So, our current poem refers to firing “the penny cannon in the bow”, and Puggle asked me what a cannon was (he has seen one before, at the museum). After talking for a bit, I quickly searched the web for some nice visuals:-)

Our favourite was here. It’s not too long, and the camera is well positioned so that you can see what they’re doing:-)

This was reasonable as an example of a cannon in the middle of a battle.

Here is an example of a cannon being used in a fortress (a little long).

This one includes some explanation of how a battery might work.

This lets you hear some of the commands a little more clearly.

What’s your favourite cannon firing footage?

One joy of the CM approach is that (as far as my reading goes, at any rate) you don’t need to work to make links for the children, it’ll just happen. And here’s a great example of that. Our current folksong is “Soldier, Soldier” which is a Civil War song… many of the cannon links are civil war re-enactors. We got briefly distracted by some fife and drum corps. He’s now singing a bit of “Two Little Boys” (also a Civil War song)—the bit where “cannons roared loud”. At the time he didn’t notice:-)

(And now Puggle: “I don’t suppose we can take your computer to Grandma and Grandad’s so we can show them cannons?”)