Tender Twigs

If you sew or embroider...

                                     

The Princess Gown will delight every reader but especially a little girl who is learning to embroider or sew.  Set in an old world village, a princess must choose a wedding gown.  The Abraham family has created a beautiful dress.  Their youngest daughter, Hanna, discovers a smudge on the bottom of the dress.  She cleverly suggests that the Grandmother embroider a small squirrel over the smudge which she knows will delight the princess.  Beautiful illustrations and a darling story.  This is the best image I could find for the book but it doesn't begin to do it justice.

Will you suggest some boy books?

What books should I make sure to read to my two year old boy?  I am moving books around right now.  Rediscovering some of Cate's favorites from what seems like so long ago.  Si likes many of them but I can't help but feel I am missing some really good boy books.

Here is a sample of the books Silas is enjoying right now.  I would love to hear from you and I will write up your suggestions in another post if others are interested.  The images link to amazon in case you are interested.  We love all these books. 

     

     

    

 

~Weeks 4, 5, 6 & 7~ 1000 Picture Books

Whoa, that's a whole month.  I am really behind on the reporting of this project.  I'm still struggling to read 3 picture books a day because we have so chapter books in progress.  Cate has excitedly begun reading the Magic Treehouse books, and continues her Nate the Great interest.  We also read B is for Betsy and started Back to School with Betsy.  Here is a rough list of the books I read to Cate.  (This doesn't include the many, many, many books read to Silas.)  The books pictured were some of our favorites.

  

Week 4

Snow by Cynthia Rylant
Everybody Bonjours!
Tillie and the Wall
A Garden for Groundhog-a favorite anytime of the year
Young Mozart
Winter Trees-this books was a bit advanced for us
Little Elephant's Trunk--an interesting read about the elephant's trunk
Kidogo-another book about a baby elephant
The Emperor and the Kite-a classic story, Chinese influence
In the Leaves
Katie's Sunday Afternoon
This is Paris
Good Night Sam
One Small Place by the Sea-wonderful book about Tidepools.
One Small Place in a Tree-HT to Jenny.  Both books are well worth checking out.
Raindrop Plop-more a book for Si but Cate loves it too.

Week 5

My sister visited this week and I'm not sure we read many books at all.  Cate and Si simply adore their cousins.  It was play, play, play!  And a big break for mommy.  I need to share some of the wonderful photos my sister took. 

Week 6

     

Lentil
Flicka Ricka Dicka and the Strawberries
Apples Here!
What is the Sun?-I love this book
The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies
The Mitten
Roberto Walks Home- This book just had me asking "Why?"
One Tiny Turtle (again)-new book on CD and book.  The CD is great!

Week 7 (last week)

   

The Sandman
Meet the Marching Smithereens
Melrose and Croc
Dodsworth in Park
The Story Blanket- This is a wonderful book.
The Negro Sings of Rivers
At the Firehouse
Ambulances
Ten Things I Can Do To Help My World- lights off and both sides of paper used!
Katie Loves Kittens
One Snowy Night
Hooray for Snow!
Buffalo Music-fantastic book, great for homeschooling history purpose.

~Week 2 & 3~ 1000 Picture Books

Goodness, we really had fallen out of the habit of reading picture books to Cate.  Most of the time, we are reading to Si and Cate is reading to herself.  Again it was more challenging than I thought.  This week should be easier because I have a whole stack of new picture books from the library. 

You will see in this list a focus on old classic books.  I want these books to be foremost in Cate's mind when she remembers books from her childhood.  There are lots of fun new book published every year and many that are just great but there is something timeless about books like Lentil and all the Beatrix Potter stories.  They will show up again and again before we finish reading picture books.   For simplicity and reality I'm just going to list the books.  Some days we are reading more than others.

We are a bit behind the goal but I think I've worked out some of the kinks.

~Week 2~

Classics we enjoyed

       

And a few new books we will read again and again.  The Trouble with Dragons has the sweet pictures of Debi Gliori and a wonderful environmental message.  The message was an unexpected surprise.  The Pet Dragon is fantastic.  If you want to introduce a few simple Chinese characters into your home learning check The Pet Dragon.  Cate is now learning to read Chinese characters so it was a big help.  Someday soon, I will write a post of my top 10 books from last year but until then I'll tell you Cat Nights is on the list.  We've actually read this book many times and have had it checked from the library for almost twelve weeks.

   

Wishing Tree (CNY book)
Pocketful of Cricket
The Acorn and the Oak Tree
Lentil
Cat Nights
One is a Drummer (another great book for those interested in Chinese)
The Trouble with Dragons
My First Chinese New Year (the First is a misnomer, as we continue to enjoy it.)
One Tiny Turtle
The Paperboy
Tale of Timmy Tiptoes
Journey Cake, Ho!
Pocketful of Cricket
The Real Pretend (A valuable Tasha Tudor book I found at the Goodwill)
The Pet Dragon
The Little House
The Solar System (A Don't Know Much Book, and boy I don't)
How Groundhog's Garden Grew (Our one and only Groundhog Day book)

~Week 3~

Okay, here is the sad reality.  We didn't read many picture books last week.  Yikes.  But we did finish Old Mother West Wind and Cate read several Nate the Great's.

Our three favorites from the classics list

   

The Red Poppy
Grandmother Winter
Woody, Hazel and Little Pip
The Lion and the Little Red Bird
Dem Bones (and the CD which is good)
Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and The Big Red Hen
The Lion and the Little Mouse
You're All My Favorites

~Week 1~ 1000 Picture Books

With the challenge of a pushy two year old and a voracious reader who wants to "read it myself", I found my challenge of reading three books a day to Cate a tad more difficult than I imagined.  It makes a big difference to have the books laid out and ready for the day.  We read several repeats and a few stand outs!  I know I said this would be a tucked up weekend post but I'm making it my Tuesday book post. :)

The best book of the week was Cider Apples.  A story of fairies, a cottage, an apple orchard saved and delightful illustrations.  If you enjoy Monet then I recommend A Blue Butterfly.  We finally read one of my all time favorite books The Library. 

        

The Wishing Club is a great math book which I highly recommend.  And for anyone how enjoyed Barbara Berger's Grandfather Twilight you might also enjoy Animalia: Thirteen Small Tales.  If you are searching for more stories about China, The Long Haired Girl is a wonderful folk tale, although I altered the reading.

    

 

Monday

Animalia: Thirteen Small Tales
One Morning in Maine
One story from this Fairy Book

Tuesday

Teatime with Emma Buttersnap
So You want to be President
Tale of the Pie and the Patty Pan

Wednesday

The Birthday Moon
Anna's Wish
Cider Apples

Thursday

The Wishing Club
Letter to Amy
Koala Lou

Friday

A Blue Butterfly
The Library
The Long-Haired Girl

Saturday (all these were a disappointment)

Long Long 's New Year
Chinese New Year's Dragon
D is for Dancing Dragon

We skipped Sunday due to Chinese New Year's activities but did read a bit from Old Mother West Wind.

 

 

1000 Picture Books

Do you remember the days when you read 10, 20 little books a day to your child?  I fondly remember those days with Cate and now I find Silas wanting the same.  I read to Si all day long.  He is demanding.  And like his sister, his first two word phrase was "read it" and his first three word phrase "read to me." I'm still questioning the sanity of moving the Dr. Seuss books to his room.  I read "Sam, I Am" (as we call it) four times yesterday.

Cate is reading a lot on her own.  When I read to her it tends to be from longer storybooks or our current read aloud.  I feel picture book reading slipping from our lives.  So, I've started a little project, 1000 picture books for 2009.  It sounds like a lot of reading but really it is only three books a day with a bit of wiggle room for off days.  My plan is to lay out three picture books (some we own as repeats, and many new books from the library) each morning.  Doesn't that sound easy?  I'm going to record our weekly reading in a tucked up weekend post if you are interested in the list.

For Today