My sister's new book!

It is about the great Brazilian author and thinker Gustavo Corção. I remember him from when I was little, we called him "tio", or uncle Gustavo... I cannot wait to read her book! I am also dreaming of translating it into English!

Angel Crafts

We kept to our tradition of making these on the archangels' feast day... and everyone's favorite was Number Six's!

For the simple, free pattern, go here! Just click on the picture and copy it. Fold and glue the wings on his back.

Two more thank yous...

To my friends Maria and Sandy, whose gifts are related to our love for natural, delicious garden fruit!

Buffalo soldiers

Last night friends Caitilin, Nancy and I took our girls to the main library to see the one-man show "Buffalo Soldier" which was not quite as it was described. Professional stage actor Cedric Liqueur performed a collage of impersonation/speeches of several African Americans whom he calls his "Buffalo soldiers". One of them was of course a portrayal of Sergeant George Jordan, who was born a slave and at age 19 joined one of the African-American army regiments known as the buffalo soldiers. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service.

One of the highlights of the evening was his rendition of the nice poem below:

Longing
by Paul Laurence Dunbar

If you could sit with mebeside the sea to-day, And whisper with me sweetest dreamings o'er and o'er;
I think I should not find the clouds so dim and gray, And not so loud the wavescomplaining at the shore.

If you could sit with me upon the shoreto-day, And hold my hand in yours as in the days of old,
I think I should not mindthe chill baptismal spray, Nor find my hand and heart and all the world so cold.

If you could walk with me upon the strand to-day, And tell me that my longing love had won your own,
I think all my sad thoughts would then be putaway, And I could give back laughter for the Ocean's moan!

Angels' feast days craft!

Here is a newer version: just click on the picture of the pattern and print it!


The page where I originally posted this simple feastday craft is one of the most popular of all of my blog pages... Last year I decided to re-do it in a cleaner copy... have fun making your little angel to celebrate the great feast day!

A cool set of pictures

Friend Caitilin sent the first link, and Husband found the Library of Congress site about them. These are 100-year-old color photographs made by superimposing three color filters. Husband has been to some of those places so he was fascinated. Enjoy them here!

Posted on PopeStNickV

This title and a few other adorable children's titles will be released in November by Ignatius Press. This is the time to ask your library to purchase them! Look at them here.

Maite Roche is a contemporary Catholic children's author from France. I have reviewed two of her books on Love2Learn.

Title: My First Prayers for My Family

Author: Maite Roche

ISBN: 1586175041

Publisher: Ignatius Press

Date: Nov 2010

Orange season

The girls and I harvested pumpkins yesterday! We will paint some of them this week to donate to our local Serra Club's fundraiser.

Number Seven plays piano

She is very musical, loves to sing, and we have been happy with her progress lately!

Co-op Art: Early Christian Symbols

What a fantastic group of students I have the privilege to teach! We are studying the History of Christian Art this year, using Seton's 8th grade Art as a spine, and today they each worked on a catacomb tile...

Thank you

In heaven I will have time for handwritten, beautiful Thank You notes... on this side of Paradise a blog post must suffice. Thank you to my friends Susan and Jannell for the beautiful gifts last week. Gifts of friendship are heavenly things as they reflect the highest Love. Last week was a huge one for me and your gifts made a big difference. May God bless and reward you!

The Buffalo are Back by Jean Craighead George

Yesterday the concerned librarian had to break it to me that I had more than the limit allotted of books at home. I had to smile. My response was, how could it be any other way when I have all of these homeschooled kids and each is learning a different thing?

The introductory remark above was just to make the point that we have been browsing through many good books, but it has also been a very busy beginning of the school year! Yet near the many youth biographies we have been checking out to go along with our History studies, I bumped into this new beautiful book on the natural world:

The Buffalo are Back by Jean Craighead George, 2010 Dutton Juvenile.

This wonderful picture book tells the whole story of what happened to the grass in the American Prairie--and to the Buffaloes. I loved the same author's The Wolves Are Back and love this one even more. My husband has worked in a tallgrass prairie preserve in Kansas where the Buffalo roamed so this book hits home too. The story of destruction and sad lack of vision is told, but the book stays away from useless finger pointing or a hopeless, gloomy message. Indeed, much the opposite way, after reading it to your child you feel as if there is much hope for us and for the natural world as we learn about it! Kudos to the author and to the illustrator who did more than justice to the text. Absolutely gorgeous paintings!

Using my Sea to Shining Sea Workbook

I have a group of students working through Sea to Shining Sea and using my workbook. I will try to post here any resource materials I use at home with my girls along with the book. Keep in mind that I peruse the library shelves to see what they have, and you will be served well doing the same instead of trying to find a specific author/title at times.

We are reading aloud the delightful Brendan the Navigator by Jean Fritz.

Homeschool year, continued

The teens' first book in American Literature is The Autobiography of Ben Franklin. They are following an IEW course at Tutoring Center. At home, we are also doing a Ben-Franklin-Picture-Book comparative study. Fun!

Number Seven, doodler

The school year is coming along nicely for Number Seven who has been reading aloud quite a bit, but hasn't put aside her favorite homeschool activity: doodling. On any surface.

Sunrise

Painted and made available for free by the Greatest Artist.

Blog Update

Just to let readers know: Husband worked on the problem some were having and the culprit code has been removed. My blog should be clean now. Also, the new banner picture is a photo I took today of an European bouquet Husband bought for me at the Farmer's Market. It has been gloomy and gray outside, and cold before it is even officially fall. The girls and I had to get the color pencils out to brighten the day and we made homemade birthday cards for friends.

Resposting photos of last post

I still don't understand how Blogger deals with photos... but here are the photos from the last post in a click-to-enlarge mode.

Homeschool Fridays

We are so happy they started again! 1. Number Seven and some of her 4th grade class during morning co-op, 2 and 3. extended co-op at the library--this year including Number Four, four-time GeoBee Stater, coaching Number Six and friends, and 4. Number Five and friends looking Shakespearean at FunFriday afternoons at Mrs. J's neighborhood!

The Holy Father in the UK

Following it in the BBC here.

St. Giuseppe Moscati

Husband and kids watched this and gave it 5 stars! Husband's critical eye is... overatcive often, so five stars on Netflix is a huge compliment!

Here is the official page from the publisher.

Eucharistic Adoration

Our good parish priest has started Eucharistic Adoration every Wednesday.

It has been a gift to be there, keeping company to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. He comes into the heart, bringing clarity, consolation and strength.

Thank you, dearest Lord, for Your love for me. Help me always to be with You.

Our homeschool materials for the year

Many readers ask that I mention my homeschool materials more often but truly it takes me all summer--and some of September--to finalize our choices. One of the reasons is that I wait to see what academic groups the kids have together with other kids, or at co-op or Tutoring Center.

Here are some of our basic materials this year:

Elementary:

Faith and Life (perpetual mainstay)

Teaching Textbooks Math

Writing Tales

Lingua Mater

CHC English and Spelling (I love their materials!)

CHC Little Latin Readers/workbooks

CHC Art Appreciation

Mapping the World with Art

Catholic Textbook Project History (Yes, I am using my workbook in a class)

Seton Art 4 and 8

Seton Catholic Culture

Power Glide French

World Geography

Behold and See 5

High School:

IEW American Lit

Didache and Fr. Laux for religion

Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2

Saxon Advanced Math

Prentice Hall Chemistry

Poetry (Immortal Poems of the English Language)

Wordly Wise

Power Glide French

Homeschool Connections Philosophy and German 1

Flat Stanley

He came in an envelope to Number Seven--who colored him and had him photographed by our earthworms' habitat.

Piano recital

Her Russian teacher was delighted, and so were we. Sorry about the quality of the video. Number Five has also started playing for Mass. We are so proud and have so much to be thankful for!

Conception Cathedral in Hong Kong

Chatted with a very jetlagged Number One earlier this morning... who told me about the cathedral ten minutes from his apartment where he went to mass.

Culture

Husband and I attended a local concert of voice and orchestra performing Haydn's Mass in Time of War, and then went out with a couple of friends for a vegetarian Asian pizza and a couple of international beers at the local Monks. We sat outside, discussed the music and Husband spoke of his memories of attending a performance of this piece with his father long ago. The music, the drinks and the conversation were all pleasant and cultural. Why does culture bring such solace to the soul?

Number One in Hong Kong!

Follow his adventures here!

Corn and berries

We froze the last quart-size bag of corn last night. That awful last wind storm destroyed about half of our corn so we didn't freeze as much. The berries are finally slowly coming in. Every couple of days we pick, wash and freeze individually before adding to a large bag in the freezer. Will make jam soon!