The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

  There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

  Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

  Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.

  His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

 Psam 19:1-6

Charlotte Mason wrote, “A child might, in fact, receive a liberal education from the Bible alone, for The Book contains within itself a great literature” (Vol. 3, p. 235).  Who could disagree after reading passages like this?

The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. 

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

 Psalm 19:7-14

 In his earliest days the psalmist, while keeping his father’s flock, had devoted himself to the study of God’s two great books—nature and Scripture; and he had so thoroughly entered into the spirit of these two only volumes in his library that he was able with a devout criticism to compare and contrast them, magnifying the excellency of the Author as seen in both. How foolish and wicked are those who instead of accepting the two sacred tomes, and delighting to behold the same divine hand in each, spend all their wits in endeavouring to find discrepancies and contradictions. We may rest assured that the true "Vestiges of Creation" will never contradict Genesis, nor will a correct "Cosmos" be found at variance with the narrative of Moses. He is wisest who reads both the world book, and the Word book as two volumes of the same work, and feels concerning them, "My Father wrote them both."

Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David  

We are on vacation, enjoying making memories with my parents who are spending a couple of weeks with us.  (Sunday  was the first Father's Day I've spent with my Daddy since I married my chéri and moved away almost nine years ago!)

Posts will be infrequent over the summer as we spend more time outside and prepare for the arrival of our baby.  Have a wonderful summer!

The girls are working on their own ABC books. I have a box full of pictures I have cut out of old cards and magazines. We choose a letter to focus on, and then I have them search through the pictures for things that begin with that letter, and they arrange them on the page. They write the letter themselves, but I write the words underneath. I think their abécédaires will make nice keepsakes.

Rébecca

Annalissa

Katja

...and her new clothespins!

She was jumping up and down when Papa brought these home from the store!  Hanging out the laundry can hardly be called a "chore" for her. 

(click on the pictures for a larger view.)

"May I look at Little House in the Big Woods?"  Katja asked this morning. 

"I'll let you have it if you read me the whole first page, "I answered. 

She groaned and said she didn't think she could do it, but she would try because she really wanted to look at the book.  What she didn't know was we have been working in learning the first chapter of this book in our reading lessons.  She read through the first page easily (and didn't even stumble on "Wisconsin", which we hadn't learned, because she remembered the story took place there), turned the page and kept on going.  Papa was listening and was very impressed.  Katja felt a huge sense of accomplishment!

I've put a link to the Visual Dictionary in my sidebar.  Clicking on the animated button will take you to the English homepage.  From there, you can choose the category you would like, and then once you have chosen a page, you can click on the "language button at the top to change the page to French.  You can also search for a word in English or French.

For example, here is the English page for "Music" .  From there, I choose  the piano keyboard , and then click on "language" to go to the French page. 

We actually have these pages as a book, which I was thrilled to find at a second hand store here for 50 cents.  I find it very useful. 

Can you see who it is? 

(clickable)

It's not a very good picture, but "Welcome Robin" is a welcome sight indeed!  Spring is coming...

In 1964, Gilles Vigneault wrote a song called "Mon Pays", which has become a kind of winter anthem for Québec (see the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada for an article on its significance).  Many Québécois have these lyrics running through their head today!

MON PAYS

Mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver
Mon jardin ce n'est pas un jardin, c'est la plaine
Mon chemin ce n'est pas un chemin, c'est la neige
Mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver

Gilles Vigneault

(For the rest of the lyrics, click here.)

(photos are clickable)

I guess I need to teach the girls the lyrics of our national anthem.  Katja's been walking around singing:

O Canada!  Our only piece of land! ...

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. (Home Education, p. 203) .

Until a few weeks ago, we were working with loose letters.  I would write a word on the board; Katja looked at it until she was sure she would know it again, and then with her eyes closed she would spell the word out loud, and then with the loose letters.  Now that she is more comfortable writing, instead of spelling the word with letters, she writes it in her notebook.  This seems to be much more powerful.  She not only remembers the word, but also the letters, and she can write from memory.  It's also much faster than searching through the pile of letters for all the letters for "pocketbook"!

A friend recently asked me for some online book recommendations for her daughter.  I found some cute things, and I'll share them here, too.

At Charlotte Mason & Home Education , I came across a cute site with lots of activities for little people : author Jan Brett. 

Some nursery rhymes: The Real Mother Goose; Mother Goose illustrated by Kate Greenaway; and Mother Goose Melodies.

Some more Kate Greenaway titles : Under the Window, and A Apple Pie

The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter (there are many individual stories here as well). 

And the recipe for the yummy cookies I just pulled out of the oven : Chocolate-Chip Meringue Kisses.

Enjoy!

"Ma mignonne" and her baby

"Hiding" from his sister!

Winter pleasures

More winter fun!