Kami and the Yaks by Andrea Stenn Stryer, illustrated by Bert Dodson
In this story, Kami realizes his father and brother are searching for the yaks, eager to load them for a trek up the mountain. Though he is deaf and frightened by an approaching storm, Kami searches for the yaks in all their favorite places. Though he finds them, he must convince his father and brother to trust him and follow him through the storm.
It's a wonderful story of courage and an intimate knowledge of the family's animals, their livelihood. Kami is a marvelous role model for young children.
The illustrations are beautiful watercolors. My favorites show Kami surrounded by the rugged wilderness of his home, illuminated by lightning.
I've been spending a lot of time recently thinking about our Lent. This time of repentence and preparation is one of my favorite liturgical seasons. It's a time that provides daily opportunities to ponder our Lord's sacrifices and our own blessings. I want very much for it to be a meaningful time for our family.
With that in mind, I have carefully considered our past Lenten activities, expanded a few a bit and added a few. Please keep in mind a few things as you read this post.
1. I do not have a newborn or a needy infant. I am not pregnant. These plans would have been far beyond what I could handle the past couple of years.
2. The readings listed below will take place during our normal school hours. They are in addition to what we are doing for our lessons, but they will add no more than 15-20 minutes a day and will flow with our existing schedule.
3. These activities have developed over the past two or three years. I would not recommend trying to do all of them for the first time together. It's always necessary to balance the daily needs of your children and your home or work life with your desires in celebrating the liturgical year.
Our Fast, Prayer, and Alms Calendar is a newly revised and more ambitious edition of last year's calendar (which was originally inspired by Monica). This year I've written a plan for each day of Lent, excluding Sundays. 2012 Lenten Calendar
Each day we'll:
our book of Lenten prayers
Fast from something. We will fast from dessert every day except Sundays and our important feast days (St. Patrick's, St. Joseph's, the Solemnity of the Annunciation), but each day I've selected something in addition.
Pray for someone or a group of people like priests, godparents, our
parish, etc. I've typed up a few prayers we know and a few new ones. I
like the prayer die Monica made, but until we have one of our own, we're going to use a regular die with a number assigned to each prayer. We'll add this prayer during our evening prayer time, reciting one prayer with for our special intention.
flowers ready for the prayer garden
Then, we'll add a flower to our prayer garden for each of the people for whom we have prayed. I envision using a lot of flowers. For example, when we pray for priests, we'll put up a flower for each priest the children can name, each priest that baptized a member of our immediate family and then flowers for groups of priests like those in the military, the seminarians preparing to be priests, priests in our diocese, and so on. The flowers are a highlight of Lent for the children. There's almost nothing they like more than taping a flower to the prayer garden.
prayer garden, ready for flowers
This year, instead of cutting them all out by hand, Kansas Dad stopped by the craft store for me and picked up this flower punch. It was far easier and the flowers are lovely!
Alms for the poor. Each day we'll count something in our house and put a penny for each one in the alms jar. Our children are still young (8, 5, 3 and 1), so this year Kansas Dad and I will provide the money and decide where it will go, but as they grow, they will be expected to take a greater role in contributing and deciding. Our alms jar is one I made last year. It's a large container of peanuts (emptied, of course). I covered it in black construction paper and made a few designs on it with colored chalk. It has held up well but eventually I'd like to replace it with one the children design.
Next to our alms jar, you can see our newest Lenten activity. I had read online lots of different ideas focused on sacrifice beans. Most of these involved giving each child a jar filled with jelly beans for various virtuous activities (and filled at Easter with white ones to signify Christ's grace). Well, those sound very nice, but the last thing my children will need is more Easter candy. Inspired by this post I found when searching for Lent ideas, I opted for lima beans (which Kansas Dad was very glad to see were not for dinner). I drew a cross on them with a purple Sharpie (oh, I love those!) and made three jars for the three older kids. When I see them doing something lovely and good, I will add a bean to their jars. I didn't want to give them money for their beans, though, because I don't want to reward their behavior like that. Instead, I decided we'd put a penny for each bean in the alms jar. In an ideal world, they'd start to get an idea of how our good deeds, prayers and sacrifices can benefit other people in visible and invisible ways. Kansas Dad joked I'd never need all those beans, even for all three kids throughout Lent, so we must pray the children prove him wrong!
Stations of the Cross with The Way of the Cross for Children each Friday. This link is for a package of ten. Your local Catholic bookstore will have individual copies for sale. I have three or four so children can each hold one of their own. A year or two ago, I copied the stations from Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church (which is encouraged in the book). The children colored them and I laminated them. I'll have to find a new place to hang them, though, as last year's spots are taken by the timeline now. I find it much more manageable to read the Stations at home than to try to take my children to church, but we will try to make it out for Stations at least once during Lent. I also the printed the Stations of the Cross cards here, laminated them, and will encourage the children to use them to order the Stations themselves.
Some Lenten reading with the children:
Celebrating Lent (This link is also for a package of ten, but a local bookstore will have single copies available.) I found this book incredibly useful when trying to explain Lent to First Son when he was in kindergarten. We read just two pages of text each week during Lent each year.
Petook: An Easter Story by Caryll Houselander, illustrated by Tomie dePaola, which I always read to the children around the time of Holy Week.
The Easter Story, illustrated by Brian Wildsmith, with a guide from the wonderful people who brought us Catholic Mosaic (Hillside does not sell The Easter Story or I would have linked to their site.) I absolutely love Brian Wildsmith's illustrations.
We'll be taking most of Holy Thursday and Good Friday to focus on our Lenten prayers and activities. If I'm feeling ambitious, we'll try making some paper mache eggs (Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church).
Resurrection Cookies - I've never made these before, but they look pretty simple, so I thought we'd give them a try.
I have a few plans that don't include the children as well:
Kansas Dad and I are giving up Netflix and television online (other than the movies we're watching for our class). This one will be hard as we have a habit of watching one show together each night, but we'll be reading or playing games instead. (And we always take Sundays off from our fasts; that's just how we do Lent on the Range.)
Reading The Imitation of Christ. I read this years ago and thought then it would make for wonderful Lenten reading. This year, I'm going to try it.
Lenten cleaning - I tried this for the first time last year. I selected a room of the house for each week of Lent and will make a concerted effort to clean and organize it deeply, taking care of all the little things I let go during the rest of the year. If done thoughtfully, it can be a good metaphor for the cleaning we do of our souls during this time. It's not one of those 40 bags for 40 days programs; I'm not trying to get rid of things (unless necessary). Just deep cleaning.
If I could add one thing, it would be the Lenten Faith Folder. I'm very tempted by this, but am thinking I've added enough new stuff for the year so I'm leaning toward waiting a year on it. Has anyone tried it? Is it wonderful?
Lent doesn't start until February 22nd, so you still have time to make some plans. What will your family be doing to prepare for Easter?
This informative and helpful book provides nearly all you would need as a curriculum of Personal Finance for your children and could be extremely useful. The author gives ten basic money skills (like "how to save" and "how to handle credit"). A child's "financial internship" is then divided into stages: ages 5-8, 9-12, 13-15 and 16-18. For each stage, the author provides specific ideas, books, movies and progressively more difficult tasks focused on each of the skills. She encourages parents to pick and choose activities appropriate to the family and the child, but to provide an opportunity for each child to become proficient in each money skill.
The book clearly states that money is a tool, not an end in itself. It is good only insofar as we use it to provide for our needs, some of our wants and to contribute to alleviating the sufferings or needs of others. I thought the author's attitude was sensible and generous.
Ms. Godfrey's book can help a family determine their own financial goals and then devise a plan to teach their children the skills to meet those goals, to make the family's financial plans transparent as children grow. I love the number of ideas. I love the number of books and movies sited to provide not only information, but opportunities for discussions. I think homeschooling families can take the ideas in this book and create a complete financial education plan, including activities that could be incorporated into a coop.
The ideas in the book are nearly always appropriate for families of little means as well as those of great wealth (though one chapter is entirely focused on children in wealthy families). One of her ideas is to gather a team of adults to help teach your children. I can see how this could be useful for us as there is not a single entrepreneurial bone in my body. I have no desire to start a business or encourage my children to do so, but I do recognize the value in knowing such things.
We've already made a change in our money management training. First Son received a small increase in his allowance. He now received $4 each week: $2 to spend (which he saves very well for large purchases), $1 to save, $0.50 to tithe at church and $0.50 for another charity. He's now responsible for putting his church tithe in an envelope and carrying it to church (or giving it to Kansas Dad, which is what I do with our tithe and First Daughter's tithe). Because it's now going from my hands to his hands to the envelope, it should be more clear to him that he's giving his own money at Mass each week. When he has about $20 saved in his charity jar, we'll help him research some charities and choose one for a donation. We're not sure what's going to happen with the save jar. Perhaps we'll open a savings account for him, or let him put it in the one his Papa opened for him, or perhaps we'll let him invest that money in some life stock of his own. The other big change is that all money he receives (for gifts, for extra chores around the house or at a grandparent's house) will be divided up between the jars. (Previously, any non-allowance money went right to spending.)
I'm also going to include financial literacy as one of our subjects each year. We'll probably do only a little, perhaps one or two lessons each term, but it will be in our plans and that will make it a priority.
My only complaint about this book is the design. I don't love the cover, though the pictures of children and young adults inside seem well done. Most difficult are the pages. The pages are thick, so they'll hold up well, but very reflective. I often found it difficult to read the words.
I can't say whether this is the best book to guide parents through teaching financial literacy to children, because I have only read a couple, but I believe it must be one of the best. It's certainly worth a bit of your time. It would be appropriate for parents, grandparents and any other adults who have children in their lives.
As I plan for next year (Oh, it's fun!), I have been contemplating chores. I think a goal for this summer will be to teach everyone a new chore and clarify the ones they've been doing as their own responsibility.
Someone at Faith and Family posted a link to this article that I found timely: What can children do? A guide. I'll be keeping this in mind as I look around the house to find jobs for everyone.
In the story, a lion wanders into the library. He's allowed to stay, as long as he follows the rules, and becomes great friends with the head librarian. When she falls, he roars to get the attention of someone who can help her, even though he believes he'll be banished from his favorite place for breaking the rules.
The moral of the story is ostensibly that sometimes it's ok to break the rules. Truthfully, that's not the best part of this book. What makes this book so wonderful is how the librarians and the lion interact, how friendships can form and be strengthened by our acts and sacrifices.
Miss Merriweather, the head librarian, comes to depend on the lion for his gentleness and eagerness as he helps her with whatever chores he can do around the library. All the library patrons love the lion and watch hopefully for him every day after he breaks the rules. Mr. McBee, who was always ambivalent about allowing a lion in the library, notices how Miss Merriweather is mourning her friend, missing him every day, and sacrifices for her sake to seek out the lion and let him know he'd be welcome back in the library. He gives great joy to the lion and to Miss Merriweather in reuniting them, and perhaps to himself as well.
The illustrations in the book are also delightful. They are, in my opinion, the perfect companions to the story. I particularly love the small illustration of the lion rubbing his head against the new book collection.
1. Second Son's growing climbing skills. I really do love them, because they show his health and his independence, even though I tremble a bit at the thought that he may soon be climbing out of his crib or up onto the top bunk (which are terrifyingly now in the same room).
2. Gifts from friends! This week, a friend to whom I lent a diaper cover stopped by with not only the one she had borrowed (which she could have kept if she liked), but a new cover to try and an all-in-one diaper she says is great for heavy wetters. Another friend, reading on facebook about the piles of stuff on the floor of my bedroom after emptying the office to create a girls' room, offered some wall cabinets to us. She even dropped them off! (They are, sadly, still on the floor in the living room, but Kansas Dad had a particularly busy week. Hopefully he'll have time this coming week to get them up.)
3. Second Son reading. That boy is so cute! He'll grab a book, climb up into a chair and start flipping through the pages.
4. I added a candle to our evening prayers, because everyone loves candles. The reverent attitudes are a work in progress, but Second Son is adorable. He loves to sit on my lap or Kansas Dad's lap and will often say "night night" when we start our evening prayers. He also claps when we blow out the candle. I believe this is a remnant from First Son's birthday in December. It's adorable. (Did I mention Second Son is adorable?)
5. Choosing our homeschool books. I've started thinking about what we'll use next year and I love this planning stage! I've got books on hold at the library and am reading through all sorts of options online. In the midst of Kansas monsoons (incredibly weird and depressing any time of year, but especially in February), it's much more interesting to think about next year than to read our lessons for this year. (First Son would agree.)
Sadly, the Patriots did not win the Super Bowl. Kansas Dad will be in football withdrawal for a few weeks but spring planting will be upon us soon.
Summer's Crossing by Julie Kagawa is a short story in a world she created based on A Midsummer Night's Dream. Parts of it were wonderfully written and it seems like the series (The Iron Fey) may be appropriate for late middle school or early high school age children. (Kindle version, available for free for a limited time)
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco is a delightful story of a stuffed rabbit who is loved enough by his Boy to become real (courtesy of a nursery fairy). It's embarrassing, really, that I hadn't read it sooner. (free Kindle version without illustrations, other Kindle versions are available that do include illustrations)
Making Sense Out of Suffering by Peter Kreeft attempts to address the problem of evil - explaining the existence of an all-knowing, all-loving God when bad things happen to good people. I was going to write a long review of it, but a certain someone of a small stature removed all my bookmarks and crumbled them to bits, so here's the condensed version. I wasn't overly impressed or satisfied with this book. I intend to read The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis...eventually. (library copy)
The Fighting Ground by Avi was a book I considered for our Revolutionary War studies this year. Jonathan, disobeying his mother and father, follows the Corporal into battle and is captured by Hessian soldiers. The events take place in less than two days. It's fascinating, exciting and scary. Jonathan learns much about himself, war, and his father. First Son would probably be fine reading this book (at age 8), but I'm not ready for the girls to hear it. I think I'll set it aside and ask First Son to read it to himself the next time we study the Revolutionary War or he can read it as independent reading in third grade next year. (purchased copy)
Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen is a lovely story of Marly and her family's year living on Maple Hill in Pennsylvania after her father returns from WWII. Full of descriptions of nature, sugaring, and the seasons, it's a wonderful book to help develop a sense of place and home for children (by encouraging them to engage with their home as Marly and her brother, Joe, engage with theirs). Because the descriptions and storyline make it difficult to tell when the story takes place, I do think it will be important to discuss the 1940s and 1950s depictions of differences in expectations for boys and girls, but the sweet story is worth that little investment. I think we'll read it together next year, when First Son is in third grade and First Daughter is in kindergarten. (purchased copy)
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynn Reid Banks is the fascinating story of a young boy who learns his cabinet can turn toys to life with a twist of one of his mother's keys. I read it when I was young but didn't really remember it. There's no doubt it's an exciting book, full of friendship and danger....but, the depictions of the cowboy and Indian are rather awful. I could see using this book in lessons by asking a student to detail the errors in a report after reading the book, but I'm not going to use it as a read-aloud. If my children find this book on their own and want to read it, I'll let them after a little talk about stereotypes and racism. I haven't read any of the sequels, but from summaries I found online
they seem to become even more unrealistic than the first one. (library copy)
How to Be a Sister: A Love Story with a Twist of Autism by Eileen Garvin is a memoir by a woman describing her relationship with her older sister who has autism. I don't have a sister with autism, but I do have a sister who is completely different from me, in nearly every way, and who will probably always need someone to watch over her. I enjoyed this book and especially loved how the author describes her mother's relationship with her sister. I thought it was honest in the difficulties of having a sibling with autism without being harsh. I did think some of the chapters didn't flow well with the rest of the book, as if they had been written as essays and then tacked on instead of integrated. (inter-library loan)
The Lathe Of Heaven: A Novel by Ursula Le Guin was the first book I read for my class (ha!). In this novel, George Orr has effective dreams, dreams which don't just come true. They change reality itself. The book is full of opportunities for thinking about reality, society, culture, love, relationships and a host of other issues. Highly recommended, especially if you can sneak into a college seminar to discuss it. (desk copy)
Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry is a lesson in story telling and writing from Gooney Bird Greene, a second grader. She tells a number of stories with explanations of character development, language and plot. I expected it to be contrived, but it flowed well and was quite amusing. As an additional advantage, Gooney Bird's fashion sense is exactly like Second Daughter's. I think we'll read this aloud. (library copy)
I expect next month's reading list to be full of books for the science fiction class and books I'm previewing for third grade. (It's that time of the year, when I'm more excited about planning next year's booklist than finishing the current grade.)
Olive Wadsworth originally wrote this counting rhyme (or perhaps she just wrote it down) and there are many different illustrated versions, but this one is my favorite.
Ezra Jack Keats is a marvelous artist. The colors in the collages are muted, paired perfectly with the gentle song. I love to choose this book as our bedtime story.
If you do not know the song, you can learn it from the delightful video, The Wheels on the Bus... and More Sing-Along Favorites. Not only does it contain Over in the Meadow (though with illustrations by another artist), but a fabulous rendition of The Wheels on the Bus by the Bacon Brothers. My children also particularly enjoy I Want a Dog, which is one of those few instances where the video is better than the book. (I could live without There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, but the kids like that one, too.)
1. I went to a college class! Kansas Dad is team teaching a class on Science Fiction and Theology at his university and, through the generosity and goodness of my mother-in-law, I am attending as well. I'm not actually enrolled in the class, so I don't have to write any papers (I'm a little afraid I won't even be able to keep up with the reading), but I can go and participate in the class discussions. I had a great time last week. I'm sure the real college students thought I talked too much, though Kansas Dad thinks they probably didn't think about me one way or the other. In case you hadn't noticed, I read a lot, but I rarely get to sit in a room with a bunch of other people who read the same thing and want to discuss it.
2. First Son and First Daughter developed an elaborate plot involving some Ninjago warriors, the Hero Factory Witch Doctor, Buzz Lightyear and Cindarella. I couldn't follow it myself, but there was definitely a plot.
3. Second Son is 18 months old! He deserves a post of his own, but I find chasing him around (and feeding, teaching and cleaning up after his siblings) is keeping a bit too busy to write a proper one. He's saying new words every day, absolutely adores the dog and has a terrible cough.
4. With the help of Netflix, we managed to get the majority of the stuff out of the "office" and into our bedroom. Only two of the three bookshelves would fit, so a few things are on the floor or piled on the desk. We're still working on a solution. In the meantime, we settled the girls into their new bedroom, complete with painted trim (thanks to the handy Kansas Dad). The girls moved their own clothes, which means they stuffed them into whatever nook and cranny they could find in the cabinet and set of mini-drawers we put in there. The neat organizer in me wants to cry every time I open a door or drawer, so I just won't.
The majority of the week was consumed by the illness that began with First Daughter and progressed through myself, Second Daughter and Second Son. The two little ones are still coughing like crazy and sounding terrible but every day I hope they'll be better.
Kami and the Yaks by Andrea Stenn Stryer, illustrated by Bert Dodson
