Religion
The Monk Who Grew Prayer
New Catholic Children’s Bible – he reads this on his own
Catholic Children’s Treasure Box Books – he now reads these on his own, and asked me for sacrifice beads, though he hasn’t used them much
History/Geography
Abe Lincoln Remembers
Abraham Lincoln (Childhood of Famous Americans)
Anno’s Spain
D’Aulaire’s Greek Myths
Harry Houdini
The Kid Who Changed the World – this seemed to have an impact on him as he was reading another book the other day and pointed out George Washington Carver’s name (one of those mentioned in the book)
Martha Washington – this has been a favorite for a while now
Gilgamesh the King – and this trilogy
The Revenge of Ishtar
The Last Quest of Gilgamesh
The Miracles of Jesus – this is a new favorite and
This is Rome – the book that launched several discussions and revealed to me just how much he knew from reading other books/listening to audiobooks — amazing what he retains
Literature
A Kiss Means I Love You
Blaze and the Gray Spotted Pony – old favorites of the big boys — so glad I spotted them at the library, I had forgotten about them!
Blaze and the Mountain Lion
Blaze Finds the Trail
Hedgehog’s Secret
Little Tim and The Brave Sea Captain – another re-discovery — Jenn blogged about the books and I remembered that the big boys loved these as well, so I ordered a few
Tales from Shakespeare – I didn’t think he was ready for these, but wow! We were reading these for a couple of weeks and we all enjoyed them, hubby included. Again, amazing what he remembers.
The Crane Wife – I still don’t like this story after all these years, but keep it because it has kid appeal.
The Little World of Don Camillo – A gift from a friend — not really a kids’ book, but for some reason Nino is quite taken with it and has asked me to read it again, one or two chapters a night since we found it (it was misplaced for a while)
Spoken Memories/Painted Words
The Tale of Ginger and Pickles
The Serpent Came to Gloucester
Thumbelina – an old favorite that he recently asked me to reread. Beautiful as ever.
Math
Though we’re not doing a formal Math curriculum yet, he is constantly playing with numbers in his head, and asking about days, dates, time, the months, how many __ in a ___ questions, skip counts by 2s and 5s when we play ball. I might order Singapore Math for him sometime soon.
Science
Eyewitness Books Flying Machine – he reads this on his own, though once in a while, he’ll ask me to read portions.
No formal science curriculum either, but like any boy he loves bugs and creepy crawlies, and is always curious about the weather, and things going on in nature, like the crispness and color of fall leaves, or why gloomy days mean no sun, which makes him sad and grumpy.
Art
Can You See What I See? Once Upon A Time
Nino in August in Michigan
He continues to enjoy art his own way — I am not forcing writing or drawing right now, though he will randomly ask for paper and pencils or markers to write or copy somethign that’s important to him. A couple of weeks ago he asked for watercolor paper and watercolors and painted happily for ~10 minutes, but did not want to repeat the exercise the next day. He has been using the scissors more, and did a Creation worksheet on his own one day with just the teeniest prompting from me. Yesterday he decided to cut up some scrap paper, and I thought he was just going to cut random shapes, but then he started showing me words that he had cut out. It turned into a fun game with us putting random words together and deciding whether something was a phrase or a sentence. I don’t know if he quite got it but he did come up with some funny ones.
He continues to love building Lego and K’nex, though that initial phase of taking old Bionicle instructions and recreating them quickly passed, and he is back to making up his own stuff, often impressing his older brothers with his creations. He doesn’t dance as much to Just Dance like he used to but will dance to just about anything, even nothing; his moves are something else. 😀
A few weeks ago I ordered him a new set of slides, and he enjoyed looking at those one by one, prefering the ones that look like something familiar, like monsters 😀 . He also took the old slide sets and rearranged them as he now knows they are supposed to be in a certain order.
He loves the outdoors as much as the older boys and went on his first camping trip, slept in his own sleeping bag just a few weeks ago. Slept through a thunderstorm even.
At Mass he still gets bored and distracted often, but will sit quietly most of the time, and participates in prayers and songs most Sundays. He has gotten more curious about the Sacrament of Reconciliation so I’ve been talking to him more about it.
He still loves listening to Jim Weiss audiobooks, though I’d like to introduce him to composers soon. He used to love making noise on the keyboard, but the adapter broke, though it may still be repaired… but hubby has to find time to do it. I’ve asked him if he’d like piano lessons, but for now he’s not interested. For some reason the Donut Man songs do not appeal to him; perhaps I just need to play them more often.
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