A Sock Is a Pocket for Your Toes: A Pocket Book by Elizabeth Garton Scanlon

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I’ve made a concerted effort to read more poetry to my children this National Poetry Month, and I’m ending the month by posting a little review of a delightful book entitled A Sock Is a Pocket for Your Toes by Elizabeth Garton Scanlon. (I just love the assonance and alliteration in the title, don’t you?)  I purchased it after reading Alice’s glowing review, and I have to say I was not disappointed.  For some reason, I was expecting it to be a collection of poems instead of one long poem, but after I got used to the idea that it is a rhyming picture book, I warmed up to it and had a fabulous time sharing it with my girls.  It is deceptively simple in that it appears to be only for little kids:  Robin Preiss Glaisser‘s illustrations are mostly of little kids and their relationships with others.  However, the concept of all the things that can be pockets is a brain tickler.  I love it!

A chimney is a pocket blowing smoke,

and a pocket for a giggle is a joke–

tee hee.

A pocket packed with giggles is a joke.

A phone is a pocket for a ring,

a bell is a pocket for a ding.

Well, you get the idea.  This verse creates a delightful rhythm that begs to be tapped or bounced to.  My girls and I had a fun time coming up with other pockets.  Yesterday was National Poem in Your Pocket Day, but I think any day is a good day to keep a poem in your pocket or read a poem about pockets.  We give this book a Highly, Highly Recommended. (HarperCollins, 2004)

Given the DLM’s affinity for pockets, I think this one will be a popular selection at the House of Hope for many years to come.

The Poetry Friday roundup this week is at The Opposite of Indifference.

 

 

This Week in Books

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Lulu:

Assigned reading:  All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor.  It’s on my Classics Club list for me to read, but I decided to forego the read-aloud and let Lulu read it alone first.  It was a hit. She’s still reading If You Lived in the Days of the Knights, her other assigned reading selection, and is doing some narration activities with it.

Fun reading:  I know she read more Boxcar Children books than this (of course!), but I’ve lost all track of them and that lone title up there is the only one that made it on the stack.

Louise:

Assigned reading:  We’re still reading Shadow of the Wolf together after her reading lessons.  She also read several of the I Can Read books aloud to Mamaw this afternoon.

Fun reading:  Pretty much everything on the stack is Louise’s fun reading.  She loves the Minnie and Moo books in particular.

Together (read-alouds):

We started on Knight’s Tale by Edgar Eager, and it’s a smash hit.  We’re also still making our way through Little Pilgrim’s Progress, also a hit.  Another notable of the week is the picture book The Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont.  Look for a review of it next week.

Me:

I plan to finish Jeeves and theTies That Bind tonight so I can share my thoughts about it tomorrow for the Reading to Know Bookclub.  I’m also still listening to Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry.  I like to listen to it while I exercise, but since my exercising is sporadic at best, so is my listening.

The girls also pulled out our huge Treasury of Picture Book Classicsand enjoyed some old favorites.  The DLM’s current favorite is an abridged (boo! hiss!) board book version of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.  (If I’d known it was abridged, I surely wouldn’t have bought it!)

I’m pretty sure I’m missing a lot more from the week, but it has been a challenging week, so I’m calling this good.

Have you had a bookish week?

Read Aloud Thursday–the Who in the World Was. . . ? series

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This post is for those of you who either educate your children classically or have children with an inordinate interest in the Middle Ages.  You all know how much we love read-alouds at the House of Hope.  As Lulu has gotten older, I struggle somewhat with how much to give her to do independently and how much to still read aloud to her.  Honestly, sometimes it’s for semi-selfish reasons that I don’t have her read more of her required work independently; I don’t want to miss out on the experience, and I also think it’s valuable to have Louise along for the ride, too.  Anyway, I discovered this little series of books at a homeschool conference that I attended last year where I got to hear Susan Wise Bauer in person.  Of course, Peace Hill Press was there, and on their table was this set of four short biographies on the Empress Theodora, Ethelred the Unready, Amerigo Vespucci, and Johannes Gutenberg.  So far in our history studies we have read about the acrobatic princess and the unready king via Story of the World, with more flesh-and-blood put on these stories via these little four chapter biographies.  We can finish one of these biographies in a couple of sittings, but Lulu usually confiscates the book between readings and finishes it herself alone.  They’re not fine literature, or at least not what I consider fine literature (which means a fair amount of description and a measure of literariness).  They contain a good bit of dialogue, conflict, and general excitement, all hallmarks of books that easily capture the attention of the listener.  However, they also provide plenty of background information and atmosphere.  For example, here’s an interesting tidbit from Who in the World Was the Unready King?:

England made the finest coins in the world at the time.  They were small silver coins called pence that were worth about a penny.  Five pence would buy a sheep, and ten pence would buy a pig.  To buy a few loaves of bread and some vegetables to eat, you could easily break a pence in half with your thumb and make “half-pence.” (14)

It’s not hard to find accessible literature about many, many time periods in history, but the Middle Ages selections are heavy on the knights and castles and light on individual personalities.  I’m glad to have this little set of biographies to add even more life to our history studies.  I only wish there were more of these!




I’m linking this post up to this week’s Favorite Resource This Week linky at Learning ALL the Time and this week’s Trivium Tuesdays linky at Living and Learning at Home.
Favorite Resource This Week

April (& March) 2012 Nightstand

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I failed to write up a Nightstand post in March, so I’m sharing what I’ve read since Febrary’s Nighstand post in this one.  Titles are linked to my reviews:

Close to Famous and Inside Out and Back Again tie for my favorite books, although there really isn’t a dud in the bunch.  (Well, okay–I sort of consider Dead End in Norvelt a dud, but you’ll have to read my review to find out why.)

Of course, I’ve done a whole lot of reading aloud, too.  Here are the chapter books my children and I have enjoyed together:

And a few of the DLM’s top picks:

We’ve also been enjoying poetry this National Poetry Month:

My girls and I are currently still making our way through Little Pilgrim’s Progress, which honestly is languishing a bit.  We’re reading Knight’s Castle by Edward Eager as a complement (or is it compliment?  both, maybe?) to our history studies.

I am currently (still) reading Jeeves and the Tie That Binds by P.G. Wodehouse and (still) listening to Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry in audiobook format.

I am working through my Spring Reading Thing list while trying to ignore the other titles that are clamoring for my attention, like Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which I purchased for the Kindle at a really cheap price long before I watched the movie.  We watched it Friday night, and now I really, really want to read the book.  This is precisely the problem which keeps me from getting to more challenging things, like the books on my Classics Club list.  Next month I will be reading and sharing my thoughts about The Adventures of Tom Sawyer for the Reading to Know Bookclub.  This one is my pick!   Will you join us?
Reading to Know - Book Club

What’s on Your Nightstand?

April nature notes

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We’ve taken several opportunities this month to get outside and intentionally observe and enjoy nature.  In addition to our dogwood tree study, we also focused on that harbinger of spring, the robin, one Fun Friday this month.  On that particular day we went to the library and had a picnic at the park with Steady Eddie.  Since this park is right across the street from the library, we walked, and Mr. Robin obliged us by perching beautifully in one of the trees on the library lawn.  Of course, we took a moment to really look at the bird and notice as much about its colorings and markings as we could before it flew off.

At the park we enjoyed watching the antics of a squirrel that loved our dropped (and tossed!) Goldfish crackers.  I even watched a tiny little bird (I wish I were better at bird i.d.!) try to make off with one of the crackers, but the Goldfish was just too big!  Steady Eddie even tried to photograph down inside the hole in the tree trunk, thinking this might be the squirrel’s home.  (Nature study has definitely become a family affair! :-) )

When we got home I uploaded our pictures and enlarged Mr. Robin and printed it out.

Using the knowledge I gleaned from The Handbook of Nature Study, we once again talked about the colors and markings of the robin.  Then I handed the girls a robin picture to color from the Notebooking Treasury North American birds collection. (My affiliate link here.)  I instructed the girls to do a good job of coloring the robin as true-to-life as possible.  Using the picture for their model, they colored and listened to an mp-3 recording of chapter five of The Burgess Bird Book (as suggested by Barb in her robin study post).  I also had them write down something they learned from the story at the bottom of their coloring page.  Sometimes being patient with an assignment like this is tough for one of my girls, so I’m particularly proud of the attention to detail here.

Something else we did this month was simply go for a walk around our neighborhood and observe signs of spring.  When we got home, I wrote our observations on the list Barb always provides in her newsletter.

Last week, in lieu of some other formal nature study, we simply went on a photo scavenger hunt using the list from Go Explore Nature’s Get Outside Photo Scavenger Hunt list.  I handed the camera over to the girls (which thrilled them to no end!) and we took turns going down the list (skipping items we couldn’t find, etc.) until the camera battery died a very sudden death.  I thought the girls did a lovely job in their photographing of #3 (sky) and #6 (flower).  That little maple tree is my contribution.  Isn’t the deep purple lovely?

This month we also planted a butterfly bush, the beginning of our very own butterfly garden.  The single biggest contributor to our enjoyment of nature, though, are our bird feeders.  Seeing our familiar friends at our feeders daily really makes us stop and appreciate nature.  I hope I can share some of the photos I’ve taken the past couple of months soon.  (Most of them are frequent visitors, so you can see them here.)  Steady Eddie and the girls surprised me Saturday with a new bird feeder station for our backyard.  I’ll share a picture of it soon.  My enthusiasm for bird watching has definitely been contagious.  :-)

 

Sickness, solo parenting, math games, and King Alfred bread

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(I’m trying out a new collage format this week.  I’m not sure I love it, but I thought I’d go with it and see if it grows on me.  I think I prefer my line-’em-up-straight format better.  :-) )

1.  This week we played a lot of math games:  Addition Corners, Find the Remainders (subtraction with four digit numbers), Dot Card Memory (evens/odds), Swim to Ten (mental addition of one-digit numbers).  Part of this is due to the fact that Lulu came down with a sore throat last Sunday afternoon, and she was still puny Monday and Tuesday.  Math games were about the only thing that perked her up.  ;-)   Still, though, we managed to get through lessons 97 and 98 in RS C, which entailed finding perimeters in centimeters and adding mentally.  Both of these tasks were fairly easy for Lulu.  Louise continues to make progress in RS B.  This week we completed lessons 18-20 in which evens/odds and EQUATIONS were introduced.  Oh, and we played a lot of games.

2. The other thing that perked Lulu up was lots and lots (and lots) of American Girl audiobooks.  Both girls spent a large portion of the week, especially Monday and Tuesday, on the couch listening to the stories of Kaya, Rebecca, Julie, and Kirsten.  On Monday night we skipped dance altogether and had a movie night–Kit Kittredge.  Steady Eddie had an out-of-town meeting Monday through Thursday, and I try to do something a little extra when he’s gone; often this is a movie night.  (I hate to say it, but with so many afternoon and evening activities, even a movie night is tough to plan around here!)  It was a bonus for me because I worked on my Project Life scrapbook during the movie.

3. Lulu continues to show great interest in crocheting, and I still haven’t found the time to learn how to do it myself in order to teach her.  My mom spent the night with us Tuesday night, and she was able to help Lulu a little bit.  Heather’s series, 10 Days of Pouring into Your Child’s Passions, is really encouraging me to find ways to carve time out of our day for the girls to do things they’re really interested in.  Lulu is all about making things with her hands–from tiny purses out of Scotch tape to necklaces to crocheted bracelets.  I really want to encourage this.

4.  I have such a hard time with knowing how to handle sick days.  (I’ve written about this before–here and here.)  Thankfully, I’ve wised up a bit and sort of let the sick one take the lead–more “Do you feel like doing ______?” than requirements.  Actually, Monday and Tuesday were fairly productive school days, even though we didn’t get in all of the 3 R’s on either day.  However, I felt way more relaxed about school than I usually do–I even did some things I enjoyed in the middle of the school day and spent extra time working with Louise.  I found myself thinking that that’s really how I want school to be around here–more relaxed on my end of things.  How do accomplish this?  I don’t know.  Maybe trying really hard to not see it as a day-by-day project but more as a week-by-week (or even month-by-month or term-by-term?) project, so that what we don’t get to today we’ll get to tomorrow?  By lowering my expectations?  Hmm. . .lots to think about as we finish up this year of learning.  (This post of Alice’s really resonates with me.)

5.  Wednesday afternoon found Louise, the DLM, and me enjoying some sunshine on a quilt on the lawn of Lulu’s piano teacher while Lulu was inside having her piano lesson.  Louise and I did her “piano school”–we read together and played yet another game of Swim to Ten.  (She absolutely LOVES this game!)  I also brought along The Well Trained Mind which I’m perusing once again as I begin to think about next year.  I’m feeling the draw toward more books (as if that’s possible ;-) ) and less formal curriculum.  Good books + narrations + the basics of math and language + something they’re passionate about = a good education, right?

6. On Thursday I shook up our schedule a bit, knowing we were taking the day off on Fun Friday.  After piano practice, we went on a Get Outside Photo Scavenger Hunt (hat-tip Barb) for which I handed over my little point-n-shoot camera for the girls’ use.  (This is huge–I’m usually pretty stingy with use of my cameras.)  Unfortunately, the camera battery died before we got very far in our scavenger hunt, but at least everyone got ONE turn to take a picture.  (Fairness is very, very important around here. :-) )   When we came back inside, we stirred up a batch of King Alfred bread from the SotW Activity Guide.  We had read about King Alfred the day before, so I knew that pairing a very interesting story from history with a kitchen activity would be a win, and I was right.  Our bread turned out to be more cake-like, so instead of kneading and forming the dough, I ended up pouring it into mini-loaf pans.  It was delicious!  (Must’ve been the butter and whipping cream. . . )  My girls will probably never forget about King Alfred and his cowardice!

7.  We were in a lunchtime rut this week, so on Thursday I made us “snack lunches.”  This day it was cheese cubes/sticks, baby carrots and Ranch dressing, grapes, and King Alfred bread.  What’s your favorite homeschool lunch?

8.  This week we finally got around to starting on a states notebook, which is something I’ve wanted to do since we were in the middle of reading Little Britches (linked to my review).  While reading this wonderful story, I thought it would be great to use this story to talk about the landscape of Colorado and then just about Colorado in general.  Using state-specific notebooking pages from Notebooking Treasury and this state fact sheet from Homeschool Creations, the girls have a nice start on their states notebook.  (I was also inspiree by Jimmie’s 50 States Noteobook Squidoo lens.)  My Favorite Resource This Week, though, is How to Draw Colorado’s Sights and Symbols from the A Kid’s Guide to Drawing America series.  (The link is to Amazon, but the book pictured with the link is about California, so beware if you click it.  I don’t think I’d pay the $25 Amazon is asking, either, but it’s definitely worth a look around for cheap used copies or at the library!)  We’re all a little frustrated by drawing, so having simple, step-by-step instructions on how to draw the map, the seal, etc., was invaluable to us.  Plus, the book includes a lot of good information. 
This, a few informational books on Colorado from the library, and our memories of Ralph Moody’s descriptions were all good resources to get us started.  We also pulled out and studied Geography from A to Z: A Picture Glossary by Jack Knowlton (which I wrote about here) when we weren’t sure of the definition of canyon and gorge.  (That’s the DLM’s contributions to our studies up there in the picture–a Little People pirate, goat, and lion–looking on as the girls pore over this colorful little geography book.)

Favorite Resource This Week9.  I knew Lulu was better on Tuesday afternoon when she remodeled one corner of their bedroom during rest time to make a “dressing room.”  I really, really try to not interrupt their play time to do something as prosaic as lessons.  ;-)

This week Lulu did three days of week 27 in WWE 2, the first part of step 11 in AAS 2, lessons 85 and 86 in FLL 2, some reading aloud to me, and some handwriting practice.  Louise completed lessons 145-147 in OPGtTR.  As usual, we also read a lot.  We took the day off on Friday for appointments and errands.  Steady Eddie was back home, and boy, were we all glad!

Although I hate to make an already too long post even longer, I thought I’d share some of the things the DLM does while we’re doing school.  I have read every suggestion out there on how to keep a toddler busy during homeschooling.  Mostly, we just go with the flow.  Sometimes one of the girls will read to him while I work with the other girl; sometimes he colors in his high chair while we work.  Lately he loves playing with the math manipulatives.  This isn’t ideal, but it does keep him happy.  Plus, it’s cute to hear him count on the abacus.  ;-)

Have you been enjoying the iHomeshcool 10 Days of series all over homeschooling blogdom?  I have!  I have to give a plug for my friend Mary’s 10 Days of Teaching Music series.  So far it has been five days of fantastic information and resources, and I can’t wait to read the next five days!

Something else that keeps the DLM busy and happy: playing "do" on the piano!

 

Normally I link up with Collage Friday at Homegrown Learners, but it has been pre-empted this week for the aforementioned 10 Days of Teaching Music series.  This week I’m happily linking up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Learning All the Time.

Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson

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George Washington Carver has completely captured by imagination, so it is fitting that I picked up a volume of poems about his life this National Poetry Month.  I hardly know what to say about it.  It is good–really good, in that sharp-intake-of-breath kind of way.  It’s written from a multitude of perspectives, from the man hired to rescue George Washington Carver and his mother, also a slave, from their kidnappers to a white school teacher who was apparently in love with Carver (and was rumored to have committed suicide years after they parted ways) to “an Alabama Farmer” who solicits Dr. Carver’s instruction on “what maid [his] cotton grow.”  One of my favorites is titled “Clay.”  Here’s an excerpt:

To Carver’s eye, the muddy creek banks say

Here to be dug up, strained, and painted on,

is loveliness the poorest can afford:

azures, ochres. . . Scraps of discarded board

are landscapes.  Cabins undistinguished brown

bloom like slaves freed to struggle toward self-worth.

Beauty is commonplace, as cheap as dirt.

One of Carver's own paintings, done with paint made from Alabama clay

Marilyn Nelson holds Carver’s life up to the light in this volume and shows what a multifaceted jewel it is.  Reading this Newbery and Coretta Scott King honor book has made me hungry to know more about this man.  Highly Recommended.  (Front Street, 2001)

More about George Washington Carver at Hope Is the Word:

George Washington Carver Museum in Tuskegee, Alabama

Tuskegee University (includes pictures of Carver’s gravesite)

Children’s books about George Washington Carver

I’m adding this book review to this month’s Award Winning Books database at Gathering Books.  I’m also joining in the Poetry Friday round-up at Random Noodling.

 

This Week in Books

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Our stack is extra tall this week due to the presence of a quartet of audiobooks from the American Girl collection.  I normally don’t consider audiobooks in my This Week in Books posts because we have a huge collection on our iPod that gets daily use, but I’m afraid sometimes they’ve become little more than background noise.  However, Lulu started the week sick, so much of Monday and Tuesday were spent on the couch with Kaya and Rebecca.  As the week has continued, the girls have listened to Julie’s story and started on Kirsten.  Lulu has also read her usual small stack of Boxcar Children mysteries.  I didn’t assign her a book this week, so this week she simply read for fun.  Louise and I are still reading Shadow of the Wolf together, and several of the titles on this stack are ones she read for her own pleasure all by herself.  We’re still making our way through Little Pilgrim’s Progress as a read-aloud, though I did read the short chapter book Who in the World Was the Unready King? since it went along with out history studies.  The geography titles on the stack are ones we used for reference.  For my own enjoyment, I’m reading Jeeves and the Tie That Binds and listening to a juvenile fiction title, Heart of a Shepherd by Rosann Parry, when I get a chance.

Read Aloud Thursday–Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker

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I almost didn’t write this review because I know I’ve seen so many good things about this sweet picture book on the internet that I figured everyone else has seen those reviews, too, and has probably already added this book to her family’s collection.  However, since this blog is more for my remembrance than it is to promote the books I like, I’m going to list some of the things the DLM and I love about Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker.  We’ve only been reading it for about a week and a half now, so I’m sure this list will probably grow as it goes from being merely familiar to ingrained forever in my brain.  :-)

  • It’s the perfect naptime or bedtime story.  Like Goodnight Moon and, I’m sure, a host of other bedtime stories, this story is literally about going to bed.  The fun twist here, though, is that it’s heavy equipment that’s getting all cozied up for a night of slumber.  I usually read this book to the DLM by the faint light of his heavily shaded window at naptime and by the light of the hallway light outside his bedroom at night.  It’s a good book to read by dim light.
  • This story uses the real names for the equipment and real terminology for their parts:  Crane Truck raises a beam with his boom;  Cement Mixer pulls up his chute and slows his drum;  Dump Truck lowers his bed and locks his gate; Bulldozer pushes with his blade and stops his track;  Excavator twirls on his track and lets his scoop rest on the ground.  In other words, it’s not overly simplified, so I think it will be a favorite for a long, long time.
  • The construction equipment are all male (yes, they are–I double checked) and they are all given rough-and-tumble personalities, yet the book is still sweet and tender.  They are just like my little boy toddler!  :-)   Here’s a sampling of the verses from a couple of pages toward the end of the story that captures the the tough-but-sweet essence moms of little men are familiar with :

These big, big trucks, so tough and loud,

They work so hard, so rough, and proud.

Tomorrow is another day,

Another chance to work and play.

 

Turn off your engines, stop your tracks,

Relax your wheels, your stacks, and backs.

No more huffing and puffing, team:

It’s time to rest your heads and dream.

  • Tom Lichtenheld‘s illustrations are just about as perfect as illustrations can be.  They capture perfectly the spirit of the story.  The DLM’s favorite page is of Excavator pushing a mound of boulders with his blade.  We always pause on this page so my little man can point to and name the rocks.  (They’re all named Rock.  ;-) )  One of my favorite details is the setting sun which is replaced by a sleeping moon.  I love that Excavator’s scoop is cradling the moon on the cover and that Crane Truck helps raise the sun on the endpapers.  The sunset pages are completely awash with a pinkish-orange glow and the nighttime pages are shadowy and grainy and star-spangled, with the vastness of the nighttime sky a perfect backdrop for the softly snoring Dump Truck and teddy bear-clasping Crane Truck.  Sweet perfection!

I’m adding this one to my long-neglected Best Picture Books list.  If you have a toddler or preschooler, especially a boy, don’t miss this one.  If you don’t have a toddler or preschooler but are in the market for a baby gift, consider this one.  Highly, Highly Recommended.  (Chronicle, 2011)

A Hole Is to Dig


 

I meet Bertie Wooster & his man, Jeeves

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I read “Jeeves Takes Charge,” the short story in which Bertie Wooster hires Jeeves to be his valet, last week while walking on a treadmill in a hotel south of Montgomery, Alabama.  (You can read more about my very first encounter with Wodehouse here.)  It’s a good thing the exercise room was empty, too–I’m sure I would’ve been unable to contain my glee and would’ve laughed aloud despite the presence of an audience.  However, anyone familiar with Wodehouse would’ve understood completely my unabashed exuberance.  What I want to do here is simply make note of a few excerpts from the story that capture the flavor of Wodehouse and what makes his writing so enjoyable.

Bertie hires Jeeves after Jeeves gives him his own special remedy for “a morning head”:

I would have clutched at anything that looked like a life line that morning.  I swallowed the stuff.  For a moment I felt as if somebody had touched off a bomb inside the old bean and was strolling down my throat with a lighted torch, and then everything seemed suddenly to get all right.  The sun shone in through the window; birds twittered in the treetops; and, generally speaking, hope dawned once more.

———————-

I might be a chump, but, dash it, I could out-general a mere kid with a face like a ferret.

———————-

I don’t know whether you have ever experienced it, but it’s a dashed unpleasant thing having a crime on one’s conscience [. . .] I found myself getting all on edge; and once when Uncle Willoughby trickled silently into the smoking room when I was alone there and spoke to me before I knew he was there, I broke the record for the sitting high jump.

Reading to Know - Book ClubWodehouse is just plain funny, and I can definitely use more funny in my life.  I finally got my hands on a stand-alone novel, Jeeves and the Tie That Binds, which I hope to have finished for this month’s Reading to Know Bookclub.