Bibliomania

This book made me realize I don’t really love books. I love reading and that is not the same thing, although I’d never really thought about it much before reading this book.

This is the true story of John Gilkey, a book thief. Gilkey steals rare or valuable books. The thing that sets him apart from other book thieves is that the primary driving force behind his crimes is that he loves books. He doesn’t love reading them as much as he sees them as a status symbol. He believes that if he amasses a collection of valuable books people will see him as someone who is intelligent, educated and worldly.

The other characters in the book are the rare book dealers and collectors from whom Gilkey steals. They are similar to Gilkey in that many of them love books for themselves, not necessarily to read. They love the thrill of the hunt for a very rare book and they appreciate the physical beauty of certain books. They may also love to read, but that’s not necessarily why they collect books.

The author, Allison Hoover Bartlett, does a very nice job of revealing Gilkey’s character. He’s an interesting person because he is pathologically self-absorbed. He sees the world as fundamentally unfair because he wants valuable books, yet cannot afford them. He blames his crimes on the dealers who have the books he wants but somehow thwart him by pricing them out of his reach. Even after multiple convictions and jail sentences he appears to be unrepentant. In one amazing scene, he revisits one of the dealers he stole from to demonstrate to Bartlett his technique (he doesn’t steal but is showing her how he would look for a book he was interested in). He is amazed to find that the dealer is somewhat less than happy to have him in his store again.

Bartlett also does a good job of examining what drives not only Gilkey but others to collect. This was almost as hard for me to understand as Gilkey’s view about crime. I am just not a collector and never have really understood the passion some people have for it. I have particularly never really understood people who look at books as objects rather than as something to be read.

I love reading. I am one of those people who take books with me anytime I leave the house, just in case. I read when I’m brushing my teeth, when I’m stopped at a stoplight, when ever I have a free minute. If I’m stuck in a bathroom without reading material, I’ll read the shampoo bottles. So I understand the drive to read.

I often think the idea of a bookcase full of leather-bound books used for decor is just wrong. Books are meant to be read, not looked at. I imagine the books in the library that don’t get checked out as being sad. I’m not particularly nice to my books. I read them in the bathtub and dog-ear the corners. Many of them will have stains on them from being read during a meal.

Once when I was in England, I saw  A. A. Milne’s original manuscripts for The House at Pooh Corner. I remember being thrilled to see those beloved words in Milne’s actual handwriting. The Dark is Rising is my favorite series from childhood. I have the same set that I read for the first time in fourth grade. I have read it countless times. I love to re-read it because it’s a great story but also because it is comforting to me. The words themselves take me back to moments in the past when I read them before. Holding the same physical book that I’ve held so many times before is part of that feeling. So I do understand love of books as well as love of reading. But for me if there wasn’t the personal or sentimental connection to the physical book, then I don’t have that same feeling.

Bottomline is this is a fascinating book on many levels. It’s an interesting study of a criminal mind. It’s a peek into the world of rare book collectors. And for someone who loves books or reading, it’s thought-provoking as to what exactly it is you love and why.

Monkeying around

David loves monkeys. LOVES them. Much of the day he pretends to be a monkey. If he’s grumpy and doesn’t want to do something often just rephrasing it as a request to a monkey will convince him to do it. (“Hey, little monkey come here and let me change your diaper.” Although writing that out sounds weird and makes me realize how glad I am not to be changing real monkey diapers, it works.)

So this week I knew he’d have fun in “school”. Our Before Five in A Row book is Caps for Sale, a classic children’s story by Esphyr Slobodkina about a peddler who has his caps stolen by a bunch of pesky monkeys. To go along with the story we’ve been reading lots of books about monkeys. Here are a few of our favorites.

We’ve enjoyed several of the Five Little Monkey books by Eileen Christelow. John and David both like these and what’s not to like? Five cute monkey siblings getting into trouble, but not too much trouble. Loads of fun.

Another book about naughty monkeys. The illustrations are by Lynn Munsinger (of the If you Give a Mouse a Cookie series) and add to the fun. David and John had a good time finding the “extra” monkey on each page. This is also one of those preschool books that helps work on counting but in a natural way that doesn’t make the child feel like it’s a sneaky attempt to teach them something.

Monkey Do by Allan Ahlberg was absolutely the favorite of both boys. We’ve read it at least once a day since Monday, and usually more.  It’s got a great rhythm to it and illustrations full of detail.

In addition to the books we did some simple activities. David liked playing a  game of  “Monkey See, Monkey Do” (Simon Says but you always do what the leader does. He liked being the leader a lot. Possibly because he enjoyed seeing me do really silly things.) Today we used his blanket as a parachute and had all his stuffed monkeys “jump” on it while we sang the 10 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed song.  He liked this a lot, especially making them fall off and bump their head.

We also made frozen banana treats. I  got the recipe off of Homeschool Share but called them Monkey Popsicles which David found hilarious.

4 ripe bananas
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 TBSP sugar
12 ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Peel bananas and take off strings. Cut in half horizontally and stick a popsicle stick into each half. (We didn’t have popsicle sticks so I used wooden kabob skewers. This worked pretty well.) Freeze on wax paper for at least 2 hours. (You can freeze longer, I ended up waiting two days before doing the next step.)

Heat heavy cream and sugar in a saucepan over low heat, just until sugar is dissolved.

Melt chocolate chips (The recipe said to use a double boiler. I used the microwave which worked fine, you just have to do it slowly and stir frequently. It took about a minute and a half  and I  stopped several times to stir it.) Mix the cream into the melted chocolate.

Dip (or drizzle or spread) the bananas into the chocolate. This was the fun part. Ours didn’t turn out very pretty but the boys had fun doing it. The recipe called for rolling them in walnuts after the chocolate but none of us are that fond of walnuts (plus, I didn’t have any) so we left that out. Freeze again on waxed paper until chocolate is firm.

Eat.

I didn’t take a picture of the finished product as I’m not very good at food photography and these in particular just look like big brown lumps. They don’t look particularly appetizing but they taste delicious. Both boys liked them a lot.

Next week we’ll continue with Caps for Sale. We’ll do some stuff with hats as well as having more monkey fun.

Oui. Si. Ja. Da. Etc.

As part of the women’s Sunday School at my church each of us is supposed to share a “life principle”.  I thought I’d share mine here as well. It’s simple: say yes.

I’m not talking about over-committing yourself or becoming a pushover or saying yes to things that are wrong. Just when possible, say yes.

The first time I intentionally made a point of saying yes was to H. before we were dating. We were good friends. I knew I was interested in something more than friendship but wasn’t really sure what his feelings were. So I figured, if this was someone I wanted to get to know better I should made every effort to do just that. So whenever he asked me to do something I said yes. Years later, when we were married, H. commented that one thing he’d noticed early on was that I was often available and willing to try new things or go places.

I’m not always good at saying yes as a parent but I find this is where it makes the most impact. About a year ago, I had taken the boys to a local park for an appointment to see a beekeeper for a demonstration. The beekeeper didn’t show (she had a good reason). As we were on our way out we passed a small pond. John asked if we could stop. I already had thought of all the other things I wanted to do since the beekeeping demo didn’t happen and playing in the pond was not one of them. Something though made me say yes.

We stopped and walked around the pond. They played in the mud, everyone was having a good time. Then as we circled back around to the car we passed a small field with a path going through it. “Can we see where that goes?” I sighed, but said yes.

The path led down to a creek with rocks going across it.

“Can we play?!”  Boy, oh, boy did I want to say NO. I envisioned boys in the water and whining about wet clothes all the way home (not a short drive). I wanted to get home and get to whatever project I had on my agenda. But again I sighed and said yes.

It was one of the best days ever. They played in that creek for the longest time and loved every minute of it. (And no one fell in or even got very wet.) I learned a huge lesson that day about the importance of saying yes and being flexible. And we discovered a new favorite spot. We’ve been back several times since to play.

Most of the time saying yes isn’t that dramatic. It’s “Can I play with Play-Doh?” and I want to say no because of the mess. It’s “Can I play with the sofa pillows?” “Can we rake leaves?” “Can we get out the science kit and do an experiment?” And most of the time sadly, my first thought is no. No, because it’s messy. No, because I have something else planned. No, because I just don’t feel like it.

Don’t get me wrong. A lot of time as a parent I have to say no. I’m certainly not saying yes every time they ask for something sweet as a snack or every time they want to play on the computer or watch a video. And of course there all the times I have to say no for safety reasons. There are times when something is ok but just not convenient.  (No,you can’t play with Play-Doh when we are leaving in two minutes for soccer.)

But what I’m trying to do more and more is to say yes unless there is a good reason to say no. I ask myself first “Why am I saying no?” And if the answer is mostly just that it doesn’t fit my agenda or I just don’t feel like it then I try to say yes.

I find that saying yes to my kids makes them happier (Duh!). It also often means we do something that turns out being better than what I had planned. And it makes it easier for them to accept it when I do say no.

Although saying yes intentionally is most important to me as a parent, I find it also makes a difference in my other relationships. Again, I’m not talking about saying yes to every volunteer job you are asked to take on. But saying yes to people as individuals. Saying yes even when it is inconvenient or doesn’t fit into what I want to do.

This may all seem kind of obvious to you.  But for me it’s something I have to work on over and over again.

Yesterday H. took the boys out to a church activity. I had some much desired time alone at home. Ruth was with me, but she was happily napping in the sling. I wanted to get a lot of school planning done and I was in the midst of a stack of books and my planner when the phone rang. It was my sister-in-law who wanted to stop by and show me a project she is working on. There were many reasons I wanted to say no. I was truly busy. I had already looked at this particular project of hers and didn’t really understand why she wanted me to look at it again. And mostly, as an introvert I did not want my precious alone time disturbed.

I said yes, although very ungraciously. I know it was obvious that I was begrudgingly saying yes because as soon as she walked in she apologized several times for disturbing me. She showed me the project and asked for my advice (which is why she wanted to come over). It was about 15 minutes and then she started to leave.

On the way out she asked what I was going to speak about at Sunday school since she was leaving on a trip and wouldn’t be there. I told her briefly. Then on the way out the door she said “Thanks again for your help. Thanks for saying yes.”

Here I’d been thinking about this topic all week and what I was going to say and not once in that conversation with her on the phone did I say to myself “You should say yes, remember?” I’m glad I did because in the end helping her was easy and the right thing to do.

For other people, this whole post might seem awfully silly. What’s so hard about saying yes, after all. Many people need help with saying no more than yes. But I’m a bit of a control freak. I like things to go according to my plan. So saying yes is about letting go of that plan a little bit.  It’s about being open to how God might be using me in somone else’s life. Being flexible. Being willing to try new things.

Like everyone, I’m a work in progress. I’m getting better at saying yes. I think the next thing I need to work on is saying it with a smile.

A wetland walk

Today we went on a morning field trip here.  This local wetland park has become one of our favorite places. One of the easy mistakes for me to make when taking a nature walk with kids is to overteach. To want to point out everything and to then bore them to tears with talking about what we see.  Or to try too hard to “learn something” so that I turn a great experience into an activity that has lost its magic.

I’ve gotten better about this. I’ve learned that not surprisingly the boys enjoy these walks the most the same way I do. Just doing it. We walk. We look. Sometimes we see things that are particularly interesting and we point them out to each other. sometimes we don’t. Sometimes just being outdoors in the quiet (well, quiet before we get there) is nice. Sometimes it’s just fun to climb on the fallen trees. Sometimes they are more into running and chasing each other than looking at anything around them.

One nice thing about going back to the same place over and over is that it’s easy to experience the seasonal changes and the cycles of nature. I don’t have to point out what is different in the fall than the summer, it just obviously is a different place. And each time we see something new. One time it was a big black rat snake sunning itself on a log. Today we saw a newly built beaver lodge that had been built right against the boardwalk giving us a great look at it. We saw fresh raccoon tracks in the mud. We saw geese and an egret and a lot of other birds I didn’t know.

A lesson I learn newly each time is to look at things from my boys’ perspective. Always one of them sees something in a way I don’t and it reminds me to slow down or look at things differently. And it reminds me that the teacher-student relationship is not all one way, perhaps especially in homeschooling.

Today it was at the end of the walk in the nature center. I was pointing out an eel in a fish tank to David. We’ve seen the eel before and it’s pretty cool to try and find. It burrows under the rocks at the bottom of the tank. In fact, last time it was John who showed it to me. So today I thought I’d show it to David. I asked him if he saw it and he said yes, then he said “And there’s a fish too.” I couldn’t see the fish at all but David is very good at spotting small things so I figured there was some small fish he saw. I  got down next to him to look for it and saw that in fact it was a HUGE fish, but just at the top of the tank so that I couldn’t see it when I was standing up. To David it must have seemed strange that I was pointing out the eel and ignoring the big fish right in front of my face.

Slow down. Look. Listen. Enjoy. A good morning’s lesson for all of us.

Book review: Daniel Isn’t Talking

Eh. That’s my review of this novel. It tells the story of Daniel, a 3 yr old autistic boy and his mother Melanie’s struggle with his diagnosis. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad book. It’s fine. The author does a nice job of exploring the mother’s worries about her son and her grief over his diagnosis and what it is like to parent a child with autism. But it’s just one of many perfectly good books out there. I enjoyed it well enough while reading it but nothing about it really challenged me and I doubt much will stick with me.

It also annoyed me that the mother doesn’t encounter a single helpful or sympathetic figure in the medical world while she is seeking help for her son. I know doctors and other health care providers can be awful but I found it unrealistic that there wasn’t a single good one. And they aren’t just portrayed as unhelpful, but rather they are outright rude or dismissive or cruel. I’m guessing that the author got some of the stories from real “autism moms” (her phrase in the book) and just used them all for dramatic effect. The only professional who is helpful is the out of the mainstream play therapist and the Mom eventually falls in love with him.  (This isn’t much of a spoiler since it’s on the book flap and anyone who knows foreshadowing can see it coming from a mile away.) I felt like the author wanted to write two books. One is a chick-lit romance and the other is about parenting a child with autism. The one about autism would have been interesting and better and I think more realistic if the romance had been left out and the other characters in the book weren’t so clearly divided into bad guys (medical professionals, husband) and good guys (play therapist).

Parenting 101

It seems that every time I have a new baby I like to read books about parenting. Kind of like taking a refresher course.

It Sucked and then I Cried by Heather B. Armstrong is a memoir about pregnancy and the first year of her daughter’s life. Armstrong is the blogger behind the incredibly popular blog Dooce. The book tells the story of her struggle with depression that ultimately required her stay in a mental hospital. I appreciate how honest and real she is about the hard parts of parenting and about her depression. I’m sure many people have been and will be helped by her straight-forward handling of the topic. She’s also very funny and any new parent will identify with much of the book. I can’t recommend it to everyone I know, as her style is a bit crude. I know some people would have a hard time getting past that, although it didn’t keep me from enjoying her story.  It reminded me a lot of Anne Lamott’s Operating Instructions (although Lamott is a better writer) which I also really enjoyed. It has the same in-your-face style and sense of humor.

Hungry Monkey by Matthew Amster-Burton is a very different memoir. Amster-Burton is a food critic and stay-at-home dad who writes about his adventures in cooking for and eating with his young daughter. It would be really easy to feel guilty after reading this book. There was a part of me (ok a large part of me) that wanted to hate this guy after reading about the homemade empanadas and pot stickers he made when he was Snack Dad at his daughter’s preschool. Amster-Burton’s livelihood comes from cooking and eating and writing about it. He’s pretty open about the fact that yes, he does usually shop every day for the best ingredients and spend several hours cooking dinner. The weakest chapter in the book is the one where he talks about using a Crock Pot. In different hands I’d have been rolling my eyes at how unrealistic this guy was about the way most of us live and feeling defensive about what I was making for dinner.

However, Amster-Burton doesn’t make you feel guilty. The best part of this book is that it is in no way a “how to”. He’s not trying to tell you how to feed your child or how to cook for kids, even though the book does include recipes at the end of every chapter. He shares his thoughts about cooking for kids but leaves you with a feeling that these are suggestions that worked for him that you might want to try rather than commandments that if you break them will guarantee that your child is an ultra-picky eater that will only eat white food. The freely admits at the end of the Crock-Pot chapter that he isn’t a Crock-Pot kind of guy. He admits that there are a lot of foods his daughter refuses to eat. He even admits to eating (and liking) Kraft mac and cheese.

What you get from reading this book is a great story of a Dad who really obviously loves his daughter and has a great time cooking for her and with her. That’s a story anyone can enjoy.

50 Things I Like…

On The Well Trained Mind message board someone started a thread asking people to name 50 things you like. Sort of a count your blessings kind of thing. Here’s mine, in no particular order. I didn’t list family members because that seemed too obvious. Although I do like all of my family, very much. This was more of an exercise in thinking of the little things that I’m thankful for.

1. Being able to say “my daughter”
2. Listening to my boys play in the other room
3. My 2 yr old pretending to be a monkey
4. Thunderstorms
5. Books
6. Libraries
7. Peppermint ice cream
8. The fact that my husband grocery shopped for us last night.
9. And that he bought me peppermint ice cream.
10. Tulips
11. Listening to rain at night
12. My “pretty songs” playlist on my computer
13. Hot baths
14. Not being pregnant
15. Our church family
16. Making lists and checking them off
17. A clean house
18. Swimming
19. Watching Survivor
20. Doing science experiements with my 5 yr old
21. Bacon
22. Knowing how to bake bread
23. Playing board games
24. Doing puzzles
25. The Olympics
26. Painting my toenails
27. The smell of baby lotion
28. My “hot pillow”
29. Sleep
30. “And Can it Be”
31. Mashed potatoes
32. Diet Coke
33. Autumn
34. Most movies by Christopher Guest
35. Traveling
36. Reading the entire Sunday paper
37. Little pink dresses folded up in the drawer
38. Quilts
39. The feel of fingerpainting
40. Being barefoot
41. Going to the ballet
42. Live theater
43. Backrubs
44. Tex-Mex
45. Rays
46. Taking a walk
47. Teaching my son to read
48. Being alone sometimes
49. Being a pediatrician
50. Being a Mommy

Three Bookish Thoughts

1. I’ve been noticing more and more lately that children’s picture books often have a hidden(or not so hidden) adult agenda. Last night I read a book to the boys called Tin Lizzie. I picked it up off the “New” book section in the library. The boys like books about cars and this looked like something that would appeal to them.  The book tells the story of a girl and her grandfather who love “wheels” . The grandfather works over the years to restore his old Tin Lizzie while at the same time making various things with wheels for his grandchildren.  Eventually, they take a ride in the Tin Lizzie. But during the ride the girl and her two brothers realize how many cars are on the roads and they start to question how this will affect their futures and what solutions there are for this problem of “too many wheels”. They think about carpooling and public transportation and using bicycles more. The book ends with the kids asking the reader if they have thought about this problem themselves.

Now, I don’t have a problem with the message.  But it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for when I picked up a book about cars for my 2 and 5 yr olds.  What I’ve noticed with these books with an adult message is that the kids don’t necessarily get the message but they don’t seem to enjoy these kind of books as much. These aren’t the books that they ask for again and again. The problem I have with this trend is less that of worrying about my kids being indoctrinated by a certain belief and more that I think it’s bad literature and ruins the reading experience.

2. This week’s issue of The New Yorker has an interesting article on children’s literature. The Defiant Ones talks about how parental discipline (or the lack thereof) is portrayed in children’s books today. The author, Daniel Zalewski, discusses how kid’s tantrums and misbehaviour is often characterized in current literature as something that the befuddled parents just don’t know how to handle. Or the books are presented as thinly veiled “lessons” on how to manage anger and “bad” feelings. We’ve read quite a few of the ones he discusses and what I’ve noticed is that again my kids don’t really love these books. These are the kind of books that adults say are “wonderful” and that get awards but that in my experience kids aren’t that in love with.  They don’t want the lesson unless it comes with a great story and so often it doesn’t.

3. This year I tried something new in my reading. I made a list of books I wanted to read and tried to stick to the list for the most part. I also tried to read in a variety of categories to get myself out of the fiction box. The idea was to be more intentional in my reading. For the most part, this has been really good for me and I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve definitely read a wider variety of books than I would have ordinarily. But this last week when I was at the library I went to the adult section for the first time in a long time to look for a certain book for myself. While I was there I picked up 4 other books that I saw that looked good. I used to do this all the time, just wander the stacks and pick up books that looked good. I remembered this week how fun that is and how it’s nice to have some serendipity in my reading. Sometimes it’s good to follow a plan and sometimes it’s good to put that plan aside and just wander.

Not on my to-do list

I was feeling pretty proud of myself this morning. I know these days that my energy level is highest in the morning so I was happy that I’d gotten up early and crossed some things off my mental to-do list. Bathroom cleaned. Check. Trash out. Check. I wanted to get school done early so that John could have a friend come over. The boys were awake and dressed. I was making breakfast. I was even mentally patting myself on the back for taking the time to play Playmobil with David when he had asked me. I fully admit that I was thinking thoughts along the line of “What a great Mom I am. See how I can get things done and even have the time to stop and smell the (Playmobil) roses.”

Well, I should have known that I was pretty much asking for a lesson in humility.

In the middle of spreading the peanut butter on the toast I got called to the playroom to intervene in something between John and David. It was a relatively minor infraction on David’s part but he hurt John’s feelings so I asked him to apologize. He utterly refused. Uh-oh.

The morning came crashing to a halt. As I was comforting John and trying to gently deal with David I heard this in my head “I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS. THIS IS NOT ON MY AGENDA TODAY.”

Then just as clearly I heard “THIS IS THE AGENDA.” And I realized that these moments are what being a parent is all about. Not in a warm and fuzzy Hallmark ad “this is what makes it all worthwhile” kind of way. I didn’t enjoy the next hour we spent with David in and out of  Time Out. I didn’t enjoy having him cry and say he was ready to come out and then have him come and refuse again to say he was sorry.  Rinse and repeat over and over again.

In fact, as I watched David my heart was breaking for him. I could see how hard he was struggling.  I could see how hard it was for him to utter those words, “I’m sorry”. I could see how he just wanted me to hug him and make it better.

And boy, did I want to. It would have been so easy to just hug him and say something like “I know you are sorry” and let him off the hook this time. John even tried to get me to do this by saying he wasn’t hurt anymore and it was ok. But that wasn’t really the point. The point was that he needed to learn that even though it is really hard to say “I’m sorry” it is necessary. The point was that he needed to do it because it’s important. And he needed to do it because I’d asked him to.

So even though it would have been much easier and gotten us back to my scheduled agenda faster, I stuck with it. And as we all struggled through the morning I thought about how these moments are what my job as a parent is all about. Everything else on my “to-do” list is secondary to that. As a parent, you have to be present and you have to seize those moments. You have to hope that one day it will all bear fruit even if it’s hard to see that sometimes in the day to day. I have to hope that one day when David will be a man who can say he’s sorry to his wife and boss and kids. That will redeem all  the unchecked items on all the to-do lists over the years.

Finally, this morning as John and I were sitting at the table reading we heard an “I’m ready”. This was about the 20th time David had said that so I didn’t have  a lot of hope. But I looked up and said in what I hope was a calm and patient voice “Ok, what would you like to say.”

A little voice said “I’m sorry.” And then he looked up and a smile broke out across his face and all was right with the world again.

At least for now.

What we’ve been doing in school

I survived our first week back of school with a newborn added to the mix. I had planned for three weeks off, but after the first week it was obvious the boys needed some structure in the day so we started doing “school lite”. Some reading and some math games mostly. But since I’d really planned it as a break, if it didn’t get done there was no pressure. This was the first week back of real full-time school.

I do a little bit of “David school” every day. Mostly this is just reading him books structured around a Before Five in a Row book of the week. I try and do one activity a day that goes with the book. This week, knowing it would be challenging enough to get back into the groove with John I planned on just reading with David and not doing any extra activities. It worked out well since I had forgotten to actually get the Before Five in a Row book from the library so we just read books every day that were meant to go along with our book of the week. The topic was birthdays,  of great interest to David who is about to turn 3. I’ll get the actual book next week (Ask Mr. Bear) and we’ll do more with the book itself. David has also really been enjoying the preschool activities in a bag that we got through an exchange earlier in the year. The activities are simple but he loves them and is proud of himself for being able to do them mostly on his own.

Some of the birthday books we especially enjoyed were: Whopper Cake by Karma Wilson, A Birthday for Bear by Bonnie Becker, Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells,  A Birthday at Panda Palace by Stephanie Calmenson and Birthday Zoo by Deborah Lee Rose.

John had a good week. He’s reading very well now but is still reluctant to do it on his own.This week I started something new called “Question of the Week”. I made a big poster with an envelope that serves as a mailbox. Every day I put a different question in the mailbox and on the shelf in front of the poster I put five books that he can use to find the answers. He loves reading about science so all of the questions so far have come from the many science books we have. So far it’s been a success. John is really excited about finding the question in the mailbox and then looking for the answer and coming and telling me the answer. It’s been a good way to encourage him to read more on his own.

In math John has been learning how to add numbers up to 20 (like 7 +8 and 6 +9). He catches on to new concepts in math really quickly and this week was no exception. We continued to play lots of math games like “math checkers” and “math war (with cards)” and “pyramid”  (a form of solitaire where you have to “make 10″).

In history we talked about ancient India. Today we made a brick out of mud. We read about Mohenjo-Daro, an ancient Indian city that disappeared for unknown reasons. I had John make up a story about what he thought might have happened to the people. I was pretty excited that although the story was mostly about weapons, they were appropriate weapons historically. He pointed out that he didn’t have guns in the story because  “the people didn’t have them then”. He also used great restraint in having no clones invade and wipe out the population of Mohenjo-Daro. I’m sure that was hard for him. He did a nice job of illustrating his story.

In science we talked about the Arctic. We made biomes in a bag last week and we are going to begin talking about different biomes and the animals that live in them. I went ahead and splurged on the One Small Square set of books and I’m really excited. They arrived yesterday and are beautiful. We will start using the Arctic Tundra one next week. We also went on a zoo field trip yesterday. John loves the reptiles and “any meat eaters”. He also loves an exhibit they have that is a series of questions. You read the question and have to search around the area for signs that different animals have been there (for example paw prints or fake scat or scratches on a tree). David loves the giant tortoises, the elephants and the “monkeys” (really apes but he’s only 2 so calls them all monkeys).

All in all a good week.