Read Aloud Thursday: this and that

CHAPTER BOOKS
The Squirrel's Birthday and Other Parties - I grabbed this one to go along with our "birthday" theme.  It was a little odd but fun.  The kids liked the short stories.

The Prairie Thief - Gemma found this one at the library all on her own and we've been reading it aloud together at bedtime.  It has been fun! and fits in nicely with our recent read alouds.  It is a little scary, but I have offered to stop and she always wants me to keep going.  ;-)  

She has also started reading her first chapter book BY HERSELF!!!  She picked up a copy of A Little House Christmas Treasury at the library as well, and has been busy (enough) sticking her nose in it.  She told me, "I'm just reading the words in my head mom, and it's pretty cool that way!"  YAY!  She had never shown any interest in reading chapter books on her own (or anything to herself for that matter), and I didn't want to force it (although I would drop hints here and there), so I am glad to see her picking this up on her own.  She has definitely done a ton of reading aloud to the boys this Summer, and her reading skills are good, so I figure she will reach these milestones when she is good and ready.

The Moffats - almost done with this one, and we'd better hurry!  It's due next week!!

FROM THE BOOKSHELF

Our Nursery Rhyme Books have been popular with Clement recently.

For Clem's recent birthday he got:
Tawny Scrawny Lion
The Monster at the End of this Book
Katy No-Pocket

FROM THE LIBRARY
Pumpkins - This was a cool story about living simply with what you need (always a great message). And the importance of a nice view.  ;-)

Danny, the Angry Lion - Cute.

Beatrice's Goat - Oh my, this book was positively wonderful.  We recently met a priest from Africa and were able to send some clothes and shoes back with him to his village, and between that and our involvement with Unbound, this book just tied in so very nicely.  It is a beautiful story, beautiful message.

Tops and Bottoms - Another one on my wishlist to own someday.  SO fun!  This time Clem grabbed the sound recording.   

Happy reading, friends!

Read aloud Thursday: ogres, Africa and birthdays

CHAPTER BOOKS

We are still reading The Moffats, namely during snacks and some mealtimes.  Most days, but not every day.  Gemma and I will start the Latsch Valley Farm series (at bedtime) as soon as it comes in the mail (I got a super good deal).

FROM THE BOOKSHELF

The kids had our Nursery Rhyme books out the other day.  I just love these books so much, and the fact that they are board books makes them so very durable.  The illustrations are precious.

Hey Diddle Diddle (and other favorite Nursery Rhymes)

Hickory Dickory Dock (and other favorite Nursery Rhymes)

I have been encouraging Gemma to read to Clement from our copy of A Big Treasury of Little Animals.  This has long been a family favorite.  When Gemma was Clem's age I think she and her daddy read one before bed every night.  For months.

Excited to have our very own copy of Adele and Simon in America this year.

FROM THE LIBRARY
The Odious Ogre was one Gemma picked up because she thought she remembered it from kindergarten.  But then when we read it she said she'd never heard it before. Oh well, that's neither here nor there.  This was a neat story with great use of vocab and a very good (but not overly preachy) lesson reminding us that our actions (negative and positive) can often make a more lasting impact on ourselves than they can on others.  I would definitely check this one out again.

At bedime we've been reading books about Africa.  We really liked these.
Jamela's Dress
My Rows and Piles of Coins
Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears
I Lost my Tooth in Africa
The Butter Man
Beatrice's Goat
Galimoto

Since Clement has an upcoming birthday, we will be doing a week with our favorite birthday books.  Some of our favorites are:

Otis and Sydney and the Best Birthday Ever

A Birthday for Bear 

C is for Cake

Happy Birthday Moon

For something new we thought we'd try at least a few chapters from The Squirrel's Birthday and other Parties.

I keep wanting to get back to our Virtue Study, but have never really taken the leap to jump back in.  For whatever reason, courage has kept coming up, and when Gemma came out and asked me the other day what it meant to be courageous, I finally said, "OK, we're getting back into this".  For now, I decided to just use a virtue (courage here in a couple weeks) as our weekly (maybe two weeks) theme.  We'll see how this evolves once the school year starts.  But that's a whole other conversation...   For courage, I got much of my inspiration here, but I'll have to report back once we dive in.

That's all for now!  What are you reading this week?

Sweet siblings III

As I mentioned in my last post, Kolbe has been enjoying his food immensely. Gemma asked to feed him the other morning and she really did a great job! I took some video, and really should figure out how to use the software to take it off my camera and then post it on here. Maybe soon. For now you will have to be happy with the still photos.
Very sweet. Then she read him some Nursery Rhymes before his nap. Such a good sissy.
While we're on the subject of Gemma and feeding Kolbe, I thought I'd share a Gemma-funny from the other night. I was sitting in the chair feeding Kolbe in his highchair and she kept poking her head up under the arm I was feeding him with so she could get right in on the action. Sweet as it was, it was getting reallllly old after about the seventeenth time of knocking food off of his spoon and making me miss his mouth all-together, so I physically moved her aside and told her that it was sweet that she wanted to help, but I needed some space and could she go do, I don't remember what, some random project I came up with. Well, so later on that evening she was playing with her baby-doll, and I came up beside her and she said very sweetly, "mama, I'm feedin' my baby, I need some space." They really do repeat whatever they hear!

Sweet siblings II

Kolbe's ability to sit up has made playtime for him and Gemma much more exciting. Gemma is really having fun with it. Her latest...she has me sit him in her room by the CD player so they can listen to "Whistle Man" (or whatever the favorite song of the day is) together. She will bring him toys and I even caught her reading Polar Bear to him the other day. So sweet. I put a pillow behind him, as he still tips back once in awhile, and Gemma decided she needed one as well, "for in case I fall over, mama." Ha!
I took this picture the other morning and thought it turned out very good of both of them together. Definitely print-worthy and give-to-the-grandmas-worthy.

Whistle man

Gemma has really been enjoying Nursery Rhymes of late. She got this book from our dear neighbors when Kolbe was born, and has enjoyed it immensely (she has the whole thing memorized, in fact), and we've checked out a handful of others from the library that we've read many times over. When she was less than enthusiastic about taking her nap the other day (she very enthusiastically told me "I wake up!" after being in her room quietly without sleeping for about half-an-hour), I decided to pull this Wee Sing CD out of my bag of tricks. It is chock full of Nursery Rhymes (I used it when I taught, and we actually had the tape growing up and let me tell you, could my sister and I share some memories about it...), and sure enough she just loves it (and, for the record, she did end up falling asleep eventually)! Her current favorite rhymes are "Meow" (The Three Little Kittens) and "Whistle Man" (after begging for it for 10-15 minutes, it finally dawned on Aaron and I - at exactly the same time even - that she was talking about "This Old Man". We're still trying to figure out what Per Deem" is, so if you have any guesses...). Anyways, she has learned to hit the back button and will sit in her room during the day and listen to these songs over and over. And over. And over. And over. She does not tire of them. Well, come nap or bedtime, we will program the CD to repeat the song over and over (and over, et al, per her request) so she can basically just listen to it on loop. Problem is, the CD has a bit of narration in between rhymes, so before the song restarts, it goes through 10-15 seconds of this narrating. Well, Aaron was putting her to bed the other night, and she kept wanting him to get up and hit the repeat button, and he would gently remind her, "see Gemma, just give it a little bit and it will start back over on it's own." Well, smart as she is, this whole idea was apparently just a bit lost on her, because after he left her room - I kid you not - for the next HOUR, ever two-ish minutes when the song was over you would hear her scream out in anger, "NO, I want WHISTLE Man" and she would grunt and growl and scowl until - would you believe - the narration ended and her beloved song started over. And then she was fine. Each time. Every two minutes. For. An. Hour. The girl just didn't figure it out. Aaron and I were laughing sooooooo hard. Poor girl. I hated to get so much entertainment out of her 'misery', but doggone-it, it was so stinkin' funny. Hopefully you've found this as amusing as we did. Maybe you had to be there. But I wanted to be sure and get this down so I didn't forget. It was quite funny.