Grom's Bookbag - How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

We have a fun Five In A Row book to read this week, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman. It has a bunch of books to read along. It will be a week full of apples, other apple pie ingredients and the far away places they come from.

The Amazing Apple Book by Paulette Bourgeois
A Cow, A Bee, A Cookie and Me by Meredith Hooper
How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the USA by Marjorie Priceman
Johnny Appleseed: The Legend and the Truth by Jane Yolen
What Food is This? by Rosemarie Hausherr
Apple Harvest by Calvin Harris
Children Just Like Me by Barnabas Kindersley
And Everything Nice: the Story of Sugar, Spice and Flavoring by Elizabeth K. Cooper
Apple Valley Year by Ann Warren Turner
The Apple Pie that Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson
Robert Frost by Robert Frost
The Growing Up Tree by Vera Rosenberry
The Biography of Sugar by Rachel Eagen
The Biography of Spices by Ellen Rodger
The Apple King by Francesca Bosca
Pancakes, pancakes! by Eric Carle

We also have a video - Apple Farming for Kids

It's going to be a yummy week. I'm sure we'll make an apple pie and do some apple projects.

Grom's Bookbag - Grandfather's Journey

We've been reading "Grandfather's Journey" by Allen Say. It is the story of a Japanese man who travels to live in the United States. In the U.S. he longs for Japan. Later he takes his family back to Japan where he longs for the U.S. It's a nice portrait of the story of Japanese immigrants.

There were many good books to go along. Some of them made me cry.

"America the Beautiful" by Katharine Lee Bates
"Baseball Saved Us" by Ken Mochizuki
"How My Parents Learned to Eat" by Ina R. Friedman
"Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" by Eleanor Coerr
"The Bicycle Man" by Allen Say (video from Reading Rainbow)
"Easy Origami: Colorful Introduction to Practical Paper Folding" by Kazuo Kobayashi
"Japan" by Ann Heinrichs
"Sayonara Mrs. Kackleman" by Maira Kalman
"So far from the Sea" by Eve Bunting
"Tea with Milk" by Allen Say
"Yoko's Paper Cranes" by Rosemary Wells
"A to Zen: A Book of Japanese Culture" by Ruth Wells

FIAR - The Story of Ping

We're still rowing away our summer. China, ducks, floating, obedience and all things Chinese were on the agenda.

Little Panda by Renata Liwska
China by Poppy Sebag-Montefiore
The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop
Five Little Ducks by Ivan Bates
Little Duck Lost by Erica Briers

Our lapbook...


We spent one afternoon at a local pond. We did school work on a picnic table and then were able to feed the ducks. It was a beautiful day.

We are still having some trouble covering everything I have planned. It's been harder to be consistent with my parents home. Diligence is getting it done. I might be planning too much.

I've also made some adjustments to the supplementary things we are doing. It seems to be working. I've set aside Funtastic Frogs for now and moved from writing worksheets to letter pages from a workbook. Grom is getting better about settling down to work when we are at church. I put pieces of gum in some of his school packs. He's always excited to find one.

Off to Ohio for some harmonica music with a boy named Lentil.

FIAR - A Pair of Red Clogs

Our trip around the world continues to Japan.

Chie and the Sports Day by Masako Matsuno
Taro and the Bamboo Shoot by Masako Matsuno
Little Oh by Laura Krauss Melmed
Momotaro, the Peach Boy by Linda Shute
The Magic Fan by Keith Baker
Old Japan by Andrew Haslam
Suki's Kimono by Chieri Uegkai

We hit some sort of a wall this week. Grom became uncooperative. He didn't want to do much of what I planned and of course he had a better plan. After Tuesday reading the book and the additional books were about all we accomplished. But I don't give up... we finished up the next week instead of taking a week off of school for VBS. That'll teach Grom to give me a hard time.

Here's our lapbook.

FIAR - Madeline

Off of to France for a visit with 12 little girls in two straight lines, especially the smallest... Madeline (rhymes with line not pen).
Without further ado... our lapbook...


We found some great books (some very obvious) to read along.
Everybody Bonjours by Leslie Kimmelman
The Inside Outside Book of Paris by Roxie Munro
Germs! Germs! Germs! by Bobbi Katz (Grom loved this one)
Madeline and the Bad Hat by Ludwig Bemelmans (Book on tape and video too)
Madeline and the Gypsys by Ludwig Bemelmans (Book on tape too)
Furry, Fun and Healthy Too DVD

We did something fun with google images search. We searched for the different buildings that are showcased in the book. Once we found pictures of the place, we looked for one that was taken from the same vantage point as the illustration in the book. We were able to match most of them up.

If we had more time that week, we rowed this book the same week as the Girlies' birthday party, we would've made crepes.

In addition to Madeline, Grom continued with Funtastic Frogs (math), Critical Thinking, and Handwriting (I found a letter book in our stuff. I have him working through it).

Au Revoir!

FIAR - Katy and the Big Snow

We kicked off our Summer homeschooling experiment with "Katy and the Big Snow" written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton. It probably wasn't the best choice to row a book about snow during June. Grom and I talked about it. Since it never snows where we live, we decided it was ok.

It's a nice story of a snow plow who saves the day after a big storm hits the City of Geopolis.

Here's a slide show of the lapbook we put together.



Alongside Katy, we read some fun books...
Snow Sounds by David A Johnson (has a snow plow in it)
This Place in the Snow by Rebecca Bond (another snow plow)
Snow by Manja Stojic
I Am Snow by Jean Marzollo
Snowy Weather Days by Katie Marsico

I found a great audio version at the libray. We listened to it a lot in the car.

In addition to Five In A Row, Grom has math (Funtastic Frogs), critical thinking, phonics (Click N Read) and handwritting (tracing sheets).

It was a fun row.