Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol

I finally got Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol from the library and I love it.  I wanted to check it out before I bought it but I definitely need my own copy.  I’ve already chosen several projects to do including a wallet for M and a handbag for me.  Amy’s inspired me to [...]

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Poetry Friday: Goblin Market

There are several poems and volumes of poetry I remember enjoying as a child: Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein, If I Were in Charge of the World and Other Worries by Judith Viorst, and A Child’s Garden of Verse by Rober Louis Stevenson, especially “The Land of Counterpane”.  I loved (and still love) [...]

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Teaching Reading, Part 1

Recently, Karen Edmisten shared some of her experiences teaching her children to read.  M has recently taken off with reading in a big way, and I realized I’ve not shared very much about our journey which has been very different than I envisioned it would be. I imagined that M would teach herself to read.  [...]

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Non-Fiction Monday: Fairy Cooking

At M’s school the teachers in the K-2 classrooms planned a fairy day to celebrate the first day of spring. One of the resources that they used was a favorite book of ours, Fairy Cooking, an Usborne activity book.  M recently made the Fairy Fudge with a friend and had a blast cutting out spring-y [...]

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What I’ve Been Reading

As I mentioned before, I tend to be reading several books at once. For the last several months, most of those have been non-fiction. I’d been wondering why I’m not as interested in fiction titles as I used to be. Then I realized how much delightful fiction M and I are devouring together. I’m not [...]

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Latest Library Excursion

M and I went to the main branch of our country’s library on Saturday. We love our neighborhood branch and we request many books to be picked up there but we like to visit the larger children’s area downtown when we have more time to explore. I’d written down lots of books to look for [...]

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Share a Story – Shape a Future

There’s a wonderful blog tour going on this week about reading and sharing books with children of all ages.  Please check out the full schedule for the Share a Story – Shape a Furture blog tour.  I’ve already found many great book suggestions and advice about sharing reading with my girls.

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How Do I Pick Just One?

I’m typically reading more than one book at a time. Often the table at the end of the couch is piled high with a few non-fiction works that I’m moving through slowly or skipping around to the parts I’m most interested in and a fiction book (usually just one but not always). I’m not sure [...]

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Non-Fiction Monday: Living By A River

Living by a River by Carol Baldwin has excellent photos and information about life along a river.  Readers learn about plants and animals found near rivers in several different ecosystems.  Baldwin also describes the ways that people benefit from rivers and the importance of protecting river ecosystems.

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The Best Cookies Ever

I promised in the comments to this post that I would share the recipe for the cookies pictured in my header. These cookies were first introduced to me 10 years ago when I was living in Baton Rouge and teaching at a private high school. An amazing young woman who was my student and her [...]

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