La Rue to the booksale. Postcards from the vacation. by Jo (age 8+)

Earlier this year, we decided to brave traffic to attend the Big Bad Wolf Box Sale. Oh it was exciting scouring through thousands of books looking for ones we may like. Among the books we picked up was LaRue Across America: Postcards From the Vacation (LaRue Books) by Mark Teague.

Jo was tickled by the story, and loved its so much, she became inspired to write her own story, but based on the same character, La Rue the dog. However, artistic person she is, she only works when inspired, and didn't complete the story when "steam" ran out. Here's her story three quarters done. No mum's input at all, thus grammar/spelling mistakes all intact.
As pics are not so clear, I've retyped what she's written, exactly as it is, mistakes and all.
  Warning...grammar nazis, and English teachers might squirm at her spelling and grammar errors.
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COVER

(notice her best seller stamp, given  to herself!)

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Page 1

"Cooking diaster has miss millians?

Larue brings cat to booksale  ______________________________

This week miss millians had more worst splats everywhere! Ovens burned, smoke filled the air, cakes were black, dough hung from the ceiling, the floor was a sweet pool of milk. She fainted and landed on her favourite soft fresh homade italian bread. her body envoloped in bread crumbs, milk honey, oats, and dough. fireman extinguish the fire. her neighbour offers to help her two stranded cats, miss millias accepts and thanks her neibour but the neibours dog with the cats won't get along...so well?? Will they??

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Page 2 

(Notice how dog is nice, but really feels like flinging the cat!)

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Page 3

Dear Mrs. Millians                 July 10

We have boarded a ferry leaving from Penang. The cats made me take care of them! I complained to miss martha about them so she went to talk to them. she came back telling me that the cats claimed they were seasick! I served them orange juice    they shouted "I said cherry not orange!!" they made me so frustrated.      _________________________________

your frustrated neighbour

Ike

p.s did you feed them breakfast? they keep asking for food!

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Page 4

Dear Miss Millians                    July 11
Your cats are real annoying. we went to the reef to scubardive, when we were on the boat your cat called me Ikebanana and began to fill my ears with loud english poetry.
now I know why you let us take care of the cats. I didn't know they eat fish so rudely.
Your sincere neighbour   [picture]<--dead fish
Ike
p.s. if you ack quickly no books will be harmed.

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 Page 5

Dear miss millians    we are now in ipoh    we went to a fancy chickenrice shop. The cats said they would not eat chicken rice so they brought in their cat food, when my chicken rice came the cats at once said give me some! I tried to reason with them but they insisted and begged and finally complained to miss martha. I was forced to give them each some. They asking for more and more and I haven't got one single bite yet until there was one tiny chicken and a little bit of rice, they shouted at once Mine!
What a nuisanse.
honestly Ike.
p.s. hurry the booksale is coming closer!

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Page 6

Dear Miss millans
We are on the way to the booksale
(to bad you did not pick them up on time) I can't wait a few more days to the booksale! (of course without the cats no offence)
the plain scenenery is making my mood sour, so I played the guitar. one of the cats reached out to grab it and his paw got scratched by a string      next thing I new I was outside apologising. when we started to drive again and the city came into view, people bustled everywhere.
Truly your neighbour
Ike    [picture]<-swallows feather
p.s. Sure your not coming? p.p.s or send them in mail?

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Page 7

Dear miss millans
We are getting closer to the booksale. I started of my day with a big breakfast    
while I was crunching on a bone, miss marthe ask me  to do something hard      when I could not do it she scolded me
she hurt my feelings badly she called me a dumb, lazy dog!
(bad way to start the day) I did not know miss martha changes so much when the cats are around. I tried to turn the signoard to make her go back to Penang and drop the two rascals off but she caught me red pawed!
hurt Ike
p.s or I'll mail myself at the next post office.

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Page 8

dear miss millians
Your cats have been cutting holes in my carseat, and tearing holes too! So I quickly grabbed a sack of Molly's mud and poured it onto the middle carseat, that did the job but I was cleaning one minute after that. we were getting closer, the signboard said 30 more km! You should train your cats!
hopeless
Ike      [picture]----stamps
p.s do you have enough money to pay for tears?

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Page 9

dear miss millians
your cats have been very noisy             they are always yelling
I've tried complaining to miss martha about them instead she said my whistleling was noisy! our chairs kept on turning around in the car because of the lever.
truly yours
Ike
p.s you should teach your cats to sing instead of fight











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~Update:

Jo worked on this further and completed the story. She typed the whole book (I helped her sometimes), she redid some of the pictures, and then we took it for binding, and she sold about 30 books at a little book sale/exchange fair.






.To be continued----------------------
@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2014

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Some books and yarn art.

The girls, especially Nel, have been doing lots of reading. Nel reads a new book every two to three days. She has this habit now where she has to read before sleep. Some books she read this past holiday that were favourites include   The Hobbit , Five Children and It ,The Phoenix and the Carpet,  Star of Light by John, Patricia St,  Folks of the Faraway Tree and  Throwaway Daughter .

Just some very brief random thoughts on books..

 Hobbit- We loved the book and looked forward to the movie. Well we enjoyed the movie too, although we were a little confused at some parts as there were new characters such as the Orc and the 5th wizard. The kids thought the humour with the trolls and a lot of conversation was better in the book.  However, we're looking forward to part 2 of the movie.

Star of Light (Christian Literature)- This book was touching and sometimes moved us to tears. It's basically the story of how Hamid takes a long journey alone with his blind little sister Kinza to bring her to an English nurse who loves and cares for street children. He has to do this in order to protect his sister from their father who plans to sell Kinza to a beggar. Well...I highly recommend this book if you're looking for good Christian literature.

Throwaway Daughter-  is a book about Dong- Mei who is fortunate to be adopted by Canadian parents from an orphanage where her mother left her. She eventually makes a trip to China to look for her birth mother and discover the reason why she was abandoned. For Nel, I guess, it was eye opening reading about China's one child policy, why sons were preferred over daughters and such.

The other books she loved because of the "magical" elements and suspense.
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As for Jo, need I mention? Reading more books about mermaids of course. Well...she's added Roald Dahl to the list, mysterious stuff like the Snow Queen, and her latest love, Paddington Bear.  Other than that, we're reading the Secret Garden. Most of the time though, she is drawing, making paper games and puzzles and playing imaginary games.

She made this carriage with wheels and turned her cousins into horses.

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We've been also looking at Huichol Yarn Art and symbolism and decided to try making our own yarn art with symbols that are meaningful to us. It will take several weeks to finish a piece of art as we add yarn by yarn to our work (when we get time.) Here's the beginning of our work.

 The above is Nel's. She's been working on it and putting her heart and soul into it. She plans to finish it. It is hard work!

 The above is Jo's. She doesn't plan on finishing it, too tiring it seems. Obviously she did the mice because she loves her mice, Pipsqueak and Lucy. Her mice have been doing very well, but recently Lucy has been sick. Jo's been hand feeding her water daily, giving her extra love. I've warned them that mice don't live long, and I'm already sure she'll cry buckets if Lucy passes on.

 This is my yarn art. It is tiring if you plan on adding lots of details, yet therapeutic doing this. I anticipate finishing it in several weeks.

Yup...lots going on. School work's progressing and I'm back to teaching. Don't know what the rest of the year will be like, but we will trust God in all things.



@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2012

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Informed Choices

Recently it dawned on me, that perhaps I should add a new aspect  to my children's education, which is the aspect of Emotional Intelligence. As parents we often have to deal with matters such as sibling squabbles, peer influences (bad and good ones), stuff that happens outside of home with friends/teachers/others, bad/good choices that were made by our children,  often times when we were not able to be there to help them think/decide.

So while browsing through the library, I came across this book, "Teaching Emotional Intelligence: Making Informed Choices" by Adina Bloom Lewkowicz. I think it's a pretty good book, that's divided into 3 sections: Feeling Positive, Thinking Wisely and Acting Sensibly. Topics covered include Self Awareness, Managing Emotions, Choice Making, Self Acceptance, Perfectionism, Friendship, Strengthening Family, Peer Pressure, Put downs, Manipulation, Listening, Assertiveness, Cheating, Abuse and so on.

What I like about this book is that lessons provided are broken down into various activities such as discussion, stories, brainstorming, drama, role play and observation.

So today, we started with Chapter one, about making choices.

 We talked about alternatives, choices that we make everyday, consciously and without thinking. We brainstormed and came up with a long list of decisions and choices that we have to make everyday, from what to wear, to more complex choices such as to "friend or not to friend."

 Brainstorming

Then following an activity suggestion from the book, Nel and Jo took turns walking around the room while the other observed. After the walk, we discussed about the choices made while walking around the room. Did they make deliberate choices, or simply walked automatically and then sat down?

After a discussion about how we can think about our choices,  the girls walked a second time. The second time, both girls walked with consciously made choices about speed, posture,  direction to take when walking, what to do with objects in the way etc.  This was quite humorous as they made quite a drama out of it!!  :) :)

 Aware then then that choices are made consciously or sub consciously when doing something, we went on to talk about the importance of thinking deliberately before making choices.

We analyzed the process of making choices and alternatives by using a common scenario in their lives: When a friend tells them to exclude their sibling during play time.

Our discussion went like that:

Me: Suppose a friend visits and says "Let's play together, but let's lock your sister out of the room and  not include her. What would you do?  Let's talk first about how you would feel."

My children:
A) I'd feel that I really didn't want to play with my sister. I might dislike her then if she's been irritating.

B) I'd feel like I needed time alone with my friend, without my sister.
C) I'd want to play with my sister too
D) I'd like to play with my sister and friend, but don't know which to choose. Maybe play with my sister later.

Me: Ok, those are true feelings that we feel, and it's ok to feel that way. Now let's discuss how we could  think these feelings through.

My children:
A) I'd think about playing with my friend first and my sister later.
B) I could think to include my sister even if I don't feel like it
C) I like my friend's idea of leaving my sister out, but I shouldn't hurt my sister.
D) Find a solution like find my sister another friend so she'll be happy, then I can go play with mine.

Me: Ok, now that you've thought about it, now comes the important part. How would you act?

My children:
A) Invite another friend over, wait, then let my sister play with her friend, then go play with mine.
B) Sit my friend  and sister down and read them both a story and play together.
C) Encourage my friend to play with my sister.
D) Talk to my sister and explain that I need 10 minutes with my friend first and promise to play with her later.

Me: Ok, good. So we've learnt that despite how we feel about a decision, we should first deliberately think before making a decision and then act on a thought out decision. We should always make deliberate choices instead of just acting on our feelings. About the above,  in reality, if we didn't think, we could have slammed the door on our sister and hurt her badly.

THen a discussion ensued between Jo and Nel about how they've been hurt by this situation before and we liked solution D.

I think this lesson was so needed and effective (at least for today it was.) I'm sure they will need many more reminders before they consciously put this into practice, but it is a start. :)   In fact, I realise I need to put this into practice too!

More book reviews

 We picked up the above book at the BBW sales too for only RM15, very cheap if compared to the original price! I love the book and so does my my dd Nel. First chapter defines INSTINCT, what it is and how important it is. We read through the first chapter  this morning, learnt new vocabulary, and discussed how "Learnt behaviour" and "Instincts" differ and how instincts guide almost every action in the animal kingdom. We look forward to reading the rest of the chapters which discusses things such as instinct in communication, defense, shelter, mating, migration, nature's rhythm, instinct backfiring,  etc. To kick off the studies of instincts, we're planning on attending  Pesta Sayap (Festival of Wings) to watch migratory birds! :)

 My girl's fav chapter for now, coz after reading the The Story of Dr. Doolittle and The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle she aspires to communicate with animals! LOL!

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Big Bad Wolf Book Sales

I'm usually one to avoid crowds, but knowing that all books would be slashed by 65 to 80%, I couldn't resist, and went early to queue on the 1st day of the BBW book sales. I'm glad I went. Altogether I purchased about 40 books..and still am not really satisfied, mainly coz I only had about 2 hours before rushing off to work. Thus, I only managed to look at the children's section, and that too, very quickly browsing through only.

In mean time..here's some books I purchased...

 I love this book by Vera Williams. It's the story of 2 sisters, one smart, one brave, told in the form of poems and pictures. I bought it coz I have 2 girls, and I'd like stories that would encourage my girls to  help and love one another. This is a fantastic book for that. Imagine, that as I read it, I found myself laughing, smiling and even crying. So simple, touching and unforgettable. Lovely. :)

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Glog by Nick Maland is another really cute story. I picked this randomly coz we are currently studying civilization and thought this about Stone age might be suitable. Well the story is short and captivating, makes easy reading for Jo. She just loved listening to it, laughed as I read it to her, and begged to be read to again after I'd finished it. It's about little Glog who's left behind as his family leaves to find shelter for the coming winter. Lost, he finds himself a shelter, has to find his own food. During his adventures, he meets "echo boy" "shadow boy" and "water boy."

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"Mother Goose" by Gyo Fujikawa. So, I already have a Mother Goose book in my library, only it's stone aged, coz it's something I read when I was little, and is practically tattered and torn now. Thus I decided on a brand new one for my little one. And how lovely that it's illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa

Most of the pages contain black and white illustrations like the above, but also contains some very beautiful colored illustration which are very captivating! :)

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Picked up the book above coz it caught my eye as I was browsing through very quickly. This is really simple reading, but what I like is its content. "My little Girl" by Tim McGraw and T Douglas speaks of how important it is for dads to spend time with their little girls. I firmly believe in that too. SO I bought this for hubby to read  to his little daughters, and hope it will inspire them to spend many lovely moments together. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I asked Nel "What would you like from the sales?" She replied "A book that will tell me interesting things about animals." So I looked, and found this book. "1001 Awesome Animal Facts" by Marc Powell. It's got information like 

-"Some leeches have 300 teeth with 100 in each of their three blood sucking jaws" and 

- "Using a powerful magnet, it is possible to make a small frog lift off the ground and stay suspended in the air. Don't try it at home." 

I'm almost sure when they finally get to this page, they might try lifting a frog!

I also added "100 Things you should know about Cats" to her collection, coz she wanted to know all about cats or dogs. I couldn't find one on dogs, but this cat one is interesting.  It  includes stuff like "The first pet cats were tamed from the type of wildcat that lives in Egypt." Other topics include Egyptian mummified cats, cat's anatomy, Do cats have 9 lives etc etc. Definitely a fascinating read!

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Of course, we had Disney books, the Little Men/miss series for Jo, some novels for Nel, horrible history/science and etc etc. ALso purchased some interesting workbooks such as Disney's Reading comprehension book, which would really inspire my child to work with more interests, since she loves princessy stories.

Well...will stop here, as it's too tiring to review all books bought! I didn't get any books for myself except for one on crockpot. Hopefully when I go back next week, I'll be able to pick up some good stuff for myself. Ciao for now!

Visit to a Fire Station

Last month we found a lovely book at the library entitled "Piro and the Fire Brigade" by Kurt Baumann. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the book cover, but here's a blur picture found off the net (in a different language too!) haha..

Well, Jo enjoyed the story and the illustration so much that we read it several times together. And what a better way to follow up on fire engines then an actual visit to a fire station.

So we joined several families on a visit to a firestation today, kindly organized/initiated by a father from the group. This is Nel's second experience, but Jo's very first. Needless to say they were excited and enjoyed the trip!

Information and Control Room

Latest Fire Engine and Super Speed bikes

Well..see who wants to be a firegirl!

A try at fire fighting..well...no real fire, but the firemen sure enjoyed this whole thing! They  (the firemen) were really sporting. hahaha

A look inside..

some more art work from this week

Life is busy around here as usual. Jo's still as crazy about mermaids as she was. She's been drawing mermaids for as far back as I can remember..probably for about 3 years now. She's done hundreds of mermaids on paper, recycled paper, floor and including bedroom wall! here's her latest..done for fun.

Jo's picture story, done today.

 Nel's been drawing and reading a lot lately too. Today at art class, her teacher helped her do this drawing below. I think it's 60% Nel's and 40% teacher's work. Nevertheless a good attempt, and she'll be working on this still, till she improves.

Nel's pot, done with the help of her art teacher.

Here's what I've been working on..an oil painting of a turtle. It's half way done. The head's not done yet...and I've left it for  a while. No inspiration of late. thinking of changing the colour of the water. What do you  think? Should I?

Nel's been reading a lot lately too. All sorts of books, as seen below. She's really into speed reading now. If she likes a book, like the Roald Dahl one, and the Secret Seven series, she finishes it in one sitting.