnival of Children’s Literature is coming

to Big A little a on July 23rd. Kelly is hosting, details are here (including Kelly’s cryptic warning that “the Witches are coming” — though what do you expect from someone with a black cat as her blog logo?), and submissions are due by this Saturday, July 15th.
And to tide you over, here are [...]

Counting babies

The chick count stands at 19, most of them black or yellow, but one cute chipmunk-striped one in the bunch, too. Yesterday Tom carefully removed from the incubator all of the eggs that didn’t hatch, the remainder of the chicken eggs and all of our friend’s wild turkey eggs. Far, far from the house and [...]

Truth, justice, and the American way, or, discouraging words and antelopes (in the Valley)

Thanks to J.L. Bell at Oz and Ends for an update on the library shenanigans at Vista San Gabriel Elementary School in California’s Antelope Valley, which I wrote about back in March (here, here, and here), when the school board approved the removal of 23 books from a list of books to consider purchasing for [...]

Poetry Friday: Egg edition

Look at Six Eggsby Carl Sandburg
Look at six eggsIn a mockingbird’s nest.
Listen to six mockingbirdsFlinging follies of O-be-joyfulOver the marshes and uplands.
Look at songsHidden in eggs.

The cheeping kitchen

A month ago a neighbor phoned to ask if I had a broody hen under which he could slip some wild turkey eggs he’d obtained from an acquaintance in Edmonton. I told him I didn’t have any broody hens at the moment, but we did have an incubator in the storage room that we could [...]

Outdoor life, or, How to have an old-fashioned, dangerous summer

A city-living friend, who always seems half-alarmed and half-amused by the fact that my kids tend to go through their days fully armed (pockets full of slingshots, jackknives, cap pistols, and lengths of rope, the latter of which came in surprisingly handy the other week when we had to move a neighbor’s sheep) and whose [...]