Do You Moo When You Chew Your Food?

I try to read aloud to my children each morning before we start the day. Its a nice little routine for us and I love to sit on the sofa with my kiddos next to me for a few extra moments of cuddle time. Most day, each of my kids chooses one of the books we'll read and I choose a few as well. Today, someone chose one of my favorites, the Usborne Book of Poems for Little Children.

Here is my favorite poem from this book:

Cow

Sometimes I moo while I'm chewing
I hope you don't think that it's rude
But mooing and chewing
Are what I like doing,
Do you moo when you chew your food?

Giles Andeae

Love it!

That was fun!

I'm back and its done and I feel 10 lbs lighter. I didn't realize how much it was weighing me down, knowing that I needed to get it done, and that I was putting it off. Tegdirb92 posted this comment:

"that's a great tackle--go and do something special for yourself while you are out!! Happy Tuesday!"

Thanks :o) I did! I bought myself a cheesecake, lol. So much for the 10 lbs lighter :o)

Tackle it Tuesday

Wow! I clicked on to Homemaker of the 21st Century from, I'm not sure where, and discovered Tackle it Tuesday. What a great idea! Spending Tuesday working on something you've been putting off - I love it! I discovered, after clicking around for a while, that Tackle it Tuesday originated at a place called 5 Minutes for Mom.

Well, I have so many things I've been putting off that I could choose to tackle today. My first thought is to try to tackle as many as I can. The problem with that is that I'll choose so many things to do, that I'd probably get none of them done and I'd end up frustrated and beating myself up - sigh. So, I'm going to force myself to take baby steps and choose one thing - I'm going to return the cable modem to the cable people so that they will stop charging us for the cable service we are no longer using and the rental of said modem. Phew! I feel better already. I'll post again once its done.

Your Baby Can Read will be featured on ELLEN!

One of the products I carry through Usborne Books, Your Baby Can Read, will be featured on the Ellen Show on Monday, November 5th. Be sure to check it out. And to find out more about the product, check out my website www.TheBookLadyOnline.com .

Reluctant Reader

As mentioned in another post, we have a reluctant reader in our home. He can, he just doesn't want to read, and it causes many tense moments. The primary way that most people judge our homeschooling success is on our children's ability and willingness to read. In our homeschool, we've got one of those (ability), but not the other (willingness). Which leads to me stressing out, worrying what our family will think when they ask him to read and he says either, "I don't want to", or "I can't"(gasp). My stress leads to me being much harder on him than I should. When I can manage, I'm starting to sneak reading into his other work (sort of the same why I sneak veggies and protein into his diet; he's also a picky eater - imagine that).

One thing he loves is puzzles, both jigsaw and solve it type as well. Some days, I will give him something that I would like him to read and ask him to find all of a certain phonograme, blend or digraph (for example, we did /dr/ yesterday). He happily reads the page, paragraph or book, searching for these items, the same way he would a solve it puzzle. When ever possible, I try to find things for him to read that I can print so that he can circle or underline the things for which he's searching, making the activity kinesthetic as well as visual.

History and monkeys

Today in history, we read about the "Rise of Islam" ( Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History) and the kids were introduced to Mohamed, Mecca, the Arabian Peninsula and Mosques. I asked our oldest to draw a picture of something we read about today that caught his attention. We are putting a caption under the picture. He decided to draw a Mosque. In true Nicholas fashion, his Mosque is quite realistic (he really drew it well) and is filled with monkeys and rope ladders (so the monkeys can get down from the top, of course). Our oldest is quite obsessed with monkeys and when he heard that Mohamed lived on the Arabian Peninsula, he immediately associated it with Aladdin and thus monkeys. Too funny!
The Internet Linked Encyclopedia of History has wonderful internet links to go along with each topic, so today, along with reading the wonderful text and looking at the appropriate pictures, we were able to take a virtual pilgrimage to Mecca. Really neat stuff!