Whittling Away at Gardens

This is Shaemus with his new whittling knife (one of the fifty dangerous things kids should do is learn how to whittle—and really sharp whittling knives are surprisingly inexpensive–$15!).

This is the stick he has whittled (I apologize for his pasty smile—he is in the pasty smile stage of life). 

This is Shaemus on whittling. 

And now onto spring.

Our thirty-one baby plants arrived and we planted them and honestly, without sugar-coating anything, the kids love their plants. We split the baby perennials up, everyone took a spot in the yard, and we spent Friday evening planting (and weeding) and just talking, talking, talking. (That was my favorite part.)

Now the kids check their plants throughout the day. They stare at them, waiting for them to grow. They are proud of their babies. Everyone is jealous that one of Calvin's is already blooming.

I don't know how long this enthusiasm will last, but we ordered ninety more plants (it was a choice between spending two hundred dollars on mulch or two hundred dollars on plants that will fill up all that empty dirt instead of mulch—we opted for plants, eek!) to divide up. They should arrive today. I have a system for how all this is going to work. I'll share the success or failure on Monday!

But the point of all this is, kids love gardens and gardening. They love to grow things.

So here are some great books for 6-9 year olds about gardens and plants, perfect for spring!


Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney (I love this book!)


The Gardener by Sarah Stewart (I really love this book!)


A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Aston


Jack's Garden by Henry Cole


Planting a Rainbow by Lous Ehlert


On Meadowview Street by Henry Cole (I really love this one too!)


The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle


Sunflower House by Eve Bunting


Flower Garden by Eve Bunting


Dirt: the Scoop on Soil by Natalie Rosinsky


Oh Say Can You Seed? by Bonnie Worth


A Gardener's Alphabet by Mary Azarian (I love the pictures in this book. Makes me want to move to the country and raise a crop of kids and a crop of plants)

Happy Spring!

YA Pick and Nonfiction for Everyone!!! (And some spear throwing)

Today's dangerous thing ended up being spear throwing. I was a little panicked when Calvin came out of our dungeon (our name for our garage thingy) with a hoe (a regular-sized garden hoe) and Shaemus came out with a heavy bat, and they declared their intentions to go throw some spears. But they both had on helmets and swimming vests. So they were well prepared.

I did not encourage them to do the spear throwing (one of the 50 dangerous things), they came up with the notion on their own, so I repeated many times that the person not throwing the spear had to stay far away and well-behind the person throwing the spear. This was after Calvin said, "Well, the good news is, when I throw the hoe, if it hits Shaemus, the heavy pointy metal part would only hit him right here." Then he pointed to Shaemus's helmet. I quickly pointed out that Calvin had no clue where the heavy pointy metal part would land and Shaemus had to, had to, had to stay behind him.

Then I let them go out side to seriously injure each other. But no one was hurt today and spears were thrown, so all's well that ends well (except that Flannery decided to stick her finger inside our little floor fan. And she'll never do that again!).

My YA pick is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. I didn't love, love it, but I really did enjoy it. Excellent YA Fantasy, I would say, and I've now heard from friends that I must read book two, so there you go.

Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rachel Carson

(I do not love this cover...)
This is a girl-protagonist book, something boys generally avoid reading. A friend of mine has a teenage son who can't find anything to read. He wants clean fiction—little profanity, no sex, mild violence—and it is harder and harder to find this in YA literature, particularly YA geared to guys. If anyone has any great suggestions for books that are YA but clean and have high boy interest, please pass it on!!!


And for nonfiction, we are all enjoying perusing the great photos and illustrations in this:

Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty by Tonya Bolden

Now if this is the kind of book that makes you want to curl up under the covers and take a nap, change your ways. Now. Kids love this stuff. They love true stuff. They eat it up, but if they sense your wariness, your fear, your discomfort with heavy-duty history—with real stuff—they will quickly pick up your discomfort and blow it up into hatred. And if you haven't checked out, like really checked out, nonfiction for kids nowadays, it is (generally) awesome. These things read like novels now, they are so well done.

How's that for a lecture? But seriously, this is a book that your entire family could browse and read and discuss, and Lincoln is big right now, and, really, I'm not sure there could be a more important document for our kids to be familiar with. Might as well get 'em hooked at home, while it's fun.

I am posting about how to get our kids hooked on reading and writing on Monday. That's the only way to motivate people! To hook them, to get them interested, to reel them in...

Lucy's Birthday Books

First, I am going to update you on fifty dangerous things.

Yesterday, we all learned how to light a match. Then I let Shaemus go outside and play with matches. I only peeked out the window sixteen times.

Nobody died. It was great.

Next, we are all going to learn how to stand on the roof and lick a nine-volt battery. This is the great stuff in life, I'm telling you.

Now onto birthdays!
Lucy is the one in that polka-dot coat. She loves that coat. And, yes, we all have identically shaped glasses. And, no, Mary doesn't look this sad all the time. Just in pictures. Because she is twelve and all the pictures taken of you when you are twelve must be somewhat agonizing.

And now Lucy is eleven!

Here are the books Lucy got for her birthday:

The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen (I have stolen this already and, so far, it is really, really good!)

For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund

The Golden Book of Fairytales

Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl

Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin

Gustav Gloom and the People Taker by Adam Troy-Castro

The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron

Dragon Spear by Jessica Day George

Nation by Terry Pratchet

A lot of castles. A lot of Fairytale like settings, but there is some good variety here. Nation in particular is different than the rest. An unusual, marvelous book you really should read. It reminds me (for some unknown reason) of The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer, one of Lucy's all time favorite books. Also a book everyone should read at some point in their lives. 

Nation and Gustav Gloom and The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm and The False Prince might particularly appeal to boys if they are a little romance, princess averse. 

50 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do

Today is the day for books for that hard age, 6ish to 9ish.

I had something else planned, but decided to post about this particular book, because Shaemus hasn't put it down since it arrived two days ago (except to eat, and even then, he ate quickly).



50 Dangerous Things (you should let your children do)

It's based on this TED talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/gever_tulley_on_5_dangerous_things_for_kids.html

(five dangerous things for kids—that you should let them do)

Shaemus is so excited. He wants to do everything on the list. Thanks to this book, he wants a pocket-knife. He wants to learn how to whittle. He wants to learn origami. He wants a complete toolbox. He wants to learn how to stand on the roof, which he did one time, he informed me, and he LOVED it. (So he says)

We'll see how all this goes, all these fifty dangerous things. But in the meantime, he is reading an informational, nonfiction book geared toward adults and he loves it. He's asking me what words mean every five seconds. He wants to know what these words mean. He is craving to know.

Which just goes to show what motivation is all about. Give a kid a book they are INTERESTED in, and they will struggle to make sense of it. On their own. Because they want to.

Interest = motivation = a learner = a reader

(I made that up—very deep, I know.)