500th Book

At lunch on Thursday we finished our 500th chapter book. I have at times realized I had forgotten to add a title to the list so my guess is that we have actually read (or listened to) more than 500 chapter books. For the first few years I read all the books aloud. Over time we also started checking out books on CD from the library and listening to audiobooks via Audible, Hoopla, or Overdrive. Book #500 was the fourth book in the Melendy quartet. A Spiderweb for Two. During the school year many of the books I choose are historical fiction that relate to what time period we're studying. This summer we enjoyed series like the Penderwicks and Melendy family. Since Thursday was the day we went "back to school," we started The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail at dinner on Thursday because we're learning a little about Queen Victoria right now. We should finish chapter book #501 tomorrow. Naturally the books vary in length. One we should be listening to in the near future via Audible is Rifles for Watie, which takes place during the Civil War. It will take us longer to finish that one as it's 12 hours long. Speaking of Queen Victoria, yesterday one of the picture books we enjoyed (from the library) was Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine.

We've only completed two days of school and neither of those included every single subject because we're gradually easing into the new school year, but I am feeling very positive about the new school year. I feel SO much more relaxed. The last two years I felt like we had to rush, rush, rush. I really want my kids to have a lot of time to play, but this year I don't want to pay as much attention to what time we finish our schoolwork each day. The new additions to our weekly schedule have gotten off to a great start. Ian picked Clue as the game we played on Thursday. Oliver was on my team. Nadia picked Life yesterday, and I decided we'd play the game at Sheetz while the van was having an oil change plus tire rotation/balance at Walmart. It was a great way to pass the time, and it was better to do something free rather than shop during the appointment. I won both Clue and Life. When I paid the bill at Walmart they told me one of the tires needs to be replaced, which means we'll be playing another game while the van is at Walmart sometime in September because the inspection is due in October and that tire won't pass inspection. We recently bought four new tires for Paul's car. Vehicles and houses are not to cheap to purchase or maintain! I used to buy all of our tires at Sears, but the Sears stores in our area closed. I preferred Sears automotive, but thankfully Walmart has the same policy of offering free tire rotation/balance if you buy your tires from them. 

All three kids really enjoyed the first ASL lesson on Thursday. Nadia learned some sign language this summer as one of the girls at horseback riding camp was deaf. The library in Lewisburg is offering two levels of free ASL classes this school year. I've heard good things about the class, but since my goal is not to have too many commitments outside the house in our schedule, I'm opting just to teach the kids ASL myself for now. Nadia had her first photography lesson on Friday. We're starting with working on the exposure triangle (ISO, shutter speed, and aperture).

Speaking of book lists, Nadia finished her 400th chapter book this week. Right now she's in the middle of three books which will be numbers 402-404 on her list. Lately she's been reading the Whatever After series by Sarah Mlynowski and Mother Daughter Book Club series by Heather Vogel Frederick. Now that we've started the new school year, she is also supposed to be reading books from the list I created for her. The three books she's currently reading include the 14th Whatever After book, 7th Mother Daughter Book Club book, and Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster (from her list). Another new routine we've begun is to read at least 4 picture books (or poems) each day. The kids and I each pick one. Although we own a nice collection of picture books, I encouraged them to pick out some at the library yesterday. Nadia went with her favorite picture book author - Patricia Polacco. Oliver sits on my lap, and Nadia and Ian are on either side of me. It's one of my favorite parts of the day without a doubt.  In between our visits to the library and Walmart's auto center yesterday we went to Sweet Frog. It was the boys' first visit and Nadia's second. They really enjoyed their treats!