What a wonderful day it has been. Santa was good to the girls in the family but sadly, my son was not happy with the choices Santa made for him!!! Santa was tired of electronic, tuned-out toys and made more thoughtful and creative presents for the 13-year-old and the 13-year-old did not appreciate Santa’s efforts!!! oh, woe is me that he only feels happy with toys that plug-in/use batteries/zone him out, which is partially his age, I concede. I long for the lego/play mobile years of building, once again, showing me you have to appreciate what you have when you have it. Everyone did love the books that were chosen for them and we have read another version of The Nutcracker today. Another Christmas passes and everyone will go to bed happy and that, my friends, in a family of five is the main goal.
I was able to knit a little today, and read one more chapter of The Lightning Thief. We watched The Princess Bride (a family fav.) on DVD, played a board game and I even snuck in a nap while my husband did the dishes.
Happy, Happy Day!!!
Author: peacefulreader
New Puppy
We did it!! My sweet husband and I picked out a lab puppy from Cedar Bend Humane Society and passed it off, at least to our littlest one, as an early gift from Santa!! We have settled on Roxanne-or Roxie-for a name. This took much deliberation with five opinions and my husband is still pushing for Eve/Genevieve. Roxie is 7 weeks old and loves to be held and carried around. Sadly, right now she is suffering from a puppy cold and I will be visiting the vet later today. We thought potty training over the holiday break would be a breeze with all of us home. We did not figure on subzero temps here in Iowa and our poor puppy doesn’t want to step one foot out the door. It has been years since either of us trained a puppy so I headed to the library to find some puppy training manuals. I was disappointed on the age of the dog collection, which seemed to come mostly from the 80’s and early 90’s. I did find a good one by Shawn Messonnier, who is a vet and it includes recipes for making your own dog food as well as homeopathic choices. I do plan on making her food as I think most commercial dog foods are, well, yucko! P.S. the puppy’s had a name change; it is now Tarah!
random thoughts
- Is it weird that I walk around my own home with my black winter hat on my head for hours after i come home from work?
- Funniest scene in a book so far today…Junie B. Jones hanging from a set of crutches in the nurse’s office after hiding in her kindergarten class!! J and I giggled hard about that at story time tonight!!!
- We read the book Duck tonight and J said, when we finished, “fake, fake” -she went on to explain how while she liked the book it wasn’t believable that a carousel duck would be able to walk around. It is hard for 6 year-olds to understand fact/fiction but her response was valid and true.
- Little Hoot-what a fabulous little gem about an owl who is forced to stay up by his owl parents (another one of those why didn’t I think of that story line!) by the author of Little
Pea.
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
The book blogging club at my school are reading this wonderfully brutal book by Deborah Ellis and they love it! The book has so many things my students don’t understand and they just read it and go “read it, it was good.” That’s it!! How can I get them to explore more, go deeper? I want them to have a greater aha moment with the book but maybe it is okay that they just like it. On their blog I have requested they find out more information yet they continue with one sentence comments, i.e. “why did they take him away when he didn’t do anything?” The writer is refering to the father being dragged off to prison by Taliban soldiers. It’s not a “bad” question, it is just not a deep question. This group has now read The Devil’s Arithmetic as well as this book and I am just waiting for this big amazing moment of comprehension and it may never come. Maybe it is just hidden inside them and it will appear next year when they go off to sixth grade.
Thanksgiving
Now I feel a little guilty…not over how much turkey I’ve eaten, because I didn’t have any…but that my last post was almost a week ago! I have been having a lovely Thanksgiving at my brother’s home in Deephaven. We have had great food, wonderful wine and great company. Our four children have played well. Watching the three little ones chasing each other around outside in makeshift Star Wars costumes was a big highlight!!
We also took a trip into the city to see the Minneapolis Children’s Theatre presentation of The lion, the witch and the wardrobe, which was stunning. I love children’s theatre!!
ahhh, there is something wonderful about relaxing with close relatives and sharing lots of mashed potatoes!!
Story Time
This week I came across two fabulous books that are my new story time favorites!! I read The Night Pirates by Deborah Allwright to Kindergarten classes this week and it just has great language in it. I love the idea of the little girl pirates!!! And that they borrowed Tom’s house to steal treasure. I love that the big pirate guys ran away. This is a flolicking, non-scary read for all pirate fans. The second book is Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk. This book could be used for all ages to teach genre as well as writing skills. Library Mouse lives in a busy public library and he reads at night. At some point, he decides he should write a book and he writes a biography of life as a mouse. I used this to introduce fiction/non-fiction to 1st and 2nd graders.
The Magician
Yeah! I just finished The Magician by Michael Scott, the sequel to The Alchemyst. It was wonderful and I am ready for the third one to come out!!! It really left me hanging and wanting more. I was so worried that Josh was going over to the “Dark side” ahhh but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. It is a thrilling read though.
I love what I do…
Ya know, celebrities are always saying “I can’t believe they pay me so much to do what I love…”
For me, it is more like I can’t believe they pay me so little to do what I love!! As a public school teacher/librarian we really don’t make enough. I plan on the weekends for my classes during the week. I plan all summer for the upcoming year. The rewards are plentiful though. Some of the time I get to sit in a big comfy chair that used to be my Grandmother’s and read to young children. I just started Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (love her) with three third-grade classes. I just finished a Kevin Henkes unit with 1st and 2nd grade and an Eric Carle unit with my kindergarten classes. Reading, what a great way to get through the day! Lilly would say “Wow”.
Five books
I am juggling so many different books right now especially when I get tied up (so easily) in this online world of blogging and commenting!! I am reading The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen for a 5th grade blogging book club I am working with at school and reading The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan with another 5th grade book club-both great books and very, very different. I am, also reading The Magician by Michael Scott, a follow-up to his book The Alchemyst. My son and I have read this series together and we love this sequel as much as the first one. I am trying to read The World is flat by Thomas Friedman because I’m interested in his new book and thought I should look at this one first and Little Heathens byMildred Armstrong Kadish, an Iowa farm story.
Wow…I should shut off the computer.
Things I love…
Okay, it is not environmentally-friendly but I love taking a bath…a bubbly bath w/ patchouli bubble bath! i know all the statistics about how taking a shower uses less water but there is very little comfort in water drizzling over you. Something about a hot bath soothes all that is wrong in the world and tonight after a very hectic day I had to have one. It is amazing and I usually am able to read a few chapters this way until I’m all shriveled like a prune.
Peaceful Reader 