Annual Visit to See Cherry Trees

Every year near Dan's birthday, the cherry trees in the Quad at the UW burst into glorious bloom. Every year, we visit the 3rd week of March. We seem to have always take our potty break in Miller Hall and this year was no different. We did end up in a classroom where Sarah, Dan and Campbell did some teaching! FUN family day!

Math Article-Moebius Noodles

This is an interesting article about learning math. It highlights an interview with Maria Druoujkova of Moebius Noodles. You can get a PDF copy of this book (name your price!) HERE.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/5-year-olds-can-learn-calculus/284124/

The Magic Kitten by Sue Bentley-Books for Breakfast Morning Read Aloud

My daughter is in love with these darling books, a huge series about animals including kitten, puppies, ponies and bunnies. Her favorite is the "Magic Kitten" series. So she wanted me to read one (or all!) during our read aloud time. Book #1 is A Summer Spell Magic Kitten by Sue Bentley. The illustrations are simply adorable and the stories, though somewhat predictable, are sweet. She can't get enough!

The Cats in Kransinski Square by Karen Hesse-Books for Breakfast Morning Read Aloud

This morning we read "The Cats in Kransinski Square" by Karen Hesse. In writing this post, I realize I was pronouncing it incorrectly! I was saying "Krasinky" instead of "Kran-sin-ski"! Oooops! I first read the last pages which explained more about the book and then read the book. Fantastic illustrations and heartwarming story in the midst of heartbreaking circumstances.

The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling-Books for Breakfast Morning Read Aloud

Somehow we lost our way with reading aloud with several trips, Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then my Mom had surgery in January and I've just lost touch with reading the past few months. I can't decide to chock it up to the natural ebb and flow of life, or blame myself for not being more intentional. Regardless of what I decide about that, it's time to read!

I read to the kids for the purpose of enjoyment, therefore, I just can't put up with a boring story or one that drags on or is difficult to get into...thus, to reintroduce ourselves to daily read alouds, I have "The Chocolate Touch" by Patrick Skene Catling. Since we love chocolate in our house, I knew it would be a winner! And we ATE chocolate while reading this book!

I don't normally like reading aloud from the Kindle...not sure why, but I think I miss associating the book cover with the story. When I pick up the book everyday and read a few chapters, we see the cover artwork. I like that. We don't get the same effect with the Kindle. I did read this on the Kindle because I bought it the night before so it would be ready to read...no waiting a few days for the library copy-oh the instant gratification!

One of my favorite activities is to search for books we might like. I have a line-up of five more books after we finish this one!

We are changing our read aloud time to the mornings before Table Time. We've decided to read just one chapter a day (but we read all 12 chapters at once and finished this today!) We're eating breakfast together, but I'm allowing lunch to be "floating" because of the projects, I don't want to interrupt and Sarah if often not hungry til later on. For 2014, I'm going to change some of my tags for simplicity.

New House One Year Anniversary

WOW! We've been here an entire YEAR! The frogs are SO LOUD at night this time of year, I just LOVE it! Can't wait to start gardening again and being outside more. It's almost time to start mowing again, what a lovely break we've had since November. I've noticed the weeds have started up again. AND the raspberries are starting to leaf out-hooray! I am so excited to see how they fruit this year (and the blueberries, too)...you know, getting to see the (real) fruit of our labors from last year.

None of us have missed the other house at all. Once we moved, it was like our hearts moved, too. We love it here. I only wish it was closer to our friends.