Little House on the Prairie

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Malachi and I are enjoying reading the Little House Books. We've finished Little House in the Big Woods and we just started Little House on the Prairie this afternoon. I loved these books as a kid and I'm hoping Malachi enjoys them as well..

One thing that he's been really intrigued by is that these books are about REAL people. So today as we were reading about the Ingalls family leaving their house in the Big Woods and driving across Lake Pepin on the ice, I remembered I had saved a Pinterest pin about a virtual field trip tour of the Little House sites. It is a little hard for a 5-year-old in our culture to picture what it was like to live in a little cabin the the woods.... or what it was like traveling in a covered wagon for that matter. This site had some great pictures of the actual site where Laura and her family lived in Wisconsin. Even I enjoyed the pictures! I don't think I quite realized how large Lake Pepin is and I cannot imagine crossing it on ice! Yikes!

This is also a great site to find information and pictures about Laura and the places she lived - liwfrontiergirl.com.

Currently...

1. I just finished the second book in the Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth. I can't believe I have to wait A YEAR to find out what happens. Seriously... this is why I usually wait until the whole series is out before I start reading it.

2. I have a lot left to unpack from our move, but I've squirreled most of it away into the back bonus room so that Malachi is the one who has to look at it most of the time. =)

3. I have been spending WAY too much time on Pinterest lately.

4. I am planning a Jane Austen bunco party at my house next month - and getting super excited about all the fun prizes and food and decoration I'm going to have.

5. Our new house has a fireplace with a mantle! I've been super excited to decorate it. Here's the beginning of my Fall mantle:

Oil lamp from Grandma's | Harvest jar candle | Picture of Malachi | 3 votives covered with burlap | Pumpkin 

pillar candle w/ acorn & leaf ring from World Market | Two old frames from Grandma's | Malachi's baby 

pumpkin from the Cider Mill | Hurricane holder from Partylite | Leaf garland from Dollar Tree 

I have a burlap project to finish it off.... but I've either misplaced or used up all my burlap...

6. I'm trying to get through the BBC's version of Jane Austen's Persuasion. Usually I don't like to watch a movie before I read the book, but Austen novels are the exception. I've decided the novels are so involved that it actually helps me keep it all straight to watch a movie first. So... the next book on my list is Persuasion, which will fulfill one of my Fall reading goals and 2012 goals. =)

7. Last night I baked my first pumpkin recipe of the season - Banana Pumpkin Muffins. The recipe said it made 12 muffins, so I doubled it. We got almost 3 dozen muffins... hmm...

8. My friend Lisa came over a couple days ago and helped me cut Malachi's hair with our clippers. I usually spend about $18 every couple months to take him to the local children's salon. He has a crazy cowlick in the back and it always grows out weird. I'm thinking I can do this... and save myself some money and cut the cowlick back whenever it needs it, rather than when I have the money. Apparently I need to get some thinning shears though....

Five in A Row

Not everyone realizes that I was a homeschooler - no not one of those crazy abnormal people. We were pretty normal and I did LOTS of outside activities and was/am very well socialized. Being an only child, my mom made sure I was involved in a lot of things like dance, violin, 4-H, Girl Scouts, co-op groups and we attended a large church. I went to Kindergarten and that's it. 1st - 12th grade I homeschooled. I'm proud to say that I now have a B.A. from the University of Washington and most people wouldn't guess that I was homeschooled.

When people DO find out that little fact about me though, inevitably the first thing they ask is "are you going to homeschool your kids?" Up until this point I've always said no, not because I had a bad experience, but just because I know how much work goes into as the parent/teacher and I wasn't sure I was up for the challenge.

My husband and I are still planning on going the public school route (he's pretty set on his kids toughing it out in public school), but I'm feeling more and more like I could do it if I needed too.

When I was in high school, a lot of great homeschool curriculum started emerging. I remember my mom piecing together a lot of different things when I was in elementary school. She would go to curriculum fairs and spend the day scouring the place for programs to use for different subjects - there just wasn't a lot out there. But these days, there are a ton of options for parents who want to homeschool their children.

One program that came out was Five in a Row. My mom was pretty intrigued by it and I've looked at it a couple times now to use with the Little Guy. They have a program called Before Five in a Row, which is created for 2-4-year-olds. It uses 24 classic children's books to make up mini-unit lessons.

Here is an excerpt from their website:

You’ll find an entire treasury of ideas to prepare children for pre-learning necessary for their educational foundation. These ideas are wonderfully effective without robbing your little ones of those special golden years of childhood. Those few brief years of early childhood can never be reclaimed later and many parents discover too late that they pushed too hard and too early for advanced academic achievement.

Before Five in a Row is passionate about teaching, but the teaching comes through the subtle forms of play that are intrinsic to early childhood. These lessons are the important pre-education lessons that will both build your child’s mind and fill your child’s heart while truly readying them for the deeper academic experience to come.

I'm looking into purchasing a few of those 24 books for the Little Guy for Christmas this year. Between my mom and myself, I think we only have a handful like, Goodnight Moon, Caps for Sale, Snowy Day and Corduroy. But I'm sure the Little Guy would enjoy We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Blueberries for Sal, ABC Bunny and other classics like that.

I figure that even if I don't end up homeschooling during his actual school years, I can give him the preparation he needs and spend some time doing fun activities and reading great children's books together. =)

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Book Review: Emma

Book Details
Title: Emma
Author: Jane Austen
2005, Barnes and Noble Classics
Originally published in 1816
ISBN: 1593081529

Summary (from Goodreads.com)
Emma Woodhouse is a wealthy, exquisite, and thoroughly self-deluded young woman who has "lived in the world with very little to distress or vex her."

Jane Austen exercises her taste for cutting social observation and her talent for investing seemingly trivial events with profound moral significance as Emma traverses a gentle satire of provincial balls and drawing rooms, along the way encountering the sweet Harriet Smith, the chatty and tedious Miss Bates, and her absurd father Mr. Woodhouse–a memorable gallery of Austen's finest personages. Thinking herself impervious to romance of any kind, Emma tries to arrange a wealthy marriage for poor Harriet, but refuses to recognize her own feelings for the gallant Mr. Knightley. What ensues is a delightful series of scheming escapades in which every social machination and bit of "tittle-tattle" is steeped in Austen's delicious irony. Ultimately, Emma discovers that "Perfect happiness, even in memory, is not common."

My Review
Whew! It took me months to read this book and two attempts. This does not mean I didn't like it though. I honestly think that if I didn't have a toddler and could have just sat down and read this book through, I would have had an easier time. But, if you are easily distracted or have a lot of other thing going on to interrupt your reading, this may not be the best book to read.

Emma has A LOT of characters. There are the main characters, Emma and Mr. Knightley. Then there are loads of secondary characters, Harriet Smith, Mr. Woodhouse, Jane Farifax, Mrs. and Miss Bates, the Eltons, Mr. and Mrs. Weston, John and Isabella Knightley and Frank Churchhill. Then there are even more lesser characters that are mentioned throughout the novel. Almost all of the above named characters have their own sub-plots going on in the midst of Emma's main one. This is why I was so confused the first time through and actually ended up watching the BBC's Emma movie before making my second attempt at reading the book. I usually hate watching the movie before reading the book, but in this case, it helped me to connect the who's who and not get the characters confused.

I really enjoyed the story of Emma. She is a smart girl, but a little too full of herself and her own importance in the world. She doesn't think she needs anyone and has decided against every marrying - because she doesn't need too. She lives with her father, who is sickly, and takes care of him. She is always trying to be a matchmaker and through a series of blunders figures out that she is maybe not quite as smart as she thought. Mr. Knightley, through the book, is giving her advice, warning her against what she's thinking or doing and she is ignoring it all. I love this line by Emma, "I always deserve the best treatment, because I never put up with any other."

I think that most people can relate to Emma Woodhouse - at least in some way. One of my favorite quotes was near the end of the  book when she realizes that she and Mr. Knightley had both completely misinterpreted each others feelings for each other, "Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken." Very true, is it not? This are not usually the way they seem on the surface and feelings are not usually completely open and honest.

So, if you have a lot of time to devote to a novel, this is a great story. Apparently it has been said that Emma Woodhouse is one of Jane Austen's most perfect creations, although Jane Austen herself said that Emma was a character that, "no one but myself will much like." Obviously that's not true - I think she's just a very human character.