Letter to a Mom with a smallish library.

You may want to inquire about your library's collection of Caldecott winners.  Our library has many of them for checkout, but has a special collection that you can only read at the library.  I would be scandalized if your library didn't carry them, even if it is a small library. 

Also; I know what you mean about not having read anything until kids.  I rather enjoy discovering all these books that I'd either never read or had forgotten.  

My homeschool philosophy is this:  I'm not protesting against any school or teacher; I'm creating a culture in our home where I can best impart my values.  I've probably read the books we own a hundred times each, and year after year, though we always find new titles to check out from the library, I try to include the tried and true titles.  The books are like old friends.  There are many times when a child will sigh over a familiar book cover and say, "Oh, I love this book!"

So, it's not the worst thing that your library doesn't have an ample collection, and a small price to pay for living in a rural area.

List of Caldecott winners.

Here are some of my favorites.  I enjoy the works of most of these illustrators.  In some cases, I enjoy other titles by the same illustrator more than the title that won him/her the Caldecott medal.  

2005 Kevin Henkes. Kitten's First Full Moon. 

1996 Peggy Rathmann. Officer Buckle and Gloria. 

1994 Allen Say. Grandfather's Journey. 

1993 Emily Arnold McCully. Mirette on the High Wire. 

1988 John Schoenherr (illus.) Owl Moon. written by Jane Yolen. 

1985 Trina Schart Hyman. Saint George and the Dragon: A Golden Legend. 

1981 Arnold Lobel. Fables. 

1980 Barbara Cooney (illus.) Ox-Cart Man. written by Donald Hall.

1976 Leo & Diane Dillon (Illus.) Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale.

1975 Gerald McDermott. Arrow to the Sun. Viking Press.

1969 Uri Shulevitz (Illus.) The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship. retold by Arthur Ransome. 

1968 Ed Emberley (Illus.) Drummer Hoff. adapted by Barbara Emberley. Prentice-Hall.

1965 Beni Montresor (Illus.) May I Bring a Friend? written by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers. 

1964 Maurice Sendak. Where the Wild Things Are. 

1963 Ezra Jack Keats. The Snowy Day. Viking Press.

1959 Barbara Cooney (Illus.) Chanticleer and the Fox; adapted from the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. written by Thomas Y. Crowell.

1958 Robert McCloskey. Time of Wonder. 

1957 Marc Simont (Illus.) A Tree Is Nice. written by Janice Udry. 

1956 Feodor Rojankovsky (Illus.) Frog Went a-Courtin'. written by John Langstaff. 

1955 Marcia Brown. Cinderella; written by Charles Perrault. trans. & illus. by Marcia Brown. 

1954 Ludwig Bemelmans. Madeline's Rescue. .

1953 Lynd Ward. The Biggest Bear.

1950 Leo Politi. Song of the Swallows. 

1949 Berta & Elmer Hader. The Big Snow. 

1948 Roger Duvoisin (Illus.) White Snow, Bright Snow. written by Alvin Tresselt.

1945 Elizabeth Orton Jones (Illus.) A Prayer for a Child. written by Rachel Lyman Field. 

1944 Louis Slobodkin (Illus.) Many Moons. written by James Thurber.

1943 Virginia Lee Burton. The Little House. 

1942  Robert McCloskey. Make Way for Ducklings. 

1941  Robert Lawson. They Were Strong and Good. 

1940  Ingri & Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. Abraham Lincoln. 

1938  Dorothy Lathrop. Animals of the Bible.

Hope this helps!

Quirks Number 1 and 2

Quote from Waiting for Charlie:

Quirk 5: Related to Quirk 3, I tend to mouth-breathe fairly often. This also runs in the family; in fact, Whimsy's mom once offended a group of "blood" family (as opposed to the "married-into's") by joking around about how we all stand around with our mouths hanging open.

Just this very morning in Mass I saw a woman with her mouth open. I rarely notice other people in Mass because usually I'm so preoccupied with the kids (and I don't want to make eye contact with anybody, lest I get a "can't you settle those kids down?" look -- I think I just unintentionally listed a quirk), but I actually caught myself staring.

So I'm glad MaD (Magella Dad) pointed out that people with sinus problems tend to hang their mouths open. That explains it!

So tonight I was lying in bed, pinching my nose to see how it feels to just hang out with my mouth open (which was very difficult to do because of all of the giggling involved) -- And I'm pretty sure that I just listed quirk #2 -- I love hearing stories about Mom, and that is one that I'd never heard before. But, I can totally picture that. I bet a book could be written about Mom's foot-in-mouth disease!

The thing about Mom's in-laws is that they tend to take themselves a little too seriously, and when the healthy reaction is "yeah, I do that . . .I bet it does look pretty funny when a roomful of us do that" you can pertinear be sure that they'll get huffy.

(Thank you, MaD! I'm sure your use is the first time that the word "pertinear" has been in pixel! It's like when the words "raccoon" or "skunk" were transliterated from Algonquian.)

I remember hearing the story of how concerned that the "baby" of the family of my grandfather had married "down" (maybe in the 1920's?). They. were. dirt. farmers. How do you marry down from that? But I don't think that particular branch hung their mouths open all day. I think that's from the non-German side.

Online Homilies

Great homilies. Almost always less than 10 minutes. This week's homily clocks in under 6 -- a long time for a homily titled "The Feast of Silence"!

Fr. Tom Cook

Still Easter

In God's Mercy, He has given us 50 days of Eastertide. Yesterday the kids painted eggs and took turns hiding them outside. Yesterday was at least 20 degrees warmer than Easter day.

Go paint some eggs!

Easter Eggs

Here are some fun things we tried today, or will be trying throughout these forty days of Easter:

CRAFT MATERIALS:
Eggs
Stickers
Dye

Time needed: About 1 Hour
1. You can use letters, as we did here, stickers in other shapes, or even custom shapes cut from self-adhesive label paper (available at office supply stores).

2. Fix the sticker to the egg, then place the egg in a container of dye. Remove the egg from the dye and let it dry before removing the sticker.

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Use undiluted food coloring and a cotton swab to paint on hard boiled eggs. Let the eggs sit in egg cups until dry.

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These eggs are really simple to make. The basic principle is, you drizzle rubber cement over the egg, let it dry, then color the egg. Naturally, the egg dye won't stick to the parts that are painted with the glue. After the egg is colored to the desired shade, let it dry completely, then carefully peel off the rubber cement.

You can paint the rubber cement on plain white eggs, like we did with the blue and white or green and white eggs above. Another option is to dye the egg with a base color, then apply the rubber cement and re-dip in a contrasting color. The most important tip is to dry the eggs completely between colors and or coats of rubber cement.

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Wrap a piece of cheesecloth tightly around a dry egg, bundling the edges together and fastening them at the top with a rubber band or twist ties. Dip your paint brush or cotton swab and dip it into the egg dye, then dab this onto the cloth covered eggs. Repeat, painting the eggs with various shades in various places, use your imgaination. Overlap some colors for special effects, or keep it monchrome. When you're finished painting, set the egg aside to dry.

The more patient you are and the more the egg dries, the better. When you unwrap the egg, you'll be left with a design that resembles armadillo skin. You can use this technique over plain white eggs, over a base base coat of color or even over marble colored eggs.

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Once you're ready to start marbelizing, stir 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of oil into a cup of egg dye. Quickly dip your egg in and out of the dye. The dye will adhere, the oil will repel, creating the marble design. Keep dipping for more intense colors. You can also let the egg dry and re-dip in a second color. Repeat as many times as you feel will make a gorgeous egg. When finished and egg is dry, take a paper towel to get the excess oil of the surface of the egg. Different amounts of oil will result in more or less marbeling. Experiemnt to find the mixture that you like best. Remember you can always add more, so start conservatively.

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In a coffee cup, mix about 20 drops of food coloring with 1 teaspoon of vinegar. Add 1/2 cup hot water. Before you color your eggs let the water cool to room temperature. If necessary you can add a bit more water.

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Draw pictures or designs with wax crayon. Even white wax crayon will be useful for this project. Dip in dye. Let dry.
The dye won't soak through the crayon! I find cheap crayons work best for this project (crayolas don't have quite enough wax in them though they do work ok).
An adult may need to help hold the egg while the child draws their pictures on it... at least the first time until they get the hang of it.

As if I needed another reason.

A whole BuildABear Store to ourselves after the awayschool kids are done with winter break.

Bitty Batter's Gingerbread

Bitty Batter bought some butter.

“But,” said she, “this butter’s bitter.

If I put it in my batter,It will make my batter bitter.”

So she bought some better butter,

And she put the better butter in the bitter batter,

And made the bitter batter better.

The nice thing about baking gingerbread is that you know "for sure" in a little while how the batter turned out. What if the gingerbread you are baking are not men, but little men and little women?

Like Bitty Batter, any good cook tastes a little along the way, to see how the batter is going. Teachers are not unlike cooks; I suppose that is why we test -- to see how the batter tastes.

Alas, we must wait a little longer than a couple hours to know "for sure" how the final product turns out.

Of course, there are a thousand differences between gingerbread and children, but I'm sure that I could learn something from Bitty Batter if I listen.

But it's nearly Christmas, and gingerbread and children are calling!

Merry Christmas!

Advocate

I have just finished reading The Teacher Who Couldn't Read by John Corcoran. Like Mark Judge in his book, God and Man at Georgetown Prep, I put down the book dismayed that neither student had an advocate. Consequently, Corcoran left parochial school illiterate and Mark graduated from parochial school without his Catholic faith.

The theme that runs through both books is "I was cheated by the system, and the teachers who were a part of it." Their parents, in both cases, were exonerated from any responsibility to secure a quality education for their sons.

Perhaps it is reasonable for a parent to think: "I know how to read, and I am a good Catholic, and I send my kid to parochial school: therefore, my child will learn how to read and learn his Faith. No more effort on my part is required.

That can no longer be taken for granted. And, by the testimony of these books, apparently it never could be taken for granted.

In this sense, parents who send their children to away schools are in the same position as their homeschooling counterparts.

No matter who is doing the teaching, the buck still stops with Mom and Dad.

Teachers Love (and Hate) Flex Days

This is a reprint from a comment to http://beofish.blogspot.com/2007/11/im-still-not-used-to-it.html .

However, I've been kicking around these ideas for a long time, and in fact, spoke to this very issue at a roundtable discussion at the local homeschool conference:



I think the homeschool movement's fear of government oversight keeps homeschoolers from speaking frankly about the struggle to provide a quality education without much accountability.

I homeschool year-round to allow for ample flex days throughout the year. And, I aim for 200 school days so that if we "only" get in 180 schooldays we are still doing okay. And, that way we can do bite-sized pieces of school per day, too.

One can be easily misled into thinking that "the perfect curriculum" will solve all of life's troubles. I think that Self-Discipline and Family Discipline are the keys to successful homeschooling.

And, toss in Curriculum insofar as a bad curriculum/student match will have a negative impact on the homeschool, but a even the best curriculum/student match cannot save a homeschool where self-discipline and family discipline are lacking.

A Milestone

Out of the blue my five year old daughter declared that she is ready for chapter books for her literature -- I can save the picture books for her little sisters. (Of course I fully expect her to be right there for the little girls' literature sessions with picture books.)

The two older ones dropped everything, pulled her up into our home's library, and came down with a stack of books that included Treasure Island, Charlotte's Web, and the Boxcar Children. The nine year old pulled the last book out of the stack and promptly started reading the first chapter to her.

Welcome to the Club!

School Lunch Program

I like the idea of Unit Studies. I am currently implementing a Unit Study - influenced approach to religious instruction, and will soon be getting in the mail a history book that is Unit Study - influenced.

I have actually done Unit Studies with Math, of all things. Though for the most part we do a math program that is highly tutored, once in a while for a break we pull out materials for "time" or "measurement" or some other such thing that gives everyone a chance to participate to their ability. It may be tutored in that I work individually with each child, but it is pretty cool that everyone can be on the same page in their studies.

I think the same could be said for Language Arts, which is definitely more of my forte. For example, the two year old can be taught "The Itsy Bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout." The five year old can trace it, the seven year old can use it for spelling instruction (copywork/dictation) and the nine year old can diagram it.

Like at the dinner table. For a large-ish family, and for a family with a mom whose motto is "keep it simple," for the most part everyone eats the same thing for meals. Because the infant is breast-fed, you really can say that everyone eats at the same table.

If I ever design a homeschool program I'm going to call it the Homeschool Lunch Program, where everyone learns at the same table.

Excellence in Writing Interview

A commenter has kindly shared a link to her interview with Andrew Pudewa:

http://classicalscholar.com/2007/10/23/andrew-pudewa-interview/

Thanks, Diane!

Crafts

Dear Husband can't be home for Thanksgiving, so we are getting a head start on making ornaments for the season. I don't hold a candle to Our Domestic Church for crafts, but these are more in my league (major craft wimps). So far, here are some favorites.

Son's favorite:

Candy Train Craft
Glue dots
A roll of hard candy (I used Mentos)
4 wrapped peppermint candies
A wrapped caramel
A wrapped chocolate kiss
Look at the picture for assembly. I don't add the ribbon.

Melt the rest of the caramels for apples.

One daughter's favorite:
Life Saver Wreath --

Shoestring licorice
Regular or Gummi green Life Savers
Use scissors to cut a piece of shoestring licorice 12 to 15 inches in length. Next, carefully string on about 15 Life Savers. Gather the ends of the licorice together and tie them into a bow to form a wreath. I added a ribbon because I didn't trust that much weight to a licorice rope.

My favorite:

What you'll need:
Glue Dots

Ribbons or yarn for hanging
1 wrapped candy cane (this has to be wrapped around the candy, not a 'bagged' candy cane)
1 tiny pom-pom for the nose
2 little wiggle eyes (or paper eyes drawn and cut out)
Brown pipe cleaners for the antlers

How to make it:
Look at the illustration.

Literature

This is the last of my three-legged stool: I briefly alluded to it in the last post. In addition to tutoring the three Rs + teaching Religion as a family, I also read aloud to the children. I used to read in the evenings. However, I find that the older I get that I just want to hang out with my husband in the evenings. So I read to the kids during the schoolday.

Since I do school 16 days a month (usually), if there is a day that I can't get all three parts to school done in one day, I break it up. So I may tutor on Monday and then do morning prayer and literature on Tuesday. Both days are a kind of flex day without giving up school entirely, and without falling behind too much.

Maximizing Your Community

Religious Ed can be taught in the home the way it was taught before the advent of workbooks -- through praying and studying together.

I implement "morning prayer" in my home for religious instruction. It includes hymns, Scripture, Catechism and Spirituality.