Prehistory and Evolution Booklist, Part 1

These are the books we’ve used in the first five weeks of our prehistory unit.  We’ve covered the formation of the universe up to the time of the earliest reptiles. I’ve included links to ones I’ve written more about in more detail on previous Non-Fiction Mondays. Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History – includes a [...]

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Books, Videos, and Websites We’re Enjoying

Walking With Monsters – amazing BBC series about life before the dinosaurs, M has been glued to these episodes, and they’ve inspired many games where we pretend to be creatures from the video.  All the episodes are available streaming from Netflix. Dinosaur Train – a new PBS show that has both girls adore TheColor.com – [...]

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Prehistoric Fun

We’re having such a wonderful time with our study of prehistory.  All of us are learning things and getting inspired to look up answers to new questions.  I’m still tweaking the book, video, and activity lists and figuring out some technical issues, but eventually I’ll be sharing the curriculum I’m creating for us in a [...]

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Non-Fiction Monday: The Story of the Orchestra

We been using The Story of the Orchestra by Robert Levine for music appreciation.  The book is divided into two sections.  The first half explains the four eras of classical music (Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern) and focuses on a few composers from each era.  Tracks on the accompanying cd give the reader a chance [...]

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What We’re Reading, January 23

M and her dad finished their second read of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  Despite much pleading, we’re holding off a bit longer on Prisoner of Azkaban so they’ve returned to Narnia and are reading The Horse and His Boy. It’s much be the season for re-reading, M and I recently re-read Any [...]

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What I’ve Been Reading

I’m trying to make more time for pleasure reading outside of our read aloud time which does includes many titles that are favorites of mine. Here are some of the wonderful adult or YA or too-old-for-M books I’ve read lately: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld which I wrote about here. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and [...]

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Library Trip, January 19, 2010

We had holds to pick up but otherwise, I went without a list of things to look for and just let the girls browse.  I had to have M fill her arms with books and still I could barely lift our bag.  Here’s what we got: M’s Picks: Magic or Not by Edward Eager The [...]

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Newbery and Caldecott Winners

The winners of the 2010 Youth Media Awards, including the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, were announced today at the ALA (American Library Association) Midwinter Conference. I was thrilled to learn that this year’s Newbery went to When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.  I read this book on Melissa Wiley’s recommendation and thought it was [...]

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Non-Fiction Monday: Our Family Tree

Our most recent book order included, Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story by Lisa Westberg Peters.  I chose it to use in our prehistory curriculum after reading about it on the booklist at Charlie’s Playhouse and I’m glad I did. Both girls loves the soft lines and rich colors of Lauren Stringer’s illustrations, and M [...]

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Picture Books for Winter

Every year as we move through the holidays and I collect craft and reading suggestions like crazy, I always put aside those that are about winter, snow, snowmen, gingerbread men, mittens or anything else not specifically related to Christmas.  Then in January, we enjoy reading about snowy wonderlands and fill the house with snowflakes and [...]

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