Historical fiction.
Hanna’s Cold Winter takes a real event – the people of Budapest saving their hippos during an unusually cold winter of World War II – and creates a fictional story about it, about a particular family,...
View ArticleThe Glorious Flight.
We’re back to Five in a Row this week with the 1984 Caldecott medalist, The Glorious Flight, by Alice and Martin Provensen. This wonderful book tells the true story of aviation pioneer Louis Bleriot,...
View ArticleSmithsonian Air & Space Museum!
We wrapped up our study of The Glorious Flight with a trip to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. It was our first trip to D.C. since before Colin was born – with very young kids, there isn’t much...
View ArticleMrs. Katz and Tush.
We’re taking another break in our usual curricula to study a Five in a Row book. Because it’s almost Passover, we’re reading Mrs. Katz and Tush by Patricia Polacco. The story is about a lonely Jewish...
View ArticleMrs. Katz and Tush, part 2.
We had a pretty busy week with Mrs. Katz and Tush, despite the lack of posting. (The real issue with that? I was reading the Hunger Games trilogy in every minute of my free time.) In the book, Mrs....
View ArticleAll good things come to an end.
Back in November, we decided to scale way back on Five in a Row. I scheduled one FIAR book every five weeks, so that in the intervening periods we could devote more time to lab science and history....
View ArticleLooking ahead to third grade.
Our new school year starts on June 1st. One of my goals for third grade is that Alex start to take a little more ownership of her education, so I asked her what she would like to accomplish this year....
View ArticleReturn to Five in a Row: Science with Lentil.
The other night, rocking in Daddy’s lap in the darkened bedroom, Colin looked up at Michael and said, “You know what, Daddy? I think Lentil is fiction. The things could have happened in real life, but...
View ArticleThe rest of Colin’s week with Lentil.
Science was definitely the highlight of our Five in a Row study of Lentil, but we packed lots of other great things into the week as well. Colin was a story detective, looking and listening for clues...
View ArticleColin explores past ways…
This week in Five in a Row, Colin is studying Cynthia Rylant’s lovely picture book memoir, When I Was Young in the Mountains. The text and detailed illustrations show what life was like in rural...
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