All those secrets of the world

This week, our Five in a Row  book is All those secrets of the world by Jane Yolen.

This is the autobiographical story of a four year old whose father goes sails off the the Second World War. It covers emotions and perspective gently and sensitively.
In the week after Rememberance Day and with a five year old very interested in the commemoration, this seemed a particularly suitable choice.
This book has plenty of discussion points from pollution to war to art. Perhaps less to show, at the end of the week, than for some other books but maybe more to think about.
So far we have looked at what happens when oil is mixed with water and talked about different sorts of pollution.
The book mentions the First World War song Over there so we listened to this.

We hope to read some books about the War and to tap Grandma's memories of rationing.

It didn't seem appropriate to go overboard on the war theme, with little one,s so the other books that I have chosen for this week are not about the war but about family events. This does fit in the All the Secrets of the world as this is about a family parting.

Jonathan Mark at Granny's by Jacqueline Sibley is a 1970s book, with 1970s illustrations, about a boy who stays with Granny while his parents are away and how he learns that God is always the same.

When the teddy bears came by Martin Waddell is about a new baby coming to a family. I had realised that Mr Exuberance might well miss out on this book whereas it has been read to the other children out of necessity. I love the gentle illustrations by Penny Dale.

When Willie went to the wedding by Judith Kerr is a hilarious tale about a boy and his pets who didn't want to miss out on the elder sister's wedding.

An evening at Alfie's by Shirley Hughes is a book brought second hand for our eldest. I'm amazed that it is still in reasonable condition. The story of how the pipes burst when Alfie's parents were out leaving the children with the teenage babysitter. Doesn't that make your blood run cold? Not half as bad as it sounds!

This is linked to 5-a-Day books.

Big Machines

This week, I am reading Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton, with Miss Belle and Mr Exuberance.

We will be using ideas from the Five in a Row manual, volume 1, along with some other ideas.

One of the things that we did today was to look at a video of a steam shovel. Steam shovels were old fashioned when Mile Mulligan and his steam shovel was published in 1939 so it was helpful for the children to see what one really looks like.

I've put a few other books together around Big Machines.
The first is another by Virginia Lee Burton, Katy and the big snow.

We've loved these two books that we brought to go with Five in a Row. One of my readers gave a really helpful list of her favourite, or perhaps I should write favorite, US authors and included Virginia Lee Burton. As a result, I've been inspired to order another title-thank you Debbie.

Our other big machine books are by different authors.
Digby and the big flood by Alan Aburrow-Newman is about how a digger saves a town from a flood.
This is one of those books that is being read for the fifth time, in this household.

Richard Scarry's Busy workers isn't just about big machines but has a couple of pages about construction sites and the types of machines found there.

Finally, The building site by Moira Butterfield is a very simple book with flaps. I have to make sure that the flaps are openned fairly as it is much loved.

 We did several further activities around this theme.

The United States

This week's books for Mr Exuberance (2years 9 months) and Miss Belle(5 years) this week are about the US. I'm a bit hesitant about putting up this post as there are so many people who know more about picture books from the US. These are from our family collection. Please note that we are British and are by no means experts on the subject. Feel free to suggest your favourites.

 The reason for this theme is that several of our Five in a Row books, for the next few weeks, are set in the US. Sadly, there won't be a field trip this time!

 This week we are "rowing" Lentil by Robert McCloskey. The children have taken to this immediately with several requests to read it "again". I've managed to keep to three readings today. This is set in the fictional Alto, Ohio. Robert McCloskey  also is the author of Make way for the ducklings which we have previously enjoyed.

 The little red lighthouse and the great gray bridge by Hildegarde Swift and Lynd Ward is set in New York. We are revisiting this.

 All the places to love by Patricia MacLachlan is a beautiful story set on an American farm. The pictures, by Mike Wimmer, are detailed and evocative. This story looks at different places, around the farm, loved by different family members. Probably, too, one of the most beautiful books I have seen about a new sibling.

 The jolly barnyard by Annie North Bedford is a Little Golden book. This is a funny tale, in rhyme, about how the animals propose to honour the farmer on his birthday. I like the turkey best:

 As well as I am able

 I'll decorate his Thanksgiving table.

 The last book won't be read straight through each day but we plan to dip into it. This is the ABC word book by Richard Scarry.

Happy reading!
This is linked to 5-a-Day books at the Imagination Tree.

Library books

After our  exciting trip which linked with some previous books, I don't have a special theme for this week's books. It seems that many Mondays we start reading our 5-a-Day books and then go to the library and find a whole lot more books. 5-a-Day becomes more like 10 or 15-a-day. So this week's plan is to make life simpler and use the books from a recent library trip.

Our local library allows each child up to 15 books which is a fair number to keep an eye on and read. I should say that I am sensible and only allow five or six but it wouldn't be true. We do end up with large numbers of books. I have selected five for our 5-a-Day which we will plan to read each day. These also seem to be the children's favourites of the current bag of books.

Where are you blue kangaroo? by Emma Chichester Clark. We've had other Blue Kangaroo books out before. In this one, Blue Kangaroo gets lost again and again.

This is the bear and the picnic lunch, by Sarah Hayes, is a book the children were excited to find as we have another in the series. This is the sort of book that gets read twice before breakfast. The text is simple and in rhyme.

Suddenly by Colin McNaughton is an amusing book about Preston Pig and how he evades the wolf, perhaps completely accidentally.

Down by the cool of the pool by Tony Mitton and Guy Parker-Rees is another book in rhyming text with lots fun onomatopoeic words. This book is by the author of one of our favourites, Amazing Machines.

I want a sister by Tony Ross is part of the Little Princess series. Probably more popular with the children than me-the princess is rather spoilt but it has a satisfactory ending!

This is linked to 5-a-Day books at the Imagination Tree. 

Paris

We've had a bit of a French theme going in our Five in a Row books-Madeline, The Glorious flight and Mirette on the high wire and last week also in our 5-a-Day books. There was a reason-we had a family day out planned to Paris-a very special treat- and yesterday was the day.

We got up horribly early, soon after 3am-no pictures at that time in the morning! It did mean though that we arrived in Paris not long after 9am, French time.

Paris is so different although, superficially, so the same.

We looked out for "An old house in Paris that was covered in vines" but didn't see it although we saw this

and some old houses.

Of course, we went up the Eiffel Tower.

and saw other "Madeline" sights from there. The Arc de Triomphe is in the middle.

Was this the bridge where Madeline frightened Miss Claval?

Then we left the "Madeline" theme and went to the Pompidou Centre. You either love it or hate it. I find it fascinating. There was a children's exhibition, the Blobterre with plenty to appeal to different senses; all except taste, I think. Miss Belle wasn't so impressed by the rest of the modern art and asked about the location of the Mona Lisa. Maybe we chose the wrong gallery for her.

A fascinating, tiring day. In retrospect, I would have

• taken the stroller. Mr Exuberance wasn't exuberant by the end and fell asleep on his big brother's shoulders.
• done more research. We wanted to find food for the way back but couldn't find a boulangerie.
• perhaps have planned a slightly shorter day.

Overall, though a good day. It is such a privilege to be able to visit so easily.

This is linked to The field trip hop and the Hip Homeschool Hop.

Cats

We are enjoying the beginning of half term and so this week we aren't reading a Five in a Row book. Instead we have a bit of a cat theme. I'm not quite sure why; one of the little ones really doesn't like cats. Thankfully cats in books seem to be different.

Mog and Bunny is a book that we have read to all five children. Strange to think that I've been reading it for a decade and a half.

Misty by Rod Campbell is by another classic children's author. I can't remember which child acquired this book. I couldn't find a picture and our copy is a bit too battered to display!

The lighthouse keeper's cat by David and Rhonda Armitage has been one of our Five a Day before. A funny story of what happened when the cat was offended.

Tiger by Nick Butterworth was a Bookstart book. The story of a kitten who wants to think that he is a tiger.

Finally, a real classic, Tom Kitten by Beatrix Potter. I love these books and Mr Exuberance is starting to enjoy them too. Beatrix Potter has such a rich vocabulary and detailed pictures. This book was part of my childhood. It is a pleasure to introduce it to my children.

This is linked to 5-a-Day books at the Imagination Tree.

France

Following on from The Glorious Flight, we are continuing the French theme this week.

Our main book is Madeline by Ludwig Behelmans and we plan activities related to this.

Today. we painted some paper models from  Made by Joel. They need to dry and then be folded tomorrow.

We are rereading the Glorious Flight by Alice and Martin Provensen as we all enjoyed this first time round and it has particularly come to life, for the children, after our trip to Dover.

Mirette on the high wire by Emily Arnold McCully is a previous Five in a Row read and is also set in Paris.

I'm not sure whether this is foolhardy but I've added Les Couleurs which is a Coccinelle book. There are pictures on every page about colours. It was enjoyed this morning, after some bemusment about Mummy reading in French.

This only adds up to four this week. I did wonder about adding Babar the king by Jean de Brunhoff. It is likely that we will read it this week but it is looong and I didn't want to plan to read it every day.

Miss Belle has been wandering round saying "Bonjour". Should be an enjoyable topic!

I have linked this to 5-a-Day books at the Imagination Tree.

Flight

We've been reading The Glorious Flight across the Channel with Louis Bleriot by Alice and Martin Provensen. This is another Five in a Row book.

There has been so much to do with this book.

Geography

We found France and England on a map and made English and French flags which were waved at appropriate points in the story.

There are many clues from the pictures that the story starts in France and we looked for these.

Cooking is always popular so we borrowed A world of Recipes: France by Sue Townsend from the library. We did make Nicoise salad but it disappeared before photos were taken.

History

The book is all about history and there is so much to explore.

• the flight was 102 years ago. The timeline was useful for this.
• the picture of a car was fun to examine for the many, many differences from modern cars
• Bleriot's aeroplanes had Roman numerals. We talked about this and wrote them out although I think I would be kidding myself if I said that either child can use Roman numerals. More an introduction to the fact that they exist!
• the Edwardian clothing
• the strange aeroplanes

Language
We read some other books which were , at least vaguely related to flight.

The lighthouse keeper's picnic by Ronda and David Armitage features a hot air balloon.

Roaring Rockets by Tony Mitton and Ant Parker is a book that Mr Exuberance asks for again and again. Fun rhyme and plenty to talk about.

Madeline in London by Ludwig Bemelmans features a more modern flight from Paris to London.

Percy's bumpy ride by Nick Butterworth is the story of Percy the Park Keeper and his amazing flying lawn mower.

Art

The children painted, glittered and scraped some balloon shapes which we made into hot air balloons. They are now flying up our stairs.

Science

We only dipped our toes into what could be done around this book.

We mainly talked about air flow and air resistance using

• blowing between two flags
• dropping a scrunched up and unfolded piece of paper
• different designs for paper aeroplanes

Such a fun week, for me as well as the children, and there is another activity we hope to do at the beginning of next week.

This is linked to 5-a-Day books. Take a look for many more book ideas.

Climbing Kansas Mountains

Last week we "rowed" Climbing Kansas Mountains by George Shannon.

I was a bit apprehensive about this book as Kansas is a long way from London and Kansas being flat wasn't at all obvious to the children! I did have to go over the flatness of Kansas several times but this proved an interesting week.

Social studies

We located Kansas on our map.

As well as going through the process of wheat growth and flour manufacture, we read a book about the processes involved in sugar production. "Sticky jam: the story of  sugar" by Meredith Hooper, is unusual for non-fiction in that it is written in rhyme.

Language

We talked about how we can tell that the book is set in the US and not in the UK, looking at differences in language, and also in the pictures. Miss Belle was particularly interested in the driver being on the "wrong" side.

The book is full of metaphor both in word and picture. We talked about this a little and a kind friend brought us a piece of corduroy to help the children understand the corduroy of the ploughed fields.

Art

I've already posted about our gingerbread map.

Maths

The grain elevator was as high as "Eight houses stacked" so we built stacks of houses from blocks and from paper.

Science

Of course, we had to make bread, spelt rolls rather than conventional wheat.

There is always so much more that could be done but now we are on to something different!

This is linked to 5-a-Day books at the Imagination Tree and the Hip Homeschool Hop.