Really, It's the End!

Dalekboy has set up an LJ feed for The Genial Hearth. It seems to truncate the posts, which I think is kind of good—means you all have to go there to read the full post, so it's easy for you to comment there:-)

If you do sign up, can you give me a hoy? The feed setup only allows you to know the number of followers, not who they are—and it's nice to know who's reading:-)

So now all of you on LJ have another option:-)

Subscribe!

Almost certainly the last post!

I know that I have a number of readers who followed the blog via an LJ feed. I can't set that up for you on the new blog and it does make comments a challenge (they disappear after a short space, and I don't always realise people have commented:-( ). But I know that many of you don't use a separate feedreader either.

Then I remembered that I've seen blogs with email subscriptions! And I thought "I can do that!" So I have.

You can find the link (at The Genial Hearth, obviously) in the right hand sidebar, towards the bottom (just after the Picture Study). You can also choose to subscribe to the comments.

Hope this helps:-) I haven't used this before, so it's a bit of an experiment for me:-)

Carnival of Homeschooling

That's right, Carnival time again!

Apollos Academy hosts again, presenting the 93rd Carnival of Homeschooling. There's a post about using the library, Mama Squirrel talks about her recent theme days, some cool quotes and that's not all! Go and look for yourself:-)

A Farewell of Sorts

I'm leaving Blogger.

For a while now I've been working on my new blog, and I've finally got it sorted.

So, no more posts here–they're already over at the new blog (along with _some_ of your comments!)

There are also a handful of extra posts.

Head on over and visit me at The Genial Hearth!

Computing

Paddington has recently posted on Newton's Lore about some of the software we've been using with Puggle. No need to go and purchase anything special to teach mouse control:-)

I'm guessing it comes as no surprise to anyone who knows us that Puggle is desperately keen on using the computer:-)

Pate

We've been on a bit of a paté kick just recently. I've kept commenting that I should have a go at making it. This time around for our Wine Dinner, I was on entréé. It seemed as though Paté would be eminently suitable. Paddington suggested I ask his mum for her recipe.


makes about 5 cups
500 grams chicken liver
250 grams butter
1 chopped onion
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper
basil/oregano/marjoram/garlic
brandy
parsley

Put the butter, onion, liver, bay, salt and pepper and whatever herbs you plan to include, in a bowl in the microwave. Cook on high for 5 minutes, then remove and stir. Return to the microwave and cook on high for another 10 minutes. Pour into a food processor and blend until smooth.

Pour into ramekins or other containers. Top with a layer of (extra) melted butter. Place in the fridge to set. This recipe is suitable to freeze.

I served it with some of my bread, made into four long rolls (like mini-baguettes) and sliced.

I'm pretty happy with it. Paddington's mother likes this recipe because you don't have to touch the liver—and I have to admit, that's nice:-) I think this was a good starting point, but it needs some tweaking I feel. Of course, we still have three serves left in the freezer:-) I'd like to try it with juniper berries in it, and I think it definitely needs more pepper. Maybe some salt.

Painting By Numbers (Not!)

In all the recent art talk I've been noticing watercolours with interest. Then, a couple of weeks ago, Alice posted her family's lessons (and I'm hoping there will be more!) I really like what she did, but I'm very aware that her children are much older... so I can't just 'follow'. Then the last time we went to the library I picked up The Usborne Book of Art Ideas. It has a number of really cool projects. But more importantly, it included some more information about about basic watercolours.

And today we gave it a go:-)

(I got set up while Puggle napped—I wasn't at all sure what I was going to do... so I did an experiment first.)

We each had brushes, a palette and we shared a couple of water jars. Before we began I told Puggle how the brushes are like gnomes and don't like their beards being wet, and how they need to be dried carefully. We sponged the sheets of paper (140gsm card... it's what we had around that seemed most appropriate). I then put a dab of yellow paint in one hollow, then showed Puggle how to mix some water with it. We then attempted to do a wash on half the page. We then had a go with the red on the other half.


[In the photo you can see clockwise from top left, the pencil swirls, Puggle's effort, my demonstration, and my experiment.]

Puggle painted over the whole thing with the red, because he ran out of yellow:-) We then dabbed off some of the paint with a paper towel.

We were still having fun, so I got out the Aquarelles to add some details to my experiment. Puggle has wanted to try using them, so today he had the opportunity. We both did some swirls and squiggles on the page. Then we went back to the table to add water to our work. And then we both cleaned up. I was amazed at how easy it was to achieve something that looked beautiful!

It was a very satisfying afternoon's work. Even though he was still enjoying himself at the end, I think I'll stick with one picture... he was beginning to hit too long on task. The next couple of sessions we'll do the same with blue/yellow and blue/red, then probably repeat with perhaps more of a focus on mixing. Then we might have a go with all three primary colours, at which point it might be possible to use some of the activities Alice did in her first lesson:-)

And then there's a whole pile of ideas from The Usborne Book of Art Ideas that I'd love to try with him, but they use other media so they can wait for now.

Sitting

This morning, while Paddington and I were watching, Bilby sat herself up! I had been starting to feel a little concerned (not really, but to the point of browsing Developmental Milestone lists), but she did it herself:-) Only once (and I don't think she knew what she'd done to deserve the grins and cheers:-) ), but I'm sure it will be repeated:-)

This Week

Our plans for
Week 4, Block 8
‘How many miles to Babylon?’, ‘Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Hold my horse’ from My Very First Mother Goose by Iona Opie
‘Historical Associations’ from A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert L. Stevenson
‘The Tinderbox' from The Yellow Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
The Tale of Mr Tod* by Beatrix Potter
Folksong: The Battle of the Boyne
Composer: Richard Wagner
Work: selections from The Valkyries
Artist: Titian
Work: The Assumption of the Virgin
Art Activity: Make a velvet 'V'. Make a vase.
Cooking: Fruit Cobbler Crunch

*We may do one of the other stories we missed earlier in the year.

Progress

This has seemed to be a fairly productive week. Around us, it's school holidays, so we have a break from our usual organised events which has definitely helped. It's also been our first week without Latin.

The Mat Time is definitely working for us at the moment. Puggle happily unrolls the mat, brings the books, we light the candle and then we sing and read and recite.

This last week, he loved 'The Gardener' and often asked me to tell it to him at other times. We ended up reading 'The Pie and the Patty-Pan', which I'd had on the plan for earlier in the year, and it somehow slipped away. Puggle has been narrating it back to us (I'm choosing to use 'narrate' for 'adopting quotes into his daily life'). So my cooking has been accompanied by "Gammon! Ha HA!" and the like.

And we have sung much, and often (not just at Mat Time). Puggle often entertains Bilby with a song or nursery rhyme. "Parva Casa" is continuing to be a big favourite (one of the reasons I chose it—Puggle loves 'In a Cottage, In a Wood', so I thought it would be popular:-) ). We can probably replace that one soon.

Crafting Warning

I'm planning to be crafting on Sunday the 14th of October (a week earlier than previously mentioned!) Hereafter, Craft Sunday will be on the Sunday closest to the 15th of the month (unless I say otherwise:-) ).

Turn up from about 1.30 onwards, with stuff to do, something to nibble and some conversation:-)

Photo-hog!

Bilby is quite fond of the camera!

She has reached the point where one sight of it and she'll grin wildly—and move towards it as fast as she can:-) The trick to actually managing to catch her, is to pre-focus closer than she is, and wait until she moves in (at least while I'm using film and the shutter release is prompt!)

(Fortunately, she's terribly photogenic, so it doesn't matter that I have a bazillion shots of her:-) )

More Carnival Fun!

The Carnival of Homeschooling has been going for a while now, the 92nd edition is up at Tami's blog!

I've been reading these on and off for sometime, and I've usually found some interesting pointers—and I've certainly found some interesting posters:-)

Cybils Nominations Open

I'm not sure how much reading of the Kidlitosphere (hat tip to Lissa, readers of my blog do, but the Cybils are now accepting nominations (they're a literary bloggers award).

Nominate your favourite book, published in 2007, in each catagory.
Fantasy and Science Fiction
Fiction Picture Books
Graphic Novels
Middle Grade Fiction
Non Fiction, Middle Grade and Young Adult
Non fiction, Picture Books
Poetry
Young Adult Fiction
(Remember to only nominate one book per catagory!)

(Hat tip to Becky.)

Carnival Time!

The second Charlotte Mason Carnival is up—with a focus on music:-) A common theme seems to be the suggestion of YouTube as a great resource for Composer Study.

On a related note, I didn't want to loose track of Higher Up and Further In's (a great CM resource!) post on Learning to Play the Piano.

(I didn't post about the first one, looking at Nature Study, but I found a number of interesting posts through it... and was re-inspired:-) )