ONLINE READING TO KIDS

I ran across a neat site (thank you to my daughter and her blog) that reads books to kids. Actually the site has several books read by actors. My kids got a kick out of being read to by the guy who played Sam from Lord of the Rings. It is called BookPALS Storyline online and the address is
http://www.storylineonline.net/
There was an interesting book called No Mirrors in My Nana's House. It is after an old folk song. In the story a little girl is describing the world in her "nana's" house without mirrors. It just got me thinking. How different would the world be without mirrors? If we never saw ouselves.

A POEM

Here is a poem I fell in love with today.

We search the world for truth. We cull
the good, the true, the beautiful,
from graven stone and written scroll,
and all old flower-fields of the soul;
and when seekers of the best,
we come back laden from our quest,
to find that all the sages said
is in THE BOOK our mothers read.

Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier

OUR FIRST NATURE STUDY

Hello!
Well, we have begun our weekly nature studies. This last Saturday my hubby took us to a local park like habitat for our first outing. It was a lot of fun. We saw fish and frogs, dragonflies and beetles and spiders. It is an interesting thing, I have always looked at spiders as a yucky sort of creepy crawly when I find them in my house, but when you look at them in nature as another one of God's creations doing what they do they can be pretty interesting. LOL I still refuse to pick one up though. :) I think that the most memorable moment (beyond watching my children run around trying to show me fifty things at once and having a blast) was that we saw a huge hawks nest on top of a big light pole. Well, sitting on a tree branch not too far away was one of the pair of hawks. Suddenly it let up a screech and flew to the nest. We noticed that it was apparently carrying dinner. That is also when we realized that there was hatched babies in the nest. It landed and began to feed them and in moments the mate came in and landed there too. It was just so amazing to watch these two parents working together to care for their babies. Then, after a while one flew off and the second went back to her (his) branch over the pond. We picked wild blackberries and my son found a four leaf clover before we left. A truly awesome day. This is why I homeschool, to be with my kids like that. :)

POCKETFUL OF PINECONES

I just finished reading Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola. I LOVED THIS BOOK!! It is a mixture of a story based in the 1930's and a nature study guide. It is written in a journal entry type of way by a new to homeschooling mother of two. They are your simple everyday type of family and as the story progresses you learn about their trials and feel like you are sharing the concerns of this mother. It is a beautiful story. I decided to read the book thru the first time myself to glean the ideas for the nature studies but I loved it soo much that I plan to reread it to my children. The little boy in the story starts out self conscious about his nature drawings and the mother talks about how she and her husband tried to help. This was so perfect because I have the same problem with my 9 yr old son. He has such an awesome talent for drawing that comes naturally to him but he is always comparing himself to others and gets down when he feels his drawings are not as good.
If you want to read a simple sweet story, and especially if you are or are planning to incorporate nature studies, this is truly a must read. :) ENJOY!!