First published in 1985, this book has been around for a while, and it's one that we've checked out of the library several times. When I saw it on a used curriculum post a couple of weeks ago, I jumped at the chance of having our own copy, and am really enjoying using it as part of the stealth-homeschooling practice known as coffee-table strewing. It's a lovely, lovely book filled with poetry from the classics through the modern age, and the art, oh, the art! Makes me want to run to the nearest art museum and feast my eyes.
Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Serendipity Home School. See what other beautiful books are being blogged about today!
I know it's not summer yet, but the local Whole Foods had some gorgeous basil when I was there earlier this week, and I made pesto tonight. Here is a cheese-less, nut-less recipe I've finally tweaked to my satisfaction that actually tastes good, is allergy- and kid-friendly (because my kids are among the pickiest in the 'Verse), and sneaks a little nutrition in there. It's vegan not because I am one but because I avoid cheese most of the time. Sigh. I love cheese.
Vegan Spinach Pesto
5 oz. baby spinach, washed (I ♥ Olivia's Organics Baby Spinach), or use frozen spinach that has been thawed
3 cloves garlic (you can use less if you or your kids aren't used to raw garlic, but 3 is just right in our house)
1 bunch fresh basil, leaves picked off, soaked (if sandy), rinsed, and dried
3/4 t. salt
freshly-cracked pepper to taste
2 T. EVOO
1/2 c. brewer's yeast
Combine the spinach and a splash of water in a microwave safe container. Cover and nuke for two minutes or until spinach is soft. (If using frozen spinach you really only need to defrost it.) Drain.
With the motor running on its highest speed, drop garlic cloves, one at a time, into the chute of your food processor (keep those fingers OUT!). If you can do it without making too much of a mess, I'd carefully add (I use tongs) the nuked spinach through the chute, as well (blade still a-whirring), but you can stop the machine, take off the cover, and add the spinach if you'd rather.
Add the mostly dried-off basil leaves through the chute with the motor running, though, and then add the remaining ingredients and process until to desired consistency. Add more olive oil if you want a thinner pesto. Serve with whatever kind of noodles you like, or use as a sauce for chicken or other meats.
Whitacre creates such gorgeous, unexpected harmonies in his music. One of the best examples I know and one of my favorites of his a cappella choral works is Sleep:
Performers in this recording include the Vocal Essence Chorus & Ensemble Singers, the St. Olaf Choir, and the Minnesota High School Honors Choir, directed by the composer, himself.
Interesting note: Whitacre originally wrote this song using Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods" as the text, but couldn't get the poet's estate to release the use of the poem. So he asked his friend, poet Charles Anthony Silvestri to set words to the music he had already written. The first few lines of the poem are as follows:
The evening hangs beneath the moon,
A silver thread on darkened dune.
With closing eyes and resting head
I know that sleep is coming soon.
Our family is participating in the International Postcard Swap for Families, organized by Playing by the Book. Details are here, and the deadline to sign up is this coming Friday, April 30th.
Since WGBH's A Celtic Sojourn moved to a later time on Saturdays, I don't get to hear it as often as I'm not usually in the car at that time and forget to turn it on in the house (though I'm writing a sticky note right now and putting it on the computer so I'll remember this week). Luckily for me, previously aired shows are available to listen to at the WGBH website, so I didn't miss this amazing string quartet's performance.
The West Ocean String Quartet is comprised of Seamus McGuire, Niamh Crowley, Kenneth Rice, and Neil Martin, and the group recently released a CD (December, 2009) titled Ae Fond Kiss, after the Robert Burns song of the same name:
Ae Fond Kiss (1791)
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.
Who shall say that Fortune grieves him,
While the star of hope she leaves him?
Me, nae cheerful twinkle lights me;
Dark despair around benights me.
I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy,
Naething could resist my Nancy:
But to see her was to love her;
Love but her, and love for ever.
Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met-or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.
Fare-thee-weel, thou first and fairest!
Fare-thee-weel, thou best and dearest!
Thine be ilka joy and treasure,
Peace, Enjoyment, Love and Pleasure!
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever!
Ae fareweeli alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.
John Corigliano (The Red Violin) has a setting of Fern Hill with some truly lovely harmonies and interesting rhythms that are fun to sing. The clip below will give you a small, small taste of the eighteen minute work. Visit lala.com to hear the piece in its entirety.
I'm continuing to enjoy links between music and poetry as Poetry Month advances. Sad to say, when I played The Lark Ascending for my senior recital (cough, twenty years ago, cough), I never read the poem by which Vaughan Williams was inspired, but I'm very glad to have found it now. It's definitely a poem to take in slowly. The words seem to beat like the wings of the bird Meredith describes and I find I need to pause and rest in the midst of them.
The piece for violin and orchestra, like much, if not most, of the music of Vaughan Williams, is evocative of the English countryside, and it has been recorded by many violinists of note. A recent CD by Nicola Benedetti includes the piece, and it is one of my favorite recordings of the work that I've heard so far. But an mp3 version is not available to date, and the CD is an import, hence the hefty price tag. You can enjoy some of the piece in the soloist's official music video of the piece, here on YouTube (non-embeddable, or I'd include it here), or listen to part of it on her website.
Here, however, is part one of the piece as played by the equally talented Janine Jansen:
This week's Poetry Friday round-up is being held at Paper Tigers.
To begin celebrating National Poetry Month, I gave DD (8) my old copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends in one of her workboxes this morning, and she enjoyed reading some of Silverstein's zany works. The official Shel Silverstein site is very entertaining, with games and printables for kids among other things, but I also saw a link for a great iPhone app that features animated excerpts from Silverstein's poetry as well as a link to the ShelSilversteinBooks YouTube Channel.
We've been watching Molly, the most famous barn owl in the world, as she sits on her nest with first eggs, and now owlets plus eggs at The Owl Box on UStream. Three of the little ones have hatched, and now we're waiting for the last two to make an appearance. We've learned a lot just from watching and following the chat, which is moderated and kid-friendly (but the social stream is not, just FYI). I'm pulling together a list of books and other resources that have been helpful in the past and are currently sources that we turn to as we watch Molly's family expand, hoping that others will find it useful.
The current Hearts & Trees Winter/Spring Kit, which features (among other things), an owl silhouette art project, a felt owl handicraft to make, and an owls' fact sheet. Great timing!
One of the moderators posted this link to a pdf of DK's From Egg to Owl. Thanks, Jessica!
My reading voice is currently out of commission due to a succession of colds that just will not leave me alone, so I picked up an interesting-sounding audio book at a local library: The Door to Time, by Ulysses Moore. From the back of the CD case:
In a house on the coast of England, there is a door. It hides unimaginable mysteries, unavoidable danger, and unbelievable surprises. When eleven-year-old twins Jason and Julia move into the old mansion with their family, the door is a secret--locked and hidden behind an old wardrobe.
But Jason, Julia, and their friend Rick are about to discover what lies behind it. . .
Okay, so the premise is a little familiar, but it sounds like something my kids will enjoy. The Chronicles of Narnia meets The Spiderwick Chronicles meets The 39 Clues? We'll see.
I started this entry in February some time and decided it's time to get it out, whether or not it's complete. I fear it's not--more and more books keep finding their way into my library bag and my towering TBR stacks. A book showed up on my request list that I didn't remember ILL-ing, and then I found out my town's librarian put it there for me as she knew it was a book I would love. I'm reading it now and it's great, so hey, bring them on!
I've been reading like a fiend for several weeks now, but I thought I might come out of my cave to say "hey" to any of you who might still be around, and to post the books that have so enthralled me of late. Thank goodness for the "My Reading History" feature on the local library network's website, or I'd never remember most of the titles.
Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater. I can't resist a good werewolf story. And this is a good one, with some original aspects to lupine lore. Told from alternating perspectives, the story is none-the-less easy to follow and beautifully told. The author has a lyrical way with words and I've now read her other two books (Lament and Ballad, both of which I loved) and I can't wait until Linger (book two in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series) is released in July.
The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins. When I first found out that The Hunger Games was set in a dystopian future, I decided to give it a miss. I'd had enough depressing visual images from that one time I watched the news and really didn't need any more rattling around in my brain (kidding about the one time, not about the images, or the reason). But the buzz over this book was so great that I finally gave in, especially after DS (then 11) devoured the author's other series, the Underland Chronicles (which begins with Gregor the Overlander). One word: RUN. Run right now to your library or bookstore and start reading. No, wait--I take it back. Hold off until the third book in the trilogy (Mockingjay) comes out in the fall, and read all three in quick succession. Otherwise, like me, you'll be dying to read the last part of the story every time you think about the first two books. Gossip around the GoodReads water cooler says that The Hunger Games is being made into a movie to be released some time in 2011.
When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead. Liked it. Didn't fall in love with the characters as I thought I would based on the reviews.
Soulless, by Gail Carriger. Amelia Peabody meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer (sort of) in Steampunk- Victorian England. Fun, fun, fun! Book two in The Parasol Protectorate series (I kid you not) comes out March 30th, and I will be reading it.
Jane Bites Back, by Michael Thomas Ford. Fun. Will definitely catch the sequel, Jane Goes Batty. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith Didn't finish it. I love P&P and have read it countless times, but couldn't get into this one. It might have been the cover.
Remarkable Creatures, by Tracy Chevalier and Rosemary and Rue, by Seanan McGuire. These two books couldn't be more different, but they both have something in common. The first is historical fiction based on the life of Mary Anning, the Fossil Girl, and the second seems like a fantastical version of Oliver Twist meets Peter Pan. But both books' descriptions made me think that I would like reading them, though just not right now, so I've put them back on my "to read" list once more, for when books like City of Ashes or Shiver do not beckon.
Speak, and Catalyst, by Laurie Halse Anderson. Read both of these in one gulp. The author has a way of sucking me right into her characters' lives.
Need, by Carrie Jones. Requested the sequel as soon as I finished this one.
Our part of New England has been fortunate (in my eyes) to have both a mild winter and an early spring this year. Though it may be 38 degrees and rainy today, in two days it's supposed to be 59 and sunny, which sounds like heaven.
Nature study is a big part of a Charlotte Mason education, and while we may not get outdoors quite as much as I would like, the type of science my kids gravitate toward lends itself very well to the study of nature. Recently, I've been putting books about birds, eggs, and life cycles in their workboxes, and they've been a big hit. Here are a couple of our favorites, with a more exhaustive list at the end.
An Egg is Quiet, by Dianna Aston (author) and Sylvia Long (illustrator)
From the same team that brought us A Seed is Sleepy, this beautiful book is short on words, but long on enjoyment. The pictures, from endpapers to endpapers and everything in between, are meticulously drawn and softly tinted. And while there isn't a ton of information presented, what is here is apt to provoke some interesting observations and discussions.
Eggs, by Marilyn Singer (author) and Emma Stevenson (illustrator)
This book about eggs has much more written text than the one above, and was enjoyed by my eight- and twelve-year-olds. Published in 2008, it is the illustrator's first book. I hope we see more by her!
Other books and resources we used in this unit:
Ducks Don't Get Wet (Goldin & Davie; a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book)
Falcons Nest on Skyscrapers (Jenkins & Lloyd; a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book)
A Nest Full of Eggs (Jenkins & Rockwell; a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book)
How Do Birds Find Their Way? (Gans & Mirocha; a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book)
Lemon the Duck (Backman & Cleyet-Merle; for a teacher's guide for this book, go here)
From Egg to Chicken (Ganeri)
Animals in Flight (Jenkins & Page)
How Animals Grow (Llewellyn)
The Egg (Jeunesse, de Bourgoing, & Mettler)
Bird Songs (Franco & Jenkins)
What Bluebirds Do (Kirby)
A Duckling is Born (Isenbart & Baumli)
The Life Cycle of a Duck (Hipp & Kuhn)
From Egg to Bird (Reidel)
Duckling (Magloff)
DVDs:
Bill Nye the Science Guy: Birds
Birds of a Feather (Reading Rainbow)
All about Birds
All about Animal Life Cycles
Life of Birds
Saw this over at Reading to Know--the perfect thing to make a rainy Monday more fun! Those of you who know me--I don't think this will come as a shocker. ☺
You Are Fantasy / Sci Fi
You have an amazing imagination, and in your mind, all things are possible.
You are open minded, and you find the future exciting. You crave novelty and progress.
Compared to most people, you are quirky and even a bit eccentric. You have some wacky ideas.
And while you may be a bit off the wall, there's no denying how insightful and creative you are.
The 2010 Iditarod started yesterday, with the official restart happening today in Willow at 2 p.m. Alaska time. So far we are following Zoya DeNure, Jeff King (who announced this is likely to be his last Iditarod), Hugh Neff, and Judy Currier, who was the very last musher to leave. Find my 2009 posts with many, many related resources here.
Sorry about the formatting problems. Will look into it.
I tend to retreat to my cave in the depth of winter, but the spring-like weather we're expecting this weekend should wake me up a bit, so I'm hoping to blog with a bit more regularity. Plus I'm fresh out of interesting YA books to read, which leaves me with more time on my hands.
In addition to all the reading I've been doing, one thing I've been working on lately is creating some worksheets to go with various "Let's Read and Find Out Science" books, which series is a favorite of DD (8).
Here are a couple for What Color is Camouflage? by Carolyn Otto (author) and Megan Lloyd (illustrator):
For copywork to go along with this book I'd suggest the following sentences (from the same book):
Camouflage can be a certain color, or pattern of colors, or a special shape that fools the eye. Animal camouflage is a kind of disguise. It makes an animal hard to see.
While it is difficult to choose one favorite work amongst a sea of gorgeous music by the Polish composer, the one that wins (most days) with me is the G Minor Ballade, written in 1836:
Born in Warsaw, Chopin moved to Paris in 1831 and became friends with Franz Liszt. This friendship, and Chopin's association with the novelist George Sand (Aurore Dudevant) is portayed in the 1991 movie Impromptu, starring Hugh Grant as Chopin, Judy Davis as Sand, and Julian Sands as Liszt. I highly recommend the film, although, since the last time I saw the movie was twelve or so years ago, I haven't yet watched it with a parent's eyes, so I'd suggest careful reviewing before sharing with younger family members. It is rated PG-13.
Links of interest:
Chopin Music: extensive information on the works of Chopin Classics for Kids shows about Chopin, plus a pdf of their activity sheet about the composer
The UK's Chopin Society has an article about the mystery of Chopin's birthday Classical TV's Chopin page
The comprehensive resource of The Poet of the Piano, celebrating its tenth anniversary this year
