Stitches in Time

AJ (age 9) announced that she read a book on financial management and has decided to divide her money into thirds: one to give away, one to save, and one to use. DH and I told her that was a great idea.

Of course, the grand total she has to divide up at the moment is something like 27 cents. That's because a few weeks ago she decided to give all her money (including the $25+ she earned in premiums showing her rabbits at the fair and just got a check for recently) to the missionary support drive at AWANA.

M&M (age 8) came to me yesterday afternoon and asked me to sew on a button that came off her sleeve. I taught her how to sew it on instead. She did great with it.

That nearly instant success got her so excited that she wanted to sew something else. So I showed her how to make a backstitch and got her started on making a small decorative pillow. She is loving it, and is so excited that she's almost finished with the stitching and will be ready to stuff it soon.

She keeps saying things like, "Mom, I'm so glad you taught me how to sew! I love sewing!"

Ebee (age 5) wanted to learn, too, so I showed her how to pin the edges of her project together and will help her start the sewing today. AJ already knows how to sew, so she pretty much got herself started. They're all making small decorative pillows.

Ebee no longer seems like a small child. We were at Subway the other day and she said, "I'm going to check and see if my order is up yet." Walked over to the counter, checked, and came back saying "It's not ready yet."

She is constantly making up praise and worship songs and singing them to the Lord, or just making up songs about how happy she is.

We had Ebee in a combination ballet/gymnastics class for little kids, but she decided it wasn't challenging enough and wanted to switch to a higher-level class. She would have preferred ballet (she LOVES it!), but all they had open was gymnastics, so she opted to give up the ballet temporarily in order to have a more challenging class with older kids, and is enjoying the gymnastics.

AJ is still in choir and M&M in gymnastics, and they're both enjoying those and doing well in them.

The girls are very much enjoying school. We're studying the Civil War right now, so they can tell you all about Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln and Henry "Box" Brown. Even Ebee is enamored with Harriet Tubman and keeps asking to have books about Tubman read to her. She is reading simple words, but likes to have the older girls read her the books they're reading for school.

AJ is writing a paper about Abraham Lincoln and one about Henry "Box" Brown.

Here's the start of AJ's report on Abraham Lincoln:

"Abraham Lincoln
Chapter 1

I'm sure you know about Abe Lincoln because practically everyone does. I even bet some of you have been to Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C..

Lincoln was a good man, and we all love him. But some of you don't know all about him. For example, do you know Abe had a dog? Do you know how he got it? Well, I've got it."

M&M is working on a paper about Harriet Tubman, and so far has accomplished a beautiful illustration and a title page written in fancy letters.

It's fun to watch them enjoy learning. Right now AJ is reading to Mira (our dog) all about electricity.

American History Resources

We're using the free American history curriculum (Year 1) from guesthollow.com for our core this year in our homeschooling. The girls and I are really loving it. Even if you're not homeschooling, I highly recommend this resource if your kids are studying U.S. History. There are lots of recommended books, as well as links to online resources such as copyright-expired books, crafts, printouts and even games.

This week we're doing week 13 (Topic 12), studying the early settlements of Roanoke and Jamestown--and, of course, getting to know personalities like Sir Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth, Captain John Smith (did you know he was considered a troublemaker by the other colonists and was imprisoned and nearly hanged before they finally realized he was the best leader they had?) and Pocahontas.

I thought it might be fun to link to some of the more interesting resources we've discovered so far this week.

Kidinfo page on Roanoke: Lots of good links here.

HowStuffWorks: My girls enjoyed the videos linked here. I enjoyed listening to the podcast about Roanoke on HowStuffWorks, and learned quite a bit from it, but decided it wasn't really young-kid-friendly--at least for my crew.

HistoryGlobe.com--The Jamestown Adventure: This game allows kids to make choices about things like where to build a colony, what type of food to plant, and whether and whom to make work. It explains what really happened historically, as well as how their choices probably would have turned out.

On the Trail of Captain John Smith: This game from National Geographic combines animated video segments with min-games that go with each segment. It takes a while to get through it all, but it gives a pretty complete history of Jamestown and my kids enjoyed it very much.

The Real Pocahontas: My girls loved this essay and chart comparing the Disney movie with what we know of the actual historical figure. In fact, they insisted on re-reading the entire thing to their daddy last night.

Blogging Blitz

M&M has become very interested in and diligent with keeping up her blog the last few days. I thought I'd repost her most recent posts here for those who don't read over at the other blog but might enjoy these.

• Sep. 18, 2009
What AWANA Is

Awana is a Bible club. OK, first is council time. Next you play games. Next you say verses. Sometimes we color before verses. Then we sing. The last thing we do is the winning team guess what? The winning team gets candy! We don't usually win but I'm still happy I go because I love JESUS!

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• Sep. 18, 2009
My Favorite Bible Character

My favorite Bible character is Esther. Want to know why? Because she would be willing die for her own people. It comforts me to think about it.

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• Sep. 18, 2009
Raven and the Bear

Once upon a time there was a Native American girl named Raven.One day she went into the woods.She went deeper and deeper into the forest. After a while she was lost! She couldn't see her home anywhere! She was very frightened.

"Help!" she yelled. She yelled and yelled. But nobody came.

Then suddenly she heard a rustle from the trees above her own head! Not just anybody's head but her head! She yelled even louder than before. But not as Raven expected it was just a crow.

Next she heard a rustle in front of her! A Bear with her cubs came out of the brush. Raven stopped screaming .She was glad the Bear had come. The Bear was her spirit guide. And as she expected the Bear helped her find her way home.

P.S. Some Native Americans believe in animal spirit guides.

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• Sep. 14, 2009
Starting Awana

We just started Awana! I'm really excited! It's great! I made a new frend named S! She was in Cubbies last year. There were 2 more new Sparkies named Sid and C (Girls). Were doing it every Thursday. My big sister is in T&T now!

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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.