Gidday, I'm Colin!

Not all Australian Christians love Colin Buchanan: "too irreverent": "too silly"; "full of twaddle"; "makes fun of God"; these are just some of the things I've heard people say about the larrikin songwriter/performer - but these people are in the minority. They must be.

Colin is Australia's #1 selling Christian artist. He is the #1 children's Christian artist, with seven top selling CD's and five DVD and video releases. He's an 8-times Golden Guitar winner. He's an APRA and ARIA award winner. He's a leading children's entertainer. The Sydney Morning Herald has declared him "...simply the best singer/songwriter to emerge in the Australian CM scene in the last decade." He has played with Lee Kernaghan, Troy Cassar-Daley, Melinda Schneider, Adam Brand and Beccy Cole.

Obviously most Australians must love Colin Buchanan (or just 'Colin', as he is known to thousands of Aussie kids.

We do.

Colin's album, BAA BAA DOO BAA BAA is the best CD I know for cementing memory verses in your kids' heads - or your own head, for that matter. It is a compilation CD, bringing together many favourite memory verses from Colin's popular Aussie Praise for kids releases, including Isaiah 53:6 (can you say it without the 'ooh' as the end?), Rev 3:20, James 4:7, the books of the Old and New Testaments and more.

Colin's live performances for kids are well worth making time for too. He toured in our area of Central Victoria earlier this year, visiting towns ravaged by drought. The sound of kids and adults singing "10, 9, 8... God Is Great!" and "Jesus Rocks the World!" off by heart - and at the top of their voices - has to be heard to be believed!

We started Colin's devotional, Remember the Lord, this morning. It's quirky, colourful, chaotic and fun...a bit like Colin, really! Colin describes his book as a cross between an activity book, a picture book and a songbook with a book of biblical devotions for families. That's a pretty good description too.

Colin is quite a gifted cartoonist amongst his numerous other talents, and he has put his pen to work to create a uniquely Colin collection based on truths from 14 of his songs. You will need to buy the Remember the Lord CD if you want to sing the songs with each day's devotion, and the words really add to the message.

Colin helps us discover more about God, His Word, His works and how we can place our trust in Jesus...no matter what! The book includes a CD of Colin reading sections of the devotional as well as singing five of his most popular songs.

The devotional is much more light weight that our usual fare, but we begin the long summer holidays in three more days and we were looking for something light and fun to fill the gap between serious school and Christmas devotions in a few weeks time. This looks like it will fit the bill perfectly!

An Indian Banquet

Part one
Part two

To complete our celebration of Kitchen Garden Week, Jemimah hosted a banquet.

This is the menu she prepared:

Predinner
Salted Cashews

Main Course
Indian Vegetable Curry from Goa

Served with:
Steamed Basmati Rice
Celery and Walnut Raita
Red Lentil Dahl
Green Coconut Chutney
Mango Chutney

After Dinner
Jemimah’s Dance Concert Chocolates
Tea or Coffee

A proud Jemimah with Daddy - you can see the green menu she designed for the occasion.

The chef cooking up a storm in the kitchen.

We had a great night. The recipes were all adapted from Stephanie Alexander's book, and were delicious!

From our kitchen garden:

Silverbeet
Broccoli
Mint
Coriander

Mum's bookclub choices for 2009

Lilian's Story
Kate Grenville

Cloudstreet
Tim Winton

Almost French
Sarah Turnbull

Balanda
Mary Ellen Jordan

Under the Tuscan Sun
Frances Mayes

The Glass Canoe
David Ireland

True History of the Kelly Gang
Peter Carey

Our daily schedule

There are two common questions on the AO boards. One concerns the placement of older children; the other is daily scheduling - what does your day look like.

We are quite a structured family, but a rigid schedule was never going to work for us. I have a full time (albeit flexible) job in addition to schooling Jemimah, and I knew that sometimes the demands of work were going to get in the way of any schedule I set up.

This is the weekly schedule I have worked with in AO1.

The days are labeled Monday-Friday for convenience. In reality, they could probably be labeled Day 1-Day 5, since it not often that we work on the correctly labeled day - things like public holidays get in the way. It doesn't really matter - we just work through the days until the week is finished.

There are 7 readings scheduled every week. If there are enough AO readings one week, then Jemimah is delighted to discover that there is time for a free reading choice during the day. I say delighted because she doesn't need to narrate free reads. She does narrate everything else.

Year 1 Weekly Schedule

The schedule allows a lot of flexibility while still ensuring that I don't forget anything. You will see that there is a time for composer study. In reality we listen to our composer every day during school, but once a week in this timeslot we listen to a Classics for Kids programme. During various weeks we read our children's book - this term we are reading The Nutcracker while we listen to the piece played with itunes on the computer and leave out the radio programme. I simply add in the reading after poetry each day reading one or two pages until the book is done.

Many people use checklists. I find that using our timetable we don't need to because by the end of the week everything is completed.


Year 1 Weekly Booklist

This shows our term three reading list. Only one book is listed as free reading because we had already completed the rest!

Each week we simply begin at the top and work down. We combine the two Aesops selections into one reading.

So that's it for us - easy!

Il y a un temps pour tout...

Some You Tube videos of dubious educational and moral value to enhance your study of French... Jemimah particularly enjoys the Meilpops ad - go figure!





Bebe Lilli - Les Betises

J'ai tout mangé le chocolat
J'ai tout bu le Cola Cola
Et comme t'étais toujours pas là, j'ai tout vidé le Nutella
J'ai tout démonté tes tableaux
J'ai tout découpé tes rideaux
Tout déchiré tes belles photos que tu cachais dans ton bureau

Fallait pas m'laisser tu vois
Il est beau le résultat
Je fais rien que des bêtises, des bêtises quand t'es pas là

J'ai tout démonté le bahut
J'ai tout bien étalé la glue
Comme t'étais toujours pas revenu, j'ai tout haché menu menu
J'ai tout brûlé le beau tapis
J'ai tout scié les pieds du lit
J'ai tout ruiné tes beaux habits, et fait pipi dans la penderie

Fallait pas m'laisser tu vois
Il est beau le résultat
Je fais rien que des bêtises, des bêtises quand t'es pas là
Fallait pas casser mon cœur
M' laisser sans baby-sitter
Je fais rien que des bêtises, des bêtises quand mes yeux pleurent

J'ai tout renversé les poubelles
J'ai tout pilé la belle vaisselle
Attends c'est pas tout à fait tout, J'ai mis de la peinture partout

Je fais rien que des bêtises, des bêtises quand t'es pas là
Je fais rien que des bêtises, des bêtises quand mes yeux pleurent

Fallait pas m'laisser tu vois
Il est beau le résultat
Je fais rien que des bêtises, des bêtises quand t'es pas là
Fallait pas casser mon cœur
M' laisser sans baby-sitter
Je fais rien que des bêtises, des bêtises quand mes yeux pleurent

Reformation Sunday

We were blessed to be able to attend the annual Reformation Rally at St George's Presbyterian Church last night, in celebration of Reformation Sunday. The service was organised by the Geelong Reformation Fellowship, and Rev Dr Allan Harman, retired Principal of the Presbyterian Theological College, was guest speaker.

Reformation Sunday is traditionally the Sunday closest to 31 October and takes its date from October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church in Germany, sparking the Protestant Reformation. Luther rejected the Roman Catholic teaching that sin could be absolved through papal indulgences, since he believed that grace was given by God alone.

Luther's reading of Paul's letter to the church in Rome changed his thinking profoundly:

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith. Romans 1:17

He realised that the righteousness of God was not a characteristic of a fearful God - something that made it impossible for man to live up to his demands - but rather, righteousness was an activity of a loving God. God is righteous when he declares that the unrighteous who have faith shall be righteous.

The world changing ideas of Luther and other Reformers - John Calvin, William Tyndale, Thomas Cranmer, along with men who came before him - John Wycliffe and John Hus to name two - resulted in the Protestant Church of today.

The Reformers had 5 main slogans, all using the word sola, the Latin word for alone. It was this word alone that defined the true biblical Gospel and set it apart from other pretenders. Urging a return to the Scriptures as the source of all truth, the cry of these Reformers was was:

Faith alone!
Grace alone!
Christ alone!
Scripture alone!
The Glory of God alone!

With Scripture alone as the sure foundation, the Reformers affirmed that justification is by grace alone, received through faith alone because of Christ alone — for the glory of God alone.

Dr Harman reminded us last night that we didn't come together to celebrate an historic event of no modern significance but one that defines who we are as Protestant Confessional Churches and that serves as a timely reminder for today.

The essential truths of the 16th Century Reformation are being blurred, ignored, denied or even forgotten in the pulpits of today's churches. This is not the time to dilute or adjust the Gospel message under the pressures of social conformity. To be a friend of the world is to be an enemy of God.

With the Reformers, let us "contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints." Jude 3

May each of you enjoy a Gospel centered, God exalting Reformation Sunday this year.

(I hope this doesn't offend anybody...it is a bit of fun!)

broccoli and rain

We have a broccoli glut.

Now we love 'trees' in our family, but its time to find some new recipes.

Tonight we're going to try this recipe posted at TeacherBritt's site, Joyous Blessings.

Broccoli with Garlic Butter and Cashews

Prep: 4 minutes Cook: 15 minutes

1 kg fresh broccoli cooked until crisp
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1 tab brown sugar
3 tabs soy sauce
2 teas white vinegar
1/4 teas pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup salted roasted cashews

Melt butter, add brown sugar and next 4 ingredients.
Bring to boil; remove from heat. Stir in cashews.
Pour sauce over broccoli, and serve immediately.

Yield: 6 servings, Kj 700, (cal 168) Fat 13.8g, Cholesterol
28mg, Sodium 688 mg

This looks yummy! Thanks, Britt!

While you're visiting Britt's site listen to the beautiful song by Nichole Nordeman called Gratitude. These are the lyrics:

Gratitude

Send some rain, would You send some rain?
Cause the earth is dry and needs to drink again
And the sun is high and we are sinking in the shade
Would You send a cloud, thunder long and loud?
Let the sky grow black and send some mercy down
Surely You can see that we are thirsty and afraid
But maybe not, not today
Maybe You'll provide in other ways
And if that's the case...

(Chorus)
We'll give thanks to You With gratitude
For lessons learned in how to thirst for You
How to bless the very sun that warms our face
If You never send us rain

Daily bread, give us daily bread
Bless our bodies, keep our children fed
Fill our cups, then fill them up again tonight
Wrap us up and warm us through
Tucked away beneath our sturdy roofs
Let us slumber safe from danger's view this time
Or maybe not, not today
Maybe You'll provide in other ways
And if that's the case...
(Chorus)

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
A lesson learned to hunger after You
That a starry sky offers a better view if no roof is overhead
And if we never taste
that bread

Oh, the differences that often are between
What we want and what we really need
So grant us peace, Jesus, grant us peace
Move our hearts to hear a single beat
Between alibis and enemies tonight
Or maybe not, not today
Peace might be another world away
And if that's the case...
(Chorus)

We'll give thanks to You
With gratitude
For lessons learned in how to trust in You
That we are blessed beyond what we could ever dream
In abundance or in need
And if You never grant us peace

But Jesus, would You please...

We live in one of Australia’s main broad acre cropping and grazing zones - the Wimmera Southern Mallee Region in north-western Victoria. This area is currently experiencing the worst drought since records began. Twelve years on, the situation looks worse - not better.

The hopelessness that some farmers feel, and their complete inability to govern (or even predict) the weather, has led to some of them suffering from significant depression – it is only likely to get worse with time.

• Pray for the rain that the farmers so desperately need.
• Pray for wisdom for rural support workers: clergy, doctors, mental health counsellors, family and friends to counsel depressed farmers and prevent the increase in suicide. It is estimated that one Australian rural farmer commits suicide every four days…
• Pray that farming families will be able to withstand the stress that ongoing financial crisis brings, especially teens and adolescents, who are less able to cope with this stress.
• Pray for God’s Spirit to move the hearts of Australians wherever we are, in cities, towns, communities, and churches, that we may discern God’s will in all this and act on it.
  Pray that Christian farmers will retain their trust in God and know that He is good and He is in control.
• Pray that they will be able to encourage those around them and bring hope where everything seems hopeless.
• Pray that God might enable Christian farmers to demonstrate their love for God in tangible ways – theirs is Christian Witness at great cost. “Though he slays me, yet will I hope in him.” Job 13:15

Attack of the killer spider mites

To coin a hackneyed phrase from the Australian vernacular, I'm Not happy, Jan!

My ballerina roses have spider mite. We sprayed them with lime sulphur yesterday (so now the garden smells of rotten eggs, not roses). I'll let you know how we go.

Literature for Little Australians

Image from the book Dot and the Kangaroo 1899

If you imagine you are going to read of model children, with perhaps; a naughtily inclined one to point a moral, you had better lay down the book immediately and betake yourself to 'Sandford and Merton'or similar standard juvenile works. Not one of the seven is really good, for the very excellent reason that Australian children never are.

In England, and America, and Africa, and Asia, the little folks maybe paragons of virtue, I know little about them.

But in Australia a model child is - I say it not without thankfulness - an unknown quantity.

It may be that the miasmas of naughtiness develop best in the sunny brilliancy, of our atmosphere. It may be that the land and the people are young-hearted together, and the children's spirits not crushed and saddened by the shadow of long years' sorrowful history.

There is a lurking sparkle of joyousness and rebellion and mischief in nature here, and therefore in children.

Often the light grows dull and the bright colouring fades to neutral tints in the dust and heat of the day. But when it survives play-days and school-days, circumstances alone determine whether the electric sparkle shall go to play will-o'-the-wisp with the larrikin type, or warm the breasts of the spirited, single-hearted, loyal ones who alone can "advance Australia."

Ethel Turner, Seven Little Australians,1894

As long ago as 1894 Ethel Turner knew that Australian children were different - different because the land they live in is different. Yet more than 100 years later, the only Australian book in the October 2008 Nielsen BookScan is Andy Griffith's Pencil of Doom!. American authors, Christopher Paoline and Stephenie Meyer, make up eight of the top ten.

What does that say about Australia's national identity in the minds of our kids? Late last week the media announced that school children will study more Australian Classic books in the new Australian National Curriculum. A good start, maybe, but I've yet to see any reference to Australian children's books.

Children's literature plays a significant role in our identity. The books we read and the friends we have met in them, become part of our family's collective imagination. We play pooh sticks at the local bridge, but Winnie the Pooh was English; we find things "curiouser and curiouser", but Alice was English. The Wizard, Dorothy, the Winged Monkeys and the Quadlings are part of our everyday play - and yet Kansas is in America. Not that there is anything wrong with these books. These English and American classics are truly world classics, and during our years of Ambleside Online we'll study a great many of them, but what of Australian classics?

It's even hard to find a list of what these Australian Children's Classics are. What are the books that define who we are as Australians - and what do they teach?

Charlotte Barton is the author of the first Australian children's book ever produced - A Mother's Offering to Her Children. The book takes the form of conversations between four children, Clara, Emma, Julius and Lucy, and their mother, on a large variety of subjects - Australian birds and animals, the customs of the Aborigines and other interesting and unusual topics.

Charlotte used her book as a means of teaching and guiding all of her children, and we too can learn the most extraordinary things about Australian feelings and opinions back in 1841 by reading this book:

Clara - Were they cannibals, Mamma?
Mrs. S - Yes, my dear. They ate the eyes and cheeks of the shipwrecked people. Thisthey do with the idea that it increases their desire for the blood of the white people. Clara - What dreadful sanguinary creatures. It makes one shudder even to hear of it!

Ethel Pedley's opinions of the Aborigines is far removed from Charlotte Barton's - in Dot and the Kangaroo published 60 years later in 1899, the kangaroo anthropomorphically says this:

"The Black Humans kill and devour us; but they, even, are not so terrible as the Whites, who delight in taking our lives, and torturing us just as an amusement. Every creature in the bush weeps that they should have come to take the beautiful bush away from us."

"If ever get home, I'll tell everyone of how you unhappy creatures live in fear, and suffer, and ask them not to kill you poor things any more," Dot vows in reply.

Ethel Pedley also displays a interest in environmentalism - well before today's Green Movement. The book's dedication reads:

To the
CHILDREN OF AUSTRALIA
in the hope of enlisting their sympathies
for the many
beautiful, amiable, and frolicsome creatures
of their fair land,
whose extinction, through ruthless destruction,
is surely being accomplished.

May Gibb's Snugglepot and Cuddlepie published in 1918 also begins with a strong environmental message:

Humans, please be kind to all Bush Creatures and don't pull flowers up by the roots.

And in Scotty in Gumnut Land 1941:

To all Children who love and try to understand animals and Birds, and small Creatures. (May they learn to see the unfairness, and unloveliness, of caged wings.)

The images in Australian children's books may be stereotypes - but they define who we are as Australians, of our history, and how we got were we are today. Let us not remain part of Britain nor become part of America. We are Australian let us be proud of that and celebrate.

I am / We are Australian

We are one but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice
I am
You are
We are Australian

I came from the dream time
From the dusty red soil plains
I am the ancient heart
The keeper of the flame
I stood upon the rocky shore
I watched the tall ships come
For forty thousand years I'd been
The first Australian

I came upon the prison ship
Bowed down by iron chains
I cleared the land, endured the lash
And waited for the rains
I'm a settler, I'm a farmer's wife
In a dry and barren run
A convict then free man
I became Australian

I'm the daughter of a digger
Who sought the mother lode
The girl became a woman
On a long and dusty road
I'm a child of the depression
I saw the good times come
I'm a bushy
I'm a battler
I am Australian

I'm a teller of stories
I'm a singer of songs
I am Albert Namatjira
And I paint the ghostly gums
I'm Clancy on his horse
I'm Ned Kelly on the run
I'm the one who waltzed Matilda
I am Australian

I'm the hot wind from the desert
I'm the black soil of the plains
I'm the mountains and the valleys
I'm the drought and flooding rains
I am the rock, I am the sky
The rivers when they run
The spirit of the great land
I am Australian

1987 Bruce Woodley and Dobe Newton

Turning letters into words

Word-making The first exercises in the making of words will be just as pleasant to the child (as learning the alphabet was). Exercises treated as a game, which yet teach the powers of the letters, will be better to begin with than actual sentences. Take up two of his letters and make the syllable 'at': tell him it is the word we use when we say 'at home,' 'at school.' Then put b to 'at' - bat; c to 'at' - cat; fat, hat, mat, sat, rat, and so on. First, let the child say what the word becomes with each initial consonant to 'at,' in order to make hat, pat, cat. Let the syllables all be actual words which he knows. Set the words in a row,and let him read them off. Do this with the short vowel sounds in combination with each of the consonants, and the child will learn to read off dozens of words of three letters, and will master the short-vowel sounds with initial and final consonants without effort. Before long he will do the lesson for himself. 'How many words can you make with "en" and another letter, with "od" and another letter?' etc. Do not hurry him.

Word-making with Long Vowels, etc. When this sort of exercise becomes so easy that it is no longer interesting, let the long sounds of the vowels be learnt in the same way: use the same syllables as before with a final e; thus 'at' becomes 'ate,'and we get late, pate, rate, etc. The child may be told that a in 'rate' is long a; a in 'rat' is short a. He will make the new sets of words with much facility, helped by the experience he gained in the former lessons.

Then the same sort of thing with final 'ng' - 'ing,' 'ang,' 'ong,' 'ung'; as in ring, fang, long, sung: initial 'th,' as then, that: final 'th,' as with, pith, hath, lath, and so on, through endless combinations which will suggest themselves. This is not reading, but it is preparing the ground for reading; words will be no longer unfamiliar, perplexing objects, when the child meets with them in a line of print. Require him to pronounce
the words he makes with such finish and distinctness that he can himself hear and count the sounds in given way.

Early Spelling Accustom him from the first to shut his eyes and spell the word he has made. This is important. Reading is not spelling, nor is it necessary to spell in order to read well; but the good speller is the child whose eye is quick enough to take in the letters which compose it, in the act of reading off a word, and this is a habit to be acquired from the first: accustom him to see the letters in the word, and he will do without effort.

If words were always made on a given pattern in English, if the same letter always represented the same sounds, learning to read would be an easymatter; for the child would soon acquire the few elements of which all words would, in that
case, be composed. But many of our English words are, each, a law unto itself: there is nothing for it, but the child must learn to know them at sight; he must recognise 'which,' precisely as he recognises 'B,' because he has seen it before, been made to look at it with interest, so that the pattern of the word is stamped upon his retentive brain. This process should go on side by side with the other––the learning of the powers of the letters; for the more variety you can throw into his reading lessons, the more will the child enjoy them. Lessons in word-making help him to take intelligent interest in words; but his progress in the art of reading depends chiefly on the
'reading at sight' lessons.

Charlotte Mason in Home Education p 202-203

Miss Mason teaches that after the alphabet and before reading comes word building. Learning to read is very exciting for most children - if they are taught when they are ready and not when mum thinks they should be.

To implement the first word building lessons, we used the excellent Alphabetics game made by the Fitzroy readers team. This seemed to make the process into a game, which is exactly what Miss Mason recommended.

Alphabetics is a fun, Scrabble-like word forming game of cards. Each card has either a single consonant or vowel or a digraphs (e.g. sh, ch and tion). There are lots of each letter, and we would play a game where Jemimah held the 'at' cards, for example and received points for each correct word she could make. This initial lesson is quite easy, and before long she could read bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, sat, and vat with ease.

I laid out the cards to read "the fat cat sat on the mat", telling her 'the' as a sight word before we began. She could read!!

In the next lesson we made these little words into a book: The cat. The fat cat. The mat. The cat on the mat. The cat sat on the mat. The cat sat on the vat. The cat sat on the hat. The hat sat on the cat. (very funny for some reason!). Importantly, the sentences always made sense. Jemimah illustrated the book and then read it to Daddy on his return from work. Jemimah had read her first book and she read it to everyone!

In lesson three we used the cards to learn 'en' words - Ben, den, hen, Jen, Ken, Len, men, pen, and ten. We learned 'this' and 'with' as sight words and reviewed 'the' again. Our book this time read: This is Ben.; This is Jen. Ben is in the den. Jen is in the den with Ben. Ben has a pen. Ben has a pen in the den. Ben has a pen in the den with Jen and the men. (or something like that!)

Lesson five, again using the Alphabetics cards, taught that:

A final 'e' makes the 'a' say its name.

We made all the 'at' words again and turned at to ate, hat to hate, rat to rate, sat to sate, and pat to pate.

A final lesson of this rule using other letter combinations and we stopped 'learning to read' and started 'to read'. No more reading lessons and we moved on to John and Betty. Why John and Betty? Because I am a child of the '60's, that's why, and I had this reader on my bookshelves. More importantly, the walls of Jemimah's bedroom are lined with framed flashcards of this book and she was familiar with the characters.

This was really the only reader we used. Jemimah (and her mum) found them inane, and we were both keen to move on to living books as soon as possible. For these we used these readily available I Can Read books:

Chester
Little Bear
A Kiss for Little Bear
Little Bear's Friend
Dinosaur Time
Harry and the Lady Next Door
Stuart at the Fun House
Stuart at the Library
The Fire Cat
and Jemimah's absolute favourite - a book of jokes:
What Do You Hear When Cows Sing?

The Amelia Bedelia series came next - highly popular in our home, as was the Frog and Toad series.

In a Dark Room and other scary stories
Kung Fu Panda: Meet the Masters
Kung Fu Panda: Po's Crash Course
Mouse Soup

Once she had read these 20 books, Jemimah could read most simple books. She's now reading Audrey Goes to Town, Sarah, Plain and Tall, and My Naughty Little Sister. She's doing really well - and it was almost painless!

Japanese aesthetics 101

It is entirely appropriate, I am sure, to begin my first foray into explaining our love of Japanese aesthetics with a children's book on philosophy.

Our home is decorated using a wabi sabi style of interior decoration. Wabi and sabi are Japanese words describing a simple organic decorating style that emanates tranquility (take a look at a room we stayed in on our last trip to Japan and you may get an idea of what I mean.)

You can see that I'm struggling here, so imagine how Wabi Sabi the cat feels one day as she overhears his mistress discussing his name with a couple of overseas visitors. When asked what wabi sabi means, the young woman replies, “That’s hard to explain.” Curious, Wabi Sabi sets out to find the true meaning of her name. Each creature she asks tells her how difficult the concept of wabi sabi is to explain, and each ends their thoughts with a little haiku poem describing wabi sabi.

It isn’t until the cat meets a wise monkey who makes her tea in a plain and beautiful bowl that the phrase begins to take on a real meaning.

A warm heavy bowl
comfortable as an old friend -
not fine, smooth china.

Wabi sabi is the feeling you get when you find harmony in the imperfect. Wabi sabi is simple, rustic, earthy, sophisticated, organic, elegant, textured and beautiful. It is peaceful, tranquil, calm.

By the end of the book Wabi Sabi truly understands her name. Perhaps by reading the book you will too.

Jemimah loved this book, but then again wabi sabi has always been part of her life and reality. As I read the book, I wondered somewhat about its intended audience. The idea of a cat searching for the true meaning of its name is something that young kids will grasp easily, but the added haiku in the text, seems to imply that the book is aimed at older children.

If you were studying haiku with your child then this book would make a natural literature link, teaching a little about Japan at the same time as learning about Japanese poetry. Normally when a child learns about haiku they are handed an anthology of poems that are separate from one another. What Wabi Sabi does is to place haiku poems within the context of a story, much the same way as many of the great haiku writers did, where short prose passages set up each haiku. Matsuo Basho, perhaps the greatest haiku writer, recorded many of his wanderings around Japan in this way, known as the haibun style.

My favourite of Basho's haiku, written in 1686 is this:

furuike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto

old pond
a frog jumps
the sound of water

The haiku calms the reader - you find yourself reading with a quieter voice - and as a result, you gain some of the influences of wabi sabi just by reading about it. Maybe it will calm your children too! Finally, my very favourite haiku written by Kobeyashi Issa:

A moonlit evening
Here beside the pool, stripped to the waist
A snail enjoys the cool

You can hear the former US Poet Laureate Robert Hass reading a translation of Issa's haiku here. (Please listen before playing this to your kids!) Now, nobody could call that poetry boring!!

The alphabet with Curious George

The Alphabet

As for his letters, the child usually teaches himself. He has his box of ivory letters and picks out p for pudding, b for blackbird, h for horse, big and little, and knows them both. But the learning of the alphabet should be made a means of cultivating the child's observation: he should be made to see what he looks at. Make big B in the air, and let him name it; then let him make round O, and crooked S, and T for Tommy, and you name the letters as the little finger forms them with unsteady strokes in the air. To make the small letters thus from memory is a work of more art, and requires more careful observation on the child's part. A tray of sand is useful at this stage. The child draws his finger boldly through the sand, and then puts a back to his D; and behold, his first essay in making a straight line and a curve. But the devices for making the learning of the 'A B C' interesting are endless. There is no occasion to hurry the child: let him learn one form at a time, and know it so well that he can pick out the d's, say, big and little, in a page of large print. Let him say d for duck, dog, doll, thus: d-uck, d-og, prolonging the sound of the initial consonant, and at last sounding d alone, not dee, but d', the mere sound of the consonant separated as far as possible from the following vowel.

Let the child alone, and he will learn the alphabet for himself: but few mothers can resist the pleasure of teaching it; and there is no reason why they should, for this kind of learning is no more than play to the child, and if the alphabet be taught to the little student, his appreciation of both form and sound will be cultivated. When should he begin? Whenever his box of letters begins to interest him. The baby of two will often be able to name half a dozen letters; and there is nothing against it so long as the finding and naming of letters is a game to him. But he must not be urged, required to show off, teased to find letters when his heart is set on other play.

Charlotte Mason Home Education p201

Miss Mason is right, of course, a child will learn the alphabet with no help from us. She's also right when she says that we'll probably want to teach it anyway... I know I did.

The elephants are glad that our letters were wood - not ivory - but we learned the alphabet using Miss Mason's method and it worked very well. Drawing letters in the sand was great fun - but not as much fun as drawing them in a tray of shaving foam! Give it a go.

There was just one other resource that we used and that I want to recommend -

Curious George Learns the Alphabet, one of the classic H A Rey books.

In the book each letter is given a shape. An 'f' looks like a drooping flower, for example; an 'e' becomes an ear. I find that to this day, if Jemimah has trouble with a letter - b or d, for example, she will looks at it and say b-bluebird or d-dromedary, and I know that she is picturing the shape from the Curious George book. I'm not very clever with 'learning types'. Perhaps this means she's a visual learner, but the book was very useful when Jemimah was learning her alphabet - perhaps it will be for you as well.

The Curious George books have been popular with both kids and adults since H A Rey carried the manuscript for the first Curious George books on his bicycle when he escaped from Paris in 1940 . However, with the success of the 2006 Curious George movie, there are now lots of fun Curious George things to do online as well.

A couple of good fun sites are the Houghton Mifflin Books’ Curious George site and PBS Kids Curious George. Both feature games, printables, activity suggestions and teacher/parent guides. The Houghton Mifflin site has a fascinating link to a virtual tour of the Curious George Hattiesburg Exhibit courtesy of the de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection whose own site is also fascinating.

Jemimah's favourite was the Let's Draw Curious George instructions on the Houghton Mifflin site. She's actually 'not-half bad'!

It's a wonderful world!

The Erskine family at Homeschool Freebie of the Day linked this the other day. I've seen it before, but Jemimah hadn't and she was fascinated!

Have you heard of the Erskine's wonderful site? Every weekday they post a free homeschooling resource to their site: unit studies; Ebooks; audio programmes; games; samples; lesson plans; classic books and other quality resources! They're all free - but only on the day they're posted. You've gotta check back often!

Today's resource is this: Hand Shadows to Throw Upon the Wall - a great 19th century children's book that shows how to create fun animal shadows only using your hands. We'll have a lot of fun with this one!

Why this curriculum?

It is my intention to use this blog to explore the nature of a Charlotte Mason Christian Liberal Education. But before I focus my attention on this particular branch of Christian education I thought it would be beneficial to identify the nature of Christian education in general. Once we have delineated our expectations of any Christian education, we can more easily present and discuss a Charlotte Mason curriculum in the context of these ideas.

So now, with these lofty ideals I am going to quote another. I didn't write this aim, but I do agree with it.

The aim of Christian education...will be to educate the student to live the Christian life. We shall not attempt to cultivate the religious in the student apart from the the cultural, not the cultural apart from the religious. We shall not even attempt to cultivate the religious and the cultural side by side. The religious in and through the cultural - that is our aim. For only in and through one's cultural endeavors does the full potential of one's choice for Christ come to fruition. Whether it be by recreation, or commerce, or politics, or art - all of these are to be brought within the scope of faith. And so, in the school, we shall have to pursue the implications of the biblical revelation for recreation, for commerce, for politics, for art, for every area of human life. The development of Christian culture will be our ultimate aim. Not faith added to understanding. Not just faith seeking understanding. Rather, faith seeking cultural expression.

Christian Liberal Arts Education (Report of the Calvin College Curriculum Study Committee 1970) p33

That is what we are attempting to do in our education of our daughter, to educate her to live a Christian life, seeking to glorify God in everything she does - not only when we study Bible, sing Psalms or pray, but as she studies French, does maths or copywork or reads history. We are educating her to become a fine Christian wife and mother, or a fine Christian rocket scientist or nurse. We are educating her to live a life of faith where the pattern of her choices and decisions is determined by her faith in God as written in the Scripture. That's why we do what we do.

The New England Primer

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep;
If I should die before I wake,
I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take.

Most people know this sweet (trite!) little prayer. Fewer of us know where is came from - The New England Primer of 1784.

This book, often known as America's schoolbook, was first published around 1690 by the English printer Benjamin Harris, who had come to Boston in Massachusetts in 1686 to escape the Catholic James II.

The New-England Primer was the first reading primer designed for the American Colonies and it became the most successful educational textbook published in colonial history. It was commonly said that the primer taught millions to read and not one to sin.

As well as selections for beginning reading instruction, the book contained religious sayings, catechisms, and moral lessons. Some versions contained the Westminster Shorter Catechism; others contained a catechism, known as Milk for Babes.

Its rather a shame that it is only the prayer printed above that is widely known today - there are some wonderful contents in this little book!

We use this short catechism as part of Family Worship sometimes:

Who was the first man? Adam.
Who was the first woman? Eve.
Who was the first Murderer? Cain.
Who was the first Martyr? Abel.
Who was the first Translated? Enoch.
Who was the oldest Man? Methuselah.
Who built the Ark? Noah.
Who was the Patientest Man? Job.
Who was the Meekest Man? Moses.
Who led Israel into Canaan? Joshua.
Who was the strongest Man? Sampson.
Who killed Goliath? David.
Who was the wisest Man? Soloman.
Who was in the Whale's Belly? Jonah.
Who saves lost Men? Jesus Christ.
Who is Jesus Christ? The Son of God
Who was the Mother of Christ? Mary.
Who betrayed his Master? Judas.
Who denied his Master? Peter.
Who was the first Christian Martyr? Stephen.
Who was chief Apostle of the Gentiles? Saul.

Some of the verses are fun for copywork:

Good children must,
Fear God all day, Love Christ alway,
Parents obey, In secret pray,
No false thing say, Mind little play,
By no sin stray, Make no delay,
In doing good.

The Golden Rule in verse would be good too:

BE you to others kind and true,
As you'd have others be to you:
And neither do nor say to men,
Whate'er you would not take again.

The primer remained in print well into the 19th century and was even used in the 20th. It is easy to see why. Take a look at the 1777 version of the primer online, and see if you find anything of value for your family!

Banjo Paterson for Children

Young Australian kids are fortunate if they are introduced to their first poetry after Mother Goose through Bango Paterson. There's just something about Mulga Bill, for example that catches their fancy.

Mulga Bill's Bicycle
A.B. "Banjo" Paterson 1896

'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze;
He turned away the good old horse that served him many days;
He dressed himself in cycling clothes, resplendent to be seen;
He hurried off to town and bought a shining new machine;
And as he wheeled it through the door, with air of lordly pride,
The grinning shop assistant said, "Excuse me, can you ride?"

"See here, young man," said Mulga Bill, "from Walgett to the sea,
From Conroy's Gap to Castlereagh, there's none can ride like me.
I'm good all round at everything as everybody knows,
Although I'm not the one to talk - I hate a man that blows.
But riding is my special gift, my chiefest, sole delight;
Just ask a wild duck can it swim, a wildcat can it fight.
There's nothing clothed in hair or hide, or built of flesh or steel,
There's nothing walks or jumps, or runs, on axle, hoof, or wheel,
But what I'll sit, while hide will hold and girths and straps are tight:
I'll ride this here two-wheeled concern right straight away at sight."

'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that sought his own abode,
That perched above Dead Man's Creek, beside the mountain road.
He turned the cycle down the hill and mounted for the fray,
But 'ere he'd gone a dozen yards it bolted clean away.
It left the track, and through the trees, just like a silver steak,
It whistled down the awful slope towards the Dead Man's Creek.

It shaved a stump by half an inch, it dodged a big white-box:
The very wallaroos in fright went scrambling up the rocks,
The wombats hiding in their caves dug deeper underground,
As Mulga Bill, as white as chalk, sat tight to every bound.
It struck a stone and gave a spring that cleared a fallen tree,
It raced beside a precipice as close as close could be;
And then as Mulga Bill let out one last despairing shriek
It made a leap of twenty feet into the Dead Man's Creek.

'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that slowly swam ashore:
He said, "I've had some narrer shaves and lively rides before;
I've rode a wild bull round a yard to win a five-pound bet,
But this was the most awful ride that I've encountered yet.
I'll give that two-wheeled outlaw best; it's shaken all my nerve
To feel it whistle through the air and plunge and buck and swerve.
It's safe at rest in Dead Man's Creek, we'll leave it lying still;
A horse's back is good enough henceforth for Mulga Bill."

There is something about A B Paterson's work that appeals to children of any generation. His work also provides city kids with some of the lovely experiences that crowded city streets deny them. They can imagine the wild bush horses, the cattle, the wide open spaces, even if they rarely, if ever, happen to experience them for themselves.

I posted here about reading The Animals Noah Forgot in AO2, but we mustn't wait this long to introduce our children to this poet. The wealth of picture books available illustrating A B Paterson's work makes him one of the most accessible poets of all to the youngest of children, and we read them in AO0, ages 4-5 years.

Here our list of in print or readily available picture books of single A B Paterson poems:

Mulga Bill's Bicycle online here
Clancy of the Overflow online here
A Bush Christening online here
Waltzing Matilda online here
The Geebung Polo Club online here
The Man from Snowy River online here

One more thing - read poems aloud. Even after your kids can read, poetry should be said - or read - aloud. Encourage your children to join in until, without even realising it, they have memorised it effortlessly. What a store of poetry they can build up this way!

The Irish poet, William Butler Yeats agrees. In 1907 he wrote,

I have just heard a poem spoken with so delicate a sense of rhythm, with so perfect a respect for its meaning, that if I were a wise man and could pursuade a few people to learn the art I would never again open a book of verse.

Poetry is written to be spoken. This way its cadence and music can be heard and appreciated. The children don't know about metre and rhyme. They do hear the rhythm though. Poetry can be a chore or it can be one of life's real joys. I still read poetry (aloud) for the sheer enjoyment. It is my hope that Jemimah will too.

Better than Macca's!

Part one



I told you we had some exciting activities planned for kitchen garden week, didn't I?

On Thursday, our family drove to the nearby town of Donald to see the real official Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden at Donald Primary School.



Twenty-seven Victorian primary schools are currently delivering the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program to their students. Twenty-four of these schools are the recipients of part-funding from the Victorian Government through the 'Go for your life' health strategy. One of those is Donald.

Imagine - there are only 27 in the state and there is one half-an-hour away from us!

We were really excited to see the programme in action - and to examine where we could do better in our homeschool version.

The amount of space the school had for their garden obviously allows for a larger number of plant varieties than we can fit in - but then again, there are 150 kids...their kitchen is bigger...but ours is better equipped...they have a bigger library - ours has less twaddle...their garden is home to Darcy, the scarecrow, ours is not (to Jemimah's chagrin).

I think that physically our garden measures up pretty well - except for Darcy and we can do something about that, I'm sure!

It was great hearing all of the positive stories. All of the kids are willing to taste the produce. Some dishes have been absolute hits! One yound child even admitted that the vegetable-based dish he was trying was, "Better than Macca's!" High praise indeed.

The programme has cross curricular benefits too - maths to work out the recipes, English to write them up, science skills and more have been used in these classes. The kids have learned how to hold a knife and fork; how to set a table and importantly, how to share. It is sad that these skills are not being taught in the students' homes, but they are really important skills to know, and the programme has helped with things that parents have forgotten.

We were really inspired by our visit to Donald - not only with what the official version of the programme is achieving in their school, but also what our unofficial version is doing in ours.

Our little ballerina

For physical training nothing is so good as Ling's Swedish Drill , and a few of the early exercises are the reach of children under nine. Dancing, and the various musical drills, lend themselves to grace of movement, and give more pleasure, if less scientific training, to the little people. Charlotte Mason, Home Education p315

One of Jemimah's most greatly anticipated activities is her weekly jazz and tap class with a small dance school in our local town.

As Miss Mason says above, her dance class give great pleasure - if little scientific training - to its little charge. The teacher is an excellent disciplinarian and the girls love being with her - and with each other.

Friday night was the End-of-Year concert...yes really...already...in October.

Regardless of whether it really is the end of the year, it was a wonderful night, and she looked beautiful. Proud parents and grandparents were in attendence, and we all had a ball. She even suffered through a night of rags in her hair to create ring curls. That takes great determination (as I remember from my own childhood - as does my mother from hers!)

Here are some photos of her in full stage makeup.

Appreciating classical music

In Charlotte Mason's sixth book, A Philosophy of Education, she discusses the study of Music Appreciation by quoting another - Mrs Howard Glover, who spoke at the Ambleside Conference of the Parents' Union in 1922.

Musical Appreciation - which is so much before the eye at the present moment - originated in the PNEU. about twenty-five years ago. At that time I was playing to my little child much of the best music in which I was interested, and Miss Mason happened to hear of what I was doing. She realised that music might give great joy and interest to the life of all, and she felt that just as children in the PUS were given the greatest literature and art, so they should have the greatest music as well. She asked me to write an article in the Review on the result of my observations, and to make a programme of music each term which might be played to the children. From that day to this, at the beginning of every term a programme has appeared; thus began a movement which was to spread far and wide.

Musical Appreciation, of course, has nothing to do with playing the piano. It used to be thought that 'learning music' must mean this, and it was supposed that children who had no talent for playing were unmusical and would not like concerts. But Musical Appreciation had no more to do with playing an instrument than acting had to do with an appreciation of Shakespeare, or painting with enjoyment of pictures. I think that all children should take Musical Appreciation and not only the musical ones, for it has been proved that only three per cent of children are what is called 'tone-deaf'; and if they are taken at an early age it is astonishing how children who appear to be without ear, develop it and are able to enjoy listening to music with
understanding.

A Philosophy of Education pp217-218

Ambleside Online's excellent composer selections are made by people who know classical music well. Their selections are not limited to the most well known pieces - although they are often represented, and aim to give a broad sampling of the composer's life's work allowing us to hear pieces from the beginning, middle, and end of a composer's creative lifespan. I would find it difficult to achieve the range of music they've selected for my favourite composers - for the others I would have no hope at all! We highly recommend the AO Composer selections.

The Advisory provides a term calendar for Artists, Composers, Plutarch, Shakespeare, Folksongs and Hymns. Using the schedule for these subjects is voluntary, but greatly enriches the studies as it enables list members of the yahoo group to share resources and experiences with other mums on the list. In later years, I plan to follow the term calendar quite closely.

In AO1 and AO2, however, we chose to largely make use of the AO Composer selections, but to select a group of composers based on their attractiveness to young children. Many people like Richard Wagner but equally as many hate him - no composer has polarised opinion quite so violently as this man. He was also one of the most unpleasant. He was a spectacular conductor and composer - and we will study his work, but later when Jemimah has a good foundation in fine, pleasant classical music.

In the early years we select our composers based on a couple of excellent tools. The first is the Classical Kids CD's. The originator and producer of the series, Susan Hammond, does a great job in introducing children to classical music.

Her website says this:

A dramatic story, a little bit of history and the world's best-loved classical music set the scene for fun-filled musical adventures the whole family will enjoy. It's a symphony of stories for all ages, presenting the great composers - Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi and Handel - as heroes for today's children.

The stories connect with kids; the music touches their hearts and becomes a part of their lives.

The CD's give a gentle introduction to the composer and his music. We play them in the car, over and over during the whole 12 week study. By the end we all know a great deal more about the composer with no effort at all.

AO generally offers six selections per term. Some families concentrate on one per fortnight. We simply upload all the selections to itunes and play them from the computer as back ground music during our school day - and often during the evenings as well. When we recognise a piece from the CD we listen to it more carefully. I might mention the name of a particular piece, or we might talk a little about what type of music it is, or why it was written.

We study each composer for the entire twelve week term.

There's another resource that influences our music selection during the early years - good children's books. If you click on the musician's name below, you can see what book we use for each:

In AO1 our composers are:

1. Mozart


2. Beethoven


3. Tchaikovsky

In AO2:

1. J S Bach


2. Vivaldi


3. Handel

In AO3: In line with our Reformation focus, we will study Mediaeval music throughout this year, along with term focuses on possibly the following:

1. Hayden


2. Gershwin


3. Mussorgsky

I hope you will love classical music in your home as much as we do in ours. Classical music is truly one of the "whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, things, isn't it? Above all, it is there for us to listen to and enjoy!!

Sit back, relax, enjoy, have fun!

Learning our faith

We live a long way from our home church - three hours away. During the weeks we are not able to get to our RPCA church we attend a local independent church, which is part of the Baptist Union of Australia.

This means that Jemimah has a pretty good idea that all Christians do not worship in the same way.

Now, when Jemimah was baptised, we as her parents made the following promises before God:

Do you acknowledge your child as a covenant child and, according to the gracious design of Christian baptism, do you dedicate your child to God and present her for recognition as a member of the visible church?

Do you promise to perform the following parental duties:

To pray that your child may be renewed and brought into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as signified in this sacrament;

To seek that your child may come to know the Holy Scriptures and to know the duty of committing herself to God;

To rule well your household, exercising parental authority with firmness and love, setting the example of a holy and consistent life, and attending with regularity to personal, family and public worship;

To seek that your child may while young come to understand the history, doctrine and practice of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and may be helped to experience the blessings of loving obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.

You can see that we promised not only that Jemimah might know the Holy Scriptures, but also that she might be raised as a Reformed Presbyterian, understanding Church history, doctrine and practice. How we live is based upon what we believe.

That is why we were delighted to discover Big Truths for Little Kids: Teaching Your Children to Live for God by Susan and Richie Hunt.

Susan Hunt along with her son, Richie, aim to help parents systematically teach their kids the basic truths of faith so that they live for the Lord.

Their purpose is:

• To teach children that they are created for God's glory.
  
• To show some practical implications of this life purpose.
  
• To repeatedly emphasise to children their need for God's grace to glorify Him.

They do this by working through the questions and answers of the First Catechism. This excellent updated version of the children's catechism was originally created in 1840 by Joseph P. Engles as a way to introduce younger children to the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

Each lesson begins with the simple questions and answers and is followed by a story of two siblings, Caleb and Cassie, which illustrates how that truth can be applied.

The important thing is, these kids are like Jemimah. They have Family Worship - like we do. They believe there are two sacraments, - like we do. They celebrate the Lord's Supper the same way we do. They believe in infant baptism, explaining that baptism is a sign and seal of God's covenant to be our God and the God of our children - like we do. They keep the Sabbath holy - like we do. The book teaches a Christian Worldview that is really close to the Reformed Presbyterian Worldview that we promised to impart to our daughter while still young. This book helps us to achieve that goal.

We memorise the Westminster Shorter Catechism in our home, so I didn't expect Jemimah to learn the answers to these questions as well, but children have prodigious memories, and it is amazing the number of answers she has retained just from one or two readings. Most importantly she has learned the application of the doctrine - she is learning how to apply it to her own life.

We loved this book.

Another maths hurdle

A proud Jemimah started a new maths book today, moving up to Book 2B in her MEP maths curriculum.

MEP is a free maths curriculum designed for use in the British school system. It was not designed for home school use, however, the staff at the Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching located at the University of Plymouth in England allows home schoolers the opportunity to download and use their curriculum materials...all for the cost of the printer cartridges and paper!

You can visit the MEP website to learn more about the project or to download the curriculum.

MEP is a cyclical maths course, meaning that students revisit each concept several times before mastery is achieved. Some people don't like this concept, but it has worked for us. The course is teacher intensive. Unlike many programmes you can't just assign the worksheet to a student to work independently. It takes 20-30 minutes for us to complete our maths Monday-Thursday. On Friday Jemimah completes a revision worksheet, taking about 15-20 minutes. Much of this is independent work.

There is a fantastic yahoo group for users of MEP - and those who are interested in discovering more about it. Both of the moderators of the group use AO to educate their children. There is a wealth of knowledge on this site, including a marvellous UK mathematics teacher who patiently explains difficult concepts so that we, the mums (and dads!) can teach our kids.

Click here to watch a video of the programme in use in Hungary where the programme was first developed.

Australian poetry anthologies

Keep a poem in your pocket
and a picture in your head
and you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed.

The little poem will sing to you
the little poem will bring to you
a dozen dreams to dance to you
at night when you're in bed.

So -
Keep a picture in your pocket
and a poem in your head
and you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed.

Beatrice Schenk de Regniers 1958

Here in the lightest of light verses, Beatrice Schenk de Regniers gives us one reason for using poetry with children. Like music, it carries its own therapy. To cold or timid hearts it can bring warmth, reassurance, even laughter. It can stir and arouse or quiet and comfort. Above all it gives significance to everyday experience. To miss poetry would be as much of a deprivation as to miss music. For this reason it is essential that we know poetry and that we know how to introduce it to children. The
experience of poetry should come with so much pure pleaure that the taste of it will grow and become a permanent part of a child's emotional and intellectual resources.

May Hill Arbuthnot, Zena Sutherland Children and Books 1972, P278-279

Poetry anthologies are invaluable. They introduce the reader to many poets and different types of verse. Modern anthologies often include far too many twaddly poems for my liking, and I prefer older books. Never-the-less good modern anthologies are available.

Children and Books give the following pointers for choosing a good modern anthology:

1. Look at the range and quality of writers represented. Does it have a balance of poets of the past, or are many good modern poets included?
2. How many poems does the book contain?
3. Look for indexes and classifications. These ideally shoul include author, title, first lines and subject matter.
4. Format is important. A heavy volume is not good for children to handle.

A couple of excellent old poetry anthologies are available in full online:

An Anthology of Australian Verse Bertram Stevens 1906

The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse Sir Walter Murdoch 1918

The following anthologies are written for Australian school aged children and contain a number of Australian poems. They are out of print but are widely available in second hand books shops:

The Poets' Commonwealth Sir Walter Murdoch 1926 - A junior anthology for Australasian schools has a number of Australian poems.

There is a sprinkling of Australian poems here, because the book is intended for use in Australian schools. To understand what poetry means, we must see it applied to the life we know. The poets of Australia do not include a Milton or a Shelley, but to us Australians they do give us something - and something valuable - which the very greatest poets of other lands cannot give us.

Living Verse A K Thompson 1954

The Poets' Way E W Parker 1936

A Book of Australasian Verse Walter Murdoch 1928 ( A second and revised edition of The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse mentioned above - more widely available than the first edition.)

A good website for Australian poetry is the Australian Bush Poetry, Verse & Music site, based in a neighbouring town in Central Victoria! I haven't had a good look at all of this site, but it is worth a look.

The Story of Edmund Ironside

This is the story of Edmund Ironside narrated by Jemimah:

After the Queen had died, her brother who was the Ruler of the Danes was so angry that he thought, “I’ll pay these people back for killing my sister.” He gathered many men to fight with him. Then he went on his ships and travelled over to England. He had purple sails! He had many men. He tried burning the English country but the men fled to get away from the King. King Ethelred the Unready fled too. He ran to France because his wife’s dad lived there. He had a very good time there and soon had forgotten about his poor country.

Meanwhile, the country was in a lot of trouble. They had picked a new king. One was the son of the Danish King. He was called Canute, and the other was an English one – Edmund Ironside. He was the son of Ethelred.

One day the Danes came to fight again. It made Edmund, the English King very sad. He did not like to see his country fight and he wept for every person who died, though he kept winning.

Then he told his reporter something very strange: “Go and tell our other king we shall have a fight and the one who dies shall be honoured like a king but the one who lives shall be ruler of England.” So off went the reporter with this very strange report to tell the other king.

He thought and then said, “Yes! We shall do this! I shall fight with him. The one who lives shall be king, and the one who dies shall be dead.”

So, they fought. Just as the Danish king thought he was going to die he said, “Can not we just quit this and be brothers?” Down dropped his spear. “Yes, brother we can. We shall both be king.”
And so it was and the Danish king ruled over the north side and the English king ruled over the south side.

One day the English king died in a battle. He had only ruled for seven months.

Kitchen garden week

I mentioned that we modeled our kitchen garden on the program designed by the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation. Well this week, 6-13 October is Kitchen Garden Week!

The brochure has a great quote on what the Kitchen Gardens are all about:

A Kichen Garden is created to provide edible, aromatic and beautiful resources for a kitchen. The creation and care of a Kitchen Garden teaches children about the natural world, about its beauty and how to care for it, how best to use the resources we have, and an appreciation for how easy it is to bring joy and wellbeing into one's life through growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing fresh, seasonal produce.

...Not quite Miss Mason's words, but the sentiments, surely, would be shared by her, I think.

We have some exciting things in store for our Kitchen Garden this week. We'll let you know how they go!

Our Spring garden

So what is flowering in our Central Victorian Spring garden?

• Spanish bluebells (scillas) in the woodland garden, hidden under the dessert ashes;
• The 80 year old pear tree in full bloom;
• The lingering fragrance of daphne on the back doorstep;
• Australian rose breeder Alistair Clark's Lorraine Lee clambering up the garage wall;
• The beautifully fragrant old fashioned freisias in the front garden;
• The Wisteria walk is covering itself with purple blooms;
• Jemimah's pink prunus blossom;
• The two quince trees;
• Pots of fragrant boronia, snap dragons, violas, pansies and johnnie-jump-ups;
• Dad's clivias, including the rare cream and deep red varieties;
• The grevillia hedge near the fire pit;
• The purple irises beneath the pear tree;
• The happy wanderer on the back fence;
• The camellia, one side pale pink; the other deep pink;
• The wonga-wonga vine in the kitchen garden.

Boronia"
Mary Fortune 1907

Welcome, sweet Spring, but not for wealth
Of wattle bloom, or daffodil,
Or violets, or lilies fair,
Or perfumed, pale jonquil;
We love them all, but willingly
We would them all delete,
Rather than lose thy heavenly breath,
Boronia, brown and sweet.

Thou fair, fair West, what wealth is thine,
Thy kauri forests grand,
Thy happy homesteads, and thy stretch
Of green, productive land;
Thy streamlets margined rich with flowers,
Thy rivers deep and wide,
Where the graceful black swans thou hast limned
For thy insignia glide.

Thou hast thy "Gold of Ophir," too,
Where in the deep, dark mine,
With hidden wealth for workers' hands
The wine-red rubies shine;
We envy not thee one or all,
But gladly turn to greet
Thy spring-sent messages of love,
In brown Boronia sweet.

The lover lays thee on his lips,
And sighs for kisses fled,
The motherlays thee on her breast,
And weeps her baby dead;
I place thy by my weakling pen,
And Heaven-sent tidings greet,
For well I know thou hast been there,
Boronia, brown and sweet.

Audrey has arrived!

We're pretty excited around here - the second 'Audrey' book has finally reached the bookshops!

The Australian outback of 1930 is Audrey's backyard in the first book, Audrey of the Outback, and Audrey is a girl with a lot on her mind. Her dad has gone away to work, her brother Price thinks he's too old for games, and little Dougie likes pretending to be a bird.

In this delightful story by Christine Harris, Audrey tries being a swagman, a man, a school teacher and a pirate – all with dire consequences! She is shadowed by the ever–loyal Stumpy – but who is he - what is he? You'll need to read the book to find out!

In the newly released Audrey goes to Town, Audrey's family go to the tiny outback town of Beltana, and Audrey enjoys making new friends and seeing amazing sights like houses with real glass in the windows! When Audrey's mum is suddenly taken to hospital, Audrey and her little brother are stranded with strict Mrs Paterson, who has some very particular ideas about "good" behaviour.

Can Audrey make friends with this lonely old lady who keeps her heart in a cage? Jemimah, for one, can't wait to find out. This is certainly a book we'll be buying when next 'Jemimah goes to Town'!

Written in a similar vein to Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking, the Audrey books are well written, lively, enjoyable and definitely 'Living'. To me they are modern Australian living books.

I sometimes wonder what Miss Mason would think of the books we consider Living today. Charlotte Mason was interested in using the best books. If a better book came along, she'd use it. What would she think of us using primarily books written a century (or more) ago?

Let us remember, of course, that most of the older books we read in AO are Classics. They've stood the test of time because they are beautifully written. They use rich vocabulary, more complex sentence structure, and contain more ideas per page than modern books. That's why they're still in print so many years later.Many recently written books, on the other hand, use watered down language, poor sentence structure and are not much more than pages and pages of twaddle.

So what about the Audrey books then? Well, they're written simply - Jemimah can read them, but they're not dumbed down. The grammar is correct and they're a lot of fun. The illustrations, by Ann James, are good, but don't replace the child's own imagination. They speak about our own Australian history and children will know more about our own country between the wars. Mostly, kids love them, and I think that's one of the most important reasons of all. Kids who are raised on a diet of good literature hate twaddle, and they don't hate Audrey - they think she's great!!

You can read the first chapter of Audrey goes to Town online here

You can also join The Audrey Club. Read all about Audrey on her own website:

http://www.audreyoftheoutback.com.au/

You can even get teacher's notes, colouring pages, printable bookmarks and crossword puzzles here.

Oh yeah, I forgot to say, Audrey's homeschooled!!