We love the state fair, and this year we made two visits, one last weekend as a family and then another trip mid week on ride-all-you-want-for-$15 day with three of M’s friends and their moms and siblings. We’ve eaten corn dogs and cotton candy and freshly made cinnamon sugar doughtnuts and lemonade and we’ve seen horses, cows, rabbits, goats, sheep, llamas, chickens, geese and probably other animals I’ve forgotten and of M enjoyed lots of rides. She was thrilled to be tall enough to ride almost everything in the kids’ section by herself.

We finished Clementine’s Letter and loved it as much as the first installment. We’re eagerly awaiting more adventures with Clementine.

We’ve continued working our way through the Ramona series by Beverly Cleary. M loves Ramona. Every time we start one of the books, she begs me to read to her at least ten times a day, and we end up whizzing through the books so fast I can’t believe we’ve already come to the end. I loved the books as a child too but as an adult I’m amazed by Beverly Cleary’s ability to think like a child.

The first book about Ramona is Beezus and Ramona. Ramona is four in this story, but it is told primarily from her older sister Beezus’s perspective. The first book told completely from Ramona’s perspective is Ramona the Pest in which Ramona enters kindergarten.

We just finished reading Kneeknock Rise by Natalie Babbit, a childhood favorite of mine. At my elementary school, we had an October tradition of watching an animated film of the book. One week we would have an extended library time, and the librarian would read a portion of the book and show us the film. We all loved being scared by the story even in our later years there once we knew the ending. I’ve been looking for information about the film but I can’t find any references to it.

The story centers on the village of Instep which is situated at the base of Kneeknock Rise. The top of the rise is covered in mist. When it rains, a horrible moaning and wailing sound comes from the mist. The villagers have developed an elaborate mythology about The Megrimum, the creature who makes this noise. The books central theme is the question of who is happier the wise king or the fool. I highly recommend it for both adults and children.

Currently in our chapters books to be read basket: Little House in the Big Woods, The Borrowers, Ramona and her Mother, Cam Jansen and the Chocolate Mystery, Meg MackIntosh and the Mystery in the Locked Library, and The Moffat Museum.

Puddles by Jonathan London is one of our recent picture books find. I immediately fell in love with the poetic language. Here is a sample from the beginning:

All Night the slash

of rain and the flash

of lightning, and the

Ka-BOOM

of thunder rattling

the house and all

the windows. We cuddle

between fright

and glee and want it

to stop

and never stop.

Puddles is a great read for a rainy day or a day when you are longing for rain as we’ve been in a summer of drought.

This week’s Poetry Friday round-up is at Biblio File.

C adores chickens. “Cluck, cluck” was one of the first animal sounds she made so we’ve checked out all the short pictures books we can find that feature chickens and these are our favorites:

Chicken to the Rescue by John Himmelman

The Little Red Hen by Byron Barton

Minerva Louise by Janet Stoeke (and others in the series)

We went apple picking on Labor Day. While it wasn’t actually crisp and cool yet, it was foggy and cooler, and it definitely got me in the mood for fall.  I am eagerly awaiting the first morning where I really need to wear a sweater when I leave the house.  We’ve been re-reading lots of our favorite fall pictures books, most of which are about apples of pumpkins so I thought I’d share some of what we’ve enjoyed.

Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington (currently in competition with Knuffle Bunny for C’s favorite book)

Apples Here by Will Hubbell

Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell

Pumpkin Hill by Elizabeth Spurr

The Apple Doll by Elisa Kleven

Apples Apples Apples by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

The Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown

Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell

Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson

Our local nature center has a butterfly exhibit every year from the beginning of July through Labor Day weekend.  M is fascinated by butterflies so we’ve been many times over the summer. Yesterday, we went for our last visit before the exhibit closes, and we stayed until they were ready to close up for the evening.  I think M could stay in the butterfly for days without getting tired of coaxing them to land on her.  So in honor of the fun we’ve had with butterflies this summer, I’m posting a butterfly poem today

I saw a Butterfly Today by Venos Tricon

I saw a butterfly today
Small and green with no wings
Crawling into shadows\hiding from a world who ignores it’s subtle beauty
Afraid to never be noticed…appreciated

I saw a butterfly today
Camouflaged and shielded in self-made walls
Neglecting the world of it’s gentle touch
Afraid to be met with a forceful hand

I saw a butterfly today
Wings new and fresh
Excited with exhilaration
Facing a world with new courage
Knowing it can not be harmed

I saw a butterfly today
Blue and gold streaked the sky
embracing the sunlight’s rays
Fluttering around my head
Carrying my heart on her flight

I saw a butterfly today

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is at Charlotte’s Library.

Clementine by Sara Pennypacker had been on my potential read-aloud list for a long time so when we noticed it on the library shelf a few weeks ago, we checked it out. M and I both loved it. M laughed aloud a lot, especially every time I read the vegetable names Clementine uses for her little brother (since she has a fruit name herself and to her the only thing worse is a vegetable name).

I’d read several reviews where Clementine was compared to Ramona Quimby, and I definitely saw the resemblance, especially in that the reader comes to sympathize with a girl whose motives are often misunderstood. I particularly liked the way the author portrays Clementine’s parents unconditional love for her. Clementine worries that she is too difficult and that her parents think life would be easier if her brother were their only child. But they make clear to her that they love her no matter how she behaves, and they try to show her how many special qualities she has. I think that’s a great message for any child to take away from a book.

We’ve also read the next book in the series, The Talented Clementine and we loved it as well. We’ve got Clementine’s Letter on hold at the library, and we’re looking forward to more of Clementine’s adventures.

M’s school starts tomorrow Wednesday. As I explained here, she will be going to a very unique school. The school was started by two moms who had been running a one day a week homeschool enrichment program. Students can attend the school full time, three days/week or one day/week. Having been on the fence about whether to homeschool for a few years, we chose the three day option for the year knowing we can always choose to drop to one day next year if we want to.

I’m not usually a procrastinator, but for some reason I have put off planning what M and I will do on our homeschool days until now. That is to say I have put off actually choosing which activities and subjects I want to concentrate on. I’ve been planing in the sense of looking at resources, reading homsechool blogs, flipping through books we own, etc for months, really for years.

As a kindergartener, M will not have any required school work to complete on her days at home. Her school uses Reading Reflex, and I purchased the book and began doing some of the lessons with her at home over the summer so we will continue that work at home to reinforce her school lessons. We may review with her math lessons as well.

Other resources we have that we may use:

Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten Math 2B (We’ve completed 1A&B and 2A. I’ve linked to the version we have which is unfortunately no longer in print. There is a revised edition available now.)

Five in a Row Volume 1 (M loves read-alouds more than anything else schoolish that we do so this will be a great way to start our morning. We’ll do this after breakfast on school mornings too because her school starts “late” for our early-rising family.)

Bob Books (we own sets 1-3) and Rigby Readers (we are borrowing these from a reading teacher friend)

Can You Hear It? - classical music paired with visual art

A Child’s Introduction to Poetry

Oodles of craft books which I hope to eventually list in a separate post

I’m a planner by nature. I like lists, calendars, and schedules (oh how I love schedules) so despite the fact that I know we will rarely if ever follow the schedule exactly as I’ve laid it out, especially with a 16 month old in the house, I had to make one as a guideline.

Homeschool days:
- breakfast
- Five in a Row story and activity
- chores - dishes, get dressed for the day, laundry, etc
- get C settled with something exciting like a container of water on the kitchen floor
- phonics
- math
- snack
- do something physically active (walk down to the neighborhood park, chase bubbles, dance, etc)
- art/craft time or life skills (shoe tying, buttoning, etc)
- lunch
- listen to poetry or classical music during lunch
- C’s nap begins
- have M read to me for 5-10 minutes
- read aloud to M
- quiet time for M
- meet friends for a playdate or doing something else that gets us out of the house

Melissa Wiley’s had a feed malfunction at her blog, Here in the Bonny Glen, so if you are a subscriber and you haven’t gotten posts this week, you’ve likely been unsubscribed.  So head on over and resubscribe so you don’t miss any of her great posts! If you’ve not been a subscriber, I highly recommend that you check out this blog.

When we were at the library last week, M was looking through the racks of paperback series books and discovered the American Girls History Mysteries series.  She picked out Hoofbeats of Danger by Holly Hughes because of the horse on the cover and asked if we could check it out.  I had read a few books from the series several years ago when I was teaching high school history and remembered enjoying them, but I was concerned that the lack of pictures and fairly long chapters would cause M to lose interest.

We checked it out anyway because I know that if she really likes a story she’ll listen no matter the length.  And like it she did.  We finished it in a few days and now she has asked me to read it again before we return it to the library.  We’re also going to find out if any of the other books in the series have horses in them.

The story is set in 1860 and takes place at Red Buttes Station, a relay and home station for the Overland Express, the company who created the Pony Express.  Eleven-year-old Annie Dawson is the daughter of the station manager.  When her favorite horse, Magpie, appears to be turning wild, Annie suspects the mare has been poisoned and she works hard to prove it so Magpie won’t be put down.

The story is fast-paced and well written.  I would recommend it for both horse lovers and mystery lovers.  It would be a great jumping off point for learning about the pony express, cross-continental travel, and relations between Native Americans and white settlers. Unfortunately, it appears that this title and the other History Mysteries are out of print but there are numerous used copies available and our library has the complete series.