Our Latest Five in a Row Title - A Pair of Red Clogs

We've slowed a bit on our FIAR titles since 2011 started. I don't know exactly why that is, but I'd like to pick up the pace again. Our latest book, A Pair of Red Clogs, was so enjoyable. I wouldn't say it was GMan's favorite, but he definitely learned quite a few things, and he has been talking a lot about Japan since we started the book! (I'd also like to recommend, Suki's Kimono, a book we found at the library, that really goes along nicely with A Pair of Red Clogs.)

A brief synopsis of the A Pair of Red Clogs:

A child's delight in a new pair of shoes is the same all over the world, whether the shoes are patent-leather sandals, straw alpargatas, deerskin moccasins, or wooden clogs.

For Mako, a little Japanese girl, the new shoes were clogs painted with red lacquer that shone beautifully. This is the story of what happened after she cracked the new clogs playing the weather-telling game and so longed for a bright, shiny new pair to replace them that she almost did a dishonest thing.

*Taken from Goodreads.com

Here are several pictures of the lapbook GMan completed, all of the mini books came from Homeschool Share, my favorite homeschooling site of all time!

The title page.... we discussed (per the FIAR manual) the use of colored pencil drawings and how the illustrator used vivid colors when the story was happy, and more muted colors when the story was sad. GMan enjoyed this part. He loves looking at and analyzing illustrations, and I believe this due in part to the guidance FIAR gives in this area.

The entire lapbook:

My favorite mini book - it contains four verses from Proverbs about honesty.

Many of the illustrations in the book are just embellished stick/action figures.... it was so neat to see this pointed out in the teacher's manual, and then to show it to my little guy in the book. I loved the mini book about action figures.

Do you use Five in a Row in your homeschool? Or, do you have questions about FIAR? Leave me a comment ~ I'd love to hear from you!

*This post is linked to the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Valentine Books and a Fun Valentine Outing

One of the best things we did last week was go to the bookstore. We didn't buy a single thing. We did, however, sit in the children's section and read book after book. There is NOBODY in the bookstore at 11 a.m. on a weekday. It was like our own personal library, complete with beanbags, soft music, and all the wonderful, new books we could imagine.

I'm going to take them back on Valentine's Day and treat them to a hot chocolate and a dessert and do it again -- my Valentine present to them.

Some of our favorites:

Do your kids read Amelia Bedelia? This one is about Amelia when she was little.... and it includes the typical Amelia humor.

This little book was a great rhyming story - I love anything by Cynthia Rylant.

I sang this to GMan - I remember my dad singing it to me when I was little.

I know that the days of little ones curling up next to me while I read story books won't last forever, so any chance I get to read to them I take. I will miss that one day.

Books, Books, Books - and a Little Self-Restraint?

My weakness is books. I just LOVE them. Especially children's books. I had a collection before I even had children (well, I did teach elementary school, so I used them). They are everywhere in our house.... closets, bookshelves, boxes, nightstands, random piles everywhere. I love books.

I have actually been avoiding a local bookstore that is on the way to our Thursday co-op. It is a local bookstore, right in the heart of historic downtown. Today I could no longer resist the temptation, so after co-op we decided to park in downtown and take a stroll...

past the historic courthouse and Confederate statue. We read some of the historic plaques along the way - we've never stopped to do that before.

I love the small town atmosphere and the fact that NO ONE was in the bookstore except for us, and the sweet lady who could help us with anything we needed.

This is just a sampling of what the store had to offer.

I think there was silence from Miss, GMan and I for the first thirty minutes we were in the store. It was just so much fun to look at all of the possibilities.

I have a budget for homeschool materials, and I was proud of myself - I only spent $39. I've spent very little on their curriculum this year - we are using the library A LOT! We came home with a puzzle of ancient Egypt, a read-aloud for both children, a math storybook, and a Martha Speaks chapter book for GMan. The woman in the store also gave us a lot of free samples to take home!

Do you have a weakness for books??