Posted in homeschooling on September 30, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Things I’m trying this year:
family copywork – I’m joining the kids this year. We’re doing the best handwriting we can for a timed period (that will gradually lengthen). I’m copying from Pride and Prejudice, Sandra’s got a poem to work from, and Tias is tracing over animal facts I wrote in pink pen.
clipboards [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on September 29, 2008 | 5 Comments »
In which muffins become a metaphor for the way homeschooling works around here.
You would think that making muffins for our back-to-school breakfast would be straightforward. And you would think that homeschooling would be straightforward. In both you choose a recipe, assemble the ingredients, and prepare with love and attention to detail. For me, though, they [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on September 28, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Julie Bogart’s blog A Writer’s Life in Brief is again on my radar now that I’m back with regular in-home internet. Her writing curriculum The Writer’s Jungle is a beacon of sanity and inspiration, and as I read and plan for our upcoming school year it is providing a solid platform upon which I plan [...]
Posted in Project 365, handmade, knitting, quotes on September 27, 2008 | 3 Comments »
After I knitted a few more leaves, yellow this time, I decided that if I wanted to knit something low-pressure and sweet, I might as well knit a baby hat for my cousin’s baby.
It was so satisfying to work on. The pattern is Baby Rollin’ Beret, from the uber-talented Woolly Wormhead. She lives [...]
Posted in Project 365, adventure, art journal, field trips, handmade, homeschooling, quotes on September 24, 2008 | 4 Comments »
“Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall [...]
Posted in Project 365, handmade, knitting, parenting on September 23, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Transitioning…back home…into autumn…into English…into the round of activities. I’m looking at all the things we used to do and my body and soul are saying, “No.” I was good at our life before and juggling all those balls, but I don’t want it back in the same form. I’m feeling rebellious and melancholy [...]
Posted in adventure, travel on September 20, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Home. The shape and texture and boundaries we know. The things so much a part of the unwritten code of our lives that we didn’t even prepare to miss them. They were self-evident, a given, and until they were gone or until they were back around us again we didn’t know how much [...]
Posted in adventure, field trips, parenting, travel on September 15, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Sometimes, it’s the little things that grab at you and make you haul out your camera even though you might feel a little silly at the time. Like the rock-propped washroom sign that blends with the graffiti in a picturesque artist’s town along the Danube.
Or the tiny sign, perhaps 25 cm x [...]
Posted in adventure, handmade, travel on September 14, 2008 | 2 Comments »
tablecloths in the Great Market Hall, Budapest
Our first stop in Hungary we were bombarded by a barrage of handmade goods at a tiny roadside market. It continued. There is a strong and vibrant handcrafted tradition. Embroidery, woodwork, leather, beading…in every colour and concept.
Posted in Project 365, adventure, field trips, parenting, travel on September 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A trip to Vienna and Budapest? Clearly music was going to play a part in our plans.
Our first experience happened months ago, right at the beginning, when we went to a local school’s Hungarian evening and a group of young violinists played Dvorak’s “Humoreske” before the fairy tale was performed. It grabbed Tias’s attention and [...]
