New Reading Pose

Yet another strange way to read.

I know I've posted other interesting poses that the kids get in for reading, but they never cease to find new ones I guess.

Maxing out the card

In this case it was the library card.  Our library shut down recently to prepare for construction work - they moved the stacks downstairs preparatory to adding more space upstairs.  So they encouraged patrons to check out lots of books (so they wouldn't have to cart them down themselves) and gave us a very generous 6 week check-out period so that they wouldn't be swamped with all the books at once.  That's all well and good, but the 6 weeks is coming to an end and we haven't read all the books we had checked out - and yet M was itching to go to the library and get some new reading material.  I had taken some books to the book drop yesterday, but they hadn't been processed back in yet.  So today when we went I asked the librarians to please check in our books right away so we would have space on my card.  They checked in a bunch and said I would be in fine shape - I had 34 books still on my card, and thus space for 16 more.  Hah - they don't know M.  He found 20 books he wanted to check out (and only stopped there because I knew we were hitting the limit).  He wasn't too happy having to choose 4 books to leave behind today...

Book Binge results

As anticipated, my list of books is rather short for this month.  May has been a very busy month, with the end of school occurring.  Field day, awards ceremonies, end-of-year teacher gifts all took extra time - much of it coming out of possible reading time.

These first two books I had out of the library for over a month and never got very far.  I think if I had gotten farther into them, they might have caught my interest more, but I ran out of time.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - got to page 23, never really caught on

These is my Words, The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy E. Turner - p. 37  Again, I never really got into this book, so when I couldn't renew it, I just gave up on it.

Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig - I enjoyed seeing Gone with the Wind from Rhett's point of view, but otherwise it was only OK.

My Losing Season by Pat Conroy - Non-fiction of his final season playing basketball at the Citadel.  I've enjoyed Conroy's other books, but this one being non-fiction was very difficult to read just how cruel his father was.

In Defense of Food, an Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan - I'm at page 85 and counting.  It's a very interesting and thought-provoking book.  I would probably be further along, but I keep stopping to consider and occasionally  discuss the ideas.  I will definitely finish this book.

Affluenza by John de Graaf - another thought provoking book.  I've just barely started this one, but its already spawning conversation for the dinner table.

A rather short list, but M (12 yo son) makes up for it.  We went to the library last Sat and he has already finished all 20 or so books he checked out.  Plus 2 weeks before that he checked out another 30 (or so) books and read all them.  There was still another week in May before that but I don't remember how many books he checked out then - and the first week in May he was still able to check books out from the school library too.  Many of M's books are manga, but he has a decent number of other, mostly YA fiction.  Since he finished off his books, DH gave him one of his library books to look at - a rather unusual book for a 12 yo, but he seems to be enjoying it - Physics of the impossible, a scientific exploration into the world of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation and Time Travel by Michio Kaku.  It led to dinner discussions of robots and quantum mechanics tonight.

Last Day of School!

Woo hoo! We've made it through another year. M came through the door this afternoon singing "last day of school, last day of school". Ya think he's happy about it??? Maybe just a tad.

We celebrated tonight by watching a movie - Bedknobs and Broomsticks. And then I told the kids they could stay up and read if they wanted. I think A turned his off by 10:00, but M is still reading here at almost 10:15. I'll probably tell him to turn it off once we go to bed (at least once he hits a good stopping point).

Book Binge

I'm joining Mary P's "Book Binge" this month - keeping a list of all the books I read in the month of May. Since this is the last 3 weeks of school coming up, I'm not sure how many I will read, but I will report back at the end of the month.

I guess this means a trip to the library is in order. I love my library (and especially its inter-library loan). I had a couple of books I've been meaning to read, but now I can't remember them. Drat! I'm open to suggestions - both for this month and for enjoying at the pool this summer.

Book Character Parade

Our elementary school doesn't "do" Halloween. No costumes, no Halloween party, no real acknowledgement that the day occurs (well, they generally don't give homework that night). Instead, they hold book character parades soon after Halloween where the kids can dress up. The 1st, 3rd, 5th parade was Friday. Each kid who participates dresses up as a character in a book and carries that book with them and parades twice through the halls of the school.


A chose to go as Harry Potter, to no surprise. It was his Halloween costume and his favorite book character too. I would guess that many of the kids came in their Halloween costume. After all, you can get books about Transformers and Batman and Dis*ney princesses.

I finished it!

Finally at 10 pm, I finished the last HP. I know that seems like a long time since it came out on Saturday midnight, but a lot has happened since then.

We got the book around dinnertime on Sat and M proceeded to monopolize it until Sunday afternoon.

Then D took the book the rest of Sunday.

Monday I had to do grocery shopping and back-to-school shopping (with kids in tow, which always takes longer), plus try to catch up on camping laundry and A's laundry from camp - both make more laundry than usual. I got a few hours to read HP on Monday afternoon, then D came home and finished the book. I read a bit more Monday night - up later than I should have been.

Today I took the kids to Six Flags. We had a great time. I'll post about it later - but didn't get home til 6:45. Between being tired from traipsing around all day and dinner and getting kids ready for bed.... it was very frustrating, being close to the end and being so caught up in the story to have to keep having interruptions:

M: I don't have any more toothpaste - have to go find him some.
read another chapter
hmm, M is finished brushing his teeth, where is A? Find him on the bathroom floor, reading HP5 and not brushing his teeth.
Remind him to brush
read a few pages.
M: I want a kitty.
me: I think there's one on the deck. If you can find a cat, you can try to take it to bed. He manages.
read another few pages
Go kiss M goodnight.
read a few pages
Check on A again. He needs a bookmark.
read a few pages
A is in bed - go kiss him goodnight

Finally - get to read uninterrupted. Kids went to sleep quickly and quietly - Six Flags must have really tired them out!

HP update

M finished it yesterday and is dying to talk about the book. D just finished it a few minutes ago. So, now I can dive back into HP. I'm currently on page 388. I'm hoping to finish the book before I hear any spoilers...

Why I LOVE Harry Potter

1. When Harry is around it's quiet

Both kids read all the way home from our camping trip.

2. Both kids love to read HP. We got the latest book about 6pm on Sat and M read it on the way to dinner, on the way home from dinner, on the way from camping and finished it up here at home this afternoon.
He was done by 3pm. Now D is reading it. D got next dibs because he has to go back to work tomorrow, but I can read some during the day (though I'll have to give it back in the evening). M is under strict orders not to discuss what happens - not even the early WOW. A says he doesn't want to hear either - that will be a bit tougher as he's only in the middle of HP 5. But A is plowing steadily onward - he's read all the way from the beginning of the series this summer.

3. For that matter, D and I both love to read HP. As M says, I will be sorry to finish the book because its the end of the series.

County meet photos

What did the kids spend most of their time doing at the county meet? Take a look and see:

A is deep into the 4th Harry Potter book


M took his DS and played various games all day

End of the Year Awards for M

Friday was the last day of school and the big finale of end of the year 5th grade stuff. First they had awards in the classroom for each individual class.

M's teacher had each child come up once and read off all the awards they each had received. Each kid had a bunch, since they all had things like
recorder class
meeting AR goals
meeting CCC goals
promotion (to 6th grade) certificate



Many of the kids had the Book It! and 6 Flags Reading Club - as M did.

M also got Perfect Attendance, for 4th quarter and for the whole year.

M's special awards in the classroom were:
Boy with the highest AR points
4H Green Clover award
4th Quarter Principal's List (all A's)
Best Reader - voted by his classmates

Then after all the classroom awards, they sent us all to the cafeteria for the grade level awards. Here they called kids for categories of awards, so some kids went up multiple times.

M got awards for:
highest AR points in the entire 5th grade (over 300)
Presidental Education Awards Program - all A's all year (complete with GW Bush's signature)
Media Center helper
Beta club member




The theme of the celebrations was a take-off on D!sney's H!gh School Musical. So all the kids sang "We're all in this together" for us all. It was cute.

End of the Year Awards for A

Tuesday was the end of the year party and awards ceremony for A's class. It was almost an all day affair. I got there around 9 to help set up. The awards ceremony was from 9:30-10:30. The kids played outside until about 11:30 - bubbles, hula hoops, limbo. Then we served hotdogs, chips, watermelon. And then cake, for one kid's birthday. Then they played some more until finally going in at almost 1pm.

A really raked in the awards. He got 2 for reading programs - Book It , for completing all 6 months and Six Flags Read to Succeed, for reading 6 hours in 6 weeks, of non-homework reading. Many of the kids got one or both of these awards.

The school participates in the AR program, where the kids take a test after reading a book and get points for comprehension. A got 2nd place with 50 (50.7, he reminds me) points. They were expected to get 20 points.

The teacher gave out awards for the boy and girl who had the highest averages in math, spelling and reading. A took top honors in both math and reading! She also gave out awards for the kids who got 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in CCC (a go at your own pace computerized instruction program). A got 1st in math and 2nd in reading.



A's teacher gave each student an individualized award - his was something like "keeps me on my toes". A was always interested in delving deeper into a given topic and would correct the teacher when she would try to simplify things. He would also catch much of the oblique comments and sarcasm that the teacher and assistants would bandy back and forth at times.

My mom and I both got recognized for coming in and helping in the classroom once a week. My mom spent most of her time working one-on-one with one particular student helping him with his reading. Here she is with the teacher and S.

April Book Binge

Mary P. had a challenge for April - to record all the books you've read. It's daunting to see her list - how does she do it with watching small children all day. My 2 are in school much of the day and I've only managed a few books. But, then again, this was April, the month of the dreadest income taxes.

Without further ado, my list:

Bad Medicine by Aimee and David Thurlo: Good mystery. I've enjoyed several of this series (and have another to waiting for me to start it). I'm going back and catching the earlier books that our library doesn't have (thank you interlibrary loan, accesible from home!)

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown: I've been meaning to read this for a while. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't quite what I expected. I don't see what everyone got so worked up about.

The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers by Lilian Jackson Braun: Exactly what I expected (well, a little unexpected twist). I've been reading this series for years, probably since my MIL introduced me to them when D and I were dating.

Books on tape*:
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares: Interesting story. I wasn't sure what to expect, but somehow it wasn't this. Couldn't listen to it for almost a week as it wasn't necessarily kid appropriate.

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot: About half-way through it so far. A bit teen drama-ish, but interesting enough.

M is the one who would have a truly impressive list, though he can't be bothered to keep up with what all he reads. We went to the library today and he checked out a stack at least 2 feet high!


*My radio is on the fritz in the car, constantly switching stations, so I've been listening to books on tape in the car mostly since the beginning of the year.