Oh Peaceful Day

Many Christmas Carols

I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.

Their faithful Friend and Servant, C.D.

December, 1843.School Library Journal posted yesterday about some of the new versions of the classic Dickens tale, A Christmas Carol. Zip off and have a read, and then come back, okay?

Remarkable Reads: 'A Christmas Carol'

Right then. Comfy?

They are remarkable reads indeed, are they not? Most of them (four of the five) leave me with a dreadfully sour Scrooge-like disapproving look on my Charlotte Mason face. We have an abridgement - "less threatening to those who tend to avoid the classics". There's a graphic novel collection of classics by well known authors including Mark Twain, O. Henry and Willa Cather as well as Dickens - "Teens won't be able to walk by the spooky cover without picking it up!" There's a version with a twist - Scrooge is a broken hearted teen, and it's set on Valentine's Day. (Wonder what they've done with Tiny Tim's "God bless us, everyone"?) The final offering is a doozy. It's called It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies: A Book of Zombies Christmas Carols. Need I say more? I won't. SLJ say that it's "A great jump-starter for a teen program during the winter break!" Apparently it's hysterical. Bah Humbug!

There is so many versions of this classic Christmas tale that it's impossible to make a list of them all. There are a dozen different movies - including this one, which I do like:



I love this 1910 silent version by Thomas Edison as well:



There are also some wonderful books. I'd like to, if I may, show you three of the versions contained (still) in our Basket of Delights. They are, all three wonderful.

I'll begin with this one:

This unabridged version is one of my favourite Carols because of the divine illustrations by P J Lynch:


The pages open well, the paper is rich and creamy, and it's well bound. The perfect read-aloud version, this one. It's out this year in an affordable paperback version as well.

The next Carol is this one that I posted about last year.



It's Chuck Fischer and Bruce Foster's magnificent pop-up version. It's also unabridged - the whole story is included in five richly illustrated booklets (A sixth provides a bio of Dickens and an interesting essay entitled "The Enduring Appeal of A Christmas Carol"). Jemimah and I poured over this one last year - and no doubt will again this season, but this is probably not the version I'd chose as a read-aloud, at least, not more than once. As an adjunct, though, Foster's paper engineering makes it incredible!

This final Carol is my favourite. You can't imagine how happy I was to discover that it had survived the flood.

It's a tiny - 7x10cm leatherette version with gold edged pages. It's old, I don't know how old, but I doubt that it was ever read.

Here are the illustrated endpapers:

Contented sigh, I just love this dear little book.

Anyhow, those are my three favourite print versions of A Christmas Carol. If I had to add a fourth it would be this one illustrated by Robert Ingpen, but I don't have a copy, and so I haven't talked about it. I like it though.

To me, all of them are better than the SLJ offerings. Ugh.

Which is your favourite version of A Christmas Carol? Do share.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Start your AO library

Amazon have a special on the wonderful Puffin Classics 16 Book Set. It's a great way to start a library of living books, I reckon! The whole kit and caboodle for A$51.65. (That's just over 50 bucks Australian. Plus postage if you live in Australia. That always hurts a bit. Okay, a lot.)

Anyhow, check it out.

This is what you get:

AO1 Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
AO2 The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
AO3 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
AO3 A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
AO4 Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
AO4 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
AO5 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
AO5 King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green
AO5 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
AO5 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
AO5 Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
AO6 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
AO6 The Call of the Wild by Jack London
AO6 Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
White Fang by Jack London
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

If you live in America you just can't go wrong with that little lot. Just in time for Christmas too. Ho Ho Ho

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

1/2 a Basket of Delights

The Christmas Books are back in my sidebar, where they belong for the month of December.

Only this year it's sort of false advertising, because this year they show the books that were in the Basket of Delights before the flood, not those that remain. Which is about half.

I no longer have Bush Christmas, Little Grey Rabbit's Christmas, Christmas at Longtime, A Bush Christmas, Father Christmas, The Mysterious Toyshop (terrible sob) or The Christmas Mystery. Lots of other lovely titles are gone as well. Including Jemimah's favourite, which we can't remember the name of and so we can't replace. (Funny, I thought all of our Christmas books were included in that list, but I was wrong. There are many titles that don't appear.) She is upset about that. But not as upset as I am. I was really dreading opening the Christmas boxes this year, but I think the losses from the books are worse that ever I dreamed.

Richele somehow knew how heart wrenching unpacking the Basket of Delights was going to be. A few weeks ago she sent me a beautifully wrapped parcel. You can see what was inside it above. Christmas books and music. I was overwhelmed. I am just so blessed to have friends like Richele. Bloggy friends like you that I've never met. Thank you for caring for me.

Tonight we're playing New Orleans Christmas as we decorate our tree. We'll drink Glögg and eat mince pies and shortbread. We'll unpack the Christmas boxes and discover what we still have and what we don't. It's gonna be really hard, I know that already.

I'm putting the Basket of Delights in my sidebar not as some primitive form of torture, but because that's where it belongs. Some of you might even find some new ones amongst them.

I snuck a few of the missing titles onto my Amazon order yesterday. It just ain't Christmas without Jonathan Toomey. Perhaps eventually I'll replace them all.

And thanks to Richele, this year I even have a couple on new ones to read as well.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

The Aussie AOer

To be a successful Ambleside Online user in Australia necessitates a passion for books that is outside the realms of what may be defined as normal well adjusted human behaviour.

Bibliophilism may not yet have its own DSM-IV listing, but it surely must come close to an illness in the lives of a true Australian AOer. The AOer must enter every bookshop she sees. She must organise her travel itinerary around second-hand bookstores and enter every-single-one. She must allow at least an hour - preferably more. The Aussie AOer must be on a first name basis with Abe, and be well acquainted with Amazon and The Book Depository, whilst holding a special affection for her very own Independent Bookseller. She must mourn the closure of Borders as Australia's foremost stockist of American AO type books, and celebrate the glorious rising from the ashes of Reader's Feast. She must allocate a significant portion of the household budget to the ongoing accumulation of books whilst foregoing other less important frivolities, like clothes and food. (Chocolate is a necessity, not a frivolity.)

The Australian AOer must recognise the exciting possibilities offered to her by the advent of the Kindle and the iPad and the whole phenomenon of ebooks realising that finally she may be able to splurge a little on new underwear and shoes for herself and her family; whilst still harbouring an affection for the smell, feel and sound of the printed page and continuing to maintain and add to her large and highly varied paper based collection of children's literature, Australian natural history books, reference tomes, Scripture study guides, pedagogological treatises and Charlotte Mason ephemera. She will recognise that the Australian environment - its humidity and bright sunlight - is toxic to books whilst being highly desirable for children, so if there is room in the home for only one of the two, then it is the children who should sleep outside with the family pet and not the books.

Whilst acknowledging the need to Buy Australia Made, the Antipodean AOer must realise that obtaining the books of the AO booklist in any way, shape or form is her primary objective, and if that means that she must purchase online from an American megastore, or even upload an electronic copy onto her ereader, then well, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

The Aussie AOer will recognise instinctively that the advent of the ebook does not spell the end of literacy as we know it; that reading print off the static screen of a Kindle or iPad is still reading, with the added capacity of being able to increase font size for her developing or emerging young reader. She will understand the distinction between ebooks that you read and book apps that you play with. She will embrace technology, excited about the possibilities of accessibility to out of print books immediately and cheaply, and the portability that the ereader allows. Imagine - all of those deliciously lovely AO books in your handbag when you're waiting at the doctors, or on a trip away.

The Aussie AOer will be forever thankful for sites like Project Gutenberg Australia with their wonderful collection of free ebooks on topics like Australian history and geography, as well as primary sources and Australian Classics. She will look forward to the day that many more Australian books will be available online, but in the meantime will be grateful for the lists at Aussie Book Threads, From Wonder...to Wisdom, and CMandFriends.

Above all, to be a successful Aussie AOer, one must show one's undying appreciation for those intrepid homeschoolers that have gone before - for the AO Advisory, for parents at AmblesideOnline, the lovely community at Aussiehomeschool - and for those wonderful Aussie CM bloggers that share what goes on behind the doors to their homes. Without these lovely people, all those difficult to find AO books would be just a disease - bibliomania, perhaps, instead of a rich, liberal curriculum of the highest literary standards where the whole child is taught to be the best that he can be using great books and great ideas.

Thank you all for helping me to be a successful Australian AOer. I couldn't do it alone.

I'd still have a passion for books though.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Goodnight Bloggers

See you in the morning.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Keeping up appearances

I realise that we fail miserably in our responsibility of behaving like homeschoolers.

We have only one child to begin with. That, of course, is probably our biggest failing. Not only that, we immunise her. Against almost everything. We are proponents of mainstream western medicine, and we don't embrace naturopathy, osteopathy, homeopathy, biomesotherapy, Buteyko, Chi nei tsang, kinesiology or ear candling, although my husband does visit a chiropractor occasionally, and we are fond addicts of both remedial and relaxation massage and of incense - not for its aromatherapeutic properties but because it smells nice. I worked for more than ten years for huge multinational pharmaceutical companies, and do not regard them as harbingers of evil.

We eat white rice, white bread, MSG, red meat, dairy products and sugar, although we do prepare most of our foods ourselves and rarely purchase it pre-packaged in a carton, tin or jar. We do not eat them all in the same meal. We drink wine. And champagne. And soft drink. And Diet Coke, full of chemical additives. We all like McDonalds.

We are Sabbath observers. We practice exclusive Psalmody and we sing no hymns. We believe in a young earth. We do not celebrate Christmas or Easter as religious holidays, but Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are all parts of childhood fun. We read about fairytale witches and magic, but not the occult or new age religions. We are very afraid of books like this.





We have a television, and we listen to modern music. And classical, and Kitaro, which some call New Age, but we call nice.

We like Growing Kids God's Way and Garry and Anne Marie Ezzo, but we continually evaluate and refine our parenting methods, depending more on God's grace than on the expertise and ingenuity of others.

Three times I have started the next paragraph, but I think it is too controversial and I think you will un-follow me if I leave it, so I won't.

I will leave you with a photo of our new season's Birkies. Mine, and Jemimah's. Soon hers will be bigger than mine, but so far I win. In this, at least, we look like homeschoolers. In this our behaviour is typical.

There had to be something.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

What's your traveller IQ?

The Book Chook posted a link to this frustrating geography challenge this morning.

Here's my result if you want to challenge. Yes, I know - below 100. It is hard!

And I thought geography was my strong suit.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Sing-along with Rolf

I'm not quite sure whether I love Sing-along with Rolf Harris primarily because it takes me back to the idyllic days of my own childhood and singing loudly in the car with my beloved family on the way to Melbourne, or whether I love it most because it is warm, wonderful, singable and iconically Australian music sung by a living national treasure. Either way, this is one of our favouritest children's CDs of all time.

The collection includes all of the songs that are supposed to be there - Two Little Boys, Jake the Peg, Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport, Six White Boomers, and Sun Arise. Of my favourites, only The Court of King Caractacus is missing (why is this so?). In addition there are other great, and imminently addictive songs including Pavlova (Australia's favourite fruit), and Along the Road to Gundagai. You'll hear the didgeridoo, the Jews Harp, the stylophone, and, of course, the wobble board. Oh, this CD is a seriously major big-time blast from my past.

Rolf Harris is part of what it means to be an Aussie - he's part of our musical heritage. The fact that he takes me for a nostalgic wander down memory lane helps a lot as well. I'm sure your family will love singing along with Rolf just as much as ours does.

Here are a few tunes to get you started:









And this one because I love it so:

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

One Thousand Gifts - the app

You may be aware that just quietly and between us, I am not a fan of New York Times bestselling author Ann Voskamp's book, One Thousand Gifts.

It is the purple prose that gets me (browse here to get an idea of what I mean). Ann's book doesn't have purple patches or purple passages - it is the purplest of purple from start to finish. It irritates me immensely.

Which is a shame, because the premise behind the book is marvellous. In One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, Ann teaches us to count our blessings by intentionally counting one thousand gifts. I like it.

That's why I am excited by the new One Thousand Gifts app for iPhone/iPad and Android. The free app helps you to count and share your blessings one by one all the way to one thousand.

I've uploaded it to my phone this morning, and I going to start numbering my blessings today. Will you join me?
Count your blessings
Johnson Oatman Jr.

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will keep singing as the days go by.

When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;
Count your many blessings. Wealth can never buy
Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.

So, amid the conflict whether great or small,
Do not be disheartened, God is over all;
Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.More purple prose from Ann here. (Is it called prose when it's spoken? Possibly not...)

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Why, oh why?

Why, oh why would they release magnificent hardcover, full-colour retro editions of Enid Blyton's most loved books,The Enchanted Wood and The Magic Faraway Tree and then add the revised modernised text?

The Magic Faraway Tree without Dick and Fanny and Jo and Bessie just doesn't do it for me, I'm afraid. You?

I feel like having Dame Slap give these editors a good dose of corporal punishment, I do.

Except there's no slapping in these versions.

It's Dame Snap now, you know.

It's all so awfully peculiar.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Thanksgiving

In 1612 in Amsterdam, Henry Ainsworth published The Book of Psalmes: Englished both in Prose and Metre with Annotations (Amsterdam, 1612) for the use of Protestant separatist congregations in Holland. The Psalter contained 39 tunes, of English,Dutch and French origin.

This Ainsworth Psalter was brought to Plymouth Colony in 1620 by America's Pilgrim Fathers, and was used there for a generation until the printing of the Bay Psalm Book, The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre, in 1640 - the first book to be printed in the colonies.

It seems timely on this, America's day of Thanksgiving, to read from the pilgrim's Ainsworth Psalter, Psalm 100 - a psalm of thanksgiving for his mercies to us:Psalm 100

Showt to Jehovah, al the earth.

Serv ye Jehovah with gladnes: before him come with singing-merth.

Know that Jehovah he God is:
It’s he that made us, and not wee,his folk, and sheep of His feeding.

Oh with confession enter yee
his gates, his courtyards with praising:
Confess to him, bless ye his name.

Because Jehovah he good is;
his mercy ever is the same:
and his faith unto al ages.(You can sing it to the tune of Old 100th.) Listen to Psalm 4 from the Ainsworth Psalter sung here. Be patient - it comes after the Latin Ubi caritas.



This Thanksgiving I give thanks:

• For the mercies of our loving and faithful God and for the saving grace of his son, Jesus Christ.
• For overwhelming gifts of kindness from both friends and strangers since the flood.
• For my precious family and for the privilege of having been raised in a loving Christian home.
• For the ability to homeschool Jemimah and for wonderful ladies of the AO Advisory.
• For enduring friendships, both virtual and real life.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

A dream job or two

Oh what a lovely lot of interesting comments came from my last post. I so love talking about books.

I've been suffering from writers block for a while now, and yet today I'm bubbling over with interesting ideas for things to talk to you about. Sadly, I'm working and I really, really can not spend the day blogging about books and libraries, however tempting that is, but I thought I would just drop in and say how much I'm enjoying the discussion.

Lisa suggests that I should be a librarian. She says that she can see me working in rare books or in an Art Museum library. What do you reckon?

Actually, if I ever were to be a librarian there are two places I'd absolutely love to work. One is in Melbourne working with the SLV's Children's Collection. Take a look see:



Now to me, this would be the bestest wonderfulest most swoon-worthy job in the whole country. Sigh.

Excepting one.

Working at the National Library in Canberra cataloguing their Marcie Muir Children's Collection. That would have to be nearly as good as being a homeschooling mum.

Nearly.

What other wonderful children's collections do you know of? Does your local state library have a special collection? Do you live in Amherst near The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, for example? Or near Dromkeen? Or the Cotsen Children's Library? Do you get along to the Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival each year? Tell me where else I'd love to work if I were a librarian.

Oh, I do love talking about books.

Lisa likes talking about books too. I get lots of my book recommendations from her blog, Hopewell Takes on Life. Get along and have a look around. Lisa reads even more than I do, I think. What's more, she's homeschooled using AO. She can cook. And guess what? Lisa really is a librarian. Yep. In real life. I think you'll like her blog. I do.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

The Home Library

One of the few exciting things to come out of the January floods was the recent realisation that we could turn our guest room into a library. We'll still want to be able to accommodate family and friends mind you, but freed from the constraints of existing furniture, we'll be able to do that with a sofa bed, and let's face it - every good library needs a sofa to snuggle into anyhow, so that's an advantage, not a problem.

We already have lots of bookshelves, of course. You can see some of them here. Up top is the study shelf. It houses literature and poetry and cookery books. You can see another photo of that one here. It's pretty big, but it is also very full. But wait - there's more! There are two 5x5 Expedits in Jemimah's room. One is for picture books. the other is for children's literature. That one is below. And one 5x5 Expidit in the Sitting Room. It's full of books on the Decorative Arts - textiles and gardens and interior decoration and Japanese aesthetics and crochet. That's the pic above. And a 2x12 in the study. It's for reference books and for books on books and art books. And a smaller one in our bedroom. Christian books and my 'to be read' pile. There are cookery books in the kitchen, of course, and there's a built in bookshelf in the loo. As you do...don't you? Short stories and magazines there mostly.

Still there are piles. Piles and piles and piles of books. Much loved but without a home to call their own. And without a home they're hard to find. And I don't like being unable to lay my hand on just the book I'm looking for just when I want it.

When you take into account the fact that each year of AO adds an extra metre or so of books just on its own, the homeless problem is just going to get worse and worse (or is that better and better?) Hence the idea of the library.

I'd love my book room to look like this:



Then again, Brazenhead is really the antithesis of the wabi sabi style we adhere to in our Peaceful Home, and would probably drive my family half mad. I'm more likely to end up with a neat room, I think. Lately I've been pouring over my copy of At Home with Books. Subtitled How booklovers live with and care for their libraries, this lovely book - one of my favourites - was first published in 1995, and contains photographs of some of the most beautiful private libraries on the planet. This is my definition of an inspirational book.

I have plenty of time to dream and to plan. We have many many tasks to complete before my book room will come to fruition. Walls to straighten and replaster and paint. Carpet to lay. Doors to replace. Still, dreaming of my book room is giving me lots and lots of pleasure. Imagine - a library of my very own.

I am not naive enough that I do not recognise the imminent demise of the printed book. Mine is likely to be the last generation that venerates paper books like I do, I realise that. Still, for me the printed book will always reign supreme. I love my iPad and Kindle, but for me the pleasure I get from pouring over the pages of At Home with Books can not yet be replicated by either of my e-book readers. The videos of Brazenhead come close though.

What about you? How do you store your books? My fellow biblioholic friend, Erin, has one of the most beautiful libraries I've ever seen. I've been pouring over her blog as well. Here's the link if you too want to covet. Do you have a library that I need to peruse? If so, please do share the link. I'd so love to have a gander. Do you think printed books will survive? Have they already been usurped in your home? Come and talk to me - chatting about books is one of my very favourite pastimes. I really, really do want to hear what you have to say.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

The Gift of Music

So very, very beautiful. Don't you agree?

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Strawberry Fair

As I was going to Strawberry Fair,
Singing, singing, Butter-cups and Daisies
I met a maiden taking her ware,
Fol-de-dee!
Her eyes were blue and golden her hair,
As she went on to Strawberry Fair,
Ri-fol, Ri-fol, Tol-de-riddle-li-do,
Ri-fol, Ri-fol, Tol-de-riddle-dee.

"Kind Sir, pray pick of my basket!" she said,
Singing, singing, Butter-cups and Daisies
"My cherries ripe, or my roses red,
Fol-de-dee!
My strawberries sweet, I can of them spare,
As I go on to Strawberry Fair."
Ri-fol, Ri-fol, Tol-de-riddle-li-do,
Ri-fol, Ri-fol, Tol-de-riddle-dee.

I want to purchase a generous heart,
Singing, singing, Butter-cups and Daisies
A tongue that neither is nimble or tart.
Tol-de-dee!
An honest mind, but such trifles are rare
I doubt if they're found at Strawberry Fair.
Ri-fol, Ri-fol, Tol-de-riddle-li-do,
Ri-fol, Ri-fol, Tol-de-riddle-dee.

The price I offer, my sweet pretty maid
Singing, singing, Butter-cups and Daisies
A ring of gold on your finger displayed,
Tol-de-dee!
So come- make over to me your ware,
In church today at Strawberry Fair.
Ri-fol, Ri-fol, Tol-de-riddle-li-do,
Ri-fol, Ri-fol, Tol-de-riddle-dee I'm afraid you just have to face facts, city mice friends. There are some things that we country mice just do better. Like Strawberry Fairs. Can you really imagine a Strawberry Fair in the city? Really? Ahem, I didn't think so.

Some of the ladies in the Uniting Ladies didn't want to run it this year. Because of the flood. They were over-ruled by the other Uniting Ladies who said that they had to run it. Because of the flood. As you do. Anyhow, they did run it and it was as wonderful as ever. I'm ever so glad that they were re-United. Sorry.

I'm also sorry I didn't take my camera, so you have only two lousy photos, and those taken with my phone, but imagine, if you will rows of tables each covered with hand embroidered tablecloths and little bunches of delightful spring flowers. The tea candles are in glasses, each with its own hand knitted jacket of baby blue.

There are rows of beautifully dressed ladies of a certain age, or older, eating from delightfully non-matching plates of mixed sandwiches - nothing fancy, just the old reliable fillings that they've always had - egg, ham, tomato and onion, devilled ham paste, coleslaw (who else but the Uniting ladies do coleslaw sandwiches, I ask you). Anyhow, I think you have the idea. Six points and a sprig of parsley. The curly type. (Is there another?)

Later on, cut crystal bowls of strawberries and vanilla icecream. Cups of coffee or tea. Lots of laughter.

Afterwards you can take your pick of plants from the plant stall, or fill your basket with punnets of ripe red strawberries to take home. I did both. You can browse the craft stall, or just sit in the sun and chat to the ladies. I love talking to ladies of a certain age, or older. So much wisdom. So gracious. So appreciative. So complimentary.

Sometimes I so love being a country mouse.So come- make over to me your ware,
In church today at Strawberry Fair.
Ri-fol, Ri-fol, Tol-de-riddle-li-do,
Ri-fol, Ri-fol, Tol-de-riddle-dee

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Pet Shop Maths - the verdict

So the Pet Shop made a profit. $6884.98 profit to be exact. Which isn't too bad over the 'year'.

I last spoke to you about Simply Charlotte Mason's Business Maths Pet Store on Day One of the course - right back at the beginning of term. We were pretty excited. Now that we're at the end I thought you might like to know what we think now.

And we're still happy. For us, this programme was a perfect choice. Let me remind you that I was becoming concerned that Jemimah was moving too far ahead in MEP maths. At the beginning of term three of AO4 she was more than half way through MEP Year 5. I could see her love of maths waning, and I really didn't want that. A term of maths practice seemed a perfect solution.

That's what Pet Shop Maths was for us - maths practice. Now at the end of term Jemimah's adding and subtracting of columns of decimals has improved dramatically. She is able to calculate a percentage by changing it to a decimal and multiplying. She can calculate a percentage increase. She can maintain a ledger and knows what one is for. Most importantly, she has regained a love for maths, and has some idea of how it is used in every day life. The programme was fun and quick. Most days we could get the work done in five minutes, allowing time for some multiplication practice in a quick game of Timez Attack, or to just relax.

In case you're wondering, Pet Shop Maths isn't a full maths curriculum. The skills I mention above are pretty much all it involves. It is best regarded as an adjunct to a regular maths curriculum - or a break from one - rather than as a stand -alone maths programme.

Each 'month' the tasks are the same. By the end of the book Jemimah was bored by them, but by then it didn't matter, she had mastered them and we were done. What she most loved was the random Chance cards that added an element of risk to each month. Would the card be a goodie or a baddie? Would it put us into debt or increase sales? Jemimah loved picking Chance cards.

For me the best bit was removing the angst that seemed to be accompanying maths lessons. I loved the way the books were set out, and I loved how quickly we could get things done.

For us, Pet Shop Maths served its purpose very well indeed.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Little Fish

Another one of my favourites to share with Jemimah. So many wonderful, wonderful folk songs; so little time.



And three versions of the lyrics. Which one do you remember?

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

The Little Prince

This is our summer read-aloud. Isn't this pop-up The Little Prince just divine?

Personally I dislike the existential philosophy that pervades this book - the plight of the individual in an unfathomable universe. The book tells us that only children know what is important in life and that you can find the truth if you want it with all your heart.

On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. ("It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.")The little prince searches for meaning in a seemingly meaningless universe, but as Christians, we know the chief end of man - we know why we're here. We have the Bible to tell us right from wrong. We know what is important. We regard God as the centre of the universe - not man.

The philosophy of this book stopped me reading it to Jemimah for a time, and yet, despite my misgivings, I really wanted her to know and to enjoy the good bits of this story - the delightful characters, for example - as well as to consider some of the questions that the book raises - from a Christian point-of-view not an existentialist one. Still, I dithered.

The Little Prince was voted 'Best Book of the 20th C' in France, and sells over a million copies a year, almost 60 years after publication. It is the most read and most translated book in the French language. It is much quoted, and has been adapted to stage, screen, ballet and opera. Eventually it was this significant link with French cultural identity that persuaded me to at least give it a go. It seemed an integral link for a full study of French language and culture.

So far we're enjoying it. We've looked at some important questions - What is the difference between reality and make-believe? Can a child's perception of something be more real than an adult's? What is Jesus saying in Matthew 18?
And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. Matthew 18: 3-5 NIVWhat about the words of the Teacher in Ecclesiastes?
“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” Ecclesiastes 1: 2 NIVSignificantly, when I asked Jemimah what the picture was of she said it was a snake that had eaten something. To me it looked like a hat. What does this say? Are adults blind to the truth? (Was blind but now I see...)

Have you read The Little Prince to your kids? Did they like it? Did you? Did it raise interesting questions? Is it okay to read books to your kids that espouse a philosophy different from your own? Talk to me.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Lest we forget

Just in time for Remembrance Day, my family is incredibly excited about the publication of journalist, Peter Rees,' latest book, Desert Boys.

Using letters, diaries, interviews and unpublished memoirs, Desert Boys tells the intensely personal and gripping story of two generations of Australian soldiers, providing us with a unique insight into their thoughts, feelings and experiences.

One of the stories Peter Rees explores in depth throughout Desert Boys is that of my grandfather, Sloan Bolton. Have a read of the beginning of the book here:

The armed guard thrust a bayonet at the two men outside the Geelong drill hall. The men backed off. But they wanted to enlist, so they approached again, and explained why they wanted to join the army. This time the sentry jerked his rifle and waved them through. Sloan Bolton and one of his mates were on their way to the Great War. Sloan had been nicknamed 'Scotty' by mates who mistook his northern Irish accent for a Scottish one. He didn't object. It was early spring, 1914, He was between jobs chaff cutting and had pulled into Geelong for a week's break before heading back to the farms to work. As Scotty walked the city's streets, he couldn't help but notice the many men wearing the khaki uniform of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). He began to think about going to the war that had been declared just a month earlier...And so Alea iacta est - the die is cast.

The situation we read about in this very first paragraph would change the future for my grandfather forever. He would return home from that war both as a hero and an invalid. He would be awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the army's second ranking award for gallantry, but he would also spend nearly two years in Caulfield Military Hospital learning how to walk again on not one, but two, artificial limbs after receiving a direct hit from a military shell only a few weeks before armistice was declared. He would live to become a husband and a father and a champion cattle breeder, but he would also die at 53 years of age. I would never know him.

War would never be as exciting in reality at Sloan expected it to be that day in Geelong with his mate, Jack. It never is.

And so today on the 11/11/11 we remember. We're excited about Desert Boys because to us Grandpa Sloan 'Scotty' Bolton was a real hero, and we need to remember him and the other boys in this book. We remember them, though, not to glorify war, but to honour the young men and women who served and who fought to defend our freedom. We remember, and we give thanks to God for their lives and their bravery.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.Lest We Forget

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education

Self indulgence

An unknown red floribunda in the Red and Green Garden.

Looking up into the canopy of trees in the courtyard.

Rosa 'Madame Isaac Perriere' with happy little 'Johnnie-jump-ups' in the background.

The splendour of 'Abraham Darby' lining the front fence.

Rosa 'Pierre de Ronsard' covers the pillars of the front verandah. If only he were scented, he'd be pretty near perfect.

Butterfly catching in the Side Garden near the front steps.

Callistemon 'Kings Park Special' and other bottlebrushes in the Native Garden. The firepit in the distance.

The English Garden - notice the concentration on Jemimah's face. The Small Citrus Butterfly, Papilio anactus is proving difficult to net.

The cluster flowered Hybrid Musk Rosa 'Buff Beauty' hedge is more than 30 metres long. It is underplanted with blue Agapanthus.

The lovely once flowering Rambler Rose - Rosa 'Albertine'.

The front steps.

Peaceful greens in the Front Garden.

Broccoli, cucumbers, courgettes, mixed lettuce, basil, coriander, tomatoes, Thai basil, rocket, strawberries, silverbeet and chives vie for space in the Kitchen Garden along with the apple trees and pots of herbs. The Children's Garden and Jemimah's cubby in the background.

The Native Garden again.

The White Garden.

And again close-up. Rosa 'Heideschnee' at the back.

This was so pretty I went a picked a bunch of these blooms after seeing this photo. They're sitting at the table as we do maths. Larkspurs, 'Love-in-a-mist', 'Kiss-me-quick' and a David Austrin rose that I can't remember the name of.

More larkspurs in the English Garden.

And again.

' Albertine' again smothering the concrete tank in the Courtyard.

'Buff Beauty' as seen through an arch of Rosa 'Clair Matin'.

This is the post where I shamefacedly show off my garden in its spring glory.

In reality it is not all beautiful. There are many areas where the flood has left its mark - lovely tall trees are dead or dying; the native garden in particular has taken a beating. Natives really do not like getting their toes wet.

This post, though, is not about that.

My garden right now is giving me incredible pleasure each and every day. This post is about the good parts.

I hope these pictures of my Peaceful Garden will give you a bit of pleasure also.

Categories: Australian Home Education, Planet Home Education