Being curious about what the children's books that I like best have in common, several days ago I sat down on the floor next to one of our bookcases and started glancing through the books. I later commented to a friend that the majority of books I like best are written AND illustrated by the same person. She started pointing out one classic author after another that has books illustrated by someone else--A.A. Milne, Lewis Carroll, Laura Ingalls Wilder. I conceded initially, but then pointed out that none of those are picture books, they're "just" children's books that happen to have pictures. This afternoon I decided to test my theory with numbers, and was only going to pull out the first ten picture books that I like. I got a bit carried away and pulled out a whole lot more, and then three certain little girls started getting excited because I had all the best books in a stack, and they got all mixed up and I no longer have any idea in which order I took them off the shelf. Anyway, for what it's worth, and in no particular order, here are some author-illustrators I like very much:
Peter Speier
Sandra Boynton
Dr. Seuss
Eric Carle
Leo Lionni
Beatrix Potter
Judith Kerr
Jane Hissey
Rosemary Wells
Ruth Heller
Helen Oxenbury
Kate Duke
Robert McCloskey
Tomie dePaola
Ezra Jack Keats
Helme Heine
Maurice Sendak
Arnold Lobel
Ludwig Bemelmans
We have multiple titles by most, if not all, of these 19 author-illustrators. We also have additional books illustrated, but not written by, several of them. Anything illustrated by Eric Carle is wonderful, no matter what. Same with Tomie dePaola and Helen Oxenbury. I also always like Maurice Sendak's illustrations, but we have some that I only keep because his illustrations are so wonderful, not the story (written by someone else). None of the books written by, but not illustrated by, Dr. Seuss are on my "favorites" list. I don't blame him for using yet another pseudonym for the books illustrated by someone else.
And here are the authors and illustrators of the books on the other pile:
Russell Hoban and Lillian Hoban
Else Holmelund Minarik and Maurice Sendak
Astrid Lindgren and Ilon Wikland
Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault (co-authors) and Lois Ehlert
Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick
Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd
Margaret Wise Brown and Felicia Bond
Laura Joffe Numeroff and Felicia Bond
Edward Lear and Helen Oxenbury
Only eight authors and eight illustrators, and note that Maurice Sendak and Helen Oxenbury, as I said before that I like anyway, are two of those illustrators. And I kind of stretched it including some of these at all. I don't like all of Margaret Wise Brown's books, the Astrid Lindgren picture books are really for an older age-group than the rest, I think I really only like the Frances books (Russell and Lillian Hoban) because of the nostalgia factor, Laura Joffe Numeroff (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, ...a Moose a Muffin, ...a Pig a Pancake, etc.) was cute the first time but I have no desire to have any more of her books, Edward Lear is just fine without any illustrations, Walter Wick actually made the illustrations FIRST for the I Spy... books and then Jean Marzollo wrote the rhymes, and so on. Another book that would have made it to this pile if it had happened to have been on the ONE shelf I went through (we have picture books on shelves in at least four different rooms, not to mention NOT on shelves all over the house...) is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" which I'm pretty sure is by Bill Martin Jr. and I know is illustrated by Eric Carle, and another is "Animals, Animals" which is a collection of poems by many authors, illustrated by Eric Carle. Come to think of it, I think my favorite book on this pile (probably Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, written by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert) would still come below my least favorite from the first list. Nah, maybe I'd put Arnold Lobel underneath. Maybe.
And I was just going to put all those books away so that I could write down that I'd done so, and I discovered that the vast majority are no longer stacked on the couch behind me, but are stacked on the floor with three certain little girls very peacefully absorbed in them...
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
January reading
So many people had posted at the beginning of January how many books that they had read in 2011, that I was curious how many I had read, but had no way of figuring it out. However, I did write down the books I read this month. I have a few friends who regularly write rather cool reviews of all or some of the books they read, but if I try to do that, I probably won't read anything else this year, so here are the titles, with just a sentence or two each:
Facing the Music by Mary Sheepshanks: a novel about a flautist who marries the wrong guy. I enjoyed much of the book because of the interaction between different characters and the scenery in Scotland, as well as the internal wrestling, but I didn't like many of the main character's decisions.
The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw: historical fiction set in Ancient Egypt. I read this because it was scheduled with Sonlight Core 6/G, which Marie and Jacob are now doing. I have no idea why it was scheduled as a read-aloud, as it was a pretty easy read, but they're reading all the books on their own anyway, and I'm just trying to keep up. Historical fiction is my favorite genre anyway and I really enjoyed this book.
Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw: another historical fiction story set in Ancient Egypt, by the same author, but totally different and considerably more mature, also read because of it being part of Core 6, but this one WAS scheduled for the children to read themselves. If I had younger children in this Core, I would not particularly want them to read it on their own! Marie and Jacob and I had a great discussion about this book--we all loved it, but for different reasons. Marie and I were very pleased with the romantic ending, while Jacob didn't even notice it! Interestingly, both books contain grave-robbing episodes, but they happen in entirely different ways and for completely different reasons, and in one it's a very negative thing, in the other actually positive.
A Free Woman by Libby Purves: a novel, but I'm trying to remember it...Oh yeah, two completely opposite sisters and some very unexpected (to me) twists, and a corny and wonderful ending that satisfied me completely.
An Elephant in Our Garden by Michael Morpurgo: Jörn gave me this for Christmas, and I keep meaning to research whether there's any basis of truth in it, but haven't. It's set in Germany near the end of World War II, with the bombing of Dresden and the subsequent escape to the Allied lines in the west. Historical fiction about WWII AND set in Germany should make it my favorite, but the writing was pretty choppy. When I could ignore that, I enjoyed the story.
Mother Country by Libby Purves: another novel, about various themes, but the one that fascinated me most (for probably obvious reasons) was that of a woman who'd lived in many places and was more-or-less trying to figure out where she was from.
More Lives Than One by Libby Purves: hands-down my favorite of the Libby Purves novels I read, probably my favorite book of the month. A couple madly in love (with each other!) and married for ten years (to each other!) faces some amazing challenges...and stays together. I liked that.
Continental Drift by Libby Purves: reading this one immediately on the heels of the last probably was partly why this was easily my least favorite book, although I thought I was going to like it when it started with Eva (I think that was her name?) from Poland backpacking around Europe. All the romances went in the wrong directions and there were too many of them and none of the characters stayed consistent with themselves. Diana was especially irritating to me.
The Spiritual Power of a Mother by Michael Farris: the only non-fiction book I read beginning to end this month, and I could have done without it. The parts I liked I already know, and the rest seemed to be about perfect people. Since I only have six children, not ten, and none of mine are perfect and neither are their parents, I couldn't relate very well. (It probably didn't help that I didn't like the book his wife wrote, either, A Mom Just Like You, which I read maybe five or six years ago or so. The main thing I carried away from that book is that she is NOT a "mom just like me." While homeschooling ten perfect children, she also found time to write a book!!)
So that was nine books that I read for the first time, as well as a couple of books that I finished after having started them in December, and I'm in the middle of several more now. Three more books that I might have counted had I been reading them for the first time were The School Story by Andrew Clements, A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and White Stallion of Lippiza by Marguerite Henry, all of which I read aloud to Lukas and Katie and enjoyed very much. Also, on January 9th I started a challenge to read the Bible in 90 days and have read through 2 Samuel so far. And I've read a million, give or take, picture books to Helen and Elisabeth.
I'm a bit embarrassed that all of my own reading has been in English (or at least, all of the books I completed were in English), but at least I've read picture books in all four languages (English, German, Spanish, and Greek), and have even started "reading" one particular book in all four, just to try to make the text a tiny bit more interesting. (Opposites. "Big. Small. Up. Down. In. Out. Long. Short." I'll stop there...the rest of the text is fairly predictable.) I admit that I was getting tired of Elisabeth's previous favorite, Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown, but I wish she'd found something different than Opposites to glom onto. With hundreds and hundreds of picture books to choose from , they always want the same ones over and over! I love re-reading books myself, but interspersed with plenty of new ones.
If this month was a typical one (and I probably read less than usual because of the 90-day-Bible-reading and other stuff I've been doing), I suppose that means I read around 120 books a year, not counting around three or four full-length books a month to the children (so around 40 or 50 a year, maybe) and all the picture books.
Facing the Music by Mary Sheepshanks: a novel about a flautist who marries the wrong guy. I enjoyed much of the book because of the interaction between different characters and the scenery in Scotland, as well as the internal wrestling, but I didn't like many of the main character's decisions.
The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw: historical fiction set in Ancient Egypt. I read this because it was scheduled with Sonlight Core 6/G, which Marie and Jacob are now doing. I have no idea why it was scheduled as a read-aloud, as it was a pretty easy read, but they're reading all the books on their own anyway, and I'm just trying to keep up. Historical fiction is my favorite genre anyway and I really enjoyed this book.
Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw: another historical fiction story set in Ancient Egypt, by the same author, but totally different and considerably more mature, also read because of it being part of Core 6, but this one WAS scheduled for the children to read themselves. If I had younger children in this Core, I would not particularly want them to read it on their own! Marie and Jacob and I had a great discussion about this book--we all loved it, but for different reasons. Marie and I were very pleased with the romantic ending, while Jacob didn't even notice it! Interestingly, both books contain grave-robbing episodes, but they happen in entirely different ways and for completely different reasons, and in one it's a very negative thing, in the other actually positive.
A Free Woman by Libby Purves: a novel, but I'm trying to remember it...Oh yeah, two completely opposite sisters and some very unexpected (to me) twists, and a corny and wonderful ending that satisfied me completely.
An Elephant in Our Garden by Michael Morpurgo: Jörn gave me this for Christmas, and I keep meaning to research whether there's any basis of truth in it, but haven't. It's set in Germany near the end of World War II, with the bombing of Dresden and the subsequent escape to the Allied lines in the west. Historical fiction about WWII AND set in Germany should make it my favorite, but the writing was pretty choppy. When I could ignore that, I enjoyed the story.
Mother Country by Libby Purves: another novel, about various themes, but the one that fascinated me most (for probably obvious reasons) was that of a woman who'd lived in many places and was more-or-less trying to figure out where she was from.
More Lives Than One by Libby Purves: hands-down my favorite of the Libby Purves novels I read, probably my favorite book of the month. A couple madly in love (with each other!) and married for ten years (to each other!) faces some amazing challenges...and stays together. I liked that.
Continental Drift by Libby Purves: reading this one immediately on the heels of the last probably was partly why this was easily my least favorite book, although I thought I was going to like it when it started with Eva (I think that was her name?) from Poland backpacking around Europe. All the romances went in the wrong directions and there were too many of them and none of the characters stayed consistent with themselves. Diana was especially irritating to me.
The Spiritual Power of a Mother by Michael Farris: the only non-fiction book I read beginning to end this month, and I could have done without it. The parts I liked I already know, and the rest seemed to be about perfect people. Since I only have six children, not ten, and none of mine are perfect and neither are their parents, I couldn't relate very well. (It probably didn't help that I didn't like the book his wife wrote, either, A Mom Just Like You, which I read maybe five or six years ago or so. The main thing I carried away from that book is that she is NOT a "mom just like me." While homeschooling ten perfect children, she also found time to write a book!!)
So that was nine books that I read for the first time, as well as a couple of books that I finished after having started them in December, and I'm in the middle of several more now. Three more books that I might have counted had I been reading them for the first time were The School Story by Andrew Clements, A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and White Stallion of Lippiza by Marguerite Henry, all of which I read aloud to Lukas and Katie and enjoyed very much. Also, on January 9th I started a challenge to read the Bible in 90 days and have read through 2 Samuel so far. And I've read a million, give or take, picture books to Helen and Elisabeth.
I'm a bit embarrassed that all of my own reading has been in English (or at least, all of the books I completed were in English), but at least I've read picture books in all four languages (English, German, Spanish, and Greek), and have even started "reading" one particular book in all four, just to try to make the text a tiny bit more interesting. (Opposites. "Big. Small. Up. Down. In. Out. Long. Short." I'll stop there...the rest of the text is fairly predictable.) I admit that I was getting tired of Elisabeth's previous favorite, Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown, but I wish she'd found something different than Opposites to glom onto. With hundreds and hundreds of picture books to choose from , they always want the same ones over and over! I love re-reading books myself, but interspersed with plenty of new ones.
If this month was a typical one (and I probably read less than usual because of the 90-day-Bible-reading and other stuff I've been doing), I suppose that means I read around 120 books a year, not counting around three or four full-length books a month to the children (so around 40 or 50 a year, maybe) and all the picture books.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Helen's third birthday
Wow--here it is only five days after the fact, and I'm already blogging about Helen's birthday! For the same story from a different point of view, check out Sue's blog.
Although I didn't manage to remember with any of the other children this year, I did remember to get the semi-traditional "day before" photo of Helen, still two. Actually, she'd been telling everyone for the last six months that she's "two and a half" and resisted all efforts to correct the math, but for the last few weeks, did happily tell people that she was going to turn three.
And here's Helen three at last:
In the early afternoon, our friends Dena and Joseph (known to Helen as "Jo-fess") came over to give Helen a present. She was happy to cuddle with them, but didn't want to open her present, so it got put on top of the piano to be opened with the other presents.
Here's a not-at-all-organized collage (I've been having fun with picasa!) of the gift-opening. A Guatemalen bear backpack from my parents (inspiring another round of "Backpack was a little bear, little bear, little bear!" learned from Starfall...), a card with stickers and such from Margaret and Phil in Germany, fishing game from Dena and Joseph, and of course the presents from the guests and her siblings. There were officially only two guests: Aimee and Sue. Aimee will be three in October and came with her "bodyguards" (so we call them, as Helen is rather larger and rougher than Aimee), her three older brothers and both parents. And Sue of course came with her husband, Richard. Our downstairs guest also joined us for the party, so we were 17 people altogether, which isn't bad for only inviting two! (Nobody gate-crashed or was unwelcomed by Helen, it was just that Aimee and Sue were the only "official" guests.)
The cat, of which I don't have a good photo but Sue does (taken by Helen!), was crocheted by Marie. Not sure why Sue is getting the hug, except that Helen often needs to randomly stop and exchange cuddles with Sue.
Dinner for everybody, and finally the cake. As of their third birthdays, the children get to request whatever they want on their birthday cake, and I do my best to make it. Lukas and Katie in particular had been trying to give Helen ideas for months, but it was always easy to tell when the idea wasn't Helen's. I finally got Helen on her own and asked her what she would like on her cake. She first told me she wanted a camel and wanted her birthday at the Camel Park, but when I asked her where she got that idea, she said, "Lukas said it to me very quietly in my ear like this," and then whispered in my ear. So I asked again what SHE would like on her cake, and she said, "Mmmm...white and brown cake." I said, "You would like a chocolate and vanilla cake?" "Yes, for my birthday when I'm going to turn three!" I tried again and asked if she would like a picture from a book, and she thought about it some more and said, "Hmmmm...yes! A roof!" I did hear the sounds, but wasn't sure what they meant, and repeated, "A roof?" "Yes, a roof. With a hippo-hoppamus. Eating special cake." We don't actually have this book, but Sue does, and she has read it to Helen MANY times, and for that matter, I've read it to Helen a fair number of times myself.
So...here is the hippo-hoppamus on a roof, eating special cake. The "cake", incidentally, is dried, candied mango! But the cake underneath the frosting is indeed chocolate and vanilla.
And here is a photo of the book cover, and a photo of the two-page spread with the exact picture Helen requested:
Our oven, by the way, had quit a week earlier, so I baked the cake in Sue's oven that morning. (We did get a new oven the next day.) When I took it out of the oven, Helen said, quite quietly for her, "Is that my birthday cake?" When I said yes, she said, even more quietly, if possible, "Are you going to make me another one?" I said no, this was her cake, just like she wanted, with chocolate and vanilla. (I put half of the batter in, added chocolate to the second half, and poured it sort of on top, sort of swirled.) Then her lip quivered just a bit as she said even MORE quietly, "But I want a hippo-hoppamus on my cake." Poor Helen! I explained that I would decorate it later when it cooled down, and she was happy again.
And so, a final photo of Helen admiring her cake. With a roof. With a hippo-hoppamus. Eating special cake.
Although I didn't manage to remember with any of the other children this year, I did remember to get the semi-traditional "day before" photo of Helen, still two. Actually, she'd been telling everyone for the last six months that she's "two and a half" and resisted all efforts to correct the math, but for the last few weeks, did happily tell people that she was going to turn three.
And here's Helen three at last:
In the early afternoon, our friends Dena and Joseph (known to Helen as "Jo-fess") came over to give Helen a present. She was happy to cuddle with them, but didn't want to open her present, so it got put on top of the piano to be opened with the other presents.
Here's a not-at-all-organized collage (I've been having fun with picasa!) of the gift-opening. A Guatemalen bear backpack from my parents (inspiring another round of "Backpack was a little bear, little bear, little bear!" learned from Starfall...), a card with stickers and such from Margaret and Phil in Germany, fishing game from Dena and Joseph, and of course the presents from the guests and her siblings. There were officially only two guests: Aimee and Sue. Aimee will be three in October and came with her "bodyguards" (so we call them, as Helen is rather larger and rougher than Aimee), her three older brothers and both parents. And Sue of course came with her husband, Richard. Our downstairs guest also joined us for the party, so we were 17 people altogether, which isn't bad for only inviting two! (Nobody gate-crashed or was unwelcomed by Helen, it was just that Aimee and Sue were the only "official" guests.)
The cat, of which I don't have a good photo but Sue does (taken by Helen!), was crocheted by Marie. Not sure why Sue is getting the hug, except that Helen often needs to randomly stop and exchange cuddles with Sue.
Dinner for everybody, and finally the cake. As of their third birthdays, the children get to request whatever they want on their birthday cake, and I do my best to make it. Lukas and Katie in particular had been trying to give Helen ideas for months, but it was always easy to tell when the idea wasn't Helen's. I finally got Helen on her own and asked her what she would like on her cake. She first told me she wanted a camel and wanted her birthday at the Camel Park, but when I asked her where she got that idea, she said, "Lukas said it to me very quietly in my ear like this," and then whispered in my ear. So I asked again what SHE would like on her cake, and she said, "Mmmm...white and brown cake." I said, "You would like a chocolate and vanilla cake?" "Yes, for my birthday when I'm going to turn three!" I tried again and asked if she would like a picture from a book, and she thought about it some more and said, "Hmmmm...yes! A roof!" I did hear the sounds, but wasn't sure what they meant, and repeated, "A roof?" "Yes, a roof. With a hippo-hoppamus. Eating special cake." We don't actually have this book, but Sue does, and she has read it to Helen MANY times, and for that matter, I've read it to Helen a fair number of times myself.
So...here is the hippo-hoppamus on a roof, eating special cake. The "cake", incidentally, is dried, candied mango! But the cake underneath the frosting is indeed chocolate and vanilla.
And here is a photo of the book cover, and a photo of the two-page spread with the exact picture Helen requested:
Our oven, by the way, had quit a week earlier, so I baked the cake in Sue's oven that morning. (We did get a new oven the next day.) When I took it out of the oven, Helen said, quite quietly for her, "Is that my birthday cake?" When I said yes, she said, even more quietly, if possible, "Are you going to make me another one?" I said no, this was her cake, just like she wanted, with chocolate and vanilla. (I put half of the batter in, added chocolate to the second half, and poured it sort of on top, sort of swirled.) Then her lip quivered just a bit as she said even MORE quietly, "But I want a hippo-hoppamus on my cake." Poor Helen! I explained that I would decorate it later when it cooled down, and she was happy again.
And so, a final photo of Helen admiring her cake. With a roof. With a hippo-hoppamus. Eating special cake.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Katie's sixth birthday
And now we have...September. Two more birthdays coming up, so I thought I'd better blog about Katie's, first, which was at the end of July!
We very often remember to take a photo of the birthday child the day before his or her birthday, holding up the number of fingers they "still are", then one the next day with the new number. Jacob's birthday was first, and it's hard to hold up either 11 or 12 fingers. Then came Elisabeth's, who wasn't willing to hold up one finger for the camera, either. The day before Lukas's birthday he got (ahem...) sent to bed early and I forgot to take a photo. So I figure that the tradition just doesn't have to happen this year, and we didn't get a photo of Katie holding up five fingers. However, on the morning of her birthday, she suddenly remembered and requested a photo of herself with six fingers. Only when I uploaded the photos to the computer did I notice that her hair hadn't been brushed yet...
Katie is very into all things Pink and all things Princess, so requested a "pin-the-tiara-on-the-princess" game at her party. I traced her and she colored herself in, as a princess.
For her cake she wanted a tiara. Not a crown, a tiara. She explained the difference to me, that on a tiara, the sides of the points swoop. I thought maybe I hadn't swooped them quite enough, but she was pleased with the cake, even if everyone else did think it was a crown. The background, incidentally, which looks purple in this photo, was actually pink, colored with homemade strawberry jam, which was yummy and I'll happily do again.
As the children arrived, they were given two tiaras each to color--one on cardboard (the back of cereal boxes) to wear, and one for taping on the princess later on. Here is the princess with her choice of tiaras.
Katie wearing her crown (I mean...tiara...although the sides don't swoop enough...), holding the plant that Lukas gave her.
Considering that there were 14 children in the house (two families total...her guests consisted of one family with eight children, and one family of adults, plus of course the eight of us and one houseguest), and that this was Katie's birthday, they played some amazingly quiet games. I think this was when they were playing a sleeping game, something I was more than happy to encourage!
Opening her gift from my parents, a little Guatemalen purse.
A book I love and have given to many six-year-olds over the years, "Now We are Six" by A.A. Milne. (We now have three copies in the house, as Marie, Katie, and I each have our own copies. Since neither Jacob nor Lukas could read when they were six, I guess that's why it didn't occur to me to give them their own copies...)
More books.
This was definitely the hands-down favorite gift in Katie's eyes...
Somehow I didn't take all that many photos. Here's Sue's blogpost about the party, with more photos.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Page 56
There's one of those games or whatever they're called going around Facebook (again), which I didn't intend to participate in publically, but did try to privately. It says to pick up the book nearest to you, turn to page 56, and copy down the fifth sentence.
First attempt: A Fruitcake Christmas only has 24 pages, and they're not even numbered. No page has five sentences. I don't particularly care for this book (I'm being nice), but Helen loves it. She read it out loud to her doll today. "Iggy and Ziggy! Bah-humbugga!"
Attempt number two: A slightly longer book, Little Bear's Trousers, has 32 pages. They're not numbered either, but I really like this book, as well as the other Little Bear books by Jane Hissey. A Welsh friend in Germany gave them to Marie when she was little, and I even knitted (without a pattern--I was so proud of myself!) a pair of trousers (if they're red and for a bear, they're trousers, not pants, no matter what my nationality) for one of Marie's bears at her request. Lots of warm fuzzies associated with this book. But no page 56.
Third book: Charlie Needs a Cloak. 30 pages. But I love Tomie dePaola's illustrations, and the sheep totally crack me up all through the book, trying to get their wool back.
I had to lean a bit to get the fourth book, but didn't actually get up: The Cat in the Hat. The first book with numbered pages, AND it has a page 56! But no words on that page.
Fifth book: Alas, Goodnight Moon doesn't have 56 pages either. This copy is just about to disinigrate and has been repaired several times. The year Marie was born (1997) was the 50th anniversary of the publication of this book, so four different people gave this book to Marie when she was born. My grandma wrote in the copy she gave Marie, and put her trademark dragonfly stamp in it, so that copy is kept up and safe. I kept one of the others to be read and chewed on, and gave away the other two copies.
For a moment there, I thought book number six was going to be a winner: all the small poems and fourteen more has 194 pages, but again, no text on page 56. This is the poetry book with Sonlight Core 5, and I imagine one is supposed to get all sorts of deep and cool meaning out of it. I would have quit reading it to Marie and Jacob after the first week or two, but they think it is great fun to take turns reading poems out loud with the funniest dramatic and profound voice they can muster. So we do that.
Book number seven: Teeny Tiny Farm doesn't even still have all of it's original pages--there are 16 left, which does not include the front cover, so I'm not 100% sure of the title. I know the back cover was sighted earlier today, but I may have thrown it away already, since I decided that as much as Marie and I enjoyed this book when she was a toddler, there's no really good reason to keep its remaining shreds.
Finally! It took eight tries, but here's my sentence: "Abraham had a very large family and though he had no money, he was rich." Very cool. (I'll just ignore the next sentences that go on to say that he was rich because of all his sheep and goats and pretend that the author meant what he said in just the one sentence! That is known as "taking it out of context", but it suits my purposes. :-) )
I can reach two more books from where I'm sitting, and one of them does have more than 56 pages AND has text on page 56, but my main conclusion is that we need to get better at getting Helen to put the books away that she takes out!
First attempt: A Fruitcake Christmas only has 24 pages, and they're not even numbered. No page has five sentences. I don't particularly care for this book (I'm being nice), but Helen loves it. She read it out loud to her doll today. "Iggy and Ziggy! Bah-humbugga!"
Attempt number two: A slightly longer book, Little Bear's Trousers, has 32 pages. They're not numbered either, but I really like this book, as well as the other Little Bear books by Jane Hissey. A Welsh friend in Germany gave them to Marie when she was little, and I even knitted (without a pattern--I was so proud of myself!) a pair of trousers (if they're red and for a bear, they're trousers, not pants, no matter what my nationality) for one of Marie's bears at her request. Lots of warm fuzzies associated with this book. But no page 56.
Third book: Charlie Needs a Cloak. 30 pages. But I love Tomie dePaola's illustrations, and the sheep totally crack me up all through the book, trying to get their wool back.
I had to lean a bit to get the fourth book, but didn't actually get up: The Cat in the Hat. The first book with numbered pages, AND it has a page 56! But no words on that page.
Fifth book: Alas, Goodnight Moon doesn't have 56 pages either. This copy is just about to disinigrate and has been repaired several times. The year Marie was born (1997) was the 50th anniversary of the publication of this book, so four different people gave this book to Marie when she was born. My grandma wrote in the copy she gave Marie, and put her trademark dragonfly stamp in it, so that copy is kept up and safe. I kept one of the others to be read and chewed on, and gave away the other two copies.
For a moment there, I thought book number six was going to be a winner: all the small poems and fourteen more has 194 pages, but again, no text on page 56. This is the poetry book with Sonlight Core 5, and I imagine one is supposed to get all sorts of deep and cool meaning out of it. I would have quit reading it to Marie and Jacob after the first week or two, but they think it is great fun to take turns reading poems out loud with the funniest dramatic and profound voice they can muster. So we do that.
Book number seven: Teeny Tiny Farm doesn't even still have all of it's original pages--there are 16 left, which does not include the front cover, so I'm not 100% sure of the title. I know the back cover was sighted earlier today, but I may have thrown it away already, since I decided that as much as Marie and I enjoyed this book when she was a toddler, there's no really good reason to keep its remaining shreds.
Finally! It took eight tries, but here's my sentence: "Abraham had a very large family and though he had no money, he was rich." Very cool. (I'll just ignore the next sentences that go on to say that he was rich because of all his sheep and goats and pretend that the author meant what he said in just the one sentence! That is known as "taking it out of context", but it suits my purposes. :-) )
I can reach two more books from where I'm sitting, and one of them does have more than 56 pages AND has text on page 56, but my main conclusion is that we need to get better at getting Helen to put the books away that she takes out!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Names
I've always read the author's and illustrator's names when reading a book out loud to the children, from when they were babies. That's caused a couple of funny stories over the years, such as when Katie requested the "Bond book". It took me quite awhile to figure out she was looking for "Big-Red-Barn-By-Margaret-Wise-Brown-Pictures-By-Felicia-Bond." And it's been cool when, many times, a child has recognized an author or an illustrator by name. When I started reading The Wheel on the School a couple of weeks ago, Lukas immediately said, "Maurice Sendak? Wait a minute!" and ran to find Where the Wild Things Are. It was interesting to him that Maurice Sendak has written AND illustrated books, as well as "just" illustrating someone else's book.
So this evening I read a "Tom and Pippo" book to Helen. I started off, "Pippo Gets Lost, written and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury." Helen interrupted to say, "MY Zenbury?!" We had a much longer discussion about her name being on the cover of the book than it took to read the book! We have four Tom and Pippo books, all of which I have read many, many more times than I care to attempt to calculate, and I've read the author's name each and every time. Strange that my Helen hadn't noticed or commented before! Of course, I myself had never noticed just how many books we have written by Helen Somebody-or-Other, or with characters named Helen, until after our Helen was born and named.
So this evening I read a "Tom and Pippo" book to Helen. I started off, "Pippo Gets Lost, written and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury." Helen interrupted to say, "MY Zenbury?!" We had a much longer discussion about her name being on the cover of the book than it took to read the book! We have four Tom and Pippo books, all of which I have read many, many more times than I care to attempt to calculate, and I've read the author's name each and every time. Strange that my Helen hadn't noticed or commented before! Of course, I myself had never noticed just how many books we have written by Helen Somebody-or-Other, or with characters named Helen, until after our Helen was born and named.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Homeschooling, home-ed, whatever one wants to call it
"Flexible" is an answer I like to give when asked what our "homeschool style" is, and I don't really like to say that we're using a curriculum, because that can give the idea that we're, um, well, using a curriculum! If we lived in the U.S. (or any place else with a readily available library of books in English), I doubt that we'd be "using" as much as we are, but as it is, Sonlight, the way we use it, is a very good fit for us. What it means is that we get to read a whole bunch of really great books, quite a few of which never would have caught my eye either by the title or the subject.
Although most of the people reading this are people I "know" from e-mail lists and therefore know all about Sonlight, here's a quick explanation: lots and lots of real books (not textbooks)! The people who started Sonlight were trying to put together books for expatriot U.S.ians who had little or no access to libraries. Sonlight is now pretty popular in the U.S., I gather, but they still very much meet the needs (or desires, anyway) of us ex-pats. The so called "Core" levels are not grade-based, although they generally do progress in required reading level and/or level of maturity, but they can easily be used "out of order" and for a large age-range. Good books are timeless and ageless, and a significant percentage of the books we read appeal to everyone from Katie (five and a half) to me, and even Helen (two and a half) is often interested. Also, we only use the "Core", which officially includes history, geography, and literature, and sometimes Bible. I did buy Language Arts 1 for Marie way back when and quit using it after about three weeks, traded it a couple of years later to someone for LA K for Jacob, and didn't last a week with it. So much for LA, and we've never used the science, either, although we do have a lot of the "real books" listed in the science sections.
Marie, being my oldest, and the one who was begging to "do school", got the most school-ish schooling for a couple of years, starting with Sonlight's then pre-K program, which didn't even come with an "Instructor's Guide" (IG) at the time, and I personally think it's silly that it does now. (At least, I think it does, or maybe just the second year does--they now have two pre-K programs.) Then she did K, 1, and 2, all mostly following the schedule as in the IG, although I never did use the discussion questions and most often we read considerably more at a sitting than was scheduled. Somewhere during SL-1, Jacob started listening in more and more, and by SL-2, he was fully involved. Core K is a sort of overview of world history, and Cores 1 and 2 are World History.
At some point I thought it was a pity that Jacob had missed out on the K books, so I piled them all up and he chose and I read, and we both enjoyed that very much. So much for the schedule!
Then because of coming way too close to losing custody of the children in Germany, Marie and Jacob went to school for six months, then the next six months we were out of Germany and did what I call "deschooling". Finances (or lack thereof) and travel plans (or hopes for) meant that continuing with Sonlight wasn't an option right after that, but I already owned "Mystery of History" Volume 1, so we read through that, then got Volume 2, then headed for South Africa, where we lived a two-minute walk from a library. HEAVEN! After a couple of weeks one of the librarians asked very hesitantly, if she could ask me something. When I said yes, she asked if we by any chance homeschool. When I said yes, and then asked why she thought so, she said because she'd never seen anyone check out so many books. (Each of the four children, including Katie, who was two years old, had a library card, as did I, which allowed us a maximum of 34 books, and we had to go to the library at least two or three times a week to keep us in books.) While we were in South Africa, I did have a copy of a South African curriculum guide based on Five in a Row, called "Little Footprints", but we never managed to do many of the activities--just used it as a list for books that we might not have chosen on our own.
Incidentally, a few weeks later the librarian asked if we by any chance had a television, and when I said no, she said she hadn't thought so, as she'd never seen children who loved books so much. The positive comments we experienced in South Africa were so encouraging, and so refreshing after nearly having had custody of our children taken away in Germany just because I thought reading to my six-year-old while cuddling on the couch was a more positive and effective learning experience than putting him in a classroom with 25 other six-year-olds.
Back in Germany we were able to continue with Sonlight Core 3 (got away with that semi-legally by not bothering to point out to the authorities that we'd returned), moved to Cyprus and continued with Core 3, finished, went on to Core 4, and at the end of last year started Core 5, which friends GAVE us a couple of years ago. Cores 3 and 4 are American history, and what's cool is that it really is AMERICAN history, not just U.S. Admittedly, it's heavy on United States history, but as that's where I am actually from, that's not so bad, and interesting, and has plenty about Europe, as well. But it also included more about South America and Canada that one would see in most U.S. curricula. (Helen's favorite bedtime song is the Canadian national anthem, thanks to that unit, but oh well, it's a lot easier to sing than the U.S. one!)
And now Marie and Jacob are using Core 5, which is about the Eastern Hemisphere, and is rather different from the other Cores in including a lot of research. So far, they are loving it and doing that portion of it 100% independently. They'd both be perfectly happy to read all of the books themselves, too, but I don't want to miss out on the fun! Also, they just "happen" to have studied Japan over the last few weeks, so when we were looking at the maps of Japan with the news reports about the earthquake and tsunami last week and I started to tell them the names of the main islands, they interrupted me to tell me more than I had remembered myself from being an exchange student in Japan 25 years ago, told me about other earthquakes in the time since then, and knew all sorts of things that I didn't have a clue about...
I read all of the Core K books to Lukas last year with the "pile method" as I had with Jacob, and am now reading Core 1 with Lukas and Katie, more-or-less following the order in the schedule, but not much else, and we're nearly through. Occasionally I have to go looking for one of the books we're trying to read, because it has been borrowed by Marie or Jacob, so one could say that they're also using Core 1 at the moment. Good books stay good books.
Although most of the people reading this are people I "know" from e-mail lists and therefore know all about Sonlight, here's a quick explanation: lots and lots of real books (not textbooks)! The people who started Sonlight were trying to put together books for expatriot U.S.ians who had little or no access to libraries. Sonlight is now pretty popular in the U.S., I gather, but they still very much meet the needs (or desires, anyway) of us ex-pats. The so called "Core" levels are not grade-based, although they generally do progress in required reading level and/or level of maturity, but they can easily be used "out of order" and for a large age-range. Good books are timeless and ageless, and a significant percentage of the books we read appeal to everyone from Katie (five and a half) to me, and even Helen (two and a half) is often interested. Also, we only use the "Core", which officially includes history, geography, and literature, and sometimes Bible. I did buy Language Arts 1 for Marie way back when and quit using it after about three weeks, traded it a couple of years later to someone for LA K for Jacob, and didn't last a week with it. So much for LA, and we've never used the science, either, although we do have a lot of the "real books" listed in the science sections.
Marie, being my oldest, and the one who was begging to "do school", got the most school-ish schooling for a couple of years, starting with Sonlight's then pre-K program, which didn't even come with an "Instructor's Guide" (IG) at the time, and I personally think it's silly that it does now. (At least, I think it does, or maybe just the second year does--they now have two pre-K programs.) Then she did K, 1, and 2, all mostly following the schedule as in the IG, although I never did use the discussion questions and most often we read considerably more at a sitting than was scheduled. Somewhere during SL-1, Jacob started listening in more and more, and by SL-2, he was fully involved. Core K is a sort of overview of world history, and Cores 1 and 2 are World History.
At some point I thought it was a pity that Jacob had missed out on the K books, so I piled them all up and he chose and I read, and we both enjoyed that very much. So much for the schedule!
Then because of coming way too close to losing custody of the children in Germany, Marie and Jacob went to school for six months, then the next six months we were out of Germany and did what I call "deschooling". Finances (or lack thereof) and travel plans (or hopes for) meant that continuing with Sonlight wasn't an option right after that, but I already owned "Mystery of History" Volume 1, so we read through that, then got Volume 2, then headed for South Africa, where we lived a two-minute walk from a library. HEAVEN! After a couple of weeks one of the librarians asked very hesitantly, if she could ask me something. When I said yes, she asked if we by any chance homeschool. When I said yes, and then asked why she thought so, she said because she'd never seen anyone check out so many books. (Each of the four children, including Katie, who was two years old, had a library card, as did I, which allowed us a maximum of 34 books, and we had to go to the library at least two or three times a week to keep us in books.) While we were in South Africa, I did have a copy of a South African curriculum guide based on Five in a Row, called "Little Footprints", but we never managed to do many of the activities--just used it as a list for books that we might not have chosen on our own.
Incidentally, a few weeks later the librarian asked if we by any chance had a television, and when I said no, she said she hadn't thought so, as she'd never seen children who loved books so much. The positive comments we experienced in South Africa were so encouraging, and so refreshing after nearly having had custody of our children taken away in Germany just because I thought reading to my six-year-old while cuddling on the couch was a more positive and effective learning experience than putting him in a classroom with 25 other six-year-olds.
Back in Germany we were able to continue with Sonlight Core 3 (got away with that semi-legally by not bothering to point out to the authorities that we'd returned), moved to Cyprus and continued with Core 3, finished, went on to Core 4, and at the end of last year started Core 5, which friends GAVE us a couple of years ago. Cores 3 and 4 are American history, and what's cool is that it really is AMERICAN history, not just U.S. Admittedly, it's heavy on United States history, but as that's where I am actually from, that's not so bad, and interesting, and has plenty about Europe, as well. But it also included more about South America and Canada that one would see in most U.S. curricula. (Helen's favorite bedtime song is the Canadian national anthem, thanks to that unit, but oh well, it's a lot easier to sing than the U.S. one!)
And now Marie and Jacob are using Core 5, which is about the Eastern Hemisphere, and is rather different from the other Cores in including a lot of research. So far, they are loving it and doing that portion of it 100% independently. They'd both be perfectly happy to read all of the books themselves, too, but I don't want to miss out on the fun! Also, they just "happen" to have studied Japan over the last few weeks, so when we were looking at the maps of Japan with the news reports about the earthquake and tsunami last week and I started to tell them the names of the main islands, they interrupted me to tell me more than I had remembered myself from being an exchange student in Japan 25 years ago, told me about other earthquakes in the time since then, and knew all sorts of things that I didn't have a clue about...
I read all of the Core K books to Lukas last year with the "pile method" as I had with Jacob, and am now reading Core 1 with Lukas and Katie, more-or-less following the order in the schedule, but not much else, and we're nearly through. Occasionally I have to go looking for one of the books we're trying to read, because it has been borrowed by Marie or Jacob, so one could say that they're also using Core 1 at the moment. Good books stay good books.
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