We Have Been Reading...Halloween edition

We have been reading lots of Halloween books in the last 30 days.  We love them (well, I do, and so the children are mercilessly subjected to them - I only stopped and put them away today).  Here are some of our (my) favorites!

Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

This is a fun book that we have read countless times.  It is one of Abby's all time favorites - and not just during haunting season - she asks for it all year long.  It is written in rhyme and emphasizes generosity in spirit.

Another popular title in our house right now is this one

CinderHazel by Deborah Nourse Lattimore

As you can probably guess, this is a spin-off of a popular fairy tale.  The illustrations are deliciously smudged with grime and the witches are whimsical, not scary.  Cute, cute book!

The third book on the list is a Barbie book.  We have three girls.  We like Barbie.  So sue me.

A Boo-tiful Halloween by Mary Man-Kong

If you are familiar with Barbie books, you know that there is usually a message about friendship and kindness.  This is no different, except for the glow-in-the-dark pages and stickers!

I am a huge Fancy Nancy fan.  I have the privelege of knowing a little girl who is Fancy Nancy in the flesh (Penelope, Ms. Mindi misses you!!).

Fancy Nancy: Halloween or Bust! by Jane O'Connor

This book, in true Fancy Nancy style, both expands the vocabulary and delights the eye with colorful illustrations that beg more than one look with lots of little details.

This next book is a Caldecott Honor book.  The illustrations are to-die-for.

Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds

This book is like The Twilight Zone for children.  Seriously.  Get it.  Read it.  Love it.

I like most books written by Dav Pilkey.  This one is no exception.  This is about a little dachshund who is ridiculed for his size.  He turns out to be a hero.  I'll let you read to find out how.

The Hallo-wiener by Dav Pilkey

This book is part of the popular Gossie & Friends series.  The illustrations in this book are adorable.  So simple.

Ollie's Halloween by Olivier Dunrea

The message in this one is sweet, too.  Sharing is better than scaring.

The next book is sumptuous.  The illustrations are amazing.  The story is whimsical.  Monsters all get together to put together the best party every for their trick-or-treaters.  The party is a little too...monstrous for them, though!

Halloween Night by Marjorie Dennis Murray

Do you like the Scaredy Squirrel books?  I do.  He is absolutely my favorite worrywort.  That he is featured in a book about my favorite holiday makes my year!

Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Halloween by Melanie Watt

Such a great book for kids who are nervous about trying new things.

Last but not least, a treasure from

Click, Clack, Boo by Doreen Cronin

Once I read Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type, I fell in love with the farmer and his ill-behaved barnyard friends.  I cannot get enough of their antics.  Wonderful!

Well, friends.  That's it.  Our top ten for Halloween.  Save the list for next year, eh?

Snow Day

We are having our first snow day of Winter 2012/2013 here in Chicagoland.  I was actually shocked that they called it last night when it had not even started snowing yet.  However, since the chance of snow was predicted at 100%, I am guessing they felt pretty secure in this decision.  Sitting here looking out the window, I can see how parents who are fortunate enough to have a bus pick their children up (we live too close to the school for this at .8 of a mile) would feel antsy about having the kiddos come home on such slippery streets.

Soooo, we have had our own version of school here.  We studied Samuel in the Bible and then started our science lesson in this book.

Usborne Flip Flap Body Book by Alistair Smith

Sorry about the really small picture, but as I tried to make it bigger, it became really distorted.  I really like Usborne books - they are high quality in terms of materials and they are straightforward with regard to science.  Today we learned about where our food goes.  As you can imagine, when we got to the part where food exits the body, there was some giggling.  Aaaand the girls learned a new word for that body part.  We had always called it the "pooper" or "butt" before, but now they know the proper name.  Not sure if this is a good thing or not...

Snow days...gotta love them.

Min

Social Studies Unit

WOW!  Let me just start by saying, holy totsicles, it is cold in Lake County, Illinois!  I have not experienced this kind of cold before.  I love it, though.  Never have been a summer gal... I prefer wearing warm sweaters and snuggling under blankets to sweating and stinking any day.

We are just starting our new social studies unit.  Again - this is for the younger kiddos, ages three to four and we are using Sonlight core curriculum.  We are reading this book:

What Do People Do All Day by Richard Scarry

Richard Scarry is a classic artist and author.  This book helps to give youngsters an overview on careers, how a house runs, and mailing a letter, among other things.  It also gives children a better perspective of the world around them and how they fit into it.

We started out by talking about a typical town and the careers that are a part of it.  It was just a few pages, but it got her thinking - I could see the wheels turning.  Then we asked her what she thought  she wanted to be when she grew up.  She does not know what she wants to be, but she knows she does NOT want to be a teacher.  If I had to predict, I would say that Jules will be in some sort of law enforcement or leadership position.  Abby wants to be a teacher like Mommy - that apple does not fall far from the tree in many respects.

Next time, we will explore a home and what makes it run.  It will be fun to walk her around our own house and show her things like the water heater, plumbing, etc.

We are at Mom's in Virginia for the long weekend, so there is fun to be had.

Laters.

Min

Our Fairy Tale Unit

We have spent the majority of January and the first part of February studying fairy tales - what a fun unit this has been!  As I wrote before, we started by reading Thumbelina, Dan the Dunce, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Ugly Ducking and The Nightengale.  These are such fun stories to read and we did cute activities with each of them, too.  We are reading them from this book:

A First Book of Fairy Tales by Mary Hoffman

We continued our fairy tale unit by reading The Selfish Giant first.  The moral of this one is to share, because it makes everyone happier in the end, including you!  Then we practiced caring for our plants by watering the ones in the house.  Here is a link to where you can by this book, if you just want this particular story.  It is never too early to introduce a child to Oscar Wilde!

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde

The next story we read was Jack and the Beanstalk.  Again, we read the version in A First Book of Fairy Tales, but here is a link to an individual version.  A really great story about a boy who uses his quick wits to improve his family's life.  After we read this, we planted more seeds to see what else we could grow...this time, it was corn.

Jack and the Beanstalk retold by Steven Kellogg

Then we moved on to this story:

Sleeping Beauty by Brothers Grimm, illustrated by K.Y. Craft

We did not read the Brothers Grimm version (we are not ready for Grimm yet, but I look forward to those days!) but this is the version that I would buy if it weren't already in our book.  After this, we cut an apple in half sideways so that the girls could see the star inside.  I showed them how this would be a great stamper!  We enjoyed the apple for a snack.

A few days later, we moved on to The Frog Prince.

The Frog Prince by Brothers Grimm, retold by Edith Tarcov

After reading this book, what else could we do but hop around like frogs?

We then read a story I had never even heard of before - but I love it!

Diamonds and Toads - a Russian fairy tale

This is a great story about not coveting what someone else has.  Kind of a biblical moral, but told in a Cinderella-esque way.

Have you ever read The Fisherman and His Wife?  What a great tale!

The Fisherman and His Wife retold by Rachel Isadora

This is also a fairy tale about greed and how being greedy can cause you more trouble than it is worth.  The reason I recommend this version is because I enjoy the art of Rachel Isadora, who has won the Caldecott medal before.

We read one of my favorites - The Princess and the Pea.  I really relish the knowledge that I am introducing Juliana to these fairy tales.  I want her to hear them in their non-Barbie, non-Disney form before seeing them all commercialized.  I have nothing against Barbie and Disney (in fact, I wish I had stock in them), but it is important for kids to know that these stories have been around a lot longer than their favorite toys and movies have been.

The Princess and the Pea - a Little Golden Book!

I love that this is available as a Little Golden Book!

The last fairy tale that we read (and it will be the last one for a little while, as we are heading in to our social studies unit) is The Snow Queen - another one that I was not familiar with, but certainly a great one!

The Snow Queen by Susan Jeffers

Loving the art in this version of the story!  The fact that it encourages friendship between boys and girls is just the icing on top!

We are, of course, continuing with our bible stories, too.  We have moved into Judges and the story of Joshua.  Next, we will move onto Samson and Delilah - one of my favorites.

Soon, we will be learning about working, keeping house, and mailing a letter.  That's it for now!

Mindi

We Are Reading...

We are back on track with the homeschooling at night.  For Juli, we are simply reading our bible stories and, lately, focusing on fairy tales.  For Abby, we are working on comprehension.  Her reading fluency and accuracy are very high, but her comprehension is at a "basic" level, so we are buckling down on it.

We have just entered Exodus in this book:

Family-Time Bible in Pictures by Kenneth Taylor

If you have a youngster between the ages of 3 and 5 years, I would recommend this as a first bible.  The pictures are colorful and the stories are short.  Both of these are important when it comes to kiddos.  Additionally, there are questions at the end of each story for you to ask the kids - questions that increase their understanding of the story and help them to make text-to-self connections.

On the lighter side, we read this book:

Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang

This is a great book to read at bedtime.  It is about a little girl who is getting ready for bed and, as she does so, is playing a rhyming game with her Daddy and also counting objects.  Great for reinforcing these math and language skills.  Not on that, but the main character is African American, which is a rarity.  I love exposing the kids to people of other races and cultures as often as I can - it is a big world out there, people, and we need to be sure that our children accept everyone in it equally and respectfully.

The next book we read was this one

I am a Bunny by Ole Risom

I am a Bunny by Ole Risom, with pictures by Richard Scarry.  LOVE the art in this book.  This was originally a Little Golden Book (I believe) and is difficult to get ahold of anymore.  It is about a bunny named Nicholas who goes through the four seasons in a charming and sweet way.  It highlights his activities throughout the year and is done in such a colorful and enchanting way.  A great book for teaching seasons to young children, for sure.

Then we started in on this one

Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, retold and illustrated by Val Biro

Again, this is another book that is difficult to get hold of, but if you can, it is worth it.  While it only contains 11 of his stories, and not necessarily all of the well-known ones either, the drawings are wonderful.  The characters have....well, character.  I really like the way the people in this book are drawn.  The first fairy tale we read was Thumbelina.  Does it get any cuter than Thumbelina?  Juli must be able to relate to her (she is a small kid).  Anyway, this story, if you did not know, is great for girls in that it is about a girl who does not take the first offer to come along and waits for the right guy for her.  (Maybe I should have read this more as a child - oh well, third time's a charm, right?)

Then we switched books - don't fret, we'll go back to Hans in a minute - to this one

Whose Mouse Are You? by Robert Kraus

This book is about a little mouse who saves his mother, his father and his baby brother from various dangers.  He is a hero.  Doesn't everyone need a hero?

Then we went back to Hans and read Dan the Dunce.  This is a little-known story by Andersen and cannot be found (to my knowledge) as a solo story, although it is told in this video on YouTube.  It is about a man who is quite the underdog in his town.  It is surprising to me, that someone so lazy and filthy could actually accomplish anything, but he does.  Teaches the kiddos not to judge books by their cover.  Good read.

Next, we read this

The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christan Andersen

This teaches kids about self-awareness, surrounding yourself with the right (honest) people, and how NOT to jump on the bandwagon or succumb to peer pressure, along with lessons against vanity and selfishness.

I know this seems like a reading marathon, but this is the stuff we have read for all of January.  Next, we enjoyed this one by Andersen:

The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen, retold and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

 This is another "don't judge a book by its cover" book.  I love this moral.  The story also teaches young people to be proud of themselves.  Both valuable lessons, indeed.

Finally, we read this tonight

The Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen

 This has always been one of my favorite fairy tales.  The moral is the same, about looks not being everything and beauty on the inside being more valuable than beauty on the outside.  I wonder why ole Hans used this moral so much?  Does anybody know?  I mean, was he ugly?  Anyway, Juli liked this one so much that she asked me to read it to her again - immediately.

For the next few weeks, we will be focusing on fairy tales, just so ya know.

Thought I would throw in a pic of the two youngest girls.  Guess who the cheeser is??

Laters.

Min

We Have Been Busy

Hi there!  Wow - what a whirlwind of a holiday season that was!  We have so much to catch up on, but here are a few of the highlights.  I will definitely go into more detail in a later post.

First of all, I am trying to go more vegan this year.  I can't promise all vegan, because we do go out to eat on occasion and I would like to have carte blanche with the menu (hello, right??).  However, I am trying.  Just so you know, I will not be foisting this onto my family and friends, although there are a few friends out there who I know will be joining me on my journey, but I will likely slip a vegan dish in every now and then.

Ok, so the other day, I am walking out to the trash can and talking on the phone at the same time.  I fling open the lid to the dumpster-on-wheels and proceed to scare the ever-lovin-crap out of a squirrel.  A squirrel who had apparently been snacking in there.  Of course, the cute little ball of fluff scared the crap out of me, too.  In fact, being the pillar of bravery that I am, I ran off down the driveway screaming at the top of my lungs (I had forgotten I was still on the phone).  I am sure the neighbors enjoyed this sight.  After I got my wits together, I went back and took a picture of the aforementioned ball of fluff.  Can you see him?  Can you??

Look reeeeally hard.  He is there, looking back at you.

Dan put up lights this year.  First time he has ever hung them on the house.  Yay, Daddy!  Poor picture, but you get the gist.

Good jhob, Dad.  Good jhob.

Then Abby and I attended Juli's holiday extravaganza at Goddard.  Oh my cuteness, Batman!

Seriously???  Can you stand the cuteness??

Oh, I got picked up for subbing in Libertyville.  Here I am on my first day.  Feels goooooood to be in a classroom again, even if it is not mine.

How about a little lesson on the ethics of human cloning, eh?  A far cry from my precious kindergartners, but you know - go with the flow!

We took December off from Mommy School to do Christmas crafts and read a different holiday book every night.  This was so much fun, and it will be repeated next year for sure.  What great memories we made!  Now we are back in the swing of things, though.  Today, we read about Moses and the burning bush in Juli's Family Time Bible and then we read this:

Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann

Great book!  It only has about 12 different words in it, which makes it "readable" for pre-schoolers.  There are lots of details in the illustrations and at least four different themes to follow.  First, and most obvious, is the frisky little gorilla who steals the zookeeper's keys and lets all of the animals out as the man says good night to them one by one.  Then they all follow him home and....well, you know I don't ruin endings!

Then there's the mouse who follows the gorilla.  He is trying to carry a banana.  Too cute - look for his valiant struggles.

Check out the animal's cages - you might see some toys that you recognize.

Finally, look at the pictures in the zookeeper's house - it is clear that this man (and his wife) loves his job.

Then, Abby and Juli ate bananas for snack, of course!

That's all for now, folks!

Min