We Like Kindergarten

So I've been busy with this business called "life".  It's full of fun and heartache and drama, some chaos, silliness and plenty of love.  All summer we were running to and fro and now as the weather is turning I find myself back to that comfortable routine of school, soccer practice, and music lessons.  I'm always sad when school starts for the kids because I miss them when they're gone all day.  And now a new season has started as Charlotte goes off to Kindergarten.  I wasn't a mess (I'm actually more freaked out about Madeleine graduating from high school in 2 years!) and Charlotte skipped happily onto the school bus.  But I'm sad that our days together, spent riding on my bike, running errands, picking up books, having lunch and then an afternoon nap are over for now.  Charlotte kept me company every day (sometimes a little too much company!) but she's so excited and happy to be a Kindergartner now.

We Like Kindergarten

Clara Cassidy 1965

pictures by Eloise Wilkin 

In preparation for Charlotte's first big day of school we read this old familiar Golden Book illustrated by Eloise Wilkins.  Her pictures make me feel warm and fuzzy.  She draws the kind of quintessential vintage American life that I feel like I live most of the time.  It's funny how sweet and laid back this Kindergarten class is.  And I love how there's a piano and the regular teacher plays it- music just part of the day, not a "special".  I suspect Charlotte's day is much busier than this one, and there's certainly no nap time!  But she's always been an adventurous girl so I know she's having fun.

(I LOVE her little knit headband/ear warmer.  I can't seem to find one anywhere for Charlotte.  I may have to convince my mom to make one for her!)

(We also read The Berenstain Bears Go To School the night before we visited her Kindergarten class).
  

The Cataract of Lodore

Read this at breakfast this morning.  Madeleine said the illustrations really "make it."  I agree.

 The Cataract of Lodore

Robert Southey

illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein 1991

Robert Southey was made England's Poet Laureate in 1813.  He was one of the Romantic Lake Poets and also wrote the children's nursery story "The Three Bears".  I can't say that I've ever read any of his other poems- he's certainly been forgotten compared to his friends Coleridge and Wordsworth.  But this is definitely a fun verse to read with all the rhyming language, as raucous and boisterous as the waterfall he describes. 

We even had to make use of the glossary on the first page to find out what the words "gill" and "tarn" meant.  (Gill is a narrow stream or rivulet and tarn is a mountain lake or pool).

"How does the Water

Come down at Lodore?"

My little boy asked me

Thus, once on a time;

And moreover he tasked me

To tell him in rhyme.

The Declaration of Independence

Happy Birthday United States of America!  

And now for something historical and patriotic...

 The Declaration of Independence 

illustrated by Sam Fink 2002

Pictures illustrate each page of this book which are the words of the Declaration of Independence.  Perfect for an impromptu history lesson, the back of the book even has a chronology of events and glossary of words.

 

(Love this woman with the dove and rifle.)

Other books for July 4th:

Yankee Doodle

Steven Kellogg's Yankee Doodle

America a Patriotic Primer

The American Revolution for Kids

How to be a Revolutionary War Soldier

Paul Revere's Ride

Clown

 Clown

Quentin Blake 1995

I know some people are freaked out by clowns, but this wordless story by Quentin Blake is so sweet even if the pictures are kind of crazy.

A clown doll gets thrown out with a bunch of other stuffed animals.  He finds a pair of sneakers to wear and sets off on his own.  Several times he meets children and tries to tell them about the trash can filled with his toy friends.  He gets thrown from a window and chased by a dog but he doesn't lose hope.  Finally he meets a girl and her baby brother who need and want him just as much as he does them.  He helps them clean up and prepare for their poor overworked mother and they rescue the other stuffed animals.  Blake's "messy" drawings sure do show a lot of emotion.