My TBR Pile

My To Be Read (TBR) pile continues to grow, though to be fair, I am currently reading three of them right now (All Creatures Great and Small, Marmee and A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess). xo 

 

This Afternoon

 

In which the girls and I spend part of this lovely day reading outside while Miss Lily-Rose was getting groomed! xo 

Vintage

Vintage readers are definitely a favorite of our old fashioned girls! xo

Fun With Dick And Jane

A little reading before our daily trip to the lake. xo

{This Moment} Quiet Time

{This Moment} - A Soule Mama Friday ritual. A single  photo - no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments section for all to find and see. We wish you a wonderful weekend! xo

Wordless Wednesday:: Our Reader

Happiness Is....

learning to read!

Wordless Wednesday::Butterfly Grace

Exciting Things

I had no idea that last night was going to turn into an amazing kind of night. A milestone night if you will. A long awaited, amazingly fabulous kind of night. But it did and it is a moment I shall never forget, for last night was the night that Grace asked to read a book to us! I had pulled out our copy of Green Eggs and Ham since it had been awhile since we last read it. Grace, Emma and I climbed into my bed (where we gather each night before the girls are tucked in). We said our evening verse and afterward we always read a story (or two or three). Grace snuggled up to me, picked up Green Eggs and Ham and said: "Mama, can I read it tonight?"  "Of course, baby!" And so she did, with an occasional assist by me. It was such a magical moment and not something that I saw coming (though in the name of full disclosure I suppose I should have since she has been working on learning various word families as of late). The look of pride and joy on her face was matched only by the look of pride and joy on my face (and Emma's too). So, tonight, after their showers, they climbed into our bed, snuggled together and Grace proceded to read Green Eggs and Ham to Emma. It was a sight that I shall treasure forever. 

Now, earlier in the day yesterday Emma had informed Grace and I that she was ready to have her ears pierced. We have chatted with the girls about this topic for a year or so and while they always cringed at the thought of it they have also always known that whenever they were ready for it we would be too. Yesterday, as we were heading to ballet class Emma said to me (very matter-of-factly mind you): "Mama, I am ready to have my ears pierced."  "Are you sure, sweet girl?"  "Yes, mama. I am sure."  "Alright then. We shall see about getting your ears pierced."  She was thrilled. So thrilled that she told Dave last night that she was going to get her ears pierced and that she wanted star shaped earrings to boot! Today, after I returned home from the gym and Dave had headed to work, Em came and reminded me that today was the day her ears would be pierced.  "Well, I guess she really is serious about this" I thought. So, a plan was hatched and off we went (with a stop first at our local Ben and Jerry's since it was free cone day after all).

And here she is proudly sporting her fabulous new sunglasses and her beautiful new purple earrings!

She did great during the piercing. 

Of course, it probably helped that we had numbed her ears with Emla Cream before we went!

Grace has now decided that when she turns seven this July she too would like her ears pierced. I think she needed to see someone, like her beloved sister, experience it and come away unscathed before she was ready to experience it herself.

Needless to say, after the excitement of the events of the last couple of days, paired with the gorgeous weather we've had I had two very tired little girls here tonight. They even asked to go to bed early. A true sign that much fun has been had!

The Wonderful Word Cube

Thanks to my friend over at the Momgineer I have now discovered a new website called Teachers Pay Teachers.  It's a treasure trove of activities and things to do. Some of which are free to download and some which you pay for. Grace recently has been saying that now that she knows all her letters and their sounds that she'd really like to be able to read some words. And while, yes, back in the day I was a classroom teacher who did in fact help kids learn to read, I knew that I needed to take a different approach with her when it came to this skill. While we are a family who loves books and while we have surrounded the girls with the printed word and have read to them from the moment they were born, I have noticed that Grace is the type of little who needs a wee bit of instruction. I don't want to create "school at home" by any means but I also don't want her to struggle through this very important skill. So, in pondering how to lay the right foundation for her I took to the internet (as all modern mamas do) and decided to explore Teachers Pay Teachers. I discovered some wonderful materials there that I knew she'd adore (like the word cube and accompanying game pictured below).

This is the third word cube Grace has made.  She absolutely loves creating them!

Once the cube is made you can either play by yourself or you can play with friends.  This particular sheet is for an individual player.  And we changed it up so that you are coloring in the squares instead of tracing the words.  Coloring is way more how we roll (pardon the pun) anyway!

Watching her learn to read is just amazing.  To go from not reading one minute to reading the next has been a true joy to witness.  And to know that we get to be there partnering with her every step of the way just makes it that much sweeter.  

Monday Evening



Just as we were gathering for dinner this lovely-almost-autumn evening I noticed that Grace had climbed into her seat and was still reading one of the books she took out from the library today.  So, of course I did what any good bloggin' mama does and I made a beeline for the camera.  And while I am not entirely sure of how much she's actually reading and how much of it is simply looking at the pages, we are over the moon to see how often lately she is found curled up with a good book.  Each night after Em falls alseep she gets out her flashlight and reads in bed.  And not a day goes by that she's not spotted in several locations around our house reading.  I love that there's a strong foundation being built for her when it comes to reading and I love that it's all happening at her own pace.  I have a feeling it won't be long before she is reliably reading and I have a feeling that once that happens she'll be devouring books quicker than we know what to do with!



"Grandpa, can I read you a book?"

Unschooling Tools::Reading

Ah, reading.  I have so many thoughts swirling in my head about this topic.  The one thing that I know for sure is that it will happen when it's time.  I have never been one to rush my girls (or any child for that matter) into doing something that they simply are not ready for, and this is especially true in the area of reading.  In my former life as a teacher I watched as many a child struggled through reading and all the skills that come with it.  I truly believe that if we allow children to take a much slower pace and really, truly build a solid foundation (taking time to first learn letter names and sounds, and then to put them together to form words, to then, and only then, be followed by the reading of sentences) that we will have stronger, more confident readers as a result. 

It was only recently, as she inches closer to turning six, that Grace has learned the letter names and their sounds.  And even then there are times she still gets tripped up on certain ones (H seems to give her lots of trouble).  She went from struggling to identify capital letters to seemingly overnight being able to identify upper and lower case letters and their sounds.  I think this is in part due to the fact that she got to determine when she was ready to learn these skills and not that it was decided for her when she should learn them.  She has also started to ask how to spell words and is trying to sound words out.  There is a lot of: "Mama, duck is spelled...." and then her saying each letter sound to figure out how the word is spelled.  And there is a little bit of reading happening too.  She surprised me very recently by reading a story called Zac the Rat (found on starfall.com).  To say she was proud of herself is an understatement.  Of course, a card appearing from Gramma and Grandpa only added to the pride and excitement that comes with reading your first story! It is that feeling of pride. Of knowing that she can do something.  Of knowing that she will do it when the time is right and that taking her time is OK  which has given her the confidence she needs in the beginning stages of aquiring this amazing skill.  Grace has always taken her time and I have no doubt that reading will be that way too.  Since she has always been encouraged to take her time, to do things only when she feels she is ready, she has always done whatever she has set her mind to well and with great success. 

 

And Emma.  Where is she in all this?  She is there, the every present sidekick to Grace, wishing she too was getting ready to turn six and trying her darndest to identify letters and sounds.  We often tell her that "it will happen when it's time" and while her time may occur sooner rather than later it has not arrived as of yet.  She is doing lots of pre-writting.  And lots of letter play.  And lots of drawing.  All essential skills to becoming a great reader.  Both girls have always loved the magnetic letters on our fridge, but Em has a true affinity for them. She can often be found using them to make up new words (words that only she knows).  Or sorting them by color into corresponding bowls.  A game that she came up with all on her own.    

I think the thing to keep in mind is that given the right support and encouragment, and by living in a print rich environment where a love of reading is clearly evident, that children will learn to read "when the time is right". It may not be when they are five.  And it may not be when they are seven.  It may not even be when they are nine.  And that's OK.  The important thing is to give them the time, space and  encouragement they need to learn this essential skill.  And while it may be easier said than done: try not to compare them to anyone else (traditionally schooled, homeschooled or unschooled).  Learning to read is not a race, and really all that matters in the end is that they fall in love with reading.

To help develop that love of reading in our girls here is a list of some of the things that we have used:

• Picture books
• Chapter books (American Girl stories, Little House on the Prarie)
• Magazines (Babybug, Ladybug, Highlights High Five, Ranger Rick, Big Back Yard, Animal Baby)
• Trips to the library
• Magnetic Letters
• Fridge Phonics
• Starfall.com (Learning Letters section and Learn to Read Section)
• iPad Apps (Intro to Letters, Montessori Crosswords, AlphaWritter, Ladybug's Bookshelf, Starfall, SuperWhy, ABC Food).
• Alphabet Rocks (pictured above)
• They Might Be Giants 'Here Come the ABCs'
• LeapFrog Letter Factory
• LeapFrog Talking Words Factory
• LeapFrog Word Caper
• Phonics Eggs (see picture at the end of post)
• Alphabet Hide and Seek
• Pen Pal mail-The girls send a picture/letter to their pen pal Ellie just about every month.  This activity has morphed as the girls have grown. 

Thanks to Stephanie at Ordinary Life Magic for organizing these Unschooling Tools posts!  It has been so great to share what we do and also to read everyone else's posts in this series!  Stephanie's post on reading in her family is simply wonderful. If you need more ideas or encouragement be sure to check it (and the other posts) out. 

Our Day

Today there was:

reading.  By ourselves and with good friends.

sprucing up of the nature table and adding a new addition to it (the beautiful postcard)!  There was also some serious dreaming of things that would be great to have for our nature table being done by this mama.  Oh, the possibilities!

time spent outside.  Though due to the high temps and humidty not nearly as much time out there as we would have liked. 

and time spent creating things for a very special persons birthday on Friday!

And so begins the week leading to Dave and Grace's birthdays.  A week filled with wonderful preparations and ending with lots of cake! 

A Home Day

Fridays are usually our lazy days at home. The last couple of weeks though we've had things to do on Friday so we haven't had our usual lazy home day. Today however it was much needed and completely enjoyed. The girls and I had not had such a stellar evening yesterday.  The kind where you are left feeling that you have just lost the right to refer to yourself as a kind parenting parent.  And our crummy evening carried through the night too. Emma was up bunches during the night, and up for the day starting at 4:45am, which is way too early for this mama.  She had taken her diaper off last night, wet her crib and therefor her special blanket was in the wash.  We think that not having special blanket is part of the reason why she had such a crummy night sleep last night. David brought her into our bed this morning with the hope that she would snuggle with us and fall back to sleep.  Unfortunately, that did not happen.  And it was then that I knew it would take everything I had to keep her from falling asleep at 10:00am (I was only kinda successful. She had briefly fallen asleep on the couch but woke up when I arrived with the popcorn).  So today, a very mellow day was in order, and I am happy to report we achieved our goal and easily got back to our usual way of doing things.

It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!

I leave for a moment to go make popcorn and I return to see this:

Every Friday is pizza night. 

Tonight though we decided to make it pizza and a movie night.

Pizza must be the path to enlightenment.  

It was indeed a lovely, much needed day. 

The girls are now in bed, and there is a peace in the house that only comes with the addition of two sleeping babes. 

Have a wonderful night, friends. 

We'll see you tomorrow.