More food for thought: connections and disconnections

I’ve been cogitating for the past week or so on the things I read in Natalie Angier’s science book The Canon, partly in preparation for my regurgitation earlier today and partly in preparation for the kids’ science studies next year (informal plans for which I hope to post before too long). So everything was rolling [...]

Science summer school

Herewith some choice bits from science writer Natalie Angier’s latest title, The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science, in the hopes that, especially if you’re the parent of school-age children, educated at home or elsewhere, you might consider adding this to your library list or bookshelf, possibly the latter for a [...]

Poetry Friday: Poems for the First and Fourth

A Happy Canada Day and Happy Independence Day to all, with some poems to mark the occasions.
Rivers of Canada
by Bliss Carman (1861-1929)
O all the little rivers that run to Hudson’s Bay,
They call me and call me to follow them away.
Missinaibi, Abitibi, Little Current–where they run
Dancing and sparkling I see them in the sun.
I hear the [...]

Latest edition of the Carnival of Children’s Lliterature is up

Mary Lee and Franki have the June edition of the Carnival of Children’s Literature ready at their blog, A Year of Reading. Good news, indeed!

Poetry Friday: A warning to children

This poem is wonderful to read aloud, to any children nearby or just to yourself.
Warning to Childrenby Robert Graves (1895-1985)
Children, if you dare to thinkOf the greatness, rareness, muchness,Fewness of this precious onlyEndless world in which you sayYou live, you think of things like this:Blocks of slate enclosing dappledRed and green, enclosing tawnyYellow nets, enclosing [...]

"Wow. Oh boy" indeed.

In today’s Globe and Mail.

Jumping J, for JoVE, to see if it can be done…

Because I can’t resist a challenge (there, another fact/habit about me…)
1. Famous singer/band: Jo Stafford, especially her album Jo + Jazz
2. Four letter word: jute
3. Street name: Jermyn Street, London
4. Color: jade green
5. Gifts/presents: jewels, or (more cheaply) jewel cases with favorite CDs and DVDs
6. Vehicle: jitney
7. Items on a [...]

Eight things meme, and an extra

Camille at Book Moot tagged me some time ago for the Eight Habits/Things About Me meme. The taggee is supposed to list eight facts or habits about him- or herself, and, Camille explains,
The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player [...]

Celebrate late Spring with a Country Fair!

The Country Fair of homeschooling is open again, so grab a lemonade or a cotton candy and meander through the barns or past the pie-eating contest…
Thanks, Doc, for taking the time to put it all together!

For the birds

Late last spring, the kids asked if we could have “bird school” all summer. So, in addition to our various field guides, we pulled all of the bird books off the shelves and grouped them together in the living room on the coffee table. Indoors and out, the kids read the various books themselves, [...]

A better late than never reminder for the (Late) Late Spring Edition of Dawn’s Field Days

Dawn at By Sun and Candlelight has this season’s installment, in words and plentiful pictures, of the latest Field Day, just in time for late Spring. Rainbows, skinks, flowers, birds and bird books — something for everyone, especially on an early Spring morning or a quiet, rainy day. Thank you, Dawn, for the wonderful idea [...]

Keys to my heart

A very happy Father’s and Grandpapa’s Day to my father, and a happy Father’s Day to Tom, with whom I’m also celebrating 13 lucky years of wedded bliss. He and the kids — who made us a fabulous breakfast of homemade pancakes and bacon with whipped cream and fresh pineapple — went out this morning [...]

Poetry Friday: Up by the bootstraps edition

I missed Poetry Friday last week in the thick of things — Spring busy-ness on and off the farm — but saw yesterday via Poetry Friday founder Kelly at Big A little a that our own Susan Thomsen at Chicken Spaghetti has a terrific article on the origins of Poetry Friday, “Thank Goodness It’s [...]

You pick

the lesser of two weevils:
Doll Web Sites Drive Girls to Stay Home and Play, as reported by The New York Times yesterday (free registration or use Bug Me Not)
or
The Daring Book for Girls, the not very daring but very manufactured response to The Dangerous Book for Boys, pandering to those who say they are offended [...]

Canada’s alternative alternative

Just a snippet from yesterday’s Globe & Mail article on the new Canadian creation museum, in Big Valley, Alberta. It cost only a fraction of the U.S. version’s $27 million, but interestingly while its U.S. counterpart is known as the “creation museum”, the Canadian version bills itself as the “creation science museum”. Read the rest [...]

Happy Birthday, Grandpapa!

For Grandpapa, a Gilbert and Sullivan fan, on his birthday,
The Fable of the Magnet and the Churnby W.S. Gilbert
A magnet hung in a hardware shop,And all around was a loving cropOf scissors and needles, nails and knives,Offering love for all their lives;But for iron the magnet felt no whim,Though he charmed iron, it charmed not [...]

Worth reading

o Stephanie at Throwing Marshmallows has a terrific post about Feminism and Homeschooling.
o David Harsanyi of The Denver Post writes that Adults, not boys, have changed. Just a sampling:
What makes The Dangerous Book for Boys somewhat contentious, though, is its implicit assertion that boys and girls are very different. That [...]

Poetry Friday: Poetry and science

I arrived at the library yesterday evening to return some books to find Natalie Angier’s The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science on the new titles shelf by the front door. Yippee. Started it last night.
We have a homeschool field trip to the vet clinic, the boys are submitting [...]