Once Upon a Time...

Sudoku fever

nobody@vox.com(Emu with a Clue) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:50:16 -0700

Easy Sudoku Puzzles #1 (Dora the Explorer)

Sonia Sander

I got one of these Dora sudoku sticker books for $1 the other day and my 5yo son is obsessed with it. I went through a brief period of being obsessed with sudoku but lost interest after I worked out how to solve them. They also caused me to get on the wrong train one night as I was so busy doing sudoku that I didn't look at the board properly. Despite all this, I think these sticker books are good for kids. The stickers are also removable in case you make a mistake.

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What I'm reading right now

nobody@vox.com(Tamzen) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:28:00 -0700

Well, not literally right now.

Right now I'm writing this post. Haha. :-)

3:16: The Numbers of Hope

Max Lucado

This is what I'm reading these days. And a whole slew of other Max Lucado books I checked out from the library.

I love his trademark folksy writing style. What first drew me to Max Lucado was a book called You are Special that my son was given when he was born. It talks about not letting the labels others try to stick on us have meaning and that all that matters is God's love for us. This has become my son & daughter's favorite bedtime read aloud. It is the perfect example of unconditional love. They ask for each night I tuck them in.

You Are Special

Max Lucado

I find the same comfort and reassurance in Max Lucado's books for grown-ups. His faith and wisdom shine through in his writing which allows me to go deeper in my own reflections and faith as I read.

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storybook wednesday

nobody@vox.com(chris) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:27:38 -0700

tina and the penguin

LookyBook got mention in Time Magazine as one of the 50 best websites. Every Wednesday they put out new books to view on line. Enjoy!

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Copenhagen to Kung Fu

nobody@vox.com(Emu with a Clue) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:48:17 -0700

It was a very wet and cold weekend in Sydney so we spent quite a bit more time than usual indoors. On Saturday afternoon, the kids and I watched Danny Kaye in Hans Christian Anderson. My mum had found the dvd cheap somewhere and sent it up. We hadn't yet watched it as my daughter had thought it looked "BOR-ing". Both kids were hooked by the end of the first story/song ("the King is in the Altogether" about the Emperor's New Clothes) though. I still remembered all the words from watching this movie numerous times on tv in the 1970's so enjoyed singing along to everything.

Danny Kaye : I'm Hans Christian Andersen

On Sunday a friend and I took them to a free art exhibition to get them out of the house for a while. There was also plenty of time at home to watch movies so we got out Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It is quite long so we spread it over a couple of sittings and sped through a few of the gory bits though (eg, Jade Dragon getting punctured by the needles). We watched the dubbed version for the kids sake. It probably wouldn't have mattered though as it was the fight scenes that held their attention the most. They are so well done - like magical dances. There is also some fantastic flying action in it, such as this scene where the two main characters are fighting in the tree tops.

Film Scoring Project - "Battle in the Trees"

(My daughter still has a long way to go with her Kung Fu before she is at this standard!)

Next weekend we will be time travelling back to the 1980s (assuming my copy of Pretty in Pink has arrived by then).

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Saturday morning comprehension fun!

nobody@vox.com(Emu with a Clue) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:26:02 -0700

Wouldn't you just hate to have a frustrated English teacher for a parent at age 9?

My daughter has been having a bit of trouble with comprehension tests at school lately (probably because she is not terribly keen on reading) so this morning I got out my old Norton's Anthology to try and give her some practice at comprehension. I read her this poem, one of my favourites by William Blake.

A Poison Tree

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears
Night and morning with my tears,
And I sunned it with smiles
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright,
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine -

And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning, glad, I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

On the first read through, we wrote down all the words she didn't know, ie, wrath, foe, deceitful, wiles, beheld and veild. We then looked them up in the dictionary and talked about their meanings during a second read through of the poem. We talked about her and her friends and how sometimes you feel better if you tell someone they have hurt your feelings rather than bottling it up and growing a 'poison tree' inside you.

We then moved on to talking about metaphors and particularly the apple and tree metaphors. She had been a bit disengaged up until this point but then got really excited thinking about apples in other stories like the story of Adam and Eve, Snow White etc.

Gold Apple - huge resolution!

We then had a look at Anthony Browne's book The Shape Game (the kids love this book anyway) which includes a reproduction of a painting about a woman being cast out of her family because she had given into temptation. There is half an apple lying on the floor of the room in the painting and my daughter was quite excited to see this and interested in the other symbolism in the painting (which Anthony Browne explains in the book).

The Shape Game

Anthony Browne

We also read Pamela Allen's Black Dog (the kids also love have Pamela Allen's books read to them) which continues on with the friendship theme and has a lot of symbolism in it, eg, a bluebird, trees, bread and of course, Black Dog himself.

V+m.jpg

She has now gone off to Kung Fu clutching a copy of Grimms Fairy Tales all excited about reading the gory versions of popular fairytales. Plenty of symbolism there!

The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales (Pantheon Fairy Tale & Folklore Library)

Jacob Grimm

On reflection, I think the Blake poem was probably a bit ambitious, especially as a starting point. I will look for something a bit more accessible next time. Any suggestions most welcome.

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Some poems from my daughter

nobody@vox.com(Emu with a Clue) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:01:17 -0700

Homework poem

Back in time

Homework sits on top of Sunday

squashing Sunday flat

Homework has the smell of Monday

Homeworks very fat

100_1717

Elephant on the telephone

There once was a elephant who tried to use a telephant

No! No! I mean an elephone

Yes he tried to use the telephone

He pulled and pushed trying to get it out

But the eletelephone just wouldn't come out

All this silly rhyming is making me jump

So next time you call an elephant use a elemump or is it a telehump?

Who is that girl?

100_1679

Who is that girl staring at me?

She has big blue eyes

Looking like flies, which is rather weird

So I show her my singing she sings too we both sounds like a

chime so I wave she waves back at the same time

She looks quite odd so I nod and she nods back you can see

Oh I know it must be me!

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Friday 13 on Friday 13th: 13 books I loved as a child

nobody@vox.com(Emu with a Clue) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:46:19 -0700

Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories (Young Puffin Books)

Joyce Lankester Brisley

The Magic Faraway Tree

Enid Blyton

Mr. Galliano's Circus (Rewards)

Enid Blyton

Snugglepot and Cuddlepie

The Ramona Collection, Vol. 1: Ramona the Brave / Ramona and Her Father/Ramona the Pest/Beezus and Ramona

Beverly Cleary

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

Judy Blume

The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking

Astrid Lindgren

The Lorax (Classic Seuss)

Dr. Seuss

The Early Bird -- Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street? -- Are You My Mother?, 3 Vols. Set (I Can Read It All By Myself Beginner Books, Assorted Volumes)

Richard Scarry

Anne of Green Gables

L. M. Montgomery

Seven Little Australians

Ethel Turner

A Little Bush Maid & Mates at Billabong : Omnibus Edition

Mary Grant Bruce

Little Town on the Prairie (Little House)

Laura Ingalls Wilder

It is interesting to see how many of these books were old fashioned even then. A lot of the books that I had were actually my parents' books when they were children. I still have a lot of them now and Mum still has my battered old copies of The Early bird and The Lorax at her place. Are You There God, It's Me Margaret was a revelation to me when I first got my hands on it (probably a year or two after it was first released). Very ground breaking for its time.

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Vox Hunt: Crooked

nobody@vox.com(Emu with a Clue) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:02:21 -0700

Show us something crooked.

The Little Crooked House

Margaret Wild

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QotD: Since my first post on Vox, I've...

nobody@vox.com(Emu with a Clue) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:20:00 -0700

Look at the first post you ever wrote on Vox. What important developments or changes have occurred in your life since then?
Submitted by Alexandra.

This was actually my second post as my first just a book review. My second post was on the movie She's the Man and my efforts to get my daughter interested in the plays of Shakespeare. Shortly after posting this, I managed to find an outdoor community performance of Much Ado About Nothing which we went to with two other mums and 9yo's. My daughter and her friend (the other boy fell asleep) found the performance hilarious despite not being able to understand a lot of the dialogue. They were pretty disgusted at the kissing at the end though!

Still keeping my eyes peeled for other Shakespeare plays to take her too. I think she would probably enjoy Midsummer Night's Dream or Twelfth Night or even Romeo and Juliet (but just cover her eyes during any disgusting kissing!).

Romeo and Juliet : For Kids (Shakespeare Can Be Fun series)

Lois Burdett

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What my children are reading

nobody@vox.com(Emu with a Clue) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:03:23 -0700

or, in my 5yo son's case, having read to him (as he can't yet read himself):

James and the Giant Peach

Roald Dahl

I felt a bit sorry for him on the weekend as he was trailing around with his book in hand desparate to find out what happened next but needed to wait for people (either me, his dad or his big sister) to have the time to read him some more chapters. Between the three of us we managed to get up to bit where the peach is growing before their eyes on the tree. It is actually quite entertaining reading for us too. I love the fact that Roald Dahl is so un-PC by today's standards, eg, the terrible deaths met by James's parents (killed by a rhino escaped from the London Zoo), the horrible things his aunts say to him etc etc. Someone will read another chapter or 2 for tonight's bedtime story.

My daughter, who is 9yo, is reading her first Judy Blume book:

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Judy Blume

I had been trying to get her interested in Judy Blume for a while but it was only when they started reading this book in class that she really got a taste for it. I have actually caught her reading secretly under the covers after she has gone to bed which is a great sign as she has never been a hugely enthusiastic reader. Hopefully she will be interested in reading more Judy Blume books after this one as we have quite a lot of them at home.

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