Term Two: Week Two ~ Term Two Take Two

Week Two and I nicknamed this week "Term Two Take Two" as we were finally all well, healthy, and ready to get back to normal. However, I also realised that with his appendicitis, then our normal two week school holidays in April, AND another week off for COVID, Munchkin had six weeks off from school which is equivalent to a summer break for us! Therefore, this first week back to school was NOT without some difficulties. But, we persevered, had some serious and stern discussions, and then got on with the routine of school and learning.

I very intentionally and purposefully scheduled an extremely light day for Monday while we found our feet with school again. Therefore the boys enjoyed some "leisure time" early in the morning with their phones and books while I got myself collected and organised everything. Munchkin is a very happy boy in the early mornings if he has either a phone to play games on, or a stack of books to read, or both.

The mornings are getting cooler now that it is May, so the boys curl up with blankets while we read or watch television in the lounge room...

First thing Monday morning we got started on a STACK of reading aloud... you can just see the two piles of books on the left side of the photo. We worked our way through both stacks of books - which took a little over an hour.

While we read a book about the history/origins of rice, they each tried a Rice Krispies treat that was given to us by a friend.

Munchkin working on his math for the day...

And his writing assignment on a different day...

Monster continues to work well, and diligently, each day on his own in our home office.

Wednesday (May the 4th) was "Star Wars Day" so we did a little bit of celebrating. The boys drank blue milk during our morning read aloud session, and then in the afternoon Munchkin helped me whip up a batch of chocolate cupcakes...

He did a brilliant job of mixing both the cupcake batter and the frosting and then got on with the serious job of icing the cupcakes... I think we over whipped the frosting and it split, but they still tasted super delicious.

Our Wednesday night "sweet treat" complete with Star Wars decorations for the occasion.

This series of books looks like it is going to be really fun to read. I started off with rice because it is the food eaten by the most number of people in the world, so that made logical sense for a starting point. The books are full of all sorts of information as well as recipes from around the world. We decided we want to try the chocolate rice pudding recipe... now we just need to wait for the grocery store to get more aborio rice in stock.

Munchkin was my walking buddy a couple of different days this week - including Thursday when we went to pick up our library reserves AND attend the new After School Activities event that will be held every Thursday afternoon. He missed out on craft last week but thoroughly enjoyed playing with Lego this week.

Only two other children attended but we're hoping numbers will improve over time. Meanwhile, Munchkin and another little girl enjoyed building houses.

I took a sneaky photo of Monkey's current drawing for this week. This is a character from one of his new computer games that he is enjoying. He is doing all the drawing free hand (just using a photograph on his phone as reference) and then colouring the picture with his shading pencils.

Munchkin enjoyed spending time with my Saturday afternoon, preparing a special mixed berry upside down cake for morning tea at church for Mother's Day.

Finally, we ended the week with this gorgeous sunset in the evening.

I realised, in looking back at last week's blog posts, that I forgot to include this bookshelf in my isolating organisation blog post. So for those of you who MIGHT be interested, here are the finished photos of that bookshelf.

This is the top shelf... the six books on the left are definitely keepers. The four books on the right, I'll be re-reading in time to decide if I'm keeping them or passing them on to other people/taking to an op shop.

The middle and bottom shelves are an eclectic selection of books I've picked up at discount stores or have been given to me by a variety of people. I will read each of these books over time and make the decision as to whether they meet the criteria for keeping them (I will re-read them) otherwise they will leave my possession and find a home elsewhere.

Read Aloud Book Selection ~ Term Two: Week Two

This is a new blog post idea I want to trial. I decided I wanted to better explain the types of books I read aloud to the boys so that people can see what we are reading and why. This way I can change the book portion of my weekly blog posts and make it for a purely recording aspect that doesn't require much writing. I don't really know how often or how much people scroll down (or keep reading) to the bottom of my weekly blog posts to see what books the boys and I are reading. This also gives people the opportunity to completely skip the book aspects of the blog posts.

I am currently reading both of these books to Monster. Both titles are books I was meant to read when I was in high school and did not. (I am not proud of that by the way). But, Monster and I are not THRILLED about either of these books. We will continue to read them, because they aren't horrible, but we aren't loving them either.

I am reading the entire Harry Potter series to Monkey (and Monster is listening to them as well). I read the first book in the series WAY back in 2003-2005 when I was teaching because all my upper primary students were reading the book. But then I had children and completely stopped reading independently while I was dealing with sleepless nights and breastfeeding babies. The boys have NOT been interested in reading the books independently at all, so I decided to get them hooked by reading the first book aloud. However, the two older boys and I are absolutely LOVING this series and we are really sucked in to the stories, so I have decided to read the ENTIRE series aloud to the two older boys, and then I'll read it aloud again to Munchkin in another year or so. I'm betting the two older boys will figure out a way to listen in when I'm reading them again to Munchkin too. Of course, once we have read all the books, the boys are keen to watch all the movies. I'm not sure I'll join them on that endeavour though as I often find I prefer books to movies about the book.

The next three titles are books I chose with Munchkin in mind (primarily) but all three boys are enjoying these books. This is my third read of the Series of Unfortunate Events books (I've read them once each to the older two boys) and I'm pleased to say that I'm enjoying this third reading of the series as much (if not MORE) than the first and second time I read them. The humor is dark and the series is definitely an acquired taste, but I highly recommend them.

I am also reading the Alice books to Munchkin as part of his Australian history unit study (though truthfully we started studying Australian history when Monster was about ten years old and we've never ever really stopped), and again all three boys enjoy the books. We especially like these "4 Books in One" books as there is an extra chapter at the end that gives us an idea of what happens in the particular girl's future which is not included in the series when the books are all written and published separately.

Several months ago when we were shopping at a much larger Salvation Army store then the local one in our suburb, I discovered this book on the shelf, and I grabbed it straight away. I watched the movie when I was about Munchkin's age (perhaps a bit older) and LOVED it but NEVER EVER read the book. So I decided we MUST read the book before the boys watch the movie. Munchkin LOVES it and every night he BEGS for another chapter. Some nights I indulge and other nights I leave him hanging for the next night... but I LOVE LOVE LOVE that he loves it so much that he is begging me to read more of it. I suspect he'll read and re-read it to himself after I finish reading it aloud.

Next are books that I'm reading aloud to Monster ONLY. 

We haven't started reading any of the following books yet, they are what I've scheduled for the beginning of Term 2. Some we'll finish in only a week and others will take a good portion (if not all) of the term to read.

First up we have the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. We LOVE learning about him and what is even more special about this copy of his autobiography is that it was my mother's book. I haven't read it myself yet, but I absolutely treasure it. As we have learned a lot about this fabulous man, it will be really interesting to read his autobiography.

These three books are also for Monster and I've chosen them as part of his Enlightenment unit study which we started in Term 1. We read a little bit about the American Revolution so now we are moving on to the French Revolution. I never studied the French Revolution much at all in my schooling career so I'm super excited to learn more.

This is another book that I read many, many years ago (as in BEFORE children) and I've decided now that Monster is in senior high school, it is a good book to read to him.

Finally, these last two selections are also just for Monster as well... These books about ANZAC Day are much more serious and information packed for the two other boys, so I'll read them to Monster first and then again to the other two boys when they are older.

This selection is for Monkey. We started an Ancient Greece unit study last term that we didn't quite finish because of the interruptions at the end of the term. So I've borrowed this book again and we'll pick up where we left off. I also reserved the 2-3 other junior non-fiction books about Ancient Greece that we didn't get to last term and we'll read those as well before we move on to Ancient Rome.

A final selection for Munchkin for his water cycle unit study. Both he and Monkey have curriculum content that deals with the water cycle and/or water management and water conservation so I am combining this unit study as much as I can. Therefore, some of the books are a lower level of information for Munchkin while some of the books are a bit more complex and better suited for Monkey.

Cells and Classification are two units that cover curriculum for ALL three boys. Again, I'm starting with the easier books suitable for Munchkin and then moving up to the more complex books for the older boys. These are also unit studies that we started towards the end of the term but got so distracted and disrupted that I've decided to completely re-start.

These two series are absolutely wonderful and the boys and I really love them. Sometimes (like here) the topics match up and when they do we read both books simultaneously. It will be interesting to see how much information is repeated and whether one book goes into more detail than the other.

World Book has put out this AMAZING series of Natural Disaster books and they are detailed and up-to-date (published in 2018) so we are slowly working our way through the whole series. These books take 2-3 weeks to read aloud as they are absolutely full of good information.

Finally, this is a new World Book series that I stumbled on by accident and I think it is going to be really wonderful. There are eight books in the series and they each focus on a different kind of food. As you read through the book you find out about the history of the particular food and how widely it is eaten around the world. There are interesting bits of information and recipes to try so I'm really excited to read them and see if we like them.

So there you have it, my very first blog post about the books we are reading aloud at the beginning of this new term. My plan is to post each Sunday with the read alouds we'll be reading in the coming week. That way, I can continue to mention interesting stuff about books that take longer than a week to read, and also introduce new books that we start at the beginning of the week, so I hope that at least some people who read this blog find this helpful and entertaining.

Isolation Organisation

Saturday dawned dreary and rainy and was also day five of my seven day isolation. I felt almost 100% better and I was bored so I had to find something to do. I got the brilliant idea to completely reorganise all the bookshelves in our bedroom to make it easier to find the books I want to read. So I just dove in and got started.  If books aren't your thing just skip this post entirely.

Some "in progress" photos of the job. The books in the top shelf on this small bookshelf did NOT have to move because six of the books are books I'm keeping because I will read and re-read them in the future, and the other two are books that I've read once but want to read one more time before I decide if they are staying or if I need to pass them on because I'm not going to read them again. 

Otherwise, I unloaded all the books onto the floor (as shown in the right hand photo) and got started with my ideas on how to better organise them.

Yes, these photos are basically the same... the left-hand photo taken with the camera on my phone and the right-hand photo taken with my DSLR camera. I use most of the shelves in my wardrobe/closet to store books as well. So I pulled all the books out of these shelves as well.

Two more "in progress" books, again one taken on my phone and one on my camera, showing my three bookshelves and the progress of this project.

This photo has me realising that my photos are out of "chronological" order - but such is life. This was the beginning of my "unloading" of the books from the shelves to the floor.

My organisation of the bookshelves in the wardrobe - and I LOVE that they are very deep because I can double shelve the books. So the back row on this first shelf contains all my Colleen McCullough books and my Bryce Courtnay books. It is WONDERFUL that I've been able to buy all these books at our local Salvation Army store for next to nothing. These books take me a LONG time to read hence why they can live in the back row as it will take me a long time to work through this row.

The front row of this shelf contains (mostly) other authors that I have numerous books of: Maeve Binchy, Kate Morton, Alexander McCall Smith and then a couple of random book that I didn't have room for elsewhere... My organisation ideas didn't work QUITE as smoothly as I hoped but as I read more books and pass them on, I'll have more room and can organise them a bit more.

The second shelf in the wardrobe is also doubled shelved - again because these are books that will take me awhile to work through so it isn't a huge drama that I can't see all the books all the time.

This shelf contains all my books that are autobiographies, biographies, or other true stories. I didn't actually realise how many of these books I own until I started this project and I'm now keen to read all these books.

There are only TWO books on this shelf (far right side) that may not stay. "Talk Before Sleep" and "Gifted Hands" as I may not be interested in reading them again. I have to think about them for awhile though (and possibly re-read them both) before I make my final decision.

The final shelf in the wardrobe contains our classics or near classics. Some of these books on this shelf have already been read and others haven't. It is quite possible this shelf will end up double shelved as well as I have classics currently housed on different shelves in other parts of the house - usually because we are going to read them soon - and once we finish them they'll move here.

This shelf is the least accessible shelf in my bedroom and I had to think for a LONG time about what the best books would be to put here. I finally came up with the brilliant answer... the books that I've read to some combination of the boys that I won't read to Munchkin for at least a year or longer. Thus they don't need to be moved for awhile and it is fine for them to sit where I can't really reach them. There is still some space here and I will continue to add our Series of Unfortunate Events books and Harry Potter books as I finish reading them aloud.

The next few photos work from the bottom up of this bookshelf as the photo above is the bottom shelf and then I worked up from there.

The next shelf up contains books that are considered middle grade (or slightly older) books but that my boys haven't been interested in, or that I haven't read yet. Then there are three on the far right-hand side that don't quite fit this category... James Harriot's "Every Living Thing", "Christy" by Katherine Marshall (I've watched the television show but never read the book) and "The Hope" by Herman Wouk

The next shelf up contains my Christian books - so really "Christy" by Katherine Marshall should be on this shelf and it will move there when I have room. All of the books on this shelf were given to me by a dear, dear friend of mine. The two books on the far right side are books that she gave me (new) as gifts for a couple of birthdays. The rest of the books on this shelf were books that she owned and passed on to me when she moved house WAY back when I was pregnant with Munchkin. There are MANY other books she passed on to me that I have read and passed on to friends, and I've enjoyed all of them, so I'm looking forward to reading all of these as well.

Finally the top shelf of this bookshelf is a "reference" and "mixture" kind of shelf as you can plainly see that not everything on this shelf are books that you would read. On the left-hand side are some textbooks (math) that we'll need later in the year (Monkey only has two chapters left in his Year 7 maths book). The middle few books are information type books and then my David Gillespie books which I wouldn't read to any of the boys at this stage yet. The next three books are self-explanatory... and on the far right side of the shelf are my "notebook" of checklists and to-read book lists and some adult colouring books.

Finally we come to the short bookshelf that I use as a night-stand next to my bed. We'll start at the top with this bookshelf. I'm SO happy with how clean and tidy the top of this bookshelf is now. I had some other stuff here (boxes of stuff I am storing) and it just made it feel cluttered and messy to me. I'm SO much happier with this layout now. 

The NINE books to the right hand side of my water bottle are the books that I am currently reading. YES! I am reading nine books AT ONCE! There are lots of people who cannot fathom reading that many books at once, and admittedly this is stretching me at the moment, but I MUST read more than one book at once and I'm actually physically incapable of only reading ONE book at a time. I get bored reading just one book. I am not always in the mood for one book either so I need choices. I also may not always have the same amount of time to read each night and some books (Bryce Courtnay) have REALLY long chapters. I HATE stopping in the middle of a chapter so if I only have a small amount of time to read I need a book with much shorter chapters.

This is the ninth book that I've added very recently to my "currently reading" stack. I heard about the book in THIS podcast (click on the word THIS for the link) and asked a good friend of mine if she had read the book. She had, she said she loved it, and she highly recommended it for ANY family that reads aloud to their children. Sadly, my library doesn't have the book and isn't likely to order it and I mentioned this to her... and so the book magically appeared on my front veranda/porch yesterday afternoon and of COURSE I had to start it immediately.

I highly recommend this book to ANYONE who reads aloud to the children or knows they want to read aloud to their children in the future, or if you want to read aloud but don't know if you can. You CAN and should read aloud to your children - of ALL ages - and though I've only read the first chapter so far, I KNOW I'm going to love this book so much. I'm so thankful that my friend recommends great books to me AND spoils me occasionally by gifting me with some of them.

This next shelf down is likely to change quite frequently. On the left-side is my box set of the Anne of Green Gables books. I'm currently reading book #3 so I want the box set close to me so I can start the next book easily as I finish each one. Next (to the right of the Anne books) are my "self help" or "improvement" or "parenting" style books that I want to read. Finally, the remaining books are books that are authors I know and love and have read other titles by,  so I know the books will be enjoyable and easy to read.

Next shelf down is what I call my "book list" shelf. The books on this shelf are either titles that are on book lists, or are other books by an author that I've read from a book list. Most of these are either from Oprah's book list or Barack Obama's numerous book lists. I'm so excited to read all these books.

Finally, the bottom shelf of this "nightstand" bookshelf are my MUST KEEP (except possibly one) books that I will read and re-read through all the days left of my life. From left to right... the Narnia series (which I've read once to myself and once aloud to each boy), the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and finally, the Matilda Saga books by Jackie French. These are the books that I would run into the house if it is was fire to rescue and take with me!! 

The final book (on the far right side) MAY join the MUST KEEP books, or it may get passed on. I loved "Tara Road" when I read it the first time many MANY years ago.. but the fact that I've NEVER re-read it since tells me that I may not read it again.

In contrast, as I've already mentioned, I've read the Narnia series four times already, the Little House books numerous times as a child (and once aloud to the boys), ** side note I've had to replace my Little House box set because the set as I had as a child LITERALLY fell apart I read it THAT much ** and some books in the Matilda Saga have been read 8-9 times already and this series of books is my "escapist" set... the books I turn to when reality is just too difficult to deal with at the time. In hindsight I should have taken the first book of this series (the one I've read the most number of times) to the hospital with me when Munchkin had his appendicitis. I would have handled the stress and anxiety of the situation SO much better if I had!!

Finally, some AFTER shots of the area after I had completed my mammoth organising project. I'm pretty pleased with the result and my side of the bedroom looks really nice and tidy now. More importantly, my books are organised in such a way that it will be MUCH easier for me to choose a new book whenever I finish one of the nine I'm currently reading.

Two shots of the finished shelves in the wardrobe... DSLR camera on the left and phone camera on the right.