I have nothing–nothing except a picture of a little bit of reading aloud that has been going on around these parts. Lulu decided to read I’m Mighty! to Benny, so of course, Louise and the DLM had to listen in. :-)
I have been reading aloud The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit to the girls (and the DLM, when he chooses to listen), but it hasn’t grabbed me yet. I hope to have something to actually share next week.
What are you reading aloud these days? Share in the comments!
That’s a leaning tower of books. Whoa.
I haven’t participated in the Kids’ Picks carnival at 5 Minutes for Books in a long, long time–almost a year, in fact. Most of my Read Aloud Thursday posts are books that I think are worthwhile; while my children usually also enjoy them, I am usually the one who picks them out at the library or buys them. Today’s pick, though, is entirely my girls’.
My girls love this story, though admittedly it’s not one that I’d pick out. The fonts used on the cover and in the text of the story are a turn-off to me, sort of comic-sans-ish, and yes, I occasionally do judge a book by its cover. It also gets pretty close to being a little too girl-power–rah! rah! for my taste. However, there’s much to like about it, too–it’s slightly irreverent in a fun way that my girls find humorous, it contains lots and lots of alliteration, and it’s just plain old fun to read aloud. My girls definitely give it a Highly Recommended. (Holiday House, 2002)
Books 4 Learning and Literary Transgressions has kicked off a fun, new meme called Fairy Tale Friday. I’ll be adding this post on Friday.
Today I’m sharing a couple of picture books we’ve enjoyed about the Medieval period. Sometimes I think our Medieval period studies are going to last as long as the Medieval period did, but when you have such fun book as these to enjoy and “fluff up” your studies, you don’t mind a bit. What’s more fun than castles and knights? Not much, I think.
No, I’m not aristocratic
(Frankly, I’m too aromatic).
Still, it takes great fearlessness
To toil in this vile mess,
Performing work that all eschew,
That even knights can’t bear to do.
My nose more valiant than the sword–
I am the noble Privy Lord.
(I never knew my “sweet little homeschooled girls” would have such an affinity for bathroom humor. 
) S.D. Schindler‘s illustrations in this book are done in the style of an illuminated manuscript, with ornate lettering and detailed borders. This, too, is a book to study and pore over. I think this one might be better suited to children just a bit older than mine (maybe upper elementary through middle/high school), but I definitely give this one a Highly Recommended for an interesting and entertaining look at Medieval life. (Roaring Brook, 2009)
Spending all this time in cold, stony environs has really captured the girls’ imaginations, especially Louise’s. She has been drawing castles in her free time this week. Do you see the garderobe in this one? Every one of her castles has one.
Do you have a favorite picture book about the Medieval period? Do share!
It’s more comfortable than it looks.
This week’s reading in bullet points:
I’d love to broaden her horizons, too, with some other mysteries, but I’m at a loss to find something comparable to the Boxcar Children–something that isn’t scary at all, but still holds her interest. Ideas, anyone?Have you had a bookish week?
We’ve had our Jubilee week here in our homeschool, which hasn’t gone exactly the way I’d hoped or planned. Still, though, no week can be entirely lost if good books were consumed therein, right? Lulu and I have been on a Laura Ingalls Wilder kick this week, with Lulu working her way through two of the Little House books and almost finishing a third. (Probably by the time this post is published, she’ll be on to a fourth!) I’ve been reading Let the Hurricane Roar by Rose Wilder Lane, which is reminding me of just what hard lives the pioneers had. I also finished and reviewed Breadcrumbs. The biggest surprise success of the week has been Louise and her Valentine’s Day book. I bought her Big Max by Kin Platt, a retro I Can Read book, because she really likes mysteries and the stage 2 I Can Reads are right on her level right now. She loves it. We read it together right after she received it at breakfast (heart-shaped Chick-Fil-A biscuits, which Steady Eddie went out and purchased for the occasion!), and she has read it alone at least once since then. Score! I love watching my children blossom into passionate readers! It’s amazing to watch the confluence of interest and developmental ability sweep them away into becoming literate individuals.
All in all, not a bad week of no formal learning.
Lulu’s reading a pictorial abridgement of Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates–just her favorite part, she told me later. (I guess laboring through the unabridged tale was worth it, after all. )
Louise is reading singing (both, really) Sandra Boynton’s Snuggle Puppy, one of the DLM’s favorites. (How can I resist him when he brings me the huge board book and says imploringly, “Ooooooooo!” ? If you’ve read the book, you know what I mean!)
**Don’t you love the earrings? They’re clip-ons, and they belonged to Steady Eddie’s grandmother. The girls took turn-about (my granny’s way of saying they took turns) wearing them in two hour intervals. I know they had to pinch, but the girls sure felt elegant while they were doing their lessons.
Can I just say that this book just about took my breath away when I read it earlier this week, I loved it so much? Is that too gushy for a children’s poetry picture book? No? Good. I’m pretty sure I grinned all the way through it. I loved it the first time, sure, but something about sharing it with my detail-loving, artistic middle child was just pure goodness. Sidman‘s metaphors are perfect, her rhymes pleasing but not predictable, and her rhythm and timing impeccable. Here’s a word-picture I love:
Yellow slips goldfinches
their spring jackets.
Yellow shouts with light!
In spring,
Yellow and Purple hold hands.
They beam at each other
with bright velvet faces.
First flowers,
first friends.
Without the illustration, this isn’t quite as nice, although it’s still wonderful. The illustration includes a border of flowers, you guessed it–pansies, in purple and yellow. Isn’t that perfect?
I also love this one:
In the winter woods,
Gray and Brown
hold hands.
Their brilliant sisters–
Red, Orange, and Yellow–
have all gone home.
Gray and Brown sway shyly,
the only beauties left.
Sharing the poems here isn’t quite as nice as reading them in the book, of course. In addition to the beautiful, Caldecott honor award winning illustrations by Pamela Zagarenski, the text of the poems themselves are colorful. Did you notice that each color word is colored? (Of course you did!) This positively embues every page with emotional warmth (even the pages that are about winter!) and light and joy. The illustrations are whimsical and saturated and collage-y, just the style I love. I could study this book for a long, long time. In fact, I tasked Louise with the (enjoyable!) job of finding some element in the illustrations that is repeated, page after page after page. I knew she was up to the task! (I’ll let you find it for yourself–no spoilers here!)
I also love Joyce Sidman‘s Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night, winner of a 2011 Newbery honor. I’d love to read more of her stuff, and as it turns out, there’s quite a bit of it.
I give Red Sings from Treetops a Highly, Highly Recommended. (Houghton Mifflin, 2009)
Related Links:
Sampling of Pamela Zagarenski’s artwork at Seven Impossible Things
Interview with Pamela Zagarenski at Seven Impossible Things
Interview with Joyce Sidman at Seven Impossible Things
Poetry Friday is hosting this week by Tara at A Teaching Life. I am also linking this book up for
the Award Winning Books Challenge at Gathering Books.
Do you see him? My children and I were returning home from a morning out just after noon today, and I spotted this fellow perched on a powerline outside the chemical plant where my brother-in-law works. I was thrilled because after admiring Janet’s beautiful pictures for so long, I have longed myself to shoot one of these with my camera. I only had my little point-and-shoot in my purse, so that’s what I had to use. I also had to turn around and come back to where he was perched, so I’m glad he didn’t sight any prey to go after before I got back and shot these through the van window. (I would’ve loved to have gotten out of the van and gotten a closer look, but taking the DLM on the side of such a busy road was just not a good idea.)
I’m still not sure exactly what he is, and I can’t find our bird identification book. Cooper’s? Does anyone want to venture a guess based on my very blurry photos?
Once we arrived home, Louise immediately set to work on a drawing of this bird. She worked on this for a long time during rest-time and added lots of details. I’m pretty sure that those smoke-belching buildings are the factory buildings.
Homeschooling is a lot of hard work and it can be very stressful. Today, though, I am reminded of the little blessings it brings to my life. It is very unlikely that I would’ve developed a love and awareness of nature if I were living a more traditional lifestyle (i.e. working a full-time job while my children were in school), and what’s even more unlikely is that they would’ve had the opportunity to develop their own awareness and appreciation of nature. They certainly wouldn’t have been with me to actually see the hawk; I would’ve just had to tell them about it. We are indeed blessed.
