Abby, Zoë and Enzo

Zoë and Abby were eager to read their eight books for Barnes and Noble's summer reading program.  They've had their lists filled out for a week or so now, and today we finally made some time to get over to the store and pick out their free books. 

Zoë chose a book about Thomas Jefferson, "Thomas Jefferson's Feast" by Frank Murphy, and had it read by the time we got home.  As she was getting out of the car she told me that she would remember that he was the third president because Thomas and Third both start with 'Th'... what a smart little cookie.  Her book was in the 1st and 2nd grade selections.

Abby chose "Judy, Moody, & Stink: The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Treasure Hunt" by Megan McDonald, which has a whole slew of other books about the main characters so we'll be looking for those at the library I'm sure.  Her book was in the 3rd and 4th grade selections and she's also zooming through hers, though it's lengthier.

Both of the girls are thrilled that they earned themselves a free book and haven't put them down.  Zoë's read hers a handful of times and doesn't want anyone to touch it, though she may change her mind when she decides she wants to read Abby's book.

It's great to see Enzo's love for books developing.  He has a shelf stuffed full of board books and loves to read them all.  Currently his favorite thing to do is search through them to find pictures of the moon - another love of his.  He has a couple of books that he knows have at least one picture of a moon, so he'll search through the shelf (read: pull all of them onto the floor) until he finds this book and then brings it to someone to eagerly point out all of the moons.  Forget reading such books to him, you're not allowed to turn away from the moon page.  He even likes to sit and listen when I read chapter books to Zoë and Abby.

Enzo doesn't usually care to bring stuffed animals to bed, he wants to snuggle books instead.  The books he chooses for this are typically one of two small books that he can hold in his hands and hug against his chest as he falls asleep.  Nevermind that he has cloth books that he could comfortably snuggle, he likes his book books.  At bed time lately he'll want to choose one of the books from Zoë and Abby's room (he loves "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?") and have them join us in the 'big bed' to read before he has to go to sleep.

Our bank is doing their summer reading program again and as soon as Zoë and Abby caught wind of it they were determined to read the required 10 books immediately, to get the $10 into their savings accounts.  Even Enzo gets to get in on the action.  I told Zoë and Abby that, for this reading program, I wouldn't count Enzo's board books and I also wanted at least one of their books to be a chapter book.  Even though they knew it wouldn't get counted on their own lists, both of the girls were excited to read Enzo's books with him to get his list finished up.  Here's what they read...
Enzo: 1. "Bear at Home", 2. "First Book of Sushi", 3. "Who Hops", 4. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", 5. "Playtime Peekaboo", 6. "AlphaBite", 7. "Number Munch", 8. "Hug", 9. "What Makes a Rainbow?", 10. "Percy Pickup"
Abby: 1. "Safari Park", 2. "Magic School Bus Gets Ants in Its Pants", 3. "Leprechaun in Late Winter", 4. "Ants", 5. "Ants and Other Insects", 6. "Mystery of the Stolen Corn Popper", 7. "Ant Colony", 8. "The Continents", 9. "If You Give a Pig a Party", 10. "If You Take a Mouse to School"
Zoë:  1. "Magic School Bus Gets Ants in Its Pants" 2. "Leprechaun in Late Winter", 3. "Safari Park", 4. "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" 5. "If You Give a Pig a Pancake", 6. "Fire Ants", 7. "The Continents", 8. "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?", 9. "Gerald McBoing Boing", 10. "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake"

We went to the bank today and handed in the reading lists and filled out the needed slips.  Zoë and Abby also each put in $5 that Nonno Ernie had just sent for them.

Both Zoë and Abby have been really interested in ants lately, so we made sure to get a bunch of books on them at the library.  Zoë decided to read one about fire ants today, to count towards the 10 books she needs to read for the bank's summer reading program.

She read about halfway through the book, then told me she was done reading it for now and needed a break.  A few minutes later she needed to use the bathroom but once she got upstairs she hollered to me that she was too afraid to sit on the toilet because she was afraid of fire ants now (she ended on a page with a picture of a person with severe fire ant blisters on their legs).  When she came back down I told her that she should finish the book so that she could have all the information, like that they don't live in this area.

Chris took Enzo to lap time at the library.  It's like the story time that I've taken the girls to so many times, but geared for the birth to age 3 group.  I have yet to get Enzo to one of these 'baby story times' so I was glad that the time was just right for Chris to be able to drop the girls and I off at yoga and take Enzo for this at the library.

Chris said that as soon as they sat down in the story time room, Enzo signed and told Chris that he needed to go 'pee pee' so off they went to the bathroom for a successfull potty break.  Enzo enjoyed some Daddy time while Miss. Susan led them in songs, read a book, and did some other fun lyrical activities for 45 minutes.

Here are our books and books on cd ("listeners") that we have until the 29th.

Harry Potter and the deathly hallows [compact disc] / J.K. Rowling.
   
Soupy Saturdays with the Pain and the Great One [compact disc] / Judy Blume.
   
American girl magazine
   
National geographic kids [magazine}.
   
Meet Julie : an American girl / by Megan McDonald ; illustrations, Robert Hunt
   
Josefina learns a lesson : a school story
   
Pioneer days : discover the past with fun projects, games, activities, and recipes / David C. King.
   
I spy fantasy : a book of picture riddles / photographs by Walter Wick ; riddles by Jean Marzollo.
   
Can you see what I see? : picture puzzles to search and solve / by Walter Wick.
   
The deer in the wood / by Laura Ingalls Wilder ; illustrated by Renée Graef.
   
Don't let the pigeon stay up late! / words and pictures by Mo Willems.
   
I spy school days : a book of picture riddles / photographs by Walter Wick ; riddles by Jean Marzoll
   
Can you see what I see? : once upon a time / by Walter Wick.
   

Here's what we're bringing back to the library today.  We've had it out for a while, as we finished up our Native American unit study.

Peter Pan [compact disc] / by J.M. Barrie.
Kaya's hero : a story of giving
First graders from Mars. Episode 3 : Nergal and the Great Space Race
Rand McNally children's atlas of Native Americans.
From Abenaki to Zuni : a dictionary of native American tribes / by Evelyn Wolfson
Fancy Nancy tea parties / by Jane O'Connor
Bonjour, butterfly / written by Jane O'Connor
The true story of Pocahontas / by Lucille Recht Penner
Pocahontas / Leslie Gourse
Pocahontas / George Sullivan
Pocahontas, Powhatan peacemaker / Anne Holler
Jamestown, 1607 / by Michael L. Cooper
The paradox of Jamestown, 1585-1700 / Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier
Squanto / by Feenie Ziner
The Mayflower and the pilgrims' new world / Nathaniel Philbrick

Here's what we checked out and renewed today:


Native peoples of North America : diversity and development / Susan Edmonds.

Geronimo and the Apache Indians.

More than moccasins : a kid's activity guide to traditional North American Indian life / Laurie Carl
   
America's fascinating Indian heritage / [editor, James A. Maxwell].
   
Giving thanks : a Native American good morning message / by Chief Jake Swamp

The eagle's song : a tale from the Pacific Northwest / adapted and illustrated by Kristina Rodanas.
   
Sign language for kids : a fun & easy guide to American Sign Language / Lora Heller.
   
The buffalo jump / written by Peter Roop ; illustrated by Bill Farnsworth.
   
Kaya's escape : a survival story (An American Girl Book)
   
The Sound of flutes and other Indian legends / told by Lame Deer, Jenny Leading Cloud, Leonard Crow
   
Scooby-Doo! and aliens, too!
   
Froggy bakes a cake [paperback]
   
D.W. rides again
   
If I Built a Car
   
Free fall / David Wiesner.
   
Powwow summer : a family celebrates the circle of life / by Marcie R. Rendon
   
The Berenstain bears and too much tv / Stan and Jan Berenstain.
   
The Berenstain Bears and too much pressure [paperback]
   
Scholastic's The magic school bus hops home [paperback] : a book about animal habitats / from an epi
   
The worrywarts / Pamela Duncan Edward ; illustrated by Henry Cole.
   
Franklin rides a bike [paperback]
   
Horus's horrible day [paperback].
   
Franklin's Halloween
   
Brother eagle, sister sky! : the words of Chief Seattle / paintings by Susan Jeffers.
   
Indians of the Southwest / Karen Liptak.
   
The path of the quiet elk : a Native American alphabet book / Virginia A. Stroud.
   
Rand McNally children's atlas of Native Americans.
   
Morning Girl [compact disc] / Michael Dorris.
   
Cool zone with the Pain and the Great One [compact disc] / Judy Blume.
   
American girl. Chrissa stands strong [DVD] / Home Box Office presents a Sobini Films production ; pr
   
Dragonsdale [compact disc] / by Salamanda Drake.

The girls and I went to the library this morning, sans Enzo.  He went down for a nap and stayed home with Daddy.  When we got there, however, we noticed that story time had started back up.  Apparently this is the second week or so that it's been back, we just haven't realized because it's been so long since we've been to the library.  We're usually there at least once a week.  The baby lap time was going on as we were there and the 3 year old and up group was next.  Unfortunately we weren't able to stay for it, since we told Daddy we would try to be home before Enzo woke up.  Now that we know story time is back, we're sure to be there more often.  I'm just going to have to figure out how to work the multi-level story goers though.  Enzo is now too old (read disruptive) to be going to the girls' age group with us and they're way past the baby lap time group.  I really think Enzo would love the lap time though and I know the girls want to go back to their group so we'll have to figure something out.

I realize that I've slacked for quite a while on our 'books this week' posts I was doing.  I'd like to start back up and keep a log for the girls of all they've read.  Here are the books and books on cd  we've had out for the past couple of weeks during our ocean unit study.  (Some are for the unit and some are just to read)

Little house on the prairie [paperback]

A drop in the ocean : the story of water / Jacqui Bailey ; [illustrated by] Matthew Lilly.

A good night for ghosts / by Mary Pope Osborne ; illustrated by Sal Murdocca.

A little princess [compact disc] / by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

About the ocean / by Sindy McKay.

Across the wide dark sea : the Mayflower journey / Jean Van Leeuwen ; pictures by Thomas B. Allen.

Atlas of the poles and oceans / by Karen Foster.

Big blue ocean / [Bill Nye], with additional writing by Ian G. Saunders ; illustrated by John S. Dyk

Down to the sea with Mr. Magee / by Chris Van Dusen.

Dragonsdale [compact disc] / by Salamanda Drake.

Flipper [DVD] / Universal Pictures and the Bubble Factory present An American Film/Perry Katz Produc

Flying high / by Nick Eliopulos ; illustrated by Loston Wallace and David Tanguay.

Hello, Ocean! / Pam Muñoz Ryan ; illustrated by Mark Astrella.

Mary Cassatt [DVD] / created by Mike Venezia.

Ocean day / written by Shelley Rotner and Ken Kreisler ; photographs by Shelley Rotner.

Oceans / Beverly McMillan and John A. Musick.

Oceans : a visual guide / Stephen Hutchinson, Lawrence E. Hawkins.

On the Mayflower : voyage of the ship's apprentice and a passenger girl / by Kate Waters ; photograp

Pajama Day / by Jane O'Connor ; cover illustration by Robin Preiss Glasser ; interior pencils by Ted

Sacajawea : her true story [paperback]

Scholastic atlas of oceans.

Sea critters / by Sylvia A. Earle ; with photographs by Wolcott Henry.

Sharkpedia / Nancy Ellwood and Margaret Parrish, writers.

Squishy sponges / by Natalie Lunis.

The Berenstain Bears : no girls allowed [paperback]

The Berenstain bears and the slumber party [paperback]

The day Ocean came to visit / by Diane Wolkstein ; paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher.

The magic school bus : on the ocean floor [paperback] / by Joanna Cole ; illustrated by Bruce Degen.

The Mayflower people : triumphs & tragedies / by Anna W. Hale ; illustrations by Maria Hazen-Voris.

Through the looking glass and what Alice found there [compact disc] / Lewis Carroll ; produced by Th

What makes an ocean wave? : questions and answers about oceans

We had a full list of things to get at the library today to prepare us for our first two weeks of homeschooling.  I'm fine tuning the schedule and getting their portfolio's and subject areas in order.  Zoë and Abby have really wanting to go more in depth with learning about ocean things for a long time now so I figured that would be a good place to begin with our unit studies.  We got so many books that I had to pack the underneath and footrest areas of the strollers (good thing Enzo's legs aren't long enough to need that area yet) for the walk home.  Most of our books are for the academic areas, with geography specific things, science, some history of ocean explorers, etc.  We also got some fun picture books related to ocean things.  We even got two educational movies about the ocean.  I made sure to get some books that would answer the specific questions the girls told me they had about the ocean when we did our brainstorming session, and they of course picked out some off topic books for them to read.  We're set to begin next week!

Zoë and Abby have been doing the library's summer reading program, but we haven't been filling in their time chart.  I partially did that on purpose because in the 'bookstore' things are priced by hours read and the lesser value things are dress up jewelry and stickers and such.  So I told them that today we could color in all of the butterflies (each fourth of a wing was worth 15 minutes) on their sheet.  Each sheet had 15 butterflies and even though I know that we've easily read more than 15 hours since the beginning of June, we just colored in one sheet each.

By the time we got to the library, it was past bookstore hours, but one of the librarians opened it up for us anyhow.  The girls pooled their hour tickets together and got a kwiz gizmo Kindergarten game by Klutz (for 13 hours), a peg game (the kind you see at Cracker Barrel), four tickets for jr. size ice cream or frozen yogurt with sprinkles at Izzy's and Zoë's, and two dress up rings.  They were quite pleased with their earnings and can't wait to get the ice creams!

This morning we walked to Anna Claire's house for a bit of playtime before Chris picked the girls and I up, and Andrea and Anna Claire followed us to Barnes & Noble for their story and craft time.  We had thought that this session was for a little older kids, but it turned out to be more the toddler/preschool type age.  All of the girls enjoyed it anyway, especially getting to use water colors to paint a mud puddle then color/decorate rain boots to glue onto their mud puddles.

After this was all done we went over to sit at the tables to eat our packed lunches and then Chris took the three girls over to play with the train table while Andrea and I talked... and played with Enzo.

I've taken a hiatus on the 'Books This Week' I had been doing, so we're going to get back into it.  Zoë and Abby have enjoyed pretty much all of the Berenstain Bears books there are as well as the rest of the fairy book series we'd been reading, and we're nearing the end of the Magic Tree House series.  We've also picked up the American Girl series, though some of them we're holding off on until the girls are a little older.  Here are the books that Zoë and Abby checked out this week:

"The Spike-Tailed Dinosaur" by Michael Berenstain, "Diego's Great Dinosaur Rescue", "Zak and Wheezie Clean Up", "Jessie the Fabulous R.E.A.D. Dog" by Barbara A Brockelman, "Wolf Island"by Celia Godkin, "The Sea Chest" by Toni Buzzeo, "Little Sister and the Month Brothers" by Beatrice Schenk De Regniers, "The Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race" by Stan and Jan Berenstain, "Rotten Ralph's Halloween Howl" by Jack Gantos, "Kersplatypus" by Susan K. Mitchell,  "Meet Samantha an American Girl" and "Samantha Learns a Lesson" by Susan S. Adler, Magic Tree house #37 "Dragon of the Red Dawn" and #38 "Monday with a Mad Genius" by Mary Pope Osborne, and "Mary Poppins" by P.L. Travers.

Zoë and Abby worked together and read 'Find Nat' today!  They did such an awesome job.  They read the sentences quickly and even had correct intonation for the question marks.  I was really impressed with how easy it seemed for them to zoom through the book.

We finally made it back to story time, the last week of it before they break for the holidays.  We've not gone on a Monday before, it's at 1:00 on Mondays so I decided to let the girls skip nap.  We picked out three 'Magic Tree House' books, two 'Magic School bus', a science experiment book and a handfull of parent resource books for me.  Abby and Zoë were very happy to see Ms. Mary again and thrilled to attend story time.  When story time was over we saw Maran and Beanie and chatted with them while we finished picking out our books.

Here are a couple links that will explain where we are and what there is to do here.  Let us know what you think in the comments, or if you want us to check anything out.  We want to visit the colonial section, the most easterly point in all the America's, there is a light house and brand new, opened a month ago, Science Center, also go snorkeling and feeding the fish, just to give you an idea of what is on our agenda.  I brought my under water case for the camera, so hopefully feeding the fish will be spectacular.

Wikipedia Article on João Pessoa

WikiTravel Article on João Pessoa

The kick-off was supposed to be yesterday, but it began raining shortly after we were done swim lessons and so it was postponed.  Luckily today the thunderstroms held off until later in the afternoon.  We first went to the library to return books and pick up some new ones, including the next Jewel fairy book, which we'd put on hold and was waiting on the hold shelf for us.  After picking a few books, including the young reader's edition of "Anne of Green Gables", we went to the café area and had our lunch.  Once we were done eating it was time to head over to Four Tree Island for the kick-off!

The first thing to do was to sign up and get the bags holding their reading charts and other fun things.  The theme this year was an Australian Outback theme with the slogan being "G'day for reading!".  A man asked if the girls would like to get their pictures taken with a (carboard) crocodile head on.  Zoë was all for it and was giggling as she posed for her photo, but Abby opted not to do it.  Everytime we passed by, I asked again but she never did decide to try it out.  Next stop was face painting, where Abby chose to have a butterfly and Zoë chose a flower.  We saw Maren, Miah (beanie), Casandra, and Mathew, whom we know from church, there too.  We went over to the refreshments table and the girls got to frost their own cupcakes.  They got a little cup of frosting, chose a food coloring color and then mixed it up.  There were cupcakes in ice cream cones which they slathered the frosting on.  Zoë had eaten the entire top off of hers before we got a chance to move over to the candy decorating table, so we just decided to leave the candy off.  After the treats were devoured, we went in search for some crafts, the first we found were making 'clapping sticks'.  Each girl got two paint stirring sticks and decorated them to their liking.  Once they were done and I was trying to get the girls to stand in a good spot for a photo, a man from the newspaper, who had been giggling behind me, asked if he could take their picture.  I'm pretty sure it's the same guy that took our photo during the snow storm this past winter. 

At 1:00 we went to wait at the 'platypus races' area for the game to begin.  The way it worked was that two people made a team and raced against another team.  One person from each team was at the start line and the other two people were at another line a little way across the grass.  When the volunteer said 'go', the people at the start had to quickly put on a platypus bill and tail then run down to their teamate and tag them.  Once the teamate was tagged, they had to then get in the 'outfit' their partner had on and race back to the start.  Abby and Zoë were the first to try, racing against Cassandra and Maren... definitely not an evenly matched game.  So, the race volunteers decided to have them try again, this time crawling instead of running, to give the younger kids a little more advantage.  Since all the girls knew each other, they themselves also decided to switch up the teams a little.  Zoë and Cassandra teamed up and Abby and Maren were a team.  Abby and Cassandra were at the start, with Zoë and Maren waiting to be tagged.  Abby had everyone cracking up who was now gathered around watching, because the platypus bill had come down covering her eyes and so she was crawling all over the course, and off the course.  One of the volunteers was calling her and clapping to get her to follow his voice... it was such a funny sight.  Meanwhile Zoë had been tagged and got her gear on and took off sprinting, very focused, until she was reminded that she was supposed to be crawling.  Can you guess whose team won?  After this we checked out the G'Wilickers game tent and then went on a 'walk about' before heading home.

At story time today, we found out that it was the last story time until the fall.  Pretty soon the summer time activities will start up and in June will be the kick-off for the reading program.

Here are the books we chose today: "Cowardly Clyde" by Bill Peet, "The Magic School Bus Sees Stars", "Where's Rusty?" an Usborne book, "Dora's Magic Watering Can" by Lisa Rao, "Just Me and My Mom" by Mercer Mayer, "I wear My Tutu Everywhere!" by Wendy Cheyette Lewison, "Hide-and-Seek Dragons" an Usborne book, "Up, Down, and Around" by Katherine Ayres.  And some Early Reader books: "Hooray for Snail!" by John Stadler, "What I See" by Holly Keller, "The Littles Get Trapped!", "The Class Trip" by Grace Maccarone, "Sunshine, Moonshine" by Jennifer Armstrong, "Pal the Pony" by R.A. Herman, and "Henry and Mudge in the Sparkle Days" by Cynthia Rylant.

We managed to get to the library with enough time to look for more fairy books, unfortunately none of the other pet fairy books were in.  We did get a couple of books though:

The 'Great Illustrated Classics' version of "Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum, and "Boomer's Big Day" by Constance W. McGeorge.

Next Zoë and Abby spotted the checkers game that's set up in the 'sun room' of the children's area.  I tried to explain the rules the best that I could remember, and then just let them play each other.  By the second round, they were just giving each other kings and capturing pieces.  At the end of story time they got to make a bunny craft.