Homeschool Discoveries

We’ve read quite a few interesting picture books from the non-fiction section recently, so I thought I would share a few on a hodge-podge of topics today.  🙂

We had a “Fraction Fun” day yesterday (look for a post coming soon about that!), but I wasn’t really on top of requesting any thematically-appropriate books from the library.  So, we read a different math picture book instead!

Mr. E and Miss M both really enjoyed You Can, Toucan Math by David Adler.  Each page features a math problem written in rhyme with an illustration that gives clues to the solution.  My kids like “story problems” (as I remember calling them when I was a kid!), but our math curriculum (RightStart) doesn’t use as many of these as do some curricula.  Books like this make a fun supplement!

Most of the math operations were in the “easy and fun” category for Miss M (3rd grade), while some were a bit over the head of Mr E, but he figured out the answer to a good many of them (He’s in Kindergarten, but is advanced in math).

I’ve mentioned the American Story series of picture books in some of my recent posts about our history studies, but I think they bear mentioning again.  This seven book series of American History picture books by Betsy and Guilio Maestro covers the time period from the era before Europeans arrived to about 1815.  These books are fairly detailed, but not so much that Mr. E can’t follow it.  Even Mr. K (age 3.5) will sit and listen — especially if fighting is involved.  🙂  The pictures are really gorgeous in these books.   Even though they are picture books, they are not “too young” for Miss M by any means.  I even learned a lot from reading  Struggle for A Continent, a about the French and Indian wars (a time period I had never learned very much about!).

We find a lot of interesting science books in the non-fiction section — some are more memorable than others.  One series I actually  like is the Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library.  Now before you throw tomatoes for liking something that seems a bit inane, hear me out.  🙂  Okay, yes these are not classic Dr. Suess by any means, but I really admire how they work a ton of information into rhyming format in this series.  I would much rather put up with a few slightly off kilter rhymes than some of the dull sentences I’ve read in other science non-fiction books.   We read three of these books in conjunction with our science studies in the past few weeks:  Is a Camel A Mammal, Oh Why Oh Why Are Deserts dry and Safari So Good. These books are a good read aloud for my Pre-K and K’er, and even my 3rd grader really enjoyed reading them on her own.

From the Biography section a recent favorite was Wanda Gag: The Girl Who Loved to Draw, by Deborah Kogan Ray.  Wanda Gag has always been a bit of a favorite of mine since she hails from a town I called home for about four years a child — New Ulm, Minnesota.  This book does a great job telling Gag’s life story, Miss M read it several times, Tony read it aloud to the boys…then I just had to read it to myself!

Finally, just one fiction selection for this post (to go along with the previous non-fiction selection).  You may have already read Millions of Cats or the ABC Bunny — two of Gag’s most well-known picture books.  But have you read, The Funny Thing?  I really love this story.   An old man named Bobo is horrified by a strange creature (an “aminal”) that eats the dolls of children.  Playing on the creature’s vanity, Bobo convinces him to eat “jum-jills” instead.   Very tasty, these jum-jills!  (A phrase that fills your head after reading this book!).  🙂

I’m linking up with Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope is the Word.

Miss M and I continued our reading in the Puritan era of New England with The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare.  This Newberry-award winning book takes place in Connecticut in 1687.  Things seem to have relaxed just a bit in the Puritan colonies compared to the time we read about in our last bedtime read aloud, Puritan Adventure.

(I just looked back at my last Book Discoveries/Read Aloud Thursday post, and I think we finished that one about three weeks ago…so this was a long read — though there were a few nights we missed reading together!)

But like Puritan Adventure, The Witch of Blackbird Pond is the story of an outsider who doesn’t quite fit in.  Kit grew up in Barbados, raised primarily by her grandfather.  After her grandfather’s death, Kit decides to travel to New England to live with the only family she has — an aunt and uncle she has never met.

Kit often feels out of place, and befriends others who feel out of place — including an old woman living alone near the pond.  Hannah, the so-called “witch” of blackbird pond is really not a witch at all.  She is, however, a Quaker — someone the townspeople dislike just as much apparently (and this difference of belief leads many people to let themselves think she must be a witch).  Kit subverts her uncle’s desires and continues a friendship with Hannah, while meanwhile she tries to maintain a respectable face with her family and in the town.  She teaches in the dame school, and is courted a wealthy young man in town.

There are themes of romantic love in this story (both for Kit and for her two cousins), and of course the battle Kit faces between her free-spirited upbringing and the “respectable” life she should be learning to lead in New England.

Early on in the book I wondered if this book would be a bit much for Miss M to follow (the love stories are a bit complicated, as well as some of of the political disagreements the townspeople have), but she kept telling me she was enjoying the story and wanted to know what would happen, so we pressed on.  This book was much easier to read aloud than Puritan Adventure, since Speare made very little attempt at period dialog in her book!

I’m glad we read this book, though I think we easily could have saved it for our next go-around with American history in three or four years — I think a middle-schooler would really enjoy this as an independent read.  And very likely Miss M will read it for herself anyway when we get to that point.  🙂

Totally not important — but I really like the cover image above…the copy of the book we have (purchased at a thrift store) has this cover.  Much uglier!

I didn’t really plan it this way, but we have been reading another book by Speare — Sign of the Beaver — simultaneously.  Sign of the Beaver is a much easier read-aloud to follow, and I’ve been reading it to all the kids.   We’re close to being finished with that one, but not quite…so I’ll save discussing that title for a future post.  🙂

I’m linking up with Read Aloud Thursday at Hope is the Word!

Miss M and I finished reading Puritan Adventure by Lois Lenski earlier this week.   This was a title I found via All Through the Ages, a great book for finding suggestions of both fiction and non-fiction read-alouds for any time period.

Puritan Adventure takes place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635.   Many historical fiction books I’ve looked at for our history studies take place in the early Jamestown/Plimoth colonial days, or in much later colonial times (after 1700), so I thought this was a nice addition to our list.  It’s clear from Lenski’s forward and Bibliography that she put a lot of time into researching this novel.  From her research she created an imaginary town to serve as a composite picture of what life in a Puritan settlement might have been like at that time.

The story in Puritan Adventure centers around the Partridges, a well-established family in the town.  Goodwife Partridge’s sister Charity comes to join them in New England.  She is a young widow, and it’s clear almost from the beginning of the story that she has not come because she shares the convictions of the Puritans in the colony.  Not that she is not God-fearing — but austerity, sobriety and plain clothing are clearly not her way of life.

While adjusting to life in the new world, Aunty Charity tries to also bring the best of Old England to the new — Christmas-keeping and going “a-shroving” and “a-maying” are strictly forbidden by the colony’s laws, but she manages to find ways to introduce these holidays to the children and bring some joy to their seriously sober lives.

Meanwhile, another thread of the story revolves around Patty Tucker, a servant girl and “redemptioner”  — aka someone who is “paying off” the cost of her voyage to the new world by working as a servant for a required number of years.  Goody Lumpkin, Patty’s mistress, is cruel, leading Patty to be a poor servant in return.  Like Aunt Charity, Patty is also drawn to sharing some of the joy of Old England with the children of the town.

The vague idea I had in my mind of Puritans before reading this story is basically true of many of the townspeople in Lenski’s story.  The religious leaders are concerned with everyone following strict rules and regulations to a T.  “Tithing men” are assigned to each family (one watches over a few families in the town) to make sure they keep up with the rules.   Violators are punished by stocks, pillories or even whipping or ducking (getting dunked under the water!).

While definitely a fictional story, Lenski portrays that some may have wavered in their conviction of this way of life.   Mothers in the story weep with joy as they see their children celebrating Shrovetide and remember their celebrations of the holiday as a child, while later still being willing to condemn Aunt Charity for passing on the knowledge of these celebrations.   And everyone puts up with Aunt Charity’s actions for a surprisingly long time.

I recommend this book as an interesting story with a few caveats — the language is a bit difficult to understand at times.  Lenski wrote the dialog in the way that the Puritans probably spoke at the time and there are plenty of “ye” and “thee” and other such trappings of early modern English.  Miss M seemed to follow the story fairly well despite this (and with a few explanations of word definitions as we went).  Lenski also uses some terminolgy to refer to the Native Americans in the story that some may find offensive — such as the use of the word “squaw” and describing the Indian women as “fat” and “waddling” in a few places.  I tried my best to skip over some of the more offensive descriptions, which didn’t take much away from the story.

Lenski was also not shy about incorporating what was probably a somewhat common way of treating servants at the time — Patty tucker is often whipped and otherwise physically abused by her mistress.   Patty’s response to this behavior is held up in contrast to her behavior when treated much more kindly by Aunt Charity and others, so it does provide an interesting point of discussion.

One of my favorite parts of any work by Lois Lenski is her illustrations.  I have a special place in my heart for Lenksi as an illustrator, since she illustrated the first four volumes of my all time favorite children’s book series (the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace).  Her style of illustration is very distinct, and as I saw the illustrations in this book, it made me imagine just a bit the girls in the Betsy-Tacy books dressed up in 17th century garb.  😉

Finally, I just have to say I’m so glad my library keeps old books like these.  I loved this relic of the past in the back of the book:

The dates on this card are from 1957! 🙂

I’m linking up with: