Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

We read this book last night.  It's really cute and does a good job explaining kindness to kids.  It explains that everyone has an invisable bucket we carry and our kind actions fill others buckets and our mean actions empty them.  And everyone is happier with a full bucket.

When I got up this morning Bella had drawn this picture...



It says:  I love John.  I love the way he draws RVs.  And this fills John's bucket up.

Phonics

Bella finished level 2 of Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten at the beginning of this month.  We had taken a break from it and just spent lots of time reading and she had started to love reading.  Then when we picked it back up and flew through the last part she had left.  So we went ahead and bought level 1 for first grade and she's started that now.  John is halfway through level 1 of the Kindergarten, it's going a lot slower for him but he is progressing just fine at his own level.





We've finished handwriting, science, history and just have to finish math and we are done with the school year.  Both kids will continue phonics through the summer.

Quote of the Week

Me: What's your name?

Phoebe: (silence)

Me:  Is it Hazel?

Phoebe:  No I'm not Hazel, I'm Phoebe.

Me:  Your name is Phoebe?

Phoebe:  Yeah

Me:  That's so beautiful, where'd you get that name?

Phoebe:  At Ikea.

Peter Rabbit

Last week I read The Tale of Peter Rabbit to the kids.  Bella really liked it a lot.  So she started drawing some pictures of Peter in her writing book and I forgot about it.  Today I found her book and looked through it and this is what she wrote/drew after only hearing the story one time.

Books We Love

We do tons of reading here and I'm always looking for new books to read the kids.  It is crazy to me how many children's book exsist and sometimes searching the library shelves can be overwhelming.  So I'm always searching for lists of good books to read (or searching amazon for 5 star books) so I decided to make our own list of books we love.

1.


Dragon Gets By by Dav Pilkey

This book is hilarious.  There's a couple others about Dragon too, A Friend for Dragon, Dragon's Fat Cat and a Halloween and Christmas one.  They have an "Amelia Bedelia" humor to them, and it's one my kids actually understand.  They really didn't get Amelia Bedelia.


2.


Harry on the Rocks by Susan Meddaugh

A very cute story we all loved.  Also starring a dragon.

3.


If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen

This book has the rhyming that I love and makes it fun to read out loud.  And it's probably John's favorite of all the books we've read.  I want the car in this book.

4.


Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen

The same author as If I Built a Car and the same rhyming style.  The kids also loved this one and I enjoyed reading it to them.  There's a few more about Mr. Magee by the same author we haven't read yet that I'm sure we'll also enjoy.

5.


The Bravest Knight by Mercer Mayer

Simple story, great pictures and a very funny ending.

6.

The Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain

I can't name just one book because we love them all.  Haven't read one yet that we didn't like and we've read a bunch of them.  They teach such great lessons in a way the kids can relate too.  And Mama and Papa sure do seem a lot like me and Corey.

7.


Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewney

There's also Llama Llama Mad at Mama and Llama Llama Misses Mama.  They teach good lesson about emotions and the pictures are really good.8.


To Market, To Market by Anne Miranda

The kids loved it and for a week after we read it they walked around all day saying "to market, to market..."

9.

 
Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type & Giggle, Giggle, Quack
by Doreen Cronin

Funny books for any kid that likes silly farm animals.



That's it for now. I'm sure the list will continue to grow. We already have 212 books on our Shelfari shelf as of tonight and a brand new stack of books from the library. I really hope the kids grow to love reading. I hated it so much as a kid and didn't find a love for it until the end of high school. So far they love it, I come downstairs many morning to find them sitting on the couch looking through library books. I am SO greatful for the public library. I can't imagine what we'd do without it.

Just Phoebe

She doesn't like to sit still.



And it's a dark video.  My kids always like to do cute things at night when there's no light.

Reading Caterpillar

Now that Bella is reading books on her own we started a reading caterpillar for her.  Each circle is a book she's read on her own.  She's really taken off so I think it'll grow fast, there's already another one I need to add to it.  And John really wants one of his own so hopefully that will happen soon.



And for the books I read to them we still use our Shelfari shelf (there's a link on the right side of the blog.)  There's way too many to make a caterpillar with those.

Plants

We are trying our hands at gardening again this year.  I've tried in the past but my plants always end up drying up in the summer heat.  I'm hoping that thinking of it as a school project will help me stay on top of it more.  Plus now that the kids are older we spend more time outside anyway so I shouldn't forget this year.  So anyway we've planted a bunch of seeds that we're sprouting in the house, anxiously waiting for warmer weather (we got a ton of snow over the weekend.)  The kids are loving watching them grow and seeing how each type of seed looks different and grows at a different rate.

First we did some flower seeds.  The kids wrote the names on the cups.





Then they took turns putting the soil into the cups.





And every single kid spilled dirt on my floor



Then we added our seeds and smiled



Those have already started to grow



Then last Friday the weather hit 70 degrees so we walked to the Home Depot and got some more seeds (veggies this time.) And made our mess outside instead of in the dining room.









So we'll see how we do this year.  Eventually we'll be able to grow actual vegetables.