Sentences are the first goal in writing, and although they may be compared to baby steps, they are not just for the young grades. Even adult authors need to know the different ways to craft sentences and to combine sentences. There are rules that govern sentence building, and amazingly there are actually only a few basic sentence patterns. Master these five sentence types, and you can write anything -- correctly! Read Full Story

Remember the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies? Even if you think you don't, I'm positive that you do! Listen to this midi file and you'll instantly recognize the tune. That famous piece was written by Tchaikovsky as part of The Nutcracker ballet. Peter Tchaikovsky lived from 1840 - 1893 and is considered one of the great Romantic composers of Western music. He took passionate and fanciful tales such as Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty and set them to beautiful music that was u... Read Full Story

Most cultures have a harvest festival. China is no exception. The Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节 (Zhong Qiu Jie) is one of the three most important, traditional Chinese holidays. (The other two are Chinese New Year and Dragon Boat Festival.) It takes place on the fifteenth day of the eighth month (according to the lunar calendar). It is usually on or close to the time of the Harvest Moon, when the moon appears at its fullest during the autumn equinox. It is also sometimes call... Read Full Story

I enjoy reading blogs. That peek into another mom's daily life offers inspiration and focus. Yes, in fact, I am doing enough in our homeschool. Or perhaps, no, I'm not doing enough in this area, but this blog gives me some great ideas for how to get on track! Here are my favorite Charlotte Mason themed blogs. The authors are all homeschooling moms who know what they are talking about. These are not theorists but daily practitioners who don't gloss over the realities of educating y... Read Full Story

Vermeer is a rather mysterious artist. We have no portraits to tell us what he looked like. Even the facts of his life are few. We do know that he left only thirty-five paintings, and his creation of a few of them is still disputed. With little background information on his life and just a few dozen paintings, Vermeer makes a great artist for a Charlotte Mason styled artist study because there are no lengthy biographies to distract us from enjoying his art. Just dive in and enjoy his painting... Read Full Story

A rich and full homeschool education is sure to include some study of classical music and the famous composers who write its music. The Charlotte Mason style of studying composers is an easy and inexpensive way to expose your children to the masters of music so that they grow up both appreciating classical music and knowing a bit about it. Here you can read the basic how-tos for a CM composer study, find possible composers to study, and browse at the best audio, text, and online resources. Read Full Story

Biographies are a mainstay of a living books curriculum. Therefore biographies of mathematicians are a key part of living approach to math. In my transition to living math, I bought the book, Mathematicians Are People, Too. It is composed of 15 chapters, each recounting a specific incident from the life of a famous mathematician. We like to use notebooking as a narration technique, even for math, so I decided to design some notebooking pages to go with each mathematician in the book. In my re... Read Full Story

Calzone is a close cousin to pizza; you could even call it wrapped up pizza because the filling is encased in the delicious dough rather than sitting on top. Want to impress your family? Need a handy food, easy to eat at a picnic or party? Calzone fits the bill. Cut it into slices, and it can be eaten with your hands! Here are step by step directions with photos for making large, homemade calzones. Read Full Story

October 16, the birthday of Noah Webster, is Dictionary Day in America. Show your appreciation for this most useful of reference books by celebrating Dictionary Day with your children --learn some new words, learn how dictionaries came to be, spruce up your dictionary skills, or even create your own dictionary! Read Full Story

Croquettes are small rounded foods usually made of minced meat, fish, or vegetable coated with egg and bread crumbs and deep-fried. They are commonly served with a cream or tomato sauce, but they are equally good plain. Do you know how to say "croquette?" Click here for the pronunciation. My mother made these as I was growing up, and I learned how to make them from watching and helping her in the kitchen. Be sure to look for the link to the printable recipe card on this page. My favorite t... Read Full Story