the horrid humid weather is gone...replaced by rain, glorious rain...and cooling winds. there are subtle shadings of red on the outer-edges of the leaves of our maple tree....a sign of the changes to come.  

a noticeable change around these parts has been increasing  amounts of silence.  the kind of silence that comes with being engrossed in a good book.  Savannah's interest in reading took off at a gallop with the finding of an old copy of Black Beauty.  none of the easy-readers we have lying around seemed to tweak her interest - even the horsey ones.but now she's barreling her way through this door-step-sized tome, quite voluntarily. and lining up her to-read pile with great enthusiasm. which got me thinking about how we assume what kids should be capable of and then force them into self-fulfilling prophecy.  who says that because she's only 7 that she should only be reading books of a certain style, vocabulary and length?  pfffft. here's to strewing the path!

of course the silence rarely lasts....soon there was bickering and accusations flew of someone touching someone else's K'Nex creation and so we gathered the hounds and set off for a walk in the wild, wet weather. we came home to bread pudding....(i hate throwing out the crusts of bread that no-one will eat)...so i found a recipe and gave it a go....

alas.....nobody liked it except for me.  evidently it reminded Savannah too much of some kitchen experiment she'd conducted in the past.  i think it was the vanilla extract that did her in.  i would use less next time anyway.

so  now  we're settling in for an afternoon of tea, art projects and (very likely) a spot of reading. the rain is falling  in a steady drizzle and we are cozy and dry.

we are blessed.

* if you're diggin' the fake polaroids.....you can make your own here - Polaroin

Library Monday - the reading club and retro discards....

We used to go the library on Friday's with Aunty S and Cousin M, but the nasty winter weather and then them moving sort of jolted us from our little routine. That and a certain irrational fear of mine -- well, not really irrational because if you were to look at the bulletin board in the library's staff lounge you'd very likely see my picture surrounded by gold stars attached to the Late Fee Fund-Raising *thermometer* that has them breaking ground on the Leavey Wing by next spring. Anyway, I was avoiding those hallowed halls, convinced I had an immense fine to pay on both mine and Savannah's cards and me without the cash just lying around, not to mention the shame and stigma attached to overdue books. Also, add to that, the fact that I seemed to be locked out of the online catalogue, a further suggestion that I was in great peril of owing a third-born child to the public library system.

Anyhoo....I managed to get into my account this morning - having already promised a trip to the kids - and wanted to know the total, in order to steel myself and possibly look around the house for things to flog - to delightedly discover that I only owed $2.40 on my card and 70 cents on Savannah's. Such JOY!!

So off we went...proclaiming, with happy hearts, Monday to be our new Library Day.


Feeling quite flush - and in the spirit of me continually giving money to the library in one form or another - I ransacked the *discard* shelf and unearthed these retro darlings...we are ALL OVER the VHS in this house.....having many cast-offs from older cousins. If only we'd known sooner we could have probably got our hands on Sebastian's favourite Henry's Amazing Animal videos which he was disappointed to find had vacated the shelves....seems they're turfing their VHS collection. And at 50 cents a-piece, we were all too happy to take them off their hands...


And here's our reading pile for the week......Savannah has signed up for the summer reading club - ie. carrot-dangling tactic to coerce children into reading books over the summer when they don't technically have to....:)

Fortunately we are year-round readers-without-obligation and the promise of trinkets after every five books is just the icing on our book-lovin' sundae.....although it will pain me to follow the "rules" and be sure to read one book from the suggested category in each five-book block. For instance, this block we have to read at least one fairytale....you know, like kids can't just read what they want to read.....*sigh* Their hearts are in the right place...bless 'em...And with Savannah on her learning-to-read bender, one hates to cast dispersions on the system....*grin*

And it's thundery and rainy now so it's a perfect afternoon for a snuggle and good book...

Happy Monday, everyone!!

In which Savannah is learning to read....

The learning to read saga reached a pinnacle today when I had flashbacks to the learning to ride a two-wheeler saga....desperate, I turned to the Oracle of Google. And found a fabulous and FREE (my favourite flavour) website (Starfall) full of learn-to-read goodness. This, it seems, is Savannah's preferred medium in which to approach this particular task....

And she's getting along swimmingly -- enjoying herself immensely -- and is much more confident. And I am much happier knowing that she isn't relying on my wretched teaching skills to achieve greatness!!