We are having Thanksgiving at our house this year, and our gigantic turkey, who Jack named “Noodle Dance,” is thawing in the fridge as I write.  I’m planning on brining Noodle Dance in an orange and clove bath and then roasting him with similar accoutrements.  I hope it turns out well, considering that Noodle Dance weighs in at over 20 pounds.

Last year after Christmas I reorganized the seasonal decorating materials into bins and now I can’t find where I brilliantly stored the autumn/Thanksgiving decorations.  It’s a bit late for the wreath, but it would be nice to have a festive centerpiece.  I’m also going to get out the Jesse Tree materials so we can be ready to start our family advent devotions on December 1.

I’ve already made one Cranberry Pie this season, and have four more on the calendar so far.  This is a fabulous go-to dessert to take places this time of year.  It’s easy, looks nice, and tastes great.  The Cooks Next Door posted a similar dessert recipe last week that does not involve pie crust and adds orange zest and almond extract.  I may try those additions and see how it turns out.

If you’re really into cranberries (and who isn’t?) you should try my friend Alicia’s cranberry pot roast (scroll down in the post for the recipe) and you should serve your sweet potatoes with cranberries (again, scroll down in the post for the recipe).  Believe me, you will never eat that sweet potato marshmallow slop again once you try the crispy, delicious, cranberry version!

I hope you all have a marvelous Thanksgiving (and for the couple of dedicated readers overseas, have a happy Thursday!).  I’m thankful for the fact that you read this blog and for the encouraging comments and emails you send.

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This book tells the story of a girl who, as you can tell from the title, never makes mistakes.  She has fans!  Everyone knows she never makes mistakes!  But the pressure starts to get to her and finally she realizes that it’s OK to make mistakes.

That may seem like a simple lesson, but I think it’s an important one for kids to learn if they seem to have perfectionist tendencies.  There are really two types of perfectionism: the sort that inspires you to do your best and the sort that paralyzes you because it makes you so afraid to fail that you never try.  As with many personality traits, I think a perfectionist bent can be reined in and made useful or it can be a major flaw.  It’s better to start learning to harness it sooner rather than later.

The pictures in the book are fun and imaginative and the text is helpful.  Sometimes I get annoyed by “here’s an issue!” type children’s books, but in this case I think the concept was pulled off well.

Giveaway

The publisher of The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes is offering a giveaway copy of the book to one reader of A Spirited Mind.  If you’re interested in winning a copy, leave a comment on the post!  I’ll close the giveaway on Tuesday October 11 at 8 pm EST and post the winner on Wednesday October 12.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.  The book’s publisher sent me a complimentary review copy of the book, but I was not otherwise compensated for this review or required to write a positive review.

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We’ve enjoyed reading several chapter books this summer, especially since the sun stays out so late and it makes it hard for little eyes to feel sleepy without a lot of winding down time.  I remembered reading this book as a child and the kids were intrigued by the title.  It did not disappoint.

The story follows James Henry Trotter, a little boy who lives with his two horrible aunts due to tragic circumstances.  One day a giant peach miraculously grows in his back garden and James rolls away in it, accompanied by several giant insects.  They go on to have all sorts of adventures and come up with several ingenious ways out of tight spots, and all’s well in the end.

I did find I had to switch out a couple of words here and there, primarily ones that have different shades of meaning these days or which I don’t care to hear bandied about the playroom.  But it was not that big of a deal.

When next we scanned our shelf of chapter books, Sarah demanded the book with her name on it.  Jack sounded out Sarah, Plain and Tall slowly, and then promptly forgot what he’d just read and took to calling the book “Sarah, the Airplane book.”  Fortunately it didn’t take many nights to read through this classic.  I read it as a child and had forgotten that the book is about two children whose mother had died, so that was sort of sad, but the book as a whole is quite redemptive and shows good examples of life on the prairie, working together as a family, siblings who love each other and get along, and learning to accept new things.  We all enjoyed the story, especially Sarah who doggedly refused to admit that the book was not about her.  Maybe someday she’ll live in Maine and love the sea, who knows.  If she does, I look forward to the lobster I will eat when I am visiting her there.

Next we have voted to take up Mr. Popper’s Penguins yet again.  In a few weeks we’ll be beginning school, and I’ve mapped out the first eight weeks or so of our evening read aloud books to correspond to things we’ll be studying.  I’m looking forward to that.

Did your kids read any good books this summer?

I’m linking this post up at Read Aloud Thursday – be sure to head over there to get more ideas for things to read to your little ones!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

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One such book is Robert McCloskey’s Homer Price. Each of the chapters in the book tells the story of a mystery happening in Homer’s small town.  We thought these stories were really fun and interesting.  Judging by the make-believe play that has happened since we read the book, I think the kids liked the chapter about the donut machine best.

We love McCloskey’s illustrations and count several of his other books among our favorites, like Blueberries for Sal, One Morning in Maine, Make Way for Ducklings, The Story about Ping, and Lentil.  If you don’t know and love Robert McCloskey’s books yet, you should check them out!

I’m linking up at Read Aloud Thursday tomorrow, so be sure to check out the other recommendations there!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

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The book is set primarily in Maine around the turn of the 20th century.  The little girl in the story moves from the city to the country, and comes to learn just how much she is capable of accomplishing.

Although the main character is a girl, she has great adventures and the book is funny and interesting enough that boys would like it too, I think.  Jack enjoyed it, and liked hearing about the boys at the one room schoolhouse.

If you haven’t read Understood Betsy, I think you should hurry out and read it!

I’m planning to link this post up at Read Aloud Thursday tomorrow, so be sure to check that page out for more ideas of what to read to your kids!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

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Although I felt at times that she read too much into the books she discussed, for the most part I found the author’s perspective interesting.  She wrote about quite  a few of our favorites, including less well-known titles like Wee Gillis.  I also found a handful of books that we haven’t read but would like to try.

If you enjoy finding new books to read to your kids, or are interested in the psychology of reading and how reading impacts culture, see if you can find a copy of Inside Picture Books and let us know what you think!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

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Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is a book of stories about a lady who loves children and knows all sorts of interesting ways to break them of their bad habits.  Distraught mothers from all over town call Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle for advice about their child who is an answer-backer, or a slow-eater-tiny-bite-taker, or a fighter-quarreler or whatnot, and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle dispenses a cure.  The cures are mostly inventive ways of showing the child what he or she is doing, and then helping him or her make a different, positive habit to replace the bad habit.

As we read the stories, we found a lot of applications for our own little bad habits.  One day when I was really at the end of my rope over some recurring bad behavior I said, “I just don’t know what to do with you guys!” and Jack said, “I think you should call Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.”

Although some of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s cures are unlikely, I like the idea of the kids hearing about a behavior that isn’t right, seeing the parent’s perspective, then understanding how the kids overcame the problem.  I don’t think you can read TOO much into this book – it’s very lighthearted and funny – but it did give us some good conversation topics along the way and I’d recommend it as a good read aloud for little ones.

I’m linking up this post at Read Aloud Thursday on Hope is the Word.  Be sure to check over there for more great ideas!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

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This e-book is a great reference about platypuses and includes helpful suggestions for activities to reinforce what your child learns about the animal.  If your kids are younger like mine, they will probably really enjoy the coloring activities and making the platypus burrow with dried beans for the platypus babies, and older kids might be interested to find out how scientists figured out the taxonomy of the platypus and how the platypus finds food via electroreception in its bill.

Other sections in the e-book include a set of studies about how to care for the earth God created and how the platypus reminds us of God’s creativity in creation, ideas for how to use the platypus theme to practice math and science concepts like classification, counting by tens, percentages, and the like, suggestions for writing activities, spelling and vocabulary, geography study of Australia, and a list of books about platypi.

Since my kids are 5, 3, and 2, we didn’t cover a lot of these topics in great depth, but they did enjoy doing some of the crafts and learning about classification and taxonomy.  We looked up Australia in our atlas and tried to decide how we would get there from Indiana.  I checked out most of the books on the reading list since we usually like to learn through literature, and we especially liked the illustrations in A Platypus, Probably.  Hannah read Platypus! out loud to us.

If you have an interest in particular animals or topics, an e-book unit study guide like this one might be really helpful to you, whether you homeschool or are just looking for something interesting to do with your kids after school.  In the past when we’ve done unit studies (like the unit study we did on The Netherlands) I’ve just done my own research, but if you’re pressed for time I can see how it would be nice to have everything outlined for you.  The $6.95 you pay for the e-book might be worth the couple of hours you save scouring the library and Amazon and looking up ideas online, unless you just enjoy doing that sort of thing, which sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.

In addition to Platypus, the Curiosity Files series also includes unit studies on other animals, insects, and natural phenomena.  Some of them are only $1 right now!

If you’ve tried unit studies, how do you use them?  What are some of the best ones you’ve tried?

Disclosure: Amazon links in this post are affiliate links, Old Schoolhouse links are not.  The Old Schoolhouse magazine sent me a complimentary review copy of the Platypus unit study, but I was not compensated for the review nor required to post a positive response.  Opinions contained in this review are my honest reaction to the book.  Whew!  That was a lot of disclosure.

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Often I start with a book we already have and like, and then search on Amazon for similar books, see what other customers who bought that book also bought, and so forth.  That’s how I came up with our list of books about the Netherlands, for example.

Other times, I consult a “book about books” for suggestions.  I’ve blogged before about books in this genre, including Honey for a Child’s Heart, The Read Aloud Handbook, Books for the Gifted Child, and Some of My Best Friends Are Books.  I’ve read others too, but can’t think of them off the top of my head.  At any rate, this sort of book can be helpful even if you disagree with some of the recommendations they contain.

Books to Build On: A Grade-by-Grade Resource Guide for Parents and Teachers has some great lists of books broken down by subject and grade.  I found I disagreed with the grade breakdowns across the board (many of the books that this volume says are for kids in 2nd grade are in our preschool favorites – kids can understand more than they are given credit for) and some of the scope and sequence is not very ambitious or comprehensive.  However, within the lists I did find a lot of books I hadn’t checked out before, and I think the recommendations for books about specific historical eras will be helpful.

I thought it was sort of funny that the book we’re currently reading aloud, Carlo Collodi’s original Pinocchio, is mentioned in Books to Build On as not recommended for first grade because it is “too long.” That’s funny because I would say the chapters are short and easy to understand, perfect for preschoolers! Hannah and Jack love the book and are always clamoring for one more chapter and telling me that they like the book more than the Disney movie.  That’s not because my kids are so smart or anything, the book just really is a lot more entertaining than the movie adaptation.  I think the idea that a 6 year old first grader couldn’t sit through an eight page long chapter about a wooden puppet having adventures is really really sad.

Onward.  I did find some good book recommendations in this book and I would still recommend it as a resource even though I disagree with some of the grade sorting.  I think it would be especially helpful for parents whose children are in school that might be following a scope and sequence similar to the one in this book.  You could get a lot of great ideas for at home enrichment reading to supplement what your child is getting at school.

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I will note up front that when I read posts about what other families do for school I get overwhelmed because it sounds like a LOT of time and work.  I hope this doesn’t make you feel overwhelmed.  As I note at the end of the post, this whole process usually takes us around two hours, not counting stuff we do at other times of day like at breakfast, during play time and rest time, and in the car.

A Day in Our Preschool

Bible: We read a story from the Jesus Storybook Bible at breakfast.  I like the JSB because it ties all of the stories together and shows the flow of biblical history and God’s plan of redemption rather than treating each story as a stand-alone tidbit.  After we read, we work on our Bible memory passage (right now we’re learning Romans 8 – we have verses 1-9 learned so far), Sunday School memory verses, and a selection from the Children’s Catechism.  Usually we review about 20 questions, and then read through the new questions we’re learning twice.  We’re up to question 90 now.  We also review a few of our old memory verses.  Sometimes we sing the New Testament song, which is a great way to help kids memorize the order of the books of the Bible, and often we sing a Psalm or hymn.  In all we probably spend about 20 minutes on Bible and Bible memory, depending on how the morning is going.

Reading: Hannah is reading Little House on the Prairie for her reading book now.  She reads a couple of paragraphs out loud per day and is getting a lot more fluent and quicker at sounding out unfamiliar words.  Best of all, she really likes the story of Laura and Mary and is proud of being able to read to us.  She usually reads a few easy books per day out loud to the little kids, and she reads to herself during rest time.  Jack is working through The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading and is reading three letter words now!  He is on lesson 38 in the book today.  He also reads one easy phonics reader per day, or more if he really wants to.  I had a much easier time teaching Jack to read than I did with Hannah, I think in large part because he’s been hearing me work with her for so long!

Language Arts: While one kid works with me on reading, the other kid does a few pages in a phonics/writing/spelling book.  Hannah is working through Explode the Code Book 2, and Jack is working through Get Set for the Code.  Hannah also recently started writing stories, so after she does four pages in ETC (I have to tell her to stop after four or else she’d finish the book in one day and they are not cheap!) she writes exciting tales of lions eating mice and dogs and cats who are pals and whatnot.  The reading and language arts part of our school day usually takes about half an hour, depending on how much reading the kids want to do beyond the section I assign for them to read out loud, and how long they want to work on their Code books.  As long as they do the amount I ask them to do with a good attitude and not too sloppily, I don’t mind if they do more.

Math: Both Hannah and Jack are doing Math-U-See Primer.  I make their practice sheets myself because I think Primer is too easy for Hannah and writing numbers gets tiring for Jack.  They both watch the short video excerpt of the day’s lesson, then I walk them through it again with the manipulatives, and then they work on their practice sheets.  Sarah plays with the blocks and watches the video, and sometimes I make her a practice sheet too so she doesn’t feel left out.  We’re on lesson 10, and I’m not sure how long it will take to complete the book because sometimes we spend two days on one lesson.  I don’t know if we’ll continue with Math-U-See beyond next year, or if we’ll switch to Saxon.  Depending on how long the kids play with the manipulative blocks after their lesson, math usually takes about 20 minutes.

Latin: We talk over the current Latin lesson vocabulary, usually play a game with the vocabulary like pretending to be animals or playing Simon Says in Latin, and then we listen to the Latin songs.  While the kids listen to the songs I give them some sort of art to work on, and I make sure the beds are made and the laundry is progressing and do this and that.  Latin is usually about 20 minutes of our day, sometimes a little more if the game is really fun.

Literature (and Art and Science and History…): We always read some Mother Goose rhymes and a fable from Aesop, as well as some poetry (right now we’re using The Harp and Laurel Wreath but sometimes we read from other poetry books).  We’re also enjoying a story per day out of Fifty Famous Stories Retold.  Our daily book boxes each have a sampling of books about history and other countries, art, science, and classic stories and living books (you can see some of our lists of recommended kids books by topic here).  We read a few from each category.  We also read a few chapters from our read aloud book, which currently is Pinocchio (the original version).  Depending on what we have going on that day, we read between 30 minutes and an hour or so.

History: In addition to the books we read about different historical periods and cultures, we’re also enjoying listening to Story of the World on audio book. Our library has all four volumes, which is fortunate since the audio sets are otherwise not cheap!  We listen to this in the car primarily, but the kids sometimes ask for it while they are playing in the playroom too.  I like The Story of the World because it’s a good detailed history but puts everything in context and uses a narrative structure that is a lot more like a living book and less like a text book.  I’m learning a lot too!

Music: We usually have classical music playing at some point during the day, and I play Lingua Angelica (pretty songs and hymns in Latin) during rest time.  Sometimes the kids play on the piano, and Josh gives Jack guitar lessons every now and then.  We’ve done composer studies in the past but right now we’re just listening to classical music.

Recitation: In addition to the Bible and catechism memory work we do, we’re usually memorizing a poem too.  Right now we’re learning “Rebecca Who Slammed Doors for Fun and Perished Miserably” by Hilaire Belloc.  This has the added bonus of helping the children with their character studies, as they are remembering not to slam doors as often!  It takes about five minutes to read the poem through twice and let each kid take a stab at reciting it.

Geography: Based on what I read in The Core, I decided to start adding an element of map drawing to our usual atlas work.  We pull out the atlas and look a the picture of the world, then find our continent, country, and state.  We talk about the name of our city and town and address.  For map drawing, we’re learning how to draw the Great Circles.  Each kid gets a piece of paper and folds it in half, then draws a line on that fold and labels it “E” for Equator.  Then we draw in lines in the right spots for the Arctic Circle, Antarctic Circle, Tropic of Cancer, and Tropic of Capricorn.  It’s not as hard as it sounds.  Depending on how much detail the kids want to talk about in the atlas, geography takes us about 15 minutes.

Since some parts of our schoolwork happen throughout the day – like listening to music and history, or doing Bible at breakfast – it’s hard to say how much time we really spend on preschool, but our core work of reading, math, Latin, and reading takes about two hours usually.  I like to keep things moving and go back and forth between types of work so that the kids don’t get tired or overtaxed.

We’ll be making some changes in the fall for Hannah’s kindergarten year, but for the most part school is going great now!  It’s a fun part of our day and a good structure for us, so I don’t have any plans to take a summer off or anything.  Learning is fun for us and it doesn’t take too much time, so we’ll just keep going.

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