Great Books

I got an e-mail from Amazon. They have a feature called "Essential Books" for children. You can search by age for supposedly great books for kids. I haven't checked it out yet. But it reminded me of two books Liana and I would recommend for their lists. Together we read two delightful William Steig books.

The first we read was Dominic. I'd never heard of this book until my son Dominic sent me a link for it. It sounded like a fun book, even more so because the character of Dominic in the book sounded a lot like my Dominic! Both Dominics get restless and go off to explore the world. We got the book from the library and loved it so much that I bought it for Liana for her birthday to keep forever.

I also bought her Abel's Island and we just finished it yesterday. This book has a mouse character who is stranded on an island for a year and learns a lot of lessons about life and himself during his time of loneliness and hardship.

Both books should be read aloud! The language is rich and clever. The themes are timeless and the characters lovable. Dominic and Abel grow and discover and learn and develop. The endings of both books make you clap and cheer. Read them! I just ordered another Steig book called The Real Thief. Liana and I don't want the adventures to end.

Sick Day

This blog is so neglected. The days go by in a blur and I often don't take time to reflect. We are busy with school, but it is hard to stop and think exactly what we're doing and then compose a blog entry. Liana had to take the California Achievement Test last month, so we spent some time preparing for that. We had lots of snow, which meant lots of time outside shoveling. January went by in a whirlwind. Today we have howling winds, literally. It is cold, and two sick girls are lying around on the furniture moaning and complaining--fever, headaches, sore throats. Poor babies. So, of course, no school.

But I've been busy today: cleaning the guinea pig cages, ironing, washing and folding clothes, making soup, vacuuming, doing dishes, and tending to my girls. I read two chapters of Abel's Island to Liana, but she is too sick to much enjoy it. So the day is quickly passing. How do I have time to do homeschooling anyway, I ask? We did no school work, yet I was busy all day. If we'd done school work, those chores would not have been done. So how does one do homeschooling AND chores? Well, in my case, it's near impossible. School comes first, so you can imagine what my house looks like on a normal day. Today, it looks pretty good, except for the blankets and tissues and trash bins alongside the sofa in the living room.