Read Aloud Thursday: The Blue Jay Pirate

David loves birds. After the success of Swordbird and the sequels as read-alouds, I thought The High Skies Adventures of Blue Jay the Pirate would be a great choice for his special bedtime book. It was a good choice; both he and his brother really liked the story. For the past month or so they have taken on the roles of various birds into the ever changing backyard war games they play together and with friends.

The story is fairly reminiscent of other adventure tales. Blue Jay is the captain of the Grosbeak, the most feared pirate ship of the skies. (Yes, the ships fly.) He’s kind of like the Dread Pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride. He isn’t really all that fierce but he knows he has to keep up his reputation in order to have other ships fear him and surrender to him more easily.  He also likes collecting unusual objects, especially unusual eggs, and the book begins with the acquisition of a large unusual egg. The egg eventually hatches to reveal a gosling. There is some controversy over whether or not to keep the gosling. It’s huge and some of the crew are concerned that it’s geese family will come looking for it. However, Blue Jay and the ship’s navigator, Junco, insist that the gosling should stay. Junco has a maternal bond with Gabriel the gosling and Blue Jay believes that it will bring them adventure of some kind. Adventure really begins when the Grosbeak crashes and the crew is attacked by a local gang of crows. The pirate crew enlists the help of a local village of sparrows and Hilary, a star-nosed mole, to battle the crows and win back their ship.

The boys did really enjoy the book. They liked all the battles and the bird heroes. I’m glad we read it but I thought it was just ok. Scott Nash does a good job of creating his fantasy world and many of the characters are appealing and interesting. However, in many ways the book is kind of a muddle of different storylines. There is a whole political backstory about the sparrows and the ruling class of thrushes, some semi-religious overtones about geese and ducks (the goose is somehow seen as a god like figure) and a whole lot of characters. I had a hard time keeping some of the characters and minor plot points straight. (For example, the birds aren’t allowed to migrate but Gabriel wants to migrate at the end and the other birds are going with him. I think this loophole might have been explained earlier but I couldn’t remember and didn’t really care enough to spend the time looking it up. I think if the author could have figured out what the core of his story is (coming of age story? adventure story? political allegory?) it would have made for a tighter, better book.

 

Stop by Read-Aloud Thursday at Hope is the Word!

Read Aloud Thursday: Georgia O’Keefe (with some art)

Art is one of those things that I always want to do more of in our homeschool but somehow it seems to get pushed to the back burner. I think one reason is my perfectionist tendencies. Ideally I’d love to follow some kind of plan, studying artists by time period or by style or in some kind of logical way. But what that means is we never do it because I never seem to get it planned out. In reality what works for us is to find good books, read them and talk about the artist and their work. It’s kind of haphazard but it works ok for now.

I’m not sure where I heard about Georgia in Hawaii: When Georgia O’Keefe Painted What She Pleased, a newish book by Amy Novesby but it tells about an interesting episode in the life of Georgia O’Keefe when she was invited to Hawaii by The Hawaiian Pineapple Company to paint two paintings for them. O’Keefe was already a well-known artist at this point and the company (which would later become Dole) wanted her to paint a pineapple and provided her with a pineapple picked from the tree. They refused to allow her to go to the pineapple fields to paint in a more natural setting and she became angry. Instead of painting what they wanted she toured the Hawaiian artists, creating beautiful paintings of everything but pineapples.

The story is quirky, and a fun addition to a study on O’Keefe. It’s also a good way to see that she painted more than desert scenes. It definitely gives a particular impression of her personality: strong, independent and slightly stubborn. However, for more of a complete study of the artist you would want to include other books as this one doesn’t really talk much about O’Keefe’s life or show much of the paintings most typical of her style.

We enjoyed several other books to flesh out her life a bit more:

Georgia Rises: A Day in the Life of Georgia O’Keefe by Kathyrn Lasky
My Name is Georgia by Jeanette Winter
Through Georgia’s Eyes by Rachel Victoria Rodriguez
Georgia O’Keefe: Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists by Mike Venezia

We also did an art project to go along with the books. Because O’Keefe is so well known for her flower paintings I chose to have the kids try their hands at something similar. I gave them each a piece of posterboard and instructed them to draw a flower taking up most of the space. We then painted the flowers using liquid watercolors.

Our flower model.

Ruth’s flower painting.

My flower painting.

I don’t have a painting from John because as usual he ended up more interested in “experimenting” with mixing colors. For some reason he was really really determined to figure out a way to get the watercolors to make a dark black. He used a lot of paint and a lot of water and ended up tearing through his posterboard. But he was happy, he sees art as more of a science experiment anyway.

David’s flower painting, which I think turned out really well. The thing I was most impressed with was that he kept doing things that weren’t what he wanted to do but then he’d quickly adapt and figure out how to change it. He thought he was using a red color that ended up being orange, then when he went to wipe it off with a paper towel he smeared it across the page. He decided then that he’d use the paper towel to “paint” the entire background orange and said it was the desert. He then used a brush and different orange and red paint to do the petals.

As we did this project it struck me that in some ways art projects are like science experiments. One of the things I hear homeschoolers say all the time about science experiments is that they don’t like doing them “because they don’t work”. It drives me batty because not working is part of the experiment. If you don’t get the “right” results (meaning the results you expect) part of science is figuring out why. That’s the interesting part for me. I realized though that often I shy away from art projects because “they don’t work”. Meaning that I don’t get the results I expect, or the results that I imagine in my head.

David is our most artistic child and it was interesting to see him do this painting. I think he didn’t mind it not turning out “right” because for him that was when it got fun.

Stop by Hope is the Word for more Read Aloud Thursday.

Recommended

Image from National Gallery of Art website.

We went this weekend to the Albrecht Durer: Master Drawings, Watercolors and Prints from the Albertina exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. It was fantastic. The print above was one of our favorites, especially for bird-lover David. My personal favorite was the drawing Hand with Book. Photos weren’t allowed in the exhibit but if you have a chance to go I’d highly recommend it.

Since I don’t have photos of the artwork I’ll leave you with a photo of David’s purchase from the giftshop. It’s a straw kit that enables you to construct elaborate straw structures. In the photo above, they are all three drinking at once from two cups containing different beverages. They had a blast using it, drank an enormous amount of liquids that evening, and probably satisfied some kind of science and engineering learning objectives in the process.

History Repeats Itself

 

 

Two years ago, John attempting to do school while Ruth insisted  on sitting on his lap.

 

David doing math. Yes, while Ruth insists on sitting on his lap.

Nonfiction Monday: Candy Bomber

We’re in the midst of studying World War II and in one of those wonderful moments of serendipity I stumbled across this book by Michael O’Tunnell on the new books shelf in our library. Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift’s “Chocolate Pilot” tells the story of Gail Halvorsen, an American Air Force pilot.  It’s a story familiar to us from the picture book Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Margot Theis Raven.

I would recommend both books as they tell the same story from different perspectives. Both take place in a ravaged Berlin right after WWII. The Soviets  blockaded the western part of Berlin and the Allies flew in food supplies to the Berliners in an attempt to keep the Soviets from gaining control of the entire city. One pilot, Lt. Halvorsen began dropping candy and chocolate to the children of West Berlin. These candy drops became a symbol of hope for the children in this war-torn country.  The picture book focuses on Mercedes Simon, a real young girl who wrote to Lt. Halvorsen telling him how her family’s chickens are scared by the planes and won’t lay eggs but asking him to look for the chickens and drop the chocolate anyway. Halvorsen isn’t able to find her house but takes the time to write her and send her candy. The first time I read this story I cried at he epilogue where the author tells how Halvorsen and Mercedes were able to meet again years later and forged a life-long friendship.

Candy Bomber tells the story more from the perspective of Halvorsen and is much more thorough in explaining the historical background behind the Berlin Airlift and the details of the candy drops. O’Tunnell also includes many, many photographs (he worked closely with Halvorsen in writing the book and had access to fantastic documents and photographs). Included are photos of the real Mercedes Simon, which was fun to see after having read the picture book. O’Tunnell also goes on to talk about what Halvoresn’s life after his time in Berlin. He goes on to have a long career in the Air Force, including a stint as commander at the same German Air Field that he flew his chocolate plane from. He has been honored many times for his work during the Berlin Airlift, including a candy drop done to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the original candy drop. In that one, the children on the ground running for the candy included seven of his own grandchildren and some of Mercedes Simon’s children.

It’s always a little tough figuring out how to approach emotionally hard subjects with kids. I’m not a believer in avoiding any mention of the more terrible parts history but I also think that kids need to see some hope amongst the horror. We’ve talked about the devastation of WWII but Candy Bomber gives a glimpse of how one person can be a power for good even in a seemingly hopeless place. That’s a good story to read regardless of your age.

Nonfiction Monday is hosted this week at Stacking Books.

Read Aloud Thursday: Princess Super Kitty

This new-to-us book by Antoinette Portis was clearly the favorite of the week for Ruth. Maggie isn’t just a girl, she’s a kitty. Complete with ears and a tail. She says “Meow” when her Mom talks to her and she drinks milk like a kitty. (She doesn’t  eat fish, some kitties apparently like peanut butter and banana sandwiches). When she realizes kitties love to nap, she turns herself into SUPER KITTY. Super Kitty is too busy saving baby brothers and fetching bottles for Mom in zero seconds to nap. What could be better?

Why, Princess Super Kitty of course!

Needless to say, my cat and princess loving daughter LOVED this book. It also might tell you something about her personality to know that one of her favorite pages was of Princess Super Kitty’s brother bowing down to her in obedience. On each reading we would have to go back to that page and look at it again. Today, Ruth remarked, “ I think David really likes that picture.”

Surprised, I said, “Which one, the one of the boy bowing to his sister?”

Ruth looked at me with a gleam in her eye. “Yes, “ she said. “He definitely likes that picture.”

Our Super Princess Kitty. Notice the snake draped around her neck. Very good for intimidating brothers subjects.

Don’t forget to stop by Hope is the Word for more Read Aloud Thursday.

Read Aloud Thursday: The One and Only Ivan

David’s current bedtime book is the 2013 Newbery winner, The One and Only Ivan. I picked it to read with him because he loves animals and any kind of animal story and because unlike other recent Newbery winners it looked like a book that had appealed to an award committee of librarians and that would also appeal to kids. Overall, we’ve really enjoyed the book although I have some ambivalence about it as a choice for David (a 1st grader).

Ivan is a silverback gorilla who has lived as long as he can remember at an odd zoo/circus/shopping mall “at Exit 8 off of I-95”. His friends are Stella, an aging ex-circus elephant with a wounded leg, and Bob, a stray dog who likes to sleep on Ivan’s stomach. Ivan eats yogurt raisins and watches TV. He likes watching Julia, the young daughter of the custodian, when she comes to visit. He considers himself an artist and his crayon drawings sell for $25 (with frame) in the mall gift shop. He thinks his life is ok.  He has never seen another gorilla and he can’t remember the past at all but he doesn’t really think much about either of those things or about life outside his “domain” until a baby elephant named Ruby arrives at the mall. Ruby’s arrival catapults Ivan into the role of protector for the first time in his life. He makes a promise to try and help Ruby have a better life and as he cares for her he begins to remember more of his own past.

The book is told from Ivan’s point of view, which is intriguing. Ivan isn’t anthropomorphized in the same way that the animals in a book like The Wind in the Willows or Redwall are. He is still very much a gorilla.  The point of view didn’t totally work for me. I kept wondering why Ivan could talk to Bob and Ruby but not to Julia. (Maybe I’m comparing to Charlotte’s Web which we also recently read. I like that Fern can understand the animals. In fact, E. B. White implies that anyone can if they take the time to listen. Adults just don’t listen.) However, my boys are more accepting and they liked Ivan. They thought he was really funny and smart and rooted for him to succeed in his plan to save Ruby.

Ivan is at times a funny book and in the end, it’s a book with a satisfying and even happy ending. It’s also a quite sad book, which is where my ambivalence comes from having chosen it for David. He’s quite sensitive, especially about animals. (He’s a newly proclaimed vegetarian. Well, a vegetarian who eats bacon. But that’s a whole other post.) He gets very upset about cruelty or death. We hadn’t read very much of the book before I realized it was going to be sadder than I realized. I skimmed ahead and was a bit concerned about him so I warned him that it would be sad but that it would end ok. And then I cut out one particularly gruesome scene from Ivan’s past.

I would recommend the book, even for animal lovers. However, I would definitely recommend pre-reading or reading aloud to younger or more sensitive kids. It’s a fairly easy book to skip parts as the chapters are very very short (often less than one page or consisting of just a few sentences). It may be an especially good book for kids who love animals. Beyond the sadness and the basic storyline there are interesting questions about whether or not places like zoos can serve a purpose and be a good place for animals. I admit to being a little conflicted about our own visits to zoos. On one hand, I dislike seeing animals in cages. On the other, I know that often the zoos can do very good work for animals that are endangered. Also, I think our kids have learned from visits to the zoo to love and be curious about animals and to be more interested in animal welfare and protection than if they had never seen an elephant or sea lion or gorilla. I liked that Katherine Applegate doesn’t make the zoo issue black or white, instead she focuses on how the animals are treated. That’s something I’ve tried to be more aware of in our own zoo-going as well.

And in honor of Ruby, a picture from a recent trip to the opening of the new Elephant Community Center at our local zoo.

Stop by Hope is the Word for more Read Aloud Thursday (and adorable baby photos).

Poetry Friday: The Highway Rat

Just in time for National Poetry Month, I have a fantastic new book by Julia Donaldson to share. The Highway Rat is the story of a dastardly character, a rat so mean and wicked that he steals the food of every creature he meets on the highway. Donaldson is the Children’s Laureate of the UK and she tells the story in rollicking rhyme that is inspired by the classic poem The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes .

The highway rat was a baddie. 
The highway rat was a beast.
He took what he wanted and ate what he took.
His life was one long feast.
His teeth were sharp and yellow, his manners were rough and rude,
And the Highway Rat went riding-
Riding-riding-
Riding along the highway
and stealing the travelers’ food.

The illustrations by Axel Scheffler are bold and funny. You can’t help but be charmed by the wicked but debonair rat. Donaldson creates the perfect ending for her Highway Rat.(Parents of preschoolers don’t need to worry, his fate is much less bloody than the original.) He gets his come-uppance thanks to a clever Duck but still has a happy ending.

This is one we all enjoyed. Afterwards we looked up the original Noyes poem and read that too. (Some of you might recognize it as one of the poems Anne Shirley recites for “the real authoress”.)

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Read, Write, Howl.

Confirmation

There are a lot of reasons we homeschool.

Recently we’ve added a new one. After reading about the second grader suspended for chewing his Pop-Tart into a gun shape and the 5 year old girl who made a “terrorist threat” against a classmate and the 6 year old suspended for pointing a finger at a classmate and saying “Pow”, I’m quite convinced we’ve made the right decision.

It’s likely they would just end up at home after being expelled anyway.

*In full disclosure the Nerf gun was disarmed and taken apart before spelling and grammar.

**In fuller disclosure it was disarmed because his mother thought it was funny to keep shooting him and his brother if they were goofing off and not doing their work.

**And in the fullest disclosure, the 6 yr old disarmed his mother and took apart the gun, knowing she probably couldn’t figure out how to put it back together again.

Nonfiction Monday: Henry and the Cannons

In the winter of 1775 General George Washington’s army was outside Boston. The British army held the city and the Patriots were powerless to drive them out because they had no cannons. There were cannon at Fort Ticonderoga, 300 miles away. However, that was a journey across difficult terrain in the middle of winter. It seemed impossible.

But not to Henry Knox, a Boston bookseller. Henry traveled to Fort Ticonderoga and with the help of a small group of men brought 59 cannons back to Boston. It took 50 days to cross those 300 miles. They had to go by boat, by ox cart and by foot. They crossed frozen rivers and high mountains. They dealt with mud and ice and snow. Still, they made it without a single cannon being lost (even after one fell through the ice into a frozen river).

Henry and the Cannons is a great story of perseverance. I also like that it highlights one of the less well-known episodes of a much more well-known story in history. The illustrations are mostly of a muted brown, blue or green palette which fits well with the story. A small quibble, the faces  of the men were odd to me. They look almost leonine which was slightly distracting to me. A slightly larger quibble was that I wished for more details about the story. Why did Henry Knox think that he could take on this impossible task? What did Knox go on to do after this endeavor? I would have enjoyed the inclusion of a page or two of extra material that might have more fully fleshed out Henry Knox as a person. However, overall we enjoyed this new book by Don Brown and it would make a great addition to a Revolutionary War study.

Nonfiction Monday is hosted today by Wendie’s Wanderings.