(And All My) Work Be Praise

As I mentioned previously, the boys are really into charts right now. This is almost entirely thanks to Sid the Science Kid on PBS, and I only feel a little bit guilty about that. We're in a rough season right now, and even though I don't love how much television we're watching, I'm glad that at least they're learning about science-y things (albeit from a slightly creepy, annoyingly-giggly crowd of cartoon characters). So while last year we painted and cut out dozens of leaves for our November "thankful" list, and the year before that I even put the leaves on a big tree on the wall , this year went something more like, "oh, shoot, it's a week into November already and I haven't even thought about Thanksgiving. We should probably do something . . . ." As I had the thought, my eyes landed on our animal classification chart , and inspiration struck. Another big sheet of paper, a few markers, and ta-da: our Thankful Chart! Clearly,...

As I sat down to write this post, I thought to myself, "gosh, another childhood favorite. I wonder why I'm using so many of my own books this year." And then it hit me: getting to the library with all of the children, without ruining any naps, requires a mid-size miracle. So it is that we pulled another fun one off the shelf this week: The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash  by Trinka Hakes Noble. Craft:  snakes, of course! ( Idea here .) Paper bag, paint, foam cut into triangles, glue, and the ever-present googly eyes. Silas wanted in on the painting action this time. These boys are serious about their gluing. (Never mind the weird lighting. It was not the middle of the night, honest.) Snakes! Science:  I got several library books on snakes -- hold up. Didn't I say above that we never get to the library? It's mostly true. But my favorite local library branch is open on Sundays, so once a month or so I sneak off by myself in the middle of ...

Last week we re-visited another old favorite, Corduroy  by Don Freeman. I'm pretty sure the copy we have was mine as a child. We covered bears a little bit during our berry month over the summer, but there is no shortage of bear stories and activities in the world! Levi reading the story to his brothers. Food :  teddy bear toast  with banana and blueberries. Cute and easy! We also made these  peanut butter button cookies . It might interest you to know that the holes in Corduroy's button are only pictured on one  page in the entire book: at the end, when Lisa is sewing his new button on. (It might also interest you to know that I spell "Corduroy" wrong first every single time.) Even though it's a two-hole button, we decided it would be okay to make both two- and four-hole button cookies. Poking holes in the cookie dough with a straw.  Silas joined in the "flattening" (er, smashing) of the balls of dough. Unflattering pictu...

We sing O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing quite frequently at my church. It's one of those in which the words fly by so quickly that I don't often stop to consider them, but over the past several months I've been struck repeatedly by this verse: He breaks the power of canceled sin He sets the prisoner free His blood can make the foulest clean His blood availed for me ~Charles Wesley It's funny (or not, really) how having small children can turn the most patient person into screaming madwoman. (Not that I was ever the most patient person, and I'd like to think I haven't quite reached "screaming madwoman.") Confession over losing my temper (largely to one of my children in particular) has become a near-daily occurrence around here, but even with repeated repentance, I'm still struggling. So I try, in what little brain I have left for meditating on higher things, to let those words sink in: I am not a prisoner to my temper, or to my impatienc...

This week we re-visited an old favorite, Caps for Sale . I had corresponding activities tucked away from both ABC Jesus Loves Me and Before Five in a Row . Levi's monkey drawing . Are you familiar with this book? A peddler stacks caps on his head and walks around town trying to sell his wares; Silas loves to fill in his call: "Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!" One day nobody is buying, so he walks into the country and takes a long nap under a tree. When he wakes up, all of his caps are gone: monkeys in the tree above have stolen them all! There follows a delightful "monkey see, monkey do" sequence, which Silas especially loves to mimic. In the end, the peddler is so angry he takes off his remaining cap and throws it to the ground. All of the monkeys follow suit, and he gets his caps back. The whole story is just perfect for acting out, from wearing hats to good posture (to keep hats from falling off) to shaking fingers at the monkeys. Pi...

This week we focused on a collection of easy readers. I went to the library intending to pick up Tales of Oliver Pig , and there I discovered that there are actually several volumes of stories about the Pig family!  I personally did not love this set. Oliver is not very nice to his little sister, Amanda, and -- well, let's just say the consequences of such treatment would be a little swifter and a bit more severe than Oliver experiences. :) But, it was good practice in talking through the sort of "our family does things differently than their family" issues that will likely surface, with increasing seriousness, as the children get older. Except for maybe two or three isolated stories (each book contains 4-5 stories), the rest of the series was mildly amusing. Levi, however,  loved  these books. Though he enjoys reading, it's rare to find him sitting still with a book, with the notable exception of the Magic School Bus books. Several times this week I caught h...

Ah, the dreaded b/d reversal. Owen's averaging about 60% right now on getting them right, unless he recognizes the word at first glance. I know it's early for him to know them solidly, but he's so eager to read at the moment that we're going with it. Owen started off writing his name completely backwards, so it's been a fight from the beginning to get him facing the right direction, so to speak. I am seeing improvements as we work gently through reading and writing!* In all of my internet searches for preschool ideas, two things about b/d reversal stuck in my mind. I can't remember where either of them came from, unfortunately. (I did a quick search and found this article from All About Reading , which has the same principle though it's not where I first encountered it.) The first would be great for a poster, if I were that artistic (I'm not), so we just talk about it: in a b, the b-b-bat comes before the b-b-ball. In a d, the d-d-doorknob comes before...