Secular Homeschool March Giveaway

Hurrah, it's spring!  Hop on over to SecularHomeschool.com and enter to win a set of Growing with Grammar, Winning with Writing, or Soaring with Spelling & Vocabulary.

Book Sharing Monday - First Dog

My kids are crazy about animals in general, and dogs in particular, so whenever I see a new picture book about a dog, it usually ends up in our library bag.  This one was a real winner!  The main canine character travels all over the world, meeting dogs in different countries (Shar Pei in China, Chihuahua in Mexico, etc.), and then coming back to the U.S. to find a very special home on Pennsylvania Avenue.  Short on text but easy to read aloud and with great pictures, First Dog gets a thumbs up from my family.  Written by J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Beth Zappitello.

Book Sharing Monday is hosted by Alex at Canadian Home Learning.

Wordless Wednesday : The Private Eye - Week 1

Gathering items for The Private Eye curriculum

Loupe-gazing

One of the mosses we found as seen through two loupes

A split hickory nut as seen through two loupes

My Hero

[Via: 30 Dr. Seuss Quotes to Live By]              

Thanks to Alex whose pin caught my eye this morning on Pinterest.  I haven't found a button yet to place here on the blog, but if you'd like to follow my boards on Pinterest, this link will take you to them.  Update: found a button and added it to the sidebar.

Book Sharing Monday - Food, Glorious Food

I've missed Book Sharing Monday and am so happy that Alex has started hosting it again!

My kids, especially the youngest, are all pretty picky when it comes to eating.  The older two have become more adventurous as they've gotten older, but the youngest keeps deleting foods from his diet and not adding to it.  In an effort to expand his palate a bit, I've checked out and requested books from the library that have to do with food and nutrition, and, for a bit of a science tie-in, food chains.  So far we have the following books on hand:

 The Edible Pyramid--Good Eating Every Day by Loreen Leedy (a Reading Rainbow book).

The Monster Health Book--a Guide to Eating Healthy, Being Active & Feeling Great for Monsters & Kids by Edward Miller.

Who Eats What?  Food Chains and Food Webs by Patricia Lauber; illustrated by Holly Keller (a Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book).

Food Chain Frenzy--a Magic School Bus Chapter Book by Anne Capeci; illustrated by John Speirs.

Others that are on their way:

Why Do People Eat? by Kate Needham (Usborne Starting Point Science)
Good Enough to Eat: a Kid's Guide to Food and Nutrition by Lizzy Rockwell
Food & You: Eating Right, Being Strong, and Feeling Great by Dr. Lynda Madison (for Jane)
Food for Thought: the Stories behind the Things We Eat by Ken Robbins
Cool Snack Food Art: Easy Recipes That Make Food Fun to Eat! by Nancy Tuminelly
Oh the Things You Can Do That Are Good for You! All about Staying Healthy by Tish Rabe

I welcome suggestions.  Happy reading!

Music Monday - Beethoven Symphony No. 8

Good Monday morning to you!

Completed two years earlier in 1812, Beethoven's Eighth Symphony was performed for the first time on this day in 1814.

Here is Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.

The Great Backyard Bird Count

It started today!  We'll start tomorrow.  We "decorated" our cherry tree today.  ☺

Find out more here.

TBR pile

Just got a stack of interlibrary loan requests from the library.  Wouldn't you know they all showed up at once?  Hope to be able to get through the following in short order:

All Clear by Connie Willis (speedily read the first book in the series--Blackout as BPL-loaned Kindle book--and LOVED it.  I am a sucker for time travel and Britain, combined (Doctor Who, anyone?).  Also, WWII doesn't hurt--must have spent some previous, likely short-lived life in Blitz-ridden London).

Fracture by Megan Miranda.  Probably read about this one at Galleysmith, which I get in my inbox almost every day.

Midnight in Austenland, by Shannon Hale.  (I loved Austenland.  Have read everything by Shannon Hale I've been able to put my hands on since finding that book.)

The Snow Child, by Iowyn Ivey, partly because I love the author's first name, but also because it sounds fabulous.

The Day Before, by Lisa Schroeder (probably another Galleysmith find).

Also, downstairs, so not in my read-before-bed stack, but in my read-when-alert stack:

The Entitlement Trap, by Richard and Linda Eyre

The Hidden Gifts of the Introverted Child, by Marti Olsen Laney

and, my ongoing non-fiction favorite of the past decade:

Quiet--the Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain

What are you reading these days?

Kid-friendly movies

A couple of movies that have caught my attention of late:



The Borrowers was one of my favorite books when I was ten.  Blew through the entire series in quick, obsessive succession, to the annoyance of my best friend at the time who couldn't pry me out of its pages (much like a similar episode, different BFF, seven years later with Tolkien). The movie is in U.S. theaters beginning February 17th.

And currently available as a free download on iTunes is the Academy-Award-nominated animated short film, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, written by William Joyce (the book is available starting in July and is available for pre-order from Amazon).  I'm a fan.  Thanks to Tabatha for bringing the movie to my attention.

Wordless Wednesday - It's Bigger on the Inside

GeoMagz creation by J.J.

Favorite Holiday Music No. 17 - 12 Days (the David Chase remix)

I laughed until my eyes were tearing almost constantly the first time I heard David Chase's arrangement of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" as performed by the Boston Pops and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus under the direction of the fabulously brilliant Keith Lockhart.  The maestro has this to say about the piece:

"I knew we had a winning new arrangement of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' when we premiered it in 2007, but the audience's enthusiastic response night after night was unlike anything I've ever seen at the Pops," said Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart.  "Then a flood of letters and phone calls came in requesting a recording of the new arrangement-an incredibly creative twist on one of the greatest Christmas-time classics. We knew then and there that we would make a recording of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' and that it would become a staple of our Holiday season programming." 

The piece is available for sale in various audio download formats at the BSO website.   There's a commercial for it on the BSO's YouTube channel and as a free podcast on iTunes that lets you hear little snippets, but the music is mostly covered up by the voiceover, unfortunately.

added on the afternoon of 12/23:
You might just be able to catch a live performance of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" via Classical New England online live streaming on Christmas Eve at 7 p.m., EST.  Check out this link to see what else Classical New England has to offer this holiday season.


And I didn't mention it earlier, but this arrangement of the familiar carol has snippets of music from Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Offenbach, Souza, Saint-Saens & Tchaikovsky to Rogers & Hammerstein and even an unexpected appearance by a popular seventies British rock band whose name I will not mention for fear of spoiling the surprise.  It is truly an inventive re-imagining of the original song, and David Chase gets my highest respect for coming up with it!

As an aside, the one new Christmas picture book I bought this year (I can't believe it was only one!) was Laurel Long's Twelve Days of Christmas, which is absolutely gorgeous.

Happy Holidays!

Even Cleverbot knows the Truth.

Jazz's first conversation with Cleverbot went as follows:

!!!!!!!

More "Family Trees"

I mentioned a little while ago that I'd post more pictures from our museum visit to see these wonderful trees that are decorated in the theme of children's books.  I already can't wait for next year's crop!

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg (sorry, no flash permitted in the museum)

Hitty--Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field

Orange Peel's Pocket by Rose Lewis with illustrations by Grace Zong

Little Women (I'm wondering if there is an Alcott tree each year.  It would seem a sin not to have one in this town.)

Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram (a family favorite of ours)

An activity to go along with the above tree

"I love you as much as Christmas morning." Quite the statement, I thought.

How Full Is Your Bucket for Kids (new to me, but sweet and not *too* in your face with the message for us, at least the first time through it.)

This was probably my favorite tree: A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead with illustratations by Erin Stead

I'm a sucker for a cute owl.  The penguin doesn't hurt, either.

Another family favorite: If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by the fabulous Felicia Bond

So cute!

Alice through the Looking Glass

According to one of the docents, this one figurine took the woman who created the "Alice" tree forty hours to complete!

Happy Holidays, all!

Favorite Holiday Music No. 16 - Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)

Baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier wrote a Christmas mass based on four French carols, each of which is sung preceding the movement it inspired.  The fourth and last carol is the one in the YouTube video above, and is performed by the Aradia Ensemble under the direction of Kevin Mallon.  Find the cd or mp3 download of the entire Messe de Minuit pour Nöel here.

Wordless Wednesday - Family Trees

Wordless Wednesday - The Halloween that Wasn't