Books Read This Month:

• How the Heather Looks: A Joyous Journey to the British Sources of Children's Books by Joan Bodger
• Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
• The Children Who Lived in a Barn by Eleanor Graham
• The House of Arden by E. Nesbit
• Ask Me No Questions by Ann Schlee
• Mama's Babies by Gary Crew
• Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin

Currently Reading:

• Amelia Dyer: Angel Maker: The Woman Who Murdered Babies for Money by Alison Rattle and Allison Vale
• The Real Oliver Twist: Robert Blincoe: A Life That Illuminates a Violent Age by John Waller
• English Children's Books: 1600-1900 by Percy Muir (sporadically)

Still on the Nightstand (Partially Read):

• Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
• The Book of Margery Kempe
• The Age of the Cloister: The Story of Monastic Life in the Middle Ages by Christopher Nugent Lawrence

Reading Next:

• Undecided, but it will be something from my increasingly massive TBR list (on the right).

Please visit 5 Minutes for Books to check out more participants' lists!

Outside my window...the weather is ever-changing these days. Right now it is clear and sunny, but bitterly cold.

I am thinking...about where I might squeeze in another bookshelf. I've got stacks of books everywhere that need to find a home soon, and all of our existing shelves are overloaded.

I am hoping...that my husband consents to purchasing a piano soon; we've got a lovely one picked out!

I am listening to..."Clair de lune" and other selections from Debussy, perfect for a quiet winter morning such as this.

Around the house...spring cleaning is underway, so the house is currently in a rather frightful state.

One of my favorite things...my books, I'd be lost without them.

Pondering these words...from today's entry, "Making Your Own Imprint," in Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach: "The soap in the bathroom, the flowers in the garden, the book on the bedside table are all strong symbols of a life in progress, you look at these details and a world unfolds..." (- Charlotte Moss)

A few plans for the rest of the week: First and foremost, work, of course. I'm also hoping that the boys will get well and we'll be able to resume homeschooling. I've got to get through all of my cleaning and get the house back in respectable order. Friday, my husband will be driving up for a visit and Saturdy we'll have cello and violin lessons.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

"Changeable Weather"
Gustave Léonard de Jonghe (1829-1893)

I'll begin by summarizing our Valentine's festivities, since I haven't yet posted about them. Nothing went quite according to plan, as usual, so in the end it was a rather quiet weekend-long celebration. We baked sugar cookies (which no one cared to frost later, so they ended up hastily done), raspberry cupcakes from this month's Living (sadly, not very well liked), and candy-coated pretzels. In addition, we had a "candy buffet," cherry and strawberry soda, and an assortment of other festive goodies all weekend long.

For school, this was a short week due to President's Day, and all in all, a very ordinary sort of week (though Jaymon rejoined us from public school).

• Studied Catechism I, Classical Arithmetic and Latin/Grammar daily (they got a bit closer to passing their quizzes and exams).
• Math facts work was completed daily, we're still striving for speed and accuracy. I'm trying to sort out the rest of our Math work, though D will continue in Life of Fred Pre-Algebra.
• Read aloud daily from Saints for Young Readers for Every Day, Vol. 1.
• On Tuesday we read about Shrove Tuesday; Wednesday - Friday we read Lent for Children: A Thought a Day from Family in Feast and Feria.
• Continued reading from Augustine Came to Kent.
• Read Chapter 2 of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson; completed discussion questions and activities from this study guide. (Dominic & Jaymon)
• Read and discussed Chapter 4 of The Wind in the Willows and had to draw a picture of Mr. Badger's house; researched badger habitats. (Maddie)
• History was rather dull this week, we read about Charles Martel, Pepin and Charlemagne from Famous Men of the Middle Ages; the kids continued reading about King Alfred in Our Island Story and read two stories from Britannia.
• I continued to read aloud from The Hobbit. I've decided to postpone reading from Pyle's King Arthur until we're finished with The Hobbit.
• In Chapter 3 of The Child's Fairy Geography we toured Wales, and also read the applicable pages from This is Britain, finishing the book. Unfortunately, Netflix sent the wrong discs, so we did not get to watch the Wales segment of Visions of Britain and Ireland.
• Read The Sisters Grimm Book 6 and (with much sadness) 7, now awaiting the release of Book 8. (Maddie)
• We worked on outlining in earnest this week, completing two worksheets per day from an Outling workbook by Remedia Publications.
• Suddenly feeling rather anxious about vocabulary or ?, I had the kids complete two lessons from McGuffey's Third Eclectic Reader this week. This isn't to be a long-term solution, but worked well for now.
• On Tuesday and Wednesday, we read "Reynard the Fox" from Legends of the Middle Ages. Thursday, we read "The Rose Tree" from English Fairy Tales and "The Story of a Literary Lie" from English Literature for Boys & Girls. Friday, we read about Edmund Spencer and started on "Adventures of the Fair Florimel" from Stories from Old English Poetry.
• On Friday, we read Chapters 1 & 2 from Ethics for Young People.
• Read about Bach in Famous Composers for Young People; listened to The Story of Bach (Music Masters) CD.
• Cello/violin lesson + daily practice (Maddie & Jaymon).
• Somehow I forgot to schedule science in this week. To compensate (rather poorly), we started a number of seeds for our medieval herb garden. Yes, it's a bit early, but the warm weather this week made me quite impatient to begin, so hopefully they'll survive until safe to plant. One of these days I'll post in detail about our garden plans, but for now I can say that they were partially inspired by these plans.
• For fun, we also started these "Official" Irish Shamrock seeds.

Personal Highlights ~ LOTS of reading for me this week. In fact, I spent all of Monday curled up with books, which I *never* get to do!

• I read: The Children Who Lived in a Barn by Eleanor Graham (simply wonderful!), The House of Arden by E. Nesbit (loved it!).
• I also read Ask Me No Questions by Ann Schlee, which I'm very happy I took the trouble to order from Amazon UK. The book is about a notorious Victorian establishment for pauper children, Drouet's farm. Reading it led me to research baby-farmers (some interesting news clippings can be found here), and Charles Dickens' writings on the Drouet scandal, all entirely new to me. A search for the term in Google Books turns up numerous references ~ more than anyone should ever want to know about the subject, really. Nevertheless, morbidly fascinating reading.
• Ask Me No Questions led to my next book: Mama's Babies by Gary Crew, based on the lives of 3 well-known baby farmers. A brief YA novel, it was extremely chilling and oh-so-hard to put down.
• I also read the delightful A Child's Journey with Dickens by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin, an excerpt from her autobiography.
• Finally, I read most of the *excellent* Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin (to be finished this weekend!) and continued sporadically reading Diary of a Provincial Lady, which unfortunately puts me to sleep.
• Book Closeouts is having a fantastic Blowout Sale, so I picked out an enormous selection of new books - most hardbacks for a mere .99 - 1.99!

February sunbeams
Brighter grow each day
Telling that the winter
Soon will pass away.

• Studied Catechism I, Classical Arithmetic and Latin/Grammar near daily (Their interest in these subjects is waning since they're still unable to pass exams in the Arithmetic and Grammar).
• Read aloud daily from Saints for Young Readers for Every Day, Vol. 1
• We continued reading Augustine Came to Kent.
• I spent Monday afternoon trying to teach the twins (who had a snow day) all of the Math concepts they're required to know for the state assessments this year. - Concepts not covered in their Singapore Math textbooks, which was a little distressing.
• Science: We read the myth of Clytie and several sun poems in For the Beauty of the Earth. We also read about the sun in A Child's Introduction to the Night Sky.
• We sculpted a sun with homemade air dry clay; this would have been a great project too, especially as we'll be studying the moon next week.
• Read Chapter 1 of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and actually liked it! Completed discussion questions and activities from this study guide. (Dominic)
• Read Chapter 3 of The Wind in the Willows and had to draw a picture of the Wild Wood. (Maddie)
• In history this week, we studied the development of Islam and learned a little about the Silk Road. As we read about Muhammad's early life as a merchant, three board games came to mind immediately: Yspahan, Through the Desert and Oasis (all pertain to camel caravans, which I suppose is why I thought of them.). A little research later led me to this excellent site about Silk Road Board Games. I'll have to keep them in mind for our later study of Marco Polo!
• Read about Muhammad in Famous Men of the Middle Ages, and also read Muhammad by Demi; completed a worksheet on Muhammad from Middle Ages, Renaissance & Reformation by Veritas Press.
• Read Mosque by David MacAulay (The Haba Middle Eastern building blocks would have been perfect to go with this, but much to M's dismay, I refrained from purchasing them.)
• The kids read one chapter from Our Island Story and three from Britannia: 100 Great Stories from British History.
• In Chapter 2 of The Child's Fairy Geography, or, A Trip Round Europe, we finished our tour of England and watched the rest of the Visions of England DVD. We read This is Britain by Miroslav Sasek.
• On Monday, we read "One of the Sorrows of Story-Telling" from English Literature for Boys & Girls. Tuesday, we were supposed to read "Gudrun" from Legends of the Middle Ages, but skipped it. Wednesday, we read "The Three Sillies" from English Fairy Tales. Thursday, we read part of "The Two Noble Kinsman" by Chaucer from Stories from Old English Poetry.

• On Wednesday, for the Feast of St. Scholastica, we read The Holy Twins: Benedict and Scholastica by Kathleen Norris and completed the discussion questions in Catholic Mosaic.
• Thursday, for the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, we read Our Lady of Lourdes by Father Lovasik and watched Bernadette. I've had Song of Bernadette from Netflix for weeks now, so will need to watch it this weekend. I also printed this for the kids (c. 1954) from Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact, a Catholic comic book published from 1946-63.
• Friday was sunny and warm ~ a beautiful day and thus all plans went out the window! We worked on painting our clay-sculpted suns (which met with some misfortune during the week as the boys accidentally poked holes in a couple of them) and prepared for our Valentine's celebration. More about this later...

Dominic's Sun

Maddie's Sun

Dominic and I did not start Ethics, Economics or Logic this week as I'd hoped, nor did I read aloud from The Hobbit and Pyle's King Arthur and His Knights. Very disappointing, so hopefully next week we'll be back on track!

Personal Highlights:

• On Tuesday, I gave Maddie a haircut! I've been cutting the boys' hair for years, but have never been brave enough to attempt even trimming her very curly hair. I took a total of 5" off, because she wanted it short, and it came out great!
• I read/finished Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple (and wrote a brief review) and started Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield and English Children's Books: 1600-1900 by Percy Muir.

This week I was delighted to receive a small package from Ancient Industries, an online shop and blog that I recently discovered via Persephone Books. Ancient Industries offers high-quality traditional household goods and clothing from Europe, America and the British Isles. A New York Times profile of the company can be found here.

So what did I purchase? A bottle brush, made by the Redecker family in Germany, a dish washing brush, made by the visually impaired in Sweden, and a little Riess enamelware pot.

Of the above, I'm most charmed by the Riess enamelware, which is utterly gorgeous and much nicer/heavier than most enamelware (indeed, it's almost too nice to use!). I found this from Cooking Company:

The Riess family of Ybbsitz, Austria has been manufacturing enamelware for over 200 years. Unlike many other lesser brands, the main body of all Riess enamelware products are produced from a single sheet of steel. No joins exist in the main body of the pots. Every item is given a black undercoat and then kiln fired. Each pot is then given a second coat of white, then the interior cream colour is applied. The pot is then ready for its outer colour coating. Every coating is followed by the kiln, which means that all pots in this range are fired 4 times.

At the time of my order, much of their Riess enamelware was out of stock, but fortunately it is now back in the shop.

• Sweet Straws
• Heart Strings
• Valen(tiny) Garland
• Love Garland
• Felt Conversation Hearts
• Sweethearts
• Felt Heart Pouch
• Valentine's Buckets
• Sweet Necklace
• Sweetheart Candy Wreath
• Heart Cone
• Origami Puffy Hearts
• Valentine's Tic Tac Toe
• Painted Paper Heart Doilies
• Paper Pulp Hearts
• Beeswax Hearts
• Valentine's Day Bracelets
• Valentine Paper Bag Album
• Valentine Tag Tutorial
• Matchbox Valentines
• Valentine's Paper Globes

• Secret Message Decoder Cookies
• Peppermint Ice Cream Cake
• Fun Valentine's Day Recipes with M&M's
• Chocolate Dipped Krispie Valentine Pops
• Red Velvet Cake Pops
• Big Love Butterscotch Cookie
• Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies
• Valentine's Day Treats from Better Homes & Gardens
• Valentine's Day Treats from Parents

• Sweetheart Valentine's Day Cards from Bunny Cakes
• Zebra Valentine's Day Cards from Bunny Cakes
• Love Big Valentine's Day Cards from Bunny Cakes
• 4 Valentine's Cards from Maquette

• Valentine's Day Desert Buffet at HWTM (Gorgeous!)
• Valentine's Day Party Inspiration Board (and here) at Tiny*Prints
• Sweets & Treats Inspiration Board at HWTM
• Valentine's Treats to Make & Give at Cupcakes & Crinoline

Last Saturday, my husband and I spent the afternoon at my favorite antique mall. While there, I was thrilled to find this delightful series of Art Appreciation [Teachers Edition] Textbooks from 1933, written by Cora Elder Stafford and published by Laidlaw Brothers. There are 8 books or "parts" in all, though unfortunately Part III and Part V were missing from the set I purchased.

Included in the series are: My Brownie Art Book (Part I), My Rainbow Art Book (Part II), My Indian Art Book (Part III), My Pinocchio Art Book (Part IV), Wonderland Art Book (Part V), My Jungle Art Book (Part VI), Round Table Art Book (Part VII), and Modern Art (Part VIII). The books are surprisingly thorough, covering a wide variety of topics, and the illustrations are quite charming. Here are a few of my favorites:

Drawing Dolls


Painting Portraits




Drawing "Mary Had a Little Lamb"


Color Schemes for Clothing


Poster Design


All-Over Patterns


Costume Illustration

• Studied Catechism I for 30 minutes each morning.
• Read aloud daily from Saints for Young Readers for Every Day, Vol. 1
• We continued reading Augustine Came to Kent.
• Read two chapters from Our Island Story and Britannia: 100 Great Stories from British History. We finally received The Birth of Britain for Dominic, but he found it "too boring."
• We read Chapter 1 and half of Chapter 2 from The Child's Fairy Geography, or, A Trip Round Europe and identified the United Kingdom and England on a map. The first stop on our "European tour" was London, where on Monday we visited St. Paul's Cathedral (better photos can be found on Flickr) and the Tower of London; we also watched a short video on executions at the Tower. Next, we visited St. Thomas' Hospital, Westminster Abbey, Hampton Court Palace (Richmond), and Windsor Castle. I had hoped to start a scrapbook project, documenting our "travels," but sadly that just didn't happen.
• We watched 4 segments from the video Visions of England; we'll be watching the rest of the video next week as we continue our travels through England.
• On Friday, we read This is London by Miroslav Sasek (wonderful!) and reviewed some current facts about London. We also perused these amazing photos of London.

• On Monday, Maddie read The Wind in the Willows Chapter 2 and had to draw a picture of a gypsy caravan, which led to some impromptu research.
• I am now reading The Hobbit out loud. Dominic was struggling with it on his own (or rather, pretending to) and Maddie preferred it to The Children of Green Knowe.
• We also started a second daily read-aloud: King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle (we had attempted The Once and Future King first, but could *not* get into it!); we'll be alternating between this and The Hobbit daily.
• Continued studying Classical Arithmetic and Latin/Grammar, they're *still* not able to pass the exams!
• Math facts drill on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; Dominic completed Life of Fred Pre-Algebra w/Biology, Chapter 2.

• Maddie missed her cello lesson on Monday because she was sick, but practiced for about 20 minutes each day.
• In music, we backtracked a bit and reviewed the parts of the orchestra and listened to a CD of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf while following along with the book. Later in the week, we watched and discussed this *excellent* animated short film (which won an Oscar in 2008).
• On Monday, we read "The Story of the Cattle Raid of Cooley" from English Literature for Boys & Girls. Tuesday, we read "Beowulf" from Legends of the Middle Ages and on Wednesday, we read "Tom Tit Tot" from English Fairy Tales. Thursday, we began reading about Geoffrey Chaucer in Stories from Old English Poetry and on Friday we read "The Tempest" in Tales from Shakespeare. This will more or less be our new weekly schedule for literature - one selection from each book daily, which gives us a nice variety.
• Finished reading Once Upon a Crime (The Sisters Grimm, Book 4) (Maddie).
• Nature Study: We observed many Sparrows, Chickadees, Juncos, and even two Cardinals at our backyard feeders, and read about them in Nature Study in Elementary Schools (clicking on the bird below will take you to the appropriate section).
• We completed the discussion questions on stars from For the Beauty of the Earth and copied several star poems.
• The kids completed a number of experiments from Nature in a Nutshell on their own. They learned about how pinecones protect their seeds, the effects of acid rain, and cloud formation.

• This year's Doodle 4 Google contest was announced, my kids are quite excited.
• We received the *amazing* (and huge!) Bumper Book of Look and Learn: The Best of the Classic Children's Magazine, which definitely surpassed my expectations and is perfect for the boys (shown below; my photos do not do this book justice!).
• Also received my Google Books order from the Harvard Book Store, they're perfect!
• Discovered Pomegranate ~ a great little shop for fine art books, calendars, note cards, etc. Their coloring books are especially nice (and include designs from William Morris and Carl Larsson) and they have some terrific things on sale currently. I ordered art bookmarks and a few other odds and ends.
• I stumbled across this article about why The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments was banned, and naturally had to find a copy to investigate (the download link in the article is no good). A .PDF of the book can be found here.
• I rescued an enormous stack of vintage Golden Books from my grandparent's house. In doing so, I re-discovered the illustrations of Corinne Malvern and Eloise Wilkin.
• My usual reading was set aside this week so that I could pre-read How the Heather Looks (an Ambleside geography selection for Year 7). Much as I suspected, it's not something Dominic will appreciate, but I am loving it very much! Unfortunately, it's also costing me money as I keep finding references to books which I simply *must* have... Dorothy Spicer books (The Book of Festivals and From An English Oven: Cakes, Breads and Buns of Country Tradition, with Legends and Festivities Associated with Their Origins and Use), The Slow Coach by E.V. Lucas, A Critical History of Children's Literature: From Earliest Times to the Present by Cornelia Meigs, and The Family From One End Street by Eve Garnett thus far.
• Snagged a complete set of the 16-volume set The Children's Hour (c. 1953), in great condition, for only $20. on eBay!
• Oh-so-appropriate quote for the week: “When I have a little money, I buy books. If any is left over, I buy food and clothes.” ~ Erasmus

Yet another fabulous find, The Pictorial Webster's:

"Featuring over 1,500 engravings that originally graced the pages of Webster's dictionaries in the 19th century, this chunky volume is an irresistible treasure trove for art lovers, designers, and anyone with an interest in visual history. Meticulously cleaned and restored by fine-press bookmaker Johnny Carrera, the engravings in Pictorial Webster's have been compiled into an alluring and unusual visual reference guide for the modern day. Images range from the entirely mysterious to the classically iconic. From Acorns to Zebras, Bell Jars to Velocipedes, these alphabetically arranged archetypes and curiosities create enigmatic juxtapositions and illustrate the items deemed important to the Victorian mind. Sure to inspire and delight, Pictorial Webster's is at once a fascinating historical record and a stunning jewel of a book."

Also available:

• "Icons & Curiosities" Wall Cards
• "Flora & Fauna" Stamp Set

This past week I've encountered a number of publishers devoted to reprinting classics, including some previously rare or hard-to-find titles. I thought I would share a few of my favorites here!

For Children

Jane Nissen Books (UK)