tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90151251943228363102012-03-15T11:58:35.304+11:00Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.comBlogger2181100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-2624131292094617982012-03-14T16:06:00.000+11:002012-03-14T16:06:05.460+11:00

Just the other night we were talking about knitting at the dinner table, and Snowy was surprised to find out that once upon a time, knitting was a man's job, done at nights and when weather was too bad to take the boats out fishing. Fast forward to last night and Snowy was googling images of Yoshi, which he does at night and when the weather is too bad etc. "Look, a knitted Yoshi!" I replied

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-26817346453983222612012-03-14T11:51:00.001+11:002012-03-14T12:13:02.648+11:00

Just thought I'd quickly post the resources Lucy is using. I've mentioned before that she is reading Susan Wise Bauer's History of the Medieval World. Yes, it's somewhat heavy on church history but that's inescapable when dealing with the time period. To balance out the dense reading, Lucy has also been using a lighter unit study from the Women in World History Curriculum. She's been reading

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-6941665936821367812012-03-08T17:52:00.006+11:002012-03-08T18:06:35.740+11:00

Home EducationThe Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer The Well Educated Mind by the same and The History of the Medieval World - SWB again. I'm finding some interesting areas of agreement with SWB when it comes to Grades 9-12. Less in terms of subject choice, more in terms of a philosophy of education for young people.  FictionAll Clear and Blackout by Connie Willis A Red Herring Without

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-33851417146258280032012-02-23T17:06:00.000+11:002012-02-23T17:06:08.351+11:00

The girls have started Lent. You might think it's their Catholic heritage manifesting at last. You'd be wrong. They do Lent so the chocolate at Easter tastes really, really good. However, Snowy and I don't do Lent. In fact, this year, we've decided to do the opposite of Lent. Yes, that's right. The two of us ? We're doing Lindt.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-44566855509319096092012-02-20T14:19:00.001+11:002012-02-20T14:21:16.683+11:00

Why not consecrate ourselves to the queen of the Camelias, and revel in the warm stream of sympathy that flows from her altar ? ~ from The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura Why not indeed ?  The Book of Tea is available as a free Kindle download.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-69068409945332388092012-02-17T10:07:00.004+11:002012-02-17T10:17:16.683+11:00

So far, I can see two advantages to a background in home education when entering the public education behemoth. Firstly, I'm not over awed by the teachers. I'm prepared to assume the best of their teaching but if the best doesn't eventuate, I won't defer. This won't make me a popular mum, but it will do all sorts of good things for my daughter's education. I'm giving them a term, just to lull

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-28860557047598987882012-02-13T18:15:00.004+11:002012-02-13T18:25:40.998+11:00

Around the entrance to the mall, the camphor laurel grows, hardy. I was leaving, one day this week, with a bag of shopping and I stopped to look at a flash of blue in the laurel leaves. This isn't a place you stop, really, and the creature didn't make me wait. It...I want to say fluttered, but of course it didn't, its flight is more direct, more muscular than that, although I'm not entirely sure

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-9300661865022109052012-02-08T19:35:00.000+11:002012-02-08T19:35:56.254+11:00

1. The word 'kindle' is a good word. Strong and then soft. And that 'l' ending is so satisfying to the tongue. 2. The pages - creamy white background and a clear black print. Like the pages in a lovely, expensive, uncut book    And they turn without a noise. 3. The way the Kindle keeps my spot. It's like an unobtrusive lady's maid - here ma'am, is your book. 4. The way I can organise my books

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-23959004875792081362012-01-31T09:43:00.003+11:002012-01-31T09:50:57.807+11:00

While Arwen was watching the clock in Maths - she enjoyed it, she said, because she felt like she was in a movie - Lucy and I got a day's work done by lunchtime. Not that I'm smirking over the superior efficiency of home education. Of course not. By nine she was reacquainting herself with percentages. There's something so right about scheduling maths as the first subject of the day every day,

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-44362694877298656792012-01-30T08:57:00.000+11:002012-01-30T08:57:06.597+11:00

First days with 12 year olds are better than first days with 5 year olds. Less teary on both sides. That's all I can say so far. This is obviously not my daughter. It is, however, my daughter's role model. And it gives a whole lot less away about the school she's at than a real picture would...

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-4600155568992665662012-01-28T15:59:00.002+11:002012-01-28T16:01:59.207+11:00

Once upon a time, there was a mother. And there was a pile of school books waiting to be covered in shiny pink and purple and blue contact. And from the kitchen the children could hear the mother throwing a rather large tantrum and the sound of books being ripped away from contact paper which was crooked, bubbly or otherwise awry. Also unsuitable language. The mother did not like this job at all.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-80167768196312411112012-01-18T13:42:00.016+11:002012-01-18T17:26:50.798+11:00

I move through some pretty conservative circles - home educating will do that to you - but it isn't just conservative or religious women from whom I hear this: I'm not a feminist. I grew up in the 70's and 80's. To hear smart, thinking women declaring themselves not to be a feminist, whatever their politics or religion, is a little shocking. However. And this is where Melinda comes in,

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-50612491343663120012012-01-05T17:16:00.008+11:002012-01-05T17:24:47.608+11:00

Medieval: Working so much on Lucy's booklist and I suddenly remembered that on our shelves were a number of picture books on the Middle Ages. Keeps it neat if Snowy reads some too... Anno's Medieval World by Mitsumasa Anno A Medieval Feast by Aliki Medieval Life by John Guy Warfare in the Middle Ages by Fiona MacDonald Joan of Arc by Diane Stanley Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray A Door

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-2469209625991922412012-01-05T11:08:00.000+11:002012-01-05T11:08:07.027+11:00

We're still making our way through A Girl of the Limberlost. Once we're finally done with Elnora, we're reading The Penderwicks at Point Mouette. The girls are probably a little too old for this third book in the Penderwicks series, but we are very fond of them and something light and non-demanding might be a good choice for Arwen's first weeks of school. Then I have plans for some Wodehouse.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-67177091242170935002012-01-04T15:46:00.001+11:002012-01-05T11:24:57.537+11:00

This never happens. But it has! Science is sorted for 2012. Snowy will be using Intellego science units in Terms 2 and 4. He can choose which ones, depending on what interests him most. Lucy, having expressed an interest in exploring physics, will be using The Physics Classroom, a free online resource that - fingers crossed - seems student ( and mama! ) friendly. I really did stumble on this

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-28620721992858313752012-01-04T14:18:00.011+11:002012-01-05T11:45:57.111+11:00

Lucy is studying both Medieval and Modern history this year. For Medieval history she is using the following: History of the Medieval World by Susan Wise Bauer. I'd like to find a second text to be a counterpoint to this one. I'm considering The Axe and the Oath but really, I have to do some more research. Does anyone have an opinion on Norman Cantor ? Women in World History curriculum

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-49806190409227830492012-01-02T09:20:00.000+11:002012-01-02T09:20:16.197+11:00

Focus and Joy

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-88342476645290986272011-12-19T10:48:00.001+11:002011-12-19T10:49:16.962+11:00

Here is how I knew I was sick. I was lying in bed watching Sesame Street. And my 14 year old, my 12 year old and my almost 8 year old were watching it too. And I didn't care. It seemed like a reasonable way to pass the rest of our lives. Sesame Street was actually the viewing highlight, which at the time didn't bother me but in retrospect I find depressing. Once I'd hauled myself off to the

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-44755057757159144822011-12-10T07:40:00.001+11:002011-12-10T07:47:17.295+11:00

My zombie project of 2011 is particularly shameful, seeing as how I did all the planning and most of the purchasing for this project nine months ahead of time. However, instead of a Term 4 glorious flowering of interest, knowledge and admiration for Picasso, complete with biographies, art lessons and unit studies, everyone has simply said things like "I already know about Picasso and his phases.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-69944517713479016932011-12-04T09:08:00.001+11:002011-12-04T09:10:42.394+11:00

If you could have one moment  that you could do differently in 2011, what would that moment be? Trying to remember a year full of moments is an impossible task for me; I'm no Proust. I know what I'd do over though. Lucy's 8th grade year was one of shaken confidence for me. Partly this was due to the sudden introduction of school into our lives, partly to worrying over high school. Lucy must do

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-31599076115649507442011-12-02T11:42:00.006+11:002011-12-02T12:35:06.888+11:00

Did you have a turning point in 2011? A point where homeschooling became easier, or conversely, more difficult? Did your circumstances, your mindset or your child/children's mindset suddenly click into a new groove with a certain subject or with your homeschooling routine? Did unexpected life circumstances throw up new obstacles? Maybe you and yours had more than one turning point. . . You

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-16284787561840851462011-11-29T14:06:00.001+11:002011-11-29T18:32:50.876+11:00

But you wouldn't know it here. The children are drawing a map of Santa's workshop. There is a hand decorated gingerbread house wrapped and displayed. The Christmas tree is up. There is a stocking hanging from the mantelpiece. Snowy has finished all his Christmas presents and they lie wrapped underneath the tree. Biscuits have been baked and are ready to ice. How did this happen, with a Scrooge

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-49022535759902774612011-11-05T16:07:00.006+11:002011-11-05T16:28:52.661+11:00

I never write about life with a chronic illness. It's bad enough that  it intrudes, an unwanted guest, into daily life. It needn't think there's room for it in my writing life. And I'm not one of those people, Louise Hay book tucked under their arm, who looks for deeper meanings, lessons, who communicates with their illness as if it were co-writing their life's narrative, as if illness had its

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-27265875801879059112011-10-26T22:07:00.000+11:002011-10-26T22:07:04.296+11:00

Rapa Nui, April, 1722 Sailor, on sight of land You name it resurrection. Illuminated, the bird descends. She breathes you in On the tide’s flow. The earth burns. Fever shakes it down to the bone. A river of glass to meet you, Your Passion A plague, an exodus. The horizon breaks. A dream, interrupted.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-13239642009823623562011-10-24T09:24:00.000+11:002011-10-24T09:24:00.678+11:00

Ana o Keke Inside my mouth An egg The tern calls Circling Careless one Plaintive Come to me Tangatu mana Man bird Bring your red Into my blindness Your crown of hair With its stink of the sea The tern calls Circling Ana o keke I am your milk Man bird Come to me Inside my mouth An egg Inside the egg A tern calling

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-17459821986624389212011-10-22T17:50:00.002+11:002011-10-22T17:53:54.983+11:00

For those in classrooms The first thing you need to know about poetry is that it's a living thing, and that your aim, in reading or teaching it, is exposure. Exposure and infection, so that your blood flows with it and you exhale lines like this: I have my heart on my fist like a blind falcon* and breathe in others: For a time I rest in the grace of the world** A poem is a frog, a thing

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-79986048547943536222011-10-09T17:23:00.000+11:002011-10-09T17:23:24.980+11:00

When I say I don't censor my children's reading, I'm not lying. What I do censor are the books I read aloud. Like this bit in Farmer Boy - "They have driven out two teachers," he said. "Last year they hurt Jonas Lane so bad he died of it later." And I won't be reading this bit from our new read-aloud, The Box of Delights. "Done ?" the porter said. "Er, he was a bad one. He had a row with his

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-81400993484985860672011-10-06T18:52:00.006+11:002011-10-06T19:16:12.892+11:00

I'm on a local media fast, just so I don't have to hear commentary on The Slap, an eight parter starting tonight on the ABC based on Christos Tsiolkas' novel of the same name. For those who have somehow missed The Slap, firstly, give thanks. Secondly, listen up. Breastfed four year old ( apparently the writer's master stroke ) unleashes his inner brat at a suburban barbeque. Friend of family

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-14690419265951431022011-10-02T10:52:00.001+11:002011-10-02T11:04:11.239+11:00

Reading - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. This book had me at the levitating girl. It's audacious, managing to mix themes of moral responsibility and war with Welsh mythology, time travel and shape changing. Riggs also shakes in a drop of coming-of-age. It's the story of Jacob, grieving the death of his grandfather Abe, once a child refugee from the Holocaust, and

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-38579358546802065852011-10-02T09:19:00.000+11:002011-10-02T09:19:29.850+11:00

It’s in the genes. It has to be. Why else would a six year old quit ballet exams because her excellent result this year was slightly lower than her fabulous result last year ? Or later, upon coming second in the yearly school exams, feel so mortified that she would claim to have done it deliberately, so as to have the experience of not coming first? Or as a young adult, fail her driving test

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-20395884927000846042011-09-30T09:38:00.000+10:002011-09-30T09:38:51.577+10:00

If you don't introduce yourself. If you jump straight in to a controversial thread and I have no idea who you are or what you are doing on a particular forum, without having introduced yourself first, I will ignore you. It's like a stranger coming up to you on the street and yelling in your ear. Rude. If you don't write in paragraphs. You may be the nicest, most polite and most deserving

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-60483247641629015362011-09-27T17:43:00.002+10:002011-10-02T11:07:49.601+11:00

Snowy: Look Mum, I'm designing a house like the ones on Grand Designs. Me: Fantastic! Snowy: As soon as I turn fifteen I'm going to start saving up the money to build it. Me: Awesome! Snowy: I'm not going to work at K-Mart any more though. Me: Really ? Snowy: I'll need a better paid job. I'm going into advertising. Me: You are ??? Snowy: You can make a lot of money just from one account Mum. Me:

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-9606677258681426022011-09-22T14:45:00.003+10:002011-09-22T14:53:49.335+10:00

Farmer Boy - Snowy and I are ploughing our way through this one, pun intended. I must say, Little House isn't nearly as much fun with my boy as it was with my girls. Even the chapter where Almanzo and his siblings get left alone for a week and spend the whole time eating cake and icecream and feeding candy to pigs hasn't really grabbed his imagination. I do, however, enjoy reading aloud the bits

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-28518932317718749582011-09-10T12:41:00.006+10:002011-09-10T12:58:43.108+10:00

From our high window we saw the towers with their bands and blocks of light brighten against a fading sunset, saw them at any hour glitter and live as if the spirits inside them sat up all night calculating profit and loss, saw them reach up to steep their tops in the until then invisible yellow of sunrise, grew so used to them often we didn’t see them, and now, not seeing

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-75384596651989541502011-09-06T16:12:00.002+10:002011-09-06T16:14:23.384+10:00

Equip your child to be a leader The journey of learning and leadership Grow leadership skills Educating future women leaders Educating today's girls to be tomorrow's leaders Strength and leadership Leaders of heart and mind Developing future leaders These slogans jump out at me as I browse the local paper over a cup of tea. Schools advertising for students, public as well as private.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-10919722634785138512011-09-05T09:10:00.001+10:002011-10-02T09:12:37.185+11:00

  Spring. The scent of freesias in a mantelpiece vase. Light. The morning calling me outdoors to rake, to sweep, to move plants, to water. To drink a cup of tea outside, to look for leaf buds on a tree, to hang out the washing before breakfast. The season like a child full of enthusiasm, who wants to take me by the hand and show me her treasures. Windows open, doors open, the air like song. Out

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-25459331398761645992011-09-03T17:00:00.001+10:002011-10-02T09:13:09.428+11:00

50 most poignant first lines of poetry Kids Homefront Army

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-23365335599839756502011-09-01T09:10:00.000+10:002011-09-01T09:10:58.785+10:00

Last night, before I went to sleep, I asked my subconscious to please allow me a dream of the the animal whom I should write about in my next Zoo stanza. Thinking tragic, majestic, poetic. Thinking Rilke. Goldfish. That's what I dreamed about. Trying to keep two goldfish alive in my bra - bowls and Tupperware being unavailable, apparently - by pouring water into it.  Pleasingly, I not only

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-48060884146097315842011-08-30T22:05:00.005+10:002011-09-03T05:09:00.693+10:00

Turns out it's not that hard to find the time to write. My girls babysit for the neighbors four hours a week. If I don't mind being a rubbish mother and sending Snowy off to watch TV in my room, I can have half a day a week to write. Turns out the hard bit is how selfish you get when you start to write. How you don't really care about anything but a line, an image, the rhythm of the poem. The

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-61724828980087382062011-08-27T13:17:00.000+10:002011-08-27T13:17:36.323+10:00

Essays and speeches, the suffragettes, John Stuart Mill and his Reform Act amendment, shadow puppets on a stick, a theatre and 15 people  in my lounge room, geometry, money, four digit subtraction, Greek mythology, maps and treasure, chapters of Farmer Boy - doughnuts, more doughnuts, twisted, not round - and apples and popcorn and volume and mass and Lego, coded by colour and weighed, the

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-33070363070726524202011-08-26T18:34:00.006+10:002011-08-26T18:44:14.132+10:00

Because if I ever come over to your place, that's what I'd like to do, if you don't mind, and yes please, a cup of tea while I'm being nosey would be very welcome indeed! I took five books off the third shelf down in the lounge room bookcase, the one made in Gaza and given to us by friends of our neighbours, unknown to us, who were moving house and who intuited - in some freakish, The

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-33196698076955879832011-08-22T16:04:00.002+10:002011-10-02T09:13:45.464+11:00

Snowy likes maps. He liked learning about maps more than anything else we've done this year. We worked our way through the activities in my old Jacaranda Primary School Atlas; it's got a map of the world I used to dream and plan my travels, once paroled from school. Now I'm not a curriculum person. There's a reason for that. Stroppiness. Also, a good dose of CM and a natural preference for

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-50537932650984282422011-08-20T17:47:00.001+10:002011-10-02T09:14:12.297+11:00

 I was on the phone to my sister. She was talking about prams. The girls were talking to me. I heard them say they were going to fetch  L's newspaper; L is away. I heard a door close. I heard a door open. I finished the call to my sister. I thought the girls were home. The girls weren't home. It doesn't take ten minutes to fetch the papers from across the road. I thought they'd be out chatting

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-75156996100399114752011-08-17T17:17:00.002+10:002011-08-17T17:21:03.342+10:00

Evangelical as I am about the brilliance of narration in shaping a good writer, in the back of my mind was a niggle of doubt; what would happen once Lucy's pithy, informative and dry-humoured paragraphs and pages were no longer enough ? Would I find we'd missed the essay-writing boat, somewhere back in 4th grade ? As it turns out, no we didn't! And our ride down that particular river has been

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-18992092459623345002011-08-13T10:12:00.003+10:002011-10-02T09:14:58.985+11:00

 The last camera I had ended its life dropped on its lens. Actually, that's also what happened to the second last camera I owned. If I want to take a photo, I have to ask my daughters - sorry Mum, can't find it - or my son - sorry Mum, no batteries. If I had a new camera, I could have taken and posted a photo of Snowy and a friend making some very crafty  peg and button racers. Then I could

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-9039841466779449032011-08-12T15:40:00.001+10:002011-10-02T09:55:08.964+11:00

During a thankfully brief mid-career crisis, I went looking for what I call my manifesto. I wrote it in my Steiner phase, so you'll have to imagine the coloured paper with curved edges, the cover sewn together with yarn... It was a list of reasons to homeschool, prepared eight years ago, in anticipation of our first homeschool registration visit from an Authorised Person. I thought I'd have a

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-64490346278134479062011-08-05T19:04:00.001+10:002011-10-02T09:16:01.982+11:00

www.poetryfoundation.org/article/242402 I can't believe they teach this novel in high school! That's just asking for trouble. I home school mainly to keep my daughters ignorant of SP's existence. However, this is a nice reflection on an iconic book.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-79323025386760661722011-08-03T14:40:00.001+10:002011-08-03T14:41:14.942+10:00

It is in moments of illness that we are compelled to recognize that we live not alone but chained to a creature of a different kingdom, whole worlds apart, who has no knowledge of us and by whom it is impossible to make ourselves understood: our body. Marcel Proust

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-80968414512193280212011-07-23T18:31:00.001+10:002011-07-23T18:33:51.519+10:00

HOBBITS Hobbits are, to be precise, small  people – hard working people too.  Normally they don’t like fighting or anything like that, with  the exception of Bilbo Baggins who, if he didn’t like the sound of all the rings and war and stuff, he shouldered it expertly. Most Hobbit’s families are quite ancient, especially ones like the Tooks and Bagginses.  The ‘old Took” is the oldest Took

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-9081037929821100302011-07-23T10:05:00.001+10:002011-07-23T10:06:11.653+10:00

Lucy narrated this when she was just 10; it was the end of term and the purpose of her narration was to show what she had learnt and retained from the biography of George Washington Carver we'd read. again, she dictated, I typed. The Life and Times of George Washington Carver George Washington Carver was born a slave but his mother Mary was taken away by slave traders so he was brought up by

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-65316717753405208882011-07-20T16:21:00.003+10:002011-10-02T09:16:29.051+11:00

Rather than using a writing program, I am much happier following Charlotte Mason's idea of narrations - oral for the under 10's, gradually progressing to written narrations. Here's an example of a narration by Snowy, dictated by him and typed by me. It was completed over a period of a few days and was a narration of  the 'mammals' section in The Adventure Of Life by Jean-Benoit Durand. Mammals

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-79629995712736997632011-07-18T18:58:00.001+10:002011-07-18T18:59:35.957+10:00

Helena's post, with the lovely title between moons, and some even lovelier photos of a place by the sea I love so much and pictures that make me homesick for mist over the escarpment, put me in mind of this poem. And yes, whereas Helena's moon and her sea are light and blessed, mine are dark and somewhat on the cursed side. We all have our strengths. the tourist drive picadilly neon  was never

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-41565453286674952682011-07-17T17:48:00.001+10:002011-07-17T17:49:31.682+10:00

The problem being that "Activities" are "Exhausting" and make me want to "Hide Under the Covers" for at least a week or so to "Recover". Thankfully, this weekend held nothing more taxing than an hour's worth of tutoring and a Sunday afternoon tea. Leaving me free to do non-homeschooly things like laundry, of which I am rather fond, and pottering around in my kitchen, making pumpkin soup,

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-87165427985026726652011-07-10T21:56:00.001+10:002011-10-02T09:49:35.026+11:00

Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was a mother who was less utilitarian about her homeschooling than she is now. And this mother, who was reading her children the fabulous The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper, thought it might be a nice idea to plan a craft activity related to the books. When reading aloud she came to a chapter where Will, the main character, is sent a West Indian

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-85648710474125676612011-07-06T10:18:00.004+10:002011-10-02T09:17:22.037+11:00

Lucy and I both read Jennifer Donnelly's Revolution this week, and that's the key right there. Read the same book. As she was reading, I asked her how she was finding it. "The beginning's a little stiff, but she seems to ease into the story about a quarter of the way through." When I'd finished reading, she asked me how I found it. "Well, I see what you mean by stiff. I agree, once the story

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-44154813954084849352011-07-01T13:50:00.004+10:002011-10-02T09:18:01.850+11:00

Almost done with Knight's Castle and A Dog so Small. I've got another book lined up for Snowy, Odo Hirsch's Bartlett and the Ice Voyage. The girls had this on CD when they were little and listened - laughing, chortling, chuckling -  to it so much the CD wore out! So now we have the book, a story of an impatient Queen and the ingenious explorer who brings her Majesty her heart's desire; something

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-52590127105537918182011-06-30T12:00:00.001+10:002011-10-02T09:18:43.464+11:00

Lucy is like a young Queen, straight from one of her historical novels. Kind, still, steady, her dark hair in waves to her waist. She thinks of duty and acts with solicitude. Sometimes she is timid and longs for a quiet room, a place away from the world. She is at home in silence with her pencils and pens, with worlds appearing from the nothing of  the paper, in colour, detail. Arwen is our

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-18951383221836375562011-06-26T12:55:00.002+10:002011-06-26T13:02:05.972+10:00

If so, please visit  I Write Like to find out...er...who you write like. Probably best to avoid if having a unique voice is important to you, because the only impossible answer is "You write like yourself". I discovered I am quite Lovecraftian. Apparently. Doubtfully. Your results may make more sense to you. It isn't totally random, because when I entered some genuinely Lovecraftian paragraphs,

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-59110932470423828882011-06-23T19:06:00.011+10:002011-06-24T12:00:09.328+10:00

Call me a woman without a life (or a woman without a knack for titles) but I'm tickled pink as a strawberry pavlova to receive this award from Rockhound Place! A calm oasis of a blog, I visit to remind myself that music, books and the natural world matter deeply and truly. Receipt of this award involves passing it along to 15 of my favourite blogs, many of whom Christina has already gifted with

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-53787648967070476362011-06-15T13:29:00.077+10:002011-06-15T17:58:11.197+10:00

Thanks to Catherine for this link to the latest issue of Granta, which explores the ways in which feminism continues to inform, address and complicate. Check out her blog MotherHugger in my blogroll, especially if you have an interest in maternal feminism. Selected prose, poems and essays from the issue online here. I see that the poet Gillian Allnut has a poem in this issue; Sadly, it isn't

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-86152618537471915312011-06-10T16:52:00.001+10:002011-06-11T09:26:09.146+10:00

I have not grown  up yet, I have lived as my daughter's mother the way I had lived as my mother's daughter, inside her life. I have not been born yet. - from Physics by Sharon Olds Looking for a poem to celebrate my daughter's birthday, I find this. Strike Sparks, Old's Selected Poems, sits on the bookshelf, mostly. I love and loathe Old's brashness in equal measure. I read her poems and wonder

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-72639469890931821952011-06-05T11:41:00.003+10:002011-06-05T11:52:15.954+10:00

I like to think I'm mildly free range as I tend to hover on the correct side of paranoia. As in, I don't think the children I've allowed out without me have been kidnapped at the park until they're at least 10 minutes late in coming home... Reading Emil and The Detectives to Snowy, I got a taste of the real thing. Emil, who has had his money stolen on the way to stay with his relations in

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-62966652540757099292011-05-30T16:17:00.001+10:002011-10-02T09:20:55.175+11:00

Keeping busy with some juggling practice And some gourmet cooking...

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-60896368812376192452011-05-25T14:24:00.003+10:002011-05-26T08:57:21.990+10:00

Lucy is our early riser; she's often up before 7 and helps prepare breakfast, reads, keeps our second earliest riser company... Maths is always first in the day. Lucy's ready by 9 but waits on me to catch up. We go over an algebra problem from yesterday, then run through the lesson for today. It's a simple concept - index notation - and so she does the first two sections orally. I leave her to

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-91191180143987913242011-05-20T13:25:00.002+10:002011-05-20T21:17:10.380+10:00

From Mary Oliver's poem Yes! No! comes this line: To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. All week that line has been chanting itself inside my skull. My sister dropped by to bring me some books; I was in bed with a cold when I picked up The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, she of the wondrous Moomintrolls. Written later in life, after the death of her sculptor-mother, The Summer

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-32721282677869016062011-05-18T11:13:00.002+10:002011-05-18T11:22:41.917+10:00

You know that saying "Never wake a sleeping baby" ?My spin on it is, "Never disturb a playing child."Right now - 11.17am - Snowy is in deep play mode, taking apart one Lego world and building another. Requiring him to leave his work to come to mine won't add to his education; it would undermine it. Even for a 7yr old, play can still be work.The day stretches out before us with hours upon hours

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-53137083069788548322011-05-12T07:50:00.000+10:002011-05-14T06:33:14.811+10:00

I'm posting this as a public service; no book club questions online for this novel yet! So weary book club mothers, feel free to use these questions as they are. They are a little on the light side; my book club girls had an intense term of King Lear previously and I'm looking for fun conversations this term.1. What were your initial thoughts about Dash ?2. What did you first think about Lily ?3.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-9368142172406487522011-05-06T09:01:00.000+10:002011-05-06T09:01:51.112+10:00

A new book of poems for my birthday; Mary Oliver's New and Selected Poems Volume Two. Here's a title - The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that Comes First. You can listen to the poem here. Blessed are the word-shapers!

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-59999235659426083062011-05-02T16:38:00.004+10:002011-10-02T09:52:27.030+11:00

It's cool and grey today, the stillness punctuated by the kordle of the magpies. A work day. Yesterday was a perfect day; sun, after a week of rain, and washing on the line. A park, a bakery, a loaf of sourdough bread. A trip to the book shop... The book shop visit was work, as much as spending time in a book shop could ever be work; in other words, not work at all.  We needed books for book

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-87547211189215346562011-04-29T10:20:00.005+10:002011-04-29T10:46:44.588+10:00

I'm not what you'd call keen on the Royals but the Nuptials are as good a reason as any to make Donna Hay's Earl Grey Tea Cake. I cup chopped fresh dates 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 3/4 cup brewed earl grey tea 2

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-60566097442370789902011-04-28T15:24:00.006+10:002011-10-06T09:01:22.759+11:00

Snowy was agitating for another two days holiday. "It doesn't make any sense to start school on a Thursday." So I was kind and let him do school-lite today. 10.00 - I was busy with the girls before this and Snowy was busy drawing Mario Worlds. At 10 we sat down at the kitchen table and worked on the two and ten times tables. 10.30 - Snowy read me a chapter from his new Aussie Nibbles book Fast

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-75670365726458358642011-04-27T15:05:00.004+10:002011-04-27T15:12:36.421+10:00

If pre-war, sisterly imagination is your thing – and you have a high tolerance for the idea of the Brontes as rather cantankerous ghosts – The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson is the book for you. She had me on the first page, Miss Ferguson did. A woman at one of mother’s parties once said to me, “Do you like reading ?” which smote us all to silence, for how could one tell her that

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-42603804463039600102011-04-26T13:36:00.000+10:002011-04-26T13:36:32.351+10:00

And what did I discover ? That being screen-free means more time to clean the house and more time to read. Hardly a revelation! And not difficult at all. The internet is an odd place, intimate and impersonal at once. It’s useful, yet unsettling. A place that requires you to wonder just how connected you really are to those you are connecting with. I didn’t miss the wondering. I didn’t miss the

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-13225219978897722082011-04-11T15:08:00.000+10:002011-04-11T15:08:51.489+10:00

Until after the Big April Chocolate Festival! I really used to fret about Easter- we weren't celebrating it for religious reasons, it isn't springtime here and my youngest doesn't even believe in the Easter Bunny. ( That last bit is a good thing. It makes shopping for Easter eggs easier and I can give them to my boy to hide which means I don't eat them all before Easter and have to return to the

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-57056825260239788112011-04-07T13:07:00.001+10:002011-10-02T09:20:18.204+11:00

Maths Trainer Thanks for the link Helena! This is the mathematical equivalent of hiding vegies in the spaghetti sauce. Me: Hey, would you like to play this game on the computer ? Snowy: YES!!! Can I do it for 10 minutes ? Afterwards Snowy: Can I play it for half an hour next time ? I need to beat my score. Me: YES!!! Lovely Helena. Lovely computer. Lovely Math Trainer.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-55162166092000944722011-04-04T13:09:00.002+10:002011-04-04T13:10:46.004+10:00

Arwen drawing a scene from The Fellowship of The Ring. Snowy experimenting with making mountain streams and rivers. Lucy knitting her second square for this year's Wrapped With Love blanket.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-87917675133935336542011-04-02T16:55:00.002+11:002011-04-04T09:38:32.806+10:00

Chris has to introduce David Vann at an event next week. Oh, the things we must do to earn our daily bread! The London Review of Books has a very impressive review of Caribou Island. Apparently.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-35560713530834957522011-04-02T16:51:00.001+11:002011-04-02T16:51:16.578+11:00

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-42043067222320096512011-04-01T18:13:00.003+11:002011-04-02T17:09:05.890+11:00

Barbara Pym is good. I borrowed Jane and Prudence, her 1953 novel of post-war British society, because the women on the cover were wearing lovely frocks, one rose and the other emerald green.  Often called a modern day Austen, Pym's characters are wiser and sadder than an Emma or an Elizabeth. Jane, an impractical, dowdy and well educated clergyman's wife who sets out  to play matchmaker to

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-21434122810202377872011-04-01T14:38:00.002+11:002011-10-02T09:21:38.862+11:00

Snowy's collection - proof that we do spend some time outdoors! Two of Lucy's sketches.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-37321129027502149062011-03-30T13:38:00.002+11:002011-03-31T13:41:14.477+11:00

Not that they breathe and move, of course, though I'd quite like a house full of that kind of living book. The kind that Charlotte Mason advocates; books whose prose and characters and narrative come alive for us as we read. For me, it's because learning this way privileges the relationship between author and reader, unmediated by others. The student-reader can form her own responses and

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-89038339062465525642011-03-28T15:54:00.001+11:002011-03-28T15:56:52.855+11:00

This is the second year of our teen book club and we've just finished a term looking at King Lear. The girls and I explored general ideas, such as iambic pentameter, and ideas specific to the play; 'storm' in King Lear, 'despair and redemption'. I'll tell you a secret though...shhh...I cheated.  All my good ideas came from here. The Folger Library has a huge number of lesson plans for each play

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-78480936911624987972011-03-21T17:14:00.001+11:002011-10-02T09:52:58.222+11:00

It's possible that Lucy loves history even more than me and that's saying something. Lately we've been having some very satisfying conversations about the Russian Revolution. A few years ago it was English history we were exploring and somehow, in my research,  I stumbled upon The Fearless Treasure by Noel Streatfield. Not an actual copy; just the mention. And a mention of it to my Dad turned

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-23307786127481394322011-03-20T09:21:00.001+11:002011-10-02T09:48:01.359+11:00

I even wrote it on my calendar, to be sure we wouldn't forget to look.  The moon will be huge tonight, full and close. We've woken to rain, a grey sky, a good chance that tonight the moon will be hidden. The poets will have to do our looking for us. Full Moon by Tu FuAbove the tower -- a lone, twice-sized moon. On the cold river passing night-filled homes, It scatters restless gold across the

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-35032752565826564892011-03-16T15:34:00.002+11:002011-03-16T15:36:19.518+11:00

To avoid hearing this comment ( from a source who shall remain nameless! ) in my homeschool ever again, I've been reading this book to Snowy. Where do you think you're going, Christopher Columbus ? by Jean Fritz is a fairly entertaining read - plenty of humour for the young boy-student - but it also takes a nuanced look at the man himself in all his vanity, religiosity and determination. It

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-4905100128752181702011-03-15T08:35:00.002+11:002011-03-15T08:45:15.582+11:00

She makes me feel so much better. Drat that Steiner brainwashing that makes me wring my hands every time this subject comes up. Now I have a new source of authority! And as a mark of gratitude, if she ever wants a jar of Vegemite, a packet of TimTams or a poetry recommendation, she can have it...

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-33497173586132480882011-03-14T15:47:00.000+11:002011-03-14T15:47:00.462+11:00

All the chapters in our read-aloud, My Contract With Henry, begin with one of Thoreau's quotes. Today's struck me as something to remember, especially in the context of educating pre-teens and teens, in the midst of their tears, moods, silences, silliness, distance, sarcasm, confusion, moments of understanding and clarity and sudden sweetness. To affect the quality of the day, that is the

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-65388857613130129992011-03-11T17:13:00.002+11:002011-03-11T17:15:26.812+11:00

Autumn There has  been no change but I am no longer young. Autumn wind blows and I am disturbed as before. - Princess Shikishi All That Summer All that summer I read German novels and wrote letters that were never sent, drank tea in cafes he had not discovered. Somewhere on George Street, my Steppenwolf lost its cover; I wept all afternoon and most of the evening. I tried quoting Hesse to a

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-45979029078637593602011-03-10T16:14:00.001+11:002011-03-13T13:46:07.529+11:00

I like to keep it simple and explore many of the same topics with Snowy as with the girls. He's been listening in to My Contract With Henry but I've also got a picture book my Dad bought for the girls some time back to share with him.I'd love to share an image of this book, but Blogger has gone crazy on me and won't allow me to show you!It's The Trouble With Henry: A Tale of Walden Pond by

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-36614786065337904122011-03-07T14:39:00.002+11:002011-10-02T09:22:36.803+11:00

Our Ancient China studies fizzled this term and I know why. Instead of sticking with Charlotte Mason principles- living books, allowing the children to make their own connections - I bookmarked an impressive selection of resources and planned projects. I chose a read aloud on the basis of where it was set rather than how good it was. About the only thing that worked was a trip to the gallery to 

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-20591634216742039322011-03-05T10:56:00.001+11:002011-03-05T10:57:31.189+11:00

Help yourself!!

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-3022781704439774822011-03-01T11:54:00.001+11:002011-03-01T14:56:27.197+11:00

Snowy and I came up with a little rhyme to help him remember some grammar. Not sure how I'll go indicating the rhythm of it in print, but I'll try! A noun is the name of a person, place or thing. A ver-er-erb....is a doing word! An adjective describes. An adverb (pause....) adds information. He knows it off by heart now so if I ask him to give me a verb, for example, he can just think of the

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-28188083824330919082011-02-28T17:15:00.001+11:002011-02-28T18:15:17.722+11:00

4.30 - Everyone's home and the girls unpack the shopping. I'm glad to hear Snowy had a play at the park while Arwen and I were busy. We do the Mars Bar experiment - break the top layer of chocolate a little so that there are chocolate 'plates' on top of the caramel 'magma'. Stretch the Mars Bar a bit so the 'plates' move apart. Smash them back together so you end up with chocolate mountains.

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-62130496236850511592011-02-28T13:44:00.005+11:002011-02-28T17:16:32.313+11:00

8.00 - Snowy and I wake up and after a bit of a cuddle, we head off to satisfy our addictions - Snowy for his 30 minutes on DS - I head for the kettle and a cup of tea. Lucy, my 'lark',  is already up - dressed and breakfasted and working on her 'to do' list for the day. She's already fed the guinea pigs.We have a bit of a chat about our dreams, and about what she'll be working on independently

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-15312483963097073842011-02-23T17:04:00.003+11:002011-10-02T10:03:52.351+11:00

Reading - Snowy and I have moved on to The Borrowers, which is a read-aloud dream - short chapters and lots of dialogue. The girls have been reading Shakespeare on Toast by Ben Crystal - an actor's look at Shakespeare, his plays and his language. It's funny and instructive. And I'm still reading them DragonKeeper by Carole Wilkinson in the afternoons. Not quite sure how the girls are feeling

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-8297153809714185632011-02-21T16:13:00.002+11:002011-10-02T09:57:11.486+11:00

Cambridge Latin is expensive. I have $100+ worth of Cambridge Latin sitting on the school shelves right now - student book, teacher's book, CD. However, Cambridge Latin is fun. Lucy - now in 8th grade - and I are having A Good Time. Lucy has a year of Minimus behind her and has just started Cambridge Latin. Did I tell you it's good ? What I love and adore about this program is that it focuses

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-74922377810417352742011-02-20T17:31:00.000+11:002011-02-20T17:31:49.712+11:00

Is that instead of inner dialogue sounding like this - "Better remember the library books and those phone calls." - it sounds like this - Remember to return - the books - telephone - the school - call the physician - and the vet - observe - the list of all there is - to do -

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-47352733676744572942011-02-19T15:25:00.001+11:002011-10-02T09:23:52.691+11:00

Read aloud time for Snowy hangs on a good hook here. By 7.30 he's heading for my bed with a book and his supper and we read till 8.00. At 8.00 the radio goes on so we can listen to The Book Show music and then we either turn it down to finish our chapter, or listen and chat till lights out at 8.30. Half an hour or more of dedicated read-aloud time most nights sees us galloping along  through our

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-66845528684610836122011-02-16T13:46:00.001+11:002011-02-16T13:47:30.007+11:00

No-one has argued or cried  today. Everyone has done their 'school' work. I've got time to plan for Snowy's co-op tomorrow. I've thought about what we're doing on Friday, but that's a secret best kept from the birthday girl. There's oodles of the day left for cooking lasagna, taking Snowy to the park, helping Lucy with her sewing, reading aloud. I think my plan is working; the one where I

Melissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08177333073421451416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9015125194322836310.post-58344840635464936382011-02-12T12:10:00.004+11:002011-10-02T09:25:00.306+11:00

  I wasn't so sure about this book when we started. It's basically a long recount of a strange adventure by balloon to the island of Krakatoa just before it explodes - not a lot of dialogue or getting to know any of the characters, there's a whole lot of descriptive prose and the chapters are a little longer than I prefer in a read-aloud. Despite all these potential drawbacks, Snowy enjoyed

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