The Flat on Cabaniss Crescent

The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

December 12 is The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. To celebrate in our home, I made a simple Mexican dinner.  After dinner, Andy read the book The Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie dePaola. 

Then, we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for dessert.  We go to this restaurant all the time, almost weekly, but we never have ordered dessert, so it felt extra special.  This restaurant has an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and we made a point to show it to the kids. 

Next year, I would like to do some kind of craft or hands on activity with the kids.  Also, I think it would be nice to have a dozen pink roses as the centerpiece for our special feast. 

What did you do on this day?

WE LOVE HAROLD!!

Last week the kids and I went to see Harold and the Purple Crayon at the Adventure Theater in Glen Echo Park.

We love Harold and have been reading the books for quite awhile.  Last November we spent almost the whole month on Harold.
Going to see the play was a treat for all of us!

I loved the theater and hope to make it back again this season for some of the other plays they will be performing.  It took almost 2 hours to drive there but the kids were so good in the car.  They are getting so much better about our long journeys (since we have long drives so often here!)

The Lion and the Mouse

We had a great day trip to DC this weekend!

We went to the Classika Theater in Arlington's Shirlington Village to see a performance of 'The Lion and the Mouse.'  I was so excited when I saw this play because earlier is the school year I read The McElderry Book of  Aesop's Fables to the kids. 

We spent about a month on this book, reading one story a night and discussing the moral.  (Many of the messages of the stories went completely over the children's heads, but I figure, over time, if we continue to visit these tales, they will eventually become rooted in the children's memories)  There are messages even for grown ups in these stories!  I want all these fables to become classics for my children, so I was thrilled when I saw an opportunity to go see a performance to bring one of these tales to life a bit.  To prepare, we reread the story 'The Lion and the Mouse' a few times this week.  By the time Saturday morning came, the kids were so excited! 

The play was great.  It had a lot of rhythmic music (similar to Stomp) that made it fun and entertaining for adults as well as kids.  It was interactive, so all the kids were invited to participate and given maracas to shake. 

After the play we found a hip Mexican restaurant to eat at.  Then, we drove across the city to see Uncle Mike in his new home.  From Uncle Mike's home we walked to the National Zoo, then went back to his home and barbecued. 

It is exciting to be driving distance from DC and I have so many ideas for future day trips!  It is even more exciting to be close to Uncle Mike and soon Aunt Kate will be there as well!

Fancy Nancy

We borrowed this book from the library and both kids just loved it.  I did too.  It was a bit like the Eloise books we have come to love.  Nancy has quite a personality, just like my Piglet.  Yesterday Piglet was playing out front with a flower dress, jeans, her sprinkle shoes, a hat, and a purse.  Yes, we can relate to both Eloise and Nancy in this house.

I'm looking forward to exploring all the other Nancy books.

Denise Fleming

We LOVE Denise Fleming!  Her books are EASY and fun.  I love quick books that are good.  Great artwork and her words have a rhythm to them.  We read these this month and I hope to check out more of her books from the library next month.

Tigger has been especially inspired by the artwork in In the Tall, Tall Grass and In the Small, Small Pond.  During his watercolor sessions he has painted scenes of a small, small, pond and scenes from the tall tall grass.  He has also practiced copy work (on his own he is choosing to do this!) of the words in these books.  I bought him tracing paper and we taped it to the book covers and he was then able to trace the image of the picture and the letters of the words.  He thought this was really neat.

He also started making books of his own.

Days of the Blackbird

In the Piedmont area of Italy, the days January 29-31 are known as the 'Le Giornate della Merla': The Days of the Blackbird, because they are the coldest days of the year.  Tomie dePaola, whom I love, wrote and illustrated this charming story.  Last summer I found a copy of this book in my favorite used bookstore in Jacksonville, FL and added it to our family library.  I hid it and saved it to read during the last days of January.  I am surprised I remembered to pull it out to read it to the kids this week!  They loved it.  And so it will become another of our family traditions to read this book at the end of each January.  It actually was quite cold here in Florida during these three days.  I kept the heat on non-stop and we did not go out much.  Fortunately, our cold days seem to have passed and we were able to return outside again today wearing shorts and flips flops! 

Our Lady Of Altagracias Tea

Today we had an ORANGE TEA in honor of Our Lady of Altagracia, whose feast day was this past Monday (which was a holiday for us- MLK day).  We invited some friends over and together we read A Gift of Gracias by Julia Alvarez. 

I served Mandarin Orange Green Tea, Homemade Cranberry-Orange mini-muffins, a chocolate orange cake, and orange flavored chocolate candy.  I also had Sunny Delight for the kids to drink.

This is one of our Catholic Mosaic books, and so far I think it is my favorite. 

It was fun learning and celebrating with friends.

Our baby squirrel

I got my hair cut and highlighted last Thursday (and I LOVE it!)  Part of Project Heidi 2008 is to keep up with my hair...

Anyway, my neighbor watched the kids for me and when I came home, with a great new hair cut, this is what I saw on our front lawn:

Yes, my kids and the neighbor kids found a baby squirrel.  I am not really sure how, and neither is my neighbor.  Apparently she was chasing the boys around and when she came back to check on the girls she saw what they had found.

I think my new hair cut actually helped me deal with this whole situation much more lovingly and gracefully.

So what happened?  No one knows.  We think the squirrel fell from a tree, but are not sure.  We tried to let him go several times, but he kept coming back to us.  One neighbor came out and assured us he most likely did not have rabies (our big worry) because he could run in a straight line and if he would have had rabbis he would have run zig-zag.  Real scientific, huh?  Well, it was enough for us to feel OK letting the kids hold the little guy.  He was very cute and cuddly.

The funny thing is last week I took Tigger and Piglet to see Alvin and the Chipmunks and all week Piglet was telling me she wanted a pet chipmunk.  So after playing with the squirrel for about 30 minutes, she said to me, "Mom, it's OK that I do not have a baby chipmunk because now I have a baby squirrel!  I can keep him, right?  For my birthday?  Please?" 

I knew if we left him in the park he would not make it through the night, so we took him home and I made a little home for him in a picnic basket.  I went online and read that we needed to keep him warm and get fluids in his system.  The website I found recommended giving him Gatorade.  So I nursed the baby squirrel with a syringe full of Gatorade.  I wish I took a picture of this because it is hard to believe, but he did nurse from me!  I also found a Wildlife Sanctuary not far from our house and called the after hours number.  I was assured that I was doing the right thing and they would be open at 8AM the next morning.

I prayed he would make it through the night.

He did!  And in the morning (Piglets bday) we left early, in pouring rain, to take him to the Wildlife Sanctuary.  They said they would keep him for about 2 months and then, hopefully, he will be strong enough to be released back into the wild.

I had a really good feeling that rainy morning leaving the Wildlife Sanctuary.  It's not every day you get to save a squirrel.  The kids are a bit sad and miss their pet, but understand we could not keep him.  Overall, it was a good experience.

Running with this squirrel theme while it's hot, I reserved the following books from our library:

Micawber

Earl the Squirrel

Will and Squill

Then, remembering Groundhog's Day is around the corner I also reserved:

Groundhog gets a Say

Gregory's Shadow

Does anyone have any other Squirrel or Groundhog picture books to recommend?

New York Trip

I am getting pretty excited (and a little nervous) to take my two kids (and sitter) to The Big Apple.

Several weeks ago, I was day dreaming of NY in the grocery store and now it is turning into a reality.  Owl's cousin just happens to have a vacant apartment we can stay in and I just happen to have a baby-sitter who is ready and willing to travel with me.  So am I crazy to consider driving across the country alone with my kids and a sitter to go to NY for a few weeks?  A little... but I am still going to do it.

And I am super excited about this book I found:

In this handy-size book, renowned critic and historian (and New Yorker) Leonard S. Marcus has created and narrated twenty walking tours of New York City based on children's literature. Illustrated with maps, photographs, and book art, the tours can be followed from start to finish or abbreviated to suit a reader's, or a family's, particular interests. Together they feature over one hundred places and spaces by which New York has lit the imaginations of writers and artists as varied as E. B. White, Maurice Sendak, Judy Blume, Faith Ringgold, Madeleine L'Engle, and many more. Along the way, Marcus deftly discusses more than two hundred of the best books about New York City ever written for young people.

Naturally I will order this book before we leave.  And searching around Amazon, I found a list mania site that included several NY titles so I have not only added these books to my NY kids sidebar, I have also searched my local library and put reserves on everything they have (surprisingly all but 2!)

This book also looks COOL so I will order this as well.

I have a lot of planning to do but these books should at least cover most of NY.  I know we will do the MET, Ellis Island, Empire State Building,  and the Natural History Museum.  If anyone has any great New York ideas or tips please tell me.

I will also have to plan all our stops and visits with friends and family along the way.

And also plan all our school stuff for the car.  I am so glad, for times like this, that I am homeschooling and have the freedom to do this.  The only downside will be a month off of speech and occupational therapy for Tigger.

Oh, and I am also look for a house and a school at our next destination where we are scheduled to move to in March  (which for purposes of confidentiality on this blog I am going to keep secret).

 

Don Freeman

Our Mozart Study led us to this book, which presents the Opera: The Magic Flute.  Reading this book reminded me of Corduroy, which I loved growing up, so I decided to check that out of the library for my kids.  I was surprised, after a quick library search, to discover all the other books Don Freeman wrote.  So we started checking them all out, one by one...

Both Corduroy and A Pocket for Corduroy had movies we checked out and enjoyed.  We were also able to listen to both these stories in the car on tape.

This book fit in nicely with several other music books we read while discussing the orchestra, the opera, and instruments in general. 

This charming book would be a perfect one to read in the Fall.  I will have to remember to add it to our fall reading list next year.

We listened to A Rainbow of My Own in the car:

This book would fit in nicely to an art appreciation study, especially one that deals with sculptures.  I may check this book out again right before a trip to the art museum.  Also makes reference to characters in Pet at the Met (they are cousins with Norman) so these books would be nice to read together.

This book introduced San Francisco to my kids.  It would be a great book to read before a trip there!  Always nice to incorporate a little geography in our literature studies!

We also listened to Gregory's Shadow on tape, but this book would be best to listen to at the end of January or early Feb. because it is about Groundhogs Day.  I will have to remember to add it to our 2008 book list for late Jan.

Overall, I have really enjoyed reading all these Don Freeman books with the kids.  There are still a few we have read so we will continue to read his books in January.  Like the Sendak books, this is another author of whom I would love to own MOST of his books.  I am not much interested in all the Corduroy sequels.  I like the original story and the second one, A Pocket for Corduroy, was OK, but I am not going to read all the others.  Tigger found a book about Corduroy's Christmas and is content looking at the pictures.  He has not yet asked me to read it to him.

Time for Mozart

The past two months we have focused our attention, musically, to Mozart.

Our Sendak Study led us into it because the stories on tape were set to Mozart music.

Our library had some great kid-friendly Mozart books. Pet of the Met was probably my favorite.  Written by Don Freeman, it tells about a mouse family who lives in the Metropolitan  Opera House who attends The Magic Flute.  We listened to the story of The Magic Flute on the CD, Mozart's Magic Fantasy and then I ordered the book The Magic Flute to complete our study.

Pet of the Met led us in two different directions....the study of all Don Freeman's books (which we are currently reading) and also the study of the Opera.  We've always talked about the orchestra and music in general, but up until this point we did not talk about Opera.  We found some fun opera books about animals at the library and read them last month, along with some other music books. 

The Feast of the Lady of Guadalupe

We walked to Mass today.  Along the way we picked flowers and leaves and set them by Mary's statue outside the church to honor her on this Feast Day.

After Mass we walked to Starbucks and I got a coffee and kids both got a chocolate milk drink box.  We all split a Gingerbread stocking cookie and a piece of Gingerbread holiday cake with cream cheese frosting.  I read the kids The Lady Of Guadalupe (a present to Tigger on the 5th anniversary of his baptism this past June from Gamma and GranDad Hayes). 

Then we walked home, but along the way we met neighbors at the sand pile by our house and I ended up letting the kids dig for 2 hours while I chatted with the other moms.  We had a 230 park date scheduled so we ended up walking straight to that park across from our house.

Finally, at 4PM we came home (what a great day with 5 hours of outdoor time!)  I gave the kids an early dinner and showers and then we had a surprise at our door: Tigger's 6 1/2 year old buddy who lives in the building next door.  Every couple nights the boys take turns playing at each others homes.  It is giving Tigger a sense of independence because we let him walk to his friends home alone.

I am sure my kids will be in bed at 630 tonight from all the play.

I am alone this week so I will have the evening to myself!  I may end up going to bed early myself.

Music Books

We continue to talk about instruments and the orchestra.  Here are some recent books we have read that have guided our talks:

The Dog who sang in the Opera

Opera Cat

We read both these opera books because we just finished up studying Mozart's Magic Flute.  It was good to read these two books together and they held the interest of the children of course because of the animals.

The Bat Boy & His Violin

A good book, but a bit advanced.  We'll try this one again in a year or two.

Arturo's Baton

This was great because it was an easy reader and it was funny but it had basic concepts about the orchestra and the conductor and a few references to specific instruments.  Also a nice tie in right now because we are reading all of Syd Hoff's other books this month.

Manuelo the Playing Mantis

I am shocked I had never heard of this book before (or any of Don Freeman's other books for that matter, besides Corduroy!)  We recently discovered some of the other books Don Freeman wrote and they are excellent!  Doing some research on him, he was a musician before he started making children's books which explains why some of his books have a musical theme to them.  This book made reference to several instruments and the orchestra.  It had a nice story line and was enjoyable to read to the kids.  It also (similar to Eric Carle books) referenced several different kinds of bugs.  It was perfectly age appropriate for my kids and I would like to own this one some day!

Dinosaur Books

Started listening to this in the car.  This was one of Tiggers favorite first books.  It was a present to him on his second birthday from our good friends, The Spurlock's in Japan.

Since we were listening to this book in the car, we found it in the house and started reading it at home too. 

Then we found all these others that we've collected over the years:

There are some new ones out, but we did not get them.  I do not think our library had them, plus we pretty much have the idea and truthfully, none of the sequels is as good as the first one.

It was neat to read these Dinosaur books during the same time that we were reading Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff.  It made for a mini-Dinosaur theme...

Little Bear

After our Maurice Sendak intense study last month, I knew I wanted to read the Little Bear books this month because Maurice illustrated them.  Also, they are easy readers which is good for Tigger.  Finally, they are real sweet and loving stories. 

We started with A Kiss for Little Bear sound recording in our car.

Then, our friends Tanya and Christopher, gave us a copy of the Little Bear CD.  This was an instant bedtime hit. 

Then we checked out Little Bear from the library and read it several times.  We own Little Bear's Friend and we read that too.  We have Father Bear Comes Home on hold at the library, so soon we will read that too.

This is another collection of books I would like to own for my home library someday. 

Also, I would like to find sound recordings of the rest of the Little Bear stories.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

We got on a Harold kick this month.

It started with the videos we rented below.

Again, I am thankful our library has such a great video collection.

The Scholastic video did have some bonos features that included a Kevin Henkes story.  Because we had already read one other Kevin Henkes book this year (Chrsanthmum) we did get on a mini-Kevin Henkes kick...but I got bored with it and we basically quit.

I like Harold.  He inspires me and my kids to think creatively and to imagine more.  I think the stories are simple and good for new readers and I love the illustrations.

We also read The Carrot Seed, since Crockett Johnson, author/illustrator of Harold, also illustrated this.  I think the boy in The Carrot Seed looks an awful bit like Harold. 

It was neat that Tigger recognized the author of The Carrot Seed was Ruth Krauss, the same person who wrote The Little Bear Books we read this month.  I am making a point of trying to read all the books of certain authors and illustrators so the kids can start to make connections between the works.  I also want them to understand that authors and illustrators are real people, so we try to spend some time learning about them. 

Sendak Study

MAURICE SENDAK STUDY

In addition to our October Seuss Study we have also been reading and listening to Maurice Sendak stories.

It started with the above audio recording we found at the library that we listened to in the car.  This audio, I must add, is a great addition to a Mozart study as it intertwines pieces from Mozart with the stories.  We are currently studying Beethoven, but next week we will begin studying Mozart (and I have renewed this audio recording so we will have it in our car for an additional two weeks).

Up until this point, the only Maurice Sendak I was familiar with myself was Where the Wild Things Are.

There were 8 other Maurice Sendak stories on the Audiotape we rented.  The following 7 we were able to check out of the library this month:

Outside Over There

In the Night Kitchen

Nutshell Library Collection: (Pierre, Alligators All Around, Chicken Soup with Rice, and One was Johnny)

       

The Sign on Rosie's Door

The one book we were not able to find at our library was:

Very Far Away

But at least we had the chance to listen to it.  Maybe our next library will have it when we move.  I can also keep my eyes open at Used Book Shops.  I actually would like to own all of the Maurice Sendak books (we currently have only Where the Wild Things are- a present to Tigger when he turned 1 from my friend Tina in Japan). 

This has been a real enjoyable study for all of us.  Owl remembers his mom reading him Pierre growing up.  This right here tells me these are memorable books.  Any book that you remember from your childhood has to be good, or else you would not have remembered it, right?

I checked the above book out of the library.  It is a great book of essays written by Maurice Sendak.  The first part of the book he reflects on illustrators who have influenced him over the years.  He includes Beatrix Potter, Hans Christian Anderson, Randolph Caldecott, Walt Disney, and Jean de Brunhoff (creator of Babar).  Then the second part of the book is a collection of autobiographical essays, speeches, and interviews.  I really enjoyed reading about what inspired him to create certain works.  I would highly recommend the second half of this book to anyone who loves the picture books of Maurice Sendak.

Then, finally, because our library has such a great video collection, we rented the following: Really Rosie and Where the Wild Things Are...and other Maurice Sendak stories.

What's next?

Maurice Sendak illustrated the Little Bear books, which happen to be easy readers (like Dr. Seuss) and also our library has Little Bear Audio Books.  So in November we will start a journey with Little Bear. 

I am also inspired by Maurice Sendak to study all the Babar Books sometime in the future. 

Seuss Studies

  OCTOBER WAS OUR SEUSS STUDY MONTH

We started October with a Catholic Mosaic Collection Book: Horton Hears a Who! since October is Respect Life Month.  I had bought a nice hardcover copy of this book over the summer at a Used Book Shop in Jacksonville.  But then we saw it at our local library on tape, so we listened to it on tape in the car for 2 solid weeks.

We also rented this DVD from the Library:

Then the second week of October we checked out these collection of Cd's to listen to during bedtime although Seuss did not have the soothing effect that Peter Rabbit and Winnie the Pooh had so we had to stop the bedtime listening of Seuss and just listen during playtime.

The following books were all in this collection:

So we checked all these books out from the library, minus the two we own (Hop on Pop and One Fish, two fish...).

And we read them all.  Several times.

And both kids memorized them all.

We also rented this DVD from the library.

Then we watched this tape (we own it... I found it awhile back at a garage sale)

I found this website and Tigger really enjoyed it:

FUN INTERACTIVE SEUSS GAMES

Then in Week 3, I picked this book up from the library:

We learned Dr. Seuss was born in Massachusetts.  We found Massachusetts on our Map.  We remembered how Make Way for Ducklings also took place in Massachusetts and we talked about the family we have there and how we went there last year.

In the third week of October, after we returned the first Seuss Cd's we rented this one:

The stories on this CD were a little longer.  I actually enjoyed them more than the first CD.  Each story story seemed to have a moral, often over the kids heads, but enjoyable for adults to read.

These are the stories on it:

Again, we checked out all these books and read one new story each day for 10 days (Yertle the Turtle actually has 3 stories in it- also Gertrude McFuzz and The Big Brag).

We will end the month of October celebrating Halloween where our whole family dresses up as Seuss characters!

And now that we have read practically every Seuss book, I would like to start planning a trip to Universal Studios to go to Seuss Land

Little House on the Prairie

An Introduction to Little House

I found this book at the library and checked it out to read to Piglet.  It is simple with nice illustrations.  She really enjoyed it.  It is a nice way to introduce the Little House Series and there is a whole series of these books called "My First Little House Books" that I can read to the kids now to get them ready for the real books.

Next summer I would like to start having the kids listen to this series on tape. 

Beethoven is now in our Home

In Which we talk about The Orchestra and begin our Composer Study...

It was this print from our Degas Study that got us started with our Music Appreciation Studies. 

We started last week with these books:

Both are on a 3rd-4th grade Reading Level but had good illustrations and several facts we were able to pick out.  I will definitely return to both these books over the years.  These books introduced us to the topic of instrument families nd also the different musical eras (Honestly, a good refresher for me!)

I found this on line and it is great:

FUN KIDS MUSIC INTERACTIVE WEB SITE

Then we read my favorite book as a review:

The kids are already familiar with this book, since we have been reading it for years, but it seemed appropriate to read again this week.  For a new spin on it, we went through the book and tried to identify which music family each of the instruments belonged to.

We started listening to a Beethoven Lives Upstairs CD at Bedtime.

This book goes well with the above CD and has nice pictures for the children to study.

 

This was a funny book, but I appreciated it and the kids found amusement with it. 

The best book we read about Beethoven (for facts at least) was a Great Names book I found at our local library: Beethoven Great Composer by Ann Carew-Miller and Vitali Konstantinov.  It had many facts interwoven into a story format.  Much of it was too advanced for the kids, but they still got a lot out of it.  I also enjoyed learning from this book. I will look for this book again to read to them in future years. 

FOR GEOGRAPHY:  We learned Beethoven was born in Germany and went to school in Austria. 

Eventually I'd like to make a timeline with all the Musical Eras and plug the Composers we know onto it.  This will be a nice history lesson.  But first we have to study several composers.  We will probably do this at the end of our school year as a review.

Tonight we will read this book:

We also discovered that our favorite TV show, Little Einsteins, has a great interactive website with preschool friendly games that teach instrument recognition.  This website is so engaging for the kids.  They love it and it gives me an instant hour off to do other things!

Our composer study will continue with Beethoven for another 2 weeks.  Then we will move on to Mozart.  We will continue to talk about the orchestra, the instruments, and all the instrument families throughout the year.  Click here to see my entire Music Education Plan.

Degas Study

In Which we study not just Art, but Geography, Science, History, Family History, and Music Appreciation...

For Art Appreciation we are doing a Picture Study.  I plan to focus on one Artist with the kids for 4-6 weeks, studying a new print each week.  We are just about done with our Degas study.  Here's what we did:

WEEK 1:

Woman with Chrysanthemums

GEOGRAPHY: We talked about Degas and where he lived (Paris) We found Paris on our map.

MINI SCIENCE LESSON:  Chrysanthemum Flower.  We looked this flower up on line and practiced pronouncing it correctly.

LITERATURE: We read this book Chrysanthemum, a fun little book that just reinforced the Chrysanthemum flower and how to pronounce it correctly.  By the end of the week, the kids were saying the name of this flower just as simply as they would say a rose or a tulip.

I understand there is a movie, based on this book, and I hope to find that at our library.

WEEK 2:

This was our print.  I waited to introduce the ballet prints until the second week because I wanted to spend the first week just talking about Degas himself.  I am glad I did because with Piglet all focus went to the ballerina and ballet.

We read this book, which I picked up at a Used Book Shop this past summer:

WEEK 3:

Our print was: At the Races.

A mini-Horse Study would have been nice here.  At the time I did not think to do anything with horses, but I am sure there are some good horse books we could have read.  Also, a field trip to go horseback riding is a good idea.  Next year, when we do this study again we will have to keep that in mind.

A quick search of Amazon showed me these items: 

I really like the idea of drawing horses and that could turn into a whole new unit of it's own.  We will definitely do more with this next time we do the Degas Study (before we repeat the study we have several other Artists to learn about).

WEEK 4 and 5:

Print of the New Orleans Cotton Mills.  Degas traveled to New Orleans to visit his brothers who worked here and painted this.

GEOGRAPHY:  We traced his voyage from France to New Orleans across Atlantic Ocean on our globe. 

FAMILY HISTORY: Aunt Sapna and Uncle Sam were married in New Orleans.  We talked about their wedding and how we went to New Orleans as a family 2 years ago.  Also talked about how this is where Katrina, the big storm was.

WEEK 5 and 6:

This print was a great intro. to our Orchestra/Composer Study, which started last week. 

I found this nice little book at our library and displayed it at home for the kids to find.  It was neat for them to flip through it because they recognized many of the prints we have studied in this book.  I did not really read the details to them, as they were not interested, but they did enjoy looking at the pictures.

This week we also watched a Degas Movie that I found at the library.  This was the movie that led to my "encounter" with the librarian.  The movie was OK.  It was a little over their heads.   I will have to rent it again as they get older.  It was a HBO movie and was pretty well done and not too long.  I enjoyed it and they got a little out of it.  Tigger got that Degas had a temper and Piglet enjoyed watching the dancers.  They also recognized some prints that we studied in Degas's studio and that was neat.

WEEK 6 (this week):

One reason I chose this print to present to the kids is because it is located at the Phillips Collection in DC.  I know we will be visiting DC sometime in the near future so this will be one piece of Art they will be able to see in a real Museum.  That is my whole goal of this Picture Study: for them to recognize works of art so they will enjoy and look forward to going to museums throughout their life.

This is what we have to look forward to this week as we finish up our Degas study:

Degas Art Activity Pack

Color Your Own Degas Paintings

I ordered these items from Amazon and they should arrive any day now.

Overall, I have really enjoyed studying Degas with the kids.  They really seemed to enjoy this study and also learned quite a bit.  I learned a lot myself.   

Our next artist to focus on will be Manet.  That will start next week.

Happy to be Home in the Rain, even if it is a Tornado

In Which we have a Tornado and Base is Shut down and Tigger plays quietly on the Porch with Spanish Music and Dick and Jane...

This Thursday we woke up tired.  Probably because I was in the hospital for so many hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. Also this has been a real tough week for Owl and he has not been home much so I have not had many breaks.   

Normally we have OT that we leave early for but this week we had taken Thursday off.  Piglet had Ballet scheduled for 10:30 but for some reason she told me she did not want to go.  She wanted to stay home.  She went on to say how she never wanted to go back to Ballet.  Great!  We already canceled Gymnastics this week and I was really enjoying freeing up the schedule.  I called the Ballet studio and told them we were done.

It was a perfect day to be home all day because it was dark and rainy.  I opened the porch doors so we could listen to the rain and feel the cool breeze.  There was a great smell in the air and I decided to brew another pot of coffee to celebrate staying home all day.

Piglet started playing Barbie's on the back porch so I gave Tigger the Dick and Jane Sticker Book that came in the mail last week from Grandma and Grandpa P.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

He took it to the Front Porch and started playing real nicely.  I put on the new Spanish CD our neighbors let us borrow.  He really likes the first song and put it on Repeat Play and listened to it again and again and again, until probably the whole neighborhood memorized it because it was a little loud.  I thought the rain would block out the noise, but Owl surprised us and came home early and said as he walked in that the Spanish Music was quite loud and he had heard it outside and we should consider turning it down so we do not make the neighbors mad.  We turned it down, but Tigger continued to play on the porch for a good portion of the morning with his new Sticker Book and his music.

And why did Owl come home early? Because there was a tornado spotted on the base.  The whole Base shut down! 

I was happy to be home, drinking my coffee, puttering around the house finishing unfinished projects and catching up on laundry, while a Tornado hit Downtown Pensacola.

That afternoon, I gave Tigger the Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jane to look at.  This too was a gift from Grandma and Grandpa Paterni and we have not looked at it much.  I have been saving it for Tigger to read himself since it is an easy reader.  I remember reading Dick and Jane myself as a young reader.

Unfortunately by afternoon the kids were not so peaceful.  Being inside all morning was a nice break for all of us, but by 2 PM they had entered Silly Mode.  Tigger had no interest in this book, so we'll have to try again another day.

Later that night while watching the news we saw that the tornado had formed on base around 10 AM and then headed downtown where it destroyed 4 homes and did a lot damage.  Piglet's ballet class is downtown real close to where the Tornado hit and her class was at 10:30.  I thought it was strange that morning when she said she no longer wanted to go to dance but I am glad I listened to her!

In the Car

In Which I finally find Peace in the Car and look forward to driving...

Books on tape in the car.  It is so simple, but it works.  Up until recently I was having a very hard time in the car with my kids going into Silly Mode while I drive.  They would talk in loud voices, talk over each other, and then get mad at each other and start arguing.  I could not focus on driving with all the noise, so I made a habit of pulling over and issuing time outs along the side of the road.  It was extreme, but I was desperate for them to listen to me in the car.  I guess I wasn't offering much for them to listen to except, "Be quiet" "Don't yell" and "Stop that now."  Once in awhile I would play a word game with them, but that took a lot of energy on my part and again, when I drive I like to focus on the road.  One reason I never really got into Books on Tape is just that: Tapes.  We have a cassette player in the car, not a CD player.  It seems like all the audio books out there are on CD.  I find it hard to find tapes in the book stores.  And our previous library did not have a collection of books on tape. 

When we travel to Michigan, and other long trips, we take along the lap top and watch movies on it and we can also listen to CDs on it.  That is how we started our Audio Adventures this summer.

It started with Peter and the Wolf all the way to Michigan.

Then, after a gift from Grandma Hayes, we listened to Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle Duck all the way back to Florida.

This led to our bedtime listening habits.

This past month we have listened to:

Make Way for Ducklings

Ferdinand

Three Little Pigs

5 little Monkey's sitting on a Tree (one of my Mommy and Me favorites!)

Scary, Scary Halloween

Currently in our car we have:

All of the Maurice Sendak stories

The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland

In the future I would like to look into listening to the Rosary in the car.  We do not say the Rosary now, although the kids know the prayers, and it would be a nice and peaceful thing to build into our day.  Not to mention their faith development...I am going to put this on our Christmas Wish List.  Of course, for the car we will need a tape.

Sendak Unit

MAURICE SENDAK STUDY

In addition to our October Seuss Study we have also been reading and listening to Maurice Sendak stories.

It started with the above audio recording we found at the library that we listened to in the car.  This audio, I must add, is a great addition to a Mozart study as it intertwines pieces from Mozart with the stories.  We are currently studying Beethoven, but next week we will begin studying Mozart (and I have renewed this audio recording so we will have it in our car for an additional two weeks).

Up until this point, the only Maurice Sendak I was familiar with myself was Where the Wild Things Are.

There were 8 other Maurice Sendak stories on the Audiotape we rented.  The following 7 we were able to check out of the library this month:

Outside Over There

In the Night Kitchen

Nutshell Library Collection: (Pierre, Alligators All Around, Chicken Soup with Rice, and One was Johnny)

       

The Sign on Rosie's Door

The one book we were not able to find at our library was:

Very Far Away

But at least we had the chance to listen to it.  Maybe our next library will have it when we move.  I can also keep my eyes open at Used Book Shops.  I actually would like to own all of the Maurice Sendak books (we currently have only Where the Wild Things are- a present to Tigger when he turned 1 from my friend Tina in Japan). 

This has been a real enjoyable study for all of us.  Owl remembers his mom reading him Pierre growing up.  This right here tells me these are memorable books.  Any book that you remember from your childhood has to be good, or else you would not have remembered it, right?

I checked the above book out of the library.  It is a great book of essays written by Maurice Sendak.  The first part of the book he reflects on illustrators who have influenced him over the years.  He includes Beatrix Potter, Hans Christian Anderson, Randolph Caldecott, Walt Disney, and Jean de Brunhoff (creator of Babar).  Then the second part of the book is a collection of autobiographical essays, speeches, and interviews.  I really enjoyed reading about what inspired him to create certain works.  I would highly recommend the second half of this book to anyone who loves the picture books of Maurice Sendak.

Then, finally, because our library has such a great video collection, we rented the following: Really Rosie and Where the Wild Things Are...and other Maurice Sendak stories.

What's next?

Maurice Sendak illustrated the Little Bear books, which happen to be easy readers (like Dr. Seuss) and also our library has Little Bear Audio Books.  So in November we will start a journey with Little Bear. 

I am also inspired by Maurice Sendak to study all the Babar Books sometime in the future. 

Bedtime Stories

In Which I say Goodnight to the Children and press Repeat Play and Walk Away...

We have gotten into a bedtime habit of listening to books on tape.  It started with Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle Duck.

This was a gift from Grandma H.  What a hit!  After about a month of listening to it every night the kids started reciting it.  We were shocked.  They had memorized the stories word for word.  Both of them.  They even had a bit of a British accent!

I know children have the capacity to memorize things and this was just proof to me that they will memorize anything we feed them with, if we feed them enough.  So I decided to continue to feed them often with good quality children's literature.  And that is how we started our Bedtime Listening.  That and the fact that our new library here has a great audio selection. 

The next selection for the children was Winnie the Pooh.

I had tried reading Winnie the Pooh to the kids myself and could not hold their attention.  It was frustrating for me so I welcomed this CD that they could listen to in the dark and fall asleep to.  Another benefit of this Audio Book is the voice of the reader.  He uses different voices for all the characters. 

After a few weeks of this we moved onto The House at Pooh Corner

A nice quality of all of the above audio books is the accompanying orchestra music.  I really enjoy listening to these stories just as much as the kids do.

We are now listening to Dr. Seuss selections which has led to an entire Seuss study.  I am working on gathering ideas now for more Seuss stuff on line.  The Seuss books are great because they are EASY READERS and Tigger can read many of the words in them (and the words he can not read he has memorized).

Of course next week we will start the The Cat in the Hat audio book (more Seuss, just some of the longer books...)

Finally, we just started a study on Beethoven so The last two nights the kids have listened to Beethoven Lives Upstairs

We throughout the day, but since I am no longer reading to the kids at bedtime, I make a point to read a story to them after dinner or during bathtime.

In Which I say Goodnight to the Children and press Repeat Play and Walk Away...

We have gotten into a bedtime habit of listening to books on tape.  It started with Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle Duck.

This was a gift from Grandma H.  What a hit!  After about a month of listening to it every night the kids started reciting it.  We were shocked.  They had memorized the stories word for word.  Both of them.  They even had a bit of a British accent!

I know children have the capacity to memorize things and this was just proof to me that they will memorize anything we feed them with, if we feed them enough.  So I decided to continue to feed them often with good quality children's literature.  And that is how we started our Bedtime Listening.  That and the fact that our new library here has a great audio selection. 

The next selection for the children was Winnie the Pooh.

I had tried reading Winnie the Pooh to the kids myself and could not hold their attention.  It was frustrating for me so I welcomed this CD that they could listen to in the dark and fall asleep to.  Another benefit of this Audio Book is the voice of the reader.  He uses different voices for all the characters. 

After a few weeks of this we moved onto The House at Pooh Corner

A nice quality of all of the above audio books is the accompanying orchestra music.  I really enjoy listening to these stories just as much as the kids do.

We are now listening to Dr. Seuss selections which has led to an entire Seuss study.  I am working on gathering ideas now for more Seuss stuff on line.  The Seuss books are great because they are EASY READERS and Tigger can read many of the words in them (and the words he can not read he has memorized).

Of course next week we will start the The Cat in the Hat audio book (more Seuss, just some of the longer books...)

Finally, we just started a study on Beethoven so The last two nights the kids have listened to Beethoven Lives Upstairs

We throughout the day, but since I am no longer reading to the kids at bedtime, I make a point to read a story to them after dinner or during bathtime.

Religion

CATHOLIC MOSAIC

For religious study (and also a little history and geography) we are reading the books in Catholic Mosaic.  The Catholic Mosaic was created by Cay Gibson, a homeschooling mother of 5, and I was just lucky enough to stumble upon it one day while playing on the Internet.  Reading the books in the Mosaic allows us to celebrate the liturgical year and introduce saints to the children through literature.  I am slowing collecting all the books.  I am trying to find them at used book stores or on line.  I am also checking some out from the library, but eventually I would like to own them all.  This week Thursday  was the Feast of St. Francis so I read Francis: The Poor Man of Assisi by Tomie dePaola  

The book was long and a bit advanced and truthfully the kids did not understand much of it.  But it was fun for me to read and I learned about St. Francis, who I knew little about.  Over the years, the kids will come to know and understand the story if I always read it on Oct. 4.  For this year we talked about St. Francis being from Italy and we found Italy on the map, we looked at the pictures in the book and talked about how Francis loved God and loved animals.  That is enough for them for this year.  Maybe next year we can get into the story more.  Cay Gibson has created a study guide for all of the books in the Mosaic and eventually I would like to get that.  It is called Catholic Mosaic: Living the Liturgical Year with Literature an Illustrated Book Study for Catholic Children.  Again, this is something I can do with my kids even if we are not homeschooling.

CATECHESIS OF THE GOOD SHEPARD

For religion we are also using Catechesis of the Good Shepard an approach to the religious formation of children. It is rooted in the Bible, the liturgy of the church, and the educational principles of Maria Montessori. 

We use the Miniature Mass Kit for Children available from the on line store 'Our Fathers House'.

I have been studying the Montessori method of Catholic education for about 3 years now.   Again, at this point I am learning a lot more than them, but I do look forward to presenting all the lessons to them to give them a better understanding and appreciation for our Catholic faith. 

With the Mass Kit, I am doing one small (10 min.) presentation a week.  We are slowly learning the names of everything used in the Mass, how to set up an altar, and  how to fold an altar cloth. As with all Montessori lessons, presentations are short, and we do not move on to a new lesson until the previous one has been mastered.

My sister-in-law, Sr. Ave Maria, is a Dominican Sister of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist (a Catholic religious community in Ann Arbor, MI whose apostolate is teaching).  She has used the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in both her prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms. 

The books that really helped me understand and implement the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in my home were:

The Good Shepard and The Child by Sofia Cavalletti, Patricia Coulter and Silvana Q. Montanaro.

This book has lesson plans and describes how to  implement the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd with children ages 3-6. It includes presentations for the Parables of the Kingdom, the Eucharist, Baptism, and the Parable of the Good Shepherd. It also has a section for Advent and Lent studies with children.

The Religious Potential of the Child: Experiencing Scripture and Liturgy With Young Children

This book describes a Montessori approach to religious education for children from 3-6 known as Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. This is not a "how-to", but rather a glimpse inside a specially prepared environment that allows children to develop rich spiritual lives.

There are more books, for ages 6-9, and then for ages 9-12, I think.  There are also workshops available.  If you are interested in finding out more check out http://www.cgsusa.org/

There are good pictures and also supplies available from Catholic Montessori. 

"If we want to help the child draw nearer to God, we should with patience and courage seek to go always closer to the vital nucleus of things. This requires study and prayer. The child will be our teacher if we know how to observe." --
Sofia Cavalletti

Holling Clancy Holling books

For history and geography studies, I plan to read Tigger a variety of books that will hold his interest and lead to discussion.  The first book we are reading is Paddle to the Sea by Holling Clancy Holling.  It is a very old book about a little boy who carved a wooden boat and let him float in the water.  The boat, Paddle, travels from Lake Nipigon in Canada through all the Great Lakes and eventually ends up in the Atlantic Ocean.  You follow Paddle's journey in each short chapter of the book.  The chapters take only about 3-5 minutes to read.   We read one chapter every other day. Every time Paddle gets to a new place we study the map to see where he is.  It is a great way to learn the Great Lakes.  I am especially excited for the part when Paddle travels through Lake Huron and then goes down the Detroit River because these are places where we have been. Holling Clancy Holling has several other books I plan to use after this.  The next one I will use is Minn of the Mississippi.  This one, about a turtle named Minn who lives in the Gulf, will be especially good for us because it will cover a region where we are currently living. 

Art Study

This year the children and I are doing a picture study (Charlotte Mason style) focusing on one artist at a time for several weeks.

This is probably my favorite homeschooling activity and a simple one that I can easily continue when and if I choose to send my kids to a school.  I call it Art Study but it truly encompasses so much more than art.  We end up having mini lessons on history, geography, and even science!  We also incorporate children's literature by reading books on the artist and art in general (see my sidebar on artist and art appreciation books).

Each week a new print is presented to the children in a beautiful frame. (Over the summer I found a bunch of old prints at a used book shop for a dollar a print!).   The print is displayed by our table so we can look at it and discuss it throughout the day during all our meals.  I make the presentation of the new print on Monday a very big deal so the children get excited to see what the print will be. 

The first day we just look at it and talk about what we see.  Each meal I tell the kids a little fact about the print (Degas painted this, Degas was born in France, etc...) Then as the days go on I quiz them for fun and we see who can remember the facts.  It is like a game and they love it.  By the end of the week I flip the print over and have them describe the picture without looking at it.  Ideally, on another day they would try to draw the picture as well as possible as another activity (just a another way of describing ~ not expecting an exact replica of the artist's work) but we are not there yet.  Maybe next year.   After viewing several prints of the same artist, we will move on to a new artist. 

Last week we started our Degas study.  Our first print was:

Woman with Chrysanthemums

By the end of the week both Tigger and Pooh could tell me (without me even asking) that this was a painting by Degas who lived in France.  We went and looked at where France was on our wall map so got a little geography lesson out of this as well.  Tigger remembered that Paris was in France because of the video Madeline goes to Paris.  I was impressed with his memory and that he made that connection, especially since we had not seen the video recently. 

Tomorrow I will introduce our second Degas Print:

La Danseuse Au Bouquet

I am not really concerned with the children (or myself) memorizing the titles as much as I want them to be familiar with the actual picture and who painted it.  I want them to be able to go into museums and see familiar works and get excited about it. 

This week we will also read Degas and the Little Dancer.

One final fun thing I am doing with these prints:

Each week I am uploading an image of the print we study into Shutterfly where I am creating a little book for the kids.  This way I will be able to give them a little book with all the prints in it that we study so they can continue to be familiar with them.

A dream of mine is to someday have a big enough house where I can have an entire children's gallery where a whole room has prints displayed at their eye level.  Wouldn't that be lovely?