2013 Books for Me and the Kids

Since going back to work in November 2010, I haven't done much reading, except as it applied to the classes I was teaching!  So up until this summer my reading has been limited to reading and/or re-reading the following, in order to teach them:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Lightning Thief
The Blind Side
Inherit the Wind
The Island of Dr. Moreau 
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
1984 by George Orwell
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
13 Reasons Why
The Litigators by John Grisham
Maximum Ride
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson

Wow, laid out like that it isn't too shabby a list!  Several of those books were summer reads.  Every student at my school is responsible for at least two summer reading books.  The others were for class.  Sorry I don't remember all the authors.  I'll try to look them up later.

This summer, I have read the following:

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aiden
Duty and Desire by Pamela Aiden

I also started reading longer books out loud to the kids a while back.  I have read them:

The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Wow! It's really different from the movie!)

Happy reading to all of you!

We Love Books!

Kindergarten was a great year for learning to read!  I mean, my kids have always loved books and being read to, but this year they really started to read on their own!  Some of them took to reading like fish to water!  Zachary is a great reader!  Thomas is right behind him!

The other two have struggled a bit more, but made excellent progress over the year!  Reagan’s teacher sent two books home with her every week to practice reading.  We were supposed to read them both every night, but that often didn’t happen.  Still, we read them as much as we could and it really helped for her to read the same books over and over.  It helped the other kids too because they always wanted to read the books too!

The first time we read a new book was always the biggest challenge.  Reagan gets frustrated easily VERY EASILY!  It took a whole lot of patience sometimes to get through a book with her.  Sometimes I would get so frustrated myself that Jim would have to step in and calm us both down.  But as frustrating as it was, we kept doing it and as the weeks went by, Reagan got better and better at reading and things got less and less frustrating.

She still gets frustrated quickly when she meets a word she doesn’t know, but she’s better at sounding them out, so we get through it quickly…usually :)

Anyway, they still love to be read to!

Bible story time!

They also love to read on their own…or at least look at the pictures in the case of this Star Wars book!

How cute are they looking at the book together!  So sweet!

2011 Books

Woohoo! New year, new list of books! Last year I managed to read 24 books! Not too shabby! Certainly better than the 19 I read the year before! Still nowhere close to Becky or Michelle, and I assume they both beat me at the Pulitzer race also, but that’s okay. The reading is fun no matter what!

I didn’t love the ranking system I used last year, simply because I feel the need to explain why I ranked each book the way I did, but I liked it better than writing out a mini-critique for every book, so I’m going to use it again. here it is:

1-3 I wish I could burn all copies of this book
4-6 Had a few things going for it, but definitely not my favorite
7-8 I enjoyed or got something out of this book, worth reading
9-10 One of the best, highly recommended

It will be interesting to see what gets read this year, since I have gone back to work. I predict a lot of classics because I’ll need to read them in order to teach them! As always, there will be a link in the blog sidebar, so check back every so often to see how I'm doing!

Happy reading!

1. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riorden-- For myself, I give it a 4 because I found it unbelievably predictable, but as a book for the grade 6-9 crowd, its intended audience, it’s probably more like an 8

2. The Blind Side by Mike Lewis--8--I particularly enjoyed the fact that much of the story took place in Memphis. If you enjoyed the movie, you'll also enjoy the book!

3. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley--8

4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee--10

5. Macbeth by William Shakespeare--9

6. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare--9

7. 1984 by George Orwell--9--I'm certain I enjoyed this book more this time than when I read it in high school!

There are Never TOO MANY BUNNIES!

I have to give great big thanks to my friend Michelle for introducing me to the book Too Many Bunnies by Tomie dePaola.

In this adorable story, Mommy and Daddy Hopkins give the children the task of readying the radish garden while they go to the store to buy carrot seeds. Each bunny has his own task, but they all try to do their jobs at the same time, creating a big mess. When the parents return, they straighten everything out by teaching the kids the importance of organization and taking turns.

But here’s the best part!!!!! The bunny children include a set of quintuplets, a set of QUADRUPLETS, a set of triplets, AND a set of twins, plus one singleton! This is the first children’s story I’ve come across that actually has characters in it who are quadruplets! My kids love it! Thanks, Michelle!

Things We Love #4

We love BOOKS!!!!!

Okay, it is a well-established fact that I love to read, that I love lists, and that I especially love lists of books! But you know what? JonZReaTom loves books too! The kids can't read yet, but they LOVE to be read to, and they have some favorites as well. I won't even begin to list ALL the books I've read to them, but I will list their favorites here (with a link in the sidebar so you can check back often!) Some of the books will be baby books, others more recent favorites.

Anything by Sandra Boynton--Barnyard Dance, Pajama Time, Doggies, etc

Anything by Karen Katz--even NOW my kids love these books, and we come home with at least one nearly every time we leave the library! They especially like the Counting Kisses books where every page is a new number of kisses to wake baby up or put baby to sleep. These are really precious books!

Anything by Leslie Patricelli--Yes, YES, No, NO; Yucky, Yummy; Blankie--lots of books about opposites, all with the same endearing main character, Thomas is especially fond of these books

Dinotrux by Chris Gall--currently Jonathan's all-time favorite

Pinkalicious by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann--Reagan's fav, not such fans of the Purple version, haven't yet read the Gold version

Anna Dewdney's Llama, Llama books

Any of the Max and Ruby books by Rosemary Wells

The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper--a particular favorite of Zachary's because it's about a train. He loves trains!

Full Disclosure

As you may or may not know, my friend Becky and I are having a Pulitzer-reading contest, despite the fact that she and I both know that she will win this contest. The number of books she reads in a year versus the number of books I read in a year just put the odds heavily in her favor, especially since she was ahead of me to begin with! Nevertheless, we compete!

So in a effort to keep up with it better myself and also to give her an idea of the competition she's up against (Ha! Not to mention the fact that I love lists and I love books and the idea of making yet another book list makes me supremely happy!) So, I'll be listing the Pulitzers I've read here, and I'll put a link to this post in the sidebar with my other reading info.

I'm using this list because it is the one Becky used in her original post on Pulitzers. It combines today's Pulitzer for Fiction with the winners of what used to be the Pulitzer for the Novel. By the way, our competition is who can read the most altogether, not just in one year, so I didn't read all of these this year!

Feel free to throw your hat in the ring and compete too! So far, I would recommend all the Pulitzers I've read. The ones in bold are my favorites.

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
3. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
4. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
5. Beloved by Toni Morrison
6. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
7. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
8. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
9. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Book Love

I love books! This is probably no surprise to any of you! And as a book lover/English teacher with both bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English, I pride myself on being pretty well-read. So when my book-loving friend Becky had a post recently about books that had won the Pulitzer for fiction, and she listed the six Pulitzer prize-winning books she had read, I HAD to check out the list myself to see how many I had read! I expected to discover that I had read more than her. I mean, I was an ENGLISH MAJOR! She was a music major! All those extra books I had to read in college should count for something here, right?

WRONG!! In fact, not only have I not read more than Becky, I haven’t even read AS MANY as Becky! I can only claim five of the winners: The Grapes of Wrath, The Old Man and the Sea, The Yearling, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Beloved.

So, alas, Becky beats me at books again. Not that we’re competing, of course. Not really anyway. At this point, she’s more like literary inspiration! She has certainly inspired me to add a few more Pulitzers to my reading list!

I wonder how many Michelle has read?

Start Them Out Early

I'm not one to brag or anything, but have I mentioned that I've taught Reagan to read already? I find that it's a great bonding experience for the two of us to read the same books and then talk about them. Currently, we are reading The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde.

My little bookworm!

Thanks, Jim, for snapping this adorable picture! I look forward to the days when the kids and I really can read the same books! Although, unfortunately, we probably won't all have the same taste in literature! Happy Monday all!

2010 Books

New year, new list of books! I read 19 books last year, not as many as in 2008, but I think many of them were longer than most of my 08 books, so I'm pleased with the number. It's nowhere near Becky's list. She read like 752 books or something...okay, slight exaggeration, but she read way more books than you would think possible for a mother of three! I'm amazed by her! Michelle probably read just as many as Becky, if not more, if that's even possible! She amazes me too! Let's blame my faulty eyesight for causing me to constantly miss punctuation marks, thereby forcing me to have to keep re-reading because the sentences don't always make sense if you miss the punctuation! It takes so much extra time!

Anyway, I'm trying a new thing with this year's list. I'm going to try ranking the books, rather than giving a mini-review. I'm going to use Becky's ranking system which is as follows:

1-3 I wish I could burn all copies of this book
4-6 Had a few things going for it, but definitely not my favorite
7-8 I enjoyed or got something out of this book, worth reading
9-10 One of the best, highly recommended

I'm also going to try to link all the books to Amazon so you can easily check them out if you want to know more.

1. Endurance by Alfred Lansing 9
2. The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde 8
3. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells 7
4. The Last Sin Eater by Francine Rivers 8
5. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Shaffer and Barrows 9
6. The Color Purple by Alice Walker 8
7. The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington 9
8. Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv 8
9. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 9
10. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 10
11. The Lost City of Z by David Grann 9
12. Wideacre by Philippa Gregory 4 (I have read 2 other books by this author and really enjoyed them. This book was well-written, as well, and had a plot that drew you in quickly, but within the first few chapters, the main charachter had sunk herself into levels of depravity that I just didn't want to continue to read about, especially since this was a 500+ page book and the first of a trilogy. No thank you.
13. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead 7
14. The Road by Cormac McCarthy 9
15. In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd 8
16. 1632 by Eric Flint 8
17. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 8
18. 1633 by Eric Flint 7
19. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson 8
20. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins 9
21. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins 9
22. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 8
23. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Graham-Smith 4
24. Othello by William Shakespeare

We Love to Read

Well, the kids and I have just returned from a somewhat last-minute, but lengthy and busy trip to Memphis. My apologies to anyone who would have liked to have seen us and didn't get to. But more about that later! While I sort through all the pictures we took while we were gone, and all the pics Jim took of his home improvement projects in our absence, I will try to entertain you with some catchup pics and stories.

First, a note on nakedness: To clarify, when my kids say they are naked, they aren't TOTALLY naked. They still have their diapers on. That is naked enough!

Now, here are a few shots of my budding "reader" Zachary. Recently, he has started "reading" books by himself or to his siblings. I haven't been able to actually hear what he's saying when he does this. I think mostly he just turns the pages and points to pictures.

Zachary

"Reading" to a bespectacled Jonathan

"Reading" to Reagan

Jonathan has done this too, but I don't have any pictures of him in the act! However, I HAVE overheard him "reading" to himself. His story went something like this:

Once upon a time there was a bunch of stuff...

Thrilling, I know. We'll have book deals in no time! Happy Monday everyone!

Imagination Library

Just in case there is a reader out there who could be getting free books for his/her child, but doesn't know it, I want to mention Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. This is a program started by Dolly Parton to provide one free book every month to every child under the age of five. It started in her home county, Sevier County, and has spread out from there to include communities all over the U.S., as well as in Canada and the U.K. I don't know how many communities are included in the program, but it certainly can't hurt to go check if yours is! The books are really nice, and who doesn't appreciate free books for their kids? So if you aren't already involved, go check out the website: Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

Reflections on 2008

Well, it's a little late in the month to still be thinking about this post, but I like the idea and the continuity, since I did this last year too, so here are my thoughts on all the things we did for the first time in 2008. I have included links to posts written about these items when appropriate. Enjoy!

What We Did in 2008!!

(in no particular order)

1. Read 25 books-now, to some of you, that may seem like a LOT, and to others of you, it's nowhere close to the number of books YOU read last year, but it's a number I am proud of. I also kept a list of the books I read this year, which was also fun and the only way I could know how many I read at all. I LOVE to read, and I'm happy to be able to make time to do it! More on reading in a later post.(See link in sidebar for more on the books I read in 2008)

2. Conversed with my BABIES--and began to accept that they really aren't babies any more! 2008 really brought on a language explosion with the kids. They talk all the time. asking questions and making guesses and figuring things out. I love that we can actually TALK ABOUT things now, and I know this will only get better in 2009!

Read NO and Talking with Toddlers

3. Got DVR- I LOOOOOVE DVR! It's the most wonderful thing! I love that with just the push of a few buttons I can automatically record the kids' favorite shows every day so we can watch them when the time is right for US. So it doesn't matter when The Backyardigans are actually ON. With DVR they are always on when I WANT them to be! It's also really nice to record mom and dad's shows and watch them at our convenience, fast forward through all the commercials, and rewind live TV because we didn't quite catch what that character said.

4. Walked down the aisle-Reagan had a big first in 2008, making her wedding debut as a flower girl and doing a FABULOUS job of it too!

Read Reagan's Wedding Part 2

5. Lost a gate-2008 witnessed the demise of our beloved kitchen/playroom gate and the release into house freedom of our children. It prompted many changes in all our lives as we adjusted to this new arrangement. I won't lie, there are still times when I think back longingly to the days we had a gate to confine the children to one room and wish we still did. It sure came in handy sometimes! However, we really couldn't keep the gate forever. The kids had to learn eventually how to behave in the rest of the house, and mostly they've done pretty well!

Read Free-Range Quads and Security Measures

6. Gained a gate-attached to a fence that surrounded our whole back yard and opened the great outdoors to our children! What an incredible blessing the fence has been! The kids love to play outside, and it's so nice to have a safe place with plenty of room for them to run around and explore!

Read Outdoor Fun and More Outdoor Fun

7. Taught Ladies Bible Class-this was a big deal for me, as I am not generally comfortable speaking in front of people my age and older, but it has been a wonderful experience. It's always good to have a new challenge and get out of your comfort zone, especially when surrounded by so much love, encouragement, and praise. The ladies in my class have been wonderful and that was enough to get me back up in front of them more and more.

8. Really did it alone-last year's list included doing it alone, referring to the fact that in 2007 both Jim and I finally spent time taking care of the kids without any help for hours at a time. In 2008 we expanded our abilities and each kept the kids alone overnight or even longer! Yea for us!

9. Spent a night away-obviously, if we kept the kids by ourselves overnight, that means that we both also overnighted away from the children. Mostly this was Jim, away for both business and pleasure, but I had a little child-free vacation too. Perhaps in 2009 we'll overnight away from the kids together!

Read A Day Away

10. Moved into big beds-and what a journey THAT has been. Still, for all the drama and headache of this transition, it has been worth it.

Read Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves and Update from the War Zone


This post has gotten long enough, but there are so many other things I could talk about for 2008. If you just have tons of time on your hands and have enjoyed looking back at the other posts, here are a few more memorable moments from 2008:

Also read Thomas' Wild Hair and Double Diaper Duty and Two Year Olds and Shiver Me Timbers

Also, for a look back at 2007, check out Reflections on 2007 and 2007 Posts