A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Family)
Baby by Patricia MacLachlan
Bandit's Moon by Sid Fleischman
Beware, Princess Elizabeth by Carolyn Meyer
By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Family)
Dateline: Troy by Paul Fleischman
Doomed Queen Anne by Carolyn Meyer
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Frindle by Andrew Clements
Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
Have a Hot Time, Hades! by Kate McMullan
High School Musical series
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord
Jason and the Argonauts by Bernard Evslin
Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Family)
Little House on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Family)
Little Town on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Mary, Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer
Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Lee Stewart
Old Mother West Wind by Thornton Burgess
On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Family)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Demigod Files by Rick Riordan
Phone Home, Persephone! by Kate McMullan
Princess Tales
Princess Test by Gail Carson Levine
Return to Howliday Inn by James Howe
Say Cheese, Medusa! by Kate McMullan
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Stop that Bull, Theseus! by Kate McMullan
Tales from the Odyssey series by Mary Pope Osborne
The 39 Clues series by various authors
The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
The Castle of Llyr by Lloyd Alexander
The Cupid Chronicles by Coleen Murtagh Paratore
The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Golden Fleece by Padraic Colum
The Lacemaker and the Princess by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Family)
The Princess School series by Jane B. Mason
The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
The Wedding Planner's Daughter by Coleen Murtagh Paratore
The Wish by Gail Carson Levine
The Word Eater by Mary Amato
These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Two Queens of Heaven by Doris Gates
Various American Girl books
Various Mary-Kate and Ashley books
Various Star Wars books
Way to Go, Atlanta! by Kate McMullan
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Charles can read!
A couple of weeks ago Charles started actually reading. We have been reading Dick and Jane. We started with the "Look, look. Oh, oh. Oh, look" stuff, and have progressed to the "Sally said, 'Come Mother. I see something. See Spot run and jump. Oh, my.'" sort of reading. He is getting really good at sounding out new words and remembering the old ones.
Charles has also been really interested in learning to play the violin like Emma. I decided to teach him what I know and then if he still wants to learn more, we can get him real lessons. He is really good at remembering the details of things I teach him and being very precise. So we'll see, but I think he may end up really playing the violin.
He has also picked up on the pattern for counting, so he jumped from counting to 20 to counting clear up to 100, with some help (like saying 30 instead of twenty-ten).
Charles has been really interested in the Magic Tree House books lately, so I've been reading him one about every other day. We've also been playing a lot of games together lately. It is fun that he has progressed to this level. He seems to have jumped from toddler-who-can't-do-much to kid-who-can all at once.
Emma has also had a lot of exciting things happen since we moved here. First of all, we decided to have her go to school. She has been attending St. Paul's Christian Day School for this last half of 4th grade. St. Paul's is an Evangelical Lutheran parochial school. St. Paul's only goes through 4th grade, and we will be homeschooling her again after this, but she really wanted to try the school experience, and we'd heard so much good about St. Paul's (and really liked it when we toured it), so we decided to give it a whirl. She has loved it. St. Paul's is a great school with lots of good opportunities. For Emma's school play, they put on Seussical (Jr.) the musical (Emma was a citizen of Whoville). It was a full-on Broadway production. At the end of school the 4th graders and their parents are going on a 3-day Texas history field trip. It has also been great for her to be able to see what other churches believe and how they worship. Emma has done well in school. So far on her report card she has had all Satisfactory marks (highest mark) and her scores for the individual subjects were all in the 90's. She also is in 2nd place so far for most AR (accelerated reader) points for the entire school year. Yeah, she likes to read.
We found a great ballet teacher for Emma too. Her name is Libby Lovejoy, and she moved out here to retire, but can't seem to make herself actually quit teaching. She has taught at many universities and at Ballet Austin, and is a great teacher. She and Emma hit it off right away. Emma is taking ballet and musical theater dance from her. She also encouraged Emma to audition for Ballet Austin's junior summer intensive, which she did, and she made it! The summer intensive is two weeks of intense ballet training at Ballet Austin in August. Emma is very excited. She loves to dance, and her current dream is to be a professional ballerina. She would dance every day if she could.
Texas is beautiful. We had a bit of a cold snap in late January/ early February, which would have been okay except our heater wasn't working and our pipes froze, so we had to bunk with Dad and Mom for a few days one week and then a few days the next week. But since then, it has been great weather. We have been mostly hanging out in the 80's lately. Our garden is growing nicely. We planted some box gardens on our porch. There is a sister in our branch who has good dirt (most of the dirt around here is clay), and she let us take whatever we needed. So now we are growing a good little garden with tomatoes, peas, beans, lettuce, garlic, swiss chard, melons, pumpkin, zucchini, cilantro, peppers, spinach, carrots, and cucumbers. Yay!
Charles has also been really interested in learning to play the violin like Emma. I decided to teach him what I know and then if he still wants to learn more, we can get him real lessons. He is really good at remembering the details of things I teach him and being very precise. So we'll see, but I think he may end up really playing the violin.
He has also picked up on the pattern for counting, so he jumped from counting to 20 to counting clear up to 100, with some help (like saying 30 instead of twenty-ten).
Charles has been really interested in the Magic Tree House books lately, so I've been reading him one about every other day. We've also been playing a lot of games together lately. It is fun that he has progressed to this level. He seems to have jumped from toddler-who-can't-do-much to kid-who-can all at once.
Emma has also had a lot of exciting things happen since we moved here. First of all, we decided to have her go to school. She has been attending St. Paul's Christian Day School for this last half of 4th grade. St. Paul's is an Evangelical Lutheran parochial school. St. Paul's only goes through 4th grade, and we will be homeschooling her again after this, but she really wanted to try the school experience, and we'd heard so much good about St. Paul's (and really liked it when we toured it), so we decided to give it a whirl. She has loved it. St. Paul's is a great school with lots of good opportunities. For Emma's school play, they put on Seussical (Jr.) the musical (Emma was a citizen of Whoville). It was a full-on Broadway production. At the end of school the 4th graders and their parents are going on a 3-day Texas history field trip. It has also been great for her to be able to see what other churches believe and how they worship. Emma has done well in school. So far on her report card she has had all Satisfactory marks (highest mark) and her scores for the individual subjects were all in the 90's. She also is in 2nd place so far for most AR (accelerated reader) points for the entire school year. Yeah, she likes to read.
We found a great ballet teacher for Emma too. Her name is Libby Lovejoy, and she moved out here to retire, but can't seem to make herself actually quit teaching. She has taught at many universities and at Ballet Austin, and is a great teacher. She and Emma hit it off right away. Emma is taking ballet and musical theater dance from her. She also encouraged Emma to audition for Ballet Austin's junior summer intensive, which she did, and she made it! The summer intensive is two weeks of intense ballet training at Ballet Austin in August. Emma is very excited. She loves to dance, and her current dream is to be a professional ballerina. She would dance every day if she could.
Texas is beautiful. We had a bit of a cold snap in late January/ early February, which would have been okay except our heater wasn't working and our pipes froze, so we had to bunk with Dad and Mom for a few days one week and then a few days the next week. But since then, it has been great weather. We have been mostly hanging out in the 80's lately. Our garden is growing nicely. We planted some box gardens on our porch. There is a sister in our branch who has good dirt (most of the dirt around here is clay), and she let us take whatever we needed. So now we are growing a good little garden with tomatoes, peas, beans, lettuce, garlic, swiss chard, melons, pumpkin, zucchini, cilantro, peppers, spinach, carrots, and cucumbers. Yay!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)