Day #16 Just a low-key Tuesday

This morning I found myself still unwinding from our busy weekend and trying to catch up Monday. Fortunately Tuesday's are a low-key day around our house. Plus, I had a Dr.'s appointment this afternoon which meant the children would be left to their own devices for a couple of hours. I spent the morning doing some finishing touches on the Alphabet writing books I am making for my future Kindergartner to practice with. Reading has come more easily to him, and we really need to focus on his writing. Fortunately my appointment was very near the copy place I wanted to visit to bind his books. Who knew binding a book was so fun? Line up the paper and push a pedal on the floor to punch the holes. Then start the coil at one end and go through a few holes and hold it up to a little machine with a spinning belt and watch it feed itself the rest of the way through! I was highly entertained! My enthusiasm made the store clerk giggle a bit... Anyway, for a mere $1 fee, and about 8 minutes of my time, I was able to bind the Large Print Alphabet book, the Alphabet Book, the ABC Sentence book, and another Letter Practice book. It was all kind of fun; mostly because I was not trying to corral any small children at the same time! :) I must say though, I have a greater appreciation for what teachers do for their students. I cannot imagine the time it takes to do that over and over for 20-30 students and multiple books covering multiple subjects. I had such an admiration for the older boys' Kindergarten teacher. She is who I got all these copies from. I wish she could have taught each of my little Kindergartners.

Anyhow, after my errands were run, I was anxious to come home to see how well the fellas had followed my instructions. I was pleasantly surprised to find most of my requests had been followed. The house was tidy (I have a new standard of "clean" with everyone home all day, every day) and they had filled out their little worksheets I made for their animal book reports. The information they filled in was interesting, but being the visual learner I am, I much preferred the drawings they had each rendered to depict their specific animal. Next week I am looking forward helping them make posters for their book report presentation. To finish off our Time to Read Tuesday, I am headed off to read a couple more chapters of The Chocolate Touch to them. Take it easy, we'll catch ya later! :)

Day # 9 Let's Read Something Together...

I suppose since we live merely a few blocks from the Library, we should frequent it more. However, it takes a great deal of effort to load everybody up and head over there. Once we are there, its a constant battle to keep track of 5 little guys who each have different interests and locations they want to be in within the library. Add in the keeping quiet factor, at its no cake walk for me. So, for my benefit sanity, we will be going once a month this summer as a family, and I will run the older kids over as needed; when they need a new book.

 I liked the idea of Time to Read Tuesday's though, so I just tweaked it a bit to suit our needs. On Tuesday's we will now either take a Library trip, work on our monthly book reports, or have story time with me reading to the kids. At some point we really need to make a new story time quilt too. The last two little fellas feel rather left out every time we get it out because we made it years ago and it only has the oldest 3 kiddos names/hand prints on it.

Today was story time with Mom. When the older boys were younger, I used to read a chapter book to them every evening. As they got older and their interests in books varied and their personal reading abilities expanded, I just sort of got our of the habit. I read our children's books regularly to the little boys, but have not yet tried to read a chapter book to them. So, today was the big day. Each of the older boys brought a few selections to the table and we held a vote. After several votes and much discussion, we settled on The Chocolate Touch being our first choice. I managed to get 3 chapters read before the little ones started to get restless. I'd call that success! Sorry, no fun pictures for today...I was a little busy reading. :) What books do you love that we should  add to our summer reading bucket list?

Happy reading, everyone!