Before Five in a Row

One of my most favorite things that I've discovered since last year is the Five in a Row curriculum.  Delightfullearning.blogspot.com was where I first fell in love with this.  Five in a row means that you read the same book five days in a row and do different activities from ideas out of the book.  

We have started with the pre-school level called Before Five in a Row for our three year old.  This is a book compiled/authored by Jane Claire Lambert.  She has taken many classic children's books such as Yellow Ball, Blueberries for Sal, Goodnight Moon and The Snowy Day and came up with many ideas of teaching moments and ways to make memorable experiences with your kids.  Most of these books I can find at the local library.  We learn about countries, foods, animals, colors and bible verses.  All things pre-school.  I always make sure we cover a letter with each book using THIS website.  I also try to make sure we have a field trip, a food lesson, and learn a new poem with each book.  We have taken a lot more field trips this year than last year.  I had a hard time coming up with ideas for field trips last year, but with this curriculum it is easy.  This is not our only curriculum, but some homeschoolers use is as their sole resource.  I also don't do this everyday either.  We only do it on Tuesdays and Thursdays and instead of five days of activities I only come up with four.  I love how it has added so much more variety to our homeschool and the kids look forward to it.

This last week we "rowed" We're Going on a Bear Hunt.  I get a lot of my ideas from THIS Blog-Roll.  Here is just a few of the things that we did.

I'm not musically inclined, but this worked out anyway.  We sat at the piano and made up music to go with each of the obstacles the family in the book goes through on their bear hunt.  We made scary music for the cave and trills for running up and down the stairs and so on.

 I let the girls squerch and squelch in the mud like they did in the book since we have a lot of it around the house lately.

 We taught Aydri (our preschooler) about the letter U.  Kendi practiced her handwriting while Aydri did a do-a-dot from THIS site.

We did a sensory activity with cornstarch and water.  We are also learning about the water cycle and solids, liquids and gases.  I showed Kendi how corn starch can technically be both a solid and a liquid because of surface tension.  They loved this.

We took a field trip to the creek and took off our shoes like they did in the book. We got lucky with a beautiful day for wading.  The girls loved playing in the water.  We have done so many random activities as a family because of these books.  I love it!

We also made our own obstacle coarse and used the words from the book: over, under and through.  We talked about how every family is different and drew diagrams of a lot families we knew.  We watched this video of the author's rendition.

I like to have the kids narrate the story back to me and I type it out so they can add an illustration, but this time we decided to make our own video of the story.  I can't get it to work on youtube, but the kids had a blast with it.

For our food activity we made mud pudding and dipped teddy grahams in it.  While we waited for the pudding to set up we constructed a cave to eat in.  These are the kinds of learning activities that I've always wanted to do with my kids, but had a hard time coming up with them on my own.  This is how I always wanted homeschool to be.  I can't wait to move up through the Five in a Row and then on to Beyond Five in a Row with chapter books.  There are some people with really great ideas out there.  THIS LINK is a good place to start.

First Grade Science

This year for First Grade Science we have chosen to go with R.E.A.L Science Odyssey: Earth and Space.  So far we have done a Weather Unit and started a Water Cycle Unit.  The girls have had a lot of fun with this coarse.  It is the most hands-on curriculum I have found for science.  There is usually one lesson page followed by several labs.  We do about two a week and there are also suggestions for keeping a science journal along the way.

Here are the girls with the rain gauge we made.  We also made a weather vane, an anemometer (to measure wind speed) and recorded the temperature changes for several days.  We have also made rain, clouds and proved that there is water in the air.

Charlotte's Web

I can't explain how much the girls loved this book.  I would read it until I was hoarse and then they would beg to keep going.  We did very well at stopping to look up words and writing them down to review.  Kendi got in to the habit of asking questions when she didn't understand.  We wrote down all the characters names and adjectives about them including the words Charlotte put in her web.  There were some really good discussions, especially about the difference between Charlotte and Templeton.  My personal feelings about this book is that it is about a little girl tragically outgrowing her imagination, but I'm sure the book could mean something different to everybody.

The girls have seen cartoon versions of this story so they knew that Charlotte would die in the end, but after we finished the book, we rented the latest movie of Charlotte's Web.  The one with Dakota Fanning in it.  In that movie they really dramatize Charlotte's death and how sad Wilbur was.  Kendi could not stop sobbing.  I have never seen her so emotional.  I think she really came to love Charlotte from reading the book and then felt extra emotional about it from the movie.  She says she loved the movie, but I did not let her watch it again before we sent it back.

They want to read the book again this summer.  It makes me so happy to see my kids so excited about books to read.  I hope we find many more just as great.  It's so fun to be a homeschooler.

Summer School

I'm a big supporter of letting kids play as much as possible during the summer.  Yesterday was our first official day of summer.  The kids played hard.  The house felt way too quiet.  I will have to get used to that.

I am also a big supporter of giving kids responsibilities.  Kendi has a chart that she has to complete everyday before she can play.  If she finishes before noon then she gets to pick an activity for us to do together.  There are hundreds of fun summer activities to do with kids on Pinterest.  We make our own huge, long list of activities to pick from.  

You can see her chart on the fridge in the picture below.  The four things she has to check off are: get dressed/comb hair, clean bedroom/living area, do a lesson/read scriptures and have a happy attitude.  Quite often Kendi doesn't want to do any responsibilities until she is compelled to.  Almost everyday a friend will knock on the door before she has done her checklist and I have to tell them to come back later.  Sometimes I think the kids on the street think I'm mean, but I don't nag Kendi to get anything done.  She knows what she has to do everyday.

 Kendi writing in her Journal about the scripture we've been talking about.

Everyday Kendi gets to pick what lesson we do together.  On the magnet chart below she can pick from four things.  Reading, Writing, Math and (other) Subject.  We are missing our M and W in the picture.  When she picks one of the subjects to do she puts the corresponding magnet on the "done" side and picks from the "do it" side the next day.  That way we rotate through all the subjects every four days.  We also have a list of four or five things for each subject that she gets to pick from.

I'm the kind of person that would let my house be a mess rather than nag and yell at my kids.  BUT, I go crazy if the house is messy and I don't have the energy to do it all by myself.  This system keeps everything pretty cleaned up and I know I'm spending quality time with my kids.  Today, we played hopscotch for an hour and we've gone for ice cream cones earlier this week.  I have to limit the kids to eight dollars a week on activities or they would want to go to the pool everyday.  haha.  I'm very happy and excited for summer.

A Day in the Life

It's hard to think that I just finished planning our last week of Kendi's Kindergarten.  This last year has been so great.  We have learned so much, not just academically, but about homeschooling, patience, work and how to inspire my kids to love learning.  We have come a long way and I don't think I would have learned a lot of the lessons  that I did if it wasn't for homeschooling.  My kids can be very enthusiastic which makes homeschool fun, but they can also be very intense which can make some days difficult.  I'm so glad that I am able to teach my kids, one on one, in an environment that can be tailored to them and their personalities.  

I wanted to write a post about how a typical day goes for us.  I'm sure things are going to continue to change and evolve over the years.  I want to be able to come back and remember how we did things at this stage of our lives.

Our schedule is pretty laid back.  I've tried to make homeschool feel like we are doing things that we would normally be doing at home together anyway.  Dad doesn't even have to be at work at any particular time so we don't stick to any time constraints.  I do like to get going as soon as possible so that lunch isn't too late in the day.  I only have energy in the mornings so the sooner the better for me.  We usually get started some time between 8:30 and 9:30 am.  

We start with Scriptures.  This year we've been studying the Book of Mormon.  We've been using materials from bookofmormondiscovery.com.  Instead of reading the chapters from Book of Mormon Stories we watch the videos on lds.org found HERE.  We watch the video and talk about the story one day, then do a page out of the manual and talk about the story more on another day.  We illustrate the story the next day and make a journal entry on the last day and then start over again with the next chapter.  We also go over the memory verses everyday.  Kendi amazes me with memorizing.  It only takes her about two days to memorize a verse.  I have really liked these materials.  They have been a good gathering activity to transition into doing school time.

After Scripture Time we do a reading lesson.  We've been using reading lessons out of How to Tutor by Samuel L. Blumenfeld.  Kendi learns a new "word family" or two everyday.  We talk about the new consonant blend and sound them out as I write them all on the white board.  After they are all on the board, Kendi erases them one by one as she reads them back to me and I make a flash card for each word.  After we've learned about four word families we play games with the flash cards.  Our flash card games include, but are not limited to:

Bang:  We start with our stack of new cards with a bunch of old ones mixed in too.  I take about eight cards with the word BANG! written on it and mix them in too.  I hold of the stack of cards and Kendi reads the one on top and we keep going through them until we get to a card that says BANG! (about eight or ten cards)  I hide the next word and Kendi has to spell it for me.  If she gets it right then she gets to keep the stack of cards we made since the last BANG card came up.  If she gets any of the words wrong or struggles with it enough that I feel like she needs to practice it more then I put in back in the stack of unread words.  When Aydri wants to join in then we put some letter flash cards in the mix and she gets to read those when they come up.

Dodge:  This one is Kendi's favorite games and is very good for her hyperactive energy level.  The girls have to stay on a rug.  They take turns reading either a word card for Kendi or a letter card for Aydri.  If they get it right then I throw the card at them and try to get them with it.  If they get it wrong it goes back into the stack of cards to be read again.  If I get them when I throw it then I get to keep the card.  If they dodge it then they get to keep it and we just leave it on the floor until we're done.  The person with the most cards at the end wins.  I limit the amount of cards we go through so we don't get burned out.  I always try to stop while it's still fun.

Relay:  I lay out five cards on the piano bench.  The girls have to stand behind a designated line in the living room.  We start a timer for one minute and I yell out a word (or letter for Aydri) from the cards on the bench.  They have to run and find the right card and run back to the line and I yell out another word.  They see how many they can get in one minute and then we try to beat their scores.  When it is Aydri's turn I have Kendi be in charge.  It's fun to see her helping and teaching Aydri.

Sentences:  Kendi and I take turns drawing two flash cards out of the stack and reading them.  Then we have to come up with a sentence with both of the words in it.  This is another favorite game of Kendi's and it can get pretty silly.

Those are the games that we play the most.  If we get tired of them, then we'll come up with new ones.  Once Kendi can read a word with automaticity I will remove it from the stack.  I've lost count, but we have made around a thousand flash cards this year.  Kendi also loves to read from some little reader books too.  We use books from The Family Literacy Center that Grandma gave us a few years ago.  Kendi also will pick up any random book and try to read it.

After the reading lessons we do read aloud time.  We read from the list of classics that Thomas Jefferson Education suggests for young children.  We are currently reading Charlotte's Web and the girls are loving it.  We stop and talk about morals that come up in the story, the types of characters in the story and how they impact what happens, and we look up words we don't know.  Kendi has learned to stop me when she doesn't understand something.  I love that.  When I would read a book as a child I would just get confused and not know what to do and the story would become vague and uninteresting.  I would just pass the words in front of my eyes because it was required.  Reading a book is not just about entertainment its about stopping to learn the lessons along the way.  After we've finished a book we will do a project about what we learned.  I will have the girls create or write something that shows what they learned from the stories.  I try to get them to share and talk about it with other people too.

When we are doing read aloud time I will let the kids so something quietly.  I'll print off coloring pages from the stories we read or let them play with a small toy.  Lately, they have been bringing in the kittens to play with on the floor.  These kittens are so much fun.  It will be hard to see them go to new homes in a couple of weeks.

 After reading from the classics we take a break.  I use this time to teach about nutrition and we have a healthy snack.  After they are settled with their snack I turn on a timer for thirty minutes just so we don't loose track of time.  The kids will go play outside and I fold laundry.  I have been able to keep up with laundry like never before in my entire married life because I stick to this.

After break time we usually do Math Time.  We are very slowly working our way through Math U See: Alpha.  Kendi doesn't sit and do worksheets very well so we mix it up by doing problems on the board and playing games and doing The Great Math Adventure activities.  This is a little advanced for Kindergarten so I'm not pushing it at all.  I hope that I never have to push anything.

About once a week instead of doing a Math Lesson we will do a History Lesson instead.  We've been using I Love America: part 1.  This material started out super fun, but we lost interest about half way through the year.  I just picked it up and found out that this month's lessons were about Pocahontas so we've been using it again. The lessons on the Preamble were just a bit over my girls' heads.  Maybe I should have waited a few years.  I really love them learning about America with the religious history included.

The last thing that we do everyday is always something different.  And it's usually more activity based and fun.  We try to end on a fun note.  Some of the things we have done lately are: put on a play of Goldilocks and the three bears, learned about feelings, learned about the five senses, physical fitness and nutrition.  We study all those things you typically learn in Kindergarten.  I plan these lesson myself.  I do a bit of research and decide what will be fun for our girls.  Planning these lessons is one of my favorite things about homeschool.  I love finding new ideas and the best ways of teaching my girls.  I'm a research junkie.  I guess that is a good thing for a homeschooler.

Here is Aydri as baby bear.

On Fridays we do Project Day.  Kendi and I take turns deciding what we'll do for Project Day.  On Kendi's week she will pick something that she really wants to learn more about.  In the beginning of the year she always wanted to do baking.  Last week she wanted to learn about clothing and make up design.  We happened to be learning their parts for Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  We put together their costumes and make up and had a dress rehearsal.  When I decide what to do for project day we work on something for the family or household.  We have painted door-jams, purged (dejunked) the house, planted the garden, organized food storage and put together 72 hour kits all the while learning why we need to do those things.

This last year has been full of abundance for us.  I really struggle with my health and am not able to be as active as I wish I could, but homeschool gives me a great sense of fulfillment.  We are already making plans for next year.  Kendi says she is excited for summertime and wants break from school, but I know that she will be begging to do something after one day.  We are going to make a simple summer school plan for her.

Parts of a Whole

I wanted to teach the girls about Parts of a Whole for a Great Math Adventure.  I started by showing them an orange and talking about what made it a "whole" orange.  Then I broke it in half.  At this point I realized that the kids thought that anything broken was considered "in half."  I had to explain that we were talking about two equal parts.  We went a little further by breaking it into fourths.  After they understood that and we went back and forth a few times, I was prepared to go further, but felt like I might loose them.  I quickly pulled out some measuring cups and two bowls of water and went over everything again.  They measured out water and predicted how many halves and fourths would equal a whole.  We talked about recipes and why we need to be able to measure the exact amount that the recipe calls for.

 Yes, that is a tamale on my plate.  We were eating lunch while we talked about Parts of a Whole.  You would be surprised at how much their listening skills improve if they can be doing something quiet while I talk.  I know that I'm the same way.

After discussing measuring cups and Parts of a Whole, we finished up our lunch and used our newly gained knowledge to bake an Angel Food Cake from scratch.  This was a fun recipe to do with kids because it doesn't involve a whole lot of ingredients or steps and they get to watch egg whites fluff up.

 This is my favorite kind of cake and I have never baked it for my family until now because it calls for about 10 egg whites and Aydri has been deathly allergic to eggs in the past.  She got to eat a couple of bites and so far she is fine.  HERE is the recipe.

Math really can be one of the funnest subjects to learn.

Little Women

This book was full of surprises for me.  I was expecting it to be too girly for me and was actually not planning on finishing it.  Even after getting about a third of the way through it I still almost gave up.  I don't know why, but I kept going.  It got better and better and better.  It became one of those books that I would think about during the day and would find extra time to read.  This is a feel-good book.  Although it might make you cry, there is just something comforting about reading it.  I can't wait to read it with my girls as soon as they are old enough to understand all the vocabulary.  Another favorite book by Lousia May Alcott is An Old Fashioned Girl.

Baby Animals

Last year, the girls and I went on a little trip with Grandma to visit some relatives that are a few hours from where we live.  We ended up coming home with the cutest little kitty we had ever seen.  Kendi was thrilled!!  She seems to have a special way with animals and having one of her very own just made her day.  Fortunately for us, we have a neighbor and dear friend that knows a lot about animals and has experience working with vets.  She helped us with everything our little kitty needed and eventually let us know that she would like some kittens from us.  We weren't planning on having kittens.  We were going to get the kitty fixed asap.  In the back of my mind I knew that having baby animals could be one of the most educational things we could do in Kindergarten.  We kept putting off taking her to the vet and eventually we realized we were getting kittens whether we wanted to or not.  We were all pretty excited.  On Aydri's birthday, four little kittens were born.

We also had a very nice neighbor bring a couple of baby lambs over for the girls to feed.  They were only a week old.

Two Impromptu Field Trips

Without even meaning to, we've been learning a lot about reptiles lately.  We've been reading about them in Aydri's current Chirp Magazine and doing some impromptu activities from there also.

One morning, my parents showed up at our house as we were just starting school and told us about a den of Gopher Snakes they found.  We immediately decided to go show the kids.  The snakes were just coming out for spring.  

As we looked down in their hole we could see dozens of snakes curled around each other.  It was a mixture of creepy and exciting.  You can see three heads peeking out in this picture.

There must have been a cavity under the sidewalk where the snakes holed up for the winter.

We made crocodile puppets after reading about them in Chirp.  On another day, we read about how reptiles shed their skin and the magazine suggested spreading Elmer's Glue on their hands and letting it dry so that when they pulled it off it would look like reptile sheds.  The girls didn't really like having wet glue on them and then it itched as it dried and hurt when we pulled it off.  hehe.

The natural history museum brought in a few reptiles for Earth Day.  We only made it for the Bearded Dragon.

 They are native to Australia and the girls loved watching it eat cockroaches.

 There were a few other things to look at in the museum.  We joined their facebook page so that we are notified when they have special events for kids going on.

Fireball Meteorite

We joined NASA's facebook page and found out about the Lyrids Meteor shower last Saturday night.  We didn't know if we would see anything, but the weather was nice so we stayed out with the kids.  We live a little ways from the city and it was very dark.  We knew the kids would get tired and Aydri did eventually fall asleep outside.

At first, the meteors were so small and short that we weren't sure if we were really seeing them.  Kendi was getting frustrated because she always missed them.  As it got later and the the sky got darker and our eyes adjusted to the darkness we started seeing bigger and bigger meteors.  Finally one was long enough that Kendi was able to catch it.  We thought it was huge.  Then all of a sudden we saw one blaze clear across the sky with a long exploding tail.  I had never seen anything like it before and it felt like it was really close.  A few minutes later we saw another that traveled just as far, but without the fiery tail.  That made me want to go research the big one that we saw.

What I think we saw may have been a fireball meteorite.  The websites that I read made it sound like these things are very rare, but I couldn't find any news reports about the one we saw.  I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but I couldn't figure out how to take pictures of the night sky.  I know, I'm lame.  The pictures online of other fireballs don't do them any justice anyway.  Apparently, on the same night, there was a minivan-sized fireball that landed over California.  Yikes!

Solar System

We spent about a week and a half learning about the Solar System.  We didn't get too deep because it will be so much more fun to explore space when the kids are a little older.  We went over the basics. . . moon, sun, stars, earth, planets.  We made our first lapbook.  I printed off a packet about space from THIS link.  It was simple enough for Kindergartners, but I even learned a thing or two.  I had to watch a couple of youtube videos on how to make a lapbook and then again on how to fold the papers.  It wasn't as obvious to me as the creator of the packet assumed it would be. haha.

I thought Kendi would love making the lapbook.  She loves to color, cut and paste, but this didn't go over that well.  I think next time we'll do lapbooks more like THIS LADY. 

 If that doesn't work we'll give them up altogether.  What Kendi really enjoyed was painting a model of the Solar System.  I had to order one online and the moment it came she was excited about it.  She set up and painted the entire thing.  Kendi and Aydri spent hours in the closet looking at the planets glow in the dark.

Just as we were finishing up studying about space we took a trip to the local university's observatory.  The kids were so excited.  The students and professor there were able to answer all kinds of questions while we waited for it to get dark enough.  Aydri got a little bored and wanted to do her favorite thing, take pictures.

They warned us that it would get loud when they opened the ceiling and spun it around.  I thought the kids were going to freak out, but Aydri started yelling, "Yippee!"

 The sky was perfect for star gazing.  We got to see Jupiter and it's four moons.

 Mars.

 And Venus.

They told us to come back in a month or two to see Saturn.  And if you call ahead and ask them to bring an attachment for the telescope you can take pictures with a DSLR.  They also told me how to take pictures of Jupiter and it's moons with a 300 mm lens.  I'm going to try it one of these nights when the sky clears up.

There is also the Annual Solar Eclipse coming up on May 20. A lot of museums and parks are hosting events and providing solar viewing glasses to watch the eclipse with.

I also joined NASA's facebook page so that I can keep up on what's going on with Space Exploration and so that the kids can watch their upcoming events.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

I really enjoyed reading this book.  I was expecting it to be a difficult book to read, but it was surprisingly easy.  I'm always surprised when I'm able to pick up on the deeper meanings without having to be told what they are. Maybe this homeschool approach is finally working with me.  I am beginning to think deeper about everything I read.

Dickens does a really great job with describing the way Pip was brought up.  After his parents death's, Pip is left with his harsh sister, Mrs. Jo.  Pip's sister brags about how she "brought him up by hand" like it was an accomplishment and something that even Pip should be proud of.  I assume that, a long time ago, it was a rare thing and an accomplishment for a baby to survive infancy without being nursed by its mother and that is what they are referring to when they say being "brought up by hand."  I can't help but think that it really means that Pip was brought up not only without his mother's nourishment, but also without emotional nourishment as well.  This lack of love is what sets Pip up for social failure and awkwardness later in life.  The book goes on to illustrate the struggles of learning lessons without the help of a true caring mentor that only a parent can provide.

Solve For Unknown

This week Kendi learned about solving for unknown in Math.  You know how the equations go: ? + 3 = 5.  We did the entire lesson and worksheets one day and did the math adventure on the next day.

We applied this to real life by getting out her piggy bank.  She had just got some birthday money so we spent a little time taking out tithing, adding some to her savings and then some to her spending as well.  After we were done counting and adding out how much money she had in spending we talked about some things she could save her money for.  She had a total of five dollars in spending and wanted to figure out how much more money she needed to earn to be able to buy a $30 item that she had decided on.  I wrote out the equation for her.  5 + ? = 30.

Kendi completely understood the concept and followed where I was going with this.  It became more than just a story problem when we applied Solving for Unknown to her life.  She was so excited she went out and earned another five dollars and then asked if we could figure out how much more she needed to earn now.  I love it when math is this much fun.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

This book is, supposedly, Jane Austen's best book.  I read about three fourths of the the way through it and just couldn't go any further.  I have started four different Jane Austen books and have only been able to finish one of them, Pride and Prejudice.  I think my problem is that I have a hard time relating to the type of culture that Jane Austen writes about.  I think if I had been born into that society, I would have ended up like Catherine from Wuthering Heights, half savage.

I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice because Elizabeth Bennet is the most down-to-earth character in Jane Austen's books.  It will interesting to see what my girls think when they are old enough to read Jane Austen.

Unschooling Rules by Clark Aldrich

It is hard not to get caught up in all you can do with home school.  There are a lot of products out there and even more fun and good ideas.  But, occasionally I read a book that puts everything back into perspective for me again and helps me remember why I'm home schooling in the first place.

I love books like this that lay out not just ideas, but actually what to do about them.  This book does not elaborate, it is very to the point.  I had to read it slowly in order to grasp all the golden nuggets.  I got a lot of ideas of things to actually include in our home school.  Some of those things for young kids are like starting a microcosm like a fish tank, recycling, having a pet, computer networking, and making a real website.  How many kids have made a fake website in school that was really a piece of junk?  I love having projects that have to do with real situations.  This book gives a lot of ideas for high school too.

I have always been a big believer of meditation.  This book talks about the importance of quiet reflection, something I believe is one of the most important things you can do for your life and character.

This book tells a lot about the flaws of the public school systems.  I'm the kind of person that knows when something isn't quite right by the way I feel, but can't always put it into words when I try to explain it to other people.  I'm working on that, but this book explains so many things for me, like why everyone has nightmares about high school for the rest of their lives.

This book is really inexpensive from ibooks and worth every penny.  I now have an exciting "to do" list for our home school.  Some things that I wished it had included though is the importance of religion and serving others.

Shadows

We recently did a science experiment from the Big Book of Play and Find Out.  We talked about the sun and what shadows are and why they move throughout the day.  We did flashlight experiments in the closet and had a shadow puppet show.  We always do these experiments last so that the kids can play for as long as they want to.  This was a hit for sure.  They played for hours afterward making shadow puppets.  Sometimes after I put them to bed at night in the room that they share I can hear them making shadows until they fall asleep.

It's so fun to be a home-schooler.

Dinotopia by James Gurney

I was so excited for this book.  It really is one of the best children's books out there and it has been very successful and it's hard to find a good deal on these books.  When we started this book we had just finished The Wizard of Oz, which the kids absolutely loved.  I thought these were extremely similar books.  They both had great artwork and an adventure to a land unknown.  For some reason my kids were bored with Dinotopia.  They couldn't wait to finish it and groaned every time we read from it.  I would catch Kendi wanting to look at the pictures though.  I'm thinking that I should have waited until the kids could read this book to themselves.  It is written like a journal without dialog so it isn't very fun when read aloud. There are about 20 other Dinotopia books and I think we'll wait until the kids are old enough to read them on their own.

7 Habits of Happy Kids

This has recently become one of our favorite things to do.  It takes 21 days to form a new habit so every 21 days we read a story from this book.  We talk about the story and answer the questions at the end of each story.  Then we talk about the good habit associated with the story and make a sign to hang up somewhere to remind us to work on that habit every day.

I've had this book for a few years and never realized how great it was.  The kids love to read the stories, but there is a section for parents to read and I never actually read until recently.

This book follows the same habits from the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective Marriage that I recently wrote about.  It has been fun to work on these good habits with the kids.  I think we will do this every year until we can move on to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.

Longman Young Children's Picture Dictionary

We got these books from a very kind relative along with some other great books soon to come.  I'm not just writing a review because they came from someone we know.  These really are great books.  I really wish I had these when we were doing co-op preschool.  The kids look forward to this the most out of everything we do every time we do it.  We do it about twice a week.  It is something that both the girls are 100% involved in.  It is helping Aydri learn her letters and helping Kendi learn to write them and practice writing the ones she already knows.  They both love the stories, games, songs and activities that each lesson provides.  There are different topics with each lesson that we use to help Aydri with her enunciation and vocabulary.  If only there were more books on every subject laid out like these books.  Homeschooling would be a breeze.  You can find them at this website.