Saturday, November 05, 2005
Recent Read Alouds~
For history and literature, we're mostly reading through various books listed in our TruthQuest American History I guide (yes, we're still reading about the Vikings) and from Ambleside Online years 1 & 2.
Recently we finished reading Leif the Lucky (I LOVE those D'Aulaire books!). N and T were thrilled to find out that Leif the Lucky became a Christian during his visit to Norway, (was witnessed to by the King himself) and brought the gospel back to his own homeland. His Mother was saved and organized the building of the first church in their Greenland.
We've been enjoying Kipling's Just So Stories. They're so fun to read, with such creative language that the kids just crack up over every time we read one. When we were reading "How the Whale Got His Throat", it was really cool that the story mentioned the country of "Albion", which we were familiar with from our reading of Our Island Story. That turned into a lesson on longitude and latitude (as the whale was given the coordinates to find the man's location). As we talked of all this, and found where the whale had to travel on the globe, Nathan very excitedly pointed out, "There's Iceland! And Greenland, where Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky lived! Oh, oh, and there's Norway!" hehehe... lights were going off everywhere as he discovered the same lands of our recent story books were here on the globe. It was very interesting to me, as "the teacher" because I'm thinking... Yeah, we've talked about and pointed these countries out numerous times already per some maps, and I'd even pulled out the globe... (though he hadn't seemed too interested, apparently he remembered) and NOW, he's all excited b/c HE discovered/saw it I guess, and to see it inter-relating with our other non-related story, maybe?" hmmmm... So, I'm thinking, at least now he's convinced that I'm not just making all this up. LOL! It was so thrilling for me to see his mind working, and to witness his gleeful excitement over the experience of new found bits of knowledge overlapping.
Another similar incident happened as we were playing "Herd Your Horses", and Tabitha, reading one of the horse cards, excitedly exclaims, "Momma, Momma, LOOK! It says Nez Perce! The Nez Perce Indians bred the Apaloosa horses!" We'd been reading the week before about the Nez Perce Indians via her Kaya Story Collections Book, and another Nez Perce book from the library. It was so exciting to see how meaningful it was to her to recognize and fit history pieces together... I'm so thanking the Lord for leading our footsteps as we learn together, with Him.
We're also reading/perusing a huge, lovely National Geographic "Millenium in Maps" map, called "Exploration" which is SO informative, and a useful tool, and enjoying the Bellerophon Myths and Legends of the Vikings Coloring book as well. The Viking Tales have also been interesting...
Various recent Read-Alouds...
Eyewitness books Viking and Explorer.
The How and Why Wonder Book of Explorations and Discoveries (I picked this treasure up at a thrift store many years ago, for 39 cents!)
The Vikings: The Seafarers
Secrets in Stone : All About Maya Hieroglyphics
We're also still reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis, illustrated by Pauline Baynes "ONCE THERE WERE FOUR CHILDREN whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy..."
along with The Land of Narnia, by Brian Sibley, C. S. Lewis, Pauline Baynes (Illustrator)
Yellow & Pink
by William Steig (Illustrator) "Two small figures made of wood were lying out in the sun one day on an old newspaper..."
Stellaluna
by Janell Cannon "One night, as Mother Bat followed the heavy scent of ripe fruit, an owl spied her..."
King of the Wind : The Story of the Godolphin Arabian
by Marguerite Henry, Wesley Dennis (Illustrator) "IN THE northwestern slice of Africa known as Morocco, a horseboy stood, with broom in hand, in the vast courtyard of the royal stables of..."
Recently we finished reading Leif the Lucky (I LOVE those D'Aulaire books!). N and T were thrilled to find out that Leif the Lucky became a Christian during his visit to Norway, (was witnessed to by the King himself) and brought the gospel back to his own homeland. His Mother was saved and organized the building of the first church in their Greenland.
We've been enjoying Kipling's Just So Stories. They're so fun to read, with such creative language that the kids just crack up over every time we read one. When we were reading "How the Whale Got His Throat", it was really cool that the story mentioned the country of "Albion", which we were familiar with from our reading of Our Island Story. That turned into a lesson on longitude and latitude (as the whale was given the coordinates to find the man's location). As we talked of all this, and found where the whale had to travel on the globe, Nathan very excitedly pointed out, "There's Iceland! And Greenland, where Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky lived! Oh, oh, and there's Norway!" hehehe... lights were going off everywhere as he discovered the same lands of our recent story books were here on the globe. It was very interesting to me, as "the teacher" because I'm thinking... Yeah, we've talked about and pointed these countries out numerous times already per some maps, and I'd even pulled out the globe... (though he hadn't seemed too interested, apparently he remembered) and NOW, he's all excited b/c HE discovered/saw it I guess, and to see it inter-relating with our other non-related story, maybe?" hmmmm... So, I'm thinking, at least now he's convinced that I'm not just making all this up. LOL! It was so thrilling for me to see his mind working, and to witness his gleeful excitement over the experience of new found bits of knowledge overlapping.
Another similar incident happened as we were playing "Herd Your Horses", and Tabitha, reading one of the horse cards, excitedly exclaims, "Momma, Momma, LOOK! It says Nez Perce! The Nez Perce Indians bred the Apaloosa horses!" We'd been reading the week before about the Nez Perce Indians via her Kaya Story Collections Book, and another Nez Perce book from the library. It was so exciting to see how meaningful it was to her to recognize and fit history pieces together... I'm so thanking the Lord for leading our footsteps as we learn together, with Him.
We're also reading/perusing a huge, lovely National Geographic "Millenium in Maps" map, called "Exploration" which is SO informative, and a useful tool, and enjoying the Bellerophon Myths and Legends of the Vikings Coloring book as well. The Viking Tales have also been interesting...
Various recent Read-Alouds...
Eyewitness books Viking and Explorer.
The How and Why Wonder Book of Explorations and Discoveries (I picked this treasure up at a thrift store many years ago, for 39 cents!)
The Vikings: The Seafarers
Secrets in Stone : All About Maya Hieroglyphics
We're also still reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis, illustrated by Pauline Baynes "ONCE THERE WERE FOUR CHILDREN whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy..."
along with The Land of Narnia, by Brian Sibley, C. S. Lewis, Pauline Baynes (Illustrator)
Yellow & Pink
by William Steig (Illustrator) "Two small figures made of wood were lying out in the sun one day on an old newspaper..."
Stellaluna
by Janell Cannon "One night, as Mother Bat followed the heavy scent of ripe fruit, an owl spied her..."
King of the Wind : The Story of the Godolphin Arabian
by Marguerite Henry, Wesley Dennis (Illustrator) "IN THE northwestern slice of Africa known as Morocco, a horseboy stood, with broom in hand, in the vast courtyard of the royal stables of..."
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