Homeschool Update: Week of 7/19/21

Morning Read-Alouds 

From Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year selected by Fiona Waters,  illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon (Nosy Crow, 2018) we read "I Wish..." by Anonymous, "It Was / So Hot"  by Malcolm de Chazal, "Colouring In" by Jan Dean, and "Where the bee sucks" from The Tempest by William Shakespeare.

From A Book of Americans by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1933) we read poems entitled: "Zachary Taylor," "John James Audubon," "Nancy Hanks," "Daniel Boone," "Crawford Long and William Morton," "Sam Houston," "Western Wagons," "Clipper Ships and Captains," "James Buchanan," "Crazy Horse," "Stonewall Jackson," "Abraham Lincoln," "Negro Spirituals," "Ulysses S. Grant," and "Robert E. Lee." 

Our author for the week was Jan Brett. I read aloud On Noah's Ark and Town Mouse Country Mouse and Grandma read Comet's Nine Lives. 

Music 

We sang "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" as performed by The Corries. We listened to Lt. Kijé Suite: Troika by Sergei Prokofiev, Pictures at an Exhibition: Promenade by Modest Mussorgsky, Simple Symphony: Playful Pizzicato by Benjamin Britten, Album for the Young: The Happy Farmer by Robert Schumann. 

M. and C. practiced piano and recorder daily.

Art

We studied Saint Mary Magdalene by Gregor Erhart from the Louvre Art Deck: 100 Masterpieces from the World's Most Popular Museum by Anja Grebe and Erich Lessing. The girls made bookmarks for our friend that we met up with in New York to thank her for the books she gifted to us. 

Catechism 

We continued working on Lesson 7: "Jesus Opens Heaven For Us" in The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism. 

History

This week's readings were "Timber!" from The Great Heritage by Katherine B. Shippen (Viking Press, 1947), "Ol Paul Bunyan," "How Paul Bonjean Became Paul Bunyan," and "Ol' Paul's Camp on the Big Onion River" from Yankee Doodle's Cousins by Anne Malcolmson (Houghton Mifflin, 1941), and "Boston Bells" from American Adventures by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan, 1968). 

Science

The girls watched Mr. Wizard's World every day.

Math 

M. worked on algebra basics and C. worked on algebra with renaming using the soroban. They both did Khan Academy every day.

Reading and Writing 

We continued reading One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street by Joanne Rocklin. At dinner, my husband finished reading aloud The Three Princes of Serendip and started Serendipity Tales. C. started reading Heartwood Hotel Book 1: A New Home by Kallie George. M. started reading The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder and continued reading A Book for Jennifer aloud to Gran. E. recorded her video of Dad and Sam and started working on Pig Wig. 

Physical Education

We went to the pool with friends on Friday and the girls went back on Saturday with my husband for a swim lesson.

Reading Through History: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (1943)

In pre-Revolutionary War Boston, Johnny Tremain is apprenticed to a silversmith and it is assumed he will one day marry the boss's daughter and take over the business as his own. When a fellow apprentice, moved by jealousy, sabotages Johnny's crucible, however, he is burned by molten silver and becomes incapable of continuing in this line of work. His search for a new trade leads him to the newspaper business and ultimately straight into the heart of the revolution.

My mom bought this book for me when I was a kid, but I was so averse to reading about misfortune of any kind that I never so much as cracked the spine. Even as an adult, I found reading it on the page didn't really work for me, and I kept avoiding reading it. Finally, when I tried the audiobook, everything finally clicked, and I found that I really enjoyed it after all. 

This book is a great look into daily life in America during the early days of our country. The details of how people dressed, the kind of work they did, and how they interacted with each other really immerse the reader in the time period and make it easy to imagine what it might have been like to live then. The story also provides a character lesson about the dangers of pride, but it is delivered in such a way that the reader almost comes to the moral by herself, and it never feels as though the author is giving a sermon. I also really enjoyed the friendship between Johnny and his friend Rab. Their faithfulness and loyalty to each other made me invest strongly in their relationship.

Because of the subject matter, which involves some questions about Johnny's paternity and also concerns about marriage and career, I think the best audience for this book is probably going to be at the very upper elementary or middle school level. It's also really enjoyable for an adult who is interested in the day-to-day life of the American people during the Revolutionary War. 

Homeschool Update: Week of 7/12/21

Morning Read-Alouds 

From Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year selected by Fiona Waters,  illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon (Nosy Crow, 2018) we read "The Moon at Knowle Hill" by Jackie Kay, "The Song of Hau, the Red Fox," a wintu song translated by Jeremiah Curtin, "First Fox" by Pamela Gililan, "The Blue Water In," a Southern Paiute song translated by John Wesley Powell, and "A Dragonfly" by Eleanor Farjeon. 

From A Book of Americans by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1933) we read poems entitled: "John Paul Jones," "Abigail Adams," "John Adams," "Benjamin Franklin," "Benedict Arnold," "Thomas Jefferson," "Alexander Hamilton," "Aaron Burr," "Johnny Appleseed," "Lewis and Clark," "Dolly Madison," "James Monroe," "John Quincy Adams," and "Andrew Jackson." 

Our author for the week was Margaret Wise Brown. We read Three Little Animals, Love Songs of the Little Bear,  The Diggers and Sleepy ABC. We also listened to the CD from Goodnight Songs and watched the Weston Woods video of The Wheel on the Chimney. Grandma read The Old Mill on Skype on Saturday. 

Music

We sang "On Top of Old Smokey" from Go In and Out the Window: An Illustrated Songbook for Young People (The Metropolitian Museum of Art, 1987). 

We listened to the Russian Dance from the Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky, Háry János Suite: Viennese Musical Clock by Zoltán Kodály, Water Music: Hornpipe by George Frideric Handel, Triumphal March from Aida by Giuseppe Verdi and Brandenburg Concerto No. 2: Movement 1 by Johann Sebastian Bach. 

Art

We studied The Rialto Bridge by Canaletto from the Louvre Art Deck: 100 Masterpieces from the World's Most Popular Museum by Anja Grebe and Erich Lessing and watched some videos about the bridge itself. The girls made wind chimes using kits from Dollar Tree. 

Catechism

We continued working on Lesson 7: "Jesus Opens Heaven For Us" in The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism.

Memory Work

E. recited the months of the year, days of the week, four directions, marks of the church, and continents. She continued to practice "Happiness" by A.A. Milne. 

C recited the 50 states, planets, Great Lakes, countries of Europe, the oceans, the books of the Bible, and our address and phone number. She continued practicing "maggie and milly and molly and may" by e.e. cummings. 

M recited the 50 states, the countries of Asia, the books of the Bible, the Kings and Queens of England, and our address and phone number. She continued to practice Oberon's speech from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 1 by William Shakespeare.  

History 

This week's readings were: The Legend of New Amsterdam by Peter Spier, "The Wishing Pear" from  American Adventures by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan, 1968), and "The Gift of Saint Nicholas" and "The Ghost of Dark Hollow Run" from Yankee Doodle's Cousins by Anne Malcolmson (Houghton Mifflin, 1941). 

Science

The girls are still watching episodes of Mr. Wizard's World. We'll resume BFSU in September.

Math

M. and C. both did some work in Singapore and Khan Academy every day. C. is doing addition with renaming and M. is working on converting units of measure. 

Reading and Writing 

At lunchtime we're reading One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street by Joanne Rocklin. At dinner, my husband read from The Three Princes of Serendip. M. started reading A Book for Jennifer by Alice Dalgliesh aloud to Gran and finished the second Borrowers book. C. read a review copy of a forthcoming beginning chapter book, Ivy Lost and Found by Cynthia Lord. E. read and recorder her video for Dad and Sam.

Physical Education

We went to the pool with friends during the week, and M. and C. went again on the weekend with my husband to practice swimming. M. and C. also ran around outside on the hill next to our neighbor's house. 

Fumbling Through Fantasy: Old Mother West Wind by Thornton Burgess (1910)

Old Mother West Wind has several children known as the Merry Little Breezes, who love to involve themselves in the affairs of the animals who live in and around the forest, including:  Peter Rabbit, Jimmy Skunk, Sammy Jay, Bobby Coon, Little Joe Otter, Grandfather Frog, Billy Mink, Jerry Muskrat, and Spotty the Turtle. As these animals interact with each other and with the Breezes, the reader is treated to many gentle adventures, most of which have a bit of a moral at the end. 

My husband read Old Mother West Wind aloud to my oldest as a toddler, but when I tried it with my second daughter she wasn't a fan. It wasn't until now, with daughter number three (E, age 3.5) that I actually read the entire book. Unlike her older sister, E. really enjoyed entering the world of these animals and observing their activities.

For me, a reader who doesn't love animal stories, it was not my favorite read-aloud, but I did appreciate that the chapters were short enough to hold my young listener's attention and that it was very easy to sort out right and wrong actions taken by the animals in each story. For a book that is over 100 years old, much of it is still relatable to preschoolers who are starting to really understand how to interact with others for the first time. They can explore various social situations vicariously through these animals, and then apply those lessons to real life. 

Old Mother West Wind is a great first chapter book to read aloud, and I plan to keep it in my preschool curriculum for when the twins reach this stage in the hopes that it will resonate with one or both of them as well. 

Book Review: The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (2008)

The Mysterious Benedict Society is the story of four gifted kids - Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance - who are handpicked by Nicholas Benedict to infiltrate a school called the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, which is attempting to control minds through subliminal messages sent out through various forms of media. Using their various strengths, the four characters work together even in the face of great danger to bring down the mastermind of these messages, Ledroptha Curtain. 

I read this as part of a discussion group on Instagram but wound up not really participating in the discussion. Whereas the other members seemed to love the book, I really thought it was just okay. I didn't like a lot of things about it: the fact that so many character names had not-so-hidden meanings, for example, and also the plot's reliance on coincidences and unknown family connections that just happen to be revealed at convenient moments. It felt like this book was trying really hard to be clever and really wanted me to notice its cleverness, while I wanted it to be much more subtle. 

In terms of content, I have no objection to my kids reading this book. My husband read it, and though he didn't like the ending, he still bought a copy, and it's here in our homeschool library if any of our kids want to pick it up. For me, though, I'm most likely done with this series. It's not the type of book I typically like, and there was nothing especially amazing about this specific book to make it an exception for me. 

Book Review: The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright (1942)

The Four-Story Mistake is the second book in the Melendys series by Elizabeth Enright, following The Saturdays (1941). In this book, Mona, Rush, Randy, and Oliver, along with their father and Cuffy and Willy Sloper, move from New York City to a country house known as the Four-Story Mistake. The house has some architectural anomalies that give it its name, but it's the perfect home for these four children. While World War II rages on elsewhere, the Melendy kids enjoy a year of indoor and outdoor adventures, including the uncovering of a secret about their new home. 

I happened to be reading this book aloud to my kids during our visit to my mother-in-law. It was such a surprise to all of us when she recognized the story and told us this had been her favorite book as a child. After we finished the book, I could absolutely see why. Even more so than in The Saturdays, in this book these child characters come fully to life. They and my kids may be separated by decades, but their interests - in nature, in drama, in secrets, and in imagination - are as similar as can be. The fact that a war is taking place also gives the book a bittersweetness, and for the adult reader, there is a strong feeling of nostalgia and an awareness that childhood is fleeting. 

This is the quintessential realistic fiction book and it was a lovely read-aloud for my older three girls ages 3, 5, and 7. I had originally not really planned to finish out the series, but this book has changed my mind completely. This was a very strong five-star read and I look forward to reading it aloud again when the twins are old enough to enjoy it. 

Reading Through History: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (1960)

Island of the Blue Dolphins is the story of Karana, a young Native American girl who, after a series of very difficult events, is left to live alone on her family's island off the coast of California in the 1840s. The novel describes the life she builds for herself and explores the challenges and joys of living so closely with nature with only animal companionship.

I never read this book as a kid because I almost never read any historical fiction as a kid. A few years ago I read O'Dell's The Captive (1979), and it was so dark and depressing that I wondered whether I could ever stomach another book by him, and I continued avoiding this one. Thankfully, though, a reading challenge that cropped up on Instagram this summer required a book set on an island, and I was finally encouraged to pick this one up. I listened to the audiobook, and though survival stories are not my favorite genre, there is undoubtedly something special about this book.

From the beginning, the writing is simply beautiful. I have images in my mind of scenes from this book that I can still replay in vivid detail weeks after finishing the story. O'Dell is not a flowery, purple writer, but he has such a strong command of language that he really knows how to paint a picture with just the right number of words. I feel as though I know Karana and have lived alongside her through her experience on the island. 

This is a short book, but it bears a strong impact. It didn't become a personal favorite, but objectively I can absolutely see why it's so beloved and why it won a Newbery. I'll be glad to have my own kids read it in the coming years. 

Homeschool Update: Week of 7/5/21

Morning Read-Alouds

From Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year selected by Fiona Waters,  illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon (Nosy Crow, 2018), we read "She sells seashells on the seashore," "Inside a Shell" by John Foster, "Five Little Peas," and "The Back Step" by Lee Knowles. 

From A Book of Americans by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1933) we read poems entitled: "Christopher Columbus," "Indian," "Hernando de Soto," "Peregrine White and Virginia Dare," "Pocahontas," "Miles Standish," "Pilgrims & Puritans," "Peter Stuyvesant," "Southern Ships and Settlers," "Cotton Mather," "Captain Kidd," "French Pioneers," "Oliver DeLancey," and "George Washington." 

Our picture book author for the week was Charlotte Zolotow. Grandma read The Seashore Book to the girls before we left New York, and I read The Storm Book at home. We also watched some videos of Zolotow's daughter, Crescent Dragonwagon, reading aloud her mother's books, Someday and One Step Two.

We read several articles from National Geographic Explorer magazine Volume 19, Number 2 (Pathfinder edition): "The Galapagos Islands," "Islands Born of Fire," "Home Only Here," and "Darwin."

Music

We learned to sing "Home on the Range" from Go In and Out the Window: An Illustrated Songbook for Young People (The Metropolitian Museum of Art, 1987). 

We listened to Tritsch-Tratsch Polka by Johann Strauss Jr, Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, maman" by Mozart, and  L'Arlésienne Suite: "Farandole" by Georges Bizet. 

Art

This week's painting was the Mona Lisa. We studied the card from the Louvre Art Deck: 100 Masterpieces from the World's Most Popular Museum by Anja Grebe and Erich Lessing and watched the SmartHistory video about the painting.

Catechism

M. and C. started learning the questions and answers in Lesson 7: "Jesus Opens Heaven For Us" in The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism.

Memory Work

E. recited the months of the year, days of the week, four directions, marks of the church, and continents. She continued to practice "Happiness" by A.A. Milne. 

C recited the 50 states, planets, Great Lakes, countries of Europe, the oceans, the books of the Bible, and our address and phone number. She continued practicing "maggie and milly and molly and may" by e.e. cummings. 

M recited the 50 states, the countries of Asia, the books of the Bible, the Kings and Queens of England, and our address and phone number. She continued to practice Oberon's speech from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 1 by William Shakespeare.  

History 

In the summer, we typically do a quick American history study, so we started that this week. From The Great Heritage by Katherine B. Shippen (Viking Press, 1947), we read "The Great Heritage," "Beavers, Otters, and Furres of Price," and "Men of the Sea." From Yankee Doodle's Cousins by Anne Malcolmson (Houghton Mifflin, 1941) we read "Stormalong." From American Adventures by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan, 1968), we read "First Adventure." 

Math

M. and C. both did some work in Singapore and Khan Academy every day. C. is still working on multi-digit addition and subtraction. M. is working on algebra basics and time word problems.

Reading and Writing 

M. continued reading Thee, Hannah to Gran, and she also continued reading the Borrowers series. C. started the second Far-Away Tree book. In the evenings, C. and I started reading aloud Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field. At dinner, my husband read aloud from The Three Princes of Serendip.

Other Activities

On the way home from New York, we met up with a bookish friend my husband met on Goodreads who has been exchanging letters with M. We had lunch and the kids played on the playground at a park in her neighborhood. 

On Friday, we met up with friends at the Adventure Playground. 

ARC Review: Rosetown Summer by Cynthia Rylant (7/20/2021)

In Rosetown (2018), Flora Smallwood struggled to accept her parents' separation. Now, in Rosetown Summer, her parents have reconciled, but her beloved favorite bookstore, Wings and a Chair, which has been so central to her relationship with her best friend Yury is likely to close, and she can't imagine saying goodbye. As summer wears on, Flora slowly learns to come to terms with change, whether she likes it or not.

In so many of her books, Cynthia Rylant beautifully captures the small moments of everyday life. Rosetown Summer is a quiet, gentle read, but it so deeply expresses the emotions of kids as they navigate the first major disappointments in their lives. There isn't much physical action in this book, but the coziness of the setting and the very real-sounding dialogue made it a page-turner for me nonetheless. I was reminded very much of Rylant's Cobble Street Cousins series, which was a huge favorite with my kids a couple of summers ago, and which also celebrates the joys of small-town living and which also explores the normal lives of regular kids in beautifully written language.

Rosetown wasn't super popular and I'm not seeing a lot of buzz for Rosetown Summer, but for the sensitive and thoughtful young reader, these two books really hit a sweet spot. I would have read and re-read this book as a kid and it would not have mattered to me at all that nothing ever happens. Just escaping into this cozy world for a little while would have been - and still is - enough for me.

Read-at-Home Mom Report: June 2021 Wrap-Up

My Month in Books

I read 17 books in June - 4 read-alouds with my kids and 13 for my own enjoyment. Seven were audiobooks, 7 were print books, and 3 were ebooks. Linked book titles below will take you to my reviews. 

I kicked off the month by reading the ebook of The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris in one night while we were staying with my mother-in-law. I picked it up to start before bed and just zipped right through it. It's a thriller set in the publishing world, with themes related to race woven into the story. I picked it up because it was in the Modern Mrs. Darcy summer reading guide and I really enjoyed its unique style and odd, creepy mood. (4 stars)

Next, I read The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder for book club. I thought I remembered reading and loving this book in college, but after re-reading it, I'm convinced I have it confused with a different book. I could appreciate some of the writing as distinctive, but for a story with a lot of Catholics in it, it didn't have much of a Catholic message. The only good thing I can really say about it is that it was short. (3 stars)

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave was another thriller I picked from the Modern Mrs. Darcy summer reading guide, and this one I listened to as an audiobook. The writing was great, and the relationship between the main character and her stepdaughter was the most interesting part of the story for me. The ending felt a little anti-climactic, but it was also believable as a way things might resolve themselves in such a situation in real life. (4 stars) 

My next audiobook was Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, which I had never read before. I had a horrible experience years ago reading The Captive by O'Dell, and I was afraid this was going to be dark and depressing in the same way, but it wasn't at all. This is a beautifully written story with vivid descriptions of people and landscapes alike, and I really enjoyed it despite not typically loving survival stories. (4 stars)

Next I listened to Hooked on You by Kathleen Fuller on Hoopla, and that was  a great palate cleanser. It's just a gentle Christian romance set in a small town and it's the first in a series. I'm looking forward to book two in 2022. (3 stars)

With a group on Instagram I read The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. The group loved it. I didn't especially. It was fine, but it had a lot of things I don't like in it - character names with not-so-hidden special meanings, coincidences, puzzles, etc. The writing also felt uneven. In some sections the story flew by. In others, it dragged on endlessly. I also have no interest in the Disney+ adaptation of the book, so that aspect of the discussion was kind of lost on me as well. I'm not sorry I read it, but it was just okay. (3 stars)

I did love The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright, which I read aloud to my kids. It presents such a charmed and charming view of childhood, and I loved it even more than The Saturdays. (5 stars) 

Fox's Earth by Anne Rivers Siddons is a Southern gothic family saga spanning several generations. I didn't love it as much as this author's Colony, which I listened to last summer,  but Sally Darling did a fantastic job as the narrator and though the characters were mostly not likable I was riveted by their story. I also loved Rip, the black woman who works for the family at the center of the book who is the only truly good character in the entire book. (4 stars)

I read The Overloaded Ark by Gerald Durrell to satisfy a challenge prompt of a book set in Africa. I'm not an animal person, so a lot of the details about the animals were not that interesting to me, but I liked the stories about humans interacting with animals and with the jungle climate. Durrell is a good writer even if the book felt slow in some places. (3 stars)

My three-year-old and I read Winnie-the-Pooh together, and it was so much fun seeing her meet these characters for the first time. (We don't really do Disney, so she had no prior knowledge.) I think some of the writing style was lost on her at this age, but she loved Piglet, Owl, and Roo, and that made it enjoyable enough for a first read-through. (5 stars)

With my oldest I read aloud Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. It's pretty perfect. I got choked up a little at the end, but I made it through without shedding tears. She loved it and can't wait to read it again. (5 stars)

Another great audiobook pick was Haven Point by Virginia Hume, which is another family saga. This one jumped back and forth in time as it told the stories of three generations of women: one living in 1944, one in 1970, and one in 2008. Normally, alcoholism and WWII would be topics I would avoid in books but this one made both interesting and relatable enough that I was not turned off. (4 stars)

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides was kind of a let-down. I felt like there was a lot of hype surrounding it, and the premise sounded great, but the execution didn't quite work. The audiobook narration was top-notch, however. (3 stars)

Rosetown Summer by Cynthia Rylant was an ARC; the book comes out later in July. It's a sequel to Rosetown, and I might be the only one who loves it, but I loved it. I'm planning a review very soon. (5 stars)

Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink was another read-aloud, this time with my 5-year-old who loves babies. She had heard it before when I read it to her older sister, but she had forgotten the story so it was all new to her again. She really enjoyed it. (5 stars) 

My last audiobook of the month was Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews It was well-written, it kept me guessing, and it totally surprised me. It's a debut novel, and I'm hoping for more in the future!  (4 stars)

Finally, I finished the month with the ebook of The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. I have always liked the way John Green writes even when I haven't liked what he has to say. That was the case with this book. Written during the pandemic, this book is just utterly depressing and devoid of hope. Green sounds like he expects the world to end any day and it was hard to find more than a tiny flicker of hope anywhere in his essays. I enjoyed the line-by-line writing, but as a whole, it was just too gloomy. (3 stars)

DNF

There were a couple of books I abandoned again this month: The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer by Liza Rodman (it was weirdly anti-Catholic) and The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary (I was bored and I didn't like the audiobook narration). 

As for the rest of the family's reading...

My husband read aloud The Little Lame Prince to the family each night after dinner. In the car, we finished Anne of Green Gables. 

With my mom, I'm doing a summer reading project with my kids where we pick an author/illustrator/theme each week. I read books during the week, and then my mom reads one over Skype on Saturday. In June, we focused on Roger Duvoisin, Paul Galdone, and Virginia Lee Burton. 

M. (7 years, 7 months) has been reading the second book in the Borrowers series. She has also been reading Thee, Hannah by Marguerite deAngeli aloud to my mother-in-law on Skype.  

C. (5 years, 9 months) finished Little House on the Prairie, and she also read Three Boys and a Lighthouse by Nan Hayden Agle and  Ellen Wilson.

After E. (3 years, 8 months) and I finished Winnie-the-Pooh she got interested in Raggedy Anne and listened to some of the stories on audiobook. She also twice asked for the audiobook of The Saturdays at naptime. With her, I've also been reading aloud National Geographic's Little Kids First Big Book of Reptiles and Amphibians. She has also begun sounding out words and she was able to read Rag on her own. 

R. and A. (15 months) get very little scheduled reading time. They are often present for the older kids' read-alouds, and they do love to look at books but we need to work on carving out a time for them to hear more stories.

Up Next For Me 

In July, I plan to pick up where I left off with Jan Karon's Mitford series and listen to Light From Heaven. I've also started reading Girls Like Us by Cristina Alger. I'm supposed to be reading Angle of Repose with a friend as well, but we both keep pushing it off in favor of other books. I'm also hoping to read one of the Marcia Willett books my aunt sent me and to read a couple of other paperbacks from my TBR pile. 

Linking Up

• Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up at Feed Your Fiction Addiction
• It's Monday! What Are You Reading? at The Book Date
• An Open Book at CatholicMom.com

Homeschool Update: Week of 6/28/21

Morning Read-Alouds

From Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year selected by Fiona Waters,  illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon (Nosy Crow, 2018), we read "Insect" by Tony Mitton, "All Day Long" by Kanoko Okamoto, translated by Kenneth Rexroth and Ikuko Atsumi, and "A Hot Day" by A.S.J. Tessimond. 

This week, our picture book theme was America. We read A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution by Betsy and Giulio Maestro and America the Beautiful published by Cottage Door Press, and Grandma read An American ABC by Maud and Miska Petersham during our visit to her house on the weekend.  

Music 

We learned to sing "America" from Go In and Out the Window: An Illustrated Songbook for Young People (The Metropolitian Museum of Art, 1987).  We listened to Appalachian Spring: "Variations on a Shaker Tune" by Aaron Copland, A Midsummer Night's Dream: "Scherzo" by Felix Mendelssohn, Marche Militaire by Franz Schubert, and Piano Sonata No. 11 in A: "Turkish Rondo" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 

M. and C. practiced piano and recorder every day except Friday, Saturday, and Sunday when we were away. We had a sing-along on Sunday with Grandma and Aunt B.

Art

 We studied Angel with an Olive Branch by Hans Memling from the Louvre Art Deck: 100 Masterpieces from the World's Most Popular Museum by Anja Grebe and Erich Lessing. 

The girls made drawings for all of our New York relatives as well as birthday cards for Aunt B. 

Catechism 

We continued working on Lesson 6, "The Son of God Becomes Man" in The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism.

Memory Work

E. recited the months of the year, days of the week, four directions, marks of the church, and continents. She continued to practice "Happiness" by A.A. Milne. 

C recited the 50 states, planets, Great Lakes, countries of Europe, the oceans, the books of the Bible, and our address and phone number. She continued practicing "maggie and milly and molly and may" by e.e. cummings. 

M recited the 50 states, the countries of Asia, the books of the Bible, the Kings and Queens of England, and our address and phone number. She continued to practice Oberon's speech from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 1 by William Shakespeare.  

History

As review, M. read the sections of A Little History of the World  that corresponded to the time periods she learned about this past year.  C. had the week off from history. 

Math

M. and C. did Khan Academy. C. did some work with subtraction without renaming in Singapore.

Reading and Writing

We finished all of our outstanding books before we left for New York: Eleven Kids, One Summer, A Necklace of Raindrops, Baby Island, and Anne of Green Gables. C. and I also read Burt Dow, Deep-Water Man by Robert McCloskey, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig, and Phoebe's Revolt by Natalie Babbitt. 

Physical Education

In New York on the weekend, the girls learned to play wiffle ball. They also ran around outside at my grandmother's house. 

Homeschool Update: Week of 6/21/21

Morning Read-Alouds 

From Sing a Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year selected by Fiona Waters,  illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon (Nosy Crow, 2018), we read: "Puddle" by Nick Toczek, "The Sun Has Long Been Set" by William Wordsworth, "The Pond" by Amy Lowell, "One Two Three Four Five" by Anonymous, and "Where Go the Boats" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Our illustrator this week was Virginia Lee Burton. We read Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, Choo Choo, The Little House, and The Emperor's New Clothes as well as Big Machines, a picture book biography of Burton by Sherri Duskey Rinker and John Rocco. Grandma read Maybelle the Cable Car. 

We also read the articles from National Geographic Explorer Volume 20, Number 1 (Pathfinder Edition): "Rethinking Spinosaurus" by National Geographic Staff, "The Transformer" by Brenna Maloney, and "Turning Trash into Treasure" by Glen Phelan. 

Music

We listened to Rodeo: "Hoe Down" by Aaron Copland, "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg, Orpheus in the Underworld: "Can-Can" by Jacques Offenbach, and the William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini. 

 We learned to sing "The Fly and the Bumblebee" from More Songs to Grow On by Beatrice Landeck (Edward B. Marks Music Corporation, 1954). 

M. and C. practiced piano and recorder daily.

Art 

This week's painting was The Two Sisters by Theodore Chasseriau, found in from The Louvre Art Deck: 100 Masterpieces from the World's Most Popular Museum by Anja Grebe and Erich Lessing. 

Catechism

We continued working on Lesson 6, "The Son of God Becomes Man" in The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism. We read about Saints  Aloysius Gonzaga, Thomas More,  and John the Baptist from Picture Book of Saints by Lawrence G. Lovasik (Catholic Book Publishing, 1979).

Memory Work

E. recited the months of the year, days of the week, four directions, marks of the church, and continents. She continued to practice "Happiness" by A.A. Milne. 

C recited the 50 states, planets, Great Lakes, countries of Europe, the oceans, the books of the Bible, and our address and phone number. She continued practicing "maggie and milly and molly and may" by e.e. cummings. 

M recited the 50 states, the countries of Asia, the books of the Bible, the Kings and Queens of England, and our address and phone number. She continued to practice Oberon's speech from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene 1 by William Shakespeare.  

History 

In Builders of Old World, M. read:  "The Father of Modern Astronomy," "Magic Glasses," and "The Struggle to Advance Knowledge." This marks the end of her history for curriculum for second grade. 

C. and I finished reading Norse Gods and Giants. 

Math

In Singapore, M. worked on converting time between hours, minutes, and seconds, and years and months. She started doing some algebra basics in Khan Academy. 

C. worked on addition and subtraction without renaming in Singapore and continued working in Khan Academy. 

Reading and Writing

I started reading aloud Eleven Kids, One Summer by Ann M. Martin at lunch and my husband continued reading A Necklace of Raindrops at dinner. We also continued listening to Anne of Green Gables in the car. M. read Jasmine Green Rescues: A Lamb Called Lucky on the Kindle Fire. With C., I continued reading aloud Baby Island. E. listened to the audiobooks of Raggedy Anne and Andy stories. 

Physical Education

M. and C. went to the splash park with friends on Wednesday. All three girls played on the playground and in the field at the church potluck on Thursday, and they played with friends at the Adventure Playground again on Friday morning. 

Book Review: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (2005)

In the 1970s, Debbie, Patty, Hector, Lenny, and Phil are young teens looking ahead to the future. They begin the summer all together, listening to a radio show in a truck belonging to Lenny's father, but soon each is on his or her own path. At the end of the summer, when they all come together again, each one has matured just a bit, moving one step closer to adulthood.

There is nothing I loved more as a kid than books about everyday life. While some readers might complain that the events of this coming-of-age Newbery winner are too mundane, I am utterly content with how perfectly ordinary everything is. I could relate to so many of the thoughts and emotions of the characters, and I appreciated that the story was focused on interior lives rather than external action. I know the theory is that kids don't read books where nothing happens, but I absolutely did, and I know there must be others like me. 

Criss Cross is the perfect summer read for an introspective kid. It has lovely writing, believable characterizations, and though it's set on the '70s, it isn't by any means inaccessible to contemporary readers. It's also the companion a lesser-known but equally well-written novel, All Alone in the Universe. 

2021 Reading Plans: Mid-Year Check-In

This year is half over, and it's time to check in once more on how my reading plans from January have panned out so far. There have been some definite changes in priorities in my reading life since the end of the first quarter of 2021, so this is the perfect time to regroup and change my trajectory if needed.

As of the end of June, in 2021 I have read 95 books: 60 written for an adult audience and 35 children's books. I read the most books in January and June (17), the least in February (13), an equal number (16) in March, April, and May. 

Here's a look at my goals: 

There are two I don't really need to discuss. Goal #1, to stop counting picture books and board books, has been a complete success because I just don't count them anymore. I had considered starting to put them on Goodreads again without including read dates, but I haven't, and it's honestly been fine. Goal #10, to write 1200 words per week, proved not to be feasible almost immediately and is no longer in the plans. 

That leaves 8 goals I am still theoretically working on. 

Goal #2 is to read exactly 200 books, and no more. I have consistently been behind my goal for months now, but not by a lot. Often I'll get to the point where I'm 7 or 8 books behind and then I'll finish a bunch of read-alouds and that will close the gap to 4 or 5 books instead. There is a part of me that really wants to lower the number from 200 to 185, but just as I don't want to be reading to meet a certain number, I also don't want to have to stop reading when I want to in order to avoid surpassing the number. So I've decided to stick with my original goal for another quarter. 

Goal #3 is to read 50 e-books. As of the end of June, I've read 24. That's pretty close to half of the goal amount. I have at least two underway at the moment, too, so I'll soon get past the halfway point. I think I can definitely meet this goal by the end of 2021.

Goal #4 is to cut back on audiobooks. In January, my reasoning for including this goal was that if I wasn't listening to audiobooks, I would have time to read more ebooks and physical books and more time to listen to other things. But it turns out that I don't listen to audiobooks at times when I could be reading physical books, and it also turns out that I have had no problem listening to podcasts when I've felt like it. Giving up audiobooks for Lent was a good sacrifice and I may do it again, but I don't have the need I thought I did to cut back on them all year long. So for the second half of the year, this goal is off the list.

Goal #5 is keep up with Goodreads reviews. I have been doing this, but mostly at the end of the month and not in real time as I finish reading. I do usually get them marked as read right away, but typing out my thoughts doesn't happen until days or weeks later. I wish the app was more reliable. I feel like I would type a lot more of my reviews on my phone if the app didn't do weird glitchy things to me all the time. 

Goal #6 is to write down more quotes from books. I like doing this in theory. I definitely liked doing it as a teen. But it's just not the priority in my reading life right now, and that's not likely to change. In the last few months, as my kids have been busier, I've had to start looking at the amount of time I actually have to devote to bookish things, and then really consider how I want to spend that time. Writing down quotes was fine to do during a pandemic winter when we couldn't go anywhere, but summer playdates are back, and I just don't have time now.

Goal #7 is to host a read-a-thon. I used to want to do this, but I don't think I do anymore. My natural inclination in the past has always been to join a community and then immediately want to become a leader within it. But #bookstagram has not wanted any of my reading challenges, and I just can't imagine they will want a read-a-thon hosted by me either. I may do a few little read-a-thons on my own, but I think hosting a public one is off the table now. 

Goal #8 is read the Bible in a year. I'm still going strong with the Bible in a Year podcast. I'm caught up, and I look forward to it every day.

Goal #9 is to fill in my Literary Listopia journal. In April, I said that sounded like a good summer project, but summer is so much busier than I anticipated! I'm considering taking it to the beach with me on the off-chance there is downtime, but otherwise it might turn out to be a fall project.

And then there are my challenges. I only committed to two this year: the Unread Shelf Project and Modern Mrs. Darcy's design your own challenge. 

The prompts for the Unread Shelf project haven't really worked for me the last couple of months, and it seems like the host of the project isn't really involved anymore, except on her membership site, so my motivation to participate is dwindling. I'm still keeping track of the books I read from own shelves, but for no real purpose. 

I have almost completed all the books I planned to read for my Modern Mrs. Darcy challenge. I chose 12 categories and planned to read 3 books for each. I only have 4 of 36 left to read! One of those is my current audiobook, The Summer Guests by Mary Alice Monroe, which will be my third one narrated by Cassandra Campbell. I also need to read one more book about books, one more book on writing, and one more re-read. If I finish those soon, I may add a few more categories to concentrate on during the rest of the year. 

So that sums up where things stand as I hit the thick of summer reading and look ahead to the end of the year. I'll be back after the holiday weekend with my June reading wrap-up!