A taste of home

I thought since you can't be here, I could at least show you around a bit.

First and foremost is the constant supply of chocolate chip cookies. Is there anything better? Ice cream and that...nothing better.




That's what I'm dealing with here.






Here is Jack on the front porch.

I found this big bumble bee on this brilliant cosmos flower in the front yard.



My mom and I took the kids in the back behind the house to climb a big myrtlewood tree. They love it. It's the original play structure!

Here is the back yard that I grew up in. Acres and acres to ride horses, hold salamanders and catch polywogs and frogs. We used to play hide and seek with motorcycles and three wheelers. This is where my Mom grew up too. There is a lot of history here.

I've never seen all these thistles as beautiful, especially when I was younger and had to face them with a mere hoe, but through my lens today they look nice.

Stopping for a little snack, nice little apples. My horse, Sashay, used to back her bum up against that branch that is leaning and bump, bump, bump to shake the tree and knock down apples for herself and her brother, Dynamite. Or was it Dynamite who did the work? Sis?

I did happen upon a library book sale today as I ran into town for batteries. I was eating up all the great books I found.

There were so many and at 50 cents each that was one temptation I could say a hearty YES to.

And just to set your mind at ease I haven't had a single one.

Little Pear: Big fun for little ones

This is a great book to use as a read aloud for a young child (4-8). I have been reading a chapter (or two) a day to T2 as part of our school time. It has sweet pictures on every spread which helps to hold interest and add fun. Little Pear is a 5 year old Chinese boy. In this book we experience everyday life in China from this little boy's perspective.

The beauty of this book is that it can hold a very young child's attention while still being interesting to an older child or even an adult. I love reading this book. And my oldest is drawn into the story as well. This could be a young child's first chapter book. It's an enjoyable practice to take time to savor a book. Not to read it all in one sitting. (We use post-it notes as bookmarks.) It's nice to sit down and say, "I wonder what will happen to Little Pear today?!"

Here is Little Pear with his friend Big Head. (love the name!)

Little Pear was written by Eleanor Frances Lattimore. She was an American citizen born and raised in Shanghai. Check it out from your local library.

Organizing bookshelves

How do you organize your books?

I would really like to know.

We moved awhile back and having to unpack all of the boxes of books was a brain twister for me. I couldn't figure out where to put what. We have 4 bookcases, and I would like to get another one. There are a lot of possibilities.

When we moved, I searched the internet for a website or blog that would share how one homeschooling mom out there had masterfully organized her library. I didn't find her. I'm sure she and possibly others like her do exist but where?

Where are you?

As you can see I don't have the most tidy bookshelf but we really do love our books. My main concern was that since there are numerous bookshelves sprinkled throughout the house, I wanted to organize them so they would be useful without experiencing the 'lost book syndrome'. I will often come across a book and think, "Oh!! I forgot about that book! That would have been perfect for so and so back when we were reading such and such."



See the paper taped to the right of the bookshelf? This is the list I came up with to at least get my books out of boxes and on a shelf.


Library categories:

• Homeschool books for parents
• Parenting books
• Pregnancy
• Health
• Garden
• Bible
• Language Arts
• Copywork
• Phonics and Early Reading
• Spelling
• Vocabulary
• Writing
• Literature
• Math
• History
• Science
• Nature Study
• Music
• Art
• Christian books (biographies, etc)
• Audio
• Photo Albums
• Picture books (preschool)

Feel free to share what works for you. In fact, please do!

Living books for children

Once upon a time there were three little kittens, and their names were Mittens, Tom Kitten, and Moppet. They had dear little fur coats of their own; and they tumbled about the doorstep and played in the dust. But one day their mother Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit expected friends to tea; so she fetched the kittens indoors, to wash and dress them, before the fine company arrived.


(I love this picture. I can remember what it feels like to be Moppet getting your face cleaned with a napkin, and now I am Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit wiping faces. Don't you just love the look on Moppet's face!)

Then she brushed their fur, (this one is Mittens).



Mrs. Tabitha dressed Moppet and Mittens in clean pinafores and tuckers; and then she took all sorts of elegant uncomfortable clothes out of a chest of drawers, in order to dress up her son Thomas.

(Oh boy, can I relate to poor little Tom Kitten!)

When the three kittens were ready, Mrs. Tabitha unwisely turned them out into the garden, to be out of the way while she made hot buttered toast. "Now keep your frocks clean, children! You must walk on your hind legs. Keep away from the dirty ash-pit, and from Sally Henny Penny, and from the pig-stye and the Puddle-Ducks."

Moppet and Mittens walked down the garden path unsteadily. Presently they trod upon their pinafores and fell on their noses. When they stood up there were several green smears! Let us climb up the rockery, and sit on the garden wall," said Moppet.

They turned their pinafores back to front, and went up with a skip and a jump; Moppet's white tucker fell down into the road.

Tom Kitten was quite unable to jump when walking upon his hind legs in trousers. He came up the rockery by degrees, breaking the ferns, and shedding buttons right and left. He was all in pieces when he reached the top of the wall. Moppet and Mittens tried to pull him together; his hat fell off, and the rest of his buttons burst.

While they were in difficulties, there was a pit pat paddle pat! and the three Puddle-Ducks came along the hard high road, marching one behind the other and doing the goose step - pit pat paddle pat! Pit pat waddle pat! They stopped and stood in a row, and stared up at the kittens. They had very small eyes and looked surprised. Then the two duck-birds, Rebeccah and Jemima Puddle-Duck, picked up the hat and tucker and put them on.

Mittens laughed so that she fell off the wall. Moppet and Tom descended after her; the pinafores and all the rest of Tom's clothes came off on the way down. "Come! Mr. Drake Puddle-Duck," said Moppet "Come and help us to dress him! Come and button up Tom!"

Mr Drake Puddle-Duck advanced in a slow sideways manner, and picked up the various articles. But he put them on himself! They fitted him even worse than Tom Kitten. "It's a very fine morning!" said Mr. Drake Puddle-Duck. And he and Jemima and Rebeccah Puddle-Duck set off up the road, keeping step - pit pat, paddle pat! pit pat, waddle pat!

Then Tabitha Twitchit came down the garden and found her kittens on the wall with no clothes on. She pulled them off the wall, smacked them, and took them back to the house. "My friends will arrive in a minute, and you are not fit to be seen; I am affronted," said Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit.

And I think that some day I shall have to make another, larger, book, to tell you more about Tom Kitten!

As for the Puddle-Ducks - they went into a pond. The clothes all came off directly, because there were no buttons. And Mr. Drake Puddle-Duck, and Jemima and Rebeccah, have been looking for them ever since.

When you consider the contrast between Mrs. Potter's books and the current twaddle that is presented to the children of our age it is pitiful. I go to the library and sift through dull, dumbed-down books, often with a politically correct message they are trying to foist upon my children. These, in my mind, are a waste of our children's time. Where are the good, simple stories for children? Any current Disney movie "for children" is just adult/teen attitudes, or should I say bad attitudes in cartoon form. Apparently, if it's a cartoon, no matter what the content, it's for kids. I'm tired of it. Our children are children, for heaven's sake. Childhood is a time of innocence. It's okay to protect that. That is why God gave children parents.

Back to books, I only have so much time to read aloud to my children. I will not waste those precious moments on garbage. Why not build their vocabulary, show them beautiful art (lovingly drawn by the author) and read a wonderfully crafted wholesome story all at once. That, my friend, is multi-tasking at it's best!

For more information on living books, HomeHearts has alot of good information to browse through. Grab a cup of tea and enjoy!

Christmas Book List

With Christmas around the corner, I thought I would share my on-going list of good Christmas books that I try to get from the library. If you haven't gotten comfortable requesting books from your library online yet, I would suggest looking into it. As a busy mother of young children it saves me a lot of time. I get out my booklists and sit down at the computer and order away. I can dash into the library and pick up a bag full of tried and true treasures without spending hours sorting through mountains of twaddle. (Twaddle = dumbed down literature; absence of meaning) I hold them online and slowly they start rolling in.

After reading the books ourselves, we can then decide which ones we would like to purchase for our own library. I think it's very important to live with books. Not just to borrow from the library and send them back, but to have a growing and vibrant home library that promotes a love of learning and reading. Now that we have been reading some of the same Christmas books every year, I'm starting to see the joy the boys get in reading an old favorite.

I avoid books on Santa, Frosty and Rudolph for the most part. I do think we have a few. The kids know who these characters are and they are fun kept in perspective. We don't feel we are depriving them by not playing along with the whole Santa charade. You can hardly avoid any of this type of Christmas hype by just living in the world today. On the other hand, we have to WORK HARD to remember the true meaning of Christmas and keep that our focus. We talk alot about how consumerism works, how the stores manipulate us by just pushing the next holiday. What is really important, etc. I guess the books we chose also help reinforce that.

I find it very helpful to keep a running list in a notebook of the books we've read, want to read, etc. I also have a list of Thanksgiving and Christmas books that I refer to as the season draws near. If I hear of a good Christmas book in March, I can jot it down on my list and it will still be there come November.

Do you know of a wonderful Christmas book that has escaped my list? If so, please share.

*The asterisks are to show which books we own.

*A Lion in the Box - Marguerite De Angeli
This is an older book you may have trouble finding. We always borrowed ours from the library, but decided to secure our own copy this year on Ebay. We love this story.

*The Story of Holly and Ivy - Rumer Godden


*The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey - Susan Wojciechowski

Cranberry Christmas - Harry & Wende Devlin
This goes along with another favorite of ours, Cranberry Thanksgiving.

*The Tailor of Gloucester - Beatrix Potter

*The Bird's Christmas Carol - Kate Douglas Wiggin

The Gift of the Magi - O'Henry

Becky's Christmas - Tasha Tudor

Take Joy - Tasha Tudor

*The Little Drummer Boy - Ezra Jack Keats

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree - Gloria Houston
This is a great picture book. I'd like to add this one to our library someday.

Early American Christmas - Tomie dePaola

The Family Christmas Tree Book - Tomie dePaola

*One Wintry Night - Ruth Bell Graham

One video we always like to borrow is George Balanchine's The Nutcracker.

This is a wonderful child friendly version of the Nutcracker that is enjoyable for adults as well.



Here is a more extensive list of Holiday books from The Classical Christian Education Support Loop



Primary Reading Level: 1-3

Amish Christmas by Richard Ammon

Christmas in the Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojchiechowski

Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado

First Christmas by Robbie Trent

First Christmas by Tomie de Paola

Grumpy Shepherd by Paddie Devon

Mary, Did You Know? by Mark Lowry

Modestita’s Gift, El Regalo de Modestita by Inez Torres Davis

Peter Spier’s Christmas by Peter Spier

Rembrandt: The Christmas Story published by Thomas Nelson

Silent Night by Susan Jeffers

Story of Christmas: Words from the Gospels of Matthew & Luke by Jane Ray

Who Is Coming to Our House by Joseph Slate



Elementary Reading Level: 4-6

Bells of Christmas by Virginia Hamilton

Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin

Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Christmas Stories of George MacDonald by George MacDonald

Good King Wenceslas by John Mason Neale, illus. by Christopher Manson

An Appalachian Christmas Story by Gloria Houston

On That Night by Elizabeth Yates

One Wintry Night by Ruth Graham

Oxford Illustrated Dickens’ Christmas Books by Charles Dickens

Patricia St. John Christmas Book by Patricia St. John

Rembrandt: The Christmas Story published by Thomas Nelson



Junior Reading Level: 7-9

Gift, The by R. Kent Hughes, illustrated by Ron DiCianni

Martin Luther’s Christmas Book edited by Roland H. Bainton

Rembrandt: The Christmas Story published by Thomas Nelson

The Habit of Reading

"The most common and the monstrous defect in the education of the day is that children fail to acquire the habit of reading. Knowledge is conveyed to them by lessons and talk, but the studious habit of using books as a means of interest and delight is not acquired. This habit should be begun early; so soon as the child can read at all, he should read for himself, and to himself, history, legends, fairy tales and other suitable matter. He should be trained from the first to think that one reading of any lesson is enough to enable him to narrate what he has read and will thus get the habit of slow, careful reading, intelligent even when it is silent, because he reads with an eye to the full meaning of every clause." ~Charlotte Mason

Understood Betsy

It was a warm, dark evening in late May, with the frogs piping their sweet, high note, and the first of the fireflies wheeling over the wet meadows near the tumble-down house where 'Lias lived. The girls took turns in carrying the big paper-wrapped bundle, and stole along in the shadow of the trees, full of excitement, looking over their shoulders at nothing and pressing their hands over their mouths to keep back the giggles. There was, of course, no reason on earth why they should giggle, which is, of course, the very reason why they did. If you've ever been a little girl you know about that.

One window of the small house was dimly lighted, they found, when they came in sight of it, and they thrilled with excitement and joyful alarm. Suppose 'Lias's dreadful stepfather should come out and yell at them! They came forward on tiptoe, making a great deal of noise by stepping on twigs, rustling bushes, crackling gravel under their feet and doing all the other things that make such a noise at night and never do in the daytime. But nobody stirred inside the room with the lighted window. They crept forward and peeped cautiously inside . . . and stopped giggling. The dim light coming from the little kerosene lamp with a smoky chimney fell on a dismal, cluttered room, a bare, greasy wooden table, and two broken-backed chairs, with little 'Lias in one of them. He had fallen asleep with his head on his arms, his pinched, dirty, sad little figure showing in the light from the lamp. His feet dangled high above the floor in their broken, muddy shoes. One sleeve was torn to the shoulder. A piece of dry bread had slipped from his bony little hand and a tin dipper stood beside him on the bare table. Nobody else was in the room, nor evidently in the darkened, empty, fireless house.

As long as she lives Betsy will never forget what she saw that night through that window. Her eyes grew very hot and her hands very cold. Her heart thumped hard. She reached for little Molly and gave her a great hug in the darkness. Suppose it were little Molly asleep there, all alone in the dirty, dismal house, with no supper and nobody to put her to bed. She found that Ellen, next her, was crying quietly into the corner of her apron.

Nobody said a word. Stashie, who had the bundle, walked around soberly to the front door, put it down, and knocked loudly. They all darted away noiselessly to the road, to the shadow of the trees, and waited until the door opened. A square of yellow light appeared, with 'Lias's figure, very small, at the bottom of it. They saw him stoop and pick up the bundle and go back into the house. Then they went quickly and silently back, separating at the cross-roads with no good-night greetings.


You can read the entire book online by going to The Baldwin Project. Although I doubt anyone would want to do that. It's so much more enjoyable to sprawl on the floor or couch with an actual book. I like to read a chapter or two a day to the kids. Or as many as I can stay awake for! More often it is a half to one chapter.

I've gotten many books on tape or cd from the library for the kids. Those are great for building a child's vocabulary, but I think you miss something by hearing the whole story in one sitting.

Suspense.

It's enjoyable to let the story build and ruminate in our minds, to wonder what will happen to little 'Lias tomorrow when he comes to school with the new clothes Betsy and her 'sewing society' made secretly for the poor little ragamuffin with no mother and only a mean ole' drunkard stepfather. Will Mr. Pond see him all cleaned up and take him home?

We'll find out tomorrow.

You see...suspense.

It's a journey we take together. We share inside jokes and comments relating to the story we are reading, or have read. It's not plopping them down in front of a kids' video, they in their own world and me in mine. It's living life together. Enjoying the trip.



Below is an excerpt of Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn's article Ten Things to Do with your child Before Age Ten regarding reading aloud to children.

Hearing and Listening

By reading aloud to your child, he learns the sound of words, he increases his vocabulary, he enlarges his conceptions of the world, and he develops his imagination. We suggest that you read to your child at least two hours a day. Read from a wide variety of good literature, biographies, and historical fiction. Include books on science, geography, art, music, and history.

Three do nots: Do not be afraid to read to young children books with long chapters. A five year old is capable of attending to and understanding much of such books as Treasure Island or Journey to the Center of the Earth. Do not waste your time reading "fast-food" type books (e.g. Babysitter Club books or Nancy Drew mysteries). Do not require your children to sit beside you on the couch perfectly still while you read. As long as they stayed in the room and were not distracting or interrupting, we allowed our children to play quietly with their toys or to work on cross-stitching or to draw or some similar quiet project, while we read aloud. Many children listen much better when they are doing something with their hands — indeed, it seems some little boys cannot sit still long enough to listen unless they are holding something. Some parents combine narration with read aloud times.

We do not often read aloud in one uninterrupted two-hour-long stretch. We read some in the morning, some in the afternoon, and some at night. There are notable exceptions. I remember one day when we read The Long Winter by Laura Ingles Wilder in one long stretch, skipping everything else which would interrupt our reading the day away.

Reading aloud is my favorite part of homeschooling. How many others have had this experience: I am sitting on the couch (a chair would never do) reading a good book, such as Men of Iron by Howard Pyle. One child sits on my right, and one child sits on my left, and one child sits on the back of the couch behind my neck, and one child sits on my lap. The fifth child has to make do. Everyone must to be situated, just so, in order to see all of the pictures — which must be examined minutely before the page is turned. This is one of the ways God taught me patience. Let them look at the pictures and ask their questions. We will eventually find out who wins the joust. Last year, my oldest daughter, Johannah, painted this cosy scene for us, collaging photos from long ago, putting us all into one memorable picture. I was wearing braids and sitting on that old brown couch which long ago met the rubbish pile after much good use. If I could have just an hour of that time again, right now, I would gladly read Corduroy fifteen times in a row and not complain.

When I read a book which includes dialog written in a dialect, I try to imitate the foreign accent. This tends to spill over into other conversations — even when answering the phone. The children are embarrassed when we drive into the McDonald's drive through, and I order the hamburgers in a Scottish brogue.