books we have loved this year

This year we have read some great books together. Charlotte adores listening to books aloud and will listen for long, long periods of time.  I love to read out loud so it is a wonderful way to learn and and spend time together.  Lila has a bit less of a tolerance for long read alouds, but I have to remind myself that she is much younger and also has a different personality than her big sister.  She does really well, in that she only interrupts when she is really, REALLY bored!

So here are some books we have really loved this year, some we have read over and over again.  These books are all part of Sonlight K curriculum.

"Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett

This book was written in 1978 and is a fascinating and creative story, written in a lovely way.  The grandpa in the story is inspired to tell a story to his grandkids after flipping a pancake high in the air at breakfast.  In his story, a community of people receive all of their food from the sky, instead of from the supermarket. The illustrations are beautiful, some black and white line drawings. This is one we have read and enjoyed many, many times.

"The Boxcar Children" by Gertrude Chandler Warner 

We have loved many of our novels this year, but this one was loved so much, Charlotte wrote and directed a play based on a few of the chapters.  There are many, many books in this series, numbers 1 - 19 were written by the original author Warner in the 1940s.  (The first book was first published in 1924.) Charlotte reads these with her daddy at bedtime snacktime, they have just finished book 7. The original book is about four siblings who are orphans and find an abandoned boxcar to live in.  The joy the children find in simple things is refreshing and inspiring.  The children eventually end up living with their grandfather.

"The Usborne book of Living Long Ago" by Felicity Brooks and Helen Edom

This book is divided into four sections: Clothes and Fashion, Homes and Houses, Food and Eating, and Travel and Transport.  Each section moves through history in these topics.  It covers a lot of information with activities and recipes too.  We have read through this book a lot and although I did not expect it to be a favorite with Charlotte as it is all non-fiction, it is.  We are working on a "Living Long Ago" play based on the sections on the pioneers.  This book was published in 1990, so it is not necessarily current (I edit the term "Indian" to first nations, and we have had lots of conversations about this) but it is still a great book to inspire a love of history.

"Isaac Newton and the Laws of Motion" by Andrea Gianopoulos

This book is a historical account of Isaac Newton in graphic novel format.  This is one that I didn't think Charlotte would love, but she does!  She loves graphic novels and this book has a lot of information in it, as it presents the laws of motion and how Isaac Newton came to create these laws. We have had conversations about force and motion and Charlotte remembers these scientific principles!  

Right now we are reading:

"Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder

We have read a few of the Usborne beginner books for science this year, and are about to read "Caterpillars and Butterflies" by Stephanie Turnbull.

We read Mother Goose weekly, the poetry book "The Llama who had no Pajama", our missionary stories and Bible. We have just finished "The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury" for Lila's book list and there were favorites in that treasury for sure.  

I would love to hear what some of your favorite children's books have been this year!  

Our preschool homeschool rhythm

We are in our second week of homeschooling, and it has been wonderful and challenging.  I love the intentional rhythm and structure that homeschooling has brought to our days.  The summer was full of lots of park time, visiting friends and family and days full of busyness.  I love that.  I think I thrive off of social interaction with other adults too.  I also love the intentional plan to stay home three mornings a week and do fun preschool activities with the girls.  I really like not feeling guilty about just staying home, but relishing in the routine we have built in just two short weeks.  It is wonderful.

It is a huge decision about what to do for preschool for a 4 year old.  Most of Charlotte's peers are in a 2 to 5 day a week preschool.  There is only one person in our immediate play group circles that is homeschooling for this year before Kindergarten.  It is a weighty financial and educational decision.  After much discussion this summer we decided to homeschool for this year.  I plan to homeschool for preschool three mornings a week, attend a Mom's group one morning a week and then keep one free for drop-in library program, groceries/errands or just a "stay home and relax" morning.  Our afternoons are a bit more unscheduled at the moment, but I am focusing on our morning rhythm right now.

The theme for the first month of school will be getting into the routines we have set together.  In the morning, that starts with our Morning High Five.  Each of the girls have a "High Five"... five things that they do in the mornings, and then sometimes we do actual high fives when they finish everything.

Charlotte's consists of: making the bed, checking Ava's water dish and filling it, setting the table/eating breakfast, clearing her dishes/washing the morning dishes, and getting dressed/clothes in laundry & brushing teeth.

Lila's consists of: eating breakfast, clearing her dishes, wiping the table clean, getting dressed/clothes in laundry/brushing teeth and getting Ava's leash and poop bag for our short morning walk.

This is quickly becoming part of our morning routine!  I love it, and it's frustrating at times. Children doing their own chores and having responsibility in the house always takes longer. (Especially when they are two and four!) I try to remember that this is important, and they are contributing to our family unit.  I also try my very best not to clean up after they are finished!

I also am not going to push it, I try to enforce our High Five on school mornings, if it happens other mornings, then great!  If we have a morning like this morning.... I just let go and let the girls play, play, play.  That's what they really wanted to do this morning, and so I changed gears, and decided to write instead.  That is the joy of what we are doing.  It's a flexible structure!  I am trying to take on the "usually not always" mentality, I am challenged by Renee's writing and I'm realizing that it is freeing to think this way!  Yes, we have a schedule, and no, we don't always stick to it.  And that is okay.

I keep everything organized using a Weekly Homeschool Planner.

After our "High Five" we go for a morning walk.  We take Ava, and we are working on taking better care of our pet, giving her more walks and exercise.  Usually the walk turns into running and the girls get some wiggles out before our circle time.

  This was a family hike we went on. I still need to capture a photo of our morning walks in our neighbourhood!

After our walk we come in, get a drink of water and sometimes a piece of fruit and start our circle time.  Our rhythm for circle consists of prayer (we all take turns thanking God), songs and rhymes (two or three), memory verse, calendar time, weather, stretching and balancing (to get moving again) and stories.

During calendar we sing about the days of the week, talk about yesterday, today and tomorrow, count the numbers for the days and talk about the colour pattern (blue, blue, red this month).  We count the days to learn which number is the day for today.  We review our birthdays and special days and sometimes read the names of the months too.  We talk about our season and decide what the weather is like today.  Then Charlotte fills in our weather graph!  It sounds like a lot, but it goes really quickly.  If the girls are restless I move along quickly.


Our stories (and memory verses) follow Sonlight curriculum, the pre-Kindergarten package. I love the books in Sonlight, and we were very blessed this year to be able to borrow all the books from a friend! There are a few activities in the curriculum and I will pick and choose these as we go. We read our Bible Story during breakfast. Our favorites so far are "Uncle Wiggly's Storybook" and "The Berenstain Bears' Big Book of Nature and Science".

photo by Charlotte

After our circle time, we do activities together. For now, I am taking ideas from a Letter of the Week Curriculum and we have worked on the letter S and T so far. We do literacy, fine motor activities (including writing), movement activities, math, art, science experiments and baking during this time.  I will share more on this at another time!  I think we will start a fall unit next week.

Then it's lunch, more stories and quiet time.  (I'm still working on implementing a quiet time, it is turning out to be a challenge!) I will share more as we go!  We are getting our rhythm, and allowing lots of time for free play. The magical stage in which the girls play together has begun, and I absolutely love it!

“It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.” Leo F. Buscaglia

I am still on a learning curve through all of this but truthfully, I love it.  I love the planning and I love the teaching.  I am challenged by being mom and teacher.