Alina's Adventures

Claire Datnow's wonderful, Alabama-based eco-mysteries for middle schoolers.

Pond Slider Turtle, Limestone Park, Alabaster
(photo taken Boris Datnow at bioblitz in Alabaster, Alabama)

At the Alabama Writer's Conclave last month, I had the exciting opportunity to attend a workshop on eco-Mysteries and ecological fiction sponsored by the amazing Claire Datnow. I learned about how her love for Alabama's ecology led her to write eco-fiction for middle-schoolers in order to empower, inspire, and educate them about ecological principles. And then I bought all the books in the Adventures of the Sizzling Six for my children.

The first book in this series, The Lone Tree, is only $2 on kindle and $7 for print. Here's the synopsis:

They thought it was going to be a boring summer. It wasn't! When six determined teenagers decide to save a magnificent old white oak their adventures begin. Can they save their tree and the animals living in it? Will they get to build their secret hideout in its great branches? What could go wrong? The Sizzling Six will have to reckon with a ticked off neighbor on the city council, an unusual teacher, a thickheaded bully and his ditzy girlfriend, a mysterious dreamtime eagle, and an awesome night bat.

Given the extent to which young people (especially young females) are bombarded with advertisements and media which celebrate looking "cute" and trying to "make boys like you", Claire's fiction provides a counter-narrative in which the heroines are driven by eco-fascination and the desire to preserve something they love. 

Because what Claire writes is not likely to be bestseller Y.A. material, we have to ask ourselves more about this amazing woman that spends her time reaching out to Alabama's youngest citizens. Claire in her own words:

Born in South Africa, I immigrated to the US having lived in California, Minnesota, Alabama and Canada. I am a mother, grandmother and wife, and my family is the core of my life. All that I see, feel, experience feeds and inspires my writing. What I have learned in college and through wide reading informs my writing. I earned MA degrees in education of the gifted and talented, and in public history.

The series of YA Eco mysteries for 4-8 graders, The Adventures of The Sizzling Six, reflects my passion and awe for the natural world. With the trusty aid of Boris Datnow, my technological guru, the third book in the series uses QR codes to transport readers from the printed word on the page to video clips that let readers see and hear what the characters in the story are seeing and hearing! My memoir, Behind the Walled Garden of Apartheid, drew inspiration from a beautiful country scared by the iniquities of apartheid. The Final Diagnosis: What The Autopsy Reveals About Life and Death is a tribute to my husband, an autopsy pathologist. My historical novel, The Nine Inheritors, pays homage to my grandmother and two aunts and all those killed in the Holocaust.

What's next? On my trip to Australia, I found inspiration for the fourth book in the eco mystery series for middle grades, The Adventures of The Sizzling Six: Who Kidnapped The Koala? My newest books are published as Enhanced e-books as well as electronic books.

On her website, Claire offers an incredible amount of resources and activities for home educators. In her words:

Each time I write a new eco-mystery for the series, The Adventures of The Sizzling Six, I am amazed at what I learn about the species central to my story. I have developed this unit to share the excitement of learning with students. It is my hope these lesson plans will inspire them to take action in their own communities, and, ultimately, become wise stewards of the earth’s precious natural heritage.

Feel free to download and print the curriculum unit How to Become and Eco Detective. Lessons can easily be correlated to the Common Core State Standards Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects. You can also print up the Role Playing Cards and the Driving Questions for use in your classroom.

I would be honored if you would share your students’ work with me at: [email protected]

Free handouts and teacher activities including Eco-mystery Writing Contest. But my favorite by far is the printable Lessons for How to Write Eco-mysteries, a free printable PDF packet. If you take nothing from this, print a copy of this packet and plan a roam school today. 

Since Max enjoyed Claire's mysteries so much, he did a little email interview with her. I am so grateful that she took the time to answer his questions. 

MAX: Did the oil spill from the Canyon Gulf really happen, or was it based on the Deepwater Horizon spill?

CLAIRE: Indeed, the oil spill in my eco mystery is based on the Deepwater Horizon explosion that occurred on 20 April 2010. NOAA continues to assess the fish, wildlife, and habitat harmed by the spill along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, and Florida.

MAX: What Functions do Diamondback terrapins have as a keystone species?

CLAIRE: So why all this effort to save one species? If terrapins no longer live in the marsh the eco system will become less stable. These terrapins can be considered a keystone species—if you take them out, certain invertebrate species, like snails, will keep on increasing, and they will eat more and more of the marsh grasses that many other species need to survive. That will cause a shift in the important balance of living things in the eco system.The terrapins help to maintain a healthy salt marsh that is a nursery for crabs, fish, oysters, and a large variety of aquatic life. (Max, you will find the more answers to this question in the eco adventure.)

MAX: Is Shelley Island a real place?

CLAIRE: Yes, the island is based on the site of Cedar Point along the Alabama Dauphin Island marsh where the female terrapins come to lay their eggs in summer. (For more information Google Cedar Point along the Alabama Dauphin Island marsh.)

MAX: Are all your stories set in Alabama? 

CLAIRE: They are all set in Alabama with the exception of The Adventure of The Sizzling Six: Who Kidnapped the Koala, which is set in Australia. The inspiration for that book came while I was visiting my family in Australia.

MAX: Why did you choose southern ecology for the subject of your books?

CLAIRE: To do research for my eco mysteries I need to visit the habit of the species I will be writing about. It’s easier for me to explore Alabama as I live in this state. I also interview and consult with conservationists and wildlife scientists who live in Alabama. 

Claire and her spouse, Boris, are currently traveling in Greenland, Iceland, and Labrador. Anyone who knows Claire imagines her explorations are probably sparking new ideas for eco-mysteries to come. 

I am deeply grateful to Claire for the time she took to speak with me and with Max-- even more grateful for the beguiling, ecological stories she writes, stories I can share with my children to inspire them to be the change they want to see in the world. 

Facebook Author Page

Claire's other eco-mysteries, including one about the Cahaba Lily

Building birdhouses and questioning the rise of the nation-state.

Weekends at the Coryell Castle have a tendency to develop in unexpected ways. This past weekend, the King and the Eldest spent a Saturday building a "wren house" from tornado-fallen wood found along Hurricane Creek. It happened because of a book....

Meanwhile, the girls and I colored the "Coryell Castle" sign for the garden gate. The King cut it from found wood last year, but it languished in the garage, unpainted, until the chirps of a coming spring brought it to our attention. 

"Our house is really small- it's not like other castles," observed Prophet, as she washed a paintbrush in water she'd procured from the rain barrel. 

"That's because all the other castles are way too big," I said (a little too smug). "One day, we humans will be remembered only for our ruins- and the ruin we made of this beautiful planet."

Prophet giggled and leaned against Gnome. "Mommy is in a serious mood," she whispered.

Now, after having built the birdhouse and painted the Coryell Castle sign, the King and I sit watching the girls swing.

Gnome shows off her new ability to propel herself by pumping through the air; she throws her head back and closes her eyes for emphasis. We are charmed.

“She would have made a good Wren,” I say to the King, a reference to the original name we had planned for yonder tiny-swing-thing. He agrees.

Why did we name her M---- rather than Wren? Neither remembers.

The clouds lay like a poisonous white snakeskin over the sky. I want to peel them back and find the proper name for this strange planet-place in which we find (and lose) ourselves on a daily basis.

Prophet settles onto the swing nearest Gnome. Suddenly, Gnome's two pigtales reveal their asymmetry, she lays her head to the side, crumples her face into a cry- “No, Prophet, go away”. Prophet tries to ignore the crescendo of wails demanding that she get off the swing.

I feel myself redden.

“Gnome, you can’t cry because someone sits next to you or breathes near you!”, I snap. I'm surprised by how much this flusters me.

“Next thing you know, you’ll become one of those nationalists!" I practically spit out that last word as if it were an expletive.

"Look," I say, trying to impose some calm on my own outrage, "If you don’t like the person next to you, then it's YOUR job to get up and move. You don’t have a right to remove them or make them leave....” The Alabama Immigration legislation flashes through my mind, alongside sepia-toned photos of Ellis Island and Japanese internment camps. Gnome stops complaining; the girls swing as if their lives depended on feeling their toes touch the clouds.

The King enters my field of vision, picking up trash from the lawn, a large smile on his beardless face. “Did you just call her a nationalist?” he laughs.

“Yes,” I admit. I am that woman in the check-out line who fears that her children will find anything of value in flags, nation-states, and patriotisms. The excuses we imagine for mass killings can never be sacred to me. Fortunately, the King takes a more nuanced view of fences, gates, and the history of the nation-state. 

If it weren't for the subtle poetries of living in the deep South, this girl would be roaming the continents with her backpack, eyes peeled for caravans or other contingencies. I wonder sometimes if my rambling blood courses through the kids' veins- how and when and if they will recognize it, what symptoms will lead them to give it a name.... The mysteries of life disguise themselves in rapture.

One quick way you can make the world a better place right now.

I had big plans for the weekend- massive plans involving backpacks, a tent, the King and myself narrowed by the weather to still-grandiose plans involving the kids, the road, and a visit to Newbern. Ultimately, the plans were abandoned, replaced by the surprising deliciousness of my husband's Red Cabbage Borscht and those notebooks covered in meaningful scribbles which I keep hoping, one day, to revise in a manner worthy of publication.

 

On the unexpectedly lovely side, we made it to Sunday morning services early enough to warrant a stroll through the budding trees on campus.

As I sit and sift through dinner preparations tonight, even the day's beauty fails to distract me from the sense that there was something I should have done- a tiny kernel within those well-wrapped plans that might have made a difference in someone's life. It's the demise of our planned visit to the Newbern Public Library, a current project undertaken by Auburn's Rural Studio, that sticks in my mind. 

Image of library vision from Rural Studio tumblr.

So I return to the website, calculating a way to squeeze the roadtrip into our planned activities for the coming week. It is gazing at pictures of the work in progress that leads my eye down to a tiny link reading "Newbern Library Wish List". Lo and behold, the possibility of books we can donate to the kids of Newbern suddenly appears on my screen, accompanied by the following request:

Select the "ADD GIFT" option and indicate your name as book donor and/or to whom you wish to honor with this gift. By purchasing from this list, you are helping to found a library collection for the community of Newbern, Alabama. The library organization is recently formed with an emphasis on children's learning. Thank you for your support!

Is it silly that I felt a flood of happiness as I purchased Iggy Peck, Architect from the Newbern Library wish list? Such a tiny, little action- and the opportunity to acknowledge Mr. Peanut's hospitality- whisked the mislaid plans from my mind and returned my mind to the dinner at hand.

Sometimes those extra-big plans of the monumental kind can be husked to expose the kernel, the tiny little seed of action which made the plans so exciting in the first place. The plans were first formulated because I wanted to pay tribute to the Rural Studio students building this library for the kids of Newbern. At the heart of the hope was the way in which the little people growing up in Newbern are being honored by this project. We couldn't drive to Newbern this weekend. Yet I could help build their book collection by purchasing a book from the library wishlist.

Why put off until tomorrow what we can do today? Have a look at the Newbern Library Wish List and see if there is something simple that you can do today- right now, this very minute- to help build the Newbern Library. Get little people involved by encouraging them to pick which book your family should gift or the wording of the gift message. 

Afternoon of the Elves is an afternoon of free reading comprehension questions for anyone who needs them.

 

Alas, every time I look for free reading resources online, I am re-routed to websites demanding that I fork over over at least ten dollars for a set of questions. This means that yours truly decided to write the questions herself. And, in most cases, I make the questions available free to other parents and students who happen to be searching for the same things online...

AFTERNOON OF THE ELVES READING COMPREHENSION & ESSAYS (4 pages PDF)

other follow-up ideas

Have readers create a title caption and illustration for each chapter of this book.

Use magazine photos to make a collage about the story.

Create an illustrated map of the elf land based on descriptions in the story. Label various locations where scenes take place. Try to imagine it as it comes alive from Hillary's perspective.

Our daily tea time ritual.

Since the King usually misses our daily tea time ritual at 10:30 am, we decided to invite him to a weekend version this past Saturday. 

The ritual begins with the boiling of water, the selection of a tea, and then allowing the tea to steep in a pot as I read a story (usually a folk tale or legend) on the living room floor. On Saturday, I decided to rock the boat by reading a picture book (just to make sure the King didn't get bored- you know how guys are such visual creatures and all that jazz).

So we read Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story From Afghanistan by Jeanette Winter. Based on a true story, the book introduces us to Nasreen who lives with her grandmother in Herat, Afghanistan. The story begins by describing how Nasreen’s world changed the day the soldiers came and took hold of the city. Nasreen’s grandmother narrates the story and tells about how “dark clouds now hang over the city” and people live in fear of the Taliban. Soon after the soldiers came to town, Nasreen’s father was taken away. Not long after her father’s abduction, Nasreen’s mother snuck away to find him, leaving Nasreen alone with her grandmother in a place where women were forbidden to go outside if unaccompanied by a man. School was now forbidden for Nasreen and she sunk into a state of despair. She no longer sang, drew or smiled, nor did she utter a single word. After a time her grandmother heard whispers about a secret school for girls that was hidden behind a green gate in her neighborhood. Nasreen attends the school and discovers her voice through friendships and books of faraway lands.

After I finished reading the story, we poured our tea and sat, Indian-style, in a circle to begin our discussion. Usually, I aim a question about the book or story at each tea circle participant. This time, even the King fielded a few questions.

I asked the Gnome why Nasreen had stopped speaking, and what turned all the vegetables, houses, and gardens in her homeland into dull gray death. The Gnome seemed unsure, so her sister dropped a hint by making loud airplane noises and bomb sounds.

The Prophet asked what kind of tea we were drinking- she noted that it was "sweet". I explained that it was jasmine tea with a little honey. When I wandered through India, jasmine tea with honey seemed to greet me at every stop along the way- it's rich fragrance is hard to mistake.

The Prophet also enjoyed it when the King asked me a question to which I fumbled the reply. 

Milla used the pictures to answer a question about how Afghanistan and Herat looked different from our hometown. She noticed the snow-capped mountains, and how the girls there "wore pretty dresses".

I think the King enjoyed tea time. It's quickly become one of the kids' favorite parts of the day. If you've never tried to make room for a daily tea time, there are many reasons and many wise people to give them....

Afternoon tea (Homeschool World) 
Poetry tea time (Capture the Rowhouse)
Tea and poetry (Tinderbox)
Tea time studies (Homeschool Share)
Tuesday artist tea (Home Plate Fun)
The virtues of tea (Ambleside Online)
Afternoon tea and manners (Bramble Farms)
Preschool afternoon tea and snack (An Everyday Story)

How we used houses to understand American geography.

As we traveled the United States, we discovered that local conditions determined the nuances in the lifestyles of early pioneers. For example, the settlers on the Great Plains often built sod houses or dugouts, while the settlers of the Rocky Mountains used prodigious local lumber to build log cabins.

So our study of states turned into a study of local resources and pioneer housing, a favorite topic since the Eldest recently finished Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter. Given the emergent and spontaneous nature of learning while roamschooling, I've found that the best preparation is a pen and paper combined with the audacity to overlook one's own lack of drawing skills just enough to draft a visual model. In the process, we discover what it is we can learn.

LOG CABIN HANDOUT (PDF)

New Year's road-trip: Going through ten different states in ten days.

En route to our mountain vacation, we drove through a total of 10 states. Courtesy of the tourism bureaus in each state, the little folks and I walked away with bags of information about American history, geography, geology, economic development, and culture. 

OUR TEN STATES

Missississippi
Tennessee
Arkansas
Oklahoma
Kansas
Colorado
New Mexico
Texas
Louisiana
Alabama

On the way, the King and I learned a few lessons about long road trips, teachable moments, and the importance of multiple good playlists. The take-homes:

Pee outdoors when possible.
Stopping at established restrooms involves walking through gas stations full of candy and glitter intended to seduce your kids (and you) into forking over a small chunk of change in return for some junk. Also, imagine all the germs and viruses you can avoid by just peeing in the woods with the song of a sparrow to lighten your load. So pack that toilet tissue and vow to find nature-made restrooms on your road trip. By the way, snow isn't a problem. In case you haven't noticed, kids will pee anywhere. It's their adult companions that crave the water wasted by those porcelain thrones we call toilets.

Nature journals.
Whenever we stopped at a rest area or even along a scenic piece of road, Max wandered around with his nature journal and made notes. The King provided the latitude and longitude as Max canvassed a brief area for local birds, trees, plants, grasses, and insects. Then, when we got back into the car, he flipped through his field guides and tried to identify each living thing while journaling them into a context (i.e. climate, geography, etc.).

Geocache kits.
Simple as having an iphone, a compass, and a geocaching log. If you have a signature stamp, bring it along as well. There are geocaches aplenty all over these fine United States. It makes a great excuse to pee in the woods for the more inhibited family members.

Printed maps and colored pencils.
Oh the things you can do with just a few maps and pencils. Encourage the writers to list all the towns they pass through on the map and then turn them into a narrative poem. Show little ones how to draw a blue circle to indicate a lake (and then mark them as you pass) or a red square to indicate a barn or a black dot to indicate a cow. Then let them make their own map adding what they observe along the way.

Read-aloud chapter books.
Long car trips are a great time to read that awesome book to a captive audience. Who needs illustrations when the scenery keeps catching your eye? I shared A Finder's Magic by Phillipa Pearce with the crew, while Max read chapters from the original Winne the Pooh by A. A. Milne aloud to the girls.

Water bottles.
Skip the juice boxes and other sugar-laden laxatives- water is the best possible drink for the road. It saves big folks the frustration of spills, sticky luggage, and endless restroom stops. Kids tend to drink water when they are thirsty, while they will often drink juices to satisfy hunger or a craving for sugar. Keep it simple. Milk at night and water during the day.

Apples and clementines.
Bring along washed apples and seedless clementines. The little folks like to peel their own in our family. As for the apples, what could make a better all-around snack?

Scissors, glue sticks, and white drawing paper.
Using all those fantastic resources procured at each stateside rest area or travel office, cut out pictures of landmarks or places in each state and pass them (along with glue stick and paper) to the little people to make their own state-based collages. Alternately, let them tell stories by cutting their own pictures and pasting them to white paper (reimaged as a blank storyboard). Then, when you make your next stop, tell everyone that he or she has to pick up all the paper scraps around their chair and put them in the trash bag if they wish to "get off the bus", so to speak. Consider cleaning up as a ticket (a get-out-of-van-free-card). 

White cardstock and stamps.
Make your own postcards using glue sticks and travel brochure cut-outs. Let the kids write a message on their creations and then use your iphone to look up addresses. Put on a stamp and drop them off at the next post office box you see. 

Good music and playlists.
There are so many ways to tie the music to the state you are visiting. For example, some cities are mentioned in songs. Travel brochures will mention which musicians hail from their state, so add a few locals to your playlists. Use the songs as segues for discussions about history and culture. Or just find a few favorite sing-alongs. We use Spotify rather than mp3s or ITunes because we can find any song in world and enjoy it without having to "own" it. You can also find lots of stories and songs for kids. 

Poems and inspirations.
Find beautiful words to add to the mix when whimsy is conspicuously lacking. The little people may or may not show interest, but it will probably stir your soul just right. Keep your own journal of impressions and observations. Everything you see becomes part of the story you discover together. 

Making crazy critters is good for the soul.

Fly Guy, our first monster critter creation.

We've been making critters this morning with the help of our Paper Craft Crazy Critters book. Acting like a crazy critter is also somewhat appropriate. Here's one way to channel that energy into making the best of things.

"The Crazy Critters" Skit Script (PDF)

Also consider Paper Toy Monsters, another cardboard monster-making book. Mark Fraunfelder has the juice on it.

Reading comprehension for My Dad's A Birdman by David Almond.

 

 

The book became a musical in which songs were written by the Pet Shop Boys. It's a great read for middle schoolers and an insightful night read for early readers. I shared a few questions that I wrote for Max (the printable PDF is below). Enjoy the book and the music.

My Dad's A Birdman (PDF)

Additional resources

Book excerpt (Scholastic)
Exploring David Almond's book (alina's adventures)
Night Song, video of Pet Shop Boys tune from the musical (YouTube)
My Dad's A Birdman rehearsal photos (Young Vic Studio)
David Almond Biography (David Almond)
"My dad's a birdman (and my imagination) took flight" (David Almond, The Guardian)

Free audio story of "The Secret Garden".

A coloring page from Johanna Basford's The Secret Garden Coloring Book.

Frances Hodgson Burnett's entire book, The Secret Garden, is available for free download by chapter at Storynory. It is the classic story of a spoiled girl who learns to love life, people and nature when she discovers a secret garden and the life within it. Such a lovely bedtime story for those nights when the munchkins need more than a picture book...

Learning about Daniel Boone.

Max is reading Patricia Calvert's book about Daniel Boone and trying to get a sense of how settlers' relations with Native American tribes affected land claims and early American history. It's not a pretty story on either side, so we're focusing on trying to understand the motivations and worldviews of different groups and players.

If you own Patricia's book, then you will appreciate the freebie below. Even if you don't own this book, however, this chronology activity could be printed and conducted as a WebQuest.

DANIEL BOONE CHRONOLOGY ACTIVITY (PDF)

Chase those butterflies:

Interactive Wilderness Trail  map (Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail)
Daniel Boone notebooking page (Homeschool Helper)
Daniel Boone Timeline (University of Virginia)
"Daniel Boone's Dear", a folktale about Mr. Boone (American Folklore) 
Historic timelines of events in the Western United States (PBS) 

The Phantom Tollbooth: Exploring figurative language and cool new words.

The order of the day nestled around Norton Juster and chess problems. Read Write Think has a great free lesson plan on "Finding Figurative Language in The Phantom Tollbooth:". The printable figurative language chart led to some mutual and fun head-scratching.

Figurative Language Chart (Read Write Think)

We played around with it after Max recorded his most recent podcast, a reading of Chapter 2 in The Phantom Tollbooth. You can listen, share, and enjoy below. I love to download stories like this to my iPod for listening during car trips or quiet times.

MAX READS CHAPTER 2 OF THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH (MP3)

"Expectations is the place you go before you know where you're going."

More free learning to explore

The Phantom Tollbooth Literature Lapbook (Homeschool Share)
Phantom Tollbooth Musical Adaptation and Worksheets (Ariel Theatrical)

The Phantom Tollbooth: Max's homeschooling podcast.

The time has come for Max and I to bond over one of my absolute favorite books in the world. Max cackles as he reads it, and I find myself begging him to tell him which part he's reading. For the podcast today, Max is reading aloud Chapter 1 from the book- it's a bad recording because you can hear my typing click-click as he reads. So..... I might try to re-record it if Max is game. But here it is, in alls its ambient distraction, for now. Just click on the image below to listen.

 

Norton Juster shares three minutes of insight into his own childhood and inspirations for The Phantom Tollbooth in this episode of All Things Considered. He explains why his book was not entirely well-recieved by the pedagogy of the day:

Not everyone in the publishing world of the 1960s embracedThe Phantom Tollbooth. Many said that it was not a children's book, the vocabulary was much too difficult, and the ideas were beyond kids. To top it off, they claimed fantasy was bad for children because it disorients them.

The prevailing wisdom of the time held that learning should be more accessible and less discouraging. The aim was that no child would ever have to confront anything that he or she didn't already know.

But my feeling is that there is no such thing as a difficult word. There are only words you don't know yet — the kind of liberating words that Milo encounters on his adventure.

More to explore:

Phantom Tollbooth Interactive Story (Wayback Archive)
Excerpts from the story (B's Page)
Book Report Form (EdHelper) 
Discussion questions (Literary Link) 
Characters (Sparknotes) 

Smitten with flower press.

I found a charming little flower press on sale at Barnes and Noble and decided it was absolutely necessary for our learning this summer. It's unusual for me to be enchanted or inspired by a brand, but if it happens, it tends to be French brand. In this case, Moulin Roty.

Even the cardboard box is too lovely to toss....

The history of Moulin Roty began in 1972 when a group of 20 odd friends were searching for a common project that would provide both income and way of life. In the small French village of Moulin Roty, the friends decided to purchase an old mill that has fallen into ruins. They renovated the mill bit by bit so that their families could move in and live there together as a commune. The adventure began with screen printing and craft items (lamps, jewellery, decorative items . . . ) and ended with a worldwide commune brand. 

In 1980, Moulin Roty opened its doors as an official Cooperative (SCOP) in order to "ensure the development and the durability of the company". This status helps board members conserve the founding values of the brand : solidarity, sharing and respect. The French cooperative movement offers much to emulate and inspire its American counterpart.

Then, in 1988, a fire destroyed the entire workshop at the old mill.  The designs, stock, files and machines were completely lost. Moulin Roty moved to Nort sur Erdre, 15 kilometres away and decided to begin from scratch. This new start also gave added importance to the design and sales aspects of the company. The latter kept its status as a cooperative but became a public limited company (SA) in 1991.

In 1996, a Hungarian-Romanian gentleman by the name of Arpad Kovacs got involved in the creative aspect of Moulin Roty. He designs the large majority of their wooden games and toys thanks to the company he founded in his native village in Romania. The company offers work to 150 families and possesses unique know-how that has long been forgotten in France, especially with regards to wood and wicker.

In 2000, the first subsidiary in Great Britain is created and a strong web presence for Moulin Roty emerges.

And just to think that the Moulin Roty Botanist Set is 72 dollars worth of beautiful... We'll just have to use that cardboard box to make our own... In the meantime, even the coloring pages delight us.

Right-click to open full-size printable.

Exploring David Almond's book, "My Dad's A Birdman".

It's a quick read, and a fantastic one, thanks to Polly Dunbar's whimsical illustrations. 

And then Max worked on a book report summing the story and comparing the relationship of Lizzie and her father through the course of the story. He also used his reference books to create a timeline of modern human aviation (thanks to the great data in the resource back below).

My Dad's a Birdman Resource Pack (Young Vic)

A chat about redwood trees: The podcast.

Redwood Trees: A Conversation

Redwood National Park was established on October 2, 1968 along the coast of Northern California. Together with California’s Del Norte Coast, Jedediah Smith and Prairie Creek Redwood State Parks, The Redwood National and State Parks protect 45% of all remaining Coastal Redwood trees. 

Max wanted to make this podcast to inform other kids about redwoods and how "cool they can be if they survive". It came up as an option after we read Jason Chin's book (click on the image below) and I asked him a few questions about what he had learned. Our conversation doesn't even cover half the book's rich content, so I encourage you to read it for yourself and share it with your family.

FOR PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARDEN 
3 Different Redwoods (PDF) plus The Redwood Rap (YouTube)
Redwood Trees Coloring Page (JPG)
Redwood National Park Coloring Page (PDF)
Redwoods Bingo Game (PDF) 
Redwoods Tracks Activity (PDF) 
Marbled Murrelet Coloring Page (PDF)- letter M
Coho Salmon Coloring Page (PDF)- letter S
Exploring Redwoods (YouTube) 
Redwood Edventures  

FOR THOSE WHO CAN READ AND WRITE
> Have You Ever Seen A Red Tree? plus Teacher's Guide (K-2, PDF) 
Have You Ever Seen A Real-life Giant? plus Teacher's Guide (3-5, PDF)
Have You Ever Seen Something Thousands of Years Old That's Still Alive? plus Teacher's Guide (6-8, PDF)
Redwood Trees: Three Ancient Wonders (PDF)
Interactive Redwood Forest (Online Activity)
How Tall Is A Redwood? Worksheet (PDF) 
Imagine Redwoods Activity (PDF) 

Micah, the mud pie chef.

Early last week, our plans were changed. It was a mudpie-making day. The kind of day when nothing on the list gets done because the sunshine beckons, nay, begs, for our attention. So Micah and Milla backed mud pies. 

Max offered multiple instructions on how to get the pies to bake just right, but I think Micah has a knack for these things and doesn't need much instruction.

This is the mud truck which holds the mud as it is mixed and prepared for baking. I'm so glad someone in this castle can bake....

If you need a literary reason for baking mud pies, here are a few of our personal favorites:

And don't forget to take the time to smell the flowers, or, rather:

Make a batch of mud paint + Get serious about mud procedure play + Listen to our "Mudheads" podcast + Alternate use for mud puddle #74

Yoga with the kids and smiles all around.

Whoever first realized that yoga is just as awesome for kids as it for adults deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. Seriously. We've been using Baron Baptiste's book with yoga for a while now, but rising enthusiasm made a it a more regular part of our day.

This morning, Max positively beamed after half an hour of Shanti Generation yoga (yes, you can stream it on Netflix). As it turned out, his devotion to his practice led him to forsake math for an extended period of poses on the living room rug. 

IF I WERE- Sammie Haynes

Thanks to the Childlight Yoga Blog for sharing this song and lyrics. Although the song works best in a class format, it can also be prepared by homeschooling families for working partners upon their return to your castle. But performance should never be forced. One of the greatest things about yoga for kids is that it is not competitive and doesn't force shy wildflowers into recitals.

If I Were (written by Lisa Flynn, music/performance by Sammie Haynes)

If I were the sun, (reach up)
I’d shine down on you. (fold forward, reaching for toes)
If I were a rose bud, (hands behind ears, elbows touching in front)
I’d open for you. (stretch the elbows out wide)
If I were a puppy, (down dog)
I’d wag at you. (lift one leg and shake) 
But since I am a child, (hold one hand down, palm facing floor)
I’ll sing for you.  (bring hand to mouth, then away)

If I were a star, (star pose)
I’d twinkle for you.  (rock from side to side, from one foot to the other)
If I were a penguin, (heels together, toes out, hands at sides, fingers out)
I’d waddle to you.  (‘waddle’ in place.)    
If I were an eagle, (eagle pose)
I’d soar to you.  (stretch out arms and legs to ‘soar.’)
But since I am a child, (hold one hand down, palm facing floor)
I’ll sing for you. (bring hand to mouth, then away)    
And since I am your child, (point to self, to parent, then palm to floor)
I’ll give you hugs too!  (hug self or run to parent to hug!)

From Little Lotus Kids Yoga Flashcards.

More free yoga with kids if money is not on your mandala:

Relaxation scripts (Relax Kids)
My First Yoga: Animal Poses for Kids app (iTunes)
Robot relax script with visual (Om-azing Kids)
Kids Yoga: Bedtime Rhymes video (YouTube)
Yoga games for kids (Yoga in My School)
Dr. Seuss-inspired yoga pose printable (Om-azing Kids) 
Pose of the week (Yoga Kids)
"The Benefits of Yoga for Kids" (Greenchild Magazine) 
Peace tree visualization printable (Om-azing Kids)
Joytime yoga warm-ups (Joytime)
Good behavior in yoga group social story (Om-azing Kids) 
Om-azing Kids Yoga tunes (Soundcloud) 
Yoga for Kids with Autism video (Shiva's Centre) 

Miracles on Maple Hill: How we're reading it.

The entire book is available for free download online right here. Max is reading a few chapters a day, and I'm trying to keep up with his appetite. Other things on our 

Miracles on Maple Hill Book Report Handout (EdHelper)
Maple Tree ID Guide (Maple Trees)
Maple Syrup Vocabulary worksheet (Beverly Hernandez)
Maple Syrup BBQ Sauce Recipe (Hurry Hill Farm)
Maple Syrup: A Tasty Unit Study (The Old Schoolhouse)
Maple Syrup Traditions Video (Hurry Hill Farm) 
Hobby Maple Syrup Production Fact Sheet (Ohio Extension Office) 
Maple Sugarhouse and Tap Coloring Page (Hungry in Hudson, NY) 
Boiling the Sap coloring page (Beverly Hernandez) 
Maple Trees Near You Worksheet (alina's adventures) 

Sap buckets hanging on maple trees at Hurry Hill Farm.

I haven't run across any free unit studies or review questions for this book, so I've been forced to reinvent the wheel. If you'd like to borrow mine, email me and let me know. I'd hate for you to reinvent what's been duly done.

U is for United States.

In 1900, two British gentleman whose names may be pseudononymous wrote a book entitled Little People: An Alphabet. In 1901, this book was published by Grant Richards in London. In 2008, the book was made available for free for the world to see courtesy of Gutenberg. In early 2013, while searching for old-school alphabet books, I found it online.

If your kids and family are old enough to begin a thorough study of ethnic stereotypes and bias, this should be a seminal text. "B is for Boer" even led me to a little shudder- but I appreciate the opportunity to teach history with an eye to how racism and propaganda continue to perpetuate foreign misadventures and corporatist foreign policies which result in the death of human beings whose names we shall never hear or even learn to pronounce. 

So here is the verse form of "U is for United States" preceded by the illustration. There's a subliminal Shirley Temple-ness to it which is interesting because she wasn't yet living when this book was published. Perhaps Shirley grew up with Little People....

 

The States are full of mush and pie
And houses twenty stories high,
Saw-mills and millionaires and bustle;
The people there "have got to hustle."

The business of the States is done
Ex-clu-sive-ly by telephone;
And that is why the people say,
"I guess we're 'cute in U. S. A."

George Washington Carver, one amazing human being.

There aren't many characters in American history that hold a candle to George Washington Carver. From inventor to artist to naturalist to botanist to professor to football player, there is little he did not do and nothing that he did not overcome to the do the things he loved. He offers an example in persistence, dedication, and creativity. Studying his life and work with the kids has been humbling and grand.

Max read Stephen Krensky's A Man For All Seasons aloud to us as we colored. He even paused to ask what felt like "reading comprehension" questions several times. One of my favorites- "Now girls, do you think it was fair that black and white people were segregated?" Micah looked confused while Milla nodded with enthusiasm. I guess I shouldn't expect moral revulsion from a toddler, and Max quickly stepped in to provide a long-winded explanation of why segregation and slavery are crimes against nature.

For the girls, coloring our own flip-book about Carver's life gave us opportunities to talk about the details, including his love for plants, his enjoyment of painting, and his admirable journey towards a dream that just involved tinkering, exploring, inventing, and learning. You can download the free George Washington Carver Little Book.

Max enjoyed the USDA's coloring pages and fact sheets on Carver, especially the peanut-butter process handout which illustrates how peanut butter is made. The rain left us reading, re-reading, and exploring the many inventions which still touch our lives thanks to the ingenuity and courage of this remarkable man.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate Unit Study: Portraits.

Here's what came of our Character Study Sketch of Calpurnia Tate. You can download the handout right here.

The Legend of the Bluebonnet.

If it doesn't exist in the way you imagine it, just go ahead and create it. A basic rule of thumb for an unfrustrated life. Don't worry about whether you "know how" or have "talent"- go ahead and dare to dabble. For it is the dabblers and dilettantes, the tinkerers and innovators, the "I-wonder-what-would-happen"-ers to whom we owe a great deal that is beautiful and fresh in this world.

Today we continued our tormented study of Native American history. I'm sorry- there is just no honest way to explore these narratives in a way that casts a positive light on the actions of our nation's history. We read The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie Di Paolo and then played around with some painting inspired by Adventures in Mommydom.

As the munchkins painted, I doodled a handout that included all those neat little details about the botany of the bluebonnet as well as the legend of the bluebonnet. Then I scanned it and printed a copy for each small person. You can download your own 2-page version below.

 

The Texas Bluebonnet Coloring Page and Legend (PDF)

Calpurnia Tate continued: Chapter 2.

We are continuing our study of The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate  which, of course, I intend to share with fellow home learners out there. If you missed the introduction, you can find materials for Chapter 1 right here.

“It’s amazing what you can see when you just sit down and look.”

Our chapter 2 study is heavy on the writing side with acrostics and similies as a central part of the supplemental activities.

Chapter 2 Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary (PDF)

Journal Entry Write About A Quote (PDF)

Character Impressions Through Acrostics (PDF)

Similies Stories (PDF)

Enjoy and share. I think Calpurnia would appreciate it.

T is for toad at the table.

You can download this alphabet book page below.

Today is a letter T sort of day- a rainy Thursday, ripe for frog and toad spotting. I've been thinking of starting to read The Wind and the Willows to the girls, and of course, this brings toads to mind. For now, we're learning about toads and frogs and tables and Thursdays. 

T is for toad at the table (PDF)

We also listened to the fable of "The Frog and the Scorpion" online at the Story Museum. The Museum includes a free story map which makes a great coloring page that teaches sequencing as you listen to audio story. Of course I couldn't resist adding an opportunity to teach the life cycle of a frog as well as the moral, "A scorpion is always a scorpion..." You can download my activity sheets for free below.

The Frog and the Scorpion (PDF)

An Adventure with Little Red Riding Hood.

This image comes from Lindsey Yankey's adultish version of the fairy tale.

Today's free Learning Adventure includes learning opportunities for preschool children as well as reading children. It allows parents who homeschool a variety of ages to bring them “under the same tent” (that's the one we pitch and dwell beneath) for the study of an old, timeless fairy tale.

Older students will explore sequencing words while younger students will work on sequence by creating a story map. A dramatic reading and flannel board performance is also included.

An Adventure with Little Red Riding Hood (PDF)

We started by reading the story- then we discussed it a bit and the kids informed me that wolves are scary. Unfortunately, the scariness of forest animals is a theme in fairy tales, and I did the best I could to explain that wolves aren't scary unless you make them mad or hold raw meat in your hand. Everyone seemed satisfied with this explanation, so I let it go at that.

Next we worked on sequencing. Micah colored and cut and pasted to create a story map showing the order of events while Max worked on the sequencing words worksheet. Milla nursed her dolls. I fought the wild urge to join her in her fantastic pretend game.

Finally Micah cut out the characters for the flannel board while Max read over the script. I hope we get time to perform it with Patrick tonight. Life seems to be moving so quickly these days, and I treasure the time we had together over the holidays. I'm in Patrick-withdrawal and doing the best I can to build and create in the absence of my best friend. 

The best free online Christmas books.

Once again, Gutenberg earned my love. My favorites are marked with asterisks- most of these books are intended for a young audience. Enjoy them down to the last morsel.

A Budget of Christmas Tales by Charles Dickens and Others (1895) *
A Captured Santa Claus by Thomas Nelson Page (1902)
A Christmas Accident and Other Stories by Annie Eliot Trumbull (1900)
A Christmas Garland by Max Beerbohm (1912)
A Christmas Greeting by Hans Christian Andersen (1864)
A Little Book of Christmas by Cyrus Townsend Brady (1917) *
A Christmas Mystery: The Story of Three Wise Men by William J. Locke (1910)
A Christmas Posy by Mary Molesworth (1888)
A Christmas Sermon by Robert Louis Stevenson (1900) *
A Christmas Story by Dr. Samuel W. Francis (1867)
A Defective Santa Claus by James Whitcombe Riley (1904)
A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum
A Little Book of Christmas by John Kendrick Bangs (1912)
A Reversible Santa Claus by Meredith Nicholson (1917)
A Right Merrie Christmasse by John Ashton (1894)
A Versailles Christmas Tide by Mary Stuart Boyd (1901)
And Thus He Came: A Christmas Fantasy by Cyrus Townsend Brady (1916)
At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies by Charles Kingsley
Beasley's Christmas Party by Booth Tarkington (1909)
Betty's Bright Idea and Other Stories by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1875)
Brother Robber by Helene Christaller P *
By the Christmas Fire by Samuel McChord Crothers (1908)
Christmas: A Happy Time by Miss Mant (1832)
Christmas: A Story by Zona Gale (1912)
Christmas: Its Origin, Celebration, and Significance edited by Robert H. Schauffler (1907)
Christmas: It's Origins and Associations by William Francis Dawson (1902) *
Christmas Comes But Once A Year by Luke Limner (1850) 
Christmas Entertainments by Alice M. Kellog *
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day: Ten Stories by Edward E. Hale (1873)
Christmas Every Day and Other Stories by William Dean Howells (1892)
Christmas Holidays at Merryvale by Alice Hale Burnett
Christmas In Legend and Story by Elva S. Smith (1915)
Christmas in Ritual and Tradition: Christian and Pagan by Clement A Miles (1912)
Christmas Outside of Eden by Coningsby Dawson (1922)
Christmas Roses by Lizzie Lawson and Robert Elice Mack 
Christmas Roses and Other Stories by Anne Douglas Sedgewick (1920)
Christmas Stories and Legends compiled by Phebe A. Curtiss (1912)
Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse by Eugene Field (1912)
Christmas Tree Land by Martha Molesworth (1884)
Christmas With Grandma Elsie by Martha Finley (1888)
Colonel Crockett's Co-operative Christmas by Rupert Hughes (1906)
Holiday Stories for Young People edited by Margaret E. Sangster (1896) *
Holiday Tales: Christmas in the Adirondacks by W.H. Murray (1897)
In the Yule-log Glow: Christmas Tales From 'Round the World by Harrison S. Morris (1900) *
In the Yule-log Glow: Book Two edited by Harrison S. Morris (1900)
In the Yule-log Glow: Book Three edited by Harrison S. Morris (1891)
In the Yule-log Glow: Book Four edited by Harrison S. Morris (1900)
Is There A Santa Claus? by Jacob A. Riis (1922)
Lill's Travels in Santa Claus Land by Ellis Town, Sophie May, and Ella Farman (1878)
Miss Muffet's Christmas Party by Samuel McChord Crothers
Mr. Kris Kringle by S. Weir Mitchell (1898)
Myths and Legends of Christmastide by Bertha F. Herrick (1901)
Nibsy's Christmas by Jacob A. Riis (1893)
Old Christmas by Washinton Irving
Old Christmas From the Sketchbook of Washington Irving (1886) *
Old Scrooge: A Christmas Carol in Five Staves by Charles A. Scott (1877)
On Christmas Day in the Evening by Grace S. Richmond (1910)
On Christmas Day in the Morning by Grace S. Richmond (1905)
Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Dogs by Eleanor Hallowell Abbott (1920)
Round the Yule Log: Christmas in Norway by Chr. Asbjorsen (1895)
Santa Claus' Partner by Thomas Nelson Page (1899)
Shakespeare's Christmas Gift to Queen Bess by Anna B. Mcmahan (1907)
The Abbot's Ghost by A.M. Barnard (1867)
The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin 
The Children's Book of Christmas Stories edited by Asa Dickinson and Ada Skinner (1913)
The Christmas Angel by Abbie Farwell Brown (1910)
The Christmas Books of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh by William Makepeace Thackeray
The Christmas Child by Hebsa Stretton (1909)
The Christmas Fairy by John Strange Winter (1878)
The Christmas Kalends of Provence by Thomas A. Janvier (1902)
The Christmas Miracle by Charles Egbert Craddock (1911)
The Christmas Peace by Thomas Nelson Page (1891)
The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens (1845)
The Fairies and the Christmas Child by Lilian Gask
The First Christmas Tree by Henry Van Dyke *
The Holly Tree by Charles Dickens (1894)
The Goblins' Christmas by Elizabeth Anderson (1908)
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum
The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation by Annie Fellows Johnston (1905)
The Manger Mouse by Jane Tyson Clement P
The Misfit Christmas Puddings by The Consolation Club (1906)
The Night Before Christmas and Other Popular Stories for Children (1903)
The Peace Egg and Other Tales by Juliana Horatia Ewing
The Sad Shepherd by Henry Van Dyke (1911)
The Shepherd's Pipe by unknown (1935) P
The Shepherd's Pipe: A Christmas Cantata composed by Maryls Swinger P
The Spirit of Christmas by Henry Van Dyke (1911) 
The Story of a Nodding Donkey by Laura Lee Hope
The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke (1896)
The Thin Santa Claus by Ellis Parker Butler (1909)
The Toys of Peace and Other Papers by Saki (1919 *
The Truce of God by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1920)
The Upas Tree by Florence L. Barclay (1912)
The White Christmas and Other Christmas Plays by Walter Ben Hare (1917)
Tommy Trot's Visit to Santa Claus by Thomas Nelson Page (1908)
Trifles for the Christmas Holidays by H. S. Armstrong (1869)
Two Christmas Celebrations by Theodore Parker
Uncle Noah's Christmas Inspiration by Leona Dalrymple (1912)
When the Time Was Fulfilled: Christmas Meditations by various authors P 
When the Yule Log Burns by Leona Dalrymple (1916)
Whirligigs by O. Henry 
Willibald's Trip to Heaven by Reimmichl 
Yule-tide in Many Lands by Margaret Pringle and Clara Urann (1916) *

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate Unity Study: Chapter 2.

Continuing the free unit study on The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate today with similies and Chapter 2. If you missed Chapter 1 freebies, you can find them here.

Similies Stories (PDF)

Chapter 2 Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary (PDF)

Character Impressions Through Acrostics (PDF)

For the similies stories, we introduced the concept of similies and then looked through the book to find them. Max found the following ten similies as answers for his worksheet:

1. "Like a tiny baby field mouse" (p.10)- object dangling from bird's beak
2. "Like damp, steaming puppies" (p.2)- how the boys slept at midday
3. "Like a dragon's" (p.9)- grandfather's tuftu eyebrows
4. "Like Christmas ornaments" (p.10)- how the cardinals looked along the lawn
5. "As menacing to the feet as straw stubble" (p. 17)- the dried grass on the lawn
6. "Like a bizarre cross between an otter and a duck" (p.66)- a platypus
7. "Like river sludge" (p.38)- the sediment in the beaker 
8. "Like a miniature fox" (p.41)- the bat
9. "As if it were a child" (p. 45)- referring to leg of soldier cradled in his arms
10. "as if pole-axed" (p.2)- how the tired men fell down on their rope beds

Then we talked about how Calpurnia describes so many things with reference to natural objects and animals- perhaps they were closer to nature in her time. Max also observed that most people don't use expressions about "pole-axes" anymore because we don't use pole-axes.

Our vocabulary words were defined and then Max used them in a few unruly sentences of his own making.

dilapidated: In a state of disrepair or ruin as a result of age or neglect

consternation: Feelings of anxiety or dismay, typically at something unexpected.

malacca: Brown cane that is widely used for walking sticks and umbrella handles.

stupefying: Make (someone) unable to think or feel properly.

He had knocked over the dilapidated umbrella stand, breaking it and several dilapidated umbrellas. The malacca handles and the cloth tops were part of a jumbled pile on top of the baby, Rupert, who had done it all. It was stupefying. I was full of consternation. 

Christmas storms and stories.

The weather folk jump about waving lasers and warning of ominous storms to come. So we are filling up on Christmas stories from around the world. Reading "Babicka", a tale from Czechoslovakia, we learned that children in Czech villages believed the Christ Child returned on Christmas eve and left gifts. Other interesting Czech holiday traditions gleaned from this story include:

• If you fast all day long the day before on Christmas, on Christmas you will see a magic golden pig running around the room.
• If a girl takes a branch of sweet elder outdoors and shake it as she recites, "Sweet elder branch, I shake thee, Tell me, ye dogs who wake me, Where my intended might be", she can learn where her future husband might be at that very minute by following the direction of the dog barking sounds.
• You can divine the future of a person by cutting an apple crossways twice and reading the seeds and shapes.
• On St. Stephens Day, young boys carol at the local miller's home in the hopes of good fortune for the coming year.

Other beautiful, thoughtful, and free Christmas stories from around the world worth sharing with family:

RUSSIA
Where Love Is, There God Is Also (Leo Tolstoy)- text
Christmas Phantoms (Maxim Gorki)- audio
The Guest (Nikolai S. Lesskov)- PDF 
Legend of Baboushka- text 
Papa Panov's Special Christmas Day (Leo Tolstoy)- text with images 
The Heavenly Christmas Tree (Fyodor Dosteovsky)- text 

ROMANIA
A Christmas Tale (Queen Marie of Roumania)- text

HUNGARY
Which of the Nine? (Maurus Jokai)- text

IRELAND
The Christmas Cuckoo (Frances Browne)- text 

ENGLAND
St Christopher: A Golden Legend- text 
Some Christmas Stories (Charles Dickens)- PDF 
Why The Evergreen Trees Never Lose Their Leaves (Florence Holbrooke)- text 
The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton (Charles Dickens)- text and images 
A Christmas Tree (Charles Dickens)- text 

GERMANY
The Christmas Fairy of Strasbourg (J. Stirling Coyne)- text
The Chess Player (Ger Koopman)- PDF
Behold That Star (The Bruderhof)- PDF book
Legend of the First Christmas Tree- text 
Little Gretchen and the Wooden Shoe (Elizabeth Harrison)- text 

SCANDINAVIA- Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark
The Thunder Oak (William Walsh)- text 
The Voyage of the Wee Red Cap (Ruth Sawyer Durand)- text 
The Christmas Carol of the Birds- text and images 

HOLLAND
The First Christmas Tree (Lucy Wheelock)- text 
A Ragged Christmas Feast- text and images 

ICELAND
Legend of the Yuletide Lads- text 
Getting Even With Gryla- text 

ITALY
Brother Robber (Hellen Christaller)- PDF or audio 
The Story of St Francis of Assissi (Dr. Michael Lockett)- text 
Little Piccola (Nora A. Smith)-text 

FRANCE
Legend of the Birds- text 
The Wooden Shoe Christmas (Francois Coppee)- text 
The Legend of the Robin (The Normal Storyteller)- text 
Little Jean (Francois Coppee)- text 

UNITED STATES
A Kidnapped Santa Claus (L. Frank Baum)- text 
The Other Wise Man (Henry Van Dyke)- text 
The Burglar's Christmas (Willa Cather)- text 
A Christmas Story (Katherine Pyle)- text
The Fairy Christmas- text and images 

We also found the naitivity readings in the Qu'aran to be illuminating and informative. You can explore them online as well. Ignorance is the first enemy of mercy and truth.

A free unit study on "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate".

Jacqueline Kelly earned herself quite a fan club over here with The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. It provides a delicious fictional introduction to the world of being a naturalist at a time when the skills of naturalists are no longer emphasized in science classes. In fact, Max and love it so much that I created a unit study to make sure we pore over every perfect little piece.

Granted, it makes a great subject for a unit study because it combines scientific observation with American history and social studies. The primary conflict in the novel pits Calpurnia's interest in science and curiosity about nature against the social expectations of her sex at a time when corsets were considered "the proper thing to do". 

This unit study is what I call a "folder study" in that we go through it gradually and add all related materials to a 3 prong folder as we go. It gives us something to go back and flip through- something to save and enjoy again. I'll try to post a few pages from the study every couple of days as we continue our exploration. Enjoy!

Chapter 1 Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary (PDF)

Nature Journal Page 1: Stump Stories (PDF)

For more opinions and perspectives on this book from educators and book lovers, try Handmade Homeschool, Here in the Bonny Glen, Books 4 Your Kids, Simple Homeschool, Avant Parenting, Home Education Magazine, and Write4Kids. I'll go ahead and warn you that you'll have a hard time finding negative reviews of this book- it charms kids and adults alike.

The tree that didn't get trimmed: How to love your tree beyond the holidays.

Last night, what started as a simple storytime ended with a family council. The kids got in their pajamas, Patrick made a fire, and we read a short story, "The Tree That Didn't Get Trimmed", published in 1957 by Christopher Morley. It is available for free reading online and also on Google Play. 

The story begins in the woods with vivid imagery of what it must be like to live as an evergreen tree:

If you walk through a grove of balsam trees you will notice that the young trees are silent: they are listening. But the old tall ones- especially the firs- are whispering. They are telling the story of The Tree That Didn't Get Trimmed. It sounds like a painful story, and the murmur of the old trees as they tell it is rather solemn; but it is an encouraging story for young saplings to hear. On warm autumn days when your trunk is tickled by ants and insects climbing, and the resin is hot and gummy in your knots, and the whole glade smells sweet, drowsy, and sad, and the hardwood trees are boasting of the gay colors they are beginning to show, many a young evergreen has been cheered by it.

The final paragraph of the story left the family feeling hopeful, yet somehow disturbed about the future of our own tree. 

Something nice, the old firs believe, always happens to the trees that don't get trimmed. They even believe that someday one of the Christmas-tree bean poles will be the starting point for another Magic Beanstalk, as in the fairy tale of the boy who climbed up the bean tree and killed the giant. When that happens, fairy tales will begin all over again.

After reading it, all of us stared at our tree and thought things we didn't articulate. So I called a Family Council and tried to make the case for a better future.

ALINA SAID, WAVING HER HAND: 

"I move that, after the holidays, we take our tree into the woods behind the house and put it in a special place where it can return to its roots and we can visit it."

MAX:

"Yeah! It can be the Christmas Tree Corner."

ALINA:

"Does anyone second the motion?"

MAX:

"I second it!"

ALINA:

"All in favor, say aye."

EVERYONE CHEERS AND SAYS SOMETHING AKIN TO "AYE". 

If only all family council meetings and decisions went so smoothly.... Democracy in action is a messy, messy thing.

Captivated by Carboniferous Landscapes: Natural history through paleoartistry.

We are reading Adventures in the Wilderness by Rutherford Hayes Platt
as our historic inquiry into how the understanding of wilderness has
changed in American history. 

Natural history makes every rock rise as sharply in our awareness as a continent. Unfortunately, I never cared much for natural history or geology in school. In fact, I can't even remember who my teachers might have been- only that I had to memorize a bunch of rocks and dates for various tests which seemed much less captivating than all those butterflies swarming around the flower beds outside the classroom window. 

So I tried to give Max an "in" and an "out" to our learning adventure. When he lost interest, we moved on. What I didn't anticipate is how long it would take him to lose interest and how many different things we would "accidentally" learn before we finished. After reading, we printed the handouts below and Max used them to answer the worksheets.

GEOLOGICAL TIME PERIODS HANDOUT (PDF)

PREHISTORIC AMERICA WORKSHEET (PDF)

Max and I meandered through various visuals of prehistoric times, including a few online sources which extended the bounds of our imagination and even offered opportunities for cultural critique of how dinosaurs are presented and anthropomorphized. Our online favorites:

Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs for dinos and pop culture
Paleoartistry opens to door to art of paleohistory
Dinner Time Inside a Brachiosaurus, super fun to discuss
The World of Charles R. Knight, which led us to our art work for the day 

Charles Robert Knight (1874-1953) was an American artist who took fossil records and brought them to life in magnificent oil paintings depicting what the world looked like millions of years ago. Apparently, the discovery of fossils led to "dinosaur wars" among the artists struggling to depict them.

Carboniferous Landscape by Charles Knight

Our art work of day settled on Charles Knight's depiction of a landscape from the Carboniferous Period in which he used 250 million year old fossils to receare the plant life of those times. Max said, "So ferns made coal?" That seemed like one way to put it.

Collecting moss to make green dye.

Max has been reading about Native American crafts and traditions in this dated but still fascinating book compiled by John A. MacFarlan, one that belongs somewhere on every child's shelf. Today, he regaled us with stories of using moss to make green dye. Off we went in search of moss for the picking....

Some moss was too pretty and perfect to touch.

When we lifted the moss, it came up like a sticker- with a layer of dirt underneath.

Little hands lost in moss.

Max carried the moss bucket.

I can't wait to see how our experiment turns out. The munckins keep remarking on the softness of the moss. I explained to them that some of the best outdoor beds are made with an underlayer or underlining of moss. Moss can also be used to stuff between logs, planks, or twings to insulate a house or hut and keep it warm in the winter. 

Cassie's Word Quilt, a book for kids by quilter Faith Ringgold.

Faith Ringgold thinks in pictures and colors. Her quilts tell the stories of her days. In this colorful book, Faith conveys to young readers how quilts tell the stories of our lives. 

Cassie's World Quilt, a book about images and stories.

 

After looking at the images and words in a quilt format, the kids jumped at the opportunity to spot them on the following page. Since we played "I Spy" to find the objects and their corresponding words on the pages, we extended this to a bit of "I Spy" with the quilts in our home. 

Max and I read Faith's online story, "How the People Became Colorblind", and answered her questions in the online form. We answered her questions because she wants to know our responses (that includes you, too). Colorblindness does not come from blindness or failure to communicate- it comes from active engagement, mutual respect, and genuine interest in how another person feels. Email your thoughts and dreams to Faith at [email protected].

There are always pertinent printables in PDF.

A chronology of Faith Ringgold's life and experience .
A portrait of Faith Ringgold to discuss and explore.
Sheet music and lyrics for Faith's song, "Anyone Can Fly"  to sing.
Neighborhood Unit Plan for preschoolers using this book.
Abby's Quilt Lesson Plan which includes relevant book & diorama.
Creating a Story Quilt classroom activity plan for groups.
Quilting: History Through Arts lesson is simply beautiful. 
Make stamp quilts inspired by Faith Ringgold in this activity. 

Books that make you want to draw on the walls.

Joseph Had A Little Overcoat by Simms Taback is the current favorite. The ladies enjoyed cutting and pasting magazine pieces onto their own traced overcoats as a follow-up fancy. 

It's fun to break down the colors and collage pieces and seek "similars" in a magazine.

We made a story-telling board collage with faces from magazines as inspired by this page. 

The girls picked the faces and "characters" and we created a base for inventing our own stories about the inhabitants of "Overcoat Park". I hope we get to use this as a means of creative conflict resolution by telling stories which create empathy for one another when there is a "fight" or intractable squabble. 

Journal entry prompts about costumes.

Today's journal prompt ideas were taken from the lovely old vintage children's books in the Dandelion Colllection. They should be obscure enough to prompt imaginative storytelling rather than rememebering-- for little ones, at least.

Tell this story about this man and his tree suit.

The two horses, Brownie and Whitiy, are dressed as dames. Tell their story.

Never kick a

Original illustration by Paul Killebrew.

Carl Sandburg's repertoire was not limited to poetry. His children's stories are just as open to life as his lyrics. Here's the beginning of one of my favorites:

When a girl is growing up in the Rootabaga Country she learns some things to do, some things not to do.

"Never kick a slipper at the moon if it is the time for the Dancing Slipper Moon when the slim early moon looks like the toe and the heel of a dancer's foot," was the advice Mr. Wishes, the father of Peter Potato Blossom Wishes, gave to his daughter.

"Why?" she asked him.

"Because your slipper will go straight up, on and on to the moon, and fasten itself on the moon as if the moon is a foot ready for dancing," said Mr. Wishes.

Read the rest of "Never Kick A Slipper at the Moon" from Sandburg's Rootabaga Stories. For free, of course, thanks to Joseph Perry.

The mysteries of the Mississippi River.

James B. Eads, lover of the Mississippi.

Reading Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. Barry introduced me to a fascinating character by the name of James Buchanan Eads. In his efforts to understand the muddy waters of the Mississippi River, Eads designed his own diving bell from a 40-gallon whiskey barrel and began the first successful ship salvage business along the Mississippi River in the 1840's. Eads was not yet twenty-five when he became the American most intimate with the currents and furies of this mighty river. 

The passage that struck me described Eads' first descent to the bottom of the river seeking a sunken ship to salvage. As he descended in his diving bell, Eads realized that the sediment reduced the light and visibility under the water's surface. He could not see the river- he could only feel it. The bottom sucked at him while the current buffeted, whipped, pulled, shoved, and nudged him. Unlike the wind, the current never let up- and never became predictable enough to warrant preparation. Eads described it in the following words:

"I had occasion to descend to the bottom in a current so swift as to require extraordinary means to sink the bell.... The sand was drifting like a dense snowstorm at the bottom.... At sixty-five feet below the surface I found the bed of the river, for at least three feet in depth, a moving mass and so unstable that, in endeavoring to find a footing on it beneath my bell, my feet penetrated through it until I could feel, although standing erect, the sand rushing past my hands, driven by a current apparently as rapid as that on the surface. I could discover the sand in motion at least two feet below the surface of the bottom, and moving with a velocity diminishing in proportion to its depth."

I just had to read this aloud to the kids- such a rich description of what it would be like looking for boats at the bottom of the Mississippi over one hundred years ago. This book is just another reminder of why parents should read as much as possible- all the stories and histories we can share with our kids to enrich their conception of the world around them. I also found a free biography of Eads at Gutenberg for those who care to learn more about this fascinating man.

The swimming holes at Hurricane Creek.

Eighteenth Street reminds me of the swimming holes at Hurricane Creek- some which can be reached by foot, others by car, and most by canoe. There's nothing like a swimming hole- nothing at all. Swimming pools lack the historical context and the immersion in local ecology- the sounds of birds chirping and water rushing over stones.

Max and Micah pet a puppy taking his first dip at Hurricane Creek Park.

Between 1932 and 1942 the rivers that split and ran through Wichita were sweet and clean and perfect for swimming. For my money, the best swimming hole of all was on the east bank of the Little River at about Eighteenth Street.

There was a small beach that eased into the water. You could wade to any depth you chose. The main channel near the west bank was the deepest spot. The riverbank behind the beach was steep and thickly covered by bushes and clumps of willows and a heavy stand of cane….

Adults came to Eighteenth Street, too. They were, for the most part, women with children too young to swim. The mothers would wade in wearing their dresses, holding their children’s hands. Grown men would roll up the legs of their overalls and stand in the cool water. Most of the swimming garb was catch-as-catch-can. In a nation and city of poor people, we generally represented the poorest of the poor. Under certain circumstances, even underwear was all right.
The water on Eighteenth Street was always warm and friendly and inviting. You had to go deep in the main channel to find a cold current. A crude diving platform was nailed twenty feet up into a huge cottonwood tree right on the edge of the river. A heavy rope swing hung down from a limb just below it.

No one was in charge at the Eighteenth Street swimming club. Actually, it wasn’t even a club. It was more like a hobo jungle. A calm, quiet, secret place where anyone could find soft breezes, cool water, silky sand, and a haven from the rough, raw edges of reality.

—from “The Last Best Swimming Hole” by Patric Rowley in The Great North American Prairie (Stories from Where We Live). Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2001.

Making a water filter.

Yesterday's experiment evolved from a little reading and a few moments of peace in which Grand Bon-Bon was not fretting about one facet of his 95 years of life or another. These days I feel as if my ability to be involved in my children's lives has been limited by my grandfather's incessant worries, concerns, and frustrations.

Being 95 is not easy and, unfortunately, some who live to this ripe old age consider it a curse rather than a blessing. I suppose there are lessons to be learned from this as well, including the fact that being a critical, "problem-solving" type person is tolerable and even "successful" when you are young and middle-aged but quite painful and miserable when you reach the twilight of life. I am reminded daily of the importance of seeing the beauty in life- not the beauty in what you have created (because at 95, there isn't much you can "create" anymore) but the beauty in what is created.

On that note, Max and Micah cooperated in this ultimately-awesome experiment to create a water filter.

Max chose his own "ingredients" and added them in the order above. The book suggested using cotton and blotting paper, but Max ruled in favor of an "all-natural filter".

Now all he needed was muddy water. So he went over to the garden and picked a fistful of red clay dirt which he then mixed with water and added to a bowl.

At first, the muddy water didn't go through the filter at all. Max discovered that he would need a faster flow, so he moved from pouring muddy water from a small bowl to pouring muddy water from a bucket.

After a few tries, it was Micah who delivered the shout of glory, "It's WORKING!". Sure enough, the water was clear as day- Max's homemade filter was strong enough to remove even red Alabama dirt clay from the mix. I didn't get a photo because life intervened, but the filter worked perfectly and helped us visualize the role of a stream as a water filter in an ecosystem.

You can find more fun water experiments and ideas in this book.

A lesson about the Philippines.

Micah holds her special woven fan, which she claimed almost immediately.
It suits her Eurasian eyes, doesn't it?

The best way to learn about other countries is to travel. The second best way is to learn from those who have lived there. We are lucky enough to visit the Philippines vicariously thanks to the Garcia family. As we flipped through the mysterious treasures in the envelope, Max read to us from the booklet which provided history and context for each item. Here's what we learned.

Max reads aloud from the accompanying booklet.

We know that the citizens of the Philippines are wise enough to have had female leaders in their history. As Americans, we are still working on developing that kind of wisdom. 

We also know that there are cool beetles and special saints honored by many Filipinos.

Max holds up the flag of the Philippines.

A popular game is called "sapa". Much like foozeball or hackey-sack, you keep a "ball" in the air with your feet. Only this "ball" is not a ball at all.

The mango balls were a hit. Everyone loved them, including Milla who cried for more.

We haven't used our banana ketchup yet. We've decided to keep it until we get a family vote on the best way to use it.

Max read this book aloud to the girls, which took quite a bit of time because Micah kept asking questions and Max kept gettting distracted by the Filipino words on the other pages. It was awesome to see the language at work and to be able to compare it alongside English words. 

Our package is going out next week, so all those families waiting to learn about Romania can learn one of the most common cultural facts about Romanians right away- people haven't mastered the art of the deadline or the rush. Please forgive us for being "tardy"- we promise we'll make up for it.

Our local history excursion.

Mrs. Henderson's native honeysuckle thrives in the front yard.

Sometimes the greatest adventures begin with an informal chat at the Geological Survey of Alabama. This one began when I stopped to talk to Lewis Dean while scouring the shelves for publications about Hurricane Creek- I owe him a cupcake for encouraging me to talk to a marvelous lady whose every word leads to another story, delicately woven into the fabric of local life. That little chat led us on this little journey.

The spectacular Mrs. Aileen Henderon as photographed by Tiffany Stanton.

Yesterday, Tiffany, Max, Ellie, and I drove down some dirt roads in Brookwood until we arrived at the beautiful home of Mrs. Aileen Kilgore Henderson, author of every type of book you can imagine as well as a fascinating storyteller. Mrs. Henderson published her first book at 75 years of age, and she shows no signs of slowing down. On her birthday, April 10th, you can listen to the first Creek Conversation, a podcast series devoted to capturing oral history about Hurricane Creek. Mrs. Henderson's lifelong devotion to the creek made her a perfect first conversation.

After our conversation, Mrs. Henderson's daughter, Anne, led us down to the creek and whispered all kinds of enchanting facts about the turkeys and bobcats and wagon trails on their property.

The unidentified flower in Mrs. Henderson's yard. Photo by Tiffany Stanton.

Anne describes why the trees trunks remained curled after a tornado long ago.

Anne is an author of children's books, and I couldn't help purchasing a copy of My Brother Needs A Boa, a book inspired by her time in Costa Rican jungles and dedicated to all the future herpetologists of the world. Anne left a lovely birthday dedication for Micah inside the cover, and I can't wait to see what she thinks when she opens it later tonight. Educators will he happy to know that a free Lesson Plan and Curriculum Guide is availble online from Starbright Books.

Anne Weston leads us down to Hurricane Creek.

The creekside mountain laurel.

Ellie samples the water.

Alina asking Anne about creek critters. Photographed by Tiffany Stanton.

It's hard not to just dive in- clothes and all. Photographed by Tiffany Stanton.

I couldn't leave without purchasing a copy of Mrs. Henderson's latest book, Eugene Allen Smith's Alabama: How A Geologist Shaped A State, and then spent much of the night awake and reading delicious descriptions of local rock formations, ancient ferns, and the even the possible solution to a natural mystery. In October of 1880, Eugene Allen Smith sent a copy of a strange new plant he had discovered at Pratt's Ferry to a state botanist. Smith was convinced he had discovered a new species which he described:

"It makes almost impenetrable 'privy thickets' as they are called, and the peculiar aroma of the leaves as you feel your way through, is exceedingly characteristic.... Some of the bushes are ten feet high and the stems 2-3 inches thick. It grows low and spreading... The seed pod is something like that of a castor oil plant". (Henderson, 42)

The plant was acknowledged as a new species whose nearest relative was native to South America. It was named Croton alabamensis. The Alabama croton, as it is now known, is a native plant which currently exists in only a few Alabama counties, including our own. So Mrs. Henderson inadvertently set me on a mission to find an Alabama croton plant. If you know where one might be discovered, please let me know so I can get a photo. In the meantime, find this book at your library (or purchase a gift copy) and then try not to stay up as late as yours truly devouring eveyr page.

Max reads a poem from a book by Edith Nesbit.

Last week, Max finished reading E. Nesbit's The Story of the Treasure Seekers (free text online at Open Library). There was a poem in the story that made both of us giggle and nod in sympathy. So Max decided he wanted to share it with friends, family around the world, and all the kids who need to hear a funny poem once in a while. 

Max reads Edith Nesbit

Just lick on the link to listen and enjoy. Max opted for a little dramatic interpretation towards the end, but I'm not one to pick at someone's take on the inherent subjectiveness of fictional experience.

Everything Grows: A book and song about life.

 

 

Everything Grows, a song by Raffi, comes to life in this book with paintings by Eugenie Fernandes. All three munchkins enjoyed listening as I read the book aloud. Max immediately noticed that the book had a refrain, and was delighted to see sheet music at the end of it- "Hey mom, I want to play it on the piano!"

Alina said:

"Okay Max. But first I want you to read the lyrics aloud and tell me what you imagine the tune to be."

Max said:

"You mean, how will Raffi make it sound?"

Alina said:

"You could go the way of guessing how Raffi will make it sound. Or you can try to see if a tune emerges for you before you hear Raffi's song. It's harder to imagine a different tune to lyrics once you've been exposed to it."

Max said:

"What do you mean?"

Alina blushed and tried to figure out what she meant:

"We-e-llll. Okay. Can you recite Mary had a little lamb, the nursery rhyme?"

Max nodded:

"Sure."

Max begins to sing "Mary Had A Little Lamb" with gusto.

Alina gets excited:

"See! You sang the song! But I asked you to recite the nursery rhyme."

Max said:

"But that's how I remember the rhyme. The music helps me memorize it."

Alina said:

"My point precisely. So I want to hear how these lyrics arrange themselves in a tune for you prior to your hearing how they are arranged by Raffi."

Satisfied, Max sang the lyrics in a sweet, almost whispering fashion. Micah brought a percussive element to the tune. I tried to pull off a folksy version, while Patrick channelled Henry Rollins in his take on the tune and delivery.

Max allows Raffi's music to soak over him while Milla follows the song along with the book.

Then we listed to Raffi's rendition and tried to see who heard it most like Raffi and whose interpretation (ahem, Patrick's) most differed from Raffi's. You can get your own taste of Raffi's music for children with these free mp3 and audio streams at the Raffi website. And, if you have a Max in the house, you might want this free sheet music for Everything Grows as well.

Mother Earth and Her Children: A Quilted Fairy Tale.

The dreary weather calls for something fantastic. Like fairies. And stories woven with magical threads. Sibylle von Olfer's Mother Earth and Her Children, illustrated by Sieglinde Schoen Smith, filled the niche.

The captivating quilt in this book was Sieglinde Schoen Smith's first. She had not been a quilter before she started making this one in 2002 after the unexpected death of her adult son, John Steven Taylor. Sieglinde wanted his name to live in a place apart from his gravestone, so she embroidered a pillow. Then, spontaneously, something drew her to begin quiliting the background around his name. It took her 366 days to complete this. 

After seeing her pillow stitching, a friend suggested she make a quilt. Sieglinde began to wonder if she could make a drawing of her favorite fairy tale and then use this drawing to make a quilt. She chose the center page of the fairy tale as a model, and began to make the quilt. As she stitched, she discovered that the quilt story took on a life of its own.

She kept making it until all the tiny children, depicted in fabric and thread, were seen sewing, mending, gardening, playing and cleaning and telling the story of the four seasons, the circle of life. Her grief over her son's death is woven into this story and this 85 inches long by 50 inches wide quilt constructed from Hoffman batik fabrics. 

Max read the tale to the girls, and then I re-read it to them because Micah seemed to have many questions about the kinds of stitches and quilts in general. The versed text also excites Milla, who is currently a big fan of nursery rhymes and metered poetry.

Love letter #53: Edith Nesbit.

"I couldn't help wondering as we went down to the garden, why Father had never thought of digging there for treasure instead of going to his beastly office every day."

E. Nesbit, The Story of the Treasure Seekers

I love Edith Nesbit and the way in which her writing for children illuminates the imagination. We are reading The Story of the Treasure Seekers, which you can enjoy for free online, and find myself guessing which passage Max must be reading when I hear his amused guffaws and chortles.

A sketch of Nesbit from the Kitchen Sink Dramas website.

Nesbit was a feminist at a time when most women were content to remain "the angel in the house". She even sported a Liberty dress, chucked her corsets, and made fashion statements supporting The Rational Dress Society (which I've always secretly admired as the forerunner of upcycling and Etsy-dom). Trying to convey what it is exactly that makes Nesbit's books such a treasure at the Coryell Castle is no simple task. But I think Gore Vidal sums it fairly well in his by-no-means-current review for The New York Times Book Review:

As a woman, E. Nesbit was not to everyone’s taste. H. G. Wells described her and Hubert Bland as “fundamentally intricate,” adding that whenever the Blands attended meetings of the Fabian Society “anonymous letters flittered about like bats at twilight” (the Nesbit mood if not style is contagious). Yet there is no doubt that she was extraordinary. Wanting to be a serious poet, she became of necessity a writer of children’s books. But though she disdained her true gift, she was peculiarly suited by nature to be what in fact she was. As an adult, writing of her own childhood, she noted, “When I was a little child I used to pray fervently, tearfully, that when I should be grown up I might never forget what I thought and felt and suffered then.” With extraordinary perceptiveness, she realized that each grown-up must kill the child he was before he himself can live. Nesbit’s vow to survive somehow in the enemy’s consciousness became, finally, her art—when this you see remember me—and the child within continued to the end of the adult’s life.

E. Nesbit’s failure in the United States is not entirely mysterious. We have always preferred how-to-do to let’s-imagine-that. In the last fifty years, considering our power and wealth, we have contributed relatively little in the way of new ideas of any sort. From radar to rocketry, we have had to rely on other societies for theory and invention. Our great contribution has been, characteristically, the assembly line.

I do not think it is putting the case too strongly to say that much of the poverty of our society’s intellectual life is directly due to the sort of books children are encouraged to read. Practical books with facts in them may be necessary, but they are not everything. They do not serve the imagination in the same way that high invention does when it allows the mind to investigate every possibility, to free itself from the ordinary, to enter a world where paradox reigns and nothing is what it seems to be; properly engaged, the intelligent child begins to question all presuppositions, and thinks on his own. In fact, the moment he says, wouldn’t it be interesting if…? he is on his way and his own imagination has begun to work at a level considerably more interesting than the usual speculation on what it will be like to own a car and make money. As it is, the absence of imagination is cruelly noticeable at every level of the American society, and though a reading of E. Nesbit is hardly going to change the pattern of a nation, there is some evidence that the child who reads her will never be quite the same again, and that is probably a good thing.

The only disagreement I find with Mr. Vidal is his assumption that only the child "will never be quite the same again". This woman finds herself quite un-same and rather tickled with joy. 

The Magic Babushka, a Ukranian fairy tale, and a few activities.

The Magic Babushka by Phyllis Limbacher Tildes is an engaging tale on many levels- sensory experiences, Russian culture, folk arts, and virtues. All three loved it so much that babushkas snuggled into the order of the day.

Reading it aloud entertained all of us, since there are a number of tongue twisters that might not be so cumbersome for Russian-seasoned tongues but certainly sounded a little disjointed coming from mine.

A collage I made from illustrations.

The illustrations convey the Russian village folk culture, costumes, and even the embroidery patterns. Nadia, a young peasant girl, sweeps the dirt outside their wooden hut, or isba.

Nadia's pysanky, or painted Easter eggs decorated using dyes and wax, require artisanship and skill. Pysanky comes from the Ukranian word meaning "to write". The designs are written on an egg with a tool called a stylus, which is filled with hot beeswax. The wax is used in the same way that crayons are used when doing crayon or wax resist with paints. If you'd like to try an egg-painting craft, my favorite online tutorials so far include:

Wax painted eggs with Counting Coconuts

Romanian painted eggs with Poppy Gall

Pysanky with Countryside Mag

The authoritative Learning Pysanky website

And for those who desire a hardcore challenge, Arlene's Ukranian egg painting how-to

Since Nadia's kindness to a butterfly plays an important role in the story, we tried to tie butterflies out of our babushkas using the model in the book.

Babushska bounty.

Our reading today led the munchkins to express a desire for some babushkas to wear in the backyard. 

Max explained how babushkas are really "practical because they can double as blindfolds". 

Milla agreed.

Micah said her "bobosha-ka" made her "feel happy".

Max said the way in which Micah says "bobosha-ka" cracks him up.

A walk in the woods- a perfect little book.

Lucky for me that Marjolein Bastin's A Walk in the Woods is tiny enough to slip into my purse. It made all of us hanker for a tromp through the woods as we rediscovered the citizens of the forests. Bastin thinks "walking in nature is one of the greatest feelings of completeness you can have", and she communicates the power of nature to enchant and instruct in this special little book.

We were reminded of the mysteries we encounter in the natural world- all the details which don't fit snugly into any of our manuals or classifications, how a family of badgers emerges at twilight to go about its business in the dark.

Owl pellets are a source of wonder and a means of identifying various owl species which live in your locale.

Snails carry little worlds of their own.

A pourquoi story podcast about magpies.

A book of porquoi tales.

A pourquoi tale is a fictional narrative that explains why something is the way it is, for example why a snake has no legs, or why a tiger has stripes. Many legends and folk tales are pourquoi stories. Here is a pourqoui tale which explains why magpie nests are not well built. You can download the podcast by right-clicking on it and pressing "save as". Or you can just play it and listen.

 

Chasing butterflies

Explore this sign warning against "swooping magpies". Can you come up with a porque tale for why magpies swoop?

Learn more about magpies and their habits from this wonderful printable created by wildlife biologost Thomas Hall.

Color this drawing of a magpie.