Celebrating 7, and Rome wasn't built in a day...

Over the weekend W turned 7 years old. His party will be next week, but he had a fun time on his birthday going out for lunch, getting fish to finally add to the tank (black neon tetra and two snails), going to a dinner at church, and then having dessert at home. In addition to the fish, he got a lego game: Minotaurus, Peanuts figurines to act out his favorite comic stories, and an Absolutely Lucy book (thank you Aunt Cassy!) I have been taking pictures but unfortunately the puppies have chewed the camera USB cord and it is no longer working to transfer them, so we will have to deal with phone photos until the new cord arrives.

W has been learning about ancient Rome through The Story of the World. He and I put together the Haba version of the Coliseum, and read about gladiators. He then acted it out with lego minifigures.

our Coliseum

In SotW, a fictional character called Servius is taken from his rural village, and forced to become a gladiator or face execution. He does not want to fight, but faced with death, he continues with the training, and eventually is put in the arena. When he overpowered another fighter who was on the ground at his mercy, the audience "booed" because he did not kill him. Servius would rather die than kill another man. Although Romans are notorious for being bloodthirsty, there were some exceptions, and I appreciated that the author chose this chapter to add some compassion to an otherwise brutal scene. W is not into blood and guts either, so it helped him relate to this ancient society and feel empathy for Servius and the other people forced into being Gladiators.

W read the book Fun with Roman Numerals by David A. Adler (pictured above). It is a colorful introduction to the concept of Roman Numerals. We are also reading City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction. This is best as a parent-read-aloud selection. The illustrations are marvelous, and the text introduces technical terms and concepts while inspiring play building with blocks.

For a Math update, W has been upping his work a couple pages more per day in Math-U-See Alpha, so I think that is more challenging for him while still being reasonable. I think at this rate we will be able to start the next book, Beta, during the summer. He requested to keep going with Math over the summer (at least for most "at home" days) after some frustration picking it back up in August last year.

The Long Winter

W and I finished reading The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I have read it so many times, yet reading the full book aloud was a wonderful experience. W took turns reading several chapters to me as well. We have had The Mild Winter here in New Hampshire this year, which was pretty unusual. So we have had to make due with imaginary snowballs and paper snowflakes for the most part (but I'll take that)!

See the flour in the drawer?

Ironically, our book club has been pushed back due to weather (the one day it was freezing rain/hail/snow here), so we will meet this Friday, barring inclement weather. We tried out the activity we had planned anyway last week, as I was not even sure it would work very well. We used an old fashioned coffee mill to grind wheat (using hard white wheat seed). It takes a couple of turns through the mill but it does wind up producing  flour. Next up, grinding enough to actually make bread. This will take a while. It was difficult enough for W to turn the crank so it showed him how hard it would have been for the Ingalls family to endlessly grind wheat to survive during their most difficult winter on the prairies of South Dakota.

Here are some highlights from W, age 6 and 11/12ths :)
"I liked the parts about Pa helping to dig out the train line, and the wheat in the wall that Almanzo had. I liked Merry Christmas when they were all excited, and Christmas in May. The chapters when Almanzo and Cap Garland went to find more wheat were good. And I liked when Almanzo made pancakes for himself and his brother."

Happy Groundhog Day!

How is it February already? We have had a homeschooling hiatus lately with a virus affecting the whole family. I am still feeling the affects. I am hoping to get back into the swing of things and updating here more regularly. Between the lack of sleep with the puppies and being sick, it has been a rough month here.

Today we watched a Jack's Big Music Show video circa 2007; more specifically a Groundhog day episode featuring Jon Stewart and a fun song by Steve Burns and Steven Drodz. I don't think C had seen it since he was an infant, but W enjoyed it when he was younger. I am thankful that children's programs are way more appealing and amusing to grownups these days compared to the cartoons of my youth. We also learned about Groundhogs and Punxatawney Phil. Supposedly we will have 6 more weeks of winter. I say bring it on, it feels like we have not had much of a winter since October! ;)



W has been plugging away on Explode the Code book 2, up to page 43. He is on Math-U-See Alpha Chapter 11, which is about 1/3 of the way through the book. Geometry is a section of this chapter, so he is doing some side work of classifying shapes from our Comprehensive Curriculum 1st grade workbook. For a history and science combination project he made a paper mache volcano shortly before we all got sick, so as soon as I charge my camera batteries we will make it erupt. At least it has held up and is dry. That will certainly have its own post.

For reading material, we are rowing Owl Moon by Jane Yolen this week for our Five in a Row group. W learned about Great Horned Owls and he often gets to observe the woods outside. We have only actually seen one owl in the wild since moving to this town, so one theme from the book to focus on is patience. It is a nice book for this time of year and also incorporates some astronomy studies. We discussed the phases of the moon, and have plans to attend some Skywatch events in the near future with our homeschool Astronomy club.

 Lately W is still into the Dinosaur Cove series by Rex Stone (almost finished with book 6). He also adores the Mr. Men books by Roger Hargreaves. I had collected several of these which we came upon years ago during a trip to Scotland, and now he loves reading them on his own. We are also continuing with The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, although we are re-listening to the early chapters on CD as I haven't had much voice to read aloud for long. I am SO glad W is an independent reader and can read to his brother too.

I'm hoping to find an unabridged version of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie for him to read this spring, and also read more of A.A. Milne's books. C is at a good age for the original Thomas the Tank Engine stories as well, so a bedtime re-read is in order. :)

FIAR: A New Coat for Anna

A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert is a post WWII story of a young girl who has outgrown her coat and her mother then uses things to barter with the farmer, spinner, weaver and tailor to get a new coat for her daughter. The book ends at Christmas time so it was nice to read this time of year, if you can find it at your library I recommend it. We rowed this book not "in a row", but rather over the course of a couple weeks as it overlapped some of W's other studies (a Little House book club carding/ spinning demonstration this fall, and also rowing Warm as Wool by Scott Russell Sanders).

Yesterday we had our FIAR co-op and used strongly brewed tea and blueberry natural dye to dye some strands of yarn and they came out really cute. We didn't use any mordant (these kids are young so this was a good demonstration anyway) but I can see getting into this and using our small loom to make some woven squares. W has done finger knitting in the past but I might reintroduce it to him again since it may help him slow down and focus while working on something relaxing and productive.

W hung his yarn on the tree and it makes a cute garland. This week we are preparing for Caleb's birthday, as well as preparing our home for puppies. We didn't initially plan on this happening now, but have hoped to get a dog for years and all of a sudden things fell into place pretty quickly. ;)

Photos and Fall Poetry

View of the fence Jacob built in our back yard, decorated for the season.

I have been wanting to read some poetry with W so I found a couple of autumn related ones online. I printed them on cardstock. This can go along with nature study and appreciating all the sights, sounds and smells of outdoors in the fall. Here is a nice poem for the season by Robert Frost.

Gathering Leaves

by Robert Frost

Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.

But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.

I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.

                                                   Next to nothing for use.
                                                   But a crop is a crop,
                                                   And who's to say where
                                                    The harvest shall stop?

FIAR: The elusive Giraffe That Walked to Paris

A friend from co-op lent us the hard-to-find book The Giraffe that Walked to Paris by Nancy Milton and illustrated by Roger Roth. (Thank you Steph!) :) We are rowing it for Five in a Row this week. It is a pleasure to read, the story is a true one based on a gift given to the King of France from the Pasha of Egypt in the late 1820's. The illustrations are beautiful, in soft colors and extremely detailed. W and C both liked this story, it is quite long so I was pleased that C listened too.

I always wanted to go to Paris in the fall.

We found many materials online to accompany this book. Check out this paper printable of Paris from Made by Joel, an artist's website. It am a dork about paper dolls, so I was in heaven, but W even liked them. We printed the pdf on cardstock so it will last longer and W had fun coloring in all the people for the city. We will continue using this for our French lessons with HOP, Muzzy, and the First Thousand Words in French. We found a Giraffe coloring book page which resized nicely to go along with our city.

Thank you to the Pumpkin Patch blog for your free lapbook for The Giraffe that Walked to Paris. This covered vocabulary words, which months go in which seasons, a wind science experiment, learning about giraffes, geography, and history. Jacob is planning a Daddy lesson on measurement to go along with this theme too. 

Now I just wish la Girafe would come back in print!

more of what we're using this year

Literature & Unit Studies

Five in a Row is our main lit curriculum which touches on a lot of the other subjects as well. We are rowing some books from Volume 1 again as well as using Volumes 2 & 3, and "rowing" unofficial fiar-like books that also work well for the same method. We recently started a local co-op built around this. We will meet monthly and read one of the same books and the kids will share their projects, lapbooks or experiences from these weeks at our meetings. 

We read chapter books as a read aloud, and W reads independently as well. W has read Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White, and some other unit studies we are planning for this year include By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Samuel Eaton’s Day by Kate Waters/ a Pilgrim unit for this fall, a Flat Stanley unit (postcard/writing projects), Astronomy science tie in with the book The Night Sky/ with a project on Constellations, Homer Price by Robert McCloskey, and this will get us up through fall/winter hopefully. We may work in another A.A. Milne book but I will give W choices.

Grammar, Spelling & Writing

 

For Grammar I like Ruth Heller’s World of Language series including Kites Sail High (Verbs), Many Luscious Lollipops (Adjectives) and Merry-Go-Round (Nouns). We have a variety of workbooks and still haven’t found the perfect fit for writing. W needs to get into the habit of writing more letters; he will write notes or the occasional thank-you card, but I think that would help his penmanship and spelling. In Pennsylvania we picked up a Pentime workbook which is what Amish schools use to teach writing, but it is almost a painful activity for him right now. He also has Hooked On Spelling workbooks which he breezes through but I am not sure how much he really gets out of them. We have an Usborne Spelling Puzzles book (Meet the Ogs) which he likes as it has an entertaining approach.

Spiritual Education

Our family lists three things we were thankful for each day at supper time; this is a nice way to reflect on the day and share our experiences with each other. W started church school again on Sunday so he was happy to see his church friends again and he learned about Moses “when he was grown up” this week. At least he is starting to remember bits and pieces to tell me what they’re working on. I will be the Sunday School teacher for the younger group in October, so I will have to look at the curriculum soon and start planning some activities. The Story of the World which we are using for history also covers some Biblical stories.

Art

Along with nature journaling, several times a week W and C paint in a variety of mediums (watercolors, acrylics, fingerpaints), use markers, colored pencils, crayons, and sometimes make things with modeling clay/playdough. W loved his visit to the MFA in the spring so I would like to expose him to more museums gradually, hopefully we’ll get to one this year.

Language

This year I want to make it more of a regular part of our week, so we have Muzzy French, and the book First Thousand Words in French along with some other supplement books. We also have a couple of Spanish resources. It may be better to focus on French but I do want to touch on some basic words in Spanish as well.

Exercise

W has boundless energy and loves to play outside and especially swinging on the swing set. He is working on his coordination but I think his new glasses have helped him and will continue to do so as his sight gets corrected. We have yoga dvds for the wintertime months which we will focus on when we can’t get outside as much, and I am exploring the options for a karate class as I think it would help W with focusing better and also be really fun for him.

Home Economics/ Life Skills

W enjoys cooking with me and helps with cracking eggs, stirring, and measuring things. Basically anything that doesn’t involve direct oven use or sharp knives. We have some kid cookbooks with simple recipes. He was actively involved in the gardening process and helped pick the carrots and lettuce that he planted seeds for. We haven’t implemented any chore based allowance system but that is something to think about now that he is learning about money. W did some simple sewing last year with our book club group, so if he expressed more interest the winter might be a good time to work on these kinds of crafts.

Next time we'll focus on C and pre-pre-k. :) I promise that post won't be this long!

funny storytime

This afternoon we visited the library for a special storytelling event with author and comedian Mark Binder. He kept the kids engaged in the stories and incorporated harmonica music and audience participation in a fun way. Check out the links below for his book & cd/mp3.

W had a great time and enjoyed listening and participating in the stories. C could have behaved better but I was able to keep him busy enough to not ruin it for W. They got to see their friends and had a good time overall. Mommy is exhausted now. Trying to post via my phone for the first time.

Summer Reading

Last week while trying to beat the heat,we had a few playdates and attended a Science event at the library. The Mad Science program was drop in and W got to meet up with a friend afterwards and he really enjoyed seeing the experiments the "mad scientist" did. He showed how air pressure affects an egg in a beaker, and how electric blowers can hold up balls in the air, and used dry ice and bubbles to make some cool special effects.

the kids hold their ears during the air pressure demonstration

W has been keeping a reading chart for the summer reading club at the library and he's doing well with it. With reading chapter books it takes a bit longer to go through as many books as he did last year but he's reading something every day whether it's a picture book or chapter book so I'm happy with that. The librarians set up a wheel for the kids to spin each time they get to 10 more books and get a sticker and prize. W loves to go to the library anyway to play but this just adds to the appeal. He even wanted to go on Saturday after a birthday party, so now he is planning to read 10 more books before the next time we go. They are having an end of summer reading party at the end of August so that will be a fun wrap up. 


Lately W is still into the Magic Treehouse books and enjoys to do the little quizzes on the passport section of the web site for the series when he finishes the books. He also checked out one of the books from The Littles series, and I plan on introducing Flat Stanley pretty soon as well. We are also reading On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder as a family group read. 




    

snow day (no fooling!)

Today was probably the longest that C has been happy playing in the snow. The power was off and on this morning but with most of the snow off the tree limbs I would be surprised if it goes out again. The temperature was warmer than it has been after most of the snow falls this year considering it is April after all. The boys enjoyed making snow angels and running around in the snow. I saw some wild turkey foot prints in our driveway but this time no other evidence of the bird was left. At least this snow should melt soon and potentially be beneficial to the maple syrup producers.

Last week we rowed The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf for FIAR Volume 2. Check out this post from last year about Ferdinand which recently celebrated it's 75th birthday, and check out the cartoon based on the story. The book is one of my favorites.

Last week we also took a field trip to Parker's Maple Barn with a homeschool group to see how maple syrup is made, and the trip finished off with a delicious pancake and cocoa. We will likely make this a tradition since it is a fun place to visit and there is nothing like the smell of a sugarhouse. W celebrated his 6th birthday with a party this past weekend and spent some time this week writing thank-you notes to his family and friends. Unfortunately this week the boys have had runny noses so I hope no colds were spread to the other little ones during the party. They had insisted on going outside and running around in the cold much to the dismay of the parents.

This week we have been reading The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde H. Swift (what a name, love it!) W has been recalling some of our big trip to NYC last spring and learning about lighthouses, rivers and geography among other subjects. He has finished chapter 25 in the Math-U-See Primer and we have the Alpha curriculum waiting in the wings for later this spring. We are in the planning stages of our next vacation later this spring to SC, with perhaps some stops on the way back north in VA & PA. :)

   

Magic Tree House books

W has recently discovered the Magic Tree House series of books by Mary Pope Osborne and in the past couple of days he has read several of them completely on his own. I asked him a few questions about them for reading comprehension and it seems like he understands the story but he is a speed reader! This means a library trip will be in order very soon. We bought several of these books at the Christmas Tree Shop which offers them at dollar or more off of list price (yes, I love a bargain). He has read #1 Dinosaurs Before Dark (and study guide), 2 The Knight at Dawn, 3 Mummies in the Morning, 4 Pirates Past Noon, 11 Lions at Lunchtime, and 23 Twister on Tuesday.

This reading transition to chapter books is happening as I am planning W's curriculum for spring/ summer 2011 so now I am in search of similar book suggestions, if you have any please post a comment. As for other subjects, we ordered the next step of Math-U-See (Alpha student & teacher texts). I am slowly acquiring other first grade materials, and will certainly be on the lookout for local book sales. We have a few things already including a set of Flat Stanley books we got at a homeschool book sale last year. W was a little young for them at the time but now I think they would be up his alley. We will also keep going with Five in a Row books and some of the longer chapter books such as Little House on the Prairie for read-alouds.

Today besides reading W was working again with the Explode the Code 1 workbook, Math-U-See, and making his own mazes and drawings. It was raining and sleeting today, it will be nice when the ice is gone and we can start thinking about the garden.

  

Apple Pie!

Last weekend we went apple and pumpkin picking at a local orchard. This week for Five in a Row we are reading How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman. So of course the first thing we did Monday was make an apple pie following the recipe in the book using our freshly picked apples. The pie was delicious and W enjoys helping (his favorite thing was the egg wash on top of the crust). The pie did not last long enough to get a photo. We may make another for the weekend, and will still have many apples leftover for a big batch of applesauce. Next week we will be hosting a pumpkin painting party for a local homeschooling group so we will decorate the pumpkins the boys picked out.

In the book, many countries are visited while the girl gathers ingredients for apple pie (semolina wheat from Italy, a chicken to lay an egg from France, Cinnamon from Sri Lanka, and apples from Vermont to name a few). It reminded me a lot of Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle, which our family is very familiar with. Since we already read Madeline for FIAR, W recognized the Eiffel Tower from the artwork in the book. We had fun playing around with Google Earth "flying" from one country to another as well.

Today the sun has finally come back. We had several rainy days in a row, so it is nice to be able to play outside more finally! W helped me gather some of the many acorns that are covering our front yard to use for decorating. I also finished painting the bookcase we got at the Mill Store to put in our loft as a library/ homeschool center. I added adhesive chalkboard to the inside of the cabinet doors for the bottom part, so I will take photos once it is up.

  

September Reflections & Great Web Resources

 The past month has been a whirlwind of moving in all while getting settled into our Kindergarten homeschool year as well. We have been loving rowing our first few books with Five in a Row, which we may refer to as FIAR on the blog sometimes. In the past few weeks we have read A Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack, Lentil by Robert McCloskey, Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans, and this week are wrapping up September with A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno. Through the stories we have covered a few geographical and cultural lessons about China, America, France, and Japan.

W is now on lesson 9 in his Math-U-See Primer and we are working on place value by using the "tens" and "units". Each lesson has 7 pages and some days he does a full lesson while others he will do one or two pages and then other math related projects. He enjoys playing with the blocks after he finishes the lesson part so that keeps it fun. We try to work math in other ways as well, like in FIAR projects and cooking (although he got pretty frustrated when actually trying to use chopsticks for their intended purpose). :)

Initially I did not know where to begin with teaching science. FIAR has a few science projects, but not many, so I picked up The Giant Science Resource Book for grades 1-6 which will be useful in the next few years. We used the section on leaves and trees to identify some leaves outside and then Will wrote the names onto cards which are now adorning our refrigerator.

W has wrapped up Hooked On Phonics Kindergarten levels 1 & 2, and is using a few different materials for handwriting which he is slowly improving with. I wouldn't push him into it except I do want him to be on the same "level" as the public school kids as he will have to be evaluated before homeschooling first grade in NH. Most of all right now we are enjoying settling into our new home and spending more time outdoors. Over the past month we have also attended a Colonial Fair in Massachusetts and an Apple Fest in NH, and have been lucky enough to meet some new friends in our town.

We are always on the lookout for homeschool resources on the internet, and here a few of W's favorite sites for reading, games, mazes, and music.

• Boowa and Kwala
• Starfall
• PBS Kids
• Playhouse Disney
• Childcareland - free printables and activity ideas
• Usborne-Quicklinks - if you have any of the excellent Usborne internet linked books this website has all the related materials. We have used it for the First Thousand Words in French book.

We would love to hear about your favorite kid friendly web sites and homeschool resource sites!

Summer Reading & Stargazing

We are reading Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne to W for storytime. He has been enjoying it so much that I think we will start The House at Pooh Corner soon, or rather as soon as I can find it, since it is likely packed away in a box at the basement in the house. Also I want to introduce him to the poetry collections also by Milne. I can't wait until we and our books are all under one roof! W also enjoys the Disney movie The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which stays true to the spirit of the book. 

    

W has also been reading several Disney themed books that his Aunt gave him (thanks Noreen!) On a recent trip to Falmouth to visit Grandma we stopped in at Eight Cousins, one of my favorite book stores, and we bought The Big Dipper by Franklyn M. Branley which is a wonderful introduction to astronomy and star gazing while also being a challenging yet readable book for W's level. He now he enjoys looking out for the stars at night and has been able to spot the big dipper. I would highly recommend this book to Kindergarten age children and plan to seek out more books in the Let's Read and Find Out Science series. Last year we enjoyed What Lives in a Shell? from the library, but I think that now that W is doing the reading he may get more out of it.

  

Summertime

 I have been quiet on the blog of late, as we are in the process of buying a new home and it is hard to keep quiet about such a major change. The closing is less than 3 weeks away now and all is going well. After a few updates we plan to move later this summer. The boys and I have been keeping busy with playdates, library summer reading, and visiting the local splash park in our town. There are several things about living here that we will miss, although our new place will be great. It has a much larger yard as well as space for a garden, and eventually animals. It is so cool and I can't wait to blog about our projects there, both here and on my personal blog. 

W is doing very well with reading level 1 books, with a few words or one sentence per page. As I mentioned, our library currently offers a summer reading program, and for every ten books he reads he can go and spin the wheel and earn prizes like animal-shaped erasers and candy. 

C is *still* teething, but overall is a happy little guy and loves playing with duplo legos and his big brother. 

Here are some fun books we have been enjoying lately (some for storytime, others read by W). I highly recommend checking out library book sales and used homeschool curriculum sales this summer, it is a great way to find some treasures and not break the bank! Also buying used on Amazon can be reasonable. We found a copy of The Complete Book of Farmyard Tales (Usborne books) at a homeschool sale which W has enjoyed reading.

   

May Book List: Ferdinand and company

Here are some books W has been enjoying lately.

• The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, Illustrated by Robert Lawson
• Angus Lost by Marjorie Flack
• Fat Cat Sat on a Mat by Jenny Tyler (Usborne Phonics) 

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf is a sweet one. It follows the life of a bull in Spain who just wants to enjoy the flowers and not run and fight like the other bulls. One day a bee changes his plans and he is chosen to fight the matador, but after they finally realize his peaceful nature he is returned home to enjoy the flowers once more. It has a great message for kids and one many grownups should heed as well.

And Marjorie Flack, where have you been all my life?? I love her simple but heartwarming books which were written in the 1930's. Angus Lost is a gem. It follows a dog, Angus, who gets lost and the story appeals to kids today even though there are occasional references to the milk man (a good way of throwing in an improvised history lesson). 

W is loving the Usborne Phonics readers lately. Fat Cat on a Mat, Big Pig on a Dig, Toad Makes a Road, you get the idea. He has gotten several of them out of the library, and they are definitely at his pace right now, he can handle them on his own but also likes to take turns reading pages sometimes. I appreciate that it doesn't use little pictures next to each word like many early readers seem to do. 

Getting back to Ferdinand, there is a very cute Disney cartoon from 1938 that featured him, and it stayed remarkably close to the book. I am a huge Disney fan, especially when it comes to these classic shorts.

Little April Showers

We are beginning to plant some seeds and plan on using this weekend to work on our yard and square foot gardening system that Jacob put together. On our Aerogarden there are currently around 17 tomatoes of various sizes so I am looking forward to our early crop. This picture was taken last week and my how they have grown since then, although all the tomatoes are still green and our niece calls them pumpkins.

Reading List!
Here are some spring time favorite books appropriate for April. These should all be available at your local public library.

• The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss, Illustrations by Crockett Johnson
• Bunny's Noisy Book by Margaret Wise Brown, Illustrations by Lisa McCue
• Little Quack's New Friend by Lauren Thompson, Illustrations by Derek Anderson
• Good Night New York City by Adam / Veno, Illustrations by Joe Gamble

It was a sad day when I noticed Bunny's Noisy Book had gone out of print, although you can still find reasonably priced used copies on Amazon. I had wanted to gift it at a baby shower, it is filled with beautiful prose (what else would you expect from Margaret Wise Brown?) and the illustrations by McCue are really lovely. It was a book I picked up for my eldest son on a whim and I am so glad I did, even when he grows up  I plan on keeping it in our "library". Another favorite of our family is the Little Quack series, and Derek Anderson also illustrated the classic The Potty Train, which was helpful to our oldest a couple years ago. Mr. Anderson has an excellent web site, check it out.

We are also planning on reading books about NYC because we will be taking a little trip there in a couple of weeks. If anyone has any recommendations for New York City themed books let us know by next week so I have time to get to the library for them! We plan on visiting Central Park and the American Museum of Natural History. Photos to come on Little Men after our adventure.

February update

How is it February already? We had a virus which first hit the household over a week ago and now we are finally all recovered. For some reason in this family it seems like we get sick one at a time, maybe that's a good thing though.

W has made more progress and is still enjoying set 1 & 2 of the BOB books by Bobby Lynn Maslen. I noticed on Amazon they have started selling the little booklets individually, although after the price of shipping I wonder if it is really worth it. I think after this we will try other books for early readers. We are currently beginning to research different curricula for kindergarten. W will be five next month.

February Fun Reading

Here are some books we are enjoying.

• The Valentine Bears by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Jan Brett
• Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond
• The Three Questions by John J. Muth (based on a story by Leo Tolstoy)
• Sugar Snow by Laura Ingalls Wilder (My First Little House series)
• A Farmer Boy Birthday by Laura Ingalls Wilder (My First Little House series)

We have a small Valentine's party planned for our homeschool meetup group this week on Wednesday. Of course that is the only day that snow is in the forecast, ack. If the forecast is really terrible by Tuesday maybe I can see if Friday would work for everyone instead. We have fun craft activities (love "bug" creatures, foam Valentines and bookmarks, among other things) and I really hope the kids have fun with them. I am also going to make cupcakes, mmm... we will have some healthy snacks too though. ;) I am beginning to look forward to spring when snow won't be a worry. Next weekend we will all visit Grandma's house, W is very much looking forward to this.

Currently Reading - January 2010

This year I plan on posting some favorite books each month. Some will be seasonal or to go along with a theme, but many will likely be some favorites that we enjoy reading together often. The boys received some wonderful books for Christmas (and C’s birthday). W is taking pride in being able to read the BOB series of books on his own.

January 2010

· Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton

· Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton

· Winter Days in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (My first Little House book)

· Winter on the Farm by L.I. Wilder (See above)

· BOB books Set One: Beginning Readers by Bobby Lynn Maslen

Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Suess

· My First Signs (Baby signing)

reading!

This morning W pulled off one of the Bob books off of his shelf. Santa gave him a Fridge Words Magnetic word builder for Christmas, which all the kids love but W has been fascinated with making three letter words and is getting better at sounding things out on his own and even using the letters to make larger words. So anyway, he was looking at the book "Sam" and started reading on his own! I occasionally have to remind him to sound things out if he asks me, but I was impressed that he can do many of the words on his own now. My little buddy is growing up.