Something New with a Sidebar Store

OK folks, I love to recommend books about homeschooling and those that I use as read-alouds or for inspiration.

Amazon.com nudged me toward opening an "aStore" -- it's like having my own bookstore except I don't have to stock anything but then I don't get the big bucks as quickly. However, this will help me keep up with recommending great books for my faithful readers.

So , if you're intersted in getting any of the books I mention here, right-click on the sidebar and open a new window. This will take you to a storefront where I'll get a percentage of whatever you buy -- a win-win, no?

Holler if there are any problems. I'm just starting with this and could use any advice or suggestions (or comments on problems) that you can give.

St. Andrew's Novena

If you'll notice on my sidebar -- I've added a novena prayer for the Christmas season. This prayer should be prayed 15 times per day every day until Christmas. Cottage Blessings suggested that some folks put it in their sidebar so we won't forget to pray it!

So glad Alice suggested this!

Loveliness of Advent fair

Don't forget to check out the Loveliness of Advent fair. Jenn has done a fabulous job of compiling the different Advent postings that have been flying around the blogosphere for the past week or so.

Advent .... what a great time to prepare our hearts and homes for the coming of Jesus!

SNOW DAY!

We woke up to about 4 inches on the ground and still a light snow falling ... BamBam is a bit sad though, because it's just too darn cold to play out there (18 degrees at 7:30 a.m.)!

A Wonderful, Glorious Event ...

happened in our domestic church last night.

Our pastor came to bless our new home and to break bread with us. The littles were very excited that Father was coming for dinner -- spending all day trying to keep things picked up and tidy (and easily found so that they could show him everything they've gotten in the past couple of weeks). But this wasn't "the wonderful, glorious event" (although miraculous for my kids to pickup of their own volition).

The "wonderful, glorious event" was the WAY Father did the blessing. Coming just before dinner, Father entered with his aspersorium and prayer books, covered with a light dusting of snow. Father gathered us in the living room -- all eight family members and Father, ranged in a circle, began the blessing, as we begin in all things ... "In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Father then read the opening prayer. But then he paused and did something that he is a master at -- he explained to my littles (and all of us) why we would want to have our house blessed: why we would ask that God be visit us when we were home, travel with us when we were away, and welcome us back when we came home.

Father read the story of Zaccheus from the Gospel of Luke. He asked LegoManiac what God was trying to tell us with this reading -- LegoManiac answered, "God wants to help sinners."

With the littles leading, Father sprinkled every corner of our house with holy water -- and BamBam who kept saying "bless me, Father; bless me". As the snow fell softly outside, Father sprinkled the dining room and the kitchen, the bathrooms and the bedrooms; he sprinkled the doors we come in and the doors we go out.

"God wants to help sinners".

And that's why we had our new home blessed ... and that's why we want God to be near us ... and that's why we ask God's help in our homeschool journey.

Spiritual Pilgrimage for Pope Benedict XVI

As our dear Pope begins his ecumenical trip to Turkey, please join my family in a spiritual pilgrimage, offered for the Holy Father's safety and the success of this trip.

This spiritual pilgrimage is courtesy of Katherine on the 4Real forum!

Spiritual Pilgrimage With Pope Benedict XVI Prayer composed by Bishop William E. Lori, supreme chaplain, for the Spiritual Pilgrimage with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI on his Nov. 28-Dec. 1 pastoral visit to Turkey.

Heavenly Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name, we humbly ask that you sustain, inspire, and protect your servant, Pope Benedict XVI, as he goes on pilgrimage to Turkey –

a land to which St. Paul brought the Gospel of your Son;

a land where once the Mother of your Son, the Seat of Wisdom, dwelt;

a land where faith in your Son’s true divinity was definitively professed.

Bless our Holy Father, who comes as a messenger of truth and love to all people of faith and good will dwelling in this land so rich in history. In the power of the Holy Spirit, may this visit of the Holy Father bring about deeper ties of understanding, cooperation, and peace among Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, and those who profess Islam. May the prayers and events of these historic days greatly contribute both to greater accord among those who worship you, the living and true God, and also to peace in our world so often torn apart by war and sectarian violence.

We also ask, O Heavenly Father, that you watch over and protect Pope Benedict and entrust him to the loving care of Mary, under the title of Our Lady of Fatima, a title cherished both by Catholics and Muslims. Through her prayers and maternal love, may Pope Benedict be kept safe from all harm as he prays, bears witness to the Gospel, and invites all peoples to a dialogue of faith, reason, and love.

We make our prayer through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

An Example of Masterly Inactivity

Charlotte Mason coined a phrase "masterly inactivity" where the teacher gives her students whatever they require and then gets out of the way and lets the students experiment and create what they will, overseeing but never interfering.

Here's an example from my littles today: StringBean drew and cut her own paperdolls while LegoManiac designed his own puppets. Pretty cool, huh?

This could explain alot!

You Are 50% Left Brained, 50% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning.Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others.If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic.Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility.Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way.If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art.Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

So, Are You Right or Left Brained?

The Advent Blocks ....

as they'll be stored each year -- in the Christmas is Coming box as described in the Variations on a Theme post

Four Years Ago today ....

on the Feast of Christ the King, in the Austrian village of Scheibbs, I gave birth to a bouncing baby boy:

He was Christened in the Kartause Church on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (12/12/02):

And, today he turns four and still fills our hearts with bouncing joy and love:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BamBam!

Variations on a Theme: Alice's Advent Blocks ....

become our new, permanent Advent Calendar!

When Alice G. posted about her "advent block" idea (look for the Nov 12th post), the wheels in my head started working overtime. I like to create one new thing each Advent season, something that we will then incorporate into our Advent and Christmas traditions. The advent block idea really seemed like a cool way to create a new tradition, but we had already created a Jesse Tree last year.

And, as I can't stand to "follow directions" or repeat someone else's suggestions completely, I've made a couple of alterations to this already fantastic idea.

So, here's what we did:

First, I went to my favorite craft store, Hobby Lobby, and purchased the above: two packages of 1-inch wood blocks (the extras will go in the craft cupboard for some other wild idea!), foam paint brushes, a small (8 x 6 inches) wooden box with sliding lid, a package of six 8 x 3/4 x 1/4 inch wood pieces, acrylic paints (I always buy Delta's Ceramacoat rather than the Plaid products -- they just work better) in a barn red, Christmas Green and white (although I technically should have done the Advent Calendar in Advent colors (purple/pink) but I always think of Advent/Christmas in the same vein and so I often use the same colors, matte finish spray, and some Sharpie metallic markers.

I sawed just a bit off three of the wood slats so they would fit into the box. I then base-coated all the pieces as shown above.

I then glued the painted slats into the box, making three evenly spaced "shelves". I used the gold Sharpie to title the box (so when it's in storage, we remember what it is!). The one inch cubes fit perfectly on the shelves, six across and four rows.

Here are the cubes -- so that I wouldn't get confused (and because I tend to try to use technology whenever possible!) I set up an Excel spreadsheet with six categories (for the six sides of the cubes) and numbered one through 24. The categories (like Alice's) are: items for a homemade Creche, Saints of the season, treats for after dinner each evening, prayers, family activity, Advent/Christmas symbol. The plan for these cubes is to have one family member each night pull a cube and we'll do five of the six things on the cube. The sixth side, the seasonal symbol, will be placed face out on the shelf as we do the cubes. This way, the box becomes an instant reminder of how many days are left (each cube will cover the number so the highest number exposed is how many days left) while also being seasonally decorative.

The final touch, is to sign and date the box so that you'll remember exactly how long we've been doing this Advent/Christmas tradition! Click here to see the box full of the blocks ....

Teaching Knitting: the yarn

We've been having so much fun reading about wool and spinning and dyeing, that we decided to try a bit ourselves. Just the dyeing part as we don't have sheep to shear or wheels to spin (YET!).

The best all-time easy yarn-dyeing is using Kool-Aid. The colors are "cool kid" colors, it's non-toxic, relatively inexpensive and lots of fun!

First, wind natural or pale yarn (we ordered Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in a natural worsted weight) into a big loop -- we used String Bean, but you can also use chair backs or an umbrella swift. Wrap the two ends around the loop and tie in a square knot (leaving about a 2-3 inch end). Tie about 4 or 5 pieces of acrylic yarn (I'll tell you why it should be acrylic in a minute) in different spots around the yarn -- we used yellow here.

We then googled "kool aid yarn dyeing" and found different directions but all boiled down to -- choose a kool-aid color, mix it with water and vinegar, let yarn sit in the dye bath until all the water is clear and all the color is in the yarn, rinse, wash with soap, dry, wind into balls and VOILA!

First, choose your kool-aid color: I copied a chart from the internet that showed approximate colors from various flavors. BamBam chose Grape, String Bean chose Tropical Punch (I thought for sure she'd do "pink lemonade" but maybe next time) and Lego Maniac chose Cheery.

We then did the safest version of dyeing for kids -- sun dyeing. Placed each skein in its own dye-bath in a freezer-weight ziploc bag and placed in the sun. The Grape took only three-and-a-half hours to completely dye; the Tropical Punch and Cherry took about six hours.

We then rinsed the yarn and hung it to dry. String Bean's Tropical Punch, Lego Maniac's Cherry and BamBam's Grape are shown here. See the yellow acrylic ties? The acrylic doesn't pick up dye as it doesn't have "pores" like the natural fiber does. Pretty cool, huh?

We let the skeins dry and then washed them just as you would hand-wash any wool. Once dry, we got out the umbrella swift, ball winder and wound some center-pull skeins.

Now, we're ready to learn to knit!

Teaching Knitting: the needles

Well, the littles and I finally made our needles, based on Melanie Falick's directions in her great book, Kids Knitting (a must-have if you're going to teach kids to knit).

We started with two 4ft x 1/2in. dowells. We cut these dowells into three sets of 11" each and one set of 15" (the longer ones are hard for the littles to maneuver, so that set will be my needles).
Then we sanded them and sanded them, trying to remove ALL rough spots which might catch our hand-dyed wool.

(Note: the kids were doing this on one of our "pajama days" -- can't do that in "real school"! Also, Lego Maniac is hard at work with his tongue stuck in the corner of his mouth while BamBam is still trying to figure out exactly what we're doing and String Bean is trying to look surprised that I've got the camera out!

The next step was to oil the wood -- this keeps the needles smooth and protects from cracks forming from the dry climate. We let the oil soak into the wood. We then each chose different buttons to place on the ends of our needles (primarily so we could know whose was whose!). You can also used beads or make ends with sculpey or other oven-drying clay, but we just wanted to use some fun buttons.

String Bean and I chose Austrian buttons, Lego Maniac chose square ceramic buttons and BamBam chose school buses. We glued these one with super glue and let them sit till we were sure they were good and done.

Our final bouquet of needles!

Leonie Knits !?!?!?!?!?!

I just couldn't let unschooling friend Leonie's post about knitting go unheralded (and documented right here). As many of you know, knitting is near and dear to my heart and it sounds like we might have another almost convert!

I really like the teacher's reflections that she quotes -- something us knitters have known all along but it's articulated very well here!

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Over the next day or two I'll post the pictures of our own knitting adventure -- we've made the needles, yarn and now we get the fun of putting it all together.......

Thankful Thursday a bit early ....

Today I was thinking alot about the things I'm thankful for. My dh, my kids and my ability to homeschool are always at the top of the list.....

But today I have to say I'm particularly thankful for homeschool friends -- those who will go out of there way to bring my kids to a field trip (that I set up) which I can't go to because my youngest spent the wee hours of the morning throwing up; the same friends who cheerfully accept that my other son that they've driven to the field trip has now thrown up in THEIR van....these are great friends to be most thankful for.

MaryM and family -- you are definitely one in a million!

82 out of 100!

Here's a list of someone's idea of the "best in kids literature". It's hard to give just a yes/no as some of these were just "ok" and some were "fantastic". I think I've read so many of these because of homeschooling -- many of the longer books we've read as read-alouds while the others are on all "the lists" and make great additions to our homeschool time.

The fascinating thing is how many of these books have been made into movies -- and how many of those movies are pale and flat in comparison to the original books! Secret Garden and Indian in the Cupboard are two that especially were much better in the book than on the screen.

When you're done doing your list, send me a link in the comments and we'll compare "notes"!
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Mark the selections you have read in bold. If you liked it, add a plus (+) next to the title, if you didn't, give it a minus (-). Then, put the total number of books you've read in the subject line.

1. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White +
2. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg -
3. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss +
4. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss +
5. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak + (first book I ever read)
6. Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch +
7. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein -
8. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle +
9. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls +
10. The Mitten by Jan Brett +
11. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown +
12. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
13. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis +
14. Where the Sidewalk Ends: the Poems and Drawing of Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein +
15. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
16. Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
17. Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss +
18. Strega Nona by Tomie De Paola +
19. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
20. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? by Bill Martin, Jr. +
21. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl - (dislike all Dahl)
22. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams +
23. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle +
24. Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
25. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss +
26. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka +
27. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by John Archambault +
28. Little House on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder +
29. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett +
30. The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne +
31. The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner +
32. Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan +
33. Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks +
34. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell -
35. Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
36. The BFG by Roald Dahl -
37. The Giver by Lois Lowry
38. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff +
39. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl +
40. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder +
41. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor -
42. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien +
43. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss +
44. Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
45. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
46. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien +
47. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott +
48. The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister +
49. Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
50. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson +
51. Corduroy by Don Freeman +
52. Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg -
53. Math Curse by Jon Scieszka +
54. Matilda by Roald Dahl -
55. Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls
56. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume -
57. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary +
58. The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White +
59. Are You My Mother? by Philip D. Eastman +
60. The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis +
61. Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey +
62. One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss +
63. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster +
64. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats +
65. The Napping House by Audrey Wood
66. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig +
67. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter +
68. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt +
69. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum +
70. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery +
71. Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss +
72. Basil of Baker Street, by Eve Titus
73. The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper +
74. The Cay by Theodore Taylor
75. Curious George by Hans Augusto Rey +
76. Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox
77. Arthur series by Marc Tolon Brown +
78. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
79. Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes -
80. Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder +
81. The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton +
82. The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown +
83. Sideways Storiesfrom Wayside School by Louis Sachar +
84. Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish +
85. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh +
86. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein +
87. Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater +
88. My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett -
89. Stuart Little by E. B. White +
90. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
91. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
92. The Art Lesson by Tomie De Paola +
93. Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina +
94. Clifford, the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell +
95. Heidi by Johanna Spyri +
96. Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss +
97. The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare +
98. The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis -
99. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney +
100. The Paper Bag Princess by Robert N. Munsch +

Margaret of Scotland -- pray for us!

St. Margaret of Scotland

(1045-1093)

Yesterday was the feast of St. Margaret of Scotland. She was raised in Hungary but eventually allowed to come home to her homeland of England. Again ousted from England, she went to Scotland where she met and married King Malcolm. She was known throughout her life for her piety and charity. This holy card just sums up how regal and generous this graceful woman must have been.

St. Margaret is one of String Bean's patron saints so we had to do SOMETHING a bit special. We let String Bean choose the menu (always "iffy" as she usually only wants to eat peanut butter or sweets!), read a bit about this wonderful royal saint, and made yummy Scottish Oat Scones. Kotch pronounced them "just as good as the ones we had in England!"


These were fabulous scones. We got the recipe from one of our favorite liturgical year sites, Catholic Culture.com. This is a great site that has daily saints and lots of interesting facts about them, activities and recipes. These scones were supposed to be cut into eighths, but quarters seemed a bit more reasonable for our brood!

Loveliness of Homemade Gifts

I was "down for the count" yesterday with the flu -- guess it comes from being the ONLY one in the household who didn't get a flu shot!

Anyway, hop on over to Dawn's By Sun and Candlelight to read the carnival on homemade gifts. The suggestions and thoughts of many moms are a delight to read as we get ready for the Christmas rush. Remember, that the whole point to the Christmas season is love -- and gifts made in the heart of the home are a great symbol of the Season's love!


There are some wonderful "loveliness" fairs still to come this year and even more for next year -- so keep checking back as I post about them....

Christmas is only 43 DAYS away ....

and do YOU have your list ready? Have you started the frantic search online or in stores for the perfect gift?

Well, take a seat, a big sip of tea and RELAX, I have a suggestion for you...

Have you ever thought that you (and your kids, too) could MAKE the gifts this year? That's what we're "fixin'" to do.

If you've been reading this blog, you've seen that I'm teaching my littles how to knit -- yep, even the youngest, BamBam will soon know the pleasures of creating something from fiber. Our goal is to make little things for the family -- scarves for the big guys, potholders/hot pads for mom and granmere, caps and toy-clothes. These are NOT hard to do and can be quite fun. But homemade gifts are so much more than fun.

I remember when I was little and mom or dad would say the classic "it's not the gift, but the thought that counts". Right!

Now, as a mom, I know this is true: gifts made by people (especially by kids) are so much more special than yet another skirt or top from the store. The time the kids spend to choose colors and yarns, to create something, is time spent LOVING the person getting the gift. It's time away from playing Xbox or Legos, from watching a video or playing outside. It's time spent on the person -- so much more priceless than buying a present.

I too am going to make gifts this year. I have ordered the yarn for a beautiful sweater for my dh -- a sweater that I'll have to knit in secret so he won't know. I did this last year -- I made a gorgeous, charcoal grey (he hates bright colors) vest with silver buttons. I hid the knitting from him. I had it almost done two days ahead of schedule ... then the other shoe dropped: I had made a major mistake on the front!

So rip, rip, rip and re-knit as fast as possible to present him with the finished gift on Christmas morning. And it fit and looked great. Then I washed it....Then it shrunk....now it almost fits LegoManiac. But, it truly is "the thought that counts". My dh loved that vest and all the sweaters, hats, and scarves I've made him. Dh loves them because he knows that every stitch is stitched with love ... that every row shows him just how much I care for him. And everytime he wears something that I've made, he knows that it's the knitted-in love that is keeping him warm.

So, I'll be making gifts this year -- not just knitting, but homemade goodies (caramel popcorn, fudge, cookies) too. I'll have my children help. They'll be making their own gifts as well as helping with the "from the family" gifts.

And those of our family and friends who are lucky enough to get a handmade gift or homemade goodie from us will know just how much we love them. And that's priceless!

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Just as an aside:

With Granmere living with us now, she and I buy LOTS of the Christmas Craft magazines -- and believe me, there are lots! The best, by far, this season is Martha Stewart's Holiday Handmade Gifts -- it's got very few ads, lots of great ideas, and many of the ideas seem do-able with the kids. Stewart really does a great job of explaining and illustrating just exactly what she would have you do!

And since we're on the subject of MS, her crafts page on her website is LOADED with fun and crafty things to do. You go girl!

Still Working on the Sheep-Wool-Knitting Unit

Here are a few more books we read today:

Hansen, Robin – Sunny’s Mittens: Learn-to-Knit Lovikka Mittens
This is a “classic” how-to-knit for kids. It’s a story of how Nana teaches Sunny how to knit and felt mittens. This book is great for a few reasons: it makes it sound really do-able (and it is with the clear directions in the back), it’s a low-key discussion of how mittens are made, and it’s spiral bound so the book stays open while you’re reading the directions. Honestly, if you do one knitting project with your kids – use this book!

Greenstein, Elaine – One Little Lamb
Yep, that’s all it takes to knit a pair of mittens – just one little lamb. This is a baby book with cute illustrations and just a couple of words per page; but, it highlights the link between a lamb, shearing, spinning, dyeing, knitting, and mittens. Fun for the younger ones to practice their reading ability.

Klise, Kate (illus by her sister M. Sarah Klise) – Shall I Knit You a Hat: A Christmas Yarn
This book is a very creative story about the benefits of hand-knit gifts for Christmas – ones that are very practical and beautiful at the same time. Little Rabbit and his mom design and knit hats for all their friends as a Christmas surprise (knowing that a blizzard is forecast for Christmas Eve). It is a really cute story and the hats they make are REALLY unique; the only thing that’s missing is directions to try designing your own hats ….

It really is fun to compile this list -- and more importantly, to share them with my littles -- of books which really speak to the beauty, utility and love of knitting!

Mercury Transit Field Trip

This afternoon some of the homeschoolers in the Denver area were privileged to be able to view the planet Mercury transiting in front of the Sun. A group of us met at the historic Chamberlin Observatory (on University of Denver campus) and were able to use the 112 year-old telescope to observe this 13-times-per-century event. And it was a glorious day in Denver (almost 80 degrees and clear) to watch from either the official telescope or viewing through the telescopes of the members of the Denver Astronomical Society who set up outside the observatory.






Of course, the best part of these fields trips is getting together and having fun:

Have I told you yet why I love homeschooling?

Well, today is a prime example of the benefits of homeschooling:

String Bean found My Book of Little House Paper Dolls: The Big Woods Collection I was going to use last year (but never got around to). She spent a joyful morning with me as we cut out the clothes, relived reading the books from last year and she invented her own stories to go with the characters. She thought it was really cool that Pa can play his fiddle -- she's the one that just started violin ....

Tonight, she gave us a whole show using the dolls and telling her own version of life in the Little House. It was so heart-warming to hear the creativity and imagination flowing.

This was after she had found some flash cards and was playing concentration matching the big and little letters (now, if I had assigned working with flash cards, she wouldn't have wanted to "play" that!).

Then we made cookies to bring to our lovely homeschooling friends, friends we'd made online at 4Real and have since been able to "hang with" now that we live in Colorado....we discussed field trips, projects and other CM-y things. We prayed the election novena for tomorrow. Our kids played. What a fabulous thing it is to know other homeschoolers that have a similar philosophy of living/loving learning with your children!

MaryM also pointed me to a great, once-in-a-lifetime kind of activity -- seems Mercury will be transiting in front of the Sun on Wednesday, November 8. So, while the big ones attend their public-school funded homeoption program, my littles and I will be at the Chamberlin Observatory actually tracking Mercury's progress! How cool is that?

Any wonder I'm loving this homeschooling adventure?

Lest you think dress-up is just for the littles ...

here's a photo of my big kids heading out to a Costume Dance -- Brikhead is running for Student Body president of his home option program (K-12, about 300 students), thus the Vote for Jose!

I helped chaperone and went as Madame DeFarge from A Tale of Two Cities -- primarily so I could knit while chaperoning (and I finished a lovely, fuzzy pink purse for String Bean!).

More Sheep-ish Books for our Wool Unit

Here's some sheep, wool and knitting books we read through yesterday(between costume try-ons, quick sewing and other Halloween-time fun and adventures)....

What a fun unit this is!

Beskow, Elsa – Pelle’s New Suit
This is a classic from Swedish author/illustrator Elsa Beskow about a shepherd who keeps growing out of his clothes and his lamb that helps clothe him. The pictures are beautiful and very European-looking. I love this book (as I do most of Beskow’s other books).

Shaw, Nancy (illustrated by Margot Apple) – the Sheep series are wonderful stories about a family of sheep and their various antics. Told in rhyme, these stories are fun (and easy) to read while the illustrations are gorgeously done in colored pencil. This is a wonderful series of books.
Sheep in a Jeep
Sheep on a Ship
Sheep in a Shop
Sheep Out to Eat
Sheep Take a Hike
Sheep Trick or Treat

Oughton, Jerrie – The Magic Weaver of Rugs: A Tale of the Navajo
This is a lovely rendition of the folk tale about how the Navajo first learned to weave rugs. Two women, tired of seeing their people starve and freeze, go off to find how to solve this problem. They meet Spider Woman who teaches them to weave and dye the wool from the sheep.

Bryant, Megan E. – Knit Now
Simple and cool patterns abound in this kid-friendly how-to knit book. The projects include ipod covers, cell phone cases and cool snakes. The book also is able to clearly describe and illustrate how to knit. The spiral binding makes it easy to have the book open while working on these projects.

Clewer, Carolyn – Kids Can Knit: Fun and Easy Projects for Your Small Knitter
Another how-to-knit book, this one has lots of fun projects (including the cover project of a “Peruvian Pom-pom Hat”). “Small knitter” means for those around 10 or so, but you can certainly teach younger kids to knit using this book. The illustrations and directions are pretty good and the projects would be fun to do – a pom-pom spider with knitted legs, poncho, knitted flowers, etc. Clewer definitely wrote this one with kids in mind.