Over the past few weeks I read E. B. White’s classic children’s novel Charlotte’s Web (Canada) (US) to the boys, and we watched the 1970s movie (Canada)(US) over the weekend as well. The boys loved the story of pig Wilbur, runt of the littler, whose life is first saved by Fern, an 8-year-old girl, and then Charlotte, [...]
This morning the boys and I read an intriguing book, The Token Gift (Canada) (US). It tells the fictional story of an old man from India, Rajrishi Mohan, discontent with what he has accomplished in life. If only he had been king, then he would have amounted to something! His wife reminds him to think [...]
I tried a couple activities with Gareth this morning from Peggy Kaye’s classic Games for Reading (Canada) (US). I love her books, as they are full of simple learning games and activities for the pre-K to grade 3 crowd, though I have successfully adapted many of her games for older kids when I tutored junior [...]
This morning the boys and I did some activities and played a fun new math game a found in the book Dealing With Addition (Canada) (US) by Lynette Long. The book begins with a general introduction to playing cards, which I quickly went through with the boys, laying out the same cards from a deck I [...]
Last Friday we went to an 8-year-old friend’s birthday party (hence no blogpost last Friday afternoon), where we watched How to Train Your Dragon (Canada) (US). It’s quite a good animated family film if you haven’t seen it yet, with a message the world sure needs right now: seek first to understand those different from you. [...]
Just finished watching Ramona and Beezus (Canada) (US)with the boys that afternoon, and after reading several Beverly Cleary novels this year as our bedtime read-alouds, it was a huge hit with all of us. Such a treat to see those characters come to life! The movie combines parts of the various Ramona novels into a new [...]
Gareth and I have been reading several titles in the Step-Into-Reading series lately. We’re working our way through level 1, one book a day, with me reading him the book first and them him reading it back to me (with help). In the process, we came across a book Gareth absolutely LOVED, as it combined [...]
The other day as I was tidying up, I found this at Daegan’s spot at the kitchen table, a diagram of the area of the laptop at (8.5×11.5) 97.75 square lego blocks: I recognized it as being inspired by a recent MathMatters title we read, Sam’s Sneaker Squares (Canada)(US). In it, young Sam has a [...]
The boys and I have discovered a new author, who has written a few absolutely delightful picture books that touch on various math topics. Over the past few days we’re read A Remainder of One (Canada) (US), Inchworm and a Half (Canada) (US), and our personal favourite, My Full Moon is Square (Canada) (US). All three [...]
Most nights before bed, I read the boys a chapter each of a book of their choice. We read lots of picture books here and there during the day, but save chapter books / children’s novels for bedtime. Both boys are on a Beverly Cleary tear. In recent weeks we’ve read Runaway Ralph (Canada) (US), [...]