November

Books

A very good book. Well written, well paced, interesting, simple and yet can lead to wonderful conversations and explorations. I recommend it both as a read aloud for kids as young as Kindergartners and as a self-read for a child 9 years and above. Adults will enjoy it too. The European vs the American theme is a bit too naive and silly

After very little thinking, completely spontaneously, despite having intended to preserve this story for next month, I dove into it last night. As I was reading chapter one, the kids did express interest but mid second chapter asked for a break. We will go on because this will be a fabulous journey which will get better and better as we go on.

Every once in a while Ballet Girl interrupts, Her teachers at school have taught her to 'guess' what is coming next, what's the story is about, etc,etc. Sorry, while I do see some value in this 'technique' when one is learning to read, when a text is being read fluently, it is better to just sit back, relax and concentrate on what the author is presenting. Very simple.

This is the first book in the Narnia series and provides some answers to questions that may come after reading the LWW. It was a good, fast and interesting read but definitely not better than the LWW. I am glad that I read it, I recommend it but it's not a star book. This is the extent of my review.

I have found myself undoing a lot of unnecessary damage produced by the school. Also last night, while Ballet Girl was practicing her reading, upon encountering an unknown, not-easily recognizable word, she would lift her head from the text and her eyes would stare around but not in the text. After observing this a few times, it was time to interject and repair the damage-the word is not written on the fridge, on the ceiling or on my shirt. The word is written on the paper, you are better of looking there and putting some thinking into deciphering the word. Aye, Aye, Aye! What a major headache! The schools with their 'techniques' and 'strategies' are making the simple things be unnecessarily difficult. 

This is the first book I read this month. The paper used for this edition is pretty poor so on first glance I thought the book will not be interesting. It most certainly is. I don't know about accurate, but interesting-yes.

It is a Newbery Medal winner. I tend to be cautious with these awards. For instance, I object to the deCamillo's books, A Year Down Under, Holes, Maniac Magee, Secret of the Andes, Strawberry girl and the Voyages of Dr. Dolittle. King of the Wind deserves an award. 

This is what Ballet Girl is reading now. There are a few more books in the series for her to read before we find another series. So far the stories from the series that she has read have been very interesting. The stories are about horses, and girls interactions with horses; some feature 'real' girls, others feature princesses. For a beginning reader with interest in horses, I recommend this book. The reading level is 2.3-2.5. My daughter is 7 years old and in first grade.

LegoFest

We went to Indianapolis to visit friends, celebrate kids' birthdays and to enjoy LegoFest. I liked the event but I think this is the last LegoFest we will go to. It's the equivalent of LegoLand in Schaumburg with more sculptures, perhaps. From hiegene/health perspective, both the event and LegoLand are a brow-raiser. The bricks on the ground were not clean, as could be expected so we travelled with a hand-held sanitzer bottle.

No more BALLET

Ballet girl has not shown enthusiasm for dance this year. Is she tired? I don't know. It is hard to say, but the classes were not giving her much joy. So, after missing three weeks straight, I took the decision to remove her from all classes, along with Sunlight boy who was taking the boys' class.

Thus we are left with one weekly activity and much calmer existence. Wednesdays the little man can enjoy his entire nap and Fridays I do not need to rush but I can begin my weekend calmly.

Schoolish Things

For History this month we are reading about the conquest of America by the Europeans. We are looking at the European treatment of the locals, the life of the locals up to that moment, and we talked about pilgrims and The Pilgrims but we will talk more about them over Thanksgiving. 

For Science this month we haven't done much yet but we plan to talk about the seasons and health issues.

For Portuguese: we have read on and off because we have been busy with out bulgarian guest, but now we are back on track. We have listened/read Peter and the Wolf; we have read a few books; we have watched a few Disney animated movies. All good! Now we are going to proceed with reading the book again using different versions from the library, and we will listen to the Disquinho version. Next we will read Snowwhite and we will listen to Disquinho and we will watch the Disney move.

For Math: With Ballet girl we are learning about the concept of area, slowly, and she is learning the multiplication table by doing exercises (she has understood multiplication for well over a year already). With Sunlight boy we are learning about adding three digit numbers.

Both kids are reading bulgarian 3-4 times per week.

Piano-Ballet girl had a Halloween concert on November 1st and Barnes & Noble. It did not go well initially but ended well. She played her piece beautifully despite forgetting how it started; I helped her. This weekend she is performing at the schools fall's recitals. She is performing the next longer piece. She is ready and I hope this experience proves positive for her.