Budgeting Time

We recently purchased a Kindle for our family, and are very much enjoying it. I just started reading How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennet (available free from Project Gutenberg).

I love this quote, "The chief beauty about the constant supply of time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoilt, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your career. Which fact is very gratifying and reassuring. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose."

Or, as Anne of Green Gables said, "Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" (L. M. Montgomery)

And another quote that made me laugh out loud a little later: "I cannot allow you to scatter priceless pearls of time with such Oriental lavishness. You are not the Shah of time."

I'm very much enjoying the book so far.

Using our ABC's

Today I'm using a variation on an idea in a book I'm reading, If I'm Diapering a Watermelon, Then Where'd I Leave the Baby: Help for the Highly Distractable Mom by Carol Barnier (fabulous book so far--I keep feeling as though it was written specifically for me and the way my brain works).

I've been giving the kids a sign language "letter" to hold in their hands to remind them what I asked them to do.

I asked them to go wash their faces, and showed them how to make a letter W in sign language to help them remember what they were supposed to do when they got upstairs.

We also talked about specific things we needed to work on today as we worked through an argument the kids were having and talked through the plan for today, and each got a "letter of the day" to remember throughout the day. For M&M and Ebee it was L for "turning on their Listening ears" and for AJ it was K for "Kindness is more important than being right".

The kids seemed to respond well to that--it was a fun and memorable way to turn what could have been a "lecture" into sort of a game, keep things positive, and promote an attitude of teamwork and participation. When that issue comes up today, I'll be able to use the sign language letter as a gentle reminder that will be relatively unobtrusive if we are out somewhere.

Now, if I could just get around to finishing the book. :)

BTW, my letter for the day is D for "don't get distracted." One of life's biggest challenges for me.

Carol also has a couple of other books that look interesting, including several on identifying and working with your children's learning styles, and some on helping highly distractible children learn. Her writing style is entertaining and readable, and her ideas are eminently practical, and simple enough to work even for someone like me who has difficulty following through with the great ideas in books and transferring them to real life.

Picture Book Answers

Here are the answers to the picture book first lines quiz--click on "read more" and then scroll down to see them.


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1. One berry / Two berry / Pick me a blueberry. --Jamberry, by Bruce Degen.

2. In this book/ With your little eye / Take a look / And play 'I spy' --Each Peach Pear Plum, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg.

3. Five little puppies dug a hole under the fence and went for a walk in the wide, wide world. --The Poky Little Puppy, by Janette Sebring Lowrey.

4. The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. --The Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Seuss.

5. Granddaddy says when he was little and the world was young, and only a few people had cars . . . --The Rolling Store, by Angela Johnson. (This book isn't a "classic", but I really like it . . . the pictures and words are lovely.)

6. Mr. and Mrs. Mallard were looking for a place to live --Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey.

7. Way up in the hayloft of an old barn live a mother cat and her new baby kittens. --The Shy Little Kitten, by Cathleen Schurr.

8. "Come inside, Mr. Bird," said the mouse. --In a People House, by Dr. Seuss.

9. A happy little elephant was dancing through the jungle. --The Saggy Baggy Elephant, by K. & B. Jackson.

10. In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf. --The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle.

11. In the great green room / There was a telephone / And a red balloon . . . --Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown.

12. This is George. --Curious George, by H. A. Rey

13. Chug, chug, chug. Puff, puff, puff. Ding-dong, ding-dong. --The Little Engine that Could, by Watty Piper.

14. One evening, after thinking it over for some time, Harold decided to go for a walk in the moonlight. --Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson.

Picture Book First Lines

These are first lines from books geared toward the younger set. How many can you recognize?

[ETA: I added the second sentence to #4. I think most people who grew up in the USA should know this one.]

1. One berry / Two berry / Pick me a blueberry.

2. In this book/ With your little eye / Take a look / And play 'I spy'

3. Five little puppies dug a hole under the fence and went for a walk in the wide, wide world.

4. The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play.

5. Granddaddy says when he was little and the world was young, and only a few people had cars . . .

6. Mr. and Mrs. Mallard were looking for a place to live

7. Way up in the hayloft of an old barn live a mother cat and her new baby kittens.

8. "Come inside, Mr. Bird," said the mouse.

9. A happy little elephant was dancing through the jungle.

10. In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf.

11. In the great green room / There was a telephone / And a red balloon . . .

12. This is George.

13. Chug, chug, chug. Puff, puff, puff. Ding-dong, ding-dong.

14. One evening, after thinking it over for some time, Harold decided to go for a walk in the moonlight.

Children's Lit Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to both part 1 and part 2 of the children's lit quiz. I'll put the answers below the fold and leave some space in case someone doesn't want the spoiler.

How many have you read? Feel free to share your opinions and memories of the books in the comments.

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1. One warm night four children stood in front of a bakery. --The Boxcar Children, by Gertrude Chandler Warner.

2. From the pleasant village of Mayenfeld a path leads through green fields, richly covered with trees, to the foot of the mountain, which from this side overhangs the valley with grave and solemn aspect. --Heidi, by Johanna Spyri.

3. This is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child. --The Magician's Nephew, by C.S. Lewis.

4. Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs. --Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

5. "Where's Papa going with that ax?" --Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White.

6. Keith, the boy in the rumpled shorts and shirt, did not know he was being watched as he entered room 215 of the Mountain View Inn. --The Mouse and the Motorcycle, by Beverly Cleary.

7. This journey took place in a part of Canada which lies in the northwestern part of the great sprawling province of Ontario. --The Incredible Journey, by Sheila Burnford.

8. "That slowpoke Sarah!" --All-Of-A-Kind Family, by Sydney Taylor.

9. THE FIRST place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it. --Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell.

10. "Papa, is this the place?" --A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

11. "How white the moonlight is tonight!" --Anne of Ingleside, by L.M. Mongtomery.

12. It was January in northern New York State, sixty-seven years ago. --Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

13. For many days we had been tempest-tossed. --The Swiss Family Robinson, by Johann Wyss.

14. The antique shop is very still now. Theobold and I have it all to ourselves, for the cuckoo clock was sold day before yesterday and Theobold has been so industrious of late there are no more mice to venture out from behind the woodwork. --Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, by Rachel Field.

15. The little old kitchen had quieted down from the bustle and confusion of midday; and now, with its afternoon manners on, presented a holiday aspect that, as the principal room in the brown house, it was eminently proper it should have. --Five Little Peppers, by Margaret Syndey.

16. One morning a little rabbit sat on a bank. He perked his ears and listened to the trit-trot, trit-trot of a pony. --The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, by Beatrix Potter.

17. To start with there was Shora. --The Wheel on the School, by Meindert DeJong.

18. There was this boy, Davie, and he was going to have a rabbit. --Shadrach, by Meindert Dejong. (It hadn't even clicked with me that these two books were by the same author until just now, LOL.)

19. IT seemed like Mother Nature was sure agreeable that day when the little black colt came to the range world and tried to get a foothold with his long wobblety legs on the brown prairie sod. --Smoky the Cow Corse, by Will James.

20. I REMEMBER the day the Aleut ship came to our island. --The Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell.

21. The seat of the old wicker chair on the rock was worn right through. --The Majesty of Grace, by Jane Langton.

22. "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents." --Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott.

More Children's Lit First Lines

Here are the first lines (or two) of several more of my favorite children's books. (Liz, I put one of these in especially for you.)

As before, these are books that were either written for children, or that I read and enjoyed before age 12. I'll post the answers eventually.

I really enjoy this meme. I think I'm going to have to do a picture-book version and a "classic books for grown-ups" version eventually, too. Maybe even a poetry version--wouldn't that be fun?

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11. "How white the moonlight is tonight!"

12. It was January in northern New York State, sixty-seven years ago.

13. For many days we had been tempest-tossed.

14. The antique shop is very still now. Theobold and I have it all to ourselves, for the cuckoo clock was sold day before yesterday and Theobold has been so industrious of late there are no more mice to venture out from behind the woodwork.

15. The little old kitchen had quieted down from the bustle and confusion of midday; and now, with its afternoon manners on, presented a holiday aspect that, as the principal room in the brown house, it was eminently proper it should have.

16. One morning a little rabbit sat on a bank. He perked his ears and listened to the trit-trot, trit-trot of a pony.

17. To start with there was Shora.

18. There was this boy, Davie, and he was going to have a rabbit.

19. IT seemed like Mother Nature was sure agreeable that day when the little black colt came to the range world and tried to get a foothold with his long wobblety legs on the brown prairie sod.

20. I REMEMBER the day the Aleut ship came to our island.

21. The seat of the old wicker chair on the rock was worn right through.

22. "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents."

Children's Lit First Line Quiz

I stole this idea from MysteryMommy.

These are the first lines from several children's books I have lying around. See if you can identify them.

1. One warm night four children stood in front of a bakery.

2. From the pleasant village of Mayenfeld a path leads through green fields, richly covered with trees, to the foot of the mountain, which from this side overhangs the valley with grave and solemn aspect.

3. This is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child.

4. Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs.

5. "Where's Papa going with that ax?"

6. Keith, the boy in the rumpled shorts and shirt, did not know he was being watched as he entered room 215 of the Mountain View Inn.

7. This journey took place in a part of Canada which lies in the northwestern part of the great sprawling province of Ontario.

8. "That slowpoke Sarah!"

9. THE FIRST place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it.

10. "Papa, is this the place?"


* As per Liz's definition, these are books that were either written for children or that I read and enjoyed before age 12.

Reading Readiness

MM has been talking about learning to read for months now, especially now that AJ is reading so fluently. However, she has so far liked the idea of learning to read better than the actual process.

I've devised all kinds of games and activities to get her to pay attention long enough to actually learn the sounds of each letter and be able to say them consistently when she sees them. But she hasn't been interested in practicing them enough to get consistent with them, and still gets many of them mixed up.

We've had a few brief tries at sounding out simple words, but when she didn't want to do it I didn't push it too much. She's only three, after all. I figured she'd give reading her full attention when she was ready, and I didn't want to ruin the excitement for her by making it too much work.

Besides, she's a child of extremely strong will and opinions, and tends to dig in her feet if I push too hard. Although it is possible to get her to do something she doesn't want to do, I try to choose those battles very carefully.

Yesterday, she plopped herself down next to me and announced, "Mommy, I'm going to learn to wead. Now. I'm going to wead dis book--the whole thing. You have to help me, okay?"

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I thought the book might be much too hard for her and end up being frustrating. It was a book from halfway through the second series of the Bob books--not exactly the best choice for a first attempt at reading a book. But she was insistent that it was the book she was going to read.

So we sat down, and she read. She really read. I helped her with the sounds of the letters she didn't remember, and she sounded out words. That's my MM for you--she tends to do the unexpected and ignore the traditional order of things. So what if she didn't know all her letters--she wanted to read, and read she did.

With some help, she read the whole book. Then I pulled out the first book in the early reader series that I (and AJ) learned to read with: Mac and Tab, about a cat and a rat. She read the first couple of pages of that, and then was done for the day.

Today she sat down while I was nursing E and informed me that she wanted to read all of Mac and Tab.

She has such a unique learning style. She fidgeted, joked and played so much between words that I kept thinking she was bored or not concentrating. But every time I suggested that we stop and finish it later, she protested. "No, I'm going to wead dis whole book." And she'd go back to sounding out words.

The ease and fluidity of her reading increased significantly just between yesterday and today. Yesterday she was frequently trying to put the last letter first, and often guessing at the words instead of trying to sound out the letters. Today she didn't do that much, and had a much easier time putting the sounds together to make a word.

She responds visually to words much differently than AJ did when she was beginning to read. AJ tended to concentrate on the letters so much that she would lose the word. At first she was more interested in how the letters fit together and made different sounds than in the words themselves. But to MM, the letters are important only as a way to get to the meaning of the sentence.

MM tends to connect to the word as a whole. Once she reads a word, when she looks at a page the other instances of that word leap out at her.

She read the word "rat", and a moment later she was laughing in excitement, pointing out the same word in the next sentence. "Mommy, they match! Look, it's the same word again. Rat. And rat over here. Look! There's another one!"

She grasped the story quickly, laughing aloud when she read, "Tab has a nap on the mat. Mac has a nap on Tab."

The spark has caught. Her interest in reading has ignited.

DH and I have been saying for some time that MM will read when she's ready. Watch out, world: she's ready.

Reading Comprehension

AJ is sitting in the living room right now, reading aloud from DH's Calvin & Hobbes anthology. I'm not sure I want her picking up ideas and attitudes from Calvin, though, so I think I'll try to redirect her. Last week I had to take a Reader's Digest away from her. Just because she has the ability to read and comprehend the words doesn't mean she's old enough for the themes and ideas. A 4-year-old doesn't need to be reading about plane crashes and robberies.

Now that AJ is reading so well, I'm going to have to figure out how to handle the book situation. We're not used to thinking about her picking up and reading things like the newspaper or Reader's Digest that are lying around. Even something like Baby Talk or Parenting magazine, though I've let the kids look at the pictures, has articles not appropriate for a preschooler to be reading.

I'm curious how other parents have handled this. Do you make sure things your children shouldn't be reading are out of reach, or do you designate certain books and bookshelves as theirs and tell them they need to ask permission before reading anything else?

I'm thinking I may need to rearrange my bookshelves to have the kid-friendly books on the lower shelves. But at the same time, I want my kids to learn to choose their reading materials wisely, rather than just picking up random books and reading them. I'm just not quite sure how to teach that.

I must say, though . . . I think it's really great that I'm dealing with these questions with a child under five. LOL.

Story time--but please, no Junie B.

It's amazing what a difference a little more sleep and timely, healthy meals with no refined sugars can make. Today is going much more smoothly. We even mostly have our sweet, cooperative girls back.

I've been reading to the girls while nursing Baby E. Well, theoretically anyway. More often these days Baby E decides the book looks much more exciting than eating does, so she ends up sitting up in my lap looking at (and trying to grab) the book while we read.

Yesterday we finished the first book in the Little House on the Prairie series--Little House in the Big Woods. It's perfect for the girls' age level. The main character, Laura Ingalls, is about AJ's age and the narration is simple but picturesque.

Today we read the first two chapters of "Little House on the Prairie" (the second book in the series) while our lunch (oven pancake) baked.

The girls listened breathlessly as Laura and her family embarked on a journey Out West in their covered wagon. As the second chapter ended, it seemed that their dog Jack had drowned in a difficult and dangerous river crossing.

It was hard to stop there, but it was time for lunch and quiet time. I can't wait to see how excited the girls will be when it turns out Jack isn't dead after all.

AJ is reading to herself now during quiet time and throughout the day. I'm on the lookout for some good "chapter books" (with fairly short chapters) that would interest an almost 5-year-old who is mature for her age and reading well.

DH and the girls bought some Junie B. Jones books for AJ at Costco a couple of days ago. Unfortunately the 4-book set was sealed in plastic, so DH had to make a decision based on the box and AJ's insistence that these were the books she wanted. After all, we had told her she could pick out her own book as a reward for learning to read.

I had my doubts just from seeing the titles, and after opening them and seeing the stories DH and I agree that they are going back to the store.

They may be funny, but the behavior and language are far from the kind we want our girls emulating.

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The main character is constantly calling people fat and dumb/stupid and threatening to punch them or give them knuckle sandwiches, and using words like darned, dang, shut up, etc. That is emphatically not the way we talk in our home.

Also, the books are written the way the author imagines a kindergartener talks: with poor grammar, fragmented sentences, many of the "trademarks of bad writing" they teach you to avoid in school, and lots of misapprehensions presented as if they were true. Worse, Junie B. still talks this way by book 25--Junie B., First Grader: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! (p.s. so does May.) --halfway through first grade.

Me was gonna have to stop and think if this ain't about the worsest thing I ever readed, or even worser, 'cause I was about ready to holler at the book to shut up!

I don't know how most 6-year-olds talk, but my kids didn't talk like these books are written even when they were 2.

Part of the reason I read to my kids a lot is to expose them to beautiful language spoken correctly. There's nothing wrong with dialogue using incorrect speech to create a character, but I can't imagine reading page after page and book after book of nothing but baby talk and horrible grammar.

And then there are the overarching themes. In my mind, good literature shows the characters' honest thoughts and emotions in a real world, but it also shows consequences for actions and corrections for mistakes--at least the majority of the time.

I think the Little House books do this well. Laura narrates her thoughts of disliking things, getting angry, etc. and is occasionally naughty. But when she is naughty, she knows it and there are usually consequences. The negative things are in a larger context of beautiful narration of a story that promotes right and good things and teaches about the daily life of another time period.

In the Junie B. books, every page seems to be filled with poor grammar, rudeness, anger, and uncorrected brattishness.

Here's an example of illogical fears presented as facts from the first book (which, incidentally is called Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus--yes, yes, I know; I wasn't there when they bought the books):

"And so I quick sat down across from the curly mean girl. And Mr. Woo shut the door.

It wasn't a regular kind of door, though. It folded in half. And when it closed, it made a whishy sound.

I don't like that kind of door. If it closes on you by accident, it will cut you in half, and you will make a squishy sound.

The bus made a big roar. Then a big puff of black smelly smoke came out the back end of it. It's called bus breath, I think.

Mr. Woo drove for a while. Then the brakes made that loud, screechy noise again. I covered my ears so it couldn't get inside my head. 'Cause if loud, screechy noises get inside your head, you have to take an aspirin. I saw that on a TV commercial."

Those thoughts and stories are presented without correction, and would seem to me to be rather disturbing to young children.

Of course, you can stop and talk about each of them, but they're presented so quickly one after another for page after page throughout the book that it would be impossible to discuss them all without ruining the flow of the story or having an hour-long discussion after each chapter.

Here is one of many examples of poor behavior going uncorrected. It's from the third book, Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth:

Mrs. rolled her eyes way up at the ceiling. Then she walked Officer Mike and Dr. Smiley out into the hall.

That's when room Nine started buzzing very loud.

Buzzing is what you do when your teacher leaves the room.

"I'm going to dress up like an actress on Job Day," said a girl named Emily.

"I'm going to dress up like a princess," said my bestest friend Lucille that I hate.

I did a giggle. "I'm going to dress up like a bullfighter!" I said.

Then I ran speedy fast around the room. And I butted that mean Jim in the stomach with my head.

And guess what?

I didn't even get caught!

That's what!

The reader is expected to rejoice with the character that "mean Jim" got his comeuppance and Junie got away with hurting someone.

From Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying:

Then Mother picked out some cookie mix. And she gave it to me. And I throwed it in the cart very hard.

"Thank you," said Mother.

"You're not welcome," I said.

After that, Mother took me outside of the store. And me and her had a little talk.

A little talk is when Mother is mad at me. And she says who do I think I am, missy? And zactly how long so I think she's going to put up with me?

Then I have to say a 'pology to her.

A 'pology is the words I'm sorry.

Except for you don't actually have to mean it. 'Cause nobody can even tell the difference.

Oh, yes, that's what I want my kids learning from the books they read.

Apparently these books are quite popular with primary school-age kids. I found several reviews and websites saying that teachers were reading them to their classes. I find that disturbing.

In my opinion these books might be funny for adults or older kids to read, but anyone mature enough to distill the themes and sort through what is and isn't true and admirable is probably also going to be driven crazy by page after page of this drivel.

If anyone buys my kids the books from this series again, me and him (or her) are gonna hafta have a little talk.