Weekly book shelf 3/9/12

Weekly topic reading:

Gilgamesh the King, The Revenge of Ishtar, and The Last Quest of Gilgamesh make up this trilogy that tells the Epic of Gilgamesh in picture book format. It's a fun way to approach the epic; the illustrations really add to the feel of the era. That being said, Calvin says he enjoyed the chapter book format (listed below) even better. (History)

This one is really dense with fantastic informaton. It covers exactly what it says in its subtitle: from foraging to farming. The information is great, but we did a lot of skimming because it was pretty text heavy for a young child. (History)

Reading to himself:

Geraldine McCaughrean is known for her ability to bring archaic texts to kids without completely washing out their original appeal. If you are looking purely for authenticity, then no, this is not the book for you. And I haven't ever studied any of the texts that are considered relatively authentic so I cannot really draw comparison, but this book maintains some of the integrity of the epic while making it accessible for middle elementary readers. Beware, though—keeping its integrity means there is a bit of violence and gore. Calvin loved it. (History)

Reading out loud:

Here is another classic that probably needs no introduction. Norton Juster's award winning story of a boy who travels through a magical world full of whimsy. It is probably best known for its hilarious word play, and that is the reason it so well loved around here.

Weekly book shelf 1/20

We've spent a lot of time lately talking first about human evolution, then about human migration. This was my approach to starting history—to start from the true beginning in order to put human civilizations into the real context of relationship. I think that's important groundwork to lay before we, eventually, get into the remeeting of these civilizations and the destructiveness of their failure to realize their relationship to one another.

With that in mind, this is a book that I picked up at our library sale. It goes well with the videos we've been watching lately that lay out some of the more recent theories about human migration into the Americas, which date their arrival here much earlier than previously thought. This is a National Geographic book and is not strictly speaking a children's book, but it is well illustrated and lined with photographs and good descriptions. Calvin loves it.

This is a fun book that is less about the Mayas and their hieroglyphs than it is about the Europeans and their struggle to discipher them. It has a few listed activities that walk kids through making some Mayan heiroglyphs as well.

Every two page spread in this book shows the same spot on the same river over thousands of years. It has been a good companion to our study of human migration and the development of civilaztions. Great illustrations with fun details that keep each page interesting.

Journal entries—Activities activites

We've barely been home at all in the past week, and I'm obviously having trouble keeping up here. Three journal entries a week, but do I have time to post them here? I should. I've started posting them along with my own blog entries in the journal, but for those who visit only this page, here is some of what we've been up to.

Who was Charles Darwin? (review by Calvin)

This book is one in a series about historical figures. Calvin read it to me so I can throw in a bit of review along with his. The book is written with youth in mind—it's a bit lengthier and more complex than the Magic Tree House books, but not by much. I found the sentences varied enough to be enjoyable while still being readable for the younger set, and the pencil sketch illustrations were a nice touch without being distracting. We had a great time with the book and used it to map the voyage of the Beagle on our wall map.

Learning writing style, and journal entries

Calvin has been writing for a while now. He started keeping his journal almost a year ago. At that time it was mostly a sentence, or even just a few words, describing an activity from the day, or sometimes a book that we'd read, and I was helping him form his sentences and sound out and spell the words. I got him started on the journal before he could read in part because he was interested in doing so—he'd noticed me keeping journals for some time by then—and also because I thought it might be empowering to be able to share his thoughts with the world at large. He enjoyed it, and I'm pretty sure the process helped him learn to read a few months later, though learning is a very fluid process, and like the proverbial chicken and egg I can't tell which drove the other—the journal the reading, or the reading the journal. And as Calvin gained his own writing legs I slowly stopped helping him with his journal, and some time early this year I left him sitting on the couch writing while I ran on the treadmill, and since that time all the entries have been entirely his—spelling, punctuation, composition, and all.

Recently he and I had a chance to talk about sentence formation and about telling stories with written words. The topic presented itself because after having read all the Oz books by L. Frank Baum we graduated to the subsequent books by Ruth Plumly Thompson, only her writing just isn't as good—it's not as clear, it's not as bright, it's not as enjoyable. We compared some of their methods for story telling, and some examples of their sentence formation as well. From there we started talking more about what makes a sentence interesting in general, and about rhythm and flow in a short work.

We explored Calvin's own journal next, and found that some entries were more fun to read than others—he found that the ones that had been short, quick, and easy to write were the least interesting to read later. Then we tried something: he wrote a quick entry about our Log Cabin Weekend trip, then asked me to help him rewrite it. I helped him by asking leading questions about the day itself, by talking about different ways to phrase the same thing, and by encouraging him to vary his sentence length. He seemed surprised by the difference between the two entries, and excited, too, as though a new window had opened in his mind, or a new door in his life.

Journal entry original:

Journal entry rewrite: