First week of February ~ Review

Last week we studied the following material:

~ 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (memorize/recite/discuss)

~ Elements of a good story: setting, conflict, rising action, climax, denouement as it pertains to Star Wars and Cranberry Thanksgiving

~ "Five in a Row" book: Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel; mildly interesting. I've determined that Wolf likes human interest stories and stories with animals. He doesn't so much care about guys having meaningful relationships with machines. However, this book opened the door to some interesting history, social studies, and science.

~ Made Chinese lanterns

~ Read "Dongfang and the Festival of Lanterns" (a short story from the Moonbeams book reviewed in my last blog), The Emperor's New Clothes, Officer Buckle and Gloria, Carousel, and The Drinking Gourd (see reviews below)

~ Adding double digit numbers (also worked with manipulatives to demonstrate the meaning of places such as "ones" and "tens")

~ Steam technology

~ Panama Canal

~ Mosquito-borne illness

~ Imperialism

~ Map work

~ Business ownership versus employment, labor unions

~ Writing contractions

~ Answering questions from a story and highlighting relevant material

~ Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, as well as a book called Introducing Gershwin

By far, Wolf's favorite activity was creating a comic book. We worked on it together; he planned the layout and illustrated it. He also came up with the text although I prompted him with different vocabulary options. Ultimately, we laminated it and he just about freaked out.

We also visited the Anchorage Museum yesterday. Even though large parts of it are closed right now for the remodel, we walked in awe through the section about Alaskan history, which contained life-sized models of different types of homes and tools that have been used in the Bush for centuries.

Here are some books we spent time with this week.

The Drinking Gourd: A Story of the Underground Railroad by F.N. Monjo
rating: 4 of 5 stars

We read this book in an evening. The story is engaging and interesting to the children and we will read it again a couple more times. The story opens the door for good conversation about slavery and the Underground Railroad. It touches upon the moral aspects of breaking an unjust law, which I believe puts it in proper context for young children who are otherwise learning obedience to the law and authority figures. My only complaint is that the book is not detailed enough. As engaging as the story is, we all want to know more about what happens to the characters. It is still written from the standpoint of the white minister and his son as they help the slave family. More perspective from that of the slaves would make this book even better.

Introducing Gershwin by Roland Vernon
rating: 4 of 5 stars

I used this as a reference with the kids, as we have been listening to Gershwin for a couple weeks. It's not written for 5 and 7 year olds but I was able to paraphrase and reference different elements of not only Gershwin's music, but music itself.

As we are listening to Porgy and Bess this week, I would have appreciated the stories behind his work~~not so much about his creation of the work, but the story/plot itself. That would have made it more engaging for all of us. However, it did provide a lot of historical context and juicy personal tidbits that made this well-received. (Porgy and Bess is amazing.)

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is relatively interesting...my son would sit through the whole thing and pay attention, but neither of us really enjoyed it. It's unconvincing, this love between Mike and Mary Anne. We didn't feel moved by the way the characters developed either, such as the mean guy who started to feel less mean. That's nice and all, but why did this happen exactly? We did enjoy a lot of conversation about the sociological and historical elements of the story, such as the use of coal/steam, the Panama Canal, the growth of technology and its implications for the worker.

The Empty Pot by Demi
rating: 5 of 5 stars

Demi is one of my new favorites! We adore her books. The illustrations, text, and story lines are all engaging and open the door to great conversation with the kids. This particular one is probably my favorite out of all the ones we've read. The young boy in the story receives a very special reward for his honesty.

For the record, though, after reading so many children's books lately, I'm definitely feeling weary of every single main character being a boy. I feel like I need to apologize to my daughter for the absolute dearth of female characters we've encountered. Obviously, this should (hopefully) be easy to fix by finding books with more female "leads." But still.

Officer Buckle & Gloria by Peggy Rathmann
rating: 4 of 5 stars

I gave this four stars instead of five because I needed to do a lot of explaining to the children, as they didn't really get why the kids were laughing at Officer Buckle. The "hook" of the story, in my opinion, needs to be hashed out a bit more in the text because it relies completely on the illustrations and does not completely succeed, in my opinion. However, the book is quite charming, and we all really enjoy it. It also opens the door to safety talks and my daughter enjoyed making "safety stars" after we read it.

Carousel: A Novel by Pat Cummings
rating: 4 of 5 stars

What I loved about this book was that the main character is a young African-American girl who experiences a lot of unpopular emotions like ANGER! And the book does not skirt around this, but rather describes her perspective in depth and shows how she loses herself in a dream one night. Her father is involved and loving. Her mother disciplines her in a way that is appropriate. A lot of times, in kids' books, there isn't any discipline. In addition to this, only one relationship is often shown between a parent and child, such as the mother OR the father, rather than both. This one had aunties too! I only gave it four because the plot could use more tension and excitement.