Cosmos and Classical Conversations Essentials (Grammar)

“Grammar is where God, man, the soul, thinking, knowledge, and the Cosmos all come together.”

[Andrew Kern]

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COSMOS ~ Order and Beauty

Cosmos and Math

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We use LANGUAGE to think about and communicate IDEAS.

We use GRAMMAR to think about and communicate IDEAS about LANGUAGE.

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** Grammar prepares Challenge students for the study of Latin.

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Essentials English Grammar (Essentials of the English Language (EEL))

GRAMMAR FLOW CHART:

• Letters and Sounds [The smallest building blocks of our English language are the 26 letters. Letters and combinations of letters represent sounds called phonograms. The EEL guide includes spelling rules and lists for at-home use, but they are not used in Essentials class.]
  
  
• Words [We use letters to create words. Words are magic! We use vivid and precise words to think about and communicate ideas clearly. Essentials students are introduced to and encouraged to use new vivid and precise vocabulary during the writing (IEW) portion of class.]

We might have a million words in English, but we have only 8 Parts of Speech! (Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Conjunction, Interjection, Preposition, Adjective). Dionysus Thrax, a Greek who lived in 100 BC, was the first to categorize words into parts of speech. This is not a modern idea, and it doesn’t apply only to English! Not only are there only 8 parts of speech, but there are only 2 main parts of speech (noun and verb) and the other parts modify and support them.

• Phrases and Clauses [We put words together to create phrases and clauses.]
  
  
• Independent and Dependent Clauses [Clauses contain both a subject and verb. We have two types of clauses. An independent clause contains a complete thought, and every sentence contains at least one independent clause.]
  
  
• SENTENCES [Sentences are the FORM of grammar!]

Every sentence has five parts. (Subject, Verb/Predicate, Capital Letter, End Mark, Complete Sense/Thought)

All sentences have structure (4: simple, compound, complex or compound-complex),
purpose (4: declarative, exclamatory, interrogative, or imperative),
and pattern (there are 7 different patterns, but every pattern contains a subject and a verb).

This means that we have 112 different possible combinations!

Grammar Quotes

“Grammar is based on the link between something that exists and something that applies to something that exists. God "exists." He called Himself, "I Am." He made us, putting us in the garden to steward it. As stewards, we need to know what we are stewarding, so he made us able to know the world we live in. The world around us exists as things that act or are acted on and have properties or qualities. In other words, the world is full of subjects with predicates. To know the world around us we must think it. When we think something, we always think something about it. In other words, the mind thinks subjects and predicates. Predicate comes from the Latin and means "to say about." All thought and all existence revolve around the relation between subjects and predicates (substances and properties if you like).” [Andrew Kern]

“Why is grammar fun and valuable? Grammar reveals to us the beauty and power of our own minds. With only eight kinds of words and two sides (subject and predicate) of each idea, we can make the plays of Shakespeare, or the novels of Toni Morrison, or the poems of Elizabeth Bishop. No system, so gorgeously elegant, could be expected to make such a language. Through grammar we see the simple form of our binary minds; in all of our sentences, however elaborate, we are making a predicate about a subject, and this reveals the meaning of clarity. For each sentence or idea, I must know both of these two things: what you are talking about, and what you are saying about it. For each paragraph of sentences, I must know what the paragraph is about, and what you are saying about it. For each essay of paragraphs, I must know what the essay is about, and what you are saying about it. A sentence, with its two sides, is a model of the mind.” [Michael Clay Thompson of MCT Language Arts] [Form! Beauty!]

“We study grammar because a knowledge of sentence-structure is an aid in the interpretation of literature; because continual dealing with sentences influences the student to form better sentences in his own composition; and because grammar is the best subject in our course of study for the development of reasoning power.” [William Frank Webster, The Teaching of English Grammar, Houghton, 1905]

Why do we study English grammar?

1. Interpretation

2. Composition

3. Reasoning

4. God revealed himself in human language.

“….God humbled himself not only in the incarnation of the Son, but also in the inspiration of the Scriptures. He bound his divine Son to human nature, and he bound his divine meaning to human words. The manger and the cross were not sensational. Neither are grammar and syntax. But that is how God chose to reveal himself. A poor Jewish peasant and a prepositional phrase have this in common: they are both human and both ordinary. That the poor peasant was God and prepositional phrase is the Word of God does not change this fact. Therefore, if God humbled himself to take on human flesh and to speak human language, woe to us if we arrogantly presume to ignore the humanity of Christ and the grammar of Scripture.” [John Piper, Reading the Bible Supernaturally]

“Language is the house of being. In its home man dwells.” [Martin Heideggar]

“Where language is weak, theology is weakened.” [Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water]

“We think because we have words, not the other way around. The more words we have, the better able we are to think conceptually.” [L’Engle]

“We cannot Name or be Named without language.” [L’Engle]

“When language is limited, I am thereby diminished.” [L’Engle]

“I now regularly meet students who have never heard the names of most English authors who lived before 1900. That includes Milton, Chaucer, Pope, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats, Tennyson, and Yeats. Poetry has been largely abandoned. Their knowledge of English grammar is spotty at best and often nonexistent. That is because grammar, as its own subject worthy of systematic study, has been abandoned. Those of my students who know some grammar took Latin in high school or were taught at home. The writing of most students is irreparable in the way that aphasia is. You cannot point to a sentence and say, simply, “Your verb here does not agree with your subject.” That is not only because they do not understand the terms of the comment. It is also because many of their sentences will have no clear subject or verb to begin with. The students make grammatical errors for which there are no names. Their experience of the written language has been formed by junk fiction in school, text messages, blog posts, blather on the airwaves, and the bureaucratic sludge that they are taught for “formal” writing, and that George Orwell identified and skewered seventy years ago. The best of them are bad writers of English; the others write no language known to man.” [Anthony Esolen (author of Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child), Exercises in Unreality: The Decline of Teaching Western Civilization]

“[Sentence diagramming] was a bit like art, a bit like mathematics. It was much more than words uttered, or words written on a piece of paper: it was a picture of language.” [Kitty Burns Florey, author of Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences]

Advent Reading

Every year I add to our Christmas book collection. After all these years, it’s rather extensive. I’ve gathered links to some of my favorites here.

This year, our new Christmas books correspond with my current literary projects. Just this month I revealed my Tolkien project, and Tolkien’s magical Letters from Father Christmas, with reproductions of his delightful illustrations and handwritten letters, is just perfect for me to read aloud to the kids!

I haven’t yet posted about my second ongoing literary project, but you might guess it from the second title. Yes, I am also immersing myself in G.K. Chesterton. This simple Advent and Christmas reader will be perfect for my own studies, and I am deliberating whether to read it aloud to the family. It contains 28 Advent readings and 12 readings for the days of Christmas. Each reading includes a short selection written by Chesterton (a poem or quote from an essay or book), a short bible passage, a prayer, and an “Advent Action.”

Have you added any books to your Christmas collection this season? Share in the comments!

Green Friday

My sister Holly and I began this tradition eight years ago. As much as weather allows, we try to spend a couple hours in this particular green space on the day after Thanksgiving. This year the weather forecast showed pouring rain, but it managed to hold out for the afternoon hours while we walked and breathed and played and talked and paid attention to the loveliness.

Everything glittered with clinging raindrops. God decorated for Christmas.

Holly discovered charred blackberries in an area that had apparently burned during late fall. The ground was littered with them. I’ve never seen anything like it!

I started feeling all sentimental about these two walking together, remembering another picture from 5 years ago when Lola was just beginning to walk.

Here are a few links to some of my favorite Green Friday walks in the past: 2009, 2011, and 2013.

Merry Christmas 2015 ~ From Our Family to Yours!

Yes, we finally snagged some family pictures in between rain storms. Nothing like the last minute…

Have a very merry Christmas, friends!

Food for Thought ~ When You're Drowning

We’ve received around 10 inches of rain so far this month (our average precipitation for the whole month is 7.5). So, yes, it feels as if we’re drowning some days.

We’re headed into our busiest holiday stretch. And that’s why Lola puked all over me yesterday. Yes, it felt as if I were drowning.

But.

Immanuel, here with us.

In sun or rain. Health or sickness. Joy or heartache. Accomplishments or failed attempts.

Immanuel.

:: Failing at Advent @ by Tresta at Sharp Paynes [Love this. LOVE it. I am the mother of good intentions. So many of them.]

"Necessity might be the mother of invention, but I am the mother of good intentions. So many of them." 

"I want my own burning bushes but these are the terms: tell me what I want to hear, show me You’re with me, and let’s do this now because I’m tired of waiting." 

"Immanuel, here with me because of my failures."

:: The Brutally Honest Christmas Card @ D.L. Mayfield [Vulnerablility. Let’s be kind this Christmas season to everyone who crosses our path.]

:: When They Saw the Star @ CiRCE

Aquinas tells us that, “Wonder is…desirderium sciendi, the desire for knowledge, active longing to know.”

:: You Barely Make a Difference and It’s a Good Thing @ Glory to God for All Things [This was a difficult blog post to read and I’m still struggling with it, but I love how Andrew Kern summed it up on FB: "Love your neighbor and let God decide if it will make a difference. When you try to make a difference, you are turning Christ like love into power over others."]

We have no commandment from God to make the world a better place. We have no commandment from God to “make a difference.” Only God makes a difference, and only God knows what “better” would actually mean. As Christians, the proper life is one lived in accordance with the commandments. We should love. We should forgive. We should be generous and kind. We should give thanks to God always and for everything.

:: The Difference Between Art and Entertainment @ Goins, Writer [Excellent article.]

Entertainment makes us feel good. Art, on the other hand, transforms us.

:: Promises That Can't Be Kept: Why education rightly done is a path and not a method by Matt Bianco @ CiRCE

We pursue education because it is right and worthy, not because it guarantees anything.

:: 10 Things Your Homeschool Friend Won’t Tell You (but wishes you knew) @ Lea Ann Garfias

She’s just like you.

:: How Each Myers-Briggs Personality Type Prepares For The Holidays @ Thought Catalog (A funny post to end on…)

[Me] ISFJ - Settles down to watch their favorite holiday specials that they’ve been enjoying every year since childhood.
[Luke] ESFJ - Starts viciously baking and freezing treats two months ahead of time. Nearly explodes with excitement planning their holiday party.

This and That ~ A Christmas Season

I could list all the things we haven’t done (family pictures, Christmas cards, Christmas shopping and wrapping, Christmas tree and decorations… ahem), but instead I’ll list the things we have been enjoying this Christmas season.

• Russ took the kids to our local Story Book Land. Lola sat on Santa’s lap.
  
• We celebrated a belated St. Nicholas Day with our best friends: making and eating marzipan, drinking hot spiced cider, exchanging gifts, putting cloves in oranges, and finding gold coins in our shoes. We spent an hour or two in the afternoon browsing a gigantic display of nativity sets from all over the world.
  
• We watched White Christmas together as a family. The kids watched Miracle on 34th Street and The Nutcracker (on DVD).
  
• Luke made fudge and caramels. I made raspberry almond thumbprint cookies. We made marzipan a few times.
  
• Russ and I attended a Christmas party given by one of his clients.
  
• We celebrated Rilla’s 3rd birthday at Yogurt Extreme.
  
• We attended a production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever at a local church (after the boys had all read the book).
  
• We’re listening to A Christmas Carol (unabridged) narrated by Adam Andrews while following along in our illustrated version.
  
• Levi and Luke and I will be attending (with family and friends) a live radio theater style production of A Christmas Carol this weekend.
  
• I have my book club Christmas goodie exchange tomorrow.
  
• We’re riding a trolley through town with friends on Friday evening, looking at Christmas lights and singing carols.
  
• We stopped by IKEA and purchased a large dresser for the boys’ room, Russ put it together, and I cleaned and organized their room, which desperately (and I do mean desperately) needed it. The room was so charming when we moved in 9 years ago, but it has suffered continual abuse and the boys have grown so much bigger. It is close to impossible to keep it relatively clean and neat, charming is beyond my ability.
  
• I’m trying to clean the house enough to be inspired to decorate it. Now that the boys’ room is finished, maybe I’ll work on the house this weekend (though Lola’s room is also on the to-do list).

And that’s about it. We’ll see what this next week brings…

Christmas Gift Ideas for Boys (who want to survive the apocalypse)

If the apocalypse happens, I’m not leaving Luke’s side. In fact, I may not let him out of my sight for the next, oh, rest of my life. Hey, the kid is handy on the most average of days, changing light bulbs, mowing lawns, and performing other sundry tasks.

He just received the book Prepare for Anything Survival Manual and read it cover to cover. It’s astonishingly thorough with a very attractive layout, graphics, photographs, and graphic-novel-style scenarios. In the past 24 hours, he’s shared interesting facts such as the many uses of vodka and added a long list of things to his Amazon wish list. [He may be the only boy with both a candy thermometer and throwing-knives on his wish list.]

I’m not quite ready for the throwing-knives stage and I can’t get him vodka, but I’m so excited about the Ezzzy-Jig paracord bracelet maker. It can be adjusted to various sizes. Now he can make gifts for his brothers and friends. Arts and crafts? Check. I’m including Paracord Outdoor Gear Projects and various colors of paracord and buckles.

Add a multi tool and a roll of Gorilla Tape (both great stocking stuffers) to his paracord bracelet and he’ll be ready for anything.

The Word

[Let’s consider this the third installment of my Language Love series that I haven’t yet finished.]

[Windhover Farm, if you’re reading this I just want to thank you for introducing me to Frederick Buechner. I know I didn’t care for Godric on the first reading, but I ended up purchasing this book of daily meditations from his writing and I adore it. Have you noticed that I’ve been quoting him often lately?]

I have been reading Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner for the past several months, and I’ve greatly enjoyed “hearing” Buechner’s voice on wide and varied topics. Each day’s entry is an excerpt from one of Buechner’s books, both fiction and non-fiction, but mostly non-fiction. This particular excerpt from Peculiar Treasures: A Biblical Who’s Who struck me and I want to share it with you. It is one of the longer entries (I’ve even slightly abridged it here); most are a page or less.

John was a poet, and he knew about words. He knew that all men and all women are mysteries known only to themselves until they speak a word that opens up the mystery. He knew that the words people speak have their life in them just as surely as they have their breath in them. He knew that the words people speak have dynamite in them and that a word may be all it takes to set somebody’s heart on fire or break it in two. He knew that words break silence and that the word that is spoken is the word that is heard and may even be answered. And at the beginning of his gospel he wrote a poem about the Word that God spoke.

When God speaks, things happen because the words of God aren’t just as good as his deeds, they are his deeds. When God speaks his word, John says, creation happens, and when God speaks to his creation, what comes out is not ancient Hebrew or the King James Version or a sentiment suitable for framing in a pastor’s study. On the contrary. “The word became flesh,” John says (1:14), and that means that when God wanted to say what God is all about and what man is all about and what life is all about, it wasn’t a sound that emerged but a man. Jesus was his name. He was dynamite. He was the Word of God.

As this might lead you to expect, the Gospel of John is as different from the other three as night from day. Matthew quotes Scripture, Mark lists miracles, Luke reels off parables, and each has his own special axe to grind too, but the one thing they all did in common was to say something also about the thirty-odd years Jesus lived on this earth, the kinds of things he did and said and what he got for his pains as well as what the world got for his pains too. John, on the other hand, clearly has something else in mind, and if you didn’t happen to know, you’d hardly guess that his Jesus and the Jesus of the other three gospels are the same man.

John says nothing about when or where or how he was born. He says nothing about how the baptist baptized him. There’s no account of the temptation in John, or the transfiguration, nothing about how he told people to eat bread and drink wine in his memory once in a while, or how he sweated blood in the garden the night they arrested him… Jesus doesn’t tell even a single parable in John. So what then, according to John, does Jesus do?

He speaks words. He speaks poems that sound much like John’s poems, and the poems are about himself. Even when he works his miracles, you feel he’s thinking less about the human needs of the people he’s working them for than about something else he’s got to say about who he is and what he’s there to get done. When he feeds a big, hungry crowd on hardly enough to fill a grocery bag, for instance, he says, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst” (6:35). When he raises his old friend Lazarus from the dead, he says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (11:25-26). “I am the door,” he says, “and if any one enters by me, he will be saved” (10:1). “I am the good shepherd” (10:14), “the light of the world” (8:12)…

You miss the Jesus of Matthew, Mark, and Luke of course—the one who got mad and tired and took naps in boats. You miss the Jesus who healed people because he felt sorry for them and made jokes about camels squeezing through the eyes of needles… Majestic, mystical, aloof almost, the Jesus of the Fourth Gospel walks three feet off the ground, you feel, and you can’t help wishing that once in a while he’d come down to earth.

But that’s just the point, of course—John’s point. It’s not the Jesus people knew on earth that he’s mainly talking about…

He is Jesus as the Word that breaks the heart and sets the feet to dancing and stirs tigers in the blood. He is the Jesus John loved not just because he’d healed the sick and fed the hungry but because he’d saved the world. Jesus as the mot juste of God.

 

[The very next day’s entry is a total of one sentence: “A Glutton is one who raids the icebox for a cure for spiritual malnutrition.”]

Christmas Reading

Yes, I realize it is the day before Thanksgiving. I’m so thankful for our relaxing Thanksgiving celebrations at my parents’ house just down the road. I’m making my traditional Orange Cream Souffle (mousse-like jell-o dessert) and baking Swedish Limpa (bread) today in preparation. I’m also taking pictures of my best friend’s kids this afternoon when we’ve finished with a few school lessons.

BUT, this is also the weekend for pulling all our Christmas books off the shelf! I cannot wait. I look forward to the Christmas books more than the decorating and music.

Last year I shared the following links:

I’ve shared many of my favorites in past posts:

• Favorite Christmas Books
• Favorite Christmas Books ~ Around the World Edition
• Favorite Christmas Books ~ Pioneer Edition
• Advent (many resources)

I noticed with excitement that two of my favorite out-of-print Christmas books are available used on Amazon for reasonable prices right at this moment (they’ve often been available only at much higher prices!). Snatch them up before they’re gone!

• Maggie Rose, Her Birthday Christmas by Ruth Sawyer (an adored chapter book favorite from my own childhood,reviewed here—it makes a wonderful read-aloud!) 
• Handel's Messiah Family Advent Reader (short review here; last Christmas season I posted corresponding readings, picture books, videos, and other resources for each day’s topic)

This year I’ve added The Wee Christmas Cabin of Carn-na-ween to our collection since Ruth Sawyer is the author of two of my most favorite Christmas books. We’ll also be enjoying Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck (because, well, Pearl S. Buck), The Christmas Wish (the photography—oooohhh!), and Christmas Farm (perfect for reading the day we get our Christmas tree).

Last month I shared four Christmas books in my Book Detectives series: Tree of Cranes, Christmas Farm, The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree, and The Family Under the Bridge (which would make a wonderful chapter book read-aloud).

This year I have added a few new books to our collection (of course!). I discovered a beautiful nativity story with pictures by Giotto. Giotto is one of the artists we are studying this year (cycle 1) with Classical Conversations. I’m adding this book (and possibly The Glorious Impossible by Madeleine L’Engle) to our other Christmas art books by Rembrandt (cycle 2), Grandma Moses (cycle 3), and Norman Rockwell (cycle 3).

I’ve also added two more wonderful picture books: The Trees of the Dancing Goats (a Hanukkah story by the delightful Patricia Polacco who wrote my favorite Christmas Tapestry) and Saint Francis and the Christmas Donkey (gorgeously illustrated by Robert Byrd).

Our Christmas chapter book read-aloud will be The Birds’ Christmas Carol.

I think our collection might last us all month!

Have you added to your Christmas book collection this year?

Christmas Gift Ideas 2015

I’ll bet half of you are already finished with your Christmas shopping. Some of you enjoy leisurely shopping in festive stores all through the Christmas season. But some of you may be like me the week before Christmas: Hallelujah, Amazon Prime!! I rarely shop, and even rarer still is the leisurely shopping trip. I also have no place to store gifts prior to an occasion. So I’m all about two-day shipping the week of.

Every year, though, I come up with a few ideas ahead of time and share here on the blog. Some of these gift ideas are things we have enjoyed this past year, some are things I’m considering as gifts for my kids or loved-ones.

[All the Amazon links on my blog are affiliate links. I do receive a small commission whenever you go through any of my links and purchase items—any item (tires, vitamins, diapers, shoes) even if you do not purchase the item I linked! I am so thankful for those of you who choose to purchase through my blog. You have helped support Mt. Hope Chronicles (and my book addiction) over the past few years!]

What’s on your list?

:: Educational Stocking Stuffers ::

Ancient Egypt TOOB (I love all the TOOB collections—so many to choose from! They’re a perfect shape and size for stockings! Around the World, World Landmarks, Musical Instruments, Mystical Realms…)

Roman Playmobil Guys (My kids have played with Playmobil sets more than any other toy I’ve purchased for them and they hold up well! They’re the toys I’ll be saving for grandkids.)

Classical Historian’s Ancient History Go Fish (My boys enjoy the American History version and I’ll add the Medieval version to our collection next year.)

Professor Noggin’s Ancient Civilizations Trivia Card Game (Many others to choose from in this series including various history, science, and geography editions)

Timeline Historical Events Card Game

Math Wrap-Ups or Think Fun Math Dice

Story Cubes

Magnetic Poetry -Kid Genius Kit (I adore so many of these sets! Use in the car or on-to-go with a magnetic board or cookie sheet!)

:: Activities and Toys ::

Amazing Minecraft Math: Cool Math Activity Book (I can’t be the only one with Minecraft-obsessed children.)

Ralph Masiello’s Ancient Egypt Drawing Book (I love all of Masiello’s drawing books, especially the robot and dragon ones, but my boys have enjoyed this one as we’re studying Ancient Egypt.)

Illustration School: Let's Draw Happy People (This drawing book was a huge hit with the two young artists who received this book last year. It’s so sweet and fun! There are other books in the series.)

Ozobot Bit 2.0 (I think Russ and the boys are receiving this robot/coding toy this year.)

:: Games ::

7 Wonders (It took us a few times to get the hang of this one because it’s complicated to learn, but now it’s our favorite game to play!)

Forbidden Island (The boys are getting this one for Christmas.)

Catan Dice Game (A little bit Catan, a little bit Yatzee, great small package for an on-the-go game)

Ticket To Ride (The European version has been our overall favorite game this year. We need to add another version, maybe The Heart of Africa expansion.)

 

:: Movies ::

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Only $4.75 right now; I’m adding this one to our family movie collection.)

:: Music ::

The Hunts: Those Younger Days (By far my favorite album this year!)

Andrew Peterson: The Burning Edge of Dawn (This album was just released in October and it’s fantastic!)

:: Books ::

Boys in the Boat (This was one of my top favorites this year and has wide appeal. It’s a WWII-era non-fiction, hopeful narrative, underdog sports story. Everyone I know who has read it—teenagers, men, and women—has loved it!)

In Defense of Sanity (G. K. Chesterton has to be one of the most quotable writers of all time. This is a collection of his short essays—entertaining and brilliant.)

The Chosen (A serious modern classic and a fascinating look at Jewish culture. Levi and I loved this one this year.)

The Awakening of Miss Prim (Do you have a homeschool mom on your list? One who loves Classical education, charming French villages, and Jane Austen? This is the book for her. I reviewed it here.)

The Squire’s Tales (This is my own personal favorite series. Easy to read. Romantic. Strong male and female characters. Hilarious. Profound. And a little bit of cultural literacy. Boys love it. Girls love it. Moms love it. I don’t know what else to say about it.)

The Knight’s Tales (If you have kids on your list too young for The Squire’s Tales, start with this series.)

Dominic (This is one of my favorite children’s chapter books. Perfect for kids ages 4 to 90. Read some snippets here.)

A Nest is Noisy (This whole picture book series is gorgeous!! Each book can be a short read-aloud or provide hours of magic as a child pores over the details on each page.)

:: For Book Lovers ::

Personal Embosser (From the library of)

Personal Library Kit from Knock Knock (oh, I miss the days of checkout cards and date stamps!)

Punctuation Page Markers (fun!)

Shakespearean Insult Bandages

First Lines of Literature Mug and Novel Teas (individually tagged with literary quotes)

Reading Journal

:: For Jane Austen Fans ::

Jane Austen Bandages

Jane Austen Tattoos (we had so much fun with these at book club!)

Marrying Mr. Darcy Board Game

Magnetic Poetry—Pride & Poetry Kit (or other authors such as Shakespeare, Brothers Grimm, or Edgar Allan Poe)

Shoeboxes!

We’re busy filling our shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. I recently came across this blog post full of fantastic suggestions, and I was thrilled to find a set of four small balls (soccer, basketball, football, and playground ball) that come deflated. The set includes a pump! I’ve read that boxes for boys ages 10-14 are the least packed boxes, so we chose to do those (since we have boys those ages!).

We spend very little on Christmas gifts in general. Our boys simply don’t need much and they don’t really play with toys. So we splurged a bit on these boxes.

All packed in a plastic water bottle, we added:

• Mini LED key chain flashlights (2)
• Pencils, sharpeners, and erasers (several of each)
• Ball point pens (4)
• Safety pins
• Comb
• Nail clippers
• Toothbrush travel set (with brush cover and toothpaste)
• Mini spiky rubber balls
• Cord bracelet
• Candy in a ziplock bag

We also added:

• Plain colored t-shirt (1)
• Underwear (1)
• Rope
• Small spiral notebook
• Soap in plastic travel case

There were so many other things I wanted to pack, but we couldn’t fit it all! I’m still not exactly sure how all of these things will get in these boxes, but I’m sure my husband can master-pack everything.

I was a little sorry we had decided to do boxes for boys this year when I saw this darling doll, though!

I’ve read elsewhere that they’ve had issues with any kind of candy (melting or rats getting into boxes!!), so I hope we’ll help eliminate those problems by double-bagging it and putting it in the water bottle.

Of course we have to watch Veggie Tales’ Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving as we’re filling our boxes! It’s a great way to introduce kids to Operation Christmas Child!

31 Days of Book Detectives ~ Day 28: The Family Under the Bridge

[Click here to read other posts in the series.]

For our second simple chapter book of this series, we head back to Christmas with The Family Under the Bridge, written by Natalie Savage Carlson and published in 1958.

Christmas, Paris, homeless children, and a charming old hobo—what more could you ask for? [grin] This book is a quick, uplifting story with delightful pictures by Garth Williams. It is available inexpensively at Amazon and most libraries should have it, so it makes a great book club selection, particularly in December when the book takes place.

The Family Under the Bridge may be a good example of multiple protagonists in a story. Armand needs some self-respect and a family to love (man vs. self) and the Calcet family needs a home and a grandfather after their father died (man vs. fate). Madame Calcet also needs to overcome her prejudice (man vs. self).

Crime Scene [Setting]

Where?

Paris (all over as they walk through the city)—cold and gray, but not cheerless

Under a Parisian bridge

In a gypsy camp

Real world

When?

One late morning in December, cold day, gray sky

Through Christmas until New Year’s Eve

1900s (maybe 1950s according to the style of cars in illustrations and publication date)

Suspects [Characters]

Who?

Armand—old hobo with all his belongings in a baby buggy, ragged clothing, lives under bridge, cheerful, polite, ready for adventure, relishes freedom and lack of responsibilities, no pride, hides his heart under a gruff exterior

Children—fatherless, poor, homeless, redheads: Suzy, Paul (has a bit of a swagger), and Evelyne; Armand calls them “starlings”

(Dog—Jojo)

Madame Calcet—“Mama,” widow, proud, hard worker, prejudiced

Gypsies—kind, generous, free-spirited

31 Days of Book Detectives ~ Day 26: The Story of Holly & Ivy

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I had to sneak in one more Barbara Cooney book before our series came to an end. In The Story of Holly & Ivy, a doll wishes for a girl, an orphan girl wishes for a doll and a grandmother, and a woman wishes for a girl. Fate brings them together on Christmas day. Cooney’s illustrations are a delight paired with the lengthy text.

“This is a story about wishing. It is also about a doll and a little girl. It begins with the doll.”

Crime Scene [Setting]

Where?

Mr. Blossom’s toy shop—window was lit and warm and decorated, in a little country town

St. Agnes’s—big house in the city, where 30 boys and girls had to live together

Mrs. Jones’s home

When?

Christmas Eve

1930s? (Judging by clothing)

Suspects [Characters]

Who?

Holly—doll, dressed for Christmas, 12 inches high, real gold hair, brown eyes that could open and shut, teeth like tiny china pearls, newest toy in toy shop, lonely

The other toys: Mallow and Wallow the baby hippopotamuses, Abracadabra the owl, Crumple the elephant, other dolls

Mr. Blossom—toy shop owner

Peter—shop boy, fifteen, red cheeks and a wide smile; he took good care of the toys; helpful

Ivy—little girl six years old with straight hair cut in a fringe, blue-gray eyes, and a turned-up nose; lonely, orphan

Mrs. Jones—woman, married, childless, sad

31 Days of Book Detectives ~ Day 25: The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree

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I cannot complete a series of picture books without including a book illustrated by Barbara Cooney. Not only is Barbara Cooney my favorite children’s book author-illustrator, but The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree: An Appalachian Story is my favorite Christmas book. (And clearly I have a thing for books about Christmas trees!)

If Ruthie is the protagonist in this story, I think the conflict would be man vs. fate because she is praying and hoping her wishes come true (and Papa coming home is her biggest wish). Mama certainly is the one driving the action forward, though. Other than Papa’s homecoming, she works hard to meet everyone’s expectations. So is it man vs. self and Mama is the protagonist? I chose the moment they found the balsam tree on the ridge as the climax because the book is titled “The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree.”

Crime Scene [Setting]

Where?

Valley of Pine Grove, Appalachian Mountains—snowy

Ruthie’s home

Pine Grove Church

High on a rocky craig up near heaven

When?

From spring time to Christmas time

End of the Great War (WWI—1918)

Suspects [Characters]

Who?

Ruthie—young girl, poor

Mama—frugal, kind and loving, honors commitments

31 Days of Book Detectives ~ Day 24: Christmas Farm

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Last year I added Christmas Farm to our gigantic Christmas book collection, and it is now one of my favorites. I want to hop right into the dreamy world the illustrator has created, and the friendship between Wilma and her five-year-old neighbor, Parker, is absolutely lovely. Using the comparison in age between Parker and the trees is a brilliant way to illustrate the passage of time, and I love watching the tree farm grow through the various seasons.

This is a wonderful Book Detectives selection for younger kids during the holiday season, and evergreen seedlings would make a fantastic Christmas gift!

Crime Scene [Setting]

Where?

Wilma’s back hill

Charming countryside in northern USA (somewhere with four seasons and fireflies, whip-poor-wills, deer, bobolinks, and moose)

Real world—dreamy, cheerful, idealistic

When?

Modern world

Five years, through each season

The childhood of Parker (adulthood of Wilma)

Suspects [Characters]

Who?

Wilma—adult woman, doesn’t seem to have a family but looks older with her hair and clothing, kind, loves to garden, entrepreneur, enjoys celebrating

Parker—five year old boy (to ten years old), hard worker, patient, enjoys being and working outside

31 Days of Book Detectives ~ Day 23: Tree of Cranes

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Yesterday I introduced author and illustrator Allen Say. Today we’ll explore his picture book Tree of Cranes as we segue into a few Christmas-themed picture books before ending this 31 Days series with a few simple chapter books.

This story is told in the 1st person, and we assume that the author is telling a story from his childhood. The scenery of a traditional Japanese home may fascinate children.

Origami cranes are an obvious craft to pair with this story, and children may be interested to know the 1000 Cranes Legend.

Is the protagonist the son or is it the mother? I think the mother needs to share her memories with her son.

Are traditions and memories important? Are they important to share with our children?

Is Christmas about more than trees and lights and gifts and love and peace?

Crime Scene [Setting]

Where?

Japan

The boy’s home

Real world (true story?)

When?

A single gray winter day, snowy and cold

Christmas

Suspects [Characters]

Who?

Young boy—mischievous

Mama—worried, quiet, sad

Christmas Walk

A few rays of sun were beaming down as soon as Christmas dinner was finished, so we skipped out on dishes to seize the rare moment.

[Documenting the shaved eyebrows…]

Alas, the dirty dishes didn’t clean themselves while we stretched our lungs in the fresh air.

Then games, pies, naps, conversations in quiet corners…

Christmas Day

The kids opened stockings at our house first thing Christmas morning. Then breakfast. Then gifts from siblings. Then we loaded up and drove two miles down the country road to Bambi and Poppy’s house where everyone gathered for Christmas Day.

Mom and Dad (Bambi and Poppy), Holly, Casey, Ilex, Drake, Ivy, Shannon, Ben, Rilla, Olive (Little Ben was at his Dad’s house), and our family of six.

After we had unloaded, taken pictures, and settled in, we opened our stockings.

 

Then gifts (one at a time, youngest to oldest). The kids receive small gifts from each family. The adults (16 and up) exchange names. My sister Holly usually has a lovely gift bag for each family filled with homemade items (jars of dried apples, blackberry jam made by Ilex, cinnamon ornaments made by Ivy, a family story or calendar…). My sister Shannon’s wrapping is always photo-worthy. My mom’s decorating is lovely. I tell them that they make me look good when I post pictures of them and their handiwork on my blog. [I make myself feel better about my lack of contribution by claiming to be the family’s chronicler.]

Best gifts:

(Due in May. We are so excited!!)

Our kids “fainted” in a heap when we told them that their Christmas present is a trip to Disneyland—next week!! Surprise!!

Leif’s shirt was my only attempt at crafting this Christmas season. I figured I could probably draw Fred with craft paint. Close enough. (Despite the look on his face in the picture, Leif did indeed love the shirt. He’s read our collection of 25+ Life of Fred books many, many times each.)

After gift-opening, the living room transformed into a dining room with the help of many hands. On the menu this Christmas: rib roast, bread dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, rolls, candied yams, fruit salad, our favorite jello salad, and Martinelli’s sparkling cider.

The sun was shining, so we snuck out before dishes to soak up some rare and precious rays on our traditional after-dinner walk. [Next post…]