Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival

If you ever wondered who Charlotte Mason is, and what she wrote about, check out the latest edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival here.

Handicrafts - Sewing

It's amazing what can be done with a bit of fabric, some thread, and a needle. Bethany in particular has been hand-sewing for several years now. She loves making clothes for her beanie bear and Sylvanians.

Here are some of the outfits made for "Pinky" this year:

These are some pictures from a Sylvanian wedding. Most of the outfits were hand-made by Bethany:

The girls all love to use my sewing machine too. Ainsley (8 yrs) designed and made her own apron:

Bethany has adapted a tote bag pattern we have used to make little bags of all different sizes. Here is the latest one. Beth made the tassel out of a skein of embroidery thread:

A Shakespeare Resource

One problem I had when deciding which Shakespeare play to start reading through was that I didn't know what most of the plays were about! I had studied MacBeth and King Lear in high school, but I didn't think the girls would enjoy them first up.

I found this lovely book on Trademe a few months ago, and I'm so glad I did. It has short summaries on every one of Shakespeare's plays, all written by Marchette Chute. The summaries are all around 10-12 pages in length, some shorter, so they are quickly read. Published first in 1960, my edition was published in 1979 and features a lovely dustjacket with illustrations of some of the characters from the plays.

Dixie Cook is a Winner!

We got a parcel in the mail today. Bethany won the Dr. Suess Poem Competition for her poem, Dixie Cook! She received a book of New Zealand stories called Pick 'n' Mix: Assorted Kiwi Stories. Emily also received an achievement certificate.

The winning poems have been published here: Tararua Library Dr Suess Poem Competition Winners.

I posted the girls' poems here.

Kittens

These are the results of our drawing lesson yesterday!
From left to right are kittens by Emily, Bethany & Ainsley.

Poet of the Week - William Blake

This week we have chosen to read some poems by William Blake. He wrote some beautiful poems for children. This is one I love:

The Lamb

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee,
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice
Making all the vales rejoice;
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I'll tell thee.
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee.
He is called by thy name,
For He calls Himself a Lamb:-
He is meek and He is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee;
Little Lamb, God bless thee.

The poem is taken from Anthology of Best-Loved Poems, selected by Andrew Lang.
It is a lovely hardcover book with poems by many of the great poets:

Drawing DVD pics

We enjoyed another lesson with Graham Braddock via his wonderful DVD last week. The latest lesson was how to draw a still life picture. We were all pleased with the results!

Top left: Ainsley (8yrs), top right: Me (30+yrs), bottom left: Bethany (12 yrs) and bottom right: Emily (10 yrs). Ainsley was allowed to use a layout guide, but the rest of us were on our own (apart from Graham's exceptional instruction of course!)