All the Angel Stories: A Book of Angels

A Book of Angels
by Marigold Hunt

I originally bought this book when the advisory board for Mater Amabilis was considering it as an in-print substitute for reading in Advent or Lent. We ended up suggesting a different book, but since I had it, I read it with Second Son this year. I read a weekend ahead, and he read it independently and narrated it to me.

Marigold Hunt, of course, is marvelous. A Book of Angels has a tone similar to A Life of Our Lord for Children, The First Christians, and St. Patrick's Summer. (I somehow missed ever reviewing A Life of Our Lord for Children.) She speaks directly to the reader, a child of heart if not in years, sharing retellings of stories from the Bible and our faith.

There are thirteen chapters, covering basic information on angels, their appearances in the Bible, their role in history, and the hints of their future roles based on the book of Revelation.

Hunt does not follow only a literal reading of the Bible. In the chapter The Beginning of Everything, she writes:

Just what they did, whether it was eating forbidden fruit, like Adam and Eve, or something quite different, we don't know. But we know why they did it. What tempted them was the Devil's promise: "You shall be like gods, knowing good and evil." (p. 17)

Again, the chapter on Job does not assume Job is literally true.

At the beginning he put a conversation between God and the Devil to show how God happened to be so hard on Job. Of course, the Devil doesn't really go up to Heaven and stand among the angels, chatting with God. But poets are allowed to invent things like that. (p. 99)

I think there's one full page illustration for each chapter. My favorite one is that of Gabriel appearing to Mary . Mary's face is just lovely.

This may be my favorite Marigold Hunt book, though it would be a tough competition with St. Patrick's Summer, which Second Son also read this year. It's shorter than St. Patrick and would be appropriate for even younger children. (Mater Amabilis recommends St. Patrick's Summer for Level 2 Year 2, fifth grade.) The focus on angels gave a new perspective on salvation history, from beginning to end.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links. I purchased this book.

Science in Second Grade: The Burgess Seashore Book for Children

The Burgess Seashore Book for Children

by Thornton W. Burgess

This book has been on my shelf for a few years now, purchased when I thought I might read it aloud before we went to the ocean for the first time (and still the only time), but it's never been read. Second Son heard much of The Burgess Bird Book for Children (one of the Level 1A science recommendations on the Mater Amabilis™™ syllabus) as I read it aloud to Second Daughter so I thought he might be interested in this alternative. I offered him the choice of the bird book or the seashore book and, based only on the cover (and maybe what he remembered), he chose the seashore book.


I read it this summer before the school year began because I am ambitiously asking him to read it independently and narrate it to me. I'm fairly certain he can handle the material, given what he reads on his own, though I don't necessarily recommend this route for all second graders. He's a great reader and is already 8 years old since we started kindergarten a year later than recommended.

If you have read any of the Burgess books for children, you will be familiar with the format. An animal or two wander an environment and learn about the creatures that live there. The Seashore Book follows mostly a mouse and a fox. Some of the conversations are stilted, but there are lots of opportunities for curiosity and wonder. If you're near a seashore or manage to find a copy cheaper than the Burgess Bird Book, feel free to substitute this one.

To get through the entire book without reading more than a chapter at a time, I'm assigning this twice a week. Because I have four children and my oldest is starting high school, I made no ambitious second grade science plans this year. We'll read this book and have our nature walk two or three times a month and consider it excellently covered.

I purchased this book used from another homeschooling family. I received nothing for this review. The links above are affiliate links to Amazon.

Second Son's Kindergarten and First Grade Book Lists

I started some reading lessons with Second Son, my fourth and youngest child, during his pre-kindergarten year, focusing on phonics using Doodling Dragons and alphabet books. Read about that loose plan here.

Once he had mastered the letters and basic phonics, we started lessons in The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (skipping the first 26 lessons on the letters). Each day, Second Son and I would work through a lesson or two (or half a lesson, depending on how it went) and then we'd read a book together. Sometimes we'd alternate paragraphs and sometimes pages. Gradually he increased how much he read until by the end he was reading whole chapters aloud to me.

This plan worked very well for Second Son. However...if I were just starting out to teach multiple children to read over the next decade (as opposed to having taught four children to read over the past decade), I would be very tempted to buy the Foundations series. (This is not an affiliate link and I've never seen it in person.)

So here you'll first find all the books Second Son read for our reading lessons. Given that he's read all seven of the Harry Potter novels and is currently working his way through Stormy (which I haven't read) and a graphic novel version of The Odyssey (which I'm not necessarily recommending for your seven-year-old), I probably didn't challenge him enough. I suppose that's what happens when you're the fourth and last; I didn't want to skip any of my favorites and I wanted to let him read whatever he wanted out loud to me.

Unless otherwise noted, these are books we owned. I would grab a handful of books and let him choose one. These are therefore only loosely in reading-level order.

• A Bug, a Bear, and a Boy by David McPhail
• Sammy the Seal by Syd Hoff
• Danny the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff
• Walpole by Syd Hoff
• Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
• Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik
• Danny and the Dinosaur Too Tall by Syd Hoff (library) - Second Son found the Danny and the Dinosaur books hilarious, so we checked some out from the library.
• Danny and the Dinosaur and the New Puppy by Syd Hoff (library)
• Danny and the Dinosaur Go to Camp by Syd Hoff (library)
• Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel
• Happy Birthday Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff (library)
• Bear's Loose Tooth by Karma Wilson
• Grasshopper on the Road by Arnold Lobel
• Oscar Otter by Nathaniel Benchley (library)
• Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel
• There's No Place Like Space by Tish Rabe (library)
• Days with Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
• Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel
• Cookiebot by Katie Van Camp - one of our favorites
• Findus Moves Out by Sven Nordqvist (library) - I adore Findus and even have a little stuffed Findus that sneaks around our house, entertaining us with bizarre antics.
• When Findus Was Little and Disappeared by Sven Nordqvist (library)
• The Fox Chase by Sven Nordqvist (also called Findus and the Fox) (library)
• A Story of Saint Blaise by Brother Franklin Cullen
• Lulu and the Duck in the Park by Hilary McKay - I wrote all about Lulu on the blog; she's terrific!
• Lulu and the Dog from the Sea by Hilary McKay
• Daisy Dawson Is on her Way by Steve Voake
• A Story of Saint Benedict by Brother Ernest
• Hot Fudge Hero by Pat Brisson - I just love this book and its sequel (Bertie's Picture Day).
• Bertie's Picture Day by Pat Brisson
• Anna, Grandpa, and the Big Storm by Carla Stevens
• The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dagliesh
• Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner - A little sad, so be prepared or pre-read.
• The King's Equal by Katherine Paterson
• The Giants' Farm by Jane Yolen
• A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla

First Son's lists: kindergarten and first grade. In comparison, they are generally much harder much faster than Second Son's list. Since they both read well and neither of them hate me (or reading), perhaps this is some slight evidence that there's a lot of leeway for mistakes in this business of teaching someone to read.

First Daughter's first grade list is here. She doesn't have a kindergarten list because I didn't read "real" books with her until she had finished the lessons in The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.

Second Daughter's kindergarten and first grade book lists, which I only posted last week.

We are officially done teaching reading here on the Range!

Second Son's Secret and Not-so-Secret Thoughts: Me Journal Review

Me: A Compendium

created by Wee Society

Second Son is in first grade this year and, as I mentioned earlier this week, I like to choose a journal to complete together for one of our lessons. Somehow I stumbled on this one while wandering Amazon and decided to try it rather than my original plan to order the same one I'd used with First Son.

It was spectacularly successful. Second Son loved every page of this journal and the older kids were clamoring for their own copies.

First of all, the quality of the book is excellent: well-bound hardcover, thick pages, and bright bold colors on every page. The prompts are varied, covering the standard (trace your hand, name, age, etc.) and the unusual like "If I had a castle this would be my flag" and "This is me doing my signature dance move."

There were a few pages where the prompts led to an answer in words, which I would generally write for Second Son, but there were a lot that resulted in pictures. Because Second Son's drawings are a little unorthodox still, I would generally label them for future reference. Some of the more unusual and interesting results:

Number of steps from his bed to the front door: 18 (he counted)

The name of his band, if he had one: Fulcrum 

The room of his dreams: a full size bed, a flat screen TV, a Wii U, a swimming pool, and a vending machine.

What he would pack to go to outer space: water, all the Harry Potter books, electric shaver to cut my hair, food (bread, cheese, Doritos), toothpaste, toothbrush, favorite Lego box, Mousy Mouse (his stuffed animal kangaroo rat), and his Kindle

Number of jumping jacks he can do before he gets tired: 100 (and he did X-jacks!) 

We were also delighted to discover the inside of the book jacket has room for all sorts of "super secret" things and the cover of the book itself has room for personalization.

We did realize it was nice to have a book weight like this one to hold the book open as Second Son drew his pictures. He used his beeswax crayons for his drawings, but I think the pages are thick enough even for thin markers.

This was easily Second Son's favorite lesson. I had planned to compete just two or three pages a day, but we usually did two of three spreads (his interpretation). Working once a week, we finished it this month. He immediately carried it off to show to all his friends and family, excepts for the secrets on the inside of the dust jacket.

Hopefully he'll eventually let me have it back to save with his school memories!

I purchased this book new on Amazon and have received nothing for this review, but the links above are affiliate links.

Windy, but not Windy Enough

Last week, on a blustery day, First Son was complaining about his required nature study drawing, claiming it was too windy to be able to draw anything. (After, of course, all the rest of us managed to sketch something in our journals.)

At one point, he comes back into the house* and insist it's so windy, he "literally" flew through the air because the wind picked him up when he jumped. (I sent him back outside.)

Second Daughter and Second Son overheard and immediately rushed for their shoes. Second Son told me he'd probably be back in a few hours after walking home from where the wind dropped him because he's so much lighter than First Son that he'll go tremendously far when he jumps.

Sadly, he and Second Daughter were both disappointed in the strength of the wind.

* We had visited a river earlier in the day, but because he couldn't find anything there to draw, First Son had to complete the journal entry after we returned home.

School Week Highlights: Week 11

This was a book-heavy week. We did almost every assignment in every subject, which happens less often than not. It does make our highlight post a little less exciting.

- We went to adoration.

- We had a lovely nature study walk at a near-by park. We've been there many times but took a trail off the paved path for the first time.

What is this bug? How would we even find out? 

They were burrowing.

- First Son mastered division on xtramath and is done for the year!

- Second Son mastered second grade on Khan Academy and insists on starting the third grade work, though I have cut down on his computer time so he'll go more slowly.

- Though it is not a school highlight, I was tremendously pleased to finish stitching Second Daughter's Christmas stocking this past week. I had already finished First Daughter's in September, so now both are in the hands of an accomplished seamstress who will do all the actual sewing for me. With luck, they'll be back home before St. Nicholas comes!

Second Son is 7!

Second Son, my little baby, turned 7 over the summer! This little man both delights and infuriates us, usually on a daily basis.

He often gets angry and frustrated at the smallest infraction and will lash out at whoever is near-by or storm off and "give up" what he was trying. We're working on patience and managing disappointment.

He wanted chicken enchiladas for his birthday and for his baptismal anniversary. He knows what he likes! We also had chocolate sheet cake twice for various birthday celebrations. At last he has found a cake he likes besides the chocolate peanut butter concoction we just can't make on a regular basis.

Favorite foods - chicken enchiladas, angel food cake, Dad's peanut butter chocolate cake, Doritos, Sweetropes (apparently this is a kind of candy)

He wanted to watch the Harry Potter movies and we said he could after he had read the books. I figured he'd start, get bogged down, and set it aside for a few years. But he persevered! Previously, he'd pretty much read Calvin and Hobbes and other comic type books, and now Harry Potter. He finished the last book a bit after his birthday but it's taking us a while to get through the movies. We still have three to go.

Favorite books - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Big Nate books

Favorite movies - The Force Awakens, anything in the Marvel universe, The Return of the Jedi (This is obviously a seven-year-old with older siblings; First Son would never have seen these movies at this age!)

Recently he said to me, "Mom, I know you don't want to hear this, but I kind of want to see the Captain Underpants movie."

At his birthday party, he invited a 10 year old, a 9 year old, an 8 year old, and a 6 year old. I just love the wide variety of kids with whom he is friendly and comfortable. He wanted a video game party like his big brother so they took turns with three controllers on the Wii U and two Kindles playing Minecraft with each other. The boys did very well sharing and playing together.

He's been taking a break from taekwondo for a while, but we promised he could play soccer for the first time. He's on an 8U team. When First Son played U8, I thought those kids were so big and grown-up. Now I'm looking at kids about the same age but they seem incredibly small to me!

Between July of last year (when he had just turned six) and July of this year, he grew four inches, according to his doctor's chart. I'm sure he's putting on some weight, too, but it's hard to tell because he's still very skinny.

Second Son is tall for his age, I think, though it's hard to tell because he's in a class of pretty tall kids at church. We have trouble getting pants skinny enough for his waist and long enough for his legs. Summers are so nice because the shorts don't matter so much but now we're approaching fall...

He lost his top two teeth just before his second birthday and we've been waiting anxiously every since for them to come in. His dentist told us they usually show up around age seven for boys and about two weeks after his birthday, the first one started peeking through. The second one is showing now. Kansas Dad is planning a big party with caramel apples in celebration when they're both fully in.

Favorite songs - Not the Future, Try Everything, Immortals, Roar

He often likes to listen to the instrumental soundtracks of movies. He can match a shocking number of the songs with events in the movie.

He got glasses last May, the youngest of the kids to need glasses and the strongest prescription. He's supposed to take them off when he reads which means he almost never knows where they are. We had to do some major searching before our trip to the Badlands so he could see the eclipse and...you know...the badlands.

Favorite games - Munchkin, King of Tokyo, Star Wars Monopoly

Second Son is in first grade this year.

Favorite lessons - journal, Khan Academy, maps, xtramath

He loves screen time, so of course his favorite lessons are mostly online. He's only supposed to spend ten minutes on Khan Academy, enough time for one practice session, but I often find him sneaking more.

He hates family pictures. We usually have to threaten him to get him to stand still and sort of smile for one.

He loves to jump on his trampoline and does so every single day, usually launching himself by running across the room and bouncing off in the opposite direction. We did have to explain over the summer that he should not try to jump on the trampoline while wearing his roller skates.

He loves bouldering. It's not unusual for  him to complain regularly while we're hiking (especially if it's not a loop trail) but he can climb and slide over rocks for hours on end.

He adores our dog, who endures much at his hands but also receives much love. Plus Second Son feeds him...when he remembers. He also loves the outdoor cats that belong to our neighbors. They wander quite a bit and often end up in our yard.

Second Son is not a fan of church and church activities. Mass is at the top of the list of things he dislikes, followed by Adoration and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. He's fine once we arrive at church; it's just the complaining as we're going out the door. Whenever I complain about his attitude, other moms assure me he's going to be a priest when he grows up. I hope so; then he can help to pray away all the purgatory time I'm racking up trying to raise him!

God bless you, Second Son!

School Week Highlights: Week 4

What a week for non-book learning!!

1. First Daughter was up and building early one morning with her K'nex sets (Marbles and Wildflowers plans). Apparently she wanted proof she had completed them because she took some pictures on my camera.

2. We went to children's adoration.

3. Second Son had his very first soccer practice! He forgot his glasses but managed pretty well.

4. Kansas Dad had a conference in St. Louis last week. A few days before he went, we decided to take the whole family. (Pure craziness!) So we drove to St. Louis on Wednesday. Usually Kansas Dad prefers to drive, but he downloaded a bunch of papers and midterms to grade and I drove. I missed our exit off the turnpike so we went a longer route and almost missed our exit in Kansas City, but we made it!

5. My parents came down from their home in Illinois to spend less than two full days with us. That was really a treat for our kids - a hotel and grandparents!!

6. On Thursday, my dad drove us all to Illinois to visit the Cahokia Mounts State Historic Site. My brother-in-law (who has a PhD in early American history) recommended it for learning about pre-Columbian Native American culture and people. The interpretive center there is exceptionally well-done. They have recreations of Cahokia homes in a little village you can wander through, to Second Daughter's especial enjoyment.

7. We climbed Monks Mound, the highest one, and admired the arduousness of digging the soil, carrying it up steps, and layering it carefully to build the mound. It was hot and I forgot the water, so the kids were not too happy even once we reached the top. But they survived.

It's hard to tell, but the Arch is in the background. We debated going up in it, but decided to wait until the museum at the base reopens.

8. The kids swam in the hotel pool for about two hours. Hotel pools are magical places to them. This one was shallow enough I didn't have to get in to make sure Second Son didn't drown. Dad and I sat under the umbrella and talked. Kansas Dad got back from his conference early enough to join them, which they loved.

9. We played games with my parents in the evenings and didn't always have the TV on. (There were three televisions in our suite. How crazy is that?)

10. On Friday, we only had a few hours in the morning before Kansas Dad's conference ended. My dad drove us to the St. Louis Science Center. It was easy to drive there and park and our local science museum membership gave us free parking (avoiding the $10 fee, though the museum itself is always free). We couldn't see a planetarium show as it was closed for cleaning, but the rest of the museum was entertainment enough. The kids spent a long time building sails and testing them at one of the better types of "build and test" exhibits I've seen. The materials are durable so they weren't all broken and the test is quick and easy to adjust. All the kids redesigned their sails for great improvement in the time we were there.

They also had kiosks for programming Mars rovers, a bridge that crossed over a six lane highway with radar guns (and lots of neat bridge building and engineering activities), a flight simulator on which all the kids were able successfully land their planes, exhibits on water for Second Son's Rivers and Oceans, and exhibits on mountains and earthquakes that matched Second Daughter's studies.

We usually skip driving through St. Louis between Kansas and my parents in Illinois, but it would be very easy to get off the road, visit this museum for a few hours, then hope back in the van to drive the rest of the way and it would certainly be worth it.

11. We drove home on Friday after Kansas Dad's conference (which also went well). It was a long drive with multiple traffic snarls around accidents and, again, I drove quite a bit including around Kansas City with the sun in my eyes. We got home really late but stopping wasn't an option because...

12. Second Son had his very first soccer game! They were adorable on the field. (I remember when I though the U8 kids were so big when First Son played but now the 8U kids seem so tiny with my youngest on the field!)

Second Son is in orange.

1t3. And...First Son, First Daughter, and Kansas Dad went to a taekwondo tournament. First Daughter received firsts in her form and her sparring. Kansas Dad also won first for sparring. First Son received silver but only after the judges had to decide because he and his opponent were evenly matched even in the sudden death round.

14. Then Kansas Dad and I made it to a fundraising dinner for his university, a lovely dinner outside with some of our favorite people at our table.

We also celebrated First Daughter's birthday, but that will be another post...in about four months at the rate I'm going.

Saints on the Range

St. Athanasius, St. Anne, St. Maria Goretti, and St. Thomas Aquinas

All Saints Day has long passed, but I couldn't neglect to show Kansas Dad's handiwork. He oversaw the creation of all our costumes this year and went above and beyond for Second Son.

There he is at the far right as St. Thomas Aquinas. He's carrying the Summa, wearing two pillows to give the impression of a plumpness his scrawny frame lacks, and the crowning glory (pun totally intended), a tonsure with some brown coloring for the hair.

The judges at our parish's party were so impressed with Second Son's dedication to the cause with an actual hair cut, they awarded him the award for best boy costume. He was thrilled with his prize - a $10 gift card to one of his favorite stores.

He was so delighted with everyone's reaction, he insisted on keeping the tonsure for weeks. Kansas Dad finally convinced him to let us shave it off just before Thanksgiving in case we took some pictures (which we did not).

Early Readers that Delight for Years: Arnold Lobel's Unforgettable Characters

Second Son is still working his way through The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, but we've been supplementing each day with a story or two from Arnold Lobel's fantastic repertoire. It's simply delightful. The silliness and sly jokes tickle his fancy, so Second Son will be reading and then suddenly giggle as he anticipates the joke. It's particularly endearing when he continues to giggle as he explains the joke to me, as if I haven't already read the books a hundred times.

Grasshopper on the Road is still Second Daughter's favorite. She'll still bring it along and read aloud from it to whoever is sitting still long enough to listen. Just last week, she found a "dusty dusty road" on our nature walk and proceeding to pretend to sweep the length of it. She's eight! And has been reading this book for years!

Owl and Home is another favorite. Second Son laughed and laughed when Owl was trying to run up and down the stairs to be in both places at once. He also loved the chapter when Owl was frightened by the lumps of his own feet under the covers, something never revealed in the story itself.

Of course, we mustn't forget Frog and Toad. Our original copy has sadly fallen to bits so I am investing in a few more hardcovers. I know Second Son will quickly be beyond their reading challenge (probably already is...) but they are examples of the rare early reader worthy of being read over and over again.

The Joy of Morals

I'm reading through Aesop's Fables with Second Son. This is my fourth time through the book but I'm am still amazed at how much the children enjoy it. It's probably his favorite school book. (His favorite lesson is math when he gets to play games; the Empire totally destroyed my ill-guided Rebel force in Star Wars Risk last week.)

I always cover up the moral written in the book and ask what he thinks the moral is. Last week, he responded promptly with:

Don't listen to your breakfast!

Wise advise.

It reminded me of the time First Son surprised me while reading the same book.

This book is seriously one of the best investments I ever made.

Second Son's Birthday Post: Six Years Old

Last month, Second Son, my baby, turned six years old. He wanted a Star Wars birthday party, so we planned a Jedi Academy for him and a few of his friends. They tore through those tasks in about fifteen minutes! But check out the cake!

This picture of Second Son with his godmother and the amazing BB8 cake she made is one of my new favorites.

I love the look of awe on his face when we lit the candles.

This boy loves his chicken enchiladas. He requested them for his birthday and his baptismal anniversary. He also asked for Kansas Dad's chocolate peanut butter cake for his baptismal anniversary dessert.


His other favorite foods are angel food cake, sherbert, Mountain Dew (a controlled substance in this household), a host of other sugary drinks, and snacks. He tends to skip breakfast, then start begging for snacks around 10:30 am and basically graze the rest of the day. It's hard to believe how much he eats because he's so skinny. (Hard to believe, too, he was my biggest baby at an ounce over ten pounds.) We keep telling him to eat more, but he spends so much time bouncing around (literally on his trampoline), that there's no time for the calories to build up in his system.

His favorite saints are St. Micheal the Archangel, St. George, St. Moses, and St. Francis. He asks them to pray for us every night during our litany of saints and evening prayer.

 

He loves water. When we went on our Grand Adventure, he spent every minute he could right at the water's edge (if we were near water). He would claim he was trying to stay dry, but this was a hopeless endeavor day after day.

Second Son says his favorite parts of the trip were visiting the aquarium in Vancouver and the science museum in Denver, but I really think it was the ocean.

He mastered rudimentary reading on our trip. We did a lot of phonics and a few early reading lessons last year in school, but he started sounding out longer words and really reading books on the big trip. All those hours in the van, I guess. His first book? Calvin and Hobbes. Yep.

 

He lost the two bottom teeth earlier this summer. So far, the top two teeth still aren't coming in, but the bottom ones are. We keep promising him a big celebratory dinner when those top teeth come in and suggesting things like apples (which he can never bit properly) but all he wants is sherbet. (Those top two were crushed in a pool accident when he fell on his face just before his second birthday, so it's been more than four years since the boy had top teeth.)

He's starting kindergarten this year. We didn't start him properly last year because of his late birthday, though it's nice that he's already reading. He loves all of his lessons, but especially reading, dot-to-dot books (which he does for some math, just because he likes them), and Aesop's Fables. (This book has been a favorite year after year. I've been reading from it for four years straight and plan two more with him.)

first day of school

He loves to play games. He'd play games all day long. When no one can play with him, he sets everything up and plays against Mr. Nobody. In the past, Mr. Nobody always lost, but Second Son tells me he recently won three games of chess in a row. "He had good moves." (Second Daughter taught him to play chess; I'm not really sure he even knows the proper rules.) He received Star Wars Risk for his birthday, so it's a new favorite, but Munchkin is still at the top of his list. (Standard warning: Munchkin is not for all households.)

His favorite books are Asterix comic books and Jedi Academy 2. We'll pretend he's also reading from the extensive and lovely library I have built over the past dozen years (spending a good bit of Kansas Dad's earnings).

He takes showers now, which are faster than a bath (and the only reason he allows them). He still needs some help making sure he gets all the bubbles rinsed away. He would wear flip-flops everywhere if I let him, and prefers to go barefoot rather than wear any other kind of shoe.

His bedtime routine is similar to last year: three stuffed animals have to whisper dreams in someone's ear (usually Kansas Dad, who is best at deciphering their hilarious misadventures). Last year, it was just Mousy Mouse (a kangaroo rat purchased at Great Sand Dunes), Fluffy (a puppy that was First Son's years ago), and Teddy (a teddy bear that was a gift after Second Daughter's birth). Now he's added Cody (a stuffed coyote purchased with his own money at the Grand Canyon), Doritos (a finger puppet chipmunk purchased with his own money at Rocky Mountain National Park), and Yellow Belly (a yellow-bellied marmot he received for his birthday; he had wanted to buy one on the big trip but he'd run out of money).

Second Son announced on his birthday that, now he was six, he was old enough to start taekwondo with the big kids. I'm not sure where he heard six was the magic number, but we let him give it a try and so far he seems to be doing very well. He saws taekwondo days are his favorite days, though he hates waiting all day for the class.

This little guy is getting to be quite the joy for us. He's grudgingly taking on more chores, controlling his temper better (now that he knows he can't go to taekwondo if he hits anyone), and reading everthing. I can't wait to see what the future holds for him!

Happy birthday, Second Son!

First Day of School Pictures

The 2016-2017 school year has begun! We're two weeks in and so far, no one has died. There haven't even been that many tears!

Goofy kindergartner, Second Son

Sweet second grader, Second Daughter

I forgot to take pictures of the older two without the cards showing their names.  I do have pictures of all four of them together.

First Son (7th grade), First Daughter (4th grade), Second Daughter (2nd grade), Second Son (kind.)

Believe it or not, that was the "serious" picture.

And this is the tamest of the silly ones. Second Daughter is playing the drums on Second Son's head. Yes, that is an old bike tire around his neck. We live on the wild side here on the Range.

Fun on the Range: Running in Circles

Second Son has my old camera. It works perfectly but the lens is smudged. Because it would cost something like $80 to have the lens professionally cleaned, I just picked a new cheap camera and gave him this one. He loves it. I frequently find the memory card full of thousands (thousands) of pictures of all the pages of Star Wars books or videos of him following the dog around as he (the dog) attempts to escape.

Recently, Second Son and Second Daughter have been making exercise videos, or perhaps they are just videos of them exercising. Second Daughter started it, I think, but this video from Second Son's camera is my favorite.

This kind of activity is what the Range kids call fun.

Captured!

We finally caught the villain who's been writing on the walls with pen, pencil, Sharpie, and highlighter! Justice has prevailed.

Masterly Inactivity in Action

You can read about masterly inactivity, or you can come see the fruit of it in my front yard, which is strewn with recycling (aka trash) in various stages of...um...something.

Every time I ask if they are done with their...um...experiments and they consent to clean it up, they discover a new play that simply must be played.

Second Son's Birthday Post: Five Years Old!

Just four days after Second Daughter's birthday, we had another birthday!

Second Son turned five years old and requested chicken enchiladas for his birthday dinner. (Did I mention there were chicken enchiladas for both birthday dinners and both baptismal anniversary dinners?)

Cake on his actual birthday was angel food cake. I was surprised because usually he only eats frosting, leaving the cake or cookie smeared and slimy. Angel food cake has no frosting (not the way I make it), but that's what he wanted.

We gave him Lord Business' Evil Lair. Kansas Dad found one on clearance in a local store months before his birthday and I stashed it in the closet. A few days before his birthday, he found it! He asked me, "Are there any birthday presents in your closet?" I said, "Oh, that's not for you." And he believed me! He was completely and totally surprised when he opened it on his birthday. Being five is awesome.

We had Baymax cupcakes at the Big Hero Six birthday party. He loves the soundtrack to this movie, requesting it on the few occasions when he may choose the background music. There's only one song with words, so it's a bit odd, I think. He can match the music to the scene.

Favorite foods: chicken enchiladas, sausage, Daddy's chocolate peanut butter cake, sherbert, vanilla yogurt, spaghetti without sauce, popcorn. He claims his favorite candy is suckers, but I think he's confused because he doesn't actually eat suckers that often. He really likes a variety of candy, I think.

Fudgesicle face

He learned more water skills last summer during his swimming lessons. If you ask him, he can swim underwater two or more body lengths (his body lengths). He doesn't know how to swim if he unexpectedly falls in, though, which we learned while visiting a pond in May. Good to remember.

Second Son loves weapons. Last Christmas, he received a toy sword, toy nunchucks, a Nerf gun (with extra bullets), and probably some other weapons, too. These came from an aunt and uncle, grandparents, and parents, so apparently the weapon-craze is well-established. Light sabers and swords are probably the most popular.

Favorite games: King of Tokyo (such a fun game, though with a steep learning curve; we have to read the cards to him), Twister, Monopoly Jr (there's a newer version now), Dixit.

He loves to play games with Second Daughter. If she's too busy, he'll play with Mr. Nobody. Mr. Nobody always loses.

Second Son does not believe in baths. He's convinced he can get clean enough with a handful (or a package) of baby wipes. He doesn't like shoes too much, either. So you can imagine what his feet look like in their natural state.

First day of school - prekindergarten

Second Son is in prekindergarten this year. I read at least one picture book to him every day (his selection from a basket-full). We also play math games (Counting & Number Bonds: Math Games for Early Learners),  focus on scissor skills (Let's Cut Paper!), counting (with a dot-to-dot book which he claims is his favorite lesson), and letter skills (so far just reading alphabet books and learning all the letter sounds courtesy of Doodling Dragons). Of course, he's also around for most of the other lessons, though he tends to wander off during read-alouds. He did enjoy The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh and James Herriot's Treasury for Children.

Because of his missing front teeth, Second Son says "sirsty" instead of "thirsty." Maybe this will be the year they finally come in again. (He's been without these teeth since just before his second birthday when he fell and knocked them to bits. They had to be removed.)

He has recently started teaching himself to write letters. He copies them from books. It's adorable!

Favorite books: Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever! (We have Kansas Dad's childhood copy of this book. Second Son loves to read about Schtoompah. He wanted to dress up like him, but we couldn't figure out how to put a tuba on Second Son's head.), Mouse Paint, LEGO NINJAGO: Character Encyclopedia, A Day in the Life of Murphy.

Mushroom Rock

Second Son was the only one to catch anything the last time we fished at his grandparent's pond - and he caught two!

Favorite things to do: color in a Minion coloring book, snuggle in bed with a book, play with Second Daughter (especially Ninjago), talk with his best friend, wrestle with Daddy.

Each night, as he's going to bed, Second Son's three special animals have to whisper their dreams in Kansas Dad's ear so he can tell them to Second Son. (Only on rare occasions am I allowed this privilege.) Mousy Mouse (a kangaroo rat purchased at Great Sand Dunes), Fluffy (a puppy that was First Son's years ago), and Teddy (a teddy bear that was a gift after Second Daughter's birth) have very strange dreams, according to Daddy.

May God bless you, Second Son!

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