Bits and Pieces of Our Days

Whoosh! Where does the time go?

I've been AWOL for a number of reasons, most of which have to do with simply being busy, busy, busy. Some of the busyness was dull and dreadful. (Taxes are done! And I cooked dinner on the same day I finished the taxes! I feel like a superhero!) Some of the busyness was welcome brain exercise, such as an online class of sorts, which kept me busy for a couple of weeks. One other new thing I'm doing is handling the monthly "Celebrate" column for Catholic Digest. It involves the delight of some quote-gathering, and I'm all about that.

~~~~~

Ramona and I are reading L.M. Montgomery's Emily of New Moon and we are loving it. I'm annoyed with myself that I've lived this long without having read this book. At least Ramona won't have to say the same. 

Can I love a heroine as much as I love Anne-with-an-e? An emphatic yes. Ramona agrees. 

~~~~~

Instagram snaps: 

Ramona is still helpless for Hamilton. (So am I.) 

When a future Kindergarten teacher lives at your house, you find things like Origami Yoda on your dining room table. 

When your other daughter works at the library, and said library is weeding its collection and selling off old books to get ready for the library renovation, you find things like bunches of new, old books in your living room. 

I'm not complaining. 

Some Books We Read in 2016

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce
A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman
Betsy was a Junior, Maud Hart Lovelace 
The Pretend Wife, Bridget Asher
Essentialism, Greg McKeown
In This House of Brede, Rumer Godden
Yes, Please, Amy Poehler
Bossy Pants, Tina Fey
Little Men, Louisa May Alcott
Jo's Boys, Louisa May Alcott
Driving Hungry, Layne Mosler 
Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys
Still Life, Louise Penny
One Plus One, JoJo Moyes
Prisoner B-3087, Alan Gratz
Why Not Me? Mindy Kaling
Betsy and Joe, Maud Hart Lovelace
The Power of Vulnerability,  Brene Brown (Audible)
What Alice Forgot, Liane Moriarty
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter Miller, Jr.
Hannah Coulter, Wendell Berry
Nest, Esther Erhlich
The Madwoman Upstairs, Catherine Lowell
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Jack Thorne
The Awakening of Miss Prim, Natalia San Martin Fenollera
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling
Betsy and the Great World, Maud Hart Lovelace
The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman
Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
My Name is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout
Betsy's Wedding, Maud Hart Lovelace
The One in a Million Boy, Monica Wood
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer 
Crosstalk, Connie Willis
Lab Girl, Hope Jahren
A Circle of Quiet, Madeleine L'Engle
84 Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff 
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, Phaedra Patrick

Two NaNoWriMo novels -- Betsy wrote one in July and one in November

Books I read with Ramona:

The Titan's Curse
Battle of the Labyrinth
The Last Olympian (all three are part of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series)
The Pushcart War, Jean Merrill
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, Trenton Lee Stewart
Return to Gone Away, Elizabeth Enright 
The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase, Wendy Mass
Jane of Lantern Hill, L.M. Montgomery
The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic, Jennifer Trafton
The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg
The Shadow of the Bear, Regina Doman
Black as Night, Regina Doman

~~~~~

Top three picks? (No, don't make me pick! Okay, I will): 

In This House of Brede
Hannah Coulter
Far From the Madding Crowd

Book I'm really glad I read but will probably never read again?

A Canticle for Leibowitz

Books that filled me with happiness when I needed it: 

All things Maud Hart Lovelace and L.M. Montgomery

Books I finished, but that disappointed me the most: 

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child 
The Awakening of Miss Prim 

Books I didn't finish, for a variety of reasons: 

Lab Girl (actually a really good memoir, I just wasn't in the mood for memoir. I plan to return to it.)

My Name is Lucy Barton (I felt I was reading an entirely different book than the one I'd heard described by others as lovely. Maybe it was just my frame of mind at the time? I don't know.)

Favorite read-aloud with Ramona:
Jane of Lantern Hill
The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate

~~~~~

What were your top three books of 2016? 

Photo credit: FreeImages.com

Bits and Pieces of Our Days: What We've Been Reading

Ramona and I just finished The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly's delightful* sequel to The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. We did it together as a read-aloud and were both sad to reach the end of our time with the Tate clan. And who needs a science curriculum with books such as these? Love them.

* ETA: Just fyi: It does tackle some serious themes, too, so some of you might want to preview it and/or be ready to discuss those. 

~~~~~

While we're on the subject of science, though, we're working our way through Fruitless Fall together. If you've never fallen hard for honeybees, you need to pick up this book. 

~~~~~

Betsy is doing some reading aloud with Ramona, too. Last night they finished The Son of Neptune, from Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series. 

~~~~~

Her own stuff: Ramona recently finished Andrew Clements' Things Not Seen, which she said was "fun, and interesting, and there was more to it" than she thought there would be. She recommends it. 

Then she moved on to Tanita Davis's A La Carte, which she desperately loved. It left her with a book hangover, drifting and unsure of what she wanted to pick up next. She just wanted more time with Lainey. 

She eventually moved on, though, and is currently reading The Importance of Being Earnest. 

~~~~~

Last month I read The One-in-a-Million Boy, by Monica Wood, and it was lovely and sad and uplifting. Recommend, recommend, recommend. 

I just finished Connie Willis's newest book, Crosstalk. It's basically a romantic comedy, lightweight fun. I think the story could have been told in a shorter book, but I still enjoyed it. I've been told I need to read To Say Nothing of the Dog, so that's on the TBR list for lightweight Willis. I think Doomsday Book (not lightweight) is still my favorite of hers. 

Right now? I'm rereading Madeleine L'Engle's A Circle of Quiet. I adore her Crosswicks journals. 

~~~~~

Final book note: 

Did you know that yesterday was, as my friend Beth at Endless Books calls it, the Literary Day of Days? November 29th is the birthday of Madeleine L'Engle, Louisa May Alcott, and C.S. Lewis. 

Why did I not have this day highlighted on my calendar? Why are there not banners and fireworks? I assure you, next year the Literary Day of Days will be celebrated to the fullest extent allowed by law and bloggery. 

For this year, I will simply rerun this picture of a note I received from Madeleine L'Engle many years ago. (The story behind it is here.) Happy Belated Literary Day of Days! 

Books We've Read This School Year

The end of the school year is in sight, and I'm looking over booklists, which always starts me looking ahead to next year's booklists. Ah, the joys of reading!

Here are some of the things we've read this year (though I know I'm forgetting things):

Ramona, or Ramona/Me/Read-alouds:  

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 
A Wrinkle in Time
The 24 Days Before Christmas 
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever 
The Phantom Tollbooth 
A Mouse Called Wolf 
Sea of Monsters
The Titan's Curse 
Battle of the Labyrinth
The Last Olympian
The Pushcart War 
Shadow of the Bear 
The Striped Ships 
Extra Credit 
Ballet Shoes 
Ramona and Her Father (reread) 
Baby Island
Three Times Lucky 
Wednesdays in the Tower 
Sister of the Bride 
The Charlotte Years (rereads) 
Winnie-the-Pooh
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey 
Anne of the Island 
Betsy in Spite of Herself (reread)
Betsy Was a Junior (reread) 
William Shakespeare's Star Wars 
ETA*:
The Little Prince 
Return to Gone Away

Some of my reads this school year: 

The Martian
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Marmee and Louisa by Eve LaPlante
The Lake House, Kate Morton 
Witch Hunter (my daughter's 2015 NaNoWriMo novel)
A Jane Austen Time Travel Story (her 2014 NaNoWriMo)
The Pretend Wife 
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry 
A Man Called Ove 
Betsy Was a Junior
Essentials
In This House of Brede, Rumer Godden  
Yes, Please 
Bossy Pants
Little Men
Driving Hungry 
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys 

What have you been reading?

~~~~~

* Ramona and I have been sloppy with our book logs this year! Inexcusable for bookworms! 

Poetry Friday: The Land of Story-books

I'll be at the Filled With Joy conference this weekend, talking about read-alouds, among other things. And although this Stevenson poem isn't specifically about being read to, it is about books and imagination and the joyful marriage of those two. Happy Poetry Friday! 

The Land of Story-books*
Robert Louis Stevenson

At evening when the lamp is lit,
Around the fire my parents sit;
They sit at home and talk and sing,
And do not play at anything.

Now, with my little gun, I crawl
All in the dark along the wall,
And follow round the forest track
Away behind the sofa back.

There, in the night, where none can spy,
All in my hunter’s camp I lie,
And play at books that I have read
Till it is time to go to bed.

These are the hills, these are the woods,
These are my starry solitudes;
And there the river by whose brink
The roaring lions come to drink.

I see the others far away
As if in firelit camp they lay,
And I, like to an Indian scout,
Around their party prowled about.

So, when my nurse comes in for me,
Home I return across the sea,
And go to bed with backward looks
At my dear land of Story-books.

~~~~~


The round up is at The Logonauts.


*In the public domain.

Book Lists: A Pile of Notes from Over the Years

Book lists are everywhere. I don't need to provide you with a specific list of what you should read, because our favorites might not be your favorites. But I can give you a list of lists, compiled, referred to, and loved over the last fifteen years of homeschooling:

Alicia Van Hecke's Love2Learn Family Read Aloud List

Reading Your Way Through History

Emmanuel Books catalog

Melissa Wiley's Book Recommendations

Melissa Wiley's Booklist List

Mother of Divine Grace curriculum lists

Catholic Heritage Curricula catalog

Simply Charlotte Mason Read Aloud List

Simply Charlotte Mason Living Science Books

A Charlotte Mason Home booklist by grade level

Maureen Wittmann's For the Love of Literature Book List (and the Kindle book.)

Homeschool Connections List of Living Math Books

Penny Gardner's Living Math Books

Treasure Chest for Tweens (a review site of a variety of books)

Sonlight catalog (download the pdf to take a look at the title index)

Simple Homeschool's Top 25 Read Alouds

Not a free resource, but a great one: Jim Trelease's The Read-Aloud Handbook.

(And, ETA, thanks, Liz in the comments: Honey for a Child's Heart. Great reading lists in that one, too. Can't believe I'd forgotten to include it.)

I know there are more ... now where did I leave that other pile of lists?

Reading About Read-Alouds

I'm reviewing notes and polishing up a talk about read-alouds that I'll be giving next weekend at the "Filled With Joy" conference in Omaha. But I just had to stop what I'm doing and share this old post, entitled "Why I Love Our Read-Alouds, Part 937." Ramona was not quite six years old:

~~~~~

Ramona asked me if I would read Anne of Green Gables to her. We started a couple of days ago, and when we reached the passage in which Anne describes herself as being in the "depths of despair" Ramona asked me what the "depths of despair" were.

"Well," I said, "'despair' means being terribly, terribly sad, so the 'depths of despair' would be the saddest a person could possibly be. Have you ever been in the depths of despair?"

"I," replied Ramona, "am in the depths of despair whenever you have to go out and I can't be with you. That's how much I love you."

She gazed up at me in a very Anne Shirley way.

And I?

I felt as if I'd just seen the White Way of Delight, the Lake of Shining Waters and had been told by Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert that they were going to keep me.

My latest Anne-with-an-e fan (Ramona, not the cat.)

Bits and Pieces of Our Days

Ramona had her piano recital on Sunday and it was lovely and bittersweet. She did a beautiful job (not that I'm partial), but it was her final recital with this particular teacher, which saddens us because we love her. Kathi is really a strings teacher, was Betsy's violin teacher. But she also taught Ramona for as long as she could and now feels Ramona should move on to someone more fully trained in piano, because, she says, as a piano teacher she "doesn't know what she doesn't know." We have loved her for her gentle spirit, her generous heart, her passion for music, and her understanding of girls and all things pink and sparkly. We'll miss you, Miss Kathi!

~~~~~

Anne and Betsy's semester is almost over. Are they happy? Are they ready?
 
                     

~~~~~

Reading with Ramona: 

Still reading Anne of the Island together. It's taking us awhile because, just as we did with Anne of Avonlea and The Penderwicks in Spring, we are reading it only when Anne and Betsy can join us (which is a couple of breakfasts a week.) There was just a very painful proposal scene. Ouch. (Anne, stop being so stubborn!)

Library find: the new one from Chris Grabenstein. We really enjoyed Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library and we're finding The Island of Dr. Libris to be equally fun -- mystery, word play, love of books. And I get to do different voices for Robin Hood, Hercules, Pollyanna. Fun stuff.

~~~~~

My usual TV time, other than weekend date nights with Atticus (oh, Mad Men, how we'll miss you) is when I'm working out. Parenthood is my latest workout show. This show keeps making me cry. Is a workout more effective when one is sniffling?

I Love Frank Fraser's Art!

So, awhile back I heard from Frank Fraser, a writer and artist and all-around creative dynamo with an impressive list of credits who has now gotten into the business of writing and illustrating children's books -- books that are all about God (because we know that books about God are much more lucrative than working for Disney, as Frank used to.) So, call me a sucker and a cheerleader for the underdog who has left the corporate world behind, or just call me a good judge of art for children. Whatever you call me, I can tell you this: when I first looked took a peek at The Bible Amigos: Five Loaves, Two Fish, and One Big Hat and The Bible Amigos: Jonah and the Bear on Amazon, I emailed Frank and said:

I have just been looking at your Amazon page, and I'm kind of in love with those illustrations!

and I added that

...my only concern is that you will add to my daughter's desire to acquire a pet hedgehog. 

I mean, look at these:

Look at how cute these guys are! They make me so happy! 

Frank sent a couple of books for us to look at and, yes, the three Bible amigos have indeed ramped up Ramona's desire to campaign for a pet hedgehog. (It's not going to happen, Ramona, unless someone else starts getting up with the dog when she wants to go out at 4 a.m. Until then, no further pet negotiations. And, there's the little problem that Frank pointed out in his response, that there are pesky postal regulations about hedgehogs....) 

These books are sweet and adorable, the stories are based on Scripture and virtues, and I am sold. I love them. 

(Frank and his wife, Terri, also have an Etsy page full of stuff, including more of Frank's art for children. My girls and I are fighting over who gets to keep the print above.) 

Recent Reading

Betsy had read this and enjoyed it. I was looking for something light and quick, so I picked it up, too. The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy, Kate Hattemer's debut novel, was a fun read. I liked the voice and the humor, the smart characters, the premise -- a small circle of rebels at a fine arts academy try to overthrow a reality TV show that has taken over their school. Their weapon of choice? A long poem in the tradition of The Cantos by Ezra Pound. Add a gerbil named Baconnaise (loved that a family named pets after condiments), and you've got an enjoyable weekend read.  

~~~~~

Over Lent, I read Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer by Fr. Thomas Dubay: 

Fr. Dubay is always worth the read and this one was no exception. He gets straight to the point and always challenges me to look at and better try to live what I believe. 

Also during Lent: Ramona enjoyed getting to know St. John Paul II a little better via Bringing Lent Home with St. John Paul II: Prayers, Reflections, and Activities for Families by Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle. 

~~~~~

Just finished today: 

Jeanne Birdsall's The Penderwicks in Spring was a read-aloud with Ramona. It took us awhile to get through it, only because my college girls vehemently insisted asked if we would read it only when they could listen in. With their schedules, that limited our read-together time, but it was entirely worth it to read with all the girls, given our Penderwick history, which stretches back nine years.

When we read the first Penderwicks book, Anne-with-an-e was 12 -- Ramona's current age. So, not only were we enjoying this new book, we were reminiscing about the others (and remembering when we'd named our triops after the Penderwicks and how that turned into a horror show.)

I don't want to say much about the book, because I dread spoilers. But I will say that though it was sadder than the other books, we did love it just as much as we loved the previous three.

Bits and Pieces of Our Days: The Recent-Books-With-Ramona Edition

Ramona and I finished our read-aloud of Anne of Avonlea. We read it only over breakfast on the days when Anne and Betsy could join us, so it took awhile, but it was worth it to once again share a book about "that Anne girl" with all of my girls.  Such fun, and made for a delightful start to our day.

***

Also recently finished a read-aloud of The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop. 

Fun, adventure, and interesting ethical issues to discuss. 

***

Read-aloud in progress: The Cottage at Bantry Bay. It's Hilda van Stockum ... need I say more?

***

Twenty and Ten,  by Claire Huchet Bishop. The last, I think, of the WWII books for this year.

***

And, one that we can't wait to get our hands on 

(we'll be watching for the UPS man tomorrow!): 

The new Penderwicks! Cue the squees! We're all giddy! 

The Fountains of Carrots Podcast is Up

My chat with Haley and Christy is up on the Fountains of Carrots podcast page. (It's actually been up since last Tuesday, but I, as usual, am late for my own party!)

They were so great to talk to -- 90 minutes, and we still didn't exhaust every subject. Hope you enjoy it -- I sure did, even though we all cried. :)

Covering Subjects in a Non-Traditional Way (Part the Third): Percy Jackson Read Aloud

Part 1 is here.
Part 2 is here.

When I talk about teaching subjects in non-traditional ways, what I mean is that most of our curriculum is talking.

A recent example is the read-aloud Ramona and I just finished, Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief. 

Topics discussed (if you haven't read the book, skip this post to avoid spoilers!)

• Greek mythology, obviously, and we'll delve further into this 
• ADHD
• Dyslexia
• Talents that don't translate to a classroom setting
• Greek currency
• Dreams and their meaning
• St. Louis arch
• Sisyphean tasks
• Why Riordan chose Los Angeles as the entrance to the Underworld (side discussion: Stephen King/Las Vegas as headquarters for the demonic Walking Man)
• Ethical situations/choices: Percy's mom, Sally (staying in an abusive relationship in order to protect Percy?!), Sally's decision to use a weapon (of sorts) on her husband, Gabe
• Comparisons: afterlife/Underworld vs. our beliefs in heaven, hell, purgatory
• Vocabulary: I point out new words, show Ramona the visual on spelling, etc., stop to define a word, if necessary 

That's a quick summary of the practical application. All of the above can be categorized under various subjects, from history and social studies, to literature and language arts, to faith. Reading aloud -- and talking, talking, talking! -- teaches so much. And inspires great jokes:

Near the end of the book (again, avert your eyes if you haven't read it and don't want spoilers!), Percy has to make an end-of-summer decision. Should he stay at Camp Half Blood all year and continue learning to fight monsters? Or should he go back to New York City for 7th grade?

Ramona's response: "Maybe 7th grade is the monster."

More fodder for discussion!

Sisyphean Tasks: I've Taught Her Well

Ramona and I are reading the first Percy Jackson book, The Lightning Thief. Today, Sisyphus came up and I asked if she knew what a Sisyphean task was. She thought she knew, but she asked me to explain anyway.

"So, you know that Sisyphus was condemned to push a boulder up a mountain, only to have it roll back down every, single time. Then he had to push it back up again. So, a Sisyphean task is one with no end in sight ... you just have to do it again and again and again."

"Like laundry," she said, nodding.

This girl understands life.

My work here is done.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit: Ramona and I Continue Reading About WWII

Ramona and I are still reading about World War II. The other day we finished When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. She loved it, and I do, too (as did my older girls.) It's a lovely, moving, and sometimes funny book that explores one family's experience. (There are just two incidents that would be disturbing for sensitive children -- if you are doing this book as a read-aloud, you should see them coming and so can handle them accordingly.)

The story is based on the life of the author, Judith Kerr, whose family, thanks to her father's foresight, fled Germany in 1933 when she was ten years old. They subsequently lived in Switzerland, France and England, where Judith Kerr still resides. (She's 91! I must tell Ramona! We must write to her and tell her how much we love the book!)

The protagonist, ten year old Anna, is a writer, like her father:

Lately she had been producing a number of illustrated poems which had been much admired both at home and at school. There had been one about a fire, one about an earthquake and one about a man who died in dreadful agonies after being cursed by a tramp. Why not try her hand at a shipwreck? All sorts of words rhymed with sea and there was "save" to rhyme with "wave" and she could use the three new blue crayons for the illustration. She found some paper and began.

Soon she was so absorbed that she did not notice the early winter dusk creeping into the room ....

Anna's father is a wise man and a marvelous mentor. Ramona and I loved this sage writerly advice:

Anna said, "Papa, do you really like the poem?" 

Papa said he did.

"You don't think it should be more cheerful?"

"Well," said Papa, "a shipwreck is not really a thing you can be very cheerful about." 

"My teacher Fraulein Schmidt thinks I should write about more cheerful subjects like the spring and the flowers."

"And do you want to write about the spring and the flowers?"

"No," said Anna sadly. "Right now all I seem to be able to do is disasters."

Papa gave a little sideways smile and said perhaps she was in tune with the times.

"Do you think then," asked Anna anxiously, "that disasters are all right to write about?" 

Papa became serious at once."Of course!" he said. "If you want to write about disasters, that's what you must do. It's no use trying to write what other people want. The only way to write anything good is to try to please yourself."

We liked Anna and her entire family immensely. I enjoyed her mother's trials as she learned to cook and sew, and we were amused by Anna's (initially) underachieving older brother, Max, who met the word count on his school essays by padding them with long lists of the foods his characters ate. In every essay the feasting ended with, "And then they all burst."

We identified with many things that reminded us of our homeschooling life. For example, I love the following passage about studying history. Anna's father has just asked her what she learned about Napoleon, and she's rattled off an impressive list of dates and events:

"What an extraordinary way to learn about Napoleon," said Papa. "Is that all you know?" 

"But it's everything!" said Anna, rather hurt, especially as she had not made a single mistake. 

Papa laughed. "No, it's not everything," he said, and settling down on her bed he began to talk about Napoleon. He told the children about Napoleon's childhood in Corsica with his many brothers and sisters, about his brilliance at school and how he became an officer at fifteen and commander of the entire French army at the age of twenty-six; how he made his brothers and sisters kings and queens of the countries he conquered but could never impress his mother, an Italian peasant woman. "C'est bien pourvu que ca dure," she would say disapprovingly at the news of every new triumph, which meant, "It's good as long as it lasts." Then he told them how her forebodings came true, how half the French army was destroyed in the disastrous campaign against Russia, and finally of Napoleon's lonely death on the tiny island of St. Helena. 

Anna and Max listened entranced. 

"It's just like a film," said Max.

Later, Anna's parents consider sending the children to live with their grandmother while they search for housing and work in England. Anna panics, fearful that the family will split up.

"It's just that I think we should stay together," she said. "I don't really mind where or how. I don't mind things being difficult, like not having any money, and I didn't mind about that silly concierge this morning -- just as long as we're all four together." 

"But Anna," said Mama, "lots of children leave their parents for a while. Lots of English children go to boarding schools." 

"I know," said Anna, "but it's different if you haven't got a home. If you haven't got a home, you've got to be with your people." She looked at her parents' stricken faces and burst out, "I know! I know we have no choice and I'm only making it more difficult. But I've never minded being a refugee before. In fact, I've loved it. I think the last two years, when we've been refugees, have been much better than if we'd stayed in Germany. But if you send us away now I'm so terribly frightened ... I'm so terribly frightened ...." 

"Of what?" asked Papa. 

"That I might really feel like one!" said Anna and burst into tears.

As someone who felt like a nomad much of her life (I grew up in an Air Force family, and Atticus and I have moved a number of times) I loved this illustration of how very little where we live can mean to us, and how much -- everything, really! -- family means as a way of defining whether or not we are "home."

A highly recommended book.

Read Aloud Role Reversal

Yesterday, thanks to the lovely little bug I've been fighting (Is it a cold? Just a cough? Sinus stuff? Who knows? Who cares? It's finally getting much better today), I didn't feel up to our usual, annual read-aloud of Madeleine L'Engle's The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas. 

We all love this book beyond measure, but my voice just wasn't going to cooperate. So ... grown daughters to the rescue!

Anne-with-an-e and Betsy read it aloud to me yesterday. To Ramona, too, of course, but I sort of selfishly reveled in the fact that my girls were reading to me. Read-aloud Karma, if you will.

That is all.

We will now return to our regularly scheduled reader.

The Twenty-one Balloons: A Quick Review

Ramona and I just finished reading The Twenty-One Balloons, which we both found delightful. Written and illustrated by William Pene du Bois in 1947, it won the Newbery Medal in 1948, and has endured to become a classic. 

Set in 1883, the novel is part science, part fantasy, part light social commentary, and partly appealing to introverts ("As you know," says Professor William Waterman Sherman, near the beginning of the story, "I was a teacher of arithmetic for forty years. Forty years of being surrounded by a classroom of healthy prankish students. Forty years of spitballs. Forty years of glue on my seat, Sal Hepatica in my inkwell, and other devilish tricks. Long about my thirty-sixth year, I started yearning to be alone.") 

Professor Sherman builds a fantastic balloon home in which he plans to travel around the world. (Cue the Jules Verne references! Cue Up talk, and Dug imitations!) The introduction tells us that Professor Sherman's travels will take him to the Pacific island of Krakatoa, and that he will somehow be involved in the volcanic explosion that really did take place in 1883. How did he end up there? And how did he escape? 

Lots of unschoolish detours to take with this book -- the science of hot air balloons (though Ramona and I occasionally got a little bogged down in some of the descriptions of the inner workings), diamonds, mentions of the salt mines of Poland and the crystal caves of Bermuda, which had me sending Ramona to Google. Volcanos, the history and geography of Krakatoa ... plenty to talk about and explore on top of a good read. And it made us hungry! You'll have to read the book to find out why. 

My favorite quote: 

"It seems strange to me that mechanical progress always seems to leave the slower demands of elegance far behind. With all of the peace and spare time on this lovely island, why should any part of your lives be speeded up?"

I once took a hot air balloon ride and it was lovely. Now I just need to figure out how to get Ramona in a balloon one of these days. A quick Google check for companies and prices tells me that I'd better start the savings fund now.  :)

It's the New Bumpoofle-Dee-Dee

I'm reading Hilda van Stockum's The Winged Watchman to Ramona as part of our World War II studies this year. Tonight, we were reading at the kitchen table while Anne and Betsy were doing the dinner dishes. At this point in the story, we're learning more about Hildebrand, a young man, a philosophy student, who is secretly staying with the Verhagen family. Anne and Betsy were listening in.

I had just read a paragraph in which Mr. Verhagen and Hildebrand are having a conversation, and as the two men are agreeing on a point, we learn that

At first he (Father) had thought that such a bookish person could not learn anything so practical (as helping with the windmill), but Hildebrand proved to be quite dexterous and Father was beginning to rely on him.

"Oh," I said, "he's bookish and handy. I wonder if he cooks, too?"

"Hildebrand might be the perfect man!" Betsy said, but I wasn't really listening. I had already moved on to read the next line:

"I know," Father sighed. 

The girls burst out laughing at my/Father's response and when I realized how it sounded I laughed, too.

"And thus," I said, "the grown-up girls' version of Bumpoofle-Dee-Dee is born!"

What's Bumpoofle-Dee-Dee? One of our most enduring family jokes.

It came up when I read The Winged Watchman to Anne and Betsy eight years ago. Here's the post from October, 2006:

~~~~~

While reading The Winged Watchman aloud the other day, Ramona suddenly stopped me and said, "What's a bumpoofle-dee-dee?"

I said, "A what? Where did you hear that, honey?"

"You! You just read it a minute ago."

"I did?"

"Yes. You said Bumpoofle-dee-dee."

Thoroughly confused, I skimmed back over what I'd just read and found this phrase: Some people think electricity is foolproof and easy.

"Oh! Honey, no -- " I corrected, "I said, foolproof and easy. Not bumpoofle-dee-dee."

Anne and Betsy were besides themselves with giggles.

But, oh, it got worse at dinner time. The girls were recounting the misunderstanding to Atticus. Anne said, "Daddy, can I tell you about Bumpoofle-dee-dee?"

"Huh?" said Atticus, understandably foggy after a day of teaching high schoolers. "One poopy baby?"

If I thought the girls had a good giggle at breakfast, it was nothing compared to this laughfest. Anne spit applesauce across the table onto Betsy, and Ramona latched onto the phrase, which she could repeat endlessly, sending her sisters into fits and guffaws.

When everyone finally quieted down, I told the origin of the story to Atticus, but it seemed to have lost its punch. We do, however, have a new family word.

Perhaps we need to add elocution to our curriculum?

~~~~~

And this is Reason #4,987,236 that I love read-alouds!

Revolutionary Women, Picture Books, and Bad Impressions

Because Ramona and I will never be too old for picture books, and because we are all about the Revolutionary war this year, we recently read these:

Thomas Jefferson: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Everything  by Maira Kalman.

Thumbs up from Ramona for the pursuit of everything in this one: the illustrations, the humor, the tidbits of information about the ever-fascinating Thomas Jefferson.

(Quick heads up: if you have very young children, please be aware that the book briefly addresses his relationship with Sally Hemmings.)

Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies 

This one covered some interesting ground and notable women, but the writing wasn't highly engaging. Does include a nice timeline, though, of the women, and the reading was good reinforcement for some women we'd previously read about in the following magazine:

Ramona loved this issue. I can't recommend Kids Discover highly enough. Good stuff for unschoolish learners.

Finally, we left the Revolution and took flight with these two:

Amelia And Eleanor Go For A Ride by Pam Munoz Ryan, with illustrations by Brian Selznick.

A fun read. As I was doing voices for it, my Eleanor impression suddenly sounded a little funny.

"Why does Eleanor Roosevelt sound like Julia Child, Mom?" Ramona asked, puzzled.

I stopped and frowned.

"I don't know," I said. "Let's find out what she really sounded like."

(Thank you Google -- love you for stuff like this. We listened to Amelia Earhart, too.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Now it's time to visit the library again. 

Books We're Reading (From Atticus to Ramona)

Atticus is reading...

Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker by Stanley Crouch and Bruce Catton's The Army of the Potomac: Glory Road. (That one's a reread for him, but he can never get too much Civil War reading.)

He's also reading lots of these:

Thanks, Image Chef.  And yes, his students really do call him Mr. Ed. 

I am reading...
Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle and Finding Your Element by Ken Robinson. I love this kind of stuff.

Anne-with-an-e is reading...
The Complete Sherlock Holmes. This would be even better if we could have Benedict Cumberbatch come over and read it aloud to all of us.

She's also reading Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis for a class and is really enjoying it.

Betsy is reading...
(I'll let her tell you in her own words. She just started a new blog, and did a post today about current reads.)

I've got a never-ending list of books, and not enough time to read them all. These are just a few of the books I've been reading.

I'm working my way through the Series of Unfortunate Events and I'm loving them. I'm on book nine. I've never read them before, and Lemony Snicket's humor has me in stitches. I love the intricacies of the story, and the way the plot lines blend together almost seamlessly.

At night, I'm reading Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg to my little sister. I've read this book so many times, and I love it. She has never actually read it, and I love being able to read it to her for the first time.

I started My Antonia this morning, and I'm really enjoying it. There's not much I can say about it at this point, because I've only read the first fifty pages. But I love the style of Willa Cather's writing, and the forming friendship between Tony and Jimmy.

I cried for the last twenty pages of The Book Thief. I adored this book. Every character became so real to me, and I loved them all. Max, Liesel, Rosa, Rudy, Hans. Each one of them. I just wanted to scoop them up and keep them safe from everything.

In my TBR (to be read) pile, I have The Raft which is a reread for my book group. I really enjoyed this book, by S.A. Bodeen. It's about a girl whose plane crashes, and she ends up on a raft with the only other survivor, Max, the copilot. Very intense, very good book.

Ramona is reading...
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (this is a read aloud we're doing together -- loving it) and Pinky Pye. (How I adore Eleanor Estes.)

The other day I mentioned that we just finished reading Rules. I tweeted about it, and shared Ramona's picture, and Cynthia Lord was sweet enough to respond and tweet back her reaction to Ramona's drawing (thanks for making her day, Cynthia!)

Hey, Twitter? Actually, hey, Whole Internet? Can I just tell you how much I love you for making it possible to easily connect my daughters with authors they love? If it weren't for the Whole Internet, would I ever have met Melissa Wiley? And ended up godmother to this adorable little kiddo? So. Great.