I am seeing the boys, especially Joseph, start to assimilate certain parts of the books we have read and it makes me happy to know that little things are sinking in. For example, while he is playing, I've heard Joseph say "La la la la lei" like the boat master from The Story About Ping, I've heard him imitate some onomatopoeic words from A Pair of Red Clogs that he apparently found very enchanting and his favorite book so far has probably been Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel - so much so that I am going to try and do a "unit" study of sorts on steam shovels and see how far his interest goes. Last week he was playing with the wooden blocks and called me in to see what he had made: "A new town hall with four corners, neat and square!" (and I think it might have been a town hall for Darth Vader in it's first incarnation.) He really had laid the blocks out in a very good square! And he had me draw a picture of the steam shovel, Mary Anne, and then I ended up printing out a picture of it so he could play with it after the first one I drew got ripped.
When we read A Pair of Red Clogs, which takes place in Japan, we ate lunch at the train table all week, sitting on cushions and I used chop sticks to show the boys how it was done. Then Joseph wanted to use "chompsticks" too, so I rigged up a pair for him with a spacer and an elastic. He's asked if we could eat at the train table again, which we would, if I didn't keep forgetting about it by the time I put lunch on the table! Also shortly after reading that book, the boys were watching Betty Boop cartoons and there was one where Betty is performing a song dressed up in a kimono as well as her back up singers, so I was able to point out that aspect of Japanese culture that we had talked about the week before. (Yes, the boys really like Betty Boop!) And when a friend of mine got sick and had surgery, I reminded the boys about the story of Madeline and how she had surgery and her friends brought her flowers and we had talked about ways to help people when they are in need.
There are also "story disks" (basically a little circle of paper with an iconic drawing related to the particular book) which we place on a map for wherever the stories are taking place, so the boys can identify China, Japan, France, Europe, the United States (and several states, but that is from playing with a map puzzle more than from these books.)
The first volume of Five In A Row has about 20 titles, so it will take us through the first half of the year. After that I am going to try out some other things such as a unit study on bees that I bought at a homeschooling conference over the summer. And Joseph seems to be getting more interested in writing so I plan to start practicing that with him too. Last week he got out his notebook and started writing "sentences" i.e. a continuous squiggly line for which he dictated the words he was writing. It was like a love letter to his cousins! "I... love... cousin ...Jooonaathaan..." "I... love... Brriiddgett..." "I...love... Graaannt." "I... love... Claaaaire" etc. (I think he pretty much wrote a line for all his cousins in the end.)
Also on the educational front, I found a wonderful French class for Joseph to take and Simon can hang out too. It is just a small class with two other students (a five year old and a 6 y.o.), taught by a relatively recent college grad who was homeschooled herself. She speaks French very well and incorporated a lot of different things into the forty-five minute class: history, songs, geography, etc. I thought it was very nice and it gives me a launching point for incorporating more French speaking in our day to day. They seem to be warming up to it, whereas before whenever I would say or read something in French, they would say, "Don't say that! Don't talk French!"
That sounds like a neat program! We have most of those books at home. I, for one, am finding this year so helpful for just learning the routine, the juggling, and how to teach while managing other kids. It's very hard, I am finding!
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