Poets and Saints
…and the moms who try to be both.Archive for Books
Learning at Home
I have really been enjoying teaching my daughter preschool at home. I don’t know whether to call ourselves a homeschooling family yet, but I am enjoying all the educational materials we are perusing these days. And who knew preschool could be so fascinating? Maybe it’s my education background or my own exploration of an area that I have never taught, but it’s a thrilling adventure and we are learning so much.
Preschool Art by Mary Ann Kohl: I can’t say this book looked overly impressive initially, but upon first (and second and third try) of different art activities, I have been excited with the results. The painted dough (where we made a simple watery flour dough and then colored it with food coloring) had a fascinating effect on paper. The sand painting was a great outdoor art experience with an interesting kinesthetic result. The projects are very easy to follow and perfect for my daughter’s age.
Learning at Home by Ann Ward: This book is designed as a curriculum for a kindergarten (or an advanced Pre-K curriculum) using only the library as your resource! The author who is both an educator and homeschooling mom put a lot of detail and thought into her lesson plans. If I homeschool for kindergarten I will be adding this book to my library.
Homeschooling: The Early Years by Linda Dobson: Designed to give an overview of the homeschooling process and be a resource for parents beginning to explore it, this book is packed full of great resources for reading, writing and math but is probably most useful for the parent just starting out on the homeschooling journey.
A Beka Curriculum for Preschool: I started using their preschool materials last year including the alphabet workbook and number workbook. The materials are colorful and high quality and my daughter really enjoys using them. My only complaint is the price. I have a teacher friend who uses the A Beka curriculum at her preschool and really likes them too.
If you’re looking for a fun homeschooling blog, I really enjoy Pioneer Woman’s homeschooling section. It provides some good laughs in the midst of personal homeschooling insight.
And then there is always our excellent library system which will compile books about any subject for a homeschooling family. Awesome, huh? I think I’m having about as much fun as my daughter most days. It’s amazing to see how much she wants to learn too. I’m so glad I don’t have to miss out on that.
6 Children’s Books for African American History Month
February is often connected with Valentine’s Day for obvious reasons, but it is also a month of other celebrations as well. African American history month is also in February and a great time to expose children to some wonderful picture books written by or about African Americans. For children living in less diverse areas, it is hard to give them a taste of the many cultures and people around us. Books are a wonderful way to show children cultural and ethnic differences in languages, stories and traditions. Although that’s not the same as living in a diverse culture, it is a great start.
Here’s a list of some recommended picture books that you may want to check out from your local public library. The list begins with books for younger children and ends with a book for upper elementary and ‘tweens. This list is not meant to be exclusive by any means, but merely gives you an idea of where to start:
1. Any Books by Ezra Jack Keats–Most people have heard of The Snowy Day written by Keats, but he has many more wonderful stories. Check out Whistle for Willie, a simple story about a boy who is trying to learn to whistle, or Jennie’s Hat, about a young girl’s imaginative hat constructed by birds. Ages 3 and up.
2. The Colors of Us by Karen Katz–I like this book because it describes all the different colors of skin from Indian, Chinese, Hispanic, and shades of African American, while celebrating the uniqueness of our diversity. Ages 3 and up.
3. Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman–A girl who thinks she cannot play Peter Pan in the school play because of her color discovers she can do it in spite of what her friends say. Ages 4-8
4. Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears by Verna Aardema–A Caldecott winner about a West African Tale of why the mosquito buzzes in people’s ears to ask for forgiveness. Ages 4-8
5. Hip Hop Speaks to Children by Nikki Giovanni–A collection of poetry, plus a listening CD to hear everyone from Queen Latifah to Langston Hughes and Martin Luther King. Ages 9-12.
P.S. I added one! I edited this post to include one that I intended to put on my original list called Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport and Bryan Collier. It’s a great book for children 4 and up that teaches about Martin Luther King Jr. and what he fought for. A combination of history and famous quotes, this is a book that should be read on more that King’s birthday. My favorite quote from the book: “Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.”
5 Books for Women
I once got asked by a friend, “How do you choose books to read?”
I wasn’t sure what she meant. My catagories are broad: fun books (usually fiction), nonfiction, and classics, but that wasn’t what she wanted.
“No, how do you choose specific books?”
I guess I’m not real sure. I love bookstores, but have very little time to actually peruse the books I want, because I’m usually in the children’s section with my daughter. Typically I make lists of books I hear about from others. Word of mouth is a powerful tool but if you’re not hearing about good books, it’s pretty hard to make a list. Sometimes I will hear about a book on NPR, or read about one in the paper, and even occassionally I will take a chance on a book that is sitting on the library display shelf (like #2 below).
That being said, I made a list of the 5 Books for Women that I read this year. It’s a diverse list and you can decide if any of these make it onto your reading list or book club for next year. I enjoyed each of these books in a different way
1. Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith. Fiction. Part mystery, part character study, this book is an light hearted who-done-it with an outspoken female detective, Madame Ramotswe (owner of the Number One Ladies Detective Agency). Set in modern day Botswana, Africa the thing that drives me back to this series is the humor of McCall’s beloved characters.
2. All the Way Home by David Giffels. Nonfiction. The subtitle to this book describes it well: ”Building a Family in a Falling Down House.” It’s not just any old house either; it’s a mansion which Giffels decides to buy, renovate (with some help), and live in with his young son and wife. Although it’s written by a man, the book is really a story about the merging of house and family. This is a great book for those who ever bought a fixer upper and wondered if their marriage would outlast the renovating.
3. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. I love Didion’s writing. She is a master wordsmith, creating poetic images from a sad situation: the death of her husband. Didion does not believe in an afterlife, and her book ends on a bittersweet, yet hopeless note. But I still admire her ability to take her husband’s shocking death and make some sense of it all in the midst of her pain. A powerful book, especially if you have lost someone close to you.
4. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Nonfiction. Kingsolver is best known for her book The Poisonwood Bible, but I enjoyed this book describing her family’s attempt, for one year, to eat locally grown food. Following each month, Kingsolver details the struggles and triumphs of raising enough food to feed a family of four. Filled with recipes and editorials on food production, this book was an impressive diary into the unusual food life of one determined family.
5. The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer. Fiction. If there was one book I’d recommend to a book club of mothers, it would be this one. Wolitzer’s book describes the struggles of a group of friends, all mothers, as they each work through their own issues and family struggles. Every chapter is told from a different narrator’s point of view and if I hadn’t known it was fiction, I would have thought these were real people–the comments and thoughts on motherhood are so startling and real. On top of it all, Wolitzer provides mothers from all different points of view–working mothers, stay-at-home mothers, adoptive mothers, minority mothers, among others. This impressive cast of women provides at least one mom that we all have met, or even found to be ourselves.
***
Stay tuned for more book recommendations down the road as I cover the Best Children’s Books, as well as my new reading list for 2009.
