Friday, October 3, 2014

{This and That}

Popping in to share a few bits and bobs...

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Brandy at Afterthoughts is doing another Charlotte Mason series for the month of October.  Last year, she covered 31 Days of Charlotte Mason, and I wrote a post about poetry, a topic dear to my heart.  This year, she's spearheading Busted: 31 Days of CM Myths, which is fabulous so far.  I'll be contributing my thoughts on the hands-on aspects of a Charlotte Mason education later in the month.


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September is a big birthday month here--I have three girls with birthdays in September.  And you know what that means: more books entering our home in the form of birthday gifts for my sweeties.

I already shared Bridget's special books.

Gianna received a few lovely hardbacks to replace some of her worn paperback favorites:



Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales
the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series
Spyri's Heidi, will illustrations by Ruth Sanderson

And Baby Clara (she can still be a baby if she's two, right?!) got some library favorites for her very own...


Mem Fox's Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
Hurd's The Merry Chase
Flack's The Story about Ping

...and a new one for us: 


Dawn and Peter Cope's Humpty Dumpty's Favorite Nursery Rhymes.  I'll warn you that the printing quality of this one is lower quality than Cooper Eden's The Glorious Mother Goose, a favorite compilation that I have mentioned before.  But the vintage illustrations chosen are just as lovely.

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Bridget just started drawing representationally all of the sudden and gosh, I just love this stage.  I have a new creation waiting for me on the counter every day, which she happily titles for me.


Birthday Cake with Lit Candles
Girl with Flower Skirt and Veil

See?  Melt, melt, melt.

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We just finished up our Term 1 exams and are on to Term 2 next week!  I've said it before and I'll say it again: we just love the Ambleside Online book selections.  Our Year 3 books are just fantastic.  Favorites so far are PagooHeroesThe Princess and the GoblinMen of Iron, and The Little White Horse...I'll stop there, but I could go on and on. 

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I'll be sharing our exam experience (as usual) and our Term 2 Morning Basket plans (which share a lot in common with our Term 1 selections) in the next couple weeks.  And I'm also working on a few more Nature Study at the Beach posts, a couple follow-ups to my discussion of non-fiction books, an update on our chore routine and our Italian plans...

(Because posting about what you're going to post about is as good as actually posting about it, right?  Or something like that.)

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Today is the traditional feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, a favorite of our family.  Story of a Soul was the first saints' book I read before converting to the Church, and I have had a devotion to her ever since.  It's also my Gianna Therese's name day and my littlest girl's baptismal anniversary.

If you have a daughter, I highly recommend Little Therese, written by Pere Carbonel and published by Lepanto Press.  Gianna has read it so many times she has certain sections memorized.

If I were more organized, I'd serve eclairs for teatime.  (Or these rose cupcakes!  Jessica is one of those people that always inspires.)  Instead, I'm planning to throw some coloring pages at them and call it a day.  But we do love St. Therese!

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Wishing you a happy weekend!

5 comments:

  1. I've been looking forward to Brandy's series this month on CM myths. :)

    Several years ago, when I first began AO with my older daughter, she and I read The Princess and Goblin together. I loved the book! There were times I could hardly put it down and wanted to just keep reading it. :)
    Karen

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    1. I had the kids read The Princess and the Goblin on their own, but I read along with them so we were able to chat about the story. I think I enjoyed it as much as they did! I just picked up The Princess and Curdie from the library, and my daughter is dying to dig in, but not I'm thinking about maybe doing it on audio together. So many good books, so little time! :)

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    2. I haven't read the sequel just yet; but I would like to. :) Like you said, so many good books and so little time! I bought copies of both books so we could have actual books and not have to read on a kindle. :) And it's a good thing because our kindle recently quit working!

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  2. I am really enjoying Ambleside too - there's a few sentences here and there in some of the history books that make me cringe, and there's some bits I just outright skip (like why do the Spaniards have to "grin evilly"?) but on the whole it is really excellent. I'm using Princess and the Goblin as my 3rd grader's reading practice for him to read aloud to me (which also means I narrate it to him, which is fun for us both) and we're just about done. I so like that book!

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    1. Marshall really has a distinctive style, doesn't she? ;) I usually find her asides charming, though I did judiciously edit that Spaniards chapter in TCOO. LOL And I should definitely narrate to my children more often--they love it when I do that. :)

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