Sunday Scatterings... A Fresh Month...

Thank goodness it is a new week, and a new month. I am hoping for less stress than the last week!

Today has started out well, with a delicious and healthy breakfast treat (I made mine in a regular muffin tin, not mini, because that's what I've got). The kids loved these, and I think even M will like them! The zucchini for the recipe, I am proud to say, came from our very own garden, and the eggs from our own chickens. Our garden is not doing quite as well as we had hoped... the weather has been so up and down this summer. But, we are getting a trickle of veggies, and we get at least 2 eggs a day!

Yesterday, when the car overheated on my return trip from the library, and I was forced to sit for nearly an hour waiting for a friend to show up (and tow me home), I read a fantastic book - A Picture Perfect Childhood. The author, Cay Gibson, writes:

   "We really must rethink the way we think of storybooks as learning tools. They are treasures. They are works of art. they are gateways and portals that open up a whole new world for you and your child. This world can be enjoyed at the age of five, at the age of fifteen, and at the age of fifty. The idea, as one mother wrote, that "Too many parents think that the beginning of schooling should mean the end of picture books,: needs to be abandoned."

And then there is a lovely quote from children's author Melissa Wiley:

  "I strew the path and I open the door to conversation. And we have books for breakfast, literature for lunch, Tennyson for tea, Dickens for dessert, a Midsummer Night's Dream for a midafternoon snack. We enjoy daily feasts of living books."

This all circles back to my post on the Morning/Afternoon Basket. And now I've decided I should add a daily picture book to the basket! Gibson's book has lists upon lists of good picture books.... by month, for cooking, art, music, Shakespeare, and more!

I also found another treasure to use next year. On a Yahoo! group, a friend recommended a vintage, out-of-print text, called The Rainbow Book of American History. I managed to get it through inter-library-loan, and had it out in a stack of books this week. I started to flip through it, when Cassia came in to look over my shoulder. She immediately loved the illustrations (which are on nearly every page), and asked me to read her a little. I told her the name of the book, and then read a bit from the first chapter. I had barely gotten two paragraphs in when she stopped me. "Mommy, that's the history I want next year!" She was very excited about the idea! So when she finally managed to extricate herself from the book (she decided to look at all the pictures), I flipped through the rest myself, reading a bit here and there, and I think that yes, we have found a good history book to read from once a week, or so! The rest of the time, we'll be doing child-led history, with any number of documentaries, vintage books, and just plain good books.

So what are my plans for the week, now that I am officially on summer break (5-6 weeks off!)? We're going to start up the Morning/Afternoon Basket; work on Cassia's reading with easy reader books and word family work; maybe watch some documentaries and movies; the kids will play in the pool; we've got a field trip on Thursday; and I really hope to make it back to Park Day this week! I'll also be making lists of books (a favorite activity)  I'd like to read in the next year - I expect this project to last all month.

And we're cleaning. Throwing things away, donating books and clothes, selling homeschool materials we won't use, maybe reorganizing furniture... my goal is to start August with a very clean and uncluttered house!

Here's to a good week, and a Happy July!