Reading

The Bookshelf

 Evan is reading:

*Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban
*Flat Stanley books
*Star Wars books (still) -- Todd has read them aloud and now Evan is re-reading them
*Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
*The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales (which he chose because of the title, obviously)
*I Can Read with My Eyes Shut by Dr. Suess (which he also chose because of the title)
*Bartholemew and the Oobleck by Dr. Suess -- Evan loves to read this really long book to Chloe
*Superman

Topics he is interested in:

*paper airplanes  -- these are all over the house
*volcanoes
*the space shuttle
*molecules -- we had a hard time finding books about this, but we finally got a few
*honeybees
*gemstones -- particularly the names that go with each kind
*muscle cars
*how engines work

Chloe is reading:

*Breyer Stablemates and other books about horses
*Big Bad Bruce and others by Bill Peet -- she loves to stack them all in a pile next to herself and flip through each one
*Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
*Curious George
*Over in the Meadow by Olive Wadsworth

Topics she is interested in:

*dinosaurs
*horses
*snakes
*wild animals
*drawing and tracing animal pictures

 ********************

I used to keep up with the kids' reading interest with an ever-changing bookshelf list on the sidebar, but I've since realized that I have no permanent record of it that way.  So, I think I may do this sort of post monthly.  This is a good record of what "school" looks like here too since what we do is interest-based.

Tying Shoes

Evan learned how to tie his shoes when he was seven and a half, which was only a few months ago.  Most kids do this at five, but he just couldn't figure it out without getting super frustrated.  We waited (as we do with most things involving learning) and when he was ready it only took him three tries to master it with no reminders again.  He figured out how to double-knot them by himself just recently out of necessity -- his own tying is still on the loose side so they come undone a lot.  

Now, he ties Chloe's too.

They were getting ready to go out on the swings with gloves on to protect their hands from the rough chains, and I walked by and saw this sweet scene.

I love how this type of thing just reinforces my belief in natural child-led learning.  This was all his idea and he is so proud of himself :-)