From the archives: Can I Get Offensive?

First posted June 2007.

This has a double meaning that I didn't intend...I seem to be getting a lot of that lately. I started writing a post on something that I personally found very exciting--Gordon MacDonald's idea of "Offensive Study"--and ended up reading a lot of online things about organizations and people that I would really rather not have gotten into. According to one such website, not only is almost every church and parachurch group I've ever belonged to or donated money to heretical, but so are most of the books and writers in my life, including (surprisingly) John Bunyan; and MacDonald is definitely in that out-group as well, for more than one reason. Some of what I read made sense...there have always been certain things about certain evangelists, certain groups (especially those I am looking back on after many years) that made me itch. But some of it...I'm shaking my head and wondering, again, who or what will be left when everyone who DOES meet such "Biblical criteria" has been eradicated. [Update/correction: oops, that wasn't exactly what I meant to say...I think that should have been "doesn't meet."]

Anne Shirley: I don't think Mrs. Barry is a well-bred woman. I don't believe God himself would entirely meet with her approval.

Marilla Cuthbert: Anne, you mustn't say things like that... especially in front of the minister's wife. But, if you left God out of it, you'd have it just about right.--Anne of Green Gables (1985 movie script)

OK, so can I just tell you about offensive study without offending anybody?

Offensive study, according to Gordon MacDonald's book Ordering Your Private World (a book I have only in an older edition than the one currently available), is taking a time period, a season, a summer to deliberately extend your mind; to zero in on a topic or author or idea, but not because you're trying to pass an exam or look for specific information; it is a little like what many homeschoolers call  Mother Culture. It's taking scheduled time, maybe during your "off season," to learn, grow and explore. It's gathering raw material. If you are a pastor or a teacher or a writer, much of what you learn during that time may get incorporated into your teaching, writing or work later on. Or just into your life.

Something like that happened for me last summer. I was charging through Charlotte Mason's books--not for the first time, but trying to get a bigger overall picture of some of her ideas--and got sidetracked for awhile by Norman Brosterman's book Inventing Kindergarten, about the Froebelian Kindergarten movement in the late 1800s, and the life of Froebel himself. I ended up taking more books on Froebel and education out of the library, and learned a bit about Pestalozzi (a big influence on Froebel). A real rabbit trail, but it was fascinating. I re-read Ruth Beechick's book about Biblical educational philosophy, Heart and Mind, as well.

I didn't read any of these books so much because I wanted to know how to teach reading CM-style or stop a child from lying, or because I was planning on taking education courses; I read them because I was finding all kinds of interesting ideas there that seemed to connect with each other and that made my own feeble brain feel like it was doing some stretching. Please note that I do not think any of those people--particularly Froebel--had every detail right on everything; but they all had things that I could take away from spending some extra time with them, and, in the case of Froebel, it was important to see how far his influence affected not only Western culture but, seemingly, the Far East as well (his kindergartens became very popular in Japan). And at the end of the summer, I felt ready to go back to the business/busyness of teaching again.

I haven't decided yet what, if anything, will become a topic of offensive study for me this summer. Maybe it should be the Bible itself--to try and make some sense out of that everybody's-heretical business.

From the archives: A day in June

Originally posted June 2, 2006

Javamom invited me to play along with her meme, and since this one doesn't have 40 questions I managed to finish it, more or less.

Where were you, what were you doing...

20 Years Ago: June 1986

1. I was living in a cockroachy summer sublet on Spadina Avenue in Toronto, after my first year of university.



2. My parents were planning a trip to England in July for Prince Andrew's wedding. (No, they weren't invited, but they got to stand outside with the rest of the crowds and cheer.)

3. I was about to start a summer job teaching kids' music programs in the Toronto library system.

15 years ago: June 1991

1. That's easy: I was getting ready for our wedding at the end of the month.

2. I was working full time in a university office.

3. I was signed up to take a 3-week crash credit right after we came back from our honeymoon, so I could graduate. (And I did. The course was called Marriage and the Family, which seemed appropriate.)

10 Years Ago: June 1996

1. We had only one squirreling, who was about to have her fourth birthday and who had just had her one-and-only-ever-real-costumes-required ballet recital. (The tutu still gets worn for dressup--not by the Apprentice, though.)

5 Years Ago June 2001

1. We had just had our third squirreling, and we were planning The Apprentice's hat-decorating birthday party on the patio.

3 Years Ago June 2003

1. The Ambleside Online Advisory was working overtime trying to finish Year 9.

2. The elderly next-door neighbour kept asking me to come over and cut more of his rhubarb. We ate more rhubarb than we knew what to do with that year.

1 Year Ago June 2005

1. "Mama Squirrel has discovered this scientific truth: The fastest way to get young squirrels interested in reading is to start packing or opening boxes intended for a homeschoolers' book sale."

2. We were looking for rhubarb since the elderly neighbour was gone and the new people had taken his plants out. We found two little plants that stayed puny all summer, so we ate no rhubarb at all.

3. Crayons was just starting to learn to read.

4. We were planning The Apprentice's Grade 8 graduation celebration.

So Far This Year (2006)

1. We've been nest-hunting but haven't found anything.

2. We've read all the Narnia books except The Last Battle; Ponytails isn't sure she wants me to read it because then we'd be done.

3. Our garden is coming up and the rhubarb is recovering from my earlier over-enthusiasm.

Yesterday (2006)

1. Mr. Fixit and our neighbour (not the rhubarb one) started a petition to keep a sidewalk from being built in front of our houses. We like sidewalks fine, but this one is going to be too close to the busy road, and it means that some good trees have to come down.

2. Ponytails and I read about Governor Frontenac and watched his Canadian Heritage Minute online. (Click on Governor Frontenac on the sidebar.)

Today (June 2006)

1. We finished off the school week, and now I have to try to figure out how we're going to fit what we haven't finished into the next three weeks before exams. Ponytails and I read about Marconi and watched his Canadian Heritage Minute (those are handy!).

Tomorrow (2006)

1. Yard sale and grocery day.

2. The Apprentice is going to Canada's Wonderland with a church group. (She won a free admission pass.)

Next Week (June 2006)

1. We're going to the African Lion Safari with our homeschool group. We haven't been there for about seven years, and they're supposed to have some new elephants.

In the Next Year

1. ???

In the Next Minute

1. I'm going to take Crayons upstairs for a snack.

What's for supper? (A bit of recycling)

Salmon patties
Fusilli reheated with a mixture of milk, broth, and cheese, plus leftover peas
Sweet potatoes

Brannies (I made a double batch for a potluck this weekend)
Thawed blueberries

What's for supper? (fewer of us home tonight)

Frozen pizza, heated in the toaster oven
Leftover honey garlic chicken, leftover rice, heated in a skillet
Peas, heated in a pot

Homemade chocolate pudding, not heated at all

Homeschooled kids and cooking--not always what you'd think

The expectation that homeschooled girls should be jacks-of-all-housekeeping trades reminds me of a joke I read a long time ago in Reader's Digest:

A young couple decided they needed an au pair, and arranged for a girl to come over from Northern Finland. When she arrived, the wife asked, "Can you cook?"
"No," said the girl, "My mother always did that."
"Can you do housework?" asked the wife.
"No, my oldest sister always did that."
"Well," said the wife, "You'd better just look after the children."
"I don't know how," said the girl. "My youngest sister always did that."
"What can you do, then?" asked the wife, in desperation.
"Well," said the Finnish girl brightly, "I can milk reindeer."

I've always liked to cook, and read cookbooks. My first cookbook was a Dell Home Activity Series workbook called Cooking is Fun, Book One, published in 1970.  I can't show you a picture of the book because it was given away a long time ago, and the only copy for sale online is listed at $99.95 (with no photo).  Someone gave it to me when I was about seven, and I wrote the names of my favourite foods inside the cover: my grandma's "eldirberry pie" was one of them.

I also had a project, when I was about nine, of cutting out recipes from old copies of Lady's Circle and Woman's Day, and pasting them into a scrapbook.  Some I did end up trying.  Some were a bit too ambitious.

(Yes, that is Annette Funicello on the cover.)

So between kids' cookbooks, ladies' magazines, Brownie badges, and occasional helping in the kitchen, I got at least an idea of how meals got put together. By the time I was in middle school,  I was still better at cookies and cakes than at cooking dinner; but I eventually figured that one out too.

How has it been different for my homeschooled girls?

I don't know that any of them paid a lot of attention to meal-making until they were actually old enough to see some benefit in being able to fix something for themselves.  When they were younger, I think they spent more time helping their dad with outside and fixit chores than they did hanging out in the kitchen.  They did help get groceries, and helped stir things together when I asked them to;  they helped make jam and Christmas cookies and Easter kiffle.  We use food and kitchen tools a lot for school (though not necessarily in "cooking class"): we do math with measuring cups (and, when they were younger, cereal and raisins), we do science experiments with celery or corn syrup or popcorn, or make edible models of the atmosphere. Sometimes we've tried new foods when studying other countries.  Last year we did some spice studies.

Because the recipes I make (or make up) aren't terribly complicated, I've often made a point of saying, "You liked that chicken we had for dinner? You could make that, you know. All you do is..."  Often I just get rolled eyeballs, but I figure some of it has to soak in.  I've also collected up a few extra copies of my favourite cookbooks, so that the girls will have their own, if and when they want them.  (Of course I could just tell them to check the blog...)

Another strategy, for kids who would rather read than cook (or read cookbooks), is to introduce them to "food fiction," especially with a frugal or make-it-work twist. Ginnie and the Cooking Contest. Little Nino's Pizzeria. Bread and Jam for Frances. Stone Soup. Understood Betsy, who learns that there's no right or wrong about making applesauce. The whole Beany Malone series (although we have only a couple of the novels, plus the cookbook). Little House on the Prairie, especially Farmer Boy. Maybe Grace Livingston Hill's novels, when they're old enough not to think romances are icky. I would probably not include the Warton and Morton Toad books, although Morton does love to cook, unless you like beetle brittle.

The Apprentice surprised me during her high school years with the dinners she knew how to make, or with interesting snacks she would occasionally produce when younger-sister-sitting.  If asked, she would say something like, "well, of course I know how to do it; I'm just not that interested."  Crayons still says she would rather do something else (she also says she's never moving out).

Ponytails at one point watched a lot of cooking shows and online videos, and liked to try out things like crepes.  This semester she is taking food and nutrition at public high school, and she's had to answer a lot of assigned questions about holiday meals, what's in the refrigerator, and so on.  One day the teacher had a lot of leftovers from another course, so she had the class make up their own casseroles; Ponytails came up with something involving turkey sausage and broccoli soup that sounded amazing. 

The Apprentice has been equipping her own kitchen recently; she has a room in an off-campus house, and she stays there a couple of nights a week because of her summer classes.  (In the fall she'll be there all week.)  Right now she has the kitchen on her floor all to herself.  So she's been putting all her prior learning to practical use.  Last week she even made herself slow-cooker pork chops and mashed potatoes--with real potatoes.

I think they'll do fine.

Elderberry pie photo found here

Linked from Four Moms: Cooking with Children.

Updated: Carnivals this week, now with frugality

This week's Carnival of Homeschooling is up at The Informed Parent.

Money Crashers hosts the Festival of Frugality.  This week you get to vote for your favourite post. My vote goes to Prairie Eco-Thrifter's Why Buying Green is Not Always Eco-Friendly.

And The Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival: Summer Holidays Edition is up at The Holistic Homeschooler.

Thrift store: upstairs, downstairs

I went to the thrift store by myself today; Crayons stayed here with her dad. I had a lesson on inputting invoices (thrift stores have bills to pay too) and then worked on the routine computer stuff as well. That took all afternoon, so I didn't have to time to work in the book corner.

But I did find a couple of things at the end of the day: an esthetics textbook for the Apprentice, a brand-new crafts book for Crayons, and a book about books for me.

And six quilted placemats in the same blues and browns as our kitchen, for a quarter apiece.  We really needed new placemats (we were down to a few educational-type plastic ones), so I'm very happy about that.

What's for supper? Honey-garlic chicken

Tonight's dinner menu:

Honey Garlic Chicken, but in a skillet, not in the slow cooker; I've tried it both ways, and I much prefer the last-minute version. I cut the soy sauce in half (and used low-sodium soy sauce), used chicken breasts instead of thighs (because that's what I had), and also added cornstarch to thicken the sauce. The sauce ingredients may sound kind of non-traditional, but they work.

Hot pasta (fusilli)
Mixture of frozen green beans and frozen Asian vegetables (end of the bag)
Crackers, applesauce, sliced cucumber

How did I miss Howard the Squirrel?

Javamom posted this almost a month ago, but I missed seeing it until today.  She had a real-life squirrel comedian performing in her back yard.

Pantry blogging, here and there

Annie Kate (who went floatin' down the river) posted recently about an eating-from-the-freezer-and-the-pantry challenge.  The original challenge is posted at KeeperOfTheHome.org.

Annie Kate writes,  "I can’t plan savings, because I’m not the only grocery shopper in the family; the other one is a free spirit who despises such schemes."  I hear you there.  Some moms have full responsibility for the shopping and cooking; for others of us, it's more of a team effort.

Then LikeMerchantShips.tumblr.com posted a link to a "Strictly Pantry Menu" at The Prudent Homemaker.  Just off the shelf, not even out of the freezer (although you should know that the Prudent Homemaker has some unusual stuff on her shelf, like home-canned bananas).  Very interesting, and also easy to navigate, which is nice. There's lots of other good stuff on that site as well, so be prepared to spend some time browsing.

And Brenda at Coffee, Tea, Books and Me has continued to post her Saturday Pantry Suggestions.

All I can say is--thank you all!

What's for supper? Meatballs and cornbread

Tonight's dinner menu:

Meatballs in homemade barbecue sauce, like this
Cornbread
One leftover sausage and some leftover perogies from Sunday dinner
Fresh spinach for salad plus cucumber, chick peas, and carrot sticks--mix and match

Canned pineapple and orange pieces, chilled in the freezer
Store cookies.

What's up at the Treehouse?

We Canadians had our long weekend LAST week.  So today is just another school day.

We are going to build a lasagna-style garden for zucchini at the side of the house where we used to grow green beans.  Used to, because the last couple of years the rabbits and other critters haven't left them alone, along with spinach and several other things we like to grow.  Sprinkling various nasty meals, hot pepper, etc. does not seem to work on these iron-stomached varmints. But they don't have much of an appetite for zucchini, so we're going to put some in and hope their tastes don't change.

Mr. Fixit found a special clock last week, and it's now hanging on the Treehouse living room wall. I'm going to ask him nicely to post something about it here.  The clock looks something like this:

The Apprentice thinks she has finally found a job.   (It's pretty much for sure.)  It's not here in town, though; it's closer to her university, so we may not be seeing her much for the rest of the summer.

Ponytails is working on a variety of school projects involving leeks, supermarket shopping, and A Midsummer Night's Dream (not all for the same class).

Crayons/Dollygirl is taking every chance she can get to be outside. Homeschooling at the end of May...sometimes that's harder to get motivated about than in the dead of winter!  Last week we helped out at a church work day (our church is moving itself into a building this year), and she got to fill up a whole planter with pink and white petunias.

(Not that kind of Petunia!)

A grammar quiz for smart homeschoolers

Grandpa Squirrel is a generous donor of large Sunday newspapers and other interesting reading material for the Treehouse.  This week he sent over a magazine for Mr. Fixit with an article about vintage radios.

Mama Squirrel read the article and was grammatically appalled.  There were enough sentence fragments, run-ons, and strange turns of phrase in there to illustrate a whole lesson on sentence structure (which we did).  Out of curiosity, Mama Squirrel perused the rest of the magazine, and uncovered a few other zingers that the editorial staff had missed.  (We hope we are not getting ourselves into trouble by copying these lines, but really, we think that certain magazine editors should take a closer look at what gets printed.)

So here's the challenge:  what's wrong with these sentences, and how would you fix them? (If you can.)

Note:  I don't pretend that my understanding of grammar is perfect either.  If you think some of these examples are correct, feel free to say so.

1.  She, and other craftspeople, has a very nice display space for their wares.

2.  By the mid 1930's over 50% of North American homes had at least one radio.  Over 1 1/2 million in automobiles.

3.  A table model which resembles a church Cathedral usually with four dials on the front.  A small window screen which contains the channels panel and at the top red fabric of the speaker.

4.  The new AC model radios began to sell in large numbers as owners threw out their battery operated radio.

5.  By the 1930's the design of the radio and its case began to change.  It went from a square body box design and outside speakers which sat on top of the radio or close by.

6.  The designs became more compact and speakers in the body of the radio and their appearance became more desirable.

7.  Repaired items should be priced considerably lower than a, similar, perfect head vase.

8.  Ordering from private distributors is possible but not cost affective.

9.  Orson Welles played The Shadow on radio.  Then moved onto Hollywood after his famous Halloween production of War of the Worlds.

10.  Ideas for the designs came from many sources such as: popular fashion magazines or Hollywood movie magazines.

Linked from the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Thrift Shop Wednesdays: Work, work, work

Between extra racks of clothing set up for a special evening sale tonight, and what seemed like mounds of boxes of books (which I couldn't do much about unpacking, because the storage shelves were full, and I couldn't do much about that, since the store shelves were mostly full too), the thrift store was a very hot and busy place today.  I did manage to squeeze a few books into the empty spaces, and then went upstairs to do data entry.

I brought home one cushion for Crayons' bed, and three books:

A Glass of Blessings, by Barbara Pym  (Barbara Pym was recommended in Howard's End is On the Landing, but I read the descriptions of this book and now I'm not so sure about it) [Update: I did read it, quickly.  No, I didn't like it much.]

In Search of England, by H.V. Morton.  I'm looking forward to reading this one.

The Town Cats and Other Tales, by Lloyd Alexander.

Choose weep, and you weep alone: standardized tests and bright kids

Something to read and ponder today:  Herding Turtles vents her frustration about the annual standardized language tests her children are required to undergo.  (I saw this first on Melissa Wiley's sidebar.)

Making it from scratch: Stephanie's spice mixes

We've been following A Year of Slow Cooking since its first year.  It's still among my top ten (maybe top five) favourite food sites.  I've also bought the two Make It Fast, Cook It Slow cookbooks.  Not all the recipes have been winners here, but several have become regulars.

The site has a couple of hidden bonuses.  One is pretty obvious: all the recipes give gluten-free options.  This isn't something that currently applies to our family, but it's good to know anyway, especially if you might be cooking dinner for a gf friend sometime.

The other bonus is that, because of the gluten-free recipes, there are alternatives given for things like taco seasoning mix.  This is a good thing for us in several ways.  First, homemade spice mixes are lower in sodium, which is still something we're trying to watch around here.  Some Squirrels also get sick from eating MSG. 

Second, although seasoning packets aren't terribly expensive, mixing your own is probably a better deal.  I also find them a frugal option since they help to make a tasty meal out of other simple ingredients.  Ground beef plus spices makes taco filling; then you add whatever other bean, cheese and vegetable toppings you have, and wrap in tortillas or serve over rice or corn chips (for taco salad).

Plus you don't have to remember to buy taco seasoning, or sloppy joe spice, if you already have the makings for it on the spice shelf.  And, if you're really organized, you can even mix up extra and store it in sandwich bags to make it all as easy as ripping open a packet.

And the last good reason, for us, is that Steph's spice mixtures pretty much suit our cupboard staples and our tastes (with the exception of rosemary, which two Squirrels can't eat).  When you find something that works for you, you stick with it.

So I'm passing on the links to a couple of Year of Slow Cooking mixes that have worked for us, plus the spaghetti sauce mixture that I worked out from a Hillbilly Housewife recipe.  Thank you, Steph!

Sloppy Joe Seasoning  I used this a few nights ago to make a Hamburger Assistant-type meal in a skillet:  a pound of ground beef, a can of tomato paste plus water and seasonings, leftover cooked pasta, and a bit of cheese.

Taco Seasoning.  This one is in More Make it Fast, Cook it Slow under "Taco Dip," but the spice mix doesn't appear on the Year of Slow Cooking website. It's the same recipe as the one in this blog post, minus the teaspoonful of salt.

Enchilada Sauce

Mama Squirrel's Diner-Style Spaghetti Sauce

Carnival of Homeschooling #334: Floatin' Down the River Edition

This week's carnival takes its theme from a post at Tea Time with Annie Kate. Annie Kate recently took her homeschooled crew Floatin’ Down the River Again (AKA Homeschool Phys Ed). No boats, no rubber rafts--just a few lifejacketed kids (and mom) getting close--really close--to the elements.

I thought there might be a few homeschooling--or life--metaphors in there somewhere.

What do you think about while you're floating along?

Homespun Life presents On Living The Dream. "I started to think about what it is I really want for my kids, for their lives. Oh, I could list a lot of things. But I think in the end it comes down to the dream. The joy of living right where you know you should be – doing exactly what you were meant to do on this here earth and with this here life of yours."

No fighting, No biting! presents Preparation for Life.  "I want my children to have a world full of opportunity and strong academics is the path to that bright future."

Homeschool Atheist Momma Blog  presents Note to my Former Self. 

DenSchool presents Why Haven’t We Learned from Finland?  "If I lived in Finland, with a school system like this, I have to wonder if I would, in fact, be a homeschooler?"

Discoveries along the way

The Tiger Chronicle presents Stories from Down Under.

Golden Grasses presents Summer Season.

Why Homeschool  shares a solution for helping to round out the science lab experience.

My Domestic Church presents Works for Me Wednesday- Merrill Readers for Remediation and Intervention."We have been using Dianne Craft's Daily Lesson Plans and suggested resources and have seen great progress just since January."

Dewey's Treehouse presents a review of The Big What Now Book of Learning Styles.

Watch out for hidden rocks

Jen's Journey shares thoughts on Homeschooling Through Illness and Injuries.

Barbara Frank Online presents When Kids Refuse to Learn.

Parent at the Helm presents Attachment Parenting WILL Follow Homeschooling: Winning! "When I first saw the headline and photo Time magazine chose to place on its attachment parenting issue, I thought, 'Good.' Finally, parenting with instinct isn’t being ignored. It’s up to the ridicule stage."

Back on land

Sonset Academy  has also been Enjoying the Outdoors in May.  "Along with the nice weather we have been having, we have been enjoying the outdoors - learning, exploring, and experiencing the handiworks of God."

Art's Chili Pepper presents Home School Potpourri.  "However, when the day came that we could follow our natural love for learning and exploring and put away all the ideas that every problem had to be done, things had to be done in a certain time table or the thought there was only one way to fulfill our requirements... wow!  school sure changed for us."  Lots of detail and great photos!

Perfecting the Art of Homeschooling presents "Here's What's Coming in First Grade."

Homeschool Online Blog presents Where Do You Homeschool?

Florida-homeschooling.org presents Homeschool for Free.  Tips for finding no- and low-cost homeschool curricula and educational materials.


That's all for this week's carnival. The next trip down the river will land us at The Informed Parent.  See you there!

All photos courtesy of Teatime with Annie Kate.  Used by permission.

Miss Maggie does dolly headcoverings (updated)

If you are an 18-inch doll and prefer to keep your hair covered in one fashion or another, Miss Maggie (the former Hillbilly Housewife) has patterns for your person to sew for you.  UPDATE:  Part two (including modest outfit ideas for the dolls) is up now.

Reminder: Carnival of Homeschooling coming up here

The Treehouse will be hosting the 334th Carnival of Homeschooling next week.  That means we need your homeschool-related submissions by 6:00 P.M. (Pacific Standard Time) Monday evening.  You can email them to CarnivalofHomeschooling@gmail.com .

(I don't have many submissions yet--more are definitely welcome!)

For your entertainment: Eugene, Katrina, and premarital counselling

These actors have dramatized quite a few Adventures in Odyssey scenes--what do you think?

YahOOO, we get spam

I thought this was kind of funny...

The spam box in the Treehouse email account had one message in it today, supposedly from the "Yahoo E-Mail Team."  If you look that one up online, it's reported as a big bad e-mail scam that you do not want to open.

But the giveaway, if you looked closely enough, was that it was from the Yahooo E-Mail Team.

I'm not that stooopid.

Crayons illustrates Princess Padmini

Crayons/Dollygirl used Paint to illustrate a scene from Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels.  Halliburton tells the legend of Princess Padmini, and then tells how he took a little girl out on a boat in Udaipur and got her soaked in a sudden rainstorm, making a wreck of her cheaply-dyed holiday clothes.

"Weeping and wretched, shivering with cold, she just stood there leaving red puddles and yellow puddles and purple puddles of raindrops on the pavement....

"I wanted to say: 'My dear child, I'm so sorry--I promise never to let this happen again.  Will you ever, ever, forgive me?'

"But I couldn't say it.  All I could say [in her language] was how much, how far, what time, [good-by], and count to ten.  Again this didn't seem to be the right thing.

"And then I had a sudden flash of inspiration.  I knew just what to say:

"'Good-by, PADMINI....'

"The sunshine came back into her eyes.  She pressed my outstretched hand, then turned and darted through the rain into a grove of palms.  There she turned and waved.  I saw one last flash of yellow and purple and red and green, through the trees--and my Princess Padmini had gone...."--"Udaipur, Indian Fairyland" in The Complete Book of Marvels

From the Archives: Big Blow, by Ponytails

First posted May 16, 2007.  Ponytails (age 9) tells about the storm that took part of our maple tree down.
 

We were watching Babe on the T.V. and Mr.Fixit said, "Holy smokes! Look out the window!" There was rain and wind all over the place! Our tree that is 41 years old may have to be cut down! Because two branches fell on the ground and both look the size of a 10 year tree!

When we were watching Babe and it started to rain and blow really hard, we turned off some of the lights and the TV and the computer and the breaker. And then the power went out and I could hardly see anything. So Mama Squirrel and Crayons and me read Swallows and Amazons where there was a little light. And before reading Swallows and Amazons we had to sit in the middle of the kitchen near the table, because our windows could have broken, and branches would go in our eyes.

I'm glad that happened last night and not today, because tonight is our dancing night. And if it would have happened tonight, we wouldn't be home.

And all the power in the houses and the traffic lights and everything went down.

And now that I'm done with the storm, I'll tell you about the bird that's on our drainpipe! At first we just noticed there was a nest, but then we noticed there was a robin in it. Mama Squirrel spent about a week trying to figure out what it was.

We don't know if it has eggs or not, but you can see baby robins on Liberty and Lily. And the nest is still there!

~~~Ponytails

Thrift store Wednesdays: Old Favourites

Today's book sorting was busy but a lot of fun. Somebody sent in a large collection of old books on doll collecting, doll making, and doll clothes, so we made room for those. A couple of weeks ago it was a whole box of books on teddy bears (maybe the same person?), and those haven't all sold yet, but maybe the dolls will get a faster turnaround.

Things I did not buy today: (I try to behave myself, as Peg Bracken used to say): a big book about the Impressionists; an oversized copy of The Divine Comedy with the Gustave Doré illustrations; a book of funny songs to help you learn German ( I just liked the title: Eine Kleine Deutschmusik).

The books I did bring home were almost all replacements for things I had given away or worn out, or, in one sad case, gotten water-warped.

The Heart Has its Own Reasons:  if you like The Tightwad Gazette, you'll really like this.  It's like listening in on some very smart moms (in the 1980's), sharing their tips (and sometimes their frustrations) about living on one (usually low) income.  This was a big inspiration to me during our first years of marriage.

The Basic Shelf Cookbook:  I replaced our 1987 edition with the "updated" 1994 edition.

How to Read Slowly:  I replaced our (water-warped) 1979 edition with the "updated" 1988 edition.

The Wacky World of Alvin Fernald, by Clifford B. Hicks

This was the neatest thing:  A 1967 Patterson-Blick Instant Picture Book, Fashion Through the Ages, with all its transfers unused and intact.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about or what transfers are, you are just too young.  They're like children's tattoos, only you rub them onto paper (or pre-printed scenes), instead of onto your skin.  When I was really little--probably around the time this book came out--we used to get little books of transfers as cereal prizes, and I notice at that link that there were British cereals doing similar promotions at that time.  I hadn't thought about those in years, until I saw that book today.

So that was my little dip into nostalgia for this week.  How's your week going?

Have some cake with your icing?

Crayons/Dollygirl's birthday cake this year was a Small Chocolate Cake frosted with "Lorna's Super Chocolate Chip Icing" from Edna Staebler's More Food That Really Schmecks.  The amount given here will frost a layer cake reasonably, or a one-pan cake extravagantly.  We went with extravagantly.  But you could probably cut the recipe in half.

I put some of the icing into a decorating tube and made ruffles along the edges, along with a few powdered-sugar butterflies.  How do you make powdered-sugar butterflies?  Sink a small butterfly-shaped cookie cutter into the icing (that is, the top of the cake that's already been iced), carefully spoon a bit of powdered sugar inside the "walls" of the cutter, smooth it down, then gently lift up the cutter.  Repeat several times in other places on the cake--we had five butterflies.  I used the icing in the tube to give them chocolate bodies and antennae (which also helped show what they were supposed to be!), and a few dots on their wings.

And one warning about that, if you're blowing out candles--don't blow too enthusiastically or you'll have powdered sugar everywhere.

Lorna's Super Chocolate Chip Icing

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate pieces (chips)
1/2 cup light cream (I used 2% milk)
1 cup margarine or butter (I used butter)
2 1/2 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)
a bowl full of ice cubes plus some water (this doesn't go into the icing, it's for a quick cooling off)

In a saucepan combine the chocolate, cream/milk and butter; stir till smooth, remove from the heat, and whisk in the sugar--it will be thin.  Beat it over ice until it holds its shape (put ice cubes and water in a bowl, and rest the saucepan on top.  I put the bowl in the sink.).  Unless you have a very strong whisk, I'd recommend using a wooden spoon for this part--the icing will get thick.

A shortcut:  in the book, Edna says that she didn't have time to stand around beating the icing, so she just put it in the fridge to set.  I have done it that way, but this time I beat it over the ice, and it turned out really well.

Carnivals this week: updated

No Fighting No Biting hosts the 333rd Carnival of Homeschooling.  Next Tuesday's CoH will be hosted here, so start sending submissions!  (Early would be nice, because Monday is Victoria Day and I would rather be watching fireworks than playing on the computer.  Just saying.)

Delightful Education hosts the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival today, with the theme "Education is a Life."

MoneyWise Pastor hosts the Festival of Frugality #337: Personal Finance from 30,000 Feet Edition.

From the archives: "Pizza with the works curriculum"

First posted November 2006. The Apprentice had just started high school, Ponytails was doing an Ambleside Online Year 3.5, and Crayons/Dollygirl was in kindergarten.

In Ruth Beechick's booklet A Home Start in Reading (part of her 3-R's series, but we won't hold that against her), she describes the following experiment carried out by a school district:

"Some kindergartners in the district received extensive instruction in reading. Others spent the same amount learning science. They melted ice. They observed thermometers in hot and cold places. They played with magnets, grew plants, learned about animal life, and so on. Books and pictures were available for these children if they wanted them, but no formal lessons in reading were held.

"And what did the school district learn? By third grade the ‘science’ children were far ahead of the ‘reading’ children in their reading scores. The reason? Their vocabularies and thinking skills were more advanced. They could read on more topics and understand higher level materials. The ‘reading’ children, by starting earlier, used up a lot of learning time on the skills of reading, while the ‘science’ children spent the time learning real stuff. And when they did begin reading, they were older and knew more and learned in a fraction of the time that the others took.”

(Ruth Beechick unfortunately doesn't provide any footnotes or verification for this study, so we'll just have to take her word for it.)

Now this may sound like an argument for the don't-teach-them-to-read-early camp, and in fact that is the context in which Dr. Beechick was writing: not to pressure children to read until they're ready. However, all the Squirrelings have happened to be early readers. By kindergarten age, they have all been reading fairly fluently, which, ironically, gives us the same curriculum problem we would have if we didn't want to teach them reading early: what else to do during school time if much reading instruction isn't needed or wanted?

Well, we read books. Out loud, silently, together and alone. Narration of one kind or another often follows.

We do copywork and work on handwriting skills; Crayons practices making her numbers right way round.

And, like the kindergarten experimenters, we "do." Especially this year, with a fourth grader (with a late-in-the-year birthday) and a kindergarten-age child at home during most of the day, I'm trying hard to keep a balance between reading and "doing." Some days feel like we're eating a curriculum pizza with the works (and the kids are helping make it).

We have a big map of the world on the kitchen wall (which Crayons loves to look at and find places she knows, like Poland), and an edible-ingredients model of the atmosphere on the kitchen counter. (We may have to borrow back some of the Thermosphere if we run short.) Already this fall we have had leaf lessons on the back porch (with samples all around us); have acted out (more than once) a favourite story about King David; have made file-folder pictures of the characters from "As You Like It"; and listened to Leonard Bernstein's orchestra demonstrating how Haydn added humor to music.

We've played domino concentration and Pico Fermi Bagels [link updated 2012], looked forward to the next chapter of Peter Pan, and memorized Emily Dickinson's poems. (Crayons liked Michael Bedard's picture book Emily, and also the poem that starts "I started early, took my dog and visited the sea; The mermaids in the basement came out to look at me.") We make up new verses to songs, and try to answer Ponytails' Big Questions about everything. The girls mess around with a keyboard and a lap harp. They make up ongoing doll stories, radio shows, and hospital dramas. When the Apprentice comes home from school, she teaches them games she's learned in drama class. Mr. Fixit also lets Ponytails help (as the Apprentice did) when there's a tape recorder or some other piece of electronic stuff to be refurbished.

Now this may not be very different from the daily experience of homeschoolers who say "stick to reading, writing and math for the first few years." Maybe when people say that, they're not including all the things they do with their children and which their children do spontaneously. (I'm typing this while listening to a Squirreling who chooses not to be identified vocalizing at the top of her lungs while playing under a card table tent. They've been opera divas singing "The Voices of Spring" all day after watching The Three Stooges' "Microphonies.")



When they [that is, proponents of back-to-basics] put together a very short list for first-grade curriculum, maybe they're not including the books already on the shelf and the games and puzzles they pull out of the closet, and all the other resources they have in their kitchens and workshops.

At the same time, it worries me that "cutting out all those extras" could also mean subjecting primary-age children to an (unnecessary) hour daily of math and the same amount of time spent on phonics AND spelling AND language. No wonder some people can't even imagine adding more to a young child's schedule.

Was it a waste of time for the kindergarten classes to melt ice and play with magnets? According to Dr. Beechick, no; the "real stuff" stirred their imaginations and gave their minds something to work on. (Charlotte Mason would say that they were learning from Things and Ideas.)

Is it a waste of time to do botany and geography and poetry with kids who still play with Polly Pockets? Will they remember everything? No. Will they learn something about their world, that it's a much bigger and more interesting place than the tiny corner of space and time that we inhabit, and yet that even our tiny corner has enough to keep us going for a long time? I hope so.