Autumn, Autumn, Autumn...

I love autumn.  It brings back the best days for cuddling up with books. I have gotten into the habit now of splurging on one new seasonal book each season to expand our basket.  My spring basket is full and healthy.  My summer basket is alright for the most part.  My fall and winter baskets both suffer shortages in my opinion.  It's time to remedy that.  Last year's autumn splurge was the lovely, perfect "Woody, Hazel, and Little Pip." You can always count on Elsa Beskow or Sibylle von Olfers for excellent seasonal books.  But I want to get a little variety in my Autumn basket before I start overindulging on just one author.  So, my purchase this year will be one of the following:


Nightsong by Ari Berk. This is new and I don't have much to go off of other than the author's web page... but I like what I see and my only other bat book is Stellaluna . I like when books can demystify bats and Nightsong's hero seems so cute that any creepy bat fears simply HAVE to go away after reading it, right?

Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser. This may be my choice after all. I was so enamored with this book when I first read it, I would really, really like to add it permanently to our collection. My only hesitation is that it's a great late autumn book and I'd really like to see something more early autumn/harvest related added to my stash.

Johnny Appleseed by Reeve Lindbergh. If you know me, you know I'm a huge, huge fan of biographical picture books. Autumn is apple time and what better ways to celebrate apples than to have a book about the man who made them famous across the US. The artwork by Kathy Jakobsen in this book is excellent... reminiscent of Barbara Cooney.

Apple Picking Time by Michele Slawson.  I'm just so eager to get some apple books!  I want to take the children to an orchard to go picking this year and this would make a lovely precursor to that event.  We're Washingtonians for goodness' sake!  We need some apple books!

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson.  I just need to give in and buy this already.  Sweet and gentle... early fall.  I like it.

So you see my dilemma folks.  What will my purchase be?   Ooh, the excitement!  (Before I do anything, I need to get a solid look at the Goodwill's bookshelves first... I might be able to come away with some autumn treasures there!)

Right On The Money

How To Raise Boys Who Read

Read.

Bear Has a Story to Tell: Pick of the Week

Newly released last week is title by one of my increasingly favorite husband/wife duos: Philip and Erin Stead: Bear Has a Story to Tell.

Around here, this would be a great book for early November. In other parts of the country, winter comes earlier or later so if you are particular about acute seasonal timing, know that this is about winter knocking at the doorsteps of fall and animals getting ready for it. All the while Bear is looking for someone, ANYONE to give him some time to hear his story. A tiny little curveball gets thrown by the time his friends are ready to listen.  It's a beautiful book, some books are great to gobble up quickly, others give you a sense of slower pace and savory appreciation right at the get-go... even with the paper its printed on!  This is one of those books.

I am in love with the illustrations by Erin Stead, as per usual. For anyone who still doubts that creating children's books is truly a unique and detailed art form, check these pictures out from her website that show her woodblock printing technique:

and the book trailer:

another genius bookshelf

The latest, greatest picture inspiration I have seen dazzling the e-world:

Beach Books I'm Loving Lately

Make no mistake: this is not a post pretending to be comprehensive in any way regarding beach books. It's simply a note of some beachy titles I pulled out of our collection or checked out from the library that we are reading and loving lately.  We are savoring this final douse of summertime here in the Puget Sound area...

 

 

 
"It's a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another one till you have read an old one in between."
-C.S. Lewis

The Summerfolk

The Summerfolk by Doris Burn is an excellent summer story that is out of print and not too cheap to find unfortunately.  Because of my deep love for Doris Burn, I splurged the $11 on this used title and am happy to own it now.  But when I bought it, I knew nothing about its contents.  There were no reviews that really gave me any idea of what I'd be purchasing so I really took a leap of faith this time (knowing I had a solid foundation with all her other art, plus the story line of Andrew Henry's Meadow).  So here today, is a brief review with pictures (I obviously didn't try very hard to take good shadow-less photos; but you get the idea).  This is a story about friendship and dispelling prejudices and adventure of the best kind.

Willy Potts (who appears to be about 9-12 years old) and his dad dislike the tourists who visit the beach where they live each summer.  They are loud and reckless and an all around disruption to the simple, fisherman's life Willy and his dad have.

"Thick as sand fleas and twice as pesky," muttered Joe Potts.
"Summerfolk," grumbled Willy.

But one day, Willy takes his rundown old boat into the swamp and meets a "summerfolk" who has created an exciting pirate ship raft that wants to pull Willy through the swamp to meet other kids with other strange abodes or boats.  They commence to pick up other strange, exciting, kind children with exotic names as Twyla Loo and Cork and Fedderly.  They eat and climb trees and tell stories and have a grand old time until it is time for the summerfolk to head home.

As you can imagine, Willy has quite changed his mind by now (still needs to convince his dad of this) and ponders carefully at the end of the story:

"I reckon there's summerfolk and summerfolk."

Top 10 Best Bedtime Stories

A good story is a good story.  And a good story is always a good choice for bedtime.  But some books are specifically about bedtime, sleep or goodnight rituals and are particularly dear to have on hand for toddler sets.  What makes a good bedtime book?  Excellent art.  A slow pace.  A lyrical cadence.  Or all of the above. Many of the titles below embody all of those qualities...  here is my personal Top 10 Goodnight/Sleep/Bedtime storybooks:

 A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na. Relatively new on the bedtime scene, this book is an instant classic. The illustrations are sublime. Period.

 Time for Bed by Mem Fox. This was the first, full price picture book I think I ever bought. And I bought it, interestingly for one of the same reasons that one reviewer on Amazon poo-poohed it: it's size. You can get this as a board book and a smaller paperback, but I bought the large book edition. I loved the idea of having such large, lovely illustrations totally fill in a child's line of vision before bedtime. Now, it's not so big as to be awkward and unwieldy... it's just a nice, jumbo size book. Many sleep books aren't.

 Sailor Song by Nancy Jewell. I chose this for pure nostalgia's sake. I read it often to my firstborn when his papa was overseas; it is a homecoming bedtime tale. Sweet and soft. The illustrations are done by Stefano Vitale, whose work I admire very much.

 Night Knight by Davey Owen. Just found and discovered and loved a few weeks ago. You can read more about that here.

 It's Time to Sleep, My Love by Eric Metaxes. The rhyming on this is very much like Time for Bed. The artwork is surreal. There are elements of it that appear strange or eerie in a lovely, only-half-awake kind of way; my three year old daughter loves this one.

When the Wind Stops by Charlotte Zolotow.  "And where do clouds go when they move across the sky?"  "To make shade somewhere else."  So goes this classic, gorgeous question and answer discussion between a young lad and his mother.  Stefano Vitale is featured again here in exquisite form. So it may or may not be a "must read" but if you do read it, When the Wind Stops is definitely a "must love."

 Grandfather Twilight by Barbara Berger. The small pearl becomes the moon. A few, well placed words. I love Barbara Berger... and she does not disappoint with this one.

 A Mouse Told His Mother by Bethany Roberts. Excellent bedtime banter here not too unlike Runaway Bunny. The art is detailed and wonderful and as it should, the adventures end with young mouse falling asleep.

 If You're Afraid of the Dark Remember the Night Rainbow by Cooper Edens. Perfect for children and teens and adults; this book was given to me on my 15th birthday and I treasure it's strange, lovely quirkiness still.

 Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. Did you really think I'd forget this? As one of the bestselling children's books of all time, even non-discerning parents often have this on their shelves. Their seems to be an unspoken code that this is a mandatory title. I held out for a long time just because things this popular spark the 'go against the grain rebel' in me.  But eventually, I caved and like so many others, can recite it practically by heart now.  That makes me happy.

“Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving.” 

-Madeleine L'Engle

Raising Discerning Souls

It was one of those beautiful, mothering moments when you are just so exquisitely happy and relieved that something you've tried to model and teach by example... has stuck:

My nine year old rifling through the bin of books to collect his prize for the library summer reading program-- Mom holding her breath, as she does every year waiting to veto a Goosebumps title or to simply roll her eyes at the twaddle-rific Star Wars books. (These types are always plentiful in giveaway programs.) So he finally makes his selection and brings it to me: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

"Nothing else looked very good," he states casually.

Mother bursts with pride... for we have no time to waste with the mediocre.

An Education in Pictures

As it's not in the scope of this blog to discuss homeschooling philosophies, I wanted to give just a glimpse at our upcoming year in a picture.  Our education is based on good, living books, and that's largely what you see here.  I'm showing you a picture of our spine, not the myriad of supplemental picture and chapter books, copybooks or online resources that reinforce all that we are learning (especially with art, science, music, history, religion and poetry). Plus there's a lot of overlap between these years as we'll be doing much of this reading together.  I also haven't put in the math for my 4th grader yet; can't seem to win any auctions on e-bay for Teaching Textbooks 5!  As it is, while I love designing curriculum, I am becoming more and more of a Charlotte Mason purist. This is mostly for two reasons: when the rubber meets the road, you have to abandon your glorious ideals on a pedestal and do what works for your own family; also, the methods of a true Charlotte Mason education are incompatible with having a diverse plan of attack (e.g. There's no sense in insisting on copywork if you are also forcing the child to do spelling sheets, handwriting workbooks and grammar lessons too.)  So while homeschoolers can certainly have a "Charlotte Mason flavor" to their curriculum... I sort of feel like the "atmosphere, discipline and life" is an all or nothing approach, at least for our purposes. So, just for novelty's sake I present parts of the 2012/2013 year (beginning in August!) for my boys:

Kindergarten:

3rd Grade:

4th Grade:

“Thought breeds thought; children familiar with great thoughts take as naturally to thinking for themselves as the well-nourished body takes to growing; and we must bear in mind that growth, physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, is the sole end of education.” 

-Charlotte Mason