Time for delurking

Kris Bordessa, who blogs at Paradise Found, home schools, and writes nifty nonfiction for kids, says it’s Delurking Week so I believe her. Having made so many invisible friends through this blog, and from leaving comments at others’ blogs, I like the idea of meeting, and getting to know, new readers. Now’s your [...]

Oscar Peterson (1925-2007)

Oscar Peterson, the Canadian jazz piano virtuoso whose Christmas CD we played only yesterday on our tree hunting expedition, died yesterday evening of kidney failure at the age of 82. He died at home in his sleep.
Many thanks, Mr. Peterson, for so many years of pleasure.

Lockdown

If we lived around Edmonton and if the kids were older and attended public school, we might be dealing with the following situation next week, as described in this excerpt from a letter from the principal sent home yesterday with students:
An Important Notice to the [School] Community
Five weeks ago, a student reported to a teacher [...]

Latest from art lessons

Laura’s been taking art lessons for about a year and a half now, and Daniel since September. Since I’m playing with the digital camera, I thought I’d try my hand at their latest efforts, completed this month:

Cowboy and horse by DanielThis is his second or third project since September; heused a grid and acrylic paints, [...]

Relief

1) The cold snap seems to have snapped and we’ve enjoyed two days so far, with the promise of a few more to come, of very mild winter weather. Which here means around 32F, a far cry from the 0F to -40F we’ve had for the past month or so, along with howling winds and [...]

Boo! II

The spooky and scary children’s author Neil Gaiman in today’s New York Times (should work without the free registration; otherwise try Bug Me Not):
When I was growing up in England, Halloween was no time for celebration. It was the night when, we were assured, the dead walked, when all the things of night were loosed, [...]

Ever eager to help separate Gentle Readers from their money…

If you or your kids are keen on good quality colored pencils, the fine folks at the Canadian company Lee Valley, who sell some nifty woodworking tools, hardware, and garden tools have an even niftier autumn mail order special, not available at any of their stores; I get no kickbacks, discounts, or other remuneration. Just [...]

"Do you home school?"…

asks Jennifer Armstrong, author of the new children’s history book, The American Story, I mentioned on Tuesday, the date of publication:
I’m going to make sure that when my new site is up and has the classroom history contests it makes provision for a home school family or group to participate. Maybe a homeschooling family [...]

The Country Fair is back

The sixth Country Fair is up.
My favorite post so far is from Karen, in part because I’m delighted to discover her blog, lightingthefires, by another Canadian homeschooler. Which I know because she has posted recently about a free online Canadian history program and the Sir John A. action figure that I wrote about the [...]

Late summer catching up

It’s been another busy week, and besides the usual weeding of the thousand trees it’s been dry enough to start watering the garden, because the beans and cucumbers keep coming, the tomatoes have started, and the corn is on its way. On Saturday we enjoyed a wonderful party celebrating the 50th anniversary of a dear [...]

I am trying very hard not to drool on the keyboard

because I discovered tonight that The Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich which I find so wonderfully delightful and delightfully wonderful was released in June as an unabridged audio CD; while my ideal audio version would include narration by a grandfatherly Viennese gentleman, the prospect of Ralph Cosham seems promising.
This it strikes [...]

Homeschooling meme

I’ve been tagged for a homeschooling meme by Lissa in her Lilting House, and though we’re still enjoying summer — it’s still warm, hurray, and I’m still battling weeds in the shelterbelt trees and now a sneaky mole in my raised bed vegetable garden — the project seems like a good way to start making [...]

Happy birthday, Laura dear

who is a very nifty nine today. May all your dreams, with and without horses, come true.
He stopped again.“Would you tell me what you want most in the world?…Would you tell me that?”He was looking at her.“Horses,” she said, “sir.”“To ride on? To own for yourself?”He was still looking at her, as though he [...]

Book meme

I saw this first at Rebecca’s Gypsy Caravan, and then Kelly’s Big A little a and decided to play since it’s cool and cloudy today and I need a break in between washing the kitchen floor and cleaning the fridge. And this reminds me that I owe LaMai a book meme, too, which I’ll have [...]

Carry on…

We’re making the most of the last of the season, enjoying summer (and summer must be enjoying us, too, because we’re having another heat wave). My sister-in-law and her two little boys are here for a visit, the garden is exploding, the chicks and ducklings and other farm babies are getting bigger and eating more [...]

Zero tolerance, indeed

Thanks to JoVE at Tricotomania for the head’s up on this article from yesterday’s Globe & Mail:
It could be the most costly piece of punctuation in Canada.
A grammatical blunder may force Rogers Communications Inc. to pay an extra $2.13-million to use utility poles in the Maritimes after the placement of a comma in a contract [...]

Filched shamelessly…

from Rebecca’s Gypsy Caravan, where she writes about her family’s recent afternoon at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, including the special Children’s Garden, outside of which is a stone with the following from the great American horticulturist Luther Burbank engraved upon it:
Every child should have mudpies, grasshoppers, water bugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, [...]

Domesday for the new millenium

The Domesday Book is now available online, and is searchable and downloadable as well, thanks to the National Archives of England, Wales, and the United Kingdom. Many, many thanks indeed.
Worthwhile too, though not as new, is the National Archives’ Learning Curves website, a free online teaching and learning resource that follows the History National [...]

Road SCHOLA

L. and her family are back (still Down Under) and better than ever at Road SCHOLA. And I can now see every last word of the posts, hurray! Am now off to read them, double hurray!!

Late links

Here are some late links — for books, curriculum, and other things — that I’m only now, post-fair, getting around to posting:
Nicola’s Canadian history reading list is back up but at a new home, thanks to Jyl;
Melissa suggested it in her Charlotte Mason post, and Amy ran with it: the new Charlotte Mason blog, in [...]