July-August 2019

TRAVELS

In July we travelled to Canada, and also west to Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah.

On our first trip we visited Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. We loved the town. The lakefront has a beautiful park by the river. We took a boat tour which we enjoyed very much, and also found informative about this part of the world and its historical challenges. We also visited a trading fort whose dimensions amazed us all. The food was better and cheaper than the US, but the gas was higher. On this trip I learned two things: 1) even if your travels prevent you from checking in your hotel on the first date of your itinerary, you need to call the hotel or you risk your booking being cancelled, and 2) not all border crossings with Canada are opened 24 hours. So when traveling plan ahead.

We also visited Duluth and Bemidji in Minnesota. Both are charming gems hidden far far away from anything huge. The kids were for two weeks at a language camp in MN. They want to go back again.

Our trip west was to Glacier NP and Yellowstone. Glacier is an amazing place and everyone should see it multiple times. Yellowstone is huge but so are the crowds, which robs from the serenity I look forward to in such trips. We camped at the St.Mary KOA on the west side of Glacier and we found it to be a great starting place for many key destinations in the park, mainly anything west of Logan Pass, Two Medicine and Many Glacier. The visitor center at St.Mary is fantastic. The boat tour is not so great. Landing in Kalispell was a challenge for B, but landing in Idaho Falls was perfectly fine. Go visit Glacier, it is amazing. We loved all hikes we did- Avalanche Lake, Hidden Lake, St.Mary and Virginia Falls, Grenell Lake, and Iceberg Lake. AtYellowstone we loved Mystic Falls, we did the entire loop starting from the left heading directly to the falls along the flat path; climbing the falls and descending from there to the parking lot was a bit strenuous. We did not like Fairy Falls because it was too crowded. We also did not like Beaver Ponds because it was not an interesting hike, but we loved that the hike begins in one state, stays for a while in another state, before going back to the first state - basically we were in Wyoming and Idaho during the hike. In Yellowstone we loved Lamar Valley because there were so many animals to observe and listen to. We also spent a day at West Yellowstone in the Bear and Wolf Center which offers a two-day admission, with unlimited comings and goings. The town was a ghost town in the middle of the day which was a lovely observation to make.

READINGS

Me: Surviving Hitler, Animal Farm
S: Red scarf girl, Tangerine
B: Usborne: Life of Napoleon, and Who was Napoleon; Nick and Tesla-Solar Powered
PG: Vovo de no Pe

Read Aloud: We need to finish Narnia and Two Miserable Presidents. At the moment we are cutting through with Usborne's short book on Alexander the Great.


SCHOOL

We are a day away from school starting. We are not ready. Our sleeping schedules are off. We are also mentally not there given the thrill of our travels. I am not ready. Fourth grader is returning full time, if things are not working out with him, I will try to pull him out as a part-time student. Sixth grader is a floater at the moment. She is very dedicated to her instruments and with the unnecessary intensity and stress of school she may be conflicted, so I am leaning towards homeschooling full-time, but we will try to get her to attend part-time for Science, Social Science and English. The rules they have are crazy in these schools. Taking a kid from school for a trip is full of hurdles, but after that the kid itself has to go through loops to make up all the missed stuff. They have made it too complicated, way too early. Give kids a break, you are not making them Nobel laureates at 11. She wants to play basketball and play in the orchestra, but who, in their right mind, would ever ask kids to play music at 7am? Kids should be sleeping at 7am, and school should not be rolling until at least 8:30am. Middle schoolers need a lot of sleep. My middle schooler sleeps all the time because her body is changing by the minute. Administrators seam to forget that they were kids once going through the same metamorphosis. It is really puzzling what collective human stupidity looks like. Also optimizing as is done is wrong - they kill all creativity and hunger to learn, and to be curious; they create robots and this is shameful. I wish I had understood the fallacy of the "excellent school".

Olympics

We spent another week at Portuguese Family camp, Mar e Floresta, in Bemidji, MN. It was lovely. A bit cold, but lovely. I met Sophia who is a professor of portuguese language and Sivana who is a brasilian teaching portuguese. I learned about brasilian folclore. I had read some brasilian folkstories but they did not make sense to me. Bulgarian, Russian folclore is straight forward because I am familiar with these cultures. Brasilian folclore also makes sense once some historic background is provided. I was very happy to learn what I did. My kids had a blast. On the way to camp we went to the Mall of America, we visited Todd and Tory. On the way back we went to lake Itasca, met with Minneapolis friends and went to a water park. At camp the kids learned a good deal, even the little guy spoke. The food was fantastic too. The counselors were very helpful, friendly and nice. All the activities were entertaining and engaging. I recommend this camp. I wish more families would participate because it is more enjoyable with more people. I envy my girl now because in her camp there are many kids. She is having a blast. I wish day camp were offered so that the little man would have taken advantage as well. Next year!

Our trip to Minnesota led us to a synegogue which was hosting an exhibit. The theme of the exhibit is what spiked my curiosity. The exhibit had as objective to highlight the strength of civil disobedience demonstrated by the bulgarians during the last days of WWII; actions which, as the exhibit was attempting to protray, were responsible for the saved lives of at least 40,000 jewish bulgarians.

I was disappointed because I have never been present at an exhibit which proves the anti-thesis of its claim. The summary is that under pressure from the third reich, the bulgarian authorities implemented laws which stripped all jewish bulgarians of their civil, political and social rights. Many were sent to labour camps, others were expelled from the larger cities into villages where they had to live in schools, friends' or stranger's homes, and had to rely on hand-downs because they were denied the right to work. Upon further pressure from the reich, towards the end of the war, even after germany began its demise, the bulgarian authorities carried out laws that put all jewish residents from the annexed territories (Macedonia and Thracia) on to trains to the death camps.Towards the very, very end, when the intelligentia most likely did not expect serious repruccusions did it assmble ralleys and demonstrations. A bit too late to be hailed as heros of freedom. Nothing on the scale of rescue effort carried in Northern Europe.

Since the topic came to us, I slowly eased my children into it. We read The Harmonica, The Greatest Ice Skating Race, Baseball Saved Us, and as a counterpoint to the generalization that all japanese were bad, we also read Passage to Freedom which illustrates the true events which took place in the Japanese embassy in Lithuania right at the beginning of the war, and the efforts of the japanese embassador, despite the disapproval of Japan, to rescue hundreds of refugees by issuing them papers which permitted them to travel west, away from the war.

The olympics in Brasil are right around the corner and this is extra motivation to revisit the origin of the games, their revival, talk about some great athletes, and some memorable olympic games. We already read Living in Brasil, which I found quite nice-a beautiful overview of information my kids already knew.

We are going to read about some exceptional athletes that inspire us to reach out, rise from obscurity, dream big and work hard to achieve. We are going to read about Wilma Rudolph, and Jesse Owens. While not related directly to the olympic games which are televised, Emanuel's dream is related to the paraolympic games, which are inspiration in their own right. This year we have been reading very inspirational stories: Ada's violin and the Boy who harnessed the wind, among them. I am inspired to continue finding books that lift the human spirit and human ambition. The book on Jesse Owen is a bit more detailed than what I would prefer, so we will read some and skip some, but we will tie it to Hitler Germany. In addition, I will tell the kids the story of the Boys in the Boat because it is remarkable. I will tell them about WWI, The Great Depression, and the fall out of Germany due to reparation payments to tie it to the rise of Hitler's extreme nationalism in the 30s.






Voices in the park is an interesting book that I found. I was reading Wonder which reminded me of Faulkner's Sound and the Fury. I wondered if there is a picture book which illustrates the literary structure of retelling a story from many different view points. I think this is a very interesting technique. It helps capture what is interesting to each character, and gives deep insight into the character's being. I am very pleased with how the concept is developed and revealed in this tiny picture book. I recommend it.

In portuguese we are currently reading Juca Brasileiro e a Mata Atlantica. I think we will finish and talk about reciclagem before moving on to a story book. There are a few Ruthe Rocha books that I would like to read to the kids before the end of the month. Portuguese is going well. Ballet girl is in camp, is having a great time and is making friends. Sunlight boy is right across the camp with his grandparents. He is in Bulgarian camp in which only two other people speak bulgaria-the grandparents!




The following are my readings for this month. I am very passionate about the election. I think that the country is in a pivotal spot in its evolution and can tip over. Unfortunately the options are not good. Saving Capitalism is an interesting reading, detailing some of the misconceptions of how the economy works and how it is controlled and by whom, The free market, the hallmark of capitalism, is a game whose rules are designed and enforced by the government. When rich people with powerful interests invest in the government to stir into  desired direction, we have corruption. The modern word is rigged, but it is corruption.

The interest of the few is observed at the cost of the well-being of the many. I also enrolled, late, in the local library's reading program for the summer. The topic is sprots related. I am reading Goldfish towards that goal. So far I find the book funny.  I am also reading Night Divided, which was given to me by a friend. This is a book about the Berlin wall. It is quite interesting because it speaks a lot of things I know for certain occurred behind the iron curtain. I do not like the voice, the "I can defeat them", "I can go against the regime" voice. It did not exist. Even one's thoughts were not harbor such bravery because the thoughts were read and interpreted as well. I am not buying the authenticity in the voice of the book. I will finish and wrap up my criticism.


While the kids are away in portuguese camp, I have been busy with picking up the violin and moving forward with piano. I am also reading more portuguese books that we have at home. I am also preparing for some of the science units that I would like to cover this year: Hydrolics, Microscopes, Simple Machines and Solar Energy. I am hoping that we can use any of these as the basis for science fair project. I feel like I am making progress and this is good.

Update: July 25, 2016

 Ali is a nice biography. It offers plenty of historical and personal references to bring the story into context. I do not like boxing, I find this discipline inappropriate as an olympic sport in the current understanding of the term Olympics, which envokes the notion of respect and comraderie. Boxing is violent. I, as a result of these preconceptions, read the biography out of curiosity, mainly driven by the fact the Ali passed away this year, the both the traditional medua channels and social media went overboard in recognizing him and his convictions. After reading the biography. I have a better understanding of some aspects of US history that I never knew-the Nation of Islaam, MalcomX, the Vietnam war and the resistence to it. I also did not know that the guy who talks about Idea, the ad, is the same formidable George Forman that Ali faced. I never knew, but always wondered, what sort of TV personality was this George ad man. Now, I know. I also respect Ali a little bit more, although I believe his behavior was narcisisstic, arrogant and disrespectful. Reading, I recalled back in the late 80s when Lady Tatcher, the prime minister in UK resigned, I heard someone say: "this is a smark woman. she knows when to step down-at the pinnacle of her performance". The precise opposite happened to Ali. I enjoyed the reading, but I will not cover it in our read-akoud sessions because it touches on too many, too complex issues which at this moment are inaccessible to either child.

This is a beautifully written story about Nadia Kumaneci from Romanian, the first gymnist to score perfect 10 in international competition. The story is well narrated, the illustrations are captivating. Few important historical moments and behaviors are outlined, making this book a great conversation starter for the meaning and the attitude towards the olympics in the last century. We will be reading this book very soon.

This was my Sunday, by the pool reading choice. Clearly, I picked the wrong spot. I find this book rather depressing. It depicts times in history which are feorcious and dirty, hummiliating and revolting. More than that, the story touches on some fundamental elements which make such atrocities possible. In particular, people tend to be naive, and with respect to the likelihood of bad events believe that it will not happen to them. In addition people still, after thousands of years of evolution, and especially a 300 rapid period of knowledge gathering, believe in fictional make-believes, tales dictated by men for some men's goals; tales that should long be irrelevant and yet are, by our collective mentality to believe in something simple, something superior, something perfect. I see it as nothing more than a convenient excuse. Oh, this happened. Well, clearly this was the wish of my god, what can I do. In this regard I have to say that I believe that we bulgarians have the best folklore. Nevolyo!

Simple Hydraulics machines has been our focus during the last two days. From the projects that are displayed we built two-the box and the bridge. Our bridge is two-sided.Before the kids returned from camp I built a hydraulic crane. We will talk about pressure and force in describing the machines. I will use these two projects to intorduce them to some scientific vocabulary. I will also encourage the kids to look around for situations or real machines where hydraulic implementations are possible.
From Hydraulics we will jump into solar energy and electricity. The associated activities are for next month. This month activities thus far have been a success!

May 2015

We are going on vacation. Ten days in Southern California. We will visit Griffith's Observatory, Disneyland and Caltech in Los Angeles, and we will concentrate our efforts on relaxing in San Diego, of course we will visit the zoo, the safari, seaworld and legoland, the airspace museum and the USS midway aircraft carrier. It will be awesome.

I recently finished reading these two books. Danny, champion of the world, I have started reading to the kids. So far they like it. It is a slower paced story so I hope they continue to like it.  I think this is the best of all Dahl books that I have read. I wonder if it is undervalued because of the slower pace. I think it should be emphasized because of its communal, family-centered elements.

Einstein and Relativity for kids is quite good too, but for kids who understand a little bit about division and multiplication, so for 4th and 5th grader the reading will probably be most appropriate. The earlier, the better. This book is a great introduction to a complex subject and offers good opportunities for discussions, thinking and be challenged.





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Random books recommendations

 In a very bad order:



This is a very good book presenting the topics in Q&A format. Each two pages has pictures and informational text addressing one specific question about the life of the Amazon people.

The story is beautifully illustrated. Each page represents one specific episode in the life of John Wesley Powell. It is a very well illustrated and narrated story which should definitely inspire you to talk about people and nature, go for walks, talk about dams, politics, bravery, settlers vs indians, and hopefully, inspire you to take a trip to this wonderful place on our planet.

Yes, this is on our February reading list. Darwin's birthday is the same date as Lincoln's-February 12. Same year too! It is a wonderful book but I strongly recommend it for kids who have read other Darwin related books. Some of our favorites are: Cool friend, You wouldn't want to be on the Beagle, Galapagos Islands, etc. The reason for my recommendation is that the book holds Darwin's words, and leads you to his final formulation of evolution and one of its mechanisms natural selection. The pictures are fabulous, the narrative is fantastic, but background knowledge is needed to fully appreciate the book.

Another February quick read. I love Freedman's books but the detail my kids can get is very small, and the purpose of opening this book is not the detail but sparking the interest. So, we will go over (maybe) the pictures pinpointing the main ideas of the text!

Great series-good pictures, good narrative. Great text for fifth graders who can read the text themselves. For us it is a quick read-looking through the pictures and walking away with the general messages. This is related to our recent trip south during which we visited a few Native American museums. (I intended to read them in January but we never got to them-either next year or after our next visit to a native american related place)

These are texts my kids can fully understand, so we will use them in parallel with the texts above. These we will read in full, and the above will be reference. (I intended to read them in January but we never got to them-either next year or after our next visit to a native american related place)

I hope to get to this book but we may skip it. It is a good description of what a scientist can do when inspired and motivated. We can related in general to the topic of water/snow which we will discuss in detail next month, or to George Washington Carver as a scientists since we visited the national monument dedicated to him in Dimond, MO. (We read this book and the kids liked it but I did not read it again. I think I will bring this book again next school year in December and we will explore more seriously snow and its properties)

I loved this book. I know most of it but make many of the mistakes that are outlined as common mistakes. I love this book and could easily use it to eventually teach grammar or at least as a reference when editing writing.

Yes, this is another February book. We already read the magic tree house books and this is just an extra we will leaf through. The book is phenomenal and we will carefully look at the pictures and recall out trip to Springfield and what we have already learned.  Just a reference though. For fifth grade and above this will be a useful resource!

We will talk about the Lewis and Clark expedition which will also begin our study of world rivers. This is an easy, elementary and decent text. I think I will try to find a more detailed picture book and use this as a supplement, independent reading material.

We will combine this with the previous book on snow but I do not put a whole lot of emphasis on this book. If we get to it, we get to it. Eventually we will study it and learn from it. If not now, there will be snow next year. The pictures are breath taking so I recommend it. I think that some knowledge of water, its cycle and properties will be needed. (We read this book and the kids liked it but I did not read it again. I think I will bring this book again next school year in December and we will explore more seriously snow and its properties)v

Speaking of water, this is very simple book, but if you handle it properly, you can teach a lot about earth science using it as a spine. I love this book, the sequence, the details I can fill in myself.

Another gem. We read a similar one already but this is so good that we are going to read it to reinforce the idea that the europeans did not discover America. America was already well known to a whole lot of locals. Setting the record straight is important to understanding the devastation that the europeans caused. I think it is fair to say that the conquistadores were on equal footing to Hitler and other dictators who had no respect whatsoever for human life and dignity. (We will read this book in October 2015)

The kids' school has a one-school-one-book program. A copy of the same book is given to each family represented in the school, and the family is asked to read aloud the book together. This year's choice is wonderful. I recommend this book. It tells you a lot about how to look on school, what to strive for, how to persevere, how to be true to yourself, not to fear and be brave and daring, and how the american society works which has always astounded me-much ado about nothing. People in this country become rich out of trinkets, unbelievable. We bulgarians do not waste money on trinkets so none of us became rich that way, but the bulgarians borns and raised here tend to fall for trinkets because it is the american trap. Wonderful book, lots to talk about and definitely will be a required reading in a few years. I like the program but I did not like the previous choices very much. The mouse and the motorcycle was ok but Humphrey was dull and boring and I refused to read it.

Good Books

Oh, so funny! The story is narrated from the point of view of Charlie, the dog. He tells us about a typical day in his life on the farm. Aside from a very pleasant reading this book offers a great opportunities for teachers-practice telling a story from the first person including what a typical day in once's life is like.

 A very pretty book! As with many picture book biographies or introductions to historical figures or events or places, the picture book fails to be the communicator of the information; it merely serves as a supplement. I think this is a failure of this genre of books. I pick them up expecting them to carry out the information that they often contain in the back. I felt disappointed by the like of We're going to Mexico, We're sailing the Galapagos for this reason. Sadly, this book, while very pretty, fell in the same trap. I would recommend it for children who already know something about Mozart and Wolfgang and who are at least somewhat familiar with Europe and the period during which he siblings lived. It is a great, refreshing supplement at that stage of growth but not before.                                                                                                          

  

This is a series a books which both parents and children will enjoy tremendously. The characters are borrowed from oh-so-well-known fairy/folk-tales, but the problems and the challenges and the solutions are oh-so-modern and oh-so-real that I challenge a single parent not to see himself being caught in at least one of the situations presented in the series. Children will view the presented circumstances and solutions differently but this is precisely the reason this books will not fade from popularity any time soon and will bridge and be relevant to many age groups. I loved them and highly recommend them to all ages to enjoy, either as a read-aloud, as a self-read, or as an easier independent reader.

Adults love to think that kids are very sophisticated. Sorry to break it to you, stupid adults, but kids are kids and I like them that way, simple and honest without the burden of reality on their shoulders. Many books, such as this one and many other award-winning books are forced into the classrooms and turn our children away from finding the joy in reading. It worked for me, after seventh grade I hated reading. I resorted to cliff-notes type of aides for two reasons 1)they gave a flat-out opinion and defended it 2) they contained all the information I needed to pass silly tests and 3) they deciphered a lot of mystery. After a while I stopped even trying to read-I went straight to the cheat-sheets, and I cheated myself out of the joy of reading and I blamed myself and put myself down. As an adult now, I realize it was not my fault. It was the fault of all adults who thought I was an adult before I was ready. The solution America found was-the easy reader series. Boom, another extreme. Sorry, but a bunch of dumb stories is another sure way to turn kids away from enjoying reading. So, I have embarked on the journey of finding the middle ground, the just-right books-good for mastering the skill of reading and good for satisfying the mind. About this book. I loved it. But this book is not for children to read. It is for children to be read to. It is a great supplement or even a spleen for a unit study of Peru or South America, but it needs to be supported with a lot of visuals, and with a lot of historical and geographical background. It can be used in a fifth-grade classroom, even a fourth-grade, and the children can be assigned readings of related easier texts, but this one should be read by the teacher and the discussion should be led by the teacher. Do not torture your children, do not put them down, enrich them and support them. Update 8/24/2014:  I finished this book today. It took me a while and it was driving me crazy with its monotone. This book could easily be abridged to 5 pages without loss of any information. I understand having hiked in the Andes that the stillness and the short sentences are perfect for that setting but the journey to the traveler is one thing, the journey to the reader is  whole another experience. This book simply overused and abused the settings. The book had many inaccuracies/ inconsistencies, the most remarkable of which is the thoughts of the boy at the sight of the monks. The kid knows nothing about Catholicism but lo and behold! he says their father is God and their brothers are the other monks! Seriously! (While typing this review I noticed that the program insisted on capitalizing Catholicism and insisted on single l for traveler but when I deliberately spelled with lower case god it did not insist on capitalizing it!) This book is no different than the Alchemist by Paolo Coelho, so I am wondering who stole from whom? Lastly, I question the committee that gives the Newbury Medlals for literature. I am still to find a good winner with this one being no exception. I have been reading them because in fifth grade the kids are required to find one Newbury winner book and read it and write a report on it. With so many lousy choices I am not surprised kids do not like reading. 

There is a blog that I follow and it featured this book as a read-aloud in first grade. I picked it up and found it dull right away. The design of the plot is nothing extraordinary, in fact, it is painfully ordinary. Here is the summary-an unpopular and unlikely pet saves the day. You are done. I also found this book difficult to read because it contains a lot of London-specific terms, so unless you cover London and England well prior to reading, many parts of this book will be enigmatic. Since I was not interested in talking about London, I chose to not even bother reading aloud this book to the kids. If  they find it on their own and choose to read it and find it enjoyable, I will be very pleased. I do not think this is a good read-aloud at any grade level.

Vacation

Summer means fun experiences and relaxation.


We embraced summer fully. We went to beautiful Traverse City in Northern Michigan. We were lucky, because I am a bad planner and I was not aware of all the activities that were scheduled for that weekend. As luck would have it, we arrived just in time for the Fourth of July fireworks! The kids were beyond themselves with the firework spectacle.The next day, we went to Bryant Beach park that I knew and liked from my previous visit- just a short stop for the kids to play, but no! it turned into a full-day adventure because who would miss the Blue Angels Air Show?!

To avoid the traffic heading out of Traverse City after the air show we decided to follow the great day with some fine wine testing and light-house tour in the Old Mission peninsula. Then we needed a real vacation day, a lazy day at the quietest East Bay Park Beach. Add to this a visit to picturesque Charlevoix with its mushroom houses and a ride across the magnificent Macinac Bridge and vacation was a clear success!

In a small book store on the main street in Charlevoix we found the following gems, one of which we had already read but loved so much, we decided to purchase it for our home library. I also found Battle Bunny which I thought was phenomenal. Initially, I read the story that the boy wrote and it was immediately well received by my little man. On the second reading when both kids were around I read the original story first, then I read the story that the boy recreated and both kids were hooked on this book. I recommend it even though some may consider it violent because there are bombs and zombies and presidents and air force one, but it is exactly what you would expect from a boy who is jam packed with facts and is meshing them into a very creative story.

This month will be exciting. Swim lessons continue. We plan a visit to the Hesston Railroad in Indiana. There are outdoor concerts, movies and fests nearby. And the weather is fantastic.

We are also catching up on some 'school work' mostly concentrating on Portuguese-songs, books and phrases.

Movies and Concerts

The buzz about Frozen has been so huge that it picked my curiosity and I ordered the movie through our library. Yes, it was a good film, but this is as far as I am willing to go with the praises. The ending was nothing new if you already know Shrek. The movie itself was nothing more than the drawing board for a big money musical on Broadway. The humor in the movie was light and it appealed to me. I like movies which appeal to the child in me and do not remind me that I am a grown-up. On that point alone I think the movie does deserve a five-star rating.

While we were at the library on Sunday, Ballet girl started talking about Charlie and the Chocolate factory. I was surprised that she knew about it. Turned out that during her music class some of the musical numbers were shown to the kids. Since we happened to be at the library, I picked up the book and we collectively picked up the movie. We saw it later that evening and it was very well received. I liked it too. I did not discuss the story but I think that if the kids choose to read the book as a read-aloud, we will discuss the characters and the consequences and the behaviors, and then we will watch the movie again. I will put it to a vote for next month's big read-aloud.

Update 6/17/2014: I purchased the DVD from Amazon for $3.96 and I was pleased to discover that Brasilian Portuguese is one of the language options and one of the subtitle options. Very beneficial. Lucky find:)

We also went to an outdoor concert by the community band. It was quite nice, actually. The music selection was very pleasant. The kids listened, played. 

Good Books! Terrible Books :(

Today while browsing randomly the internet, I saw references to these books.

  

This week was book fair at the public school the kids attend. Here is what we picked:

Sunlight boy picked the Tough Trucks. This is a good book about large machines that are used in different ways in our lives. This is a board book and is quite durable. I love the pictures and the details in the pictures which open up so much room for discussion, explanation and observation. We had a tough winter and a lot of snow is now melting. If the roads are not maintained clean, we can experience flooding. The last page of this book gave me the idea to explain that. So, I love it. I am sure other opportunities will come soon enough. I recommend this book. One day it will make an easy read for him. I picked up the duck book. It is entertaining, and exactly suitable for a first grader to read. I recommend it, my daughter who read it recommends it too.

Ballet girl picked up The Barbie Mariposa and the Fairy Butterflies. All Barbie books are poorly written. I think as a reading along, given knowledge of the corresponding film, this book could be quite entertaining. As a read-aloud, however, which is how I am using it, this book was very difficult and unpleasant. In general, I have noticed that about the Barbie books, Golden books included. I picked Princesses and Puppies. It is below Ballet girl's reading level, but I continue to push such books every once in a while to work on fluency. The text is simple and interesting. I do recommend this book. Ballet girl read it and enjoyed it.

Warning! Here comes bad news!

My little guy is a Lego enthusiast. We are currently a Duplo house but downstairs I have a stash of robotic Lego sets. I love Lego, but I think Lego should stick to what it does best. Books with Lego characters are a disaster. Too simple, too shallow, too complicated, ridden with poor sentence structure, unclear references, complicated plots, jungle of character names, bizarre plot settings, no proper description of the plot sets, tons of cultural references-some even offensive. I am extremely disappointed at the Lego books. We initially received some from my nephew once he outgrew them, and those first level readers are ok-basic, simple. But these plot-chapter-type of Lego books is plain junk. I highly regret owning these. I regret not paying attending when Sunlight boy was making his selections. 

Book fairs are a good idea. It is good once in a while to let the children make choices. I make most of the book choices, although we have recently adopted the scheme where I pick a book and each of them picks a book. Reading bad books is good as it allows us to form a baseline from which to judge the good books and learn to gravitate towards them. Even bad books are good for learning to read, but they too must meet some basic criteria-must have simple, straightforward story line, and small number of characters.


I read very good reviews and now I am super excited about getting my hands and eyes on a sample. It turns out that through a inter library loan I can borrow some from my local library.
If they prove as good as described, I would be inclined to purchase at least some in the series.
UPDATE 4/24/2014: I did not like these books. They were too long and not interesting.