Blog Day 2005

Aug26


3108 This!

Have you ever noticed that the date 3108 looks a lot like the word “blog”? Well, neither have I–maybe because here in the U.S. we write dates in the “correct” order: month, day, year, 08/31/05. Actually, now that I think about it, the European style makes more sense: from shortest to longest, day, month, year.

Anyway, someone did notice the similarity and decided that August 31st would be a good day for Blog Day:

In one long moment on August 31st, bloggers from all over the world will post a recommendation of 5 new Blogs, Preferably, Blogs different from their own culture, point of view and attitude. On this day, blog surfers will find themselves leaping and discovering new, unknown Blogs, celebrating the discovery of new people and new bloggers.

Blog Day Posting Instructions
Where the Idea for Blog Day started

I think it sounds like fun. I’m looking for my five blogs to highlight, and I have my own self-imposed rule: All the blogs I highlight will be from outside the United States. They will also probably all be in English since I can only read one other language, Spanish, and I imagine most of my readers read only English. So, get ready for Blog Day next Wednesday.

Historical Fiction for Young Ladies, Part 1

Aug26

Patricia Beatty, b. August 26, 1922.
Ann Rinaldi, b. August 27, 1934.

Since these two excellent authors of historical fiction for children and young adults have birthdays so close together, I thought this would be a good time to give you a list of historical fiction, specifically US history, and especially for girls. I haven”t read all of these, but I have included books by many of my favorite authors, including Ann Rinaldi and Patricia Beatty. If you have young ladies in your home between the ages of ten and twenty who are studying or interested in US history, you are welcome to copy my list and share it with your favorite young lady. Or read them yourself. Go here for information, activities, lesson plans and more relating to the Dear America series of historical fiction in diary form from Scholastic.

Colonial Times, 1600’s and 1700’s
Lasky, Kathryn. A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple 1620.
Speare, Elizabeth. The Witch of Blackbird Pond. (1687)
Fraustino, Lisa Rowe. I Walk in Dread: The Diary of Deliverance Trembly, Witness to the Salem Witch Trials Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1691.
Rinaldi, Ann. A Break with Charity: A Story About the Salem Witch Trials. (1692)
Rinaldi, Ann. Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons: The Story of Phillis Wheatley.
Lenski, Lois. Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison. (1758)
Osborne, Mary Pope. Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, 1763.
McKissack, Patricia. Look to the Hills: The Diary of Lozette Maoreau, a French Slave Girl.
Rinaldi, Ann. The Fifth of March: The Story of the Boston Massacre.

American Revolution, 1770-1790
Rinaldi, Ann. Time Enough for Drums.
Turner, Ann. Love Thy Neighbor: The Tory Diary of Prudence Emerson, Green Marsh, Massachusetts, 1774.
Gregory, Kristiana. The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1777
Rinaldi, Ann. Taking Liberty: The Story of Oney Judge, George Washington’s Runaway Slave.
Rinaldi, Ann. Finishing Becca: A Story of Peggy Shippen and Benedict Arnold.
Rinaldi, Ann. A Ride into Morning: The Story of Tempe Wick. New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1991.
Rinaldi, Ann. The Secret of Sarah Revere.
Rinaldi, Ann. Or Give Me Death : A Novel of Patrick Henry’s Family.
Rinaldi, Ann. A Stitch in Time.
Rinaldi, Ann. Cast Two Shadows. (1780 in South Carolina)
O’Dell, Scott. Sarah Bishop.
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Fever 1793.

Westward Expansion/Early America, 1800-1850
Rianldi, Ann. Broken Days. (War of 1812)
Rinaldi, Ann. Wolf by the Ears. (Thomas Jefferson’s slave/daughter; early 1800’s)
Blos, Joan. A Gathering of Days. (1830-1832)
Rinaldi, Ann. The Education of Mary : A Little Miss of Color, 1832.
Garland, Sherry. A Line in the Sand: The Alamo Diary of Lucinda Lawrence Gonzales, Texas, 1836.
Rinaldi, Ann. The Blue Door. (1841)
Garland, Sherry. Valley of the Moon: The Diary of Maria Rosalia de Milagros, Sonoma Valley, Alta California, 1846.
Paterson, Katherine. Lyddie. (Lowell, Massachusets, 1840’s)
Denenberg, Barry. So Far From Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1847.
Gregory, Kristiana. Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell, 1847.
McDonald, Megan. All the Stars in the Sky: The Santa Fe Trail Diary of Florrie Mack Ryder, The Santa Fe Trail, 1848.
Gregory, Kristiana. Seeds of Hope: The Gold Rush Diary of Susanna Fairchild, California Territory, 1849.

Civil War/Slavery, mid 1800’s
McKissack, Patricia. A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl, Belmont Plantation, Virginia, 1859.
Rinaldi, Ann. Mine Eyes Have Seen. (1859– abolitionist John Brown)
Beatty, Patricia. Who Comes With Cannons.
Rinaldi, Ann. In My Father’s House.
Rinaldi, Ann. The Last Silk Dress.
Rinaldi, Ann. Girl in Blue.
Hesse, Karen. A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin, Fenwick Island, Delaware, 1861.
Rinaldi, Ann. Sarah’s Ground.
Rinaldi, Ann. Amelia’s War.
Denenberg, Barry. When Will This Cruel War Be Over?: The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson, Gordonsville, Virginia, 1864.
Beatty, Patricia. Turn Homeward, Hannalee.
Beatty, Patricia. Be Ever Hopeful, Hannalee.
Rinaldi, Ann. An Acquaintance with Darkness. (Lincoln’s assassination)
Rinaldi, Ann. Numbering All the Bones. (Andersonville Prison)
Hansen, Joyce. I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl, Mars Bluff, South Carolina, 1865.

I think I’ll save the second half of this post for tomorrow.

Homeschooling Tip of the Week #3

Aug25

The new-to-me blogger at Seasonal Soundings is an experienced homeschool mom of four. In the post Today in History she suggests an exercise she used with her four children when they were younger:

Each child was assigned a person or topic for the day about which they looked for in the encyclopedia. In this exercise, the older children learned to paraphrase the content and practiced their handwriting. The younger children were allowed to copy a few of the beginning lines of their topic.

This simple little practice was initially designed to help their handwriting. A side benefit was that they became familiar with names and places that they might not otherwise. Plus, I have kept those notebooks filled with information they wrote. They enjoy leafing back through all those pages, and I enjoy hearing those “Oh, I remember this!”

I’m doing something similar with a couple of my students. We have “copywork” each day–a quote or a sentence or two related to something that happened on that date in history. I haven’t been very consistent in doing this daily, but I hope to get better. It would be fun to look back at their copywork notebooks someday.

Homeschooling Tip of the Week #1
Homeschooling Tip of the Week #2
A Typical Day in Our Homeschool: Part 1,
A Typical Day in Our Homeschool: Part 2,
A Typical Day in Our Homeschool: Part 3.
A Typical Day in Our Homeschool: Part 4.

Born August 24th

Aug24

Max Beerbohm, b. 1872, was an English satirist, critic and caricaturist. Quotation of the day: “Anything that is worth doing has been done frequently. Things hitherto undone should be given, I suspect, a wide berth.”

I’d like to look at one book of caricatures by Beerbohm entitled Rossetti and His Circle because I’m interested in Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, and the Pre-Raphaelites. I wrote here about the movie that first piqued my interest in Rossetti and his circle of friends.

Make your own caricatures, using the web application Goo, of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, the Democrat donkey or the Republican elephant. Karate Kid thought this site was loads of fun.

Where We Put the Books

Aug23

I think every available wall in our home has a bookcase–many of them floor to ceiling.

mysteryshelf
I have all my paperback murder mysteries—mostly Agatha Christie and Rex Stout and Dorothy Sayers–on a small black metal shelf. One of my bedroom walls is covered in bookshelf, and it houses many of Engineer Husband’s science and math books. We have another large shelf full of children’s science books, another with US History-related books, and another world history related books.

history shelf

In the living room we have a shelf full of Picture Book Preschool books, another with fiction, and another with mostly Bibles, commentaries, and art books.

pbpshelf

We have holiday books, cookbooks, foreign languages and biographies shelved in the gameroom, and each of the urchins has a shelf for school books. Oh, and there’s more fiction in Organizer Daughter’s bedroom, and more picture books in the boys’ room. And I still have books in boxes in the garage.

I’m ashamed to say that our shelves don’t look nearly as neat as Carmon’s and MMV’s; we have a bad habit of stacking things on top of the books in the shelves–notebooks, a radio, videos, a rolled-up poster, science supplies. I can see these things just in the bookshelf next to my computer.lrshelf

Last but not least, I forgot about the books waiting for a home that are stacked behind my closet door.stacked books

What’s a bibliophile to do? Build more bookshelves.

Picture Book Preschool: Week 35

Aug22

Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. You can purchase a downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.

WEEK 35 (Aug) CITIES
Character Trait: Meekness
Bible Verse: Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5

1. Isadora, Rachel. City Seen from A to Z. Greenwillow, 1983.
2. Burton, Virginia Lee. The Little House. HoughtonMifflin, 1942.
3. Tresselt, Alvin. Wake Up, City. Lothrop Lee, 1957, 1990.
4. Keats, Ezra Jack. Whistle for Willie. Viking, 1964.
5. Munro, Roxie. The Inside-Outside Book of New York City. Dodd, 1985. OP
6. Lenski, Lois. Sing A Song of People. Little Brown, 1985, 1987.
7. Ransom, Candice. The Big Green Pocketbook. HarperCollins, 1993.

Activities : Take a bus ride in the city. Talk about all the things you see. When you get home, you may want to write a story about your experience.

Blogging 101

Aug21

LaShawn Barber is giving advice about blogging, and I think it’s good advice. She says,

Everyone and his mother are blogging. To stand out, individual bloggers will need to “niche blog.” That is, pick a topic you know a lot about or want to know more about, find out what’s currently out there, and more importantly, what’s not, and start filling in the gaps.

The problem is that I don’t want to blog that way. Is this a litblog or a homeschooling blog or a political blog (yes, I air my views on that topic sometimes) or a Christian inspirational blog or . . . Well, it’s all of the above and none of the above and more. I know that if someone comes here looking for a book review and finds me blogging about a day in our homeschool or vice-versa, that reader might be less likely to come back. Or what if a young guy who’s interested in a Christian perspective on the news reads one of my mommy posts? Or a movie buff finds my list of 105 Best Movies Ever and comes to Semicolon expecting more of the same, only to find me talking about books, books, and more books.

Well, sorry, guys, but I do this for enjoyment, not for stats or for the money (what money?). So I’ll just keep blogging about whatever suits my fancy and hope that it suits some of you, too. I just don’t fit in a “niche”—so I guess I’ll remain an insignificant little semicolon. However, everybody needs a semicolon every once in a great while.

Friday Blogamundi

Aug19

Debra blogs about learning life lessons at the supermarket. It’s the simple things that God asks us to do that are the hardest sometimes, like putting away the shopping cart at the grocery store, like dunking seven times in the Jordan. Debra’s also writing about the colleges she’s attended. Well, you know how the Sixth Sense kid saw dead people everywhere? I see colleges everywhere. I told her she sounds like a homeschooler.

Now according to Joanne Jacobs, the teacher unions want us to boycott Walmart. The question is: do they want us to quit Walmart-ing because of their allegedly discriminatory business practices or because the Walton family has given lots of money to private schools and school voucher advocates?

Ambra Nykol tells the guys How Not to Get a Wife.
Sample of Nykola’s contrarian advice: 6. Have hair that is both prettier, and longer than the average woman. This is not a Pantene Pro-V commercial. This goes out to all the Yannis and the Snoop Doggs of the world. Very few men can pull off long hair.

This calendar of the Christian year looks cool. Maybe someone will get me one for Christmas, hint, hint.

I understand why some blogs don’t allow comments. It’s a pain to keep up with the spam and the trolls. However, I really like comments, and now Jonathan Witt at Wittingshire gives in to popular demand and allows Dr. Falduh A. Rall to guest-blog a dissenting Darwinist view. Read it now; I don’t think Dr. Rall will be back anytime soon. He’s already starting to repeat himself.

Good advice from Face at the A-Team Blog. “Let’s train, build up, and promote each other. We need to suppress our egos (not always an easy task!) and place the importance of spreading the message above our own fame and influence. Let’s welcome the magnification of God’s truth from whichever source it comes and lose ourselves for God’s purposes as he weaves all of our small voices into one large, complex, textured tapestry declaring His glory from all directions.” Read the whole post.

Hey, my kids know this homeschooled director/filmmaker. They met in an online class for homeschoolers, and they met in person for bowling and Dairy Queen about a year ago. Way to go, Julie! (I read abou this movie making venture first at HE & OS.)

Question of the Day blog This blogger gives out a question a day to get your brain going. Samples:
If you could carve your name in stone anywhere in America, where would you do it?
What is your favorite gadget?
What is your favorite day of the year?
What is something that you forgot once, but will never forget again?
You can answer in the comments section or in your own blog. What a creative idea! How do people come up with this stuff? Rodney Olsen at The Journey put me onto this one.