Aug 11, 2006

An Unschooling gem.....................

http://connections.organiclearning.org/renallen.html

I couldn't have put it better myself ;)

The art of letter writing................

http://www.wendy.com/letterwriting/

I love to write letters....and even more than writing them, I love to receive them......I have always had penpals ever since I was about 12....maybe even younger. I have 5 penpals now and still love to write to people like my Nan too..............all of my children have penpals too..........in the US and in England.

Letters are so much nicer than Email...is there any better feeling than opening the mail box and seeinga hand written letter froma friend?

A couple of weeks ago there was a festival in Eastman, Quebec..........an annual festival on the art of letter writing. They place tables and chairs around the town and have tables set up in coffee shops and stores with paper and pens..............there are special mailboxes set up around the town too........

They encourage the townsfolk to take the time to hand write a letter........then they place them in the mailbox and the town pays for the postage! How wonderful is that?

My Sister had a Canadian penpal when she was a teen and when she was 16 she flew to their home to stay with her family............they were from Vancouver and had a log cabin in Whistler...the penpals Dad was the lawyer for the University of Vancouver........

I had an advert for penpals in a teen magazine when I was a young and got 120 replies!!!! And again when I had my first child I had an advert in a parenting magazine....they had a section called Mums In Touch...........I became very close friends with a penpal from that advert and in fact we are still penpals!

After Lloyd moved away from our home town when he was 13 and I was 14........we wrote to each other for a while.................he says he could smell the perfume on my letters even before he bent down to pick the mail up from the floor by the door! I kept his letters for years and then finally threw them away when I decluttered about 7 years ago....two years later I moved in with him and sooooo wish I had kept those letters!

Unfortunately all of my penpals live in the UK which means it takes 2 weeks for my letter to arrive to them and then 10 days for their letter to arrive to me.......it isn't fast..........anyone want a penpal locally??????

A Letter a Day...........

http://www.letteraday.com/


This website is just the coolest! This man sends a letter a day..............to anyone....famous, not famous, corporate etc etc..........and posts his letter and any replies on his website............

I love the letter he sent Oprah after the James Frey incident...........and he sent Donald Trump a $2 note and asked him to sign it....and he did!

I love things like this :)

Hangin' about..................



The little Hummer seems to like hanging about on our porch...using the Christmas lights as a perch..................I wish I could make it clear how tiny these birds are......they would fit in the palm of my hand with my hand closed around them.............they are TINY!

Tadpoles.....a resource for attachment parenting....

A friend of mine...........another unschooling Mom.....and actually one of my neighbours (in an acreage kind of way lol) has started a business with her best friend selling homebirthing kits, babywearing slings and other attachment parenting supplies and resources............you can order from them online at:

www.tadpoles.ca

Their slogan is 'Baby gear that fits your style'!!!!

I wish Tadpoles all the best for a successful future!!!!!

aeroplane designs





Here are the plane designs Chris did and two of the planes he made...the pictures don't do them justice as the detail is wonderful...the little propellors are great! He didn't copy anything...just went from his knowledge of WWII.


The day so far.............

It's 2:15pm..............it's been raining since mid morning..............it's 13c outside...............cool.........justa one off cold day as its suppsoed to heat up again tomorrow and its nice to have these cool days now and then....you can get things done!

I should have lunch............actually I should have breakfast..............another day with no appetite.............I didn't eat until this time yesterday either.

I drove down to the mail box just now and then drove up around the golf course.............I don't understand why golfers play in the rain...........it must be a miserable experience.........

Susie and Laurence did a few pages of their Write Now books this morning............and Abigail did some math......she adores math. She can add and subtract to 10 and just seems to love numbers. She will be 4 and a half tomorrow. She likes me to write out pages of sums for her to do and then she sits there and answers them all..............Chris spent the morning creating these amazing paper models of world war 2 planes............spitfires etc etc...............they are brilliant! I should photograph them!

No news on my Aunt today so I will phone tomorrow.

I got a Scholars Choice catalogue in the mail today.......but I can't see anything much in there we need.........there are a few Spanish games that I may go and look at.........

I have a few more postcards to write for the postcard exchange we're doing............

We have a busy weekend ahead of us..........busy few days actually...I think we finally get to have a rest next Wednesday so its been nice to have a few quiet days at home recently.

Anderson Cooper.................book recommendation

Anderson Cooper - Dispatches From The Edge.

This book was discussed on Global a few weeks ago and sounded really good. I saw it in the Bestseller Express shelves at the library on Tuesday and grabbed it noit sure if I'd be able to get through it in just a week which is all the bestseller express allows you.....but I haven't been able to put it down....

This is a book written by the CNN Journalist Anderson Cooper (CNN's show Anderson Cooper 360 is on nightly) about his experiences at disasters such as the Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina......the personal stories he covers are heartwrenching...the detail is amazing.......

In between the global stories he covers, he discusses coming to terms with his Fathers premature death and his brothers suicide.....and there are small glimpses into his childhood......trips he took with his Father, the parties his parents held for people like Charlie Chaplin!!!

This book is a great reminder of the terrible tragedy of Hurricane Katrina......something that seems to have already been pushed into the history books and forgotten by many sadly..........

This book is really easy to read..........although the topics are heavy and emotional, the writing flows and and is as if Cooper is talking to you personally.........

A GREAT book!

13 years ago today a friendship began..............

13 years ago today I was in hospital recovering from the birth of my first child......the lady in the bed next to me left to go home thankfully as she snored REALLY loudly!!.....a little later on another lady moved into the bed next to me having had a baby girl...........we chatted and got to know each other a little and before she left to go home she gave me her phone number.............

I was quite shy back then and didn't ever call her.........but 2 years later I was in the local swimming pool when a lady came up to me and said she recognised me and she had been in the bed next to me in hospital when we had had our first babies......she had a new baby girl and I was pregnant I think with Laurence...........

This was Faith, and this time we stayed in touch and in fact we became really good friends.....Thursday was 'our'day.....Faith would often catch the bus down from her gorgeous cottage in the hills and spend the day at my house...we'd take the children across the road to Alphabet Zoo....an indoor playground..........or we'd walk around to Mothercare World along the canal...............or we'd just stay at mine and the children would play playdoh or in the garden........................

Faith had been a dancer before she married.......travelled the world dancing cabaret............it always sounded so exciting! She has wonderful stories of the sand dunes etc in (was it Saudi? Dubai????? Somewhere desert like!

Then Faith returned to Lancashire and taught an aerobics class.......a man joined the class and the fact he had no hair made his eyes even more amazing and she fell in love.........with Mark her husband.......................now they have three gorgeous girls who I adore..........I had two boys when I lived near Faith, so C and E were my edxcuse to buy Barbies and do the girls hair :)

Now Faith lives in a remote farmhouse in the hills in England and has chickens etc etc.......she got her degree in psychology last year (yay!) and now works at a school with children with special needs. She sounds so happy!

Faith has dial up so may not ever read this but her friendship has always meant a lot to me and I miss seeing her.................she was a really special part of my life when I had young children......our lives have taken us in different directions but I treasure our past. I'm so glad we are still in touch.

Happy Birthday Charlotte.....13 today..................and congratulations Faith....we made it to the teen years :)

Thursday says goodbye...............




Last nights sunset was another lovely one! It was over very fast though! Our most amazing sunsets seem to happen in the winter.....so I am looking forward to that!
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