Chapter Books

We just got Mary Poppins in the Kitchen and several other children's cookbooks to get the girls interested in cooking. The Mary Poppins Cookery Book was a story and a Cookbook, and M sat entranced as I read the story. Each chapter was only about three pages, but there was only one picture per chapter. Even R sat for most of the story before she ran off to go play with K.

After reading the Mary Poppins Cookery Book, M wanted to use her special night to make cupcakes, which we decorated with smiley faces. She ate one and then set two aside, one for herself and one for R, and the next day, she spent all morning telling R about the "special surprise" that she made for her.

Curious to know what she would do with chapter books, I got Little House in the Big Woods, which I discovered to be a splendid book for social studies as well as reading. We sat down to read the first chapter, which described many of the fall times preparations that the family had to perform in order to survive for the winter.

M said, "Well, if they run out of food, they will just have to go to the store." Daddy said, "Remember what the story said earlier? There was nothing around for a whole week's or even a month's journey." She sat quietly contemplating that. When I was done with chapter one, M ran off with the book and started trying to read it to herself.

Last night I read chapter two to both M & R, and even R sat through several pages. Finally R asked, "Where are the pictures?" And I said, "You are supposed to make pictures in your mind." So I started talking a bit about the story, comparing Pa to Daddy. "Pa would pretend to be a wild dog, and sometimes Daddy pretends to be a bear and growls and chases them. Pa has blue eyes, but what color eyes does your daddy have?" I asked.

"Brown!"

R commented, "Our house does not have a gun." And we talked about why they needed a gun and why we do not have one.

The story describes wilderness life in such detail, that I am learning so much: from making cheese & butter to storing vegetables and meat. And two little girls are mesmerized. We only read half of Chapter 2 last night because they jumped up and started running around the room, pretending to be mad dogs.