Tuesday

Over breakfast Jon called my cell phone so that we could find it, and that started a conversation about the difference between cell phones and land lines, which required a thumbing through David Macaulay's The New Way Things Work.

After breakfast there was piano, and reading. After revisiting Charlotte's Web the kid is now re-reading The Wizard of Oz. We found a 1980s copy of the original at a library used book sale this past weekend, complete with Denslow's original illustrations and color plates, and he just dove right in.

A little later we were in Egypt learning about mummies, transportation, and gods and godesses.

Over lunch, a game of Totally Tut. Calvin has graduated into Math-U-See's Gamma book and is starting to master multiplication, so we're adding those functions into the game as he goes.

Then a discussion of matter, molecules, and atoms, solids, liquids, and gases, and a few experiments just to demonstrate some principles. I think it's time to break out the microscope again.

Then a trip to the vet with the dogs, just for simple boosters, and then a traipse around the yard to check on our trees. After the weird weather we've had, early warmth, late deep freezes, some of our trees were looking a little worrisome, but with the steadily rising temperatures now they seem to be improving.

And lastly grilled cheese for dinner, because Jon had a late piano lesson and I had a meeting after dinner, so the overlap was brief. In my absence the guys walked the dogs and played more games before bed. They finished Raggedy Andy and started a new book, but found it less than interesting, so I think it's time to break out Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales.

And that makes a full and successful day in my book.

Charlotte's Web, again.

Charlotte's Web was the first chapter book I read aloud with Calvin, back in October of 2010, and his mostly pictorial response was among the first of his journal entries. I found him reading it himself about a week ago and I loved talking to him about it a second time around.

We made a cricket

Which looks suspiciously like a grasshopper, but we didn't have any black pipe cleaners, and honestly, that wouldn't be as cute.

This didn't come entirely out of the blue. Calvin started reading The Cricket in Times Square today, a book I'd suggested to him because we'll be going to a stage adaptation later in the month. He read the first two chapters today and probably would have continued if I hadn't stopped him to ask him to tell me about it so far. I can tell it's going to be a hit, but in general any book with critters is a big hit with him.

I got the craft idea from this website, although we altered it to look a little more like a cricket.

The journal, a recap

A year and a half ago I bought a stack of composition books on sale for a whopping twenty cents each. Shortly after that I encouraged Calvin to start keeping a journal in one of them. I figured that was the best possible way to encourage ownership and pride in writing while providing lots of fun, individual practice. I tried to get him to write at least once a week, and most weeks he wrote three or more times without prodding, but some weeks he required more encouragement than others.

The journal did turn out to be an invaluable tool in his quest to learn reading and writing, and I credit it almost entirely with his quick grasp of these skills, the only other tool we used being his constant immersion in a reading household, and the multitude of books we read to him each and every day, plus loving support and encouragement. Now, 18 months later, he has filled the journal, and it is additionally a rather loved keepsake. Good thing I bought a whole stack.

Calvin used his journal in lots of different ways—accounting for the happenings of life, writing stories, reviewing things he'd been learning, and summarizing books he'd read. In the beginning I encouraged him to write at least three words, and to draw the rest of his entry. Over time words took the place of the pictures, and by the end I was encouraging him to add illustrations, which I think are just as precious and important.

Here are some of my very favorites.

Calvin's very first journal entry, a short account of a day in which he and I read a book while eating lunch, and either practiced piano or had a lesson, dated 9-9-10 (date written by me)

Calvin's last entry in this journal, a book review of The Enormous Egg, by Oliver Butterworth (a three pager, including the accompanying picture), dated 3/29/12

A trip to the store, 9/21/10

Calvin's first book review, a review of Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White, 9/31/10

Calvin and I read the Wizard of Oz series together over the course of about six months. Calvin reviewed each and every book in the series, and his writing grew and changed immensely over that time. Here are just three:
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, 10/21/10

The Lost Princess of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, 3/29/11

Glinda of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, 5/18/11

And Calvin's own story, A Story About Steggy, 7/11/11

A Penguin Acrostic Poem, 9/21/11

All about Halloween, 11/1/11

My Father's Dragon Cartography

Calvin disappeared for a little while again on Friday. Disappeared into his office, I mean, which is when he creates his greatest art. This week has been all about the My Father's Dragon trilogy for him. I read the first book to him over the course of a few nights of bedtime reading, but he was in such a hurry that he read the next two books to himself over the better part of an afternoon. Today's office time produced a journal entry (and I guess he plans to write two more to cover the other two books), and a collection of maps. Fantasy cartography is such a beautiful thing!

The My Father's Dragon trilogy consists of My Father's Dragon, Elmer and the Dragon, and The Dragons of Blueland, all written by Ruth Stiles Gannett right around 1950. They are cute fantasy books about a boy who uses his own ingenuity to rescue a dragon, after which the two become friends. The books are full of the charm and innocence present in most mid-century children's books. The writing is simple enough for young readers, but the story is interesting enough for even the oldest of us.

We've linked up to OLM's Saturday's Artist.