New and noteworthy, for holiday giving and receiving, for children of all ages

And in no particular order:
Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beth Krommes
The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems, compiled and illustrated by Jackie Morris
D’Aulaires’ Book of Trolls by Ingri and Edgar D’Aulaire, recently reprinted by New York Review of Books Children’s Collection
Exploratopia: More Than 400 Kid-Friendly Experiments and Explorations [...]

letters to the editor

A couple of different responses to The New York Times article on unschooling, Nov. 26 — one ahem, one amen:
To the Editor:
I am shocked and saddened to read about the growing numbers of parents who are joining the unschooling movement.
I consider “child-led learning” to be an incredibly foolhardy philosophy. Not even older teenagers, [...]

Unplanned blog holiday

Last Wednesday thanks to small and very remorseful child who shall remain nameless, my laptop developed water on the brain….
Can get online and fetch email but keyboard is kaput so can only cut and paste like ransom note. veryveryvery tedious. Can’t be fixed, need new computer, but that means a trip to big city [...]

Well, it looks like a book…

This week in Canada is Canadian Children’s Book Week. Excuse me. Make that TD (as in the bank Toronto-Dominion) Canadian Children’s Book Week, which means that for the past seven years, every year first grader across the country is supposed to get a free Canadian children’s book. This is supposed to big year, as it [...]

The gods are laughing

So much for my plans for the next few days.
Just got back from chores to find a message on the answering machine from the electric company advising us of a “planned power outage” tomorrow and Thursday, from 9 am to noon and from 1-4 pm both days.
Well.
No power means no water, no [...]

And NPB is for Nonfiction Picture Books!

Here’s the Cybils list of nominated Nonfiction Picture Books, compiled by Chris Barton at Bartography — there are some gems here, for history, geography, biography, art, natural history, science, and more. Just the sort of things home educated children like to find under trees…
Thanks, Chris!
All of the lists of nominated books in each category are [...]

P is for Poetry!

Now that the nominations for the first annual Childrens and Young Adult Bloggers Literary Awards (the Cybils) have closed, Poetry administrator, the indefatigable Susan at Chicken Spaghetti has ready already her post, P is for Poetry! The Cybils Long List, complete with links.
Now to whittle down the long list to a short list. I’m very [...]

Rose Levy Beranbaum has a blog

Go figure.
I’ve been a fan of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s for years, and have used her Cake Bible as, well, my bible for about 15 years, but only this week I discovered her blog. And not only that, she answers readers’ questions, just about all of them from what I can see. So if you haven’t [...]

Plans for the week

On Sunday, Tom and the kids loaded up Laura’s 4H heifer, Bunny (born on Easter) in the trailer and then we all headed over to the livestock auction mart just outside of town along with all the other Beef Club families to weigh the kids’ heifers and steers; Laura’s heifer calf weighed in at 612 [...]

"Speak roughly to your little boy,

And beat him when he sneezes;He only does it to annoy,Because he knows it teases.”– “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll
Which might be considered a nursery rhyme and child-rearing advice all in one.
UK Children and Families Minister and former probation officer Beverley Hughes announced this past week the creation of a new National Academy [...]

Poetry Friday II: the Cybils’ selection of the day

My second Poetry Friday selection today is an excerpt from one of the poems from the Cybils-nominated Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow, written by the prolific, lyrical, and award-winning Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Beth Krommes.
All of the poems in Butterfly Eyes are riddles, which is a wonderful way to engage children [...]

Poetry Friday I: This was a boys’ (and girl’s) day

Ice on the Round Pondby Paul Dehn (1912-1976)
This was a dog’s day, when the landLay black and white as a DalmatianAnd kite chased terrier kiteIn a Kerry blue sky.
This was a boy’s day, when the windCut tracks in the sky on skatesAnd noon leaned over like a snowmanTo melt in the sun.
This was a poet’s [...]

It’s snowing books

This Cybils gig is pretty nifty. After some early research, when my other poetry nominating committee members and I discovered that we couldn’t quite come up with all of the titles through our libraries, one enterprising member began requesting review copies for all of us. I sent along my mailing address, with no great hopes [...]

A new hunk to help in the kitchen

Last year at about this time my old Sunbeam Mixmaster (more plastic than chrome, unlike my late grandmother’s Sunbeam, and which after 40+ years is still going, though not quite as strong) gave up the ghost after 12 years. Which made the usual Christmas baking routine quite a bit different — some of the usual [...]

More apologies

for the sporadic blogging. We’ve been busy with homeschooling, farm chores (which take longer in the snow — slogging through it — and cold — needing to give the animals more feed so they can stay warm), and other activities.
Except for having to say goodbye to our noble broilers on Friday, we had a [...]

Remembrance: "Nothing forgotten"

Not as well known as John McCrae or erstwhile Canadian (by virtue of his service in the RCAF) John Gillespie Magee, Jr., Canadian poet, writer, and radio broadcaster Mona Helen McTavish Gould deserves to be remembered as well, not only for the lyrical poem she wrote about her brother, Lt. Col. Gordon Howard McTavish of [...]

Poetry Friday: Grandmama’s Birthday edition

We’re leaving bright and early Friday morning, around 7 am, to take our 50 broilers to the slaughterhouse up north, so I’m posting this now.
Happy Birthday wishes to Grandmama for a wonderful day, a grand year, and a tasty, festive (chicken?) dinner!
Laura recited this poem the other year at the local arts festival, and did [...]

Speaking of my liberal tendencies…

congratulations to Senator-elect Bernie Sanders from the great state of Vermont, always dear to my heart since my college days, when he was mayor of the great city of Burlington.

A Rum punch

I’m just a farm gal, and an expatriate liberal one at that, but it occurs to me that the midterm elections have handed the President an awfully expedient way to save face and turn that darn cruise ship in a different direction, however slightly.

Bread again

The other day in my bread post, I wrote
The whole rising process is perfect if you’re homeschooling or farming; you can make your dough, set it to rise and go off and do something else. If you’re longer than an hour, don’t worry; the longer rises give more flavor and also make recipes using more [...]