Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Sunday, December 19, 2010

December giveaway at SecularHomeschool.com

Head on over and check it out!  A Blogging 101 course is the December giveaway on SecularHomeschool.com, one of my favorite places to visit online.

Merriest of winters holidays to you all.

Monday, December 06, 2010

Book Sharing Monday - some favorite Christmas reads

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, by L. Frank Baum.  The author of The Wizard of Oz has written a fantastical story about a baby raised by wood-nymphs and elves in the Forest of Burzee--that baby eventually grows up to be the jolly man in red.  We have two versions, one with Baum's original text and one with the tale somewhat abbreviated and lushly illustrated by Charles Santore.  Both are worth reading.  The text is available as a free Kindle book at Amazon and in many different electronic formats at Project Gutenberg.

One that I've bought but haven't brought out yet (it's going "in" tomorrow's advent calendar, not that it will actually fit!) is Richard Scarry's Best Christmas Book Ever!  My two youngest are big Richard Scarry fans, and have enjoyed Watch Your Step, Mr. Rabbit! to Cars and Trucks and Things that Go and many others.  Jazz was a big fan when he was younger, too, and can still be caught hanging around when a Richard Scarry book is being read aloud.
And finally, a book that I haven't yet bought but am sorely tempted to include when ordering Christmas presents is Fletcher and the Snowflake Christmas, by Julia Rawlinson.  Fletcher and the Falling Leaves is an all-time favorite autumn book in our house, and this latest tale of a little fox and his experiences with the seasons looks equally charming.

Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Canadian Home Learning.

Friday, December 03, 2010

Favorite Holiday Music No. 15 - Irving Berlin



Still waiting for our snow to arrive.

For those of you who, like me, can't get enough holiday music, Amazon is giving out free mp3s of one holiday song per day until Christmas.  Yesterday's (Dec. 2--there are a couple of hours left for those of you that are west of here) was by the Indigo Girls.  For some reason December 1st's freebie is still available, though I've never heard of the band (though that's not saying a lot, as I mostly listen to Sting and classical music).