Books of the Week

Harry the Dirty Dog and Green Eggs and Ham have remained at the top of the "read-me-book-please" pile. They have been joined by some new (and returning) favorites:

It always surprises me how much the kids like Berenstain Bears books. Agent 004 in particular will ask me to read and re-read our entire collection. As a kid I considered them long-winded and preachy, but I never refuse to read them to her; the books contain good vocabulary and solid moral teachings. The Berenstain Bears Go to the Doctor has been one of the Agents' long-time favorites.

Since one of our goals is to learn about the months of the year, I was happy that Agent 004 also pulled out Chicken Soup with Rice this week. The rhymes are so much fun and it will sure help us learn about the months and seasons.

I have written about Duck on a Bike before; it is one of the true classics in our collection. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is the perfect blend of silly and believable.

We ventured out to the library yesterday so we should have lots of new favorites next week. Cousin F is already in love with If You Were My Bunny In fact, she is napping with it as I type.

Peanut Butter and Jelly

I've always wanted to post a picture of my lunch on the blog.

I Need my Coffee

It is Works for Me Wednesday, when women around the web share their secrets for making their worlds go round. Today's tip is such a simple one that you may scoff, "Doesn't everyone do that?" But there are others out there who will blush and wonder, "Why didn't I ever think of that?" I am also aware that there is the third possibility that you will consider this a very bad idea.

I am one of those people that does not function before my first cup of coffee.

Which makes it awfully difficult to actually prepare that first cup of coffee. I just am not capable of pouring water or measuring coffee grounds when I first wake up. At least not without turning the kitchen counter into a sticky mess.

The solution? Set up the coffee-maker the night before! After breakfast each morning, I rinse the pot, refill the tank, and measure out the coffee grounds. The next morning I flip on the power switch and voila -- hot coffee with no fuss.

Simple, neat, and dependable. Works for me!

Goals

My summer "academic" goals for each of the kids.
**This post may be updated over the next few weeks as goals are revised.

Unplugged Child Labor

I might have mentioned once or twice that we have been trying to finish our mudroom.

The doors are in, the walls are painted, and the floor is complete.
Almost done.
All that is left now is the woodwork.
Then we move in the bench, hang the coat rack, and put shelves in the closet.

This has been a long process.
We have done the work ourselves
(well Grampy too),
in our spare time.
The spare time in a life with a job
and small children.

At times it has been stressful
and we have been impatient with the Agents.
But on the whole, it has been good for them.
They have worked right along with us --
using those metal tools
to the best of their 3- and 6-year old abilities.

And we appreciate their help
and have enjoyed spending the time with them.

I hope that as they smear mud on this beautiful slate floor
they will remember all of the hard work that went into it.

And be proud of our accomplishments.
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Go check out the rest of the Unplugged Projects at Unplug Your Kids.

A Day at the Lake

My brother hosted the first cookout of the season at his lakefront bungalow.

We brought along patriotic cupcakes and spent an afternoon enjoying the beach.




It is starting to feel a bit more like summer.

The Dating Scene

I thought that we would be done with dating once we got married.

We didn't date at all the first five years of our marriage; we just did stuff together and called it our life. In retrospect we were just on one extended date.

Then the Agents came into our lives and our lives and enriched our lives in ways that we could not have possibly imagined.

But making time to be a couple is still important.

So we went on a date last night. Dinner and a movie*, just me and my man.

Amazing!
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*I give Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull two unconditional thumbs up.

In the Book Basket

Book Posts

I am constantly inspired by my bloggy friends' book posts. I often consult Kate's, Heather's, and Jenny's blogs before choosing library books.

In the past I have tried to review of books on one theme (see ducks and construction), but have been overwhelmed by the time required to write these posts.

Instead (both as a service for my preschooling readers and as a record keeping mechanism for myself), I will post a list of the children's favorite books once per week. These may not be the highest quality books on our shelves (I could really do without Curious George myself), but they are proven winners with my crew of mini bookworms.

I will keep the books up on the sidebar (look left) for a month as a quick snapshot of what we have been reading.

Some Call Them Weeds

We call them beautiful.

Simple Exercise Plan

Once upon a time, I was in shape.

I exercised every day -- not out of duty, but because it was fun or because biking was the quickest way from here to there.

But then I got a car. And a job. Then graduate school on top of a job. Then kids. Then daycare on top of my own kids. And I was always able to find an excuses to avoid exercise.

I don't have time.
I'm too tired.
The gym is too expensive.
The gym is too far away.
The weather is too yucky to run outside.
We don't have any weights.
I don't know how to workout.

I knew that I had to do something. I NEED exercise -- it gives me energy, patience, and perspective.

I needed a plan that would actually follow through on. Something simple, quick, and fun. And it couldn't cost money.

Which led me to circuit training.

I do a routine with four exercises in quick succession that combine strength training with aerobic intensity.

• 10 body weight squats
• 10 push-ups
• 10 burpees
• 20 bicycle crunches

I currently complete three full circuits, which takes about ten minutes. Over the next month, I want to incrementally work up to a fifteen-minute, five circuit routine.

I have no reason to avoid exercise. I have a plan that can be done anywhere with no specialized equipment in a very short window of time. It is not affected by weather, location, or kids' napping schedules. No reason not to do it, and plenty of reasons to do it.

Works for me! For more great ideas, visit Works for Me Wednesday.

Life is Good

The sun is shining.
The lilac is blooming.
The baby is sleeping.
The girls are playing nicely.

The house is clean.
The bread is baked
I got me some exercise.

Loving spring fever.
Loving it.

A Day in the Life

Or, what we have been doing when not doing the Unplugged project

• Wake up (about 6:30am)
• Cousins arrive (7am)
• Breakfast
• make lunch and snacks; kids play
• Baby P takes morning nap
• "homeschool"
• Lunch (10am)
• play outiside
• Agent 002 leaves for school (11am)
• story time
• Agent 004 and the Cousins nap
• Mama folds laundry, works on projects, tidies house, blogs
• Girls wake up --> put laundry away in bedrooms
• snack
• Agent 002 returns from school (3:15pm)
• play outside
• Cousins go home (about 4:30pm)
• snack
• tv/indoor play
• mr warillever arrives home (about 6:15pm)
• dinner
• bath
• the Agents go to bed
• Mama tidies house

While I Have Been Away

One of those ironies of blogging is that when life is most interesting I have the least computer time to jot it down for posterity.

Cousin A made his First Communion this past Saturday. Mr warillever's entire family came up to Massachusetts for the festivities, and some of the guests continued the trek up to our place to continue the party.

Grandma and Uncle Ichabod stayed at our house. We had a pleasant Mother's Day breakfast after mass, then went to a flea market. I bought books (surprise, surprise), and Agent 004 spent her $1 budget on a beautiful bracelet.

Since none of the warillever clan had seen Agent 002 for his birthday, he received another deluge of presents including Lincoln Logs, sidewalk paint, and a Hess monster truck.

Mr warillever and I have been very busy working on the mudroom. We are hoping for an early summer opening. The tile looks incredible. Once I find the camera cord I will share his handiwork with the world.

Mr warillever has been tying up the computer every evening, dreaming up a sumer adventure. I won't release the details until we study the feasibility a bit more, but rest assured, we plan on doing this up in true warillever fashion. Just hope we don't end up abandoning our vehicle in Iowa like we did on our last roadtrip.....

Don't expect me to be gone so long next time..... working on a WFMW post about our "new-and-improved" daily schedule......

Look, Mama - I Made Art!

Three-year olds can be so literal sometimes.

The Snowmound's Last Stand

It is May, and the snow has nearly been defeated.
'Til we meet again, mighty winter!

Word to Your Racecar

Is this the 6-year-old equivalent of pimpin' your ride?

The Russian Word for Goose

I thought that my Unplugged post this week would be about the bird's nest outside of our kitchen window.

But we have yet to see any actual birds near the nest, so I am going to talk about linguistics instead.

I've wanted to reintroduce the Russian language in our home, but haven't decided quite how to do it. Although I can speak and read Russian proficiently, I am nowhere near fluent enough for the kids to learn "natively." I have also been reticent to use Russian text because of the similarity (and therefore confusability) of the alphabets.

Agent 002 gave usthe kickstart that we needed.

For the past few weeks, he has been pulling Russian books off of the shelf, demanding that I read them. Never being a mom to refuse the opportunity to read to the kids, I have obliged willingly each time. His favorite story is Колубок, a Russian language version of The Gingerbread Man with a puffy round pastry in place of the man made of cookie.

Given this new-found interest in Russian language books, I decided to pull out some of our Russian picture books.

Inspired by this week's Unplugged theme, we started with the book about birds -- Птицы.

Agent 002 echoed each words as I read it, except without my Yankee accent. I knew that the Russian phonemes would still be accessible to him, but I did not know that he would be able to pronounce words correctly even without a proper model. Mind you, he had no idea what the words meant, but they rolled off his tongue like it was his native language.*

Agent 004, on the other hand, had a very difficult time pronouncing multiple consonants together. Птица sounded more like "puh-pizza" than "ptitsa." But she sure had fun trying!

It was her, however, that was fascinated to learn the Russian word for familiar birds. Here is what she learned:

• птица (ptitsa) - bird
  
• утка (ootka) - duck
  
• петух (petookh) - rooster
  
• индейка (indeika) - turkey
  
• гусь (goose) - goose

I still don't know where we are going with this, but I am glad that we are doing something. I will keep these books in the reading basket, and see if anyone wants me to read any more.

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*I guess it is, in fact his native language, although his English vocabulary was better than his Russian ever was by the time he had been with us six months. And it really did surprise me to hear him speak that clearly.

We Have a Winner

Teri is the lucky winner of Corduroy and Caps for Sale.

It has been a lot of fun visiting blogs this week, and I have enjoyed all of the company here at the casa warillever blog.

I hope that some of my new friends will come back to visit again.

If Teri does not respond to my email by Monday, I will choose another winner.

Beach Party

The girls spyed bathing suits while we were sorting out spring clothes.
Nothing could dissuade them from going for a swim.
Not even the 36 degree outside temperature.
So we brought the beach inside --
and gave those bathing suits a workout.

A Monstrous Birthday Cake

Here's what works for me -- using some donuts and a simple cake mix to make a monster of a birthday cake for my 6-year-old gearhead.

Make a chocolate pound cake (recipe below) in two 9x5 loaf pans. Lay one loaf down with the rounded side down. This is the body of the truck. From the second loaf, cut a trapezoid that will become the cab of the truck. Cut the remainder of this loaf into slices. Layer the slices on top of each other to create a small incline that the truck will rest on. If desired, use the last slice to build up the bed of the truck.

Make a double batch of frosting. I used nondairy buttercream, but any thick frosting will work. The frosting is both decoration and mortar. Color 1/3 of the frosting in your desired truck color; color 1/3 brown or black; and leave 1/3 white.

Frost the windshield and side windows white, then frost the body of the truck. Make sure to frost the window frames in the body color. Using decorator frosting, paint details like doors, headlights, and front grill. Then carefully place the truck on top of the arranged slices. You may want to arrange a row of toy cars next to the truck.

Frost four donuts (preferably not powdered donuts, as the frosting does not adhere well to the sugar coating). Place donuts next to truck body, using toothpicks to hold the tires in place if necessary.

Then make plenty of VROOM VROOM noises as you carry it to the table.

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Chocolate Pound Cake

Ingredients

• 1 box of devil's food cake mix
• 4 eggs
• 1.25 cups water
• .5 cup oil
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix ingredients until well blended.

Pour into greased pans.

Bake at 350 degrees until a tooth pick comes out clean. It will take about 10% longer than the package directions.

Handwriting Instruction

Agent 002 practicing his letters.

An Ambitious Weekend

The revitalizing energy of spring has hit us. Over the past two days, 11 loads of laundry were hung out on the line,

we turned over the soil in the garden,

assembled three pans of Shepard's pie,

raked our entire lawn, and
laid a slate floor in our once and future mudroom.


...now I just hope that we can carry some of that ambition on to the rest of the week. Over the next two days I need to
get the snowsuits and blankets into the attic,

drag the rest of the detritus into the woods,

spread the (purchased) compost over garden,
grout the floor, and

bake and decorate a monster truck birthday cake.

They Sure Love Those Scissors

The Unplugged theme for this week is "scissors."

My kids need no encouragement to use scissors; here are are just two examples of self-directed masterpieces from this week.

Agent 004 loves to draw people on one sheet of paper, then rearrange them on another sheet. She tells a story as she works, moving the people like puppets as the story progresses. Scissors are obviously an integral component of her work, as are paper, glue, and felt-tipped pen.


Cousin F, on the other hand, has a more abstract style. Her work is thematic rather than narrative, and is characterized by intense energy. In this work, she uses colored pencil, ink stamps and scissors to create an intricate work of art that only a two-year old could create.

Here is Cousin F working on her "shape books"* With near-perfect accuracy, she pasted small paper shapes into their corresponding book, calling triangles and circles by name. Even after repeated trials however, she insisted on calling squares "shape."


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*The shape books were inspired by a fellow unplugged family, but I cannot remember which one. If that mom is reading, please identify yourself so that I can properly credit you for your ideas.

Free Giveaway: Corduroy and Caps for Sale

Image via WikipediaIn honor of the two birthdays we are celebrating this week, I am giving away two books -- Corduroy by Don Freeman and Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina.

Classic picture books with an element of fun, these are two of our family's absolute favorites.

Drop me a comment that includes either a link to your blog or your email address.

I will accept entries until bedtime Friday, and will use a random number generator to choose the winner.

*Due to shipping costs, this offer is only available to residents of the United States.*

This is carnival week at Bloggy Giveaways, so there are a lot more free things to be had over there.

The Blogroll

This is a dynamically created list of what I am reading online. Remember that reading it does not imply that I endorse it, agree with it, or even like every post. If you want to know what I have really enjoyed today, check out the "shared items" over in the right sidebar.

No more Snow Boots

You Are Bare Feet

You are a true free spirit, and you can't be tied down. Even wearing shoes can be a little too constraining for you at times! You are very comfortable in your own skin. You are one of the most real people around. You don't have anything to hide. Open and accepting, you are willing to discuss or entertain almost any topic. You are a very tolerant person. You are accepting and not judgmental. You should live: Somewhere warm You should work: At your own business, where you can set the rules

What Kind of Shoe Are You?

Sunny Days

Nary a snowbank in sight. Unless, of course, you look in the shade:

No Tips Today

You know what works for me? Spending every possible moment outdoors enjoying that time-honored New England spring tradition....

....of riding your bike full-speed into a snowbank.

Now that the temperatures have been reaching up into the 50s, we have been outside until dinnertime every evening. Which means, of course, that my posting schedule will need to be adjusted accordingly. Maybe 2 or 3 posts a week from here on out.

Wish me luck on my tan :)

The Dragon and the Pea

Our Unplugged project -- dragon masks.

After watching an episode of Dragon Tales*, Agent 002 wanted to be a dragon.

Thinking quickly, I pulled out a bag of split peas, a bowl of glue, and a stack of cardboard. With some parental assistance in the placement of eyeholes, dragon masks were soon completed.

Agent 002 was not yet satisfied. "Dragons have wings," he said.

A moment later he had crafted dragon wings from a paper bag and some string. His quick-witted sister pulled a pair of angel wings from the dress up basket.

Her dragon gown was made from an old tablecloth and a pair of safety pins. His dragon shirt just happened to be what he was wearing that morning.

I ended the project before Agent 002 figured out how to get fire to shoot from his mouth. Much disappointment ensued.

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*Yes, I recognize the irony in writing about a television-inspired project for Unplugged. But the project itself was, in fact, unplugged. And most people would agree that split peas are food, and thus fit the project parameters. My husband would disagree.

A Tough Nut to Crack

You Are a Brazil Nut

To most people, you seem exotic, unusual, and even a bit scary. But you're really quite normal. You're just hard to get to know. If people leave you alone and let you do your thing, you really shine. But you tend to get lost in a crowd, especially if it's filled with big personalities.

What Nut Are You?

Magnetic Phonics

I don't think that this is how the folks at LeapFrog thought the Word Whammer would be used.....but at least the kids are using the letters as well.

Of Scorpions and Other Unplanned Projects

In case anyone gets the idea that we run an organized preschool in this home, let me tell you a story that illustrates how our lesson plans are really designed.

Some months ago we went to a fast-food restaurant on a Saturday afternoon. The food was mediocre, but the accompanying toy (pictured at left) became one of Agent 002's favorites.

Then winter came and the toy was locked out in "cold storage" for the season. The little boy promptly forgot all about his favorite robot scorpion.

Boy and scorpion had a sweet reunion, however, when the three-season porch was reopened for the season. We heard shrieks of "little pooch baby scorpion" as Agent 002 held the plastic creature up to his face to kiss it.

Moments later, the questions began. Does it bite? Sting? Would it make me dead? Can I run faster than a scorpion? What does it eat?

I answered as many of the questions as I could, and then honestly answered that I had no idea about the rest. I suggested that we look up some information.

We started by reading the Wikipedia entry, then hit Google Images for some visuals. By this point, Agent 004 and Cousin F were also huddled around the laptop looking at the pictures.

Once the troops showed signs of restlessness, we headed into the red room to create something with our new-found knowledge. Agent 002 built his own model of a "death stalker" scorpion with minimal assistance. He used an egg carton for the body, twirled wire for the tail, wire threaded through the carton for legs, and construction paper for the pincers. Obviously he also included his trademark smile (just like his fish).

While he worked on the model, I asked him to recount everything he learned. I transcribed the information onto a Powerpoint slide along with some of the images we found online. An instantaneous entry for our animal notebook:

For something completely spontaneous it was quite a thorough lesson. We did some reading, writing, research, geography, creative art, and even a bit of math (figuring out how many wires we would need to make the right number of legs, given that each wire makes two legs).

And so passed an entire morning at casa warillever. Lots of learning, lots of creativity, and a whole lot of fun. Now if only you would believe that every morning went like this....

Learning to Learn to Read

Sometime in February, Agent 004 informed me that she was ready to read.

Actually, she handed me a book (I wish that I could remember which) and said, "I will read this." And then she asked me what each individual word said.

When we finished reading that book I asked her if she wanted to learn how to read all kinds of books. She said yes, so we started in on a new adventure together.

Due to its glowing recommendations, we started with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Agent 004 thought it was a lot of fun to say things fast and then say them slow, but I wasn't such a big fan. It just felt too stilted and didn't fit into the rhythm of our days. There is no set "preschool" time at our house; I consider each moment of their lives educational. Teach Your Child to Read might well be effective, but I am not quite ready to have my three-year old involved in a formal reading curriculum with structured lessons. We quit within two weeks.

But, as I told you a few weeks ago, my little princess is starting to read. What has worked for her? Word families.

Not simply "sounding it out," word families help children to see the pattens in words (see Literacy Connections for more information). We start with two letters -- a common word ending like "-at." Agent 004 and I sound the letters out together. Then I whip out the "word-o-matic,*" a strip of cardboard with the word ending written on it. The initial consonants are written on a slip of paper that slides through two slits on the cardboard. We slide the paper up and down reading each new word as it appears.

After learning the "-at" words, she read her first book -- a printable from Hubbard's Cupboard called In My Hat. The next day I wrote her a very silly book called The Cat that Sat on a Hat, which she read with glee.

I wanted to make sure that she could have instant success by reading real books. She is very proud of new found ability.

Of course, she is still learning through exploration as well. I recently made her a set of Montesori-style** movable letters following these instructions at ehow.***

Here are some "-at" words that she spelled out on the table.

Here is Agent 002 trying out different initial consonants. Whenever he came up with something that made a recognizable word, he would get excited and ask us all to look.
The cards clean up easily into their very own filecard box with alphabet dividers. As an added bonus, the kids are learning alphabetical order as they clean up.

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*I have since learned that these are called "word slides," and are commonly used in elementary school phonics. I was so proud of myself for coming up with these all on my own! Reinventing the wheel again :)

** Yes, I am aware that Montessori purists would cringe to hear these called movable letters since they are on cards. We use a lot of Montessori methods in our schooling, but do not follow the Montessori Method.

***I made two modifications to these instructions -- (1) I made a small yellow dot (ala Handwriting Without Tears) in the top-left corner of each card to prevent letter reversals and (2) I made a template to ensure equally sized letters by cutting a small-letter-sized rectangle from an extra index card.