But I felt like sharing these stanzas from Wendell Berry's Sabbaths 1998 VI.
By expenditure of hope,
Intelligence, and work,
You think you have it fixed.
It is unfixed by rule.
Within the darkness, all
Is being changed, and you
Also will be changed...
For every year is costly,
As you well know. Nothing
Is given that is not
Taken, and nothing taken
That was not first a gift.
Lines to muse on as the year draws to its close.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Nature Study for City Kids
This post from The Scientific Homeschooler had me thinking about our science program again. I'd been put off by a difficulty in finding a secular science curriculum and it's been pretty non-existent this year as far as formal study goes, although we're starting to get back into it, with Lucy beginning biology and Arwen expressing an interest in learning about astronomy.
As far as informal study goes, something that's worked well for us since our Charlotte Mason years ( yes! there are secular CM'ers, though you have to do some quite nimble mental jumps to get over the religious content ), is the habit of nature study. When I first began reading about the importance of nature study in CM ideas, it had me panicked. We're a suburban family - no woods or ponds or commons nearby - and we don't even have a huge garden, like the one I grew up with in the outer suburbs, because we're in the tightly packed inner suburbs... a lot of houses, little green space.
Charlotte suggests a 20 minute bus trip into the countryside. That just about gets us half way to the nearest large park. Out of necessity, we started looking closer to home.
It's incidental, the way we look. There's no set time - it might be at the park, on a walk to the shops, playing in the yard or looking out the window at night. Yesterday we were out in the garden and Lucy pointed out a St Andrews Cross spider to Snowy. We watch the way our crepe myrtle tree breaks into leaf and then into purple bloom; we watch it becoming bare when the weather cools. On a walk to the cafe, we see ant swarms everywhere and notice the ants are all swarming around a particular kind of moth. For several weeks we listen to a pair of bats who become raucous as soon as evening settles. Coming home from the shops, past the tennis courts, we see a bird we don't know the name of, come home and look it up. One night we opened the curtains wide and instead of going to sleep, watched an electrical storm crack and break across the sky. We keep an eye on the moon and the stars. We see the eucalypts flower, hear the drone of bees and take care to wear shoes in the yard.
When the girls were younger and I was more diligent - or perhaps we were home more and had the time - the girls recorded what they saw in a nature journal. We also did some easy nature study activities, like these:
Your child might like to search outside for interesting leaves or pods, then bring them back inside to sketch. Encourage your child to observe and include as much detail as possible. Unopened pods can be taken home and put in a paper bag to open.
Younger children might like to make a leaf or bark rubbing. Place leaf or bark under a sheet of paper and rub across with a crayon until the imprint appears. You can make bark rubbings ‘in the field’ by placing a sheet of paper on a tree trunk. It’s interesting to compare the patterns made by different trees and leaves.
Your child might like to settle down outside to sketch a tree or plant or insect she has noticed. Again, encourage detail, as this will make her sketch more interesting to look at later.
If your child doesn’t want to draw, he can be a nature explorer by using the cardboard frames. Hold them up to the sky, down on the ground, over a leaf, and encourage your child to really look at and describe what he sees. Framing an area in this way helps develop close observation skills.
Perhaps you have a child who loves to collect! She could make a nature collection at the park to take home and display. Any interesting leaves she collects can be put between 2 sheets of waxed paper (waxed sides facing in) and the paper ironed together – leaves can then be taped to the window for an attractive nature display.
I don't do that so much with Snowy, but his observations of the natural world become either topics for further questions and investigations or a context in which other information - books, museums, science shows - become linked to real life as he has experienced it. I hope the years the girls spent observing and keeping their nature journals gives them a context for their new studies too. It may not be exploring the wonder of God's creation for us but it's still a wondrous exploration of another kind.
As far as informal study goes, something that's worked well for us since our Charlotte Mason years ( yes! there are secular CM'ers, though you have to do some quite nimble mental jumps to get over the religious content ), is the habit of nature study. When I first began reading about the importance of nature study in CM ideas, it had me panicked. We're a suburban family - no woods or ponds or commons nearby - and we don't even have a huge garden, like the one I grew up with in the outer suburbs, because we're in the tightly packed inner suburbs... a lot of houses, little green space.
Charlotte suggests a 20 minute bus trip into the countryside. That just about gets us half way to the nearest large park. Out of necessity, we started looking closer to home.
It's incidental, the way we look. There's no set time - it might be at the park, on a walk to the shops, playing in the yard or looking out the window at night. Yesterday we were out in the garden and Lucy pointed out a St Andrews Cross spider to Snowy. We watch the way our crepe myrtle tree breaks into leaf and then into purple bloom; we watch it becoming bare when the weather cools. On a walk to the cafe, we see ant swarms everywhere and notice the ants are all swarming around a particular kind of moth. For several weeks we listen to a pair of bats who become raucous as soon as evening settles. Coming home from the shops, past the tennis courts, we see a bird we don't know the name of, come home and look it up. One night we opened the curtains wide and instead of going to sleep, watched an electrical storm crack and break across the sky. We keep an eye on the moon and the stars. We see the eucalypts flower, hear the drone of bees and take care to wear shoes in the yard.
When the girls were younger and I was more diligent - or perhaps we were home more and had the time - the girls recorded what they saw in a nature journal. We also did some easy nature study activities, like these:
Your child might like to search outside for interesting leaves or pods, then bring them back inside to sketch. Encourage your child to observe and include as much detail as possible. Unopened pods can be taken home and put in a paper bag to open.
Younger children might like to make a leaf or bark rubbing. Place leaf or bark under a sheet of paper and rub across with a crayon until the imprint appears. You can make bark rubbings ‘in the field’ by placing a sheet of paper on a tree trunk. It’s interesting to compare the patterns made by different trees and leaves.
Your child might like to settle down outside to sketch a tree or plant or insect she has noticed. Again, encourage detail, as this will make her sketch more interesting to look at later.
If your child doesn’t want to draw, he can be a nature explorer by using the cardboard frames. Hold them up to the sky, down on the ground, over a leaf, and encourage your child to really look at and describe what he sees. Framing an area in this way helps develop close observation skills.
Perhaps you have a child who loves to collect! She could make a nature collection at the park to take home and display. Any interesting leaves she collects can be put between 2 sheets of waxed paper (waxed sides facing in) and the paper ironed together – leaves can then be taped to the window for an attractive nature display.
I don't do that so much with Snowy, but his observations of the natural world become either topics for further questions and investigations or a context in which other information - books, museums, science shows - become linked to real life as he has experienced it. I hope the years the girls spent observing and keeping their nature journals gives them a context for their new studies too. It may not be exploring the wonder of God's creation for us but it's still a wondrous exploration of another kind.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Twelfth Night
A Guest Post by Lucy ...
Yesterday evening I went to see a play of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. The company that made it changed it, which I think was interesting, because they made it as if the actors were lost fire fighters during the Victorian bush fires, who were acting out the play to pass the time until they were rescued. There were some funny scenes, like when Malvolio was reading the fake love letter supposedly from Olivia, and Maria, Sir Toby Belch, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek were pretending to be box trees, so they could listen. My favourite characters were Viola and Feste , but I didn't like Maria or Sir Toby Belch; I enjoyed the scene at the very beginning where Viola and the ship's captain who rescued her are talking and Viola decides she will pretend to be a man, but found it frustrating when Viola and Sebastian kept on so narrowly missing each other. I was also a little disappointed that Feste didn't sing his song at the end.
Yesterday evening I went to see a play of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. The company that made it changed it, which I think was interesting, because they made it as if the actors were lost fire fighters during the Victorian bush fires, who were acting out the play to pass the time until they were rescued. There were some funny scenes, like when Malvolio was reading the fake love letter supposedly from Olivia, and Maria, Sir Toby Belch, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek were pretending to be box trees, so they could listen. My favourite characters were Viola and Feste , but I didn't like Maria or Sir Toby Belch; I enjoyed the scene at the very beginning where Viola and the ship's captain who rescued her are talking and Viola decides she will pretend to be a man, but found it frustrating when Viola and Sebastian kept on so narrowly missing each other. I was also a little disappointed that Feste didn't sing his song at the end.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Poetry Friday
Crow
Scavenger. Unmelodic and
jagged with lost sleep.
Suburb dweller. Crow
perched on top of the pine.
Calling, the intervals random,
only the tone predictable -
its broken yearning -
calling the prodigals,
the wanderers,
Eyes on the children
who play on the morning-wet lawn.
Heart in flight. Kin.
Visit RandomNoodling for more of Poetry Friday!
Scavenger. Unmelodic and
jagged with lost sleep.
Suburb dweller. Crow
perched on top of the pine.
Calling, the intervals random,
only the tone predictable -
its broken yearning -
calling the prodigals,
the wanderers,
Eyes on the children
who play on the morning-wet lawn.
Heart in flight. Kin.
Visit RandomNoodling for more of Poetry Friday!
Young Ladies Book Club
It's been a Jane Austen term, and although we've briefly discussed romance, marriage and irony in Austen's novels, the focus has been on Regency life. Using Hands On Regency we've spent time in such ladylike pursuits as quilling and today, in creating a Regency up do. Frivolous but fun.
Some of the girls are performing in Pride and Prejudice, so we had a costumed Miss Lucas and a Mrs Bennet and a young lady in white day gown along.
Thanks to all who came along and took part today.
Some of the girls are performing in Pride and Prejudice, so we had a costumed Miss Lucas and a Mrs Bennet and a young lady in white day gown along.
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| Arwen looked the part from the neck up! |
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| Lucy and Miss Lucas and random brush |
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| Mrs Bennet and companion |
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| Young ladies looking beautiful and anxiously waiting for me to finish taking photos so they can change and eat morning tea... |
Thanks to all who came along and took part today.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Deck The Halls - The Summer Version
It's true that December brings out my inner Grinch, but after a good whinge on a discussion at SecularHomeschool - and, more shamefully, making my 6 year old cry when I declared that I did not like Christmas - I decided to get my festive act together.
It was Nigella who made it possible. It suddenly occurred to me that Christmas was possibly the only time of year I could justify cooking her rather bizarre Ham cooked in Cherry Coke. And just the idea of cooking a new Nigella recipe, especially an odd one, made me so happy that I immediately sat down to think of all the other festive hoo-hah.
The problem I have with Christmas is that, for a secular family living in the southern hemisphere, the celebration and traditions make no sense from either a spiritual or a seasonal perspective. It must have been the Coke, because my brain suddenly went into overdrive as I realised that all I needed to do was change the name. Christmas - bah, humbug - became our Summer Festival. (And no, celebrating the summer solstice isn't the same thing at all. For one thing, it's always a few days before Christmas, which means you end up celebrating solstice and Christmas, meaning double the work.)
And once I had a Summer Festival in mind, all became easy. Instead of making snowmen and Santas, this year we'll make suncatchers. We won't be joining the queues to visit Santa's cave but we will make time to visit the beach. Perhaps we'll make our own summer calendar with surprises behind the windows - things like make home-made icecream and jelly or spend the day at the pool or movie of your choice or build a stick house in the yard.
Lucy is planning a summer nature table to make with Snowy. I'm planning on making fruit print wrapping paper with him as well. And instead of battling to make a gingerbread house in humid, 30 degree heat, we'll try making marzipan fruit instead.
True, I haven't solved either the Christmas tree or the Santa thing yet. And I haven't even thought about presents. Family size 30 plus sunscreen anyone ? It's a joke, kids.
Don't forget to visit SmrtLernins for links to more Secular Thursday posts.
It was Nigella who made it possible. It suddenly occurred to me that Christmas was possibly the only time of year I could justify cooking her rather bizarre Ham cooked in Cherry Coke. And just the idea of cooking a new Nigella recipe, especially an odd one, made me so happy that I immediately sat down to think of all the other festive hoo-hah.
The problem I have with Christmas is that, for a secular family living in the southern hemisphere, the celebration and traditions make no sense from either a spiritual or a seasonal perspective. It must have been the Coke, because my brain suddenly went into overdrive as I realised that all I needed to do was change the name. Christmas - bah, humbug - became our Summer Festival. (And no, celebrating the summer solstice isn't the same thing at all. For one thing, it's always a few days before Christmas, which means you end up celebrating solstice and Christmas, meaning double the work.)
And once I had a Summer Festival in mind, all became easy. Instead of making snowmen and Santas, this year we'll make suncatchers. We won't be joining the queues to visit Santa's cave but we will make time to visit the beach. Perhaps we'll make our own summer calendar with surprises behind the windows - things like make home-made icecream and jelly or spend the day at the pool or movie of your choice or build a stick house in the yard.
Lucy is planning a summer nature table to make with Snowy. I'm planning on making fruit print wrapping paper with him as well. And instead of battling to make a gingerbread house in humid, 30 degree heat, we'll try making marzipan fruit instead.
True, I haven't solved either the Christmas tree or the Santa thing yet. And I haven't even thought about presents. Family size 30 plus sunscreen anyone ? It's a joke, kids.
Don't forget to visit SmrtLernins for links to more Secular Thursday posts.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
'Tis the Season
After trying to sell me white-trash pyjamas for my children, the mall helpfully provided me with a list of 21 Steps to a Stress-Free Christmas. It would be cruel to make you read all of them. The only way to accomplish this list is to renounce all other tasks - work, childcare, meal preparation, showering and sleep - and focus on more useful things, such as matching wrapping paper to the recipient's personality or filling up your iPod with a playlist of festive tunes or sourcing cutlery, crockery, glassware and tableware to suit your 2010 theme. And whatever you do, don't forget to add little extras like handwritten place cards or personalised crackers.
Followed as written they are steps to a very interesting 25th spent having a nervous breakdown under the doona. My stress-free Christmas has only three steps, meaning you can skip prepare any outdoor areas for entertaining and give the house a good clean and you may be able to get away without booking your wax session, pedicure and blow dry in plenty of time for the big day.
1.Wake up.
2. Give everyone a book and some chocolate - an audio book for non-readers - and
3. Go back to bed with a cup of tea, staying there, except for trips to the kitchen for cherries or a ham sandwich or another cup of tea.
And failing that, waking up on the 25th only to discover I am actually Jewish.
Yes, I know. I Lack Christmas Spirit. I do make a great latke though.
Followed as written they are steps to a very interesting 25th spent having a nervous breakdown under the doona. My stress-free Christmas has only three steps, meaning you can skip prepare any outdoor areas for entertaining and give the house a good clean and you may be able to get away without booking your wax session, pedicure and blow dry in plenty of time for the big day.
1.Wake up.
2. Give everyone a book and some chocolate - an audio book for non-readers - and
3. Go back to bed with a cup of tea, staying there, except for trips to the kitchen for cherries or a ham sandwich or another cup of tea.
And failing that, waking up on the 25th only to discover I am actually Jewish.
Yes, I know. I Lack Christmas Spirit. I do make a great latke though.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Dickens Dropouts
Although I've been enjoying the verbal gymnastics required to read Great Expectations aloud, the girls have not been enjoying the narrative in equal measure. They loathe Estella, feel terribly sorry for Joe and Biddy and have not a skerrick of affection for Pip. Which makes the prospect of another 40 or so chapters not so cheery. Lucy might read it on her own, just to see how things turn out, but Arwen - when not comatose with boredom - is begging me for fun and fantasy. I may have to visit the bookshop this week. What a terrible chore!
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| Truly Dickensian Children |
Friday, November 12, 2010
Poetry Friday
Because, suddenly, the weather is warm and humid and I'm thinking of the sea...
Santorin
Stoop if you can to the dark sea forgettingThe sound of a flute to naked feet
That trod in your sleep in the other the sunken life
Write if you can on your last shell
The day the name the place
And cast it to sink in the sea.
From 'Gymnopaedia'
Giorgos Seferis
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Books Without Bias - A Secular Thursday Post
Which is impossible, but some books hit you over the head with it more than others. Usborne History Pockets - Ancient Civilizations wears its bias lightly and approaches history with an an anthropological style, presenting information rather than story and putting roughly equal emphasis on East/West civilizations.
That isn't why I bought it. It was a desperation purchase, when I found that my second child, at the age of six or seven, refused to listen to Story Of the World for a single second of her homeschooling life. The basic idea is that children use the information and the templates in the book to explore six major ancient civilizations in a hands-on, project based way.
Not those kind of projects! Not the kind that take a whole day's trek to find supplies for, another day to make, another day to clean up and a fourth day to recover - there's 'school' gone for the week! - no, the kind that need a pair of scissors, a glue stick and some crayons at most.
The 'pocket' bit refers to a fancy folder you're supposed to make to store all the projects in, which I did diligently with #2 and ignored with #3. A manila folder works fine. Then there's a words to know activity, a postcard project, some puppets dressed in the clothing of the culture and a variety of other paper-based tasks to complete. For example, Snowy, who is studying Ancient Rome, made this laurel wreath crown, and posed for you as Julius Ceasar ( yes, in a Toy Story 3 t-shirt - you didn't think I was going to mess around with togas, did you ? )
It's fairly high-interest for little kids, you don't have to grapple with bible stories, it doesn't require a lot of pre-planning, it's inexpensive and it's something you can show off to sceptical relatives or use as a memory jogger over time.
The bad bits ? You absolutely have to supplement. There are info pages for 'teachers' included but it's not enough on its own. Snowy and I have been reading a book set in Ancient Rome ( Miranda the Great by Eleanor Estes ) and an Usborne Beginners Romans book to flesh out the Pocket. And if you or your child detests project work, you'll be throwing this across the room shortly after opening it.
If what you're after though, is a taste of history on your child's metaphorical plate ( the same way you might put a tiny bit of zucchini on his real plate, just to try ) the History Pockets are worth a look.
As is the smrtlernins blog for links to more Secular Thursday posts.
That isn't why I bought it. It was a desperation purchase, when I found that my second child, at the age of six or seven, refused to listen to Story Of the World for a single second of her homeschooling life. The basic idea is that children use the information and the templates in the book to explore six major ancient civilizations in a hands-on, project based way.
Not those kind of projects! Not the kind that take a whole day's trek to find supplies for, another day to make, another day to clean up and a fourth day to recover - there's 'school' gone for the week! - no, the kind that need a pair of scissors, a glue stick and some crayons at most.
The 'pocket' bit refers to a fancy folder you're supposed to make to store all the projects in, which I did diligently with #2 and ignored with #3. A manila folder works fine. Then there's a words to know activity, a postcard project, some puppets dressed in the clothing of the culture and a variety of other paper-based tasks to complete. For example, Snowy, who is studying Ancient Rome, made this laurel wreath crown, and posed for you as Julius Ceasar ( yes, in a Toy Story 3 t-shirt - you didn't think I was going to mess around with togas, did you ? )
 |
| He's so cute... |
It's fairly high-interest for little kids, you don't have to grapple with bible stories, it doesn't require a lot of pre-planning, it's inexpensive and it's something you can show off to sceptical relatives or use as a memory jogger over time.
The bad bits ? You absolutely have to supplement. There are info pages for 'teachers' included but it's not enough on its own. Snowy and I have been reading a book set in Ancient Rome ( Miranda the Great by Eleanor Estes ) and an Usborne Beginners Romans book to flesh out the Pocket. And if you or your child detests project work, you'll be throwing this across the room shortly after opening it.
If what you're after though, is a taste of history on your child's metaphorical plate ( the same way you might put a tiny bit of zucchini on his real plate, just to try ) the History Pockets are worth a look.
As is the smrtlernins blog for links to more Secular Thursday posts.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Clash
When I write a poem, I like to stay up very late while everyone else in my house is asleep. I like to write at the kitchen table, drinking tea and eating chocolate, and reading my drafts aloud, making changes as I go. I like to lie awake in bed, even later, and think about writing poems and about particular images which have made their way into my drafts. In the morning I like to sleep late, rising only to make a cup of tea and bring it back to bed so that I can re-read last night's draft and see what survives of it in the stronger light of morning and what, in contrast, needs to be cut.
When I am being the kind of mother I think I would like to be, I rise at least as early as the second child. I make a decent breakfast. I supervise vitamins and teeth and hair and choice of clothing and I do my chores and make sure the children are doing their chores and settle everyone at the kitchen table to do their maths and provide them with meals and an education and love and concern and playdates and excursions till night falls and I ease them all into sleep and then I go to bed early and make lists in my head called Things To Do Tomorrow.
And even thinking about that contrast is so Western, so decadent, so much the spoilt complaint of a woman who has running water and food and a house and an education and children who are safe -
And yet. It's as though the mother and the poet are Babushka dolls of the same size, and neither can fit easily in the other.
When I am being the kind of mother I think I would like to be, I rise at least as early as the second child. I make a decent breakfast. I supervise vitamins and teeth and hair and choice of clothing and I do my chores and make sure the children are doing their chores and settle everyone at the kitchen table to do their maths and provide them with meals and an education and love and concern and playdates and excursions till night falls and I ease them all into sleep and then I go to bed early and make lists in my head called Things To Do Tomorrow.
And even thinking about that contrast is so Western, so decadent, so much the spoilt complaint of a woman who has running water and food and a house and an education and children who are safe -
And yet. It's as though the mother and the poet are Babushka dolls of the same size, and neither can fit easily in the other.
Monday, November 8, 2010
The Wonderland of Evolution
The Wonderland of Nature by Nuri Mass has been reprinted now, but a few years ago, when I heard about it on a CM discussion list, it was second hand copies only. The girls still remember when, after months of looking, I pounced upon a copy at St Vinnies for a dollar, the pinnacle of homeschool bargains.
I suppose it's the Australian version of Comstock's Handbook of Nature Studies. It's in five sections; Insects, A Few Other Small Animals, Plants, The Seashore and Remarkable Everyday Things. What I find remarkable about it is the way Nuri Mass, in a conversational style, presents sound science history as imaginative narrative.
This is how her section on plants begins.
Long ago, when the Earth was young, plants lived only in the sea. The very first of these was a little alga, with only one cell. As time went on, bigger and more complicated plants began to appear....
Things went on like this for millions of years before the first flowers appeared on Earth. That's hard to believe, isn't it ?
In one page, she presents a child with three ideas - that life has evolved from simple to more complex forms, that this evolution took place on a huge time scale but also that this deserves our curiosity and our wonder. It may not be God's creation that we see, but it is marvellous indeed, and a necessary foundation for an interest in the world.
It's a lovely book to use. Besides the easy style, Mass includes many sketches illustrating her stories, and poems that lighten the mood and reflect the book's content. It can be read through in order, or dipped into as a resource to reflect and broaden what a child is observing in nature around him. It's also a great book to use as part of a multi-disciplinary unit study on evolution as many chapters support and explain evolutionary theory..
The reprinted edition can be purchased from http://www.downunderlit.com/
And please also visit Kylie's blog at Our Worldwide Classroom to read more pre history/history of evolution themed posts or to join her blog hop http://ourworldwideclassroom.blogspot.com/2010/10/way-back-when-charles-darwin-beagle.html
Monday, November 1, 2010
Daybook
Listening - I've just finished listening to a serialisation on Radio National of Susan Maushart's new book, "The Winter of Our Disconnect", about the six months she and her teenage children spent digital-free. Trying to go six hours without gadgets here is hard enough. We used to be such Luddites; I don't know what happened to us. I do know that I enjoyed Susan's book, even if it is a little pun-heavy.
Reading - too many blogs. See above. My favourites at the moment ? Blogs that remind me of life a few years ago when we spent a lot more time doing hands-on projects together.. Here http://www.gsheller.com/2010/10/our-beeswax-fun.html or here http://snowflakesinthevalley.blogspot.com/2010/11/beltane.html
Creating - safer ground here. Poems. Plans.
Wondering - about the ethics of spending a huge sum on money on the health of a ( very sweet, much loved, still young ) guinea pig.
Researching - mines, darkness, rescue equipment.
Hoping - that the guinea pig is miraculously cured by morning.
A thought - When you want to teach children to think, you begin by treating them seriously when they are little, giving them responsibilities, talking to them candidly, providing privacy and solitude for them, and making them readers and thinkers of significant thoughts from the beginning. That's if you want to teach them to think. --Bertrand Russell
Some pictures I'm sharing - our most recent hands-on moment - a sun print made by Snowy. To my shame, we only did this project because I needed to write about it for the HEA magazine 'Stepping Stones'. Bad mama! Must..Do..Better. We were supposed to plant sunflower seeds this week but the birds ate them. Not from the soil - we didn't get that far - but from the packet...
Reading - too many blogs. See above. My favourites at the moment ? Blogs that remind me of life a few years ago when we spent a lot more time doing hands-on projects together.. Here http://www.gsheller.com/2010/10/our-beeswax-fun.html or here http://snowflakesinthevalley.blogspot.com/2010/11/beltane.html
Creating - safer ground here. Poems. Plans.
Wondering - about the ethics of spending a huge sum on money on the health of a ( very sweet, much loved, still young ) guinea pig.
Researching - mines, darkness, rescue equipment.
Hoping - that the guinea pig is miraculously cured by morning.
A thought - When you want to teach children to think, you begin by treating them seriously when they are little, giving them responsibilities, talking to them candidly, providing privacy and solitude for them, and making them readers and thinkers of significant thoughts from the beginning. That's if you want to teach them to think. --Bertrand Russell
Some pictures I'm sharing - our most recent hands-on moment - a sun print made by Snowy. To my shame, we only did this project because I needed to write about it for the HEA magazine 'Stepping Stones'. Bad mama! Must..Do..Better. We were supposed to plant sunflower seeds this week but the birds ate them. Not from the soil - we didn't get that far - but from the packet...
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