Book Review: My Cat, The Silliest Cat in the World

My Cat, The Silliest Cat in the World

by Gilles Bachelet

I am an elephant girl. My husband loves wolves, and I like elephants. Our unity candle sits on the mantel, surrounded by wolf and elephant figurines. So when I say I liked this book, I gotta admit I am a little biased.

Reading this book to the girls was fun. With each page, M compared the "cat's" behavior to real cats. R just sucked her thumb and listened. And K scrunched her nose and said, "That's not a cat. That's an elephant." Unfortunately, I do not have the ability to write baby speak very well, so I cannot add the cuteness that she had when she made that statement.

I said, "Yes, that's not a cat, but the owner sure thinks he is." K just looked more deeply at the pages. This was a new concept for her, calling something by something other than what it is. She was quiet for a few moments. I wonder what her little brain was thinking.

I love the pictures of the elephant doing cat like things, grooming, sleeping, and chasing a ball of yarn. Somehow the artist did a magnificent job drawing the elephant grooming in the same posture you would see a cat. Or the more amazing part was the Siamese cat-elephant, the Persian cat-elephant, or the calico cat-elephant. Sometimes it seemed as though my eyes were playing tricks on me.

In the end, the owner tries to find his cat's breed in a cat book. He decides his cat must not be listed in the book.

Excellent story. Very fun to read. I highly recommend that you check this book out from your library or buy it here.

Book Review: Tiny and Bigman

Tiny and Bigman

by Phillis Gershator

Miss Tiny is not really so tiny. She is so big and strong that it keeps her from getting married. Nobody wants to marry her because she makes them feel weak and useless. Well, that is until she meets Mr. Bigman, a tiny, weak little man who moves to the island.

I never liked women's lib stories for children. The promotion of the powerful woman at the expense of the weak man seems a bit like a childish competition to me. When M says to R, "I'm faster than you," I always say, "It's not a competition. It does not matter how fast you did something, what matters is that you did it in the first place." If you need to make someone else feel weak in order to feel strong, then there's a problem.

However, this story really isn't about the promotion of the strong and powerful woman at the expense of man. It is really just a sweet love story about a woman who loves to help others and how she finds her perfect match.

I love the cadence of this story. I can't help but fall into a little bit of an accent myself as I read outloud to the kids. And I'm not one for accents, yet this book just begs for it.

The pictures are colorful, illustrating a world and a culture that my kids have never experienced. Books are the road to experience new things, and this book brings that to life.

At the end, I always repeat the words from the story, "...kiss, kiss, kiss her on her soft brown cheek," and give them all hugs and kisses. Then they beg me to read it all again.

Book Review: The Princess and the Pizza

The Princess and the Pizza

by Mary Jane and Herm Auch

I want to retell the whole story from the beginning. I want to tell you every word about the witty princess and her side comments.

But oh for Pete's sake, that wouldn't be fair! Besides, I don't think I could do it justice. I know our kids loved the book, but not as much as we did. They didn't get it when the princess had to pass the pea in the mattress test and said, "This is so once-upon-a-time!" They didn't get it when the princess said "Oh for Pete's --- aaah," and this named the first pizza.

They didn't get it when the princess ran away, refusing to marry the prince, and started her own pizza parlor.

But they liked it all the same. And we still laugh together about the princess and her accidental pizza pie. And we still remark, "Oh for Pete's sake," and our children look at us like we are crazy.

Book Review: The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White

The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White

"Ko-hoh," the swans say, but Louis remains silent. Louis is a trumpeter swan with no voice. He befriends a boy named Sam and learns to write on the slate he carries around his neck, but he still cannot communicate with his swan friends who cannot read. When he falls in love with Serena, he cannot trumpet to her his love, so Louis's father steals a trumpet so that Louis could woo the love of his life.

However, by the time Louis receives his trumpet, Serena has flown north with other swans, and Louis is left with a stolen trumpet and the need to restore his father's honor by earning the money to pay for the trumpet. Louis learns to play the trumpet and uses his skill to try to earn enough money to pay back the music store.

The story is surely a bit unbelievable. How does a bird fly carrying a slate and chalk, a trumpet, a money bag, and a badge of honor? How does a bird beak make the right ombiture to blow into a trumpet? Yet, there are details that are in fact very true to animal behavior, like how a mother bird chooses a location and builds her nest and how baby cygnets are raised.

Louis is a very lovable character. He has honor as he makes amends for wrongs done. He has love as he demonstrates true friendship. He has courage in his adventures. In true E. B. White fashion, a wonderful story is weaved. We look forward to reading another chapter every night, and when the chapter is done, the kids beg for just one more chapter. Most nights, we agree since we didn't want to end either!

I highly recommend this book for grade schoolers. Enjoy!

homonyms and compound words

I mentioned before the writing exercises that we did as part of our lessons. These lessons were originally meant to build M's handwriting skills: to keep her words on a straight line and approximately the same size. This has been a great success, and so I started using this to build vocabulary and other skills. One thing I wanted to help her learn is about homonyms and compound words.

The following story uses the compound word "pancake" and the following homonyms: cent, sent, and scent.

Big Sister Dog and the Pancake
Big Sister Dog smelled the scent of a fresh pancake. It smelled so good that she wanted to have one, but it cost one penny. One penny is a cent, but Big Sister Dog had no money. So M sent her one cent. Then Big Sister Dog bought the fresh pancake and ate it all up. The End.


NOTE: You can replace "Big Sister Dog" with an imaginary friend of your own making and replace my daughter's name with your child's own name.

Early Reading Skills

Before M learned to read, she would pretend to read by retelling the story from memory. TJ was impressed, but I was frustrated because I knew she was not really reading.

Now she can read, so I have moved on to teaching R how to read using the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. In conjunction with the reading lessons, I encourage her to tell me stories from books that we had just read. She is not comfortable with being put on the spot; she is so afraid to fail that she does not want to try. So I said, "Well, let's make up a story to go with these pictures." And that makes her feel more secure. She can make up the words rather than read it perfectly, and I get to see things from her perspective. I get to learn a little about her mind works, what parts of the story meant something to her, and how she sees the world around her.

R is a bit young, but she handles the reading lessons very well. She knows each of the individual sounds that have been covered so far, but anytime she is asked to string sounds together to sound out a word, she acts distracted or just plain refuses to cooperate, sticking her thumb in her mouth. I began to realize that this is purely because she wants to do it right the first time, and if she is not 100% confident that she does not know the answer, she does not want to try.

So I began to alter my approach just a little in order to remove all pressure from her. Whenever the reading lessons tell me to say, "Now you sound it out," I say, "Now we will sound it out." She can hear my voice as I blend the sounds, and she can blend her voice with mine. Suddenly her cooperation abounded, and when we are done with one lesson, she asks for another.

R sometimes feels shy and sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of a busy family. If TJ and I did not make the effort to single her out for special moments, she would never be heard. I do my lessons with her at bedtime as part of tucking her in, reading her stories, and giving her kisses. Since she has her own room now, there are no interruptions from her sisters, and I have the opportunity to talk to her and encourage her to open up.

Now I see that M's pretend reading was a great tool to build language skills, confidence, and self-esteem. Last night, I shuffled up R's nighttime routine a little, and all we did was read books together, encouraging her to talk as much as possible.

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.

Reading Lessons

I tried the “whole word” method of teaching my girls to read, but I found that they were only pretending, memorizing the story and repeating what they remembered based on the pictures.

Then I tried a book called Reading Reflex, but the girls looked at me as if to say, “I do not understand. Just tell me the answer so that I can make you happy.” And I got frustrated with myself because I could not find any other way to explain.

I picked up this book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons out of desperation. My husband told me that M was fascinated by the pictures, and so I gave it a try.

The lessons include the following:
· Saying words fast and slow
· Rhyming
· Individual sounds
· Stringing sounds together
· Reading comprehension
· Writing

The book contains word for word what the instructor should say to the student. At first, I did not like being told what to say, and I did not like the special text that helps a new reader to adjust. However, the results speak for themselves: after 50 lessons, M is reading at a 2nd grade level, and she is only 5 years old!

She astonishes us every time she says, “Mommy, I saw a sign that said…” or when she picks up a new book and only needs help with a few words. On her own, she began to write her own stories, sounding out the words and writing the sounds she hears. Not everything is spelled correctly, but the more books she reads and the more stories she writes, the easier the stories are to read.