Book Review: Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates

This is another gem of a book Zach and I read together as part of our Sonlight Core 1 curriculum. I have to admit, yet again, that I probably would not have chosen it randomly from the book store shelves. In fact, in the start of it, I was worried Zach would not enjoy it due to the vocabulary and content.

The content involves a boy, Peter, who lived in the past (specific dates not given in the book), in a remote mountainous area, on the outskirts of a village apparently. Peter's family is a farming family, primarily involved in raising sheep. The entire story revolves around Peter and his relationship with his cosset, Biddy. Now my own son is a city boy who has never been really close to a sheep honestly, and the farming life is completely unknown to him. He is drawn to action-packed tales of detectives, robots and sci-fi adventures. So you can guess I was hesitant about this book. However, the simple story of a boy and his pet easily transcended the differences between Zach and Peter, and Zach sat enthralled day after day as we read this book aloud together.

Which brings me to the other point about this book, the vocabulary. It is a rich, complex book in terms of both the word choices and the syntax. Sonlight made a good choice to make this a read-aloud rather than leaving it to the student to read on his/her own. We stopped often during the story to explain the meaning of a word, or to reread a passage if I saw he was looking a bit confused. The exposure to this language was wonderful though, and added many words to his vocabulary that he would not have normally encountered, even in his spelling words or workbooks.

So, I have to give this book a high recommendation from boy my son and myself. It is a lovely book to read together.

We enjoyed this selection so much in fact, that we requested from the library, A Place for Peter, which is the sequel to Mountain Born. In the sequel, Peter is older now, and is struggling through that difficult period between being a boy and a man. The writing is as good as Mountain Born, but the story is not quite as engaging to Zach at this period in his life. It is a nice followup though; we love to continue on with series we enjoyed together.

A cute note about A Place for Peter is I did get it from the library here, and there was only one copy in the system in storage at Central Library. We had it sent up to our local brand and picked it up. It didn't even have a call number, just "storage" on the spine. It still has the old envelope for the check-out card, on which is printed library rules, including a note of a 4 cent per day overdue fee, or 2 cents per day for juvenile books. LOL I tried to find a date it was put into the library system, and apparently it was Nov 24, 1952 by stamp, and the copyright on this edition is 1952. What a neat treat to hold this old book and think of all those who have read it before us.

I won!

I entered some blog giveaways sponsored through Sew Mama Sew a couple weeks ago. And I won a couple things! This arrived in the mail last week, and it is just gorgeous! It was made by TickledPaisley, who makes these gorgeous bags also for sale in her Etsy Shop. Stop by and take a look! I can vouch for the fact that her sewing is beautiful, and the style/size of this bag is fantastic for me. It fits nicely on my shoulder and holds all my junk, err stuff, plus a spare diaper and wipes if we are out and about.

Thanks again, Susan!

Lily accessorizing

Lily accessorizing , originally uploaded by WeeBeaks.

A funny of the day. I brought Lily down to play this morning in the family room. She rounded up a yellow fleece hat and her plush yellow doggy purse and put them on to coordinate today. Note her hat - she still has trouble putting that on herself. LOL She was proud of herself though!

A Work in Progress and a Look Back

Yard in progress, originally uploaded by WeeBeaks.

I snapped this picture from my office/sewing area the other day. Here is our lower patio. You can see where the kids play if I'm sewing or in the office. I can see them and hear them through the window right there. They love to play down there.

Beyond that is the area where our little sprigs of chamomile ground cover is starting to fill in. The left side got planted a month or so before the right so it is filling in more.

The next tiers have our roses. The smell is soooo sweet out there. All the regular size roses are very fragrant. I pick mine based on smell! LOL Tucked in between we have some of my father-in-laws mini roses and some lavender plants. The uppermost slope is still very much awaiting attention.

For the look back, I grabbed a photo when they are working on it, digging the trench for the wall. Rich and his dad did an incredible job didn't they?

Deals, Deals and more Deals at Target

I had a bunch of coupons to use up so went deal hunting today. I had the Pullups $3/1 coupons to use, expiring today, and found some 15% off at Target. Not a great deal, but we needed them and I had the $3 coupons, which are not that common (they usually put out the $2 coupons).

I had the Electrasol $2.50/1 coupons to use also, expiring tomorrow. I checked the Wal-Mart and three Targets, all in about a 10 mile radius thankfully. The prices of Targets within a couple miles of each other do vary. At the last one I found the Electrasol on 15% off clearance for $3.64 a box so that is what I went with, using my $2.50 off coupons and getting it for $1.14 per box of 20 tabs.

I had one $1 off Post Trail Mix crunch. Target had it for $3.34, so $2.34 for the box. More than I EVER pay for cereal, but DH loves that brand and that brand only the best. I can't deny our breadwinner his Trail Mix Crunch. He takes one box a week to work for breakfast and it lasts a week perfectly per him, with one carton of soymilk to go with it ($1.04 for the soymilk at Costco). So total then is $3.38 for one week of breakfasts for DH. Pretty darn good when I look at it that way.

My BEST deal today though I owe to Jane4girls. If you don't read her blog and are a deal hunter, you need to check it out. She put a heads up that the Kashi GoLean waffles at Target were $1.79 per box and there were $1.50/1 printable coupons, making them 29 cents a box!!! I checked, and mine actually locally were down to $1.77 per box. I used the printables and some Vocalpoint coupons for $1.50/1 and got 6 boxes at 27 cents per box. What a deal! The kids love those.

Vitaminwater 10 is $1 at Target, and I had one more $1 off coupon to use up, so that just cost me the 5 cent CRV and tax.

I found some Yoplait Go-Gurts on clearance with soon dates for $1.88 each, and I had a coupon $1/1 coupons I got from a coupon trading buddy. Score! on the 88 cent Go-Gurts, again something the boys love and rarely get. Our newspaper gives the measley $0.75 off when you buy 2 boxes, so I don't buy them. At $1 off one box from her newspaper plus the clearance price, the boys got two boxes of those.

Revlon nail files are 1.29, and you can use the $1 off 1 Revlon tool coupons, making them 29 cents each. To make it better though I got a $1 off Revlon Target coupon in the mail and stacked that on since you can use a Target and manufacturer together. So I got 5 packages of nail files free.

Lastly, I have a $4 rebate, again from my generous trading buddy, when you buy 1 Softsoap Ensembles pump plus the refill. The pump was $5.99 and the refill was $2.89 (OUCH regular price), for a total of $8.88, but of course I had coupons too. I had a manufacturer coupon of $1.50 off the pump set and $0.75 off the refill and a Target mailer $2 off Ensembles to bring the total down to $4.63, and then I will send in for the $4 rebate, so final cost is $0.63 plus tax and the $0.44 stamp, so a little over $1. I'll pay that for the pump and refill. :)

A GREAT couponing day at Target.

Review: Gooney Bird Greene

We are still working along on Sonlight Core 1 with Zach. This week we finished up Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry. I was a little worried honestly about this one. First of all it has a picture of a little girl on the front in a pink tutu. That just isn't a cover that catches Zach's attention honestly. Thankfully though, it was a read-aloud rather than a reader, and hence he didn't have a choice.

It started a little slow and seemed a little bland in the first part. Zach, however, did start to enjoy it rather quickly, enjoying the funny tales Gooney Bird had to tell. He seemed to easily find the humor in the wording, and grasp why it was funny.

I honestly still didn't particularly like it through the middle of the book. This book is better for an independent reader than a read-aloud, as is scheduled in Sonlight. I can perhaps see why it is scheduled as a read-aloud, as the parent can be sure the student fully grasps the humor and why, and perhaps use it is a leap-off discussion of how to write a good story. However, the font changes and so forth that are used to indicate to the reader that what is a "Gooney Bird Story" from regular text are completely lost when done orally. That alone made it a bit of a problem for a read-aloud.

By the end of the story, I too was sad to see it end though. Zach, and even Noah, were enjoying the book. As it wrapped up, I really saw it's value as we read the last chapter. That chapter talks about how each of us has stories to tell and how to find them, using specific concrete examples from the stories Gooney has already told so well. So, a young reader is left with the message that he/she has stories in her own life to tell, and reminded that there are specific storytelling techniques to utilize that will make it the most interesting it can be for the audience. That is a great message to leave with the reader.

Now that we have read it as scheduled, my own independent reader will get a chance to reread it and see the written techniques used as well. He loves to reread, thankfully. I'm very glad we had exposure to this through our curriculum, because honestly I would not have picked it out for my son, nor would he have chosen it for himself, based on the cover art or description on the cover. It really was an excellent book though.

Zach and Lily reading together

IMG_3831, originally uploaded by WeeBeaks.

Zach is working on his homeschool history and Lily is joining in for a peek at the book too!