The Books We Read

I love books and I love to read.  I have been reading recently about the topic of reading to children.  Two Fish and I  have enjoyed reading to our kids pretty much from birth.  The girls and I read almost everyday together.  We haven't been taking many trips to the library over the summer but we plan to get back into a good rhythm when the weather turns cooler.  (Too much fun to be had outdoors right now.)  Sometimes the girls will let me read to them before bed but most of the time, Two Fish reads to them for 30-45 minutes before bed.  We have around 250 kids books.  They've all been read countless times.  Certain favorites have been read hundreds of times, sometimes multiple times a day.

In an article written recently by Emily Swan PHD, she said: "Children who read a wide variety of books and spend longer periods of time reading literally get smarter. How much kids read really counts! Reading is the BEST way to increase knowledge so it makes sense that children who read often and for sustained periods of time learn more than children who do not read for very long or do not read a variety of different kinds of books. These children build background knowledge on a variety of topics and concepts. This background knowledge is key in understanding new information. Voracious readers have an easy time connecting new information to their background knowledge, making school easier and more enjoyable, compared to children who don’t read and who don’t have a lot of background knowledge."  

She goes on to describe the variety of vocabulary and background knowledge that should come from reading a variety of books.  I've been thinking a lot over the past year about the type of books I read to my kids.  We enjoy beautiful illustrations, creative stories and themes my kids are interested in.  Sometimes we get stuck in a rut though.  I'm constantly looking into different styles of learning and different curriculums (because I'm obsessed) and I stumbled on Sonlight.  I liked that the preschool curriculum was just mostly books to read to my kids.  It had science books, myths and traditional stories and rhymes as well as poetry, longer novels (we had never tried reading anything that long or with that few of pictures before),

My kids and I just finished the Pre-K curriculum from Sonlight.  We started in February so we did it faster than the 36 weeks prescribed and we didn't necessarily stick to the day by day schedule in the instructor's guide.  We read a few days a week and we didn't do any of the letter recognition activities because Red Fish already knows them and New Fish wasn't ready until recently.  Plus, we just didn't really have time with everything else on our plate. I loved the books.  My kids loved the books.  It was really good for all of us.  We read about other cultures, learned tons of new nursery rhymes, read fairy tales etc. and it made me feel like a good Mom.  These became "Mommy's special books."  Some of the stories got read twice in a row because they couldn't put them down.  So here are some of our favorites

We did not read the Bible stories or the stories from Africa all the way through.  I was disappointed by both of them.  I would skip those. There are other books in the collection but these were the ones we liked best.

American Tall Tales CD narrated by Jim Weiss- My kids have listened to this CD over and over.  It was a lifesaver on our drive to California last May.  Jim Weiss does an awesome job doing the different voices and the Paul Bunyan story was especially fun. 

A Treasury Of Mother Goose- We have several mother goose collections but this one has rhymes I had never heard before.  My kids love the songs that go along with these and pull this book out on a regular basis to look at the pictures and read through it.  My kids have become very adept at picking out which words rhyme and which don't.  It has inspired several games around our house and helped prepare them to read.  Nursery rhymes are just something every child should read.

 The Lion Story Teller Book- Definitely a favorite from this set.  The illustrations are beautiful, the stories are fun and my kids went crazy over the lion and the rabbit tales.  This one is a keeper.

The Milly Molly Mandy Story Book- This was only the second chapter book my kids have ever read.  I thought it was a little dry but endearing.  The girls adored it.  They kept pretending to be Milly Molly Mandy.

Stories From Around The World- I love the borders and illustrations in this book.  I didn't love every single story, some were a little weird or boring but for the most part I thought it was great for the girls to get a look  into other cultures and traditions.  This book was a favorite.

Eric Carle's Animals Animals- I love Carle and we all loved this book.  It is basically a different animal illustration with a poem or saying about the animal on each page.  It has been read repeatedly. 

The Children's Book of Virtues- Contains stories that every kid should know, like the Boy Who Cried Wolf etc.

A Children's Book Of Art- We have art books all over our house but having a schedule of themed pages helped us to actually sit down and examine paintings together.  We talked about different elements used and it inspired many conversations about art.  I am definitely going to pull out more of my art books to look at with the kids from now on.  Fabulous.

The Classic Tales Of Brer Rabbit- I adore this book.  The illustrations are fabulous.  The stories are American classics. It is so fun to read. This book has become a regular around our house.  It is a definite favorite.

Uncle Wiggily's Story Book- This is the first long novel I have ever read to my children.  I was afraid they would be bored with so few pictures (and only black and white sketches) to look at but I was pleasantly surprised.  They sat in absolute awe of the animal adventures.  They talk about Uncle Wigggily frequently.  We will definitely be reading many long books together in the future.

People- Awesome for creating a discussion on how people are all so beautifully different.  This book was a great teaching tool for my children.

The Usbourne Book Of Things People Do- Each set of pages has detailed illustrations of a career.  There are ballerinas, police people, bakers etc.  I think my children learned a lot from this book and it really got them thinking about all of the different opportunities that await them in the world.  This was a favorite. 

First Thousand Words- I would have thought this book was too juvenille for my kids, or at least for Red Fish but this might have been their favorite book.  New Fish looks at it on a regular basis.  They had a blast learning new vocabulary and finding the pictures.

The Berenstein Bears' Big Book of Science and Nature- had great illustrations and perfectly age appropriate answers to dozens of science questions.  My kids liked all of the scientific books in the Sonlight program but this was by far the favorite.

The Year At Maple Hill Farm- My kids adore all things animal so this book went over very well with them.


I'm still struggling to decide if we will jump into the Kindergarten curriculum or not.  It seems more involved and is very pricey. We may just check out some of the books it suggests.  I'm not sure yet.  We have a lot of plans this Fall.   Overall, I highly recommend these books and the Sonlight program.  It has been a great experience for all of us. It has broadened our horizons and opened us to reading things I wouldn't have read with my kids on my own.  I will definitely repeat the program with just New Fish in a year.

Colorful Books

Painting With Children by Brunhild Muller

I couldn't get into all of the Waldorf philosophy on the emotional impact of different colors.  I did like the ideas for telling stories to inspire color based paintings.  I think the stories will make painting to learn about color mixing more fun.  We did a color story tonight and the girls loved it.

New Fish

Red Fish

This color story was about yellow having a birthday party.  He invites blue and red over and discovers a rainbow of guests. 
Colorations Liquid Watercolor Paint 8 oz.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

I had never read this delightful children's book. It is delightfully imaginative and fun. I watched the movie right afterwards and I think it does a wonderful job of adapting the book for the screen. 

Good Tidings of Great Joy - An Advent Celebration of the Savior's Birth by Eric D. Huntsman 

My awesome sister in law gave this to us for Christmas.  I was a bit bogged down by the season so I didn't get to read it as in depth as I want to.  I will definitely be reading it again next fall to get ready for Christmas.  It made me really excited to try celebrating advent with my family next year.  I had been thinking about it before but this book definitely gives it a deeper meaning.  It was a perfect read for the Christmas season- Thank you L! I want to read Huntsman's Easter book now. 

 

Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes

 I like Brooke's theories on children and art.  She says that symbolic and realistic drawing don't have to inhibit eachother.  Drawing can be taught just like playing the piano or any other creative skill.  Anyone can be artistic with the right tools.  I am excited to try some of the drawing exercises with my kids, especially Red Fish.

San Francisco- Day 4

I think we've zig-zagged across most of the city now.  We've been relying mostly on the public transportation and doing a whole lot of walking.  We rode the bus everywhere today.  On one bus there was a ninety-four year old woman who gave us a pretty great laugh.  She was hitting on the bus driver and telling all sorts of wild stories about her life.  Apparently she is like Alaska, everyone knows what it is but nobody wants to go there.  She definitely made our ride more interesting.


We went to Golden Gate park and The de Young museum.  They have a nice permanent collection.  There are a lot of American works including many colonial pieces and many from the Hudson River school.  There were a lot of landscapes, which aren't my favorite.  The hard thing about living so far away from great museums is that I have to visit them all in a few hours.  It's difficult to absorb that much work in a short amount of time.  I'd prefer to be able to see parts of the collections over extended periods of time so that I could digest them more easily.  S'est la vie.

The main reason for visiting the de Young was to see the Pablo Picasso exhibit they are currently hosting.  It contains just over 100 of the artist's personal collection, usually housed in the Musée National Picasso.  It was a great exhibit comprised of paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints drawn from every phase of the artist’s career.  I enjoyed seeing the wide range of artistic movements and styles that Picasso went through during his prolific career.  There were pieces from his blue period, rose period, expressionist, cubist, proto-Surrealist, Surrealist,  and Neoclassical.  Seeing them all together gives you a real respect for Picasso's scorn of fixed ideologies.  Picasso's ability to assimilate new ideas, political influences

I wish the exhibit had been curated slightly differently.  It seemed to jump around too much. The works weren't really placed together thematically or chronologically.  I almost think placing them chronologically would have been the most interesting so it would show his progression through different styles and also demonstrate how he sometimes revisited previous periods and worked in multiple pictorial modes. 

The work in the exhibit is filled with paintings I have seen frequently.  I couldn't help but hear lines from my kid's Picasso book, Painting with Picasso (Mini Masters), in my head since many of the pictures were in the exhibit.


The exhibit is definitely worth seeing.  I always enjoy Picasso and seeing them in the flesh is always so much better.

Art Group Day 12- Matisse Collages

Red Fish/New Fish

Today in art group we discussed Matisse's collages and also looked as some of his earlier work.  We talked about bold colors and lines and using layers to create a collage.  We also looked at David Carter's book 600 Black Dots (the coolest pop-up book ever.)  We discussed ways of adding dimension to our pieces by coiling the paper, folding it, tearing it etc.  I supplied them with glue sticks, bottles of glue, bowls of glue for dipping, foam, construction paper, foam shapes, and pom poms.  Kids always love collage projects.  I'm sad this was our last meeting of the summer but we have had  a great time!

Art Group Day 2- Yellow Umbrella Paintings

Art Group was a total success today.  I can't remember where I saw this project idea originally because I have since seen it several places but I believe it originated with Julie Liddle, art therapist and art teacher, who runs Art in Hand in Washington, DC.  We looked at the beautiful Yellow Umbrella book by Dong Il Sheen & Jae-Soo Liu.  It has a CD of music that goes along with the pictures instead of words.  We discussed the mood of each picture and what the kids could hear happening in the music.  

Then we talked a little about painting.  My sister in law L gave me the idea to talk about the paint brush as a little friend we needed to take care of.  We called him Peter paintbrush and talked about how Peter likes to take care of his hair.  He doesn't like it pulled or to have his head pushed into the ground hard.  Peter likes to wear different outfits.  I had mixed pastel colored tempera paints up in bowls for the kids ahead of time.  So first Peter tried out a pink outfit from one of the bowls.  Then Peter could play on the paper and paint.  Peter needs a bath between outfits so the kids had a cup of water and a towell to dry him and then he could try on a different color outfit.  It worked really well.  They did a great job sharing all of the paint and not contaminating the colors.  After they had finished painting we added the "umbrellas" on the kids rain paintings by sticking brightly colored tissue paper circles onto the paint.  The results were great and it was a perfect project for this age group.  I was especially pleased with Red Fish's results.  She is going through this new phase of painting where she covers the entire page in different colors of paint.  She has done dozens of paintings over the last couple weeks and there hasn't been a hint of the paper showing through.  It's interesting to watch the different phases the kids go through.

The only part of art group that didn't go so smoothly was me.  I dropped the blue bowl of paint while telling the Peter paintbrush story and New Fish dove right into it and looked like a little smurf.  She made quite a mess.  I guess I should have expected nothing less!

Recent Art Shows

It is no secret that I'm a big supporter of the arts. I love music, theater, visual art etc. Lately, I've gone to 2-3 art shows every month. Some of them have been great, some not so great. I don't exactly make it to the MET frequently but I try and support local artists and shows. Here are a few of my favorites from the last few months.

The Perfect Fit: Shoes Tell the Stories- an exhibit of objects made from shoes or made to look like shoes. My favorite was a bracelet made of barbie shoes. Really fun to walk through.

Rebecca Jacoby: The Visitors- Lot's of fun color and bold lines.

Painter Grant Fuhst; sculpture by Adrian Praze: It was a dark and creepy, much like a lot of my own artwork. I loved the puppets. It made me want to do more fine art. If only there were more hours in the day.

Carl Bloch: The Master's Hand

The exhibition featured five large altarpieces. Four of these have come from Lutheran churches in Denmark and Sweden. I recognize a lot of Carl Bloch's work but seeing them full size is a spiritual experience. As a member of the LDS Church, I have been exposed to a lot of Bloch's work. Reproductions of his work have been very popular in our church.
Bloch's spiritual sensitivity and the level of detail that went into these paintings is amazing. They have a true pressence that create a sense of being in a spiritual space, like visiting an old church. I love that the paintings seem to show the compassion and humanity of Christ. The exhibit made me reflect on my own relationship with Christ. I love the power of artwork to reach across the boundaries between various people and speak to them.

My Mother in law also got me a book on Carl Bloch for Christmas that I recently read. The Masters Hand: the Art of Carl Heinrich Bloch. It has some beautiful prints and great information in it.

Art Group Day 1

We had a great time playing with liquid watercolors today. We started by looking at Strange Stains and Mysterious Smells: Based on Quentin Cottington's Journal of Faery Research by Terry Jones and Brian Froud. We practiced using splatter techniques, spray bottles, bingo bottles and brushes on a big tablecloth. Then everyone got their own texas snowflakes and bleeding papers. I think they all had a great time. I'm looking forward to all of our projects this summer.

How gorgeous are these? I love the colors and the way the kids mixed the paint. I am totally inspired by the way children create. I'm pretty sure I could watch them all day.

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” - Pablo Picasso

 

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