Books of the Week – Feb. 5, 2011

We read another Carl book this week – Carl’s Sleepy Afternoon, by Alexandra Day.  It was even more of a hit than our Carl book last week.  Carl is quite the dog – very adventurous and helpful and completely loveable.  So far we haven’t found a story about Carl that we haven’t loved or at least liked.  We haven’t read all of them though, so I can’t say for sure that they are all wonderful, but this one sure is!

 

A Far Fetched Story, by Karin Cates has been one of M’s top favorites over the past couple of weeks.  We read it at least once a day, and quite often it’s one of the books he chooses to look at in bed at the end of the day.  In my opinion, it’s okay… even cute, and sort of funny.  The real attraction (for me) is the artwork, by Nancy Carpenter – so interesting, and I can’t even explain why.  Here’s a note about the artwork, found in the front of the book:

“The paintings for A Far-Fetched Story are done in pen and ink with watercolor on Arches 90-lb. hot-press watercolor paper.  Each family member’s far-fetched tale, as well as a few other illustrations, are also pen and ink drawings with watercolor that have been color copied onto transfer paper and ironed onto white linen.  I used a sewing machine and colored thread to sew additional lines and add details to the linen paintings. – Nancy Carpenter” 

Interesting, no?

 

  

Our newest series of chapter books to read at lunch is The Littles, by John Peterson.  I remember loving these books when I was little.  I read them on my own in 2nd grade or so, but the vocabulary and story lines are super-easy for M to comprehend and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend these as read-alouds for 4+ non-readers.  There are a couple of things I’ve skipped (which is easier to do with non-readers than readers, right?), that I felt were too scary for M (like a Little almost getting eaten by a dog, and that kind of thing, which some children his age are fine with).  The three books pictured above are the ones we’ve read so far.  Our favorite is The Littles Go Exploring – a story about finding a hidden room, going on a adventure beyond the Dark Woods, and looking for Grandpa Little who disappeared 2 years prior.  Super-duper exciting stuff! ;)

For more reviews of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Have a beautiful day! :)

Candlemas and a bit of miscellany :)

public domain image

I love saying that word (I mean miscellany, although I do love to say Candlemas too, now that I think of it), but it’s not often that I get a chance to use it in everyday conversation. :)

I thought I’d quickly share with you what we’ve been doing in the way of faith-based activities.  This is a routine we’ve only just started, and there will be some adjusting, and perhaps adding as we go along.

At the beginning of last year we started going through M’s little Children’s Bible, one story per day, completing it in late spring.  We truly enjoyed it and when it was done I was a bit stumped about what to do.  Silly, I know (we could simply have started over)… but I wanted something that would be simple and easy to do each day, with the possibility of more involved learning and extension activities once every week or a couple of times a month.

I also wanted something that would keep us in line with the rhythm of the liturgical year.  I’m a good Baptist girl who fell in love with a good Catholic boy (and eventually became Catholic too), and I’ve been so appreciative of how the Church lives the life of Christ throughout the liturgical year.  None of this used to make any sense to me, but as I’ve learned about it I’ve really been drawn to the depth and beauty of it. 

My conversion story is probably not of interest to any of my readers, other than a few family members and possibly friends who have known me forever, and with whom I normally shy away from discussing this kind of thing (conflict has never really been my thing, and since my dad was a pastor in my early childhood, you can imagine there’s conflict surrounding this subject).  So, I won’t go into any of that here, except to say, one thing I love is that the Catholic Church has a 2 year cycle of daily Bible readings – including passages from the Old Testament or a New Testament letter, the Psalms, and one of the Gospels.  (This is not including the Sunday readings, which are on a 3 year cycle.)  So, reading through these passages daily, you’ll end up reading the entire Bible every 2 years.  The first reading and Psalm always relate in some way to the Gospel reading also, which is really neat.

Whew – that was more of an explanation than I intended, but I’ll let it stand. :) 

I’ve been reading the daily readings to M, from a “real” Bible, not his Children’s Bible, and he is doing just fine with comprehension.  I do tend to look the reading over first and simplify anything that might be confusing, or too mature for him (I edit other books as I’m reading them too; just because it’s the Bible, doesn’t mean a small child is ready to correctly comprehend everything in it!).  We usually do this as he eats breakfast and then we talk a bit about it while I’m cleaning up the kitchen.  It’s very simple and relaxed.  We are going through the Gospel of Mark right now, with all the wonderful miracles that Jesus performed – there’s a real “wow” factor in them that I appreciate so much, seeing them through the eyes of a 4 year old boy. :)

There are many special days throughout the year, one of which was this past Wednesday – Candlemas  - also known as the feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

The Presentation of the Lord – public domain image

This was when baby Jesus was taken to the temple at 8 days old, and Simeon and Anna saw him and praised God for the savior He had sent into the world.  Jesus was revealed as the light to the nations that had been prophesied in the Old Testament.  So – in Catholic churches everywhere candles are blessed and a very simple tradition in the home is having candles lit all day long in honor of this important day in the life of Jesus.

 I love the peacefulness of lit candles

We believe that parents are responsible for passing on their faith to their children.  Our church does provide Sunday School, but I still feel that it’s important that what they do there is only supplemental, and what we do at home is the real foundation and formation in this area.

Do you make a point of celebrating your faith in your home? I’d love to hear and learn about your family traditions during this “ordinary time” of the year!

Have a beautiful day! :)

This post has been edited to add the following:

A commenter asked about finding a list of the 2 year cycle of daily readings.  The best I’ve found online is here:

http://wau.org/meditations/current/

In the upper right hand corner, below the heading, you’ll see the following box:

Click on the month you want and it will bring up a printable .pdf listing all of the daily readings for that month.  As you can see most of the months available in this list are from 2010, and the list is updated with the current month.  So… you will need to visit the site again in March to get March’s reading list and so on.  If anyone is interested in having the entire 2 years of reading laid out for them, you could purchase a Missal, which not only lists, but also has the text for each reading (these are expensive; we received one as a wedding gift).  Otherwise, many local Catholic bookstores provide small booklets with the listings for each year for only $2 to $3.

Have a beautiful day! :)