Why I Haven't Blogged

I feel like I must apologize for not keeping up with this blog like I did in it's beginning. It's the usual excuses - busy, no time, bla bla bla...

Wait, no, I take that back. I don't apologize. I have been busy. I haven't had the time. But, there are no excuses to be made. I've been spending my time...

~riding bikes with my girls, Graedon in the baby seat smacking my back to make me pedal harder.

~reading ridiculously good books.

~putting away applesauce, pickles and veggies.

~baking pumpkin pie, cheesecakes and muffins.

~snuggling with my eldest who has been desperate for Mommy attention.

~watching my little guy grow up so fast, I can hardly believe it.

I'd apologize, but I'm not sorry.

Winnie the Pooh, by A. A. Milne

I mentionned Charlotte Mason a few posts back, and here's an example of how we're incorporating her approach into our homeschooling.

Charlotte Mason is all about "living books". In laymen's terms, that means books that are well written, imaginative, use big words, and encourage moral/intellectual and character development. You know, books that don't suck.

I like books that don't suck.

I found a reading list of books, and joy of joys! We had one of them in our bookshelf. I present to you: Winnie the Pooh!


Please excuse the dog-eared look of the book. It is well-loved and voraciously read. Show me a new-looking book, and I'll show you an unloved book :(


This isn't your watered down, pop-cultured Disney version. This is the real deal. The book is filled with big words like "indeed", "wedged", "bonhommy" and "expedition". At first I thought the kids wouldn't understand the vocabulary, but they did! I like that about living books - they treat children as intelligent mini adults, not as little idiots.


The way the words are printed add so much to the story. Here, you can see the chapter where Pooh uses a balloon to float up to the hive. The words follow Pooh up the page. Ingenious! Artistic! Fascinating!

And the pictures! It's so nice to read a book to the kids that doesn't rely on flashy cartoons to keep their interest. The story itself is enough to cause them to ask for an extra chapter at bedtime.


As I said earlier, this isn't your watered-down Disney version. The author goes into the animals' characters in depth, and it's subtle enough for the kids, yet absolutely captivating for the adult reader. Remember what I said about treating the kids as intelligent little adults? It turns out that in the original Winnie-the-Pooh, Kanga and Roo are not native of the 100 Acre Wood. Actually, they just show up one day and Rabbit, Pooh and Piglet hatch a plan to get rid of them by - are you ready for this - kidnapping Roo!

There go all my fuzzy childhood memories. I love it!

First Field Trip

Our first field trip of the year with the Homeschool Group - Apple Picking! We bundled up against the wind, rain and cold, and drove to the orchard.


Some of the apples were nearly as big as Graedon's head...and he has a BIG head!


Eva practiced the proper way to pick an apple. You see, you must grasp the apple with the palm of your hand. If you use your fingers, you might bruise it. Then, twist ever so slightly to the left and upend the apple so that it is upside down. It should snap right off, causing little or no damage to the bud that is next year's apple. Whatever you do, don't just twist and yank!!

This apple picking stuff is complicated and serious business!



Back at the apple house, the tour guide showed us their set up. This is a machine that washes the apples, coaxes them up a conveyor belt, feeds them into a sizer and gets rid of all the smallish apples. The small ones are sold at rock bottom prices, or for deer and pig apples.

And, speaking of apples - we picked potatoes this week! Was that too subtle? French for apples is pommes. Potatoes are pommes de terre (earth apples)....I'll give you a minute for that one.


My lovely mother digging the potatoes up. Those branches in the ground are dead potato plants. That's how you know they're ready, I guess.


Each plant will give 6-8 potatoes. Considering it only takes about 1/4 to 1/2 a potato to make a plant, that's a pretty good turnout.


Mmmm...Jems! Eva was very into the potato picking. There was much squealing, clapping and pouncing on the spuds. Every once in a while, there would be a shriek, "Worm!!" and a stomping of feet.

She's so like her mother!

Do It Right

My day begins the night before. I am making a habit of organizing everything that I'll need for school in the evening so that I will be ready to go when 8 am rolls around. Last night I didn't do my normal prep work. And today sucked. Big time!

If I am organized, I can eliminate the, "um, let's see" moments and the "uh, here, colour for a minute while I find the book I need" moments. If I have everything neatly stacked in the school drawer, then school time will flow from one subject to the other, the kids won't get fidgety, and Graedy will be properly supplied with snacks and toys and Mommy will keep her sanity.

Today, though, I am paying dearly for last night's lapse. The kids are in bed, supposedly thinking about how they can better behave tomorrow. I am taking deep breaths, trying to calm down. The kitchen is a mess...

It's a lesson well-learned for Mama. Don't skimp out on your work. If you're going to do it, do it well.

Now, where did I put my super-sized coffee mug?

A Good Lesson Learned...

When it's very blustery (scary windy here in J-town), alway, ALWAYS stand upwind when you're pouring leftover soup into the compost pile.

One With Nature

We're eclectic homeschoolers. Okay, who'm I kidding? We're just plain old eclectic! When it comes to homeschooling, though, we use a mix of everything. Nature walks are very Charlotte Mason and with our table work done, we took advantage of the beautiful weather.


We went on a nature walk in the woods behind our house. The closer we got to the trees, the more nervous Eva became. Here she appears to be tip-toeing on the path so as not to awaken any bears. Especially the big ones.

I told them that if you sing loudly when you walk in the woods, it will keep the bears away. This is especially true of my singing :) In no time, the hills were alive with the sound of m-u-u-u-sic!



Graedon had priority seating. The goal of the nature walk was to collect things with different textures like soft, hard, rough, picky, smooth, etc. I knew those peach baskets would come in handy someday!



Back at the house, we sorted out our treasures and glued them to a paper that the girls labeled with the appropriate textures.



And VOILA!! The finished product.

Charlotte Mason was right on target with her nature walk idea. From this project alone, we did: Gym, Music, Penmanship, Science and Character Studies.

If I was Martha Stewart, I'd say it was a good thing.

School Readiness for Eva!

Something made Eva very happy yesterday.

Very happy!

Eva started School Readiness! A big girl of almost 4 years old, she has the same opportunity as her big sister did last year. She spent the morning with 9 other kids singing songs, playing games and practicing her letter A and number 1.

And she looked pretty cute, to boot.


She was even thrilled with the homework she had to take home! Hurray for Eva!