Day 21: Reading
Tom Sawyer: Its my first reading as an adult, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. The boys are taking to it, too. They’re fascinated by all of the boys’ bug trading in St. Petersburg.
Primary Phonics Set 1: A friend lent me this set, and I LOVE it. Storylines are charming, graphics are simple b/w, and there’s plenty of room to take it in a number of ways. Right now, I’m using the stories to work on “Why?” questions with Tommy.
Yesterday’s interchange:
“Tommy, why is Al happy?”
“Because he is not sad!”
“Yes, but why is he not sad?”
“Because he is happy!”
[Because the kids gave Al a hot dog and popsicle … we’ll get there]
The Read-Aloud Family: It’s a mix of read-aloud benefits and tips with blog-ish moments from the author’s experiences. She’s a good writer, and she makes a good point – not that I’m a hard sell on this topic. We do this in the morning right after Matt leaves for work. Ezra either cuddles on my right side or works at something on the coffee table (puzzles, magna-tiles), Jesse lies down on the opposite couch, and Tom is a free agent. Yesterday, he played a light soundtrack on the piano as I read Chapter 8, and yesterday, Jess and Ezra asked me to please read a second chapter. Win!
Free to Learn: I’m not sure how much worksheets and screens play out during my kids’ non-quarantine school days, but I’m ready to build a bonfire for both at the Troy Country Day School. Ezra, in particular, struggles to focus on the worksheets, and I was able to make much more headway in language arts with him last week when he was working on his comics. The author and I don’t start from the premise, and his chapter on the “deadly sins of public education” was overblown; however, engaging learning at the point of my boys’ curiosity – yes! Transferring ownership of their education to them – yes!
The Giver of Stars: This is my fiction read of the moment. I still love the general storyline of a group of female librarians traveling the hills of Kentucky in the 1930s to deliver books, but there are about a dozen other sub-plots, and it’s too much for me to track. I’m reading to get it done at this point.
Feeding a Family: A couple months back, I started borrowing 1-2 cookbooks a month from the library, and I’m glad I snagged this one before it closed. It’s what you’d expect of current cookbook fodder – gorgeous lifestyle pics around cooking simply with whole foods purchased locally, all backdropped in a cool location (in this case, Martha’s Vineyard – and so you might have to push past that envy-inducing yoke (I sometimes do). The recipes here are TASTY. Are my kiddos eating the red, coconut lentils served over black rice with dried apricots anytime soon? Nope. But I’ve adopted the authors’ tips for how to set a dinner table that incorporates a few other things they will eat in that spread (not hot dogs, Tommy!) and it’s going well.
This is Marketing: I haven’t blogged about it much, but I’m only two copy edits away from making Lu2 ready for the world, and I aim to launch her this summer, by which I mean doing something more than listing it on Amazon and sending you all an email. Seth Godin is my go-to marketing guru because he makes marketing feel A) accessible and B) not slimy.
Isaiah: Our Bible study has been on this one since January, and we have only 6 chapters left. The prophecy pairs with the current times, and I’d recommend it as good “now” Bible study. Don’t be turned off by the confusion of changing narrators and fuzzy timelines. Approach it like you would anything else – read it, mark it up, draft your own thoughts, ask good questions, find the relevant threads.
I’m winding down on many of these and open for suggestions, in particular on the next book to read to the boys, fiction for me, and more books on educating kiddos. Do you have any for me?
