Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks

Roxaboxen ~ Day One

Read Roxaboxen

Found Arizona on globe

Printed map of Arizona.  Found and highlighted town of Yuma.

Cut out shape of Arizona with a note that it was our 48th state.

Made double lapbooks...see first fold, made two of these then matched tabs and glued together.

Made map on index card of Roxaboxen (Gel pens seem to be smearing).

Wrote and defined three vocabulary words on index cards:  aerial and biome and arizonac

Discussed biomes : especially the desert biome

Looked through Roxaboxen for plants and animals found in a desert biome then made a cactus flip-book and wrote items on the arms of the cactus.

Made list of characters & shops with plans to make matchbooks to insert in lapbook.

Looked over Roxaboxen Park photo site.  I reminded the girls that it was a place out in the desert so it's very barren and made up of only rocks and sand.  The pictures were (are) disappointing compared to the image in their imagination.  After seeing the colors and possibilities in the picture book, the real thing was (is) very dry and pall. 

This gave me a platform to discuss with my girls how the children in the book were just like them and their friends and how, facing a barren desert of sand and rocks, they had to think of a way to color their day and bring beauty into their life. 

They did this by using their imagination and creativity.

For supper, we made a Roxaboxen Sandlot (our invented name).  In reality, it's a Shepherd's Pie topped with tater tots instead of mashed potatoes. 

• Brown pound of ground meat with seasoning
• Drain
• Blend in one can of cream of mushroom soup
• Add one can of corn and one can of string beans
• Stir together
• Place in open casserole dish
• Let children create their own Roxaboxen stone roads and town using the tater tots
• Bake in 350F oven for 20 minutes until tater tots are lightly browned
• Take out of oven and sprinkle grated cheese on top, let melt.

We've have only begun this study and twice today Chelsea ran up to me with, "I want to do more!"

Such are the blessings of FIAR.

Roxaboxen

Today we begin our literature study and lapbook of Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran and illustrated by Barbara Cooney.

"Once upon a time, a long time ago, the children of our neighborhood built a city out of rocks, boxes and colored glass, and named it, what else, Roxaboxen.

The streets were clearly marked for the children to ride their stick horses and drive their imaginary cars. The town included a bakery, ice cream parlor and a cemetery with a lizard buried in it.

The experience of this magical world in the middle of Yuma, Arizona was never forgotten by any of the children, who became parents and grandparents themselves.

Now nearly a century later, this rocky little hill is a city park, left mostly in it's natural state with a few trees and brightly decorated benches. It is dedicated to the imagination and creativity of children. "

Check back for a visit.

Roxaboxen Park in Arizona (click on links to see pictures of the park)

Roxaboxen Park in 2003

Because of Betsy

I still remember Betsy Ray fondly after all these years.  I discovered her in the school library during my junior high school years.  And I adored her.  I read the whole series and looked high and low for them at the only bookstore we had---Walden's Books in the mall---to no avail.  There were no home computers at the time so I couldn't do a quick Google, Amazon, or Ebay search.  There was no such thing.  I was taking a Word Processing class in high school.  That was as high tech as it got. 

During my high school years I continued to check out the series from the public library and together we went to high school, graduated, and got married.

So I remember vividly the day I visited Walden's Book and saw a hint of mint loitering cunningly on the bookshelf.  Heavens to Betsy!  I still remember reaching for it with fingers that had goosebumps on the tips.  I wanted that lime green book as much as Amy wanted those plump, juicy limes in Little Women.  I quickly scanned the book spine, not even hoping to hope. 

I brought home Heaven to Betsy and Betsy in Spite of Herself that day.  Paperback copies.  Not the hardbacks that my mother always insisted upon when buying the Little House or Anne of Green Gable books.  But I was not letting these treasures go.  I was unsure if any other copies existed.  Finding these two books was as rare as finding a live dinosaur. 

Thank heavens my mother never minded spending money on books...bless her.

I continued to haunt that shelf whenever luck brought me to that bookstore.  Slowly the books began to roll off the presses onto the bookshelves.  I found myself the proud owner of all the Betsy-Tacy books.  My childhood was made richer because of Betsy, Tacy, and Tib.  During my college days, I continued to read about Betsy and her friends.   They were are that dear to me.

• I learned about Uncle Tom's Cabin because of Betsy Ray.
• I tried learning German because of dear Tib.
• I always wondered if one could mix egg into coffee like Mr. Ray did.
• I named my cat Bettina.
• I considered becoming Episcopalian because Betsy and Julia did.   When I learned how alike the Episcopalian faith is to Catholicism, I was glad I didn't change.  Besides, Tacy was Catholic.
• I tried to like opera because of Julia.  Phantom of the Opera is as close as I've gotten.
• I sprayed a letter to my boyfriend with perfume just like Betsy did.  Everyone in his English class wondered what was that smell???
• I wanted to travel and see the Great World just like Betsy.
• I was pleased that Betsy's birthday was the same month as mine (April) and that she wanted to be a writer too.

My paperback covers are a bit ragged but still whole.  I preferred the older illustrated covers to the newer version but I was happy to have my copies regardless.  The drawings by Vera Neville are lovely and lithing.  I always imagined Betsy-Tacy-Tib exactly as they were in these drawings and cannot imagine any other illustrator doing them.  The earlier books are illustrated by Lois Lenski (Strawberry Girl) whose drawings I always found a bit scary.  While I still prefer Vera Neville, much time and profile study has endeared me to Lenski.  I have come to admire her artwork.  I now find it interesting and perhaps more realistic then Neville's.

So, as these books are now becoming out-of-print dinosaurs, it's time to invest some money into the lives of your children and grandchildren and pick them up before they turn into fossils that you have to dig and search for.

Books by Maud Hart Lovelace

More Amelia

The book I picked up at the library today because I know how much Starr loves Amelia Bedelia.

The book Daddy is reading her right now.

Amelia Bedelia and the Christmas List

The Children's Hour

Check with your local library to begin the New Year and find selections for January:

SEASONAL

A Time to Keep (Tasha Tudor's Book of Holidays) by Tasha Tudor

Around the Year by Tasha Tudor

A Child's Calendar by John Updike/ Trina Schart Hyman

A Child's Year (Little Golden Book) by Joan Walsh Anglund

The Year at Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Provensen

My Favorite Seasons by Dandi/ Teddy Edinjiklian

The Little Golden Book of Holidays by Jean Lewis/ Kathy Wilburn

Homeplace by Anne Shelby/ Wendy Anderson Halperin

Math for All Seasons by Greg Tang/ Harry Briggs 

Anno’s Counting Book by Mitsumasa Anno 

New Year Be Coming by Katharine Boling/ Daniel Minter

JANUARY

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost/ Susan Jeffers

The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen/ Rachel Isadora

(January 1^st) Mary by Tomie dePaola

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night by Bruce Coville/ Tim Raglin

(Born January 4, 1809) A Picture Book of Louis Braille by David Adler/ John & Alexandra Wallner

(Born January 17, 1706) How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning by Rosalyn Schanzer

(January 19^th) I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr./ Foreword by Coretta Scott King 

The Seeds of Peace by Laura Berkeley/ Alison Dexter

Molly Banneky by Alice McGill/ Chris K. Soentpiet 

Dear Benjamin Banneker by Andrea Davis Pinkney/ Brian Pinkney 

Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson/ James Ransome 

Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter 

The Rag Coat by Lauren A. Mills 

A Weed is a Flower by Aliki

(Event January 1856) Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie by Peter & Connie Roop/ Peter Hanson

(Born January 27, 1756) Mozart by Catherine Brighton/ Mozart Tonight by Julie Downing

The Cat Who Loved Mozart by Patricia Austin/ Henri Sorenson

(Event happened in Winter 1917) Baby in a Basket by Gloria Rand/ Ted Rand

100 School Days by Anne Rockwell/ Lizzy Rockwell

The whole Children's Hour Year found here.

A FireFly in a Fir Tree

Today we read A Firefly in a Fir Tree: A Carol for Mice by Hilary Knight.

This book doesn't have any religious significance.  We read it because we love Hilary Knight's illustrations.  Hilary Knight is best known for his illustrations found in the Eloise books.

We also enjoyed it because my children know that I love books about cute little mice.  I have a weakness for these creatures...as long as they are in books and not in my house.

Is there a Santa Claus?

In time honored tradition and in keeping with my simplicity-theme this Advent season, I read the book Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa (illustrated by Joel Spector ~ hands down this is the best rendition out there) to my younger children after they had opened their book packs this morning.  Francis P. Church's response is worth reading and re-reading every year, adults and children alike.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

By Francis P. Church, first published in The New York Sun in 1897.

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

*****

Go here to read about the letter exchange:   About the Exchange (click and scroll down)

Baskets

<p><a onclick="window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false" href="http://caygibson.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/sewing_1.jpg"><img title="Sewing_1" height="75" alt="Sewing_1" src="https://caygibson.typepad.com/cays_cajun_cottage/images/sewing_1.jpg" width="100" border="0" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px" /></a>Even as I child, I adored baskets.&nbsp; &nbsp;Baskets are woven vessels that hold our treasures, our hopes, our dreams, and---many times---our childhood.</p> <p>How many of us have wondered what was in that basket Dorothy carried all the way to Oz and back??&nbsp; </p> <p>A couple years ago my girls were part of a sewing group.&nbsp; There was nothing cuter than seeing these girls coming together all with their sewing baskets swinging from their arms.&nbsp; </p> <p>Baskets around the house offer a Martha Stewart way of dressing up a house, tidying up a room, and making even <a href="http://dawnathome.typepad.com/by_sun_and_candlelight/2006/05/boy_meets_girl.html">Monster Trucks look fashionable</a>...as <a href="http://dawnathome.typepad.com/">Dawn</a> so eloquently shows us. My mother collects baskets.&nbsp; There is an artistic heap of them positioned under her breakfast room window.&nbsp; Elizabeth offers her visitors <a href="http://ebeth.typepad.com/reallearning/2006/05/baskets_of_book.html">Baskets of Books</a> as does <a href="http://dawnathome.typepad.com/by_sun_and_candlelight/2006/05/reading_for_sum.html">Dawn</a>. </p> <p>So I was delighted to come upon this book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0531058867/houseoflitera-20/"><em>Basket </em>by George Ella Lyon</a>.</p> <p><a onclick="window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=240,height=240,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false" href="http://caygibson.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/basket.jpg"><img title="Basket" height="100" alt="Basket" src="https://caygibson.typepad.com/cays_cajun_cottage/images/basket.jpg" width="100" border="0" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px" /></a>I cannot remember if the book was recommended on someone else's blog or if I went googling for George Ella Lyon's books after participating in the <a href="http://caygibson.typepad.com/cays_cajun_cottage/2006/06/where_im_from.html"><em>Where I'm From</em></a><em> </em>spin-off begun by <a href="http://joyinthemorning.clubmom.com/">Loni</a>.&nbsp; &nbsp;But, however it was presented to me, I'm thankful it was.</p> <p>Pick-it-up I did from my library and read it I did.&nbsp; It's excellent!&nbsp; </p> <p>Grandmother's basket held eggs, peaches, pot holders, rosses...&quot;scissors in the bottom sometimes.&quot;&nbsp; It stowed plums and Christmas holly, a flashlight, Grandmother's best thread, picture stickers, a &quot;bottle of white ink&quot;, and a garden pick.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>Now it holds stories and memories&nbsp; all strung together with a simple spool of thread to be drawn out to the next generation.</p> <p>The bittersweet legend of a grandmother's basket---representing treasured memories and lost days---and the finding of a spool of thread---representing life's thread that connects each generation to the next---weave this book into a message and poem that sings to the heart.&nbsp; </p> <p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0531058867/houseoflitera-20/"></a></p>

Baskets

Even as I child, I adored baskets.   Baskets are woven vessels that hold our treasures, our hopes, our dreams, and---many times---our childhood.

How many of us have wondered what was in that basket Dorothy carried all the way to Oz and back?? 

A couple years ago my girls were part of a sewing group.  There was nothing cuter than seeing these girls coming together all with their sewing baskets swinging from their arms. 

Baskets around the house offer a Martha Stewart way of dressing up a house, tidying up a room, and making even Monster Trucks look fashionable...as Dawn so eloquently shows us. My mother collects baskets.  There is an artistic heap of them positioned under her breakfast room window.  Elizabeth offers her visitors Baskets of Books as does Dawn.

So I was delighted to come upon this book: Basket by George Ella Lyon.

I cannot remember if the book was recommended on someone else's blog or if I went googling for George Ella Lyon's books after participating in the Where I'm From spin-off begun by Loni.   But, however it was presented to me, I'm thankful it was.

Pick-it-up I did from my library and read it I did.  It's excellent! 

Grandmother's basket held eggs, peaches, pot holders, rosses..."scissors in the bottom sometimes."  It stowed plums and Christmas holly, a flashlight, Grandmother's best thread, picture stickers, a "bottle of white ink", and a garden pick.   

Now it holds stories and memories  all strung together with a simple spool of thread to be drawn out to the next generation.

The bittersweet legend of a grandmother's basket---representing treasured memories and lost days---and the finding of a spool of thread---representing life's thread that connects each generation to the next---weave this book into a message and poem that sings to the heart. 

Catholic Mosaic

<p><a onclick="window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=250,height=359,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false" href="http://caygibson.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/mosaic_of_st_valentine.jpg"><img title="Mosaic_of_st_valentine" height="143" alt="Mosaic_of_st_valentine" src="https://caygibson.typepad.com/cays_cajun_cottage/images/mosaic_of_st_valentine.jpg" width="100" border="0" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px" /></a>Mary G. has blessed me with a wonderful review of my up-coming book (published by <a href="http://www.hillsideeducation.com/"><strong>Hillside Education</strong></a>) :&nbsp; <a href="http://love2learnblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/very-ambitious-project-that.html"><strong>A Very Ambitious Project</strong></a>.</p> <p>I hope the book blesses you and your family in the same way.&nbsp; </p> <p><em>Catholic Mosaic</em> will be unveiled at the <a href="http://www.family-centered.com/conference.html"><strong>Family-Centered 2006 Catholic Home and Education Conference</strong></a> on May19th.&nbsp; After that date, it will be available at <a href="http://www.hillsideeducation.com"><strong>Hillside Education website</strong></a>.</p>