Weekly book shelf, 4/18/14

In history this week, Ancient China and the Grand Canal (SOTW2 ch. 8). Harrington's book about the history of the Grand Canal is a fantastic non-fiction resource for kids, but it's out of print and hard to come by. We got ours by luck at a used book store.

Another great resource for us was the Engineering an Empire episode on China's engineering the Grand Canal. We love this set. We originally bought it for easy access to the episodes about Egypt and Carthage, but having it on our shelf for all these other topics has been great.

In science this week we are still, still reviewing BFSU Volume 1. But we also started our bird watching practice for the local Science Olympiad that is coming up in about a month. Plus it's migration season, so there are a lot of birds to see. We mainly use the Audubon bird guide or our local Michigan bird guide, but lately we've been using the Peterson youth guide so Calvin could read up on some species identification in the field.

Calvin's literary study this week was Time Cat, by Lloyd Alexander. A boy meets a talking, magical cat that takes them on adventures through time where the pair meet famous historical figures and undergo a variety of adventures good and bad.

And for some extra reading time he read Berkeley Breathed's youth fiction Flawed Dogs. We have his picture book Pete and Pickles and love it, but it's definitely dark and not for everyone. So I read this one first, and it follows the same pattern—dark and not for everyone, but with a sweet message in the backfield. A dog in a loving home is framed for a crime he did not commit and slated for euthanasia. He escapes, and from there withstands terrible abuse and hardship in different situations before finally finding his way back to the girl who loved him first, and redeeming his good name. My only problem with this book is the appearance of an angel at the end who is instrumental in setting everything right. It seems too easy and too out of place.

Journal entry—orioles

Journal entry—waterfowl hike

After their waterfowl hike yesterday, Calvin came home and wrote about the experience in his journal. I still think we maybe need to make him a nature journal, but for now it's all in one.

This one, obviously, is completely unedited. When we first started the journal last fall I helped him sound out all words and get them spelled correctly. Over time he gained confidence and proficiency, and a desire to shrug off all outside interference, and a couple of months ago he started writing the entries on his own. When he finishes I usually read them out loud to him, in part to enjoy them together, now that I'm not part of the process anymore, and also to help him catch any glaring phonetic errors. My goal is not for him to spell everything correctly, but for him to have a good grasp, over time, on the general rules. This one I didn't read until today, and it is clear to me that he has made a lot of wonderful progress all on his own. It's hard to say which came first and encouraged the other, the reading or the writing, more they were simultaneous and co-dependent, but I am so happy about both his progress, and how it has happened—not with lessons, or practice sheets or even with many easy readers, but mostly just with practice and use. As my dad always says, nobody told him he couldn't read, and nobody implied that it was a difficult process that required systematic help, either, and so he just did it.

The Great Backyard Bird Count

The Great Backyard Bird Count took place this weekend. On any given day we have six or more bluebirds in our backyard. Sometimes we're lucky enough to get a junko or two as well, and godfinches are not uncommon, either. Our front yard is a popular hangout for neighborhood sparrows, a variety of finch species, grackles, bluejays, and sometimes even a cardinal or two.

Here are our misleading counts for the weekend, though:

Extremely high winds plagued us for the first two days, and heavy snowfall for the second two. At least we had a good time looking for them.