I have always been drawn to Cheryl Harness' picture books. She has remarkable talent as an author and illustrator and she speaks directly to my children in a warm, receptive manner.
This morning we enjoyed Our Colonial Year. This book not only took my 5-year-old on a review through the year, a subject she adores while placing the family's birthdays within the months that are shown in bright, colorful artwork, but it also took my newly-turned-10-year-old on a review of the 13 Original Colonies...with an oversized, full-color map at the end.
The book-flap reads: "In Colonial America there were no big grocery stores. No microwaves to serve up dinner piping hot. And no dishwashers for cleaning up. So what chores did colonial children do?"
This took us on a great discussion of their chores compared to the chores colonial children did. Talk about hard work! The delightful art took us "From quilting bees and maple sugaring in winter, to tilling the earth in spring, to harvesting an autumn feast..."
Cheryl Harness' illustrations do what no other illustrator's work can do. They combine reality and fun into a wonderful patchwork quilt of nostalgia.
Next on our list was James Solheim's weird and zany book It's Disgusting and We Ate It!: True Food Facts from Around the World and Throughout History. It was also our science for the day.
We learned that people will eat bugs to survive, bacteria makes your feet stink and gives cheese its odor, people in China were given earthworm soup for fevers, and did you know that "yeast fungi are so small that four thousand could stand in single file on your thumb." And, of course, we all know about John the Baptist and his diet of locusts and honey.
Funner still was the global map inside the book's front cover that listed all kinds of disgusting foods linked to their country of origin: Corn Fungus in Mexico, Acorn Bread in California, Rat Stew on Magellan's boat on the Pacific Ocean, Fried Termites in Africa, Blood Sausage in South America, Shark Fin and Silk Worm Soup in China. All kinds of other goodies, too numerous to name. Check it out.
Today the girls and I will follow our reading of this book with the provided recipe in the book called "Chocolate Honey Banana Smash Ice Cream". They have agreed to this because...there are no bugs in the recipe.
Continuing with science, we read a new book by Julie Hannah and Joan Holub illustrated by Paige BIllin-Frye: The Man Who Named the Clouds.
This book has a little of everything. Delightful illustrations, real photos included, weather journal samples, jokes, and a language chart for classifying the clouds.
This book can be read by students Kindergarten - High school and will certainly inspire them to keep a weather journal like Luke Howard did. With his birthday coming up on November 28th, now is a perfect time to find this book and prepare for a weather study unit.
Completing our morning lessons we turned to history with a picture biography on Thomas Jefferson by James Cross Giblin and Michael Dooling. This book was on everyone's reading list no matter what the age. I have come to a deeper admiration of this famous man in my riper years than I had during my school days when he was just another president.
Jefferson's life is proof that a person can do and learn anything he sets his mind to. All he needs is a sense of curiosity and a willingness to learn.
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