FIAR: Salamander Room

Salamander diorama (the head is by the yellow leaf)

Last week we rowed The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer. W said this was his favorite Five in a Row book and he really enjoyed reading it to his brother as well. We went on a hike in our woods looking for salamanders but were unsuccessful. Rain put a damper (quite literally) on our plans to try again. So after reading a FIAR message board post I was inspired to go to the tackle section at Walmart and found realistic looking fake ones for cheap. If you do this please, please take out the hooks before giving to your kids! They were thrilled with their creepy crawly little guy and found some leaves, ferns, rocks and sticks to make him feel at home. And I was thrilled that I didn't have to touch a real salamander. ;)


W enjoyed reading this website on Salamanders and Newts and seeing the photos, and in the past when Jacob finds them in our yard when working he has shown the kids so he was excited to see some that looked "just like those". The Salamander Room was also featured as a Reading Rainbow book.

By the Shores of Silver Lake

W and I began reading By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder last week. I was somewhat reluctant to start it with him since he is in "first grade" and this book is the turning point in the series when Laura begins to grow up very quickly. He thought the Garth Williams cover looked exciting and he recently finished On the Banks of Plum Creek, so he wanted to read the next one. I have read it many times, but it really hit me (again) anyway and of course I was in tears by the end of chapter two. W just wanted me to keep reading as he was absorbed in the story. We are currently on chapter nine. So far W said his favorite part was when they arrived at the new camp and found Uncle Henry and their cousins Charley and Louisa there, since it was such a surprise to meet more of the characters from the Big Woods again.


I always felt touched by Laura being "eyes" for her blind sister Mary, but reading the amazingly detailed descriptions of all of the Little House books, I realize how that may have actually helped Laura really see things in depth herself and later use that gift as a literary tool. It is pretty well known that her daughter Rose Wilder Lane had a hand in heavily editing the books, but I have read many of Rose's other works and although she definitely had a gift for storytelling, it just wasn't the same as her mother's descriptions. 

"Mary" and "Laura"

Last week our Little House book club met for the first time this fall, and we have some new members along with friends from last year and it was a really nice time. The kids and Moms made corn husk dolls and chatted about the books. We dried some corn husks on a low temperature in the oven (took about an hour) and soaked them again the morning of the book club so they would bend easily to work with. It is something we would do again, we used wooden doll heads to attach since they were a bit easier to draw on, but all the dolls came out pretty cute.

SOTW: Early Writing

W using a clay "tablet". He preferred the picture writing of the Egyptian Heiroglyphs.

In our last post I touched upon the Egyptian Heiroglyphics and Sumerian Cunieform we are learning about through The Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times. In addition to W translating my written message on paper, we decided to try it with modeling clay last week on one of the rainy days. 

Writing was not easy!

Our chaotic everything table. :) We do lessons here and eat every meal here, it's pretty much the center of our home since our kitchen is attached to the living room. This is pretty much what it looks like during weekdays on "normal homeschool days" (when we don't have co-ops or friends over). You may notice our math workbox at the far end and the bucket of crayons in the center. The red binder has W's history stuff. C is standing up for some reason but he always is curious about W's projects and this one was fun for him too.

Today W and I listened to the last few chapters on the CD as a review (now we are finished with Chapter 7, Hammurabi's Code). W thought many of the rules that Hammurabi set were not fair (such as killing people over stealing an animal). I love my peace-loving little guy. :) We have a couple of word finder puzzles from the Story of the World activity book which he will work on this week. I may take them along for W on Friday when C has a doctor's appointment.

Lego Pyramid

Last week we dove into Egypt with The Story of the World, so W helped make a step pyramid with legos. He wanted it to be all red, and he built the base. I had to help with the inside support bricks so it would last more than an hour, but then he clicked in the ones around the top. It was complete with an unlucky mini-figure "mummy", and a yellow "gold" brick for his treasure inside.

poor lego dude!

W added a cat on top to guard his pyramid.

As part of our Egyptian study, The Story of the World gives an alphabet for Egyptian Heiroglyphics and Sumerian Cunieform, so I wrote a message for W to translate and write in English. He had fun with that, and I gained respect for ancient Egyptian scholars! It is no easy task to write out words.

Lately we have been reading 1-2 chapters at a sitting, doing a simple narration to go along with his project notebook, and during the week we listen to a few chapters on CD again while coloring supplement pages to go along with the chapters.

FIAR: How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

Last week W chose to row How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. We had done this one last year and recently the geography co-op we're in read Marjorie Priceman's other book How to Make a Cherry Pie and see the USA, so he had a renewed interest in this theme. Not to mention there is pie in the title, and it is apple season here, so he knew he was guaranteed an opportunity to help make a pie! He helped measure ingredients, squeeze lemon juice on our apples as I cut them, stir, and put the pie bird in.

W's pie

We utilized our GeoPuzzles and maps for this one to locate all of the places mentioned in the book. I printed out a sequence- matching card game created by Karen Prior at FIARCircle.com. We laminated and cut out the cards so we can reuse it and keep it in W's FIAR notebook. It came out great and inspired me to use the laminator more often. I had to chuckle when reading Pioneer Woman's blog post about her new-found obsession with her laminator. It is a common sickness with homeschooling Moms around the world. ;)

See the pretty cards? We made a NH card with the blank one for "Home". He had fun putting all of the modes of transporation, food ingredients, and places in the right order. 

This week we are rowing W's "favorite Five in a Row book so far" according to him: Salamander Room by Anne Mazer. Wish us luck in finding a salamander or newt in the woods this week. He is on the hunt!