I love moments like this! William is struggling a little with his reading, so anything we can do to encourage practice is a good thing. Jordan said he would sit with him today, and he read two books which is fantastic!
Of course I had to snap a photo …
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Picked this up from the library, unsure what it would be like. Haven’t read or even heard about the author before, but I am enjoying some the the Young Adult fiction at the moment.
It is called Alyzon Whitestarr by Isobelle Carmody, and is quite unusual but extremely intriguing. A bit of mystery, a bit of the extnded abilities.. lol .. it is hard to explain, but I am really enjoying it! I think I will investigate some more of her books.
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I mentioned in the last post that I had not taken any photos this week, and hence I had not posted. Well I lied, lol .. I had taken photos and have back posted … click the links and you can see William cooking, and Thomas making costumes.
Today I had Thomas home, he is not as sick as Jordan and I think he will be fine for school tomorrow but it was a bit iffy there so I kept him home today!
One of the things I love the most is sitting back and watching the kids loving reading. It isn’t a habit that came naturally to them, we read every day, and I encourage as much as I can. I am always reading and always have atleast one book on the go and it is not unheard of for me to have a few. But both Jordan and Tom are really just starting to become bookworms, all it takes is the right book I guess.
When the kids are sick at home from school, they are only allowed limited TV, no computer or electronic games, so it is easy to fall back into reading ..
And this photo, I just had to share. I generally make my own bread, and there is nothing more yummy that fresh bread straight out of the oven … mmmm
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The 39 Clues, have you heard about it? I hadn’t until Jordan asked for the books at our schools recent Book Fair. I am always happy to foster any interest in books that they want so I happily obliged. Now I haven’t started reading them yet, but Jordan is enjoying it. I have investigated a bit and it is a fascinating concept.
There are currently 5 books, with the 6 book to come out soon. Each book comes with 6 clue cards, and then you can buy another pack of cards for each book. Within the books, and on the cards are clues to a secret! Not only do you read the books, you collect the cards, solve the clues, log on to the internet, register your cards, find more clues and race to solve it!
It is a wonderful integration of reading (which I love to encourage), using the internet and collecting cards. Altogether providing an innovate approach and encouraging kids to read (which I am grateful).
Although we read a lot in this house, often the kids choose to use the computer instead. Every now and then I cut back on the computer use and force the kids to find other things to do, and then they read. But then I get slack and computer use takes over again! But today I start again, and no computer or TV will be on until 5pm and then only if reading and homework has happened!
So if you struggle to encourage your child to read (Jordan is 11 and I would say the books are aimed at 9-12 year olds, depending on their reading age, Jordan does read more complex books but he is loving this concept), I highly reccommend this series.
You can read all about it on their website, The 39 Clues, it seems like a different author has written each book, but if you went into a good Bookstore and just asked for The 39 Clues I am sure they will direct you to the right place.
For me, I just bought the next 3 Sookie Stackhouse Books (6,7 & 8), only book 9 to buy now. The 10th book is to be released in May next year, and that is all Charlaine Harris is contracted to write. Hopefully she will feel inspired to write more! They are tongue in cheek, and a lot of fun. A bit of blood & gore, a bit of sex and all things supernatural. They are definitely not for kids, I would also avoid them for teenages, absolutely an adult series. But it is a lot of fun! She has written a few other books, I might have to check them out!
Thomas is reading the Zac Power, Test Drive Series. The original Zac Power books were the books that finally got Jordan interested in reading. Tom has always wanted to read them, but they are still a bit tricky for him (although I know many 7 year olds would find them fairly easy). Anyway I noticed that they brought out a new type of Zac Power books, aimed at younger readers. They are large print, simple language, all are 6 chapters and one chapter is a good length to read at bedtime. Tom is currently up to Book 10, with only 2 more after that I really hope they release some new ones soon! Although hopefully he will have the confidence to read the older ones we have.
On the Zac Power website you can read the first chapter of every book so you can check it out! The first Test Drive book was called ‘Zac’s moon trip’ and you can read the first chapter here. A fantastic series for younger boys, as there defintely some gaps to what is available for this age group that is cool!
We have a few books to buy from the original series, and we haven’t got any of the ‘Mega Mission’ books, and I noticed today int he book shop a new set called ‘Extreme Adventures’ which all come with a neat little present (shoe laces etc).
And then there is William, who loves any books about Trains, we have many Thomas the Tank Engine books, but I am not sure we have any favourites at the moment. He chooses a new book every night from the book shelf, although Eric Carle books are firm favourites. One of his favourites is the Very Busy Spider, but I love The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Another favourite he has is called Panda Bear Panda Bear What do you see, which is an alternative to the original Brown Bear Brown Bear, but features endangered animals. It is gorgeous. You can see a complete list of his books here.
So that is what we are reading in our house, as well as many more. What are you reading? Do you have any favourites? I would love to hear about them!
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Ok, so maybe not as slick as the Twilight Series, I am still loving this set of books. A little more tongue in cheek maybe, but so easy to read, neat handy little novels to chuck in your handbag.
The Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris, I recommend them for a nice easy, enjoyable read and there are lots of them, which is cool if you love series!
As a bit of a summary, Vampires are ‘outed’ and it is commonly accepted that they are afflicted with a virus, which causes their state (and the Vampires encourage this belief). Sookie (a telepathic human) meets a local Vampire and a relationship ensues. Well you can imagine the drama involved … a bit sad at times, but a good read!
I have so far bought the first two … but I can assure you my collection will grow.
And there is also a TV Series based on the books called True Blood, with Anna Paquin. Looking forward to watching that!
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Ok, so I haven’t taken a photo today, but I will share some images that have touched me today!
Firstly, watching a movies ‘Across the Universe’, awesome movie based around the Vietnam War and set to the songs of the Beatles, the songs are part of the movie, not just background movie so it almost becomes a Rock Opera of sorts. It is truly awesome!
The next is a book I have just finished by Suzanne Collins, it is for Young Adults, and I really recomend that you read it before give it to your kids, it is a bit emotionally draining, but truly magnificent. The only problem is that I have to wait to next year for the sequel .. arghh!
And lastly, an older series, so I just need to get hold of the books. I never read these before, again for Young Adults but really cool! Again, read it first as it is a bit strong, but fantastic. I wouldn’t have any problems with Jordan reading this one (but I think he can wait on the Hunger Games). The series is called the Tomorrow Series by John Marsden, he is an Australian Author and I am looking forward to hunting down the others. On a side note I am also read a novelisation of Hamlet that he has written, so far it is proving excellent!
So that has been my reading the last week or so, looking forward to the library tomorrow, I have a couple of Jodi Picoult books waiting for me to pick up!
Would love to know what your reading/watching!
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I had started a separate page on this blog to keep track of the books I read, it was a fairly clunky way to do but thought it might be interesting to see after 12 months.
Anyway in my blog hopping today I found this neat site, LibraryThing. It is a cool way to keep track of your books, and tag them how you wish. So I am gradually going to transfer my books over to the list! Another cool thing about it is that you can get a nifty little blog widget —> so you can see a random sampling of books! Now I am only going to enter books I have actually read, rather than ones I own at the moment, but I may get enthused!
Today I am sick in bed, haven’t really moved all day and I figured any photos froms from this position would be boring, so instead I have taken a screen shot of the LibraryThing website! lol .. yeah cheating a little bit, but oh well!
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This morning I decided to brave the City with all three kids. This is not to be attempted too often, but I was feeling strong this morning! I had a number of vouchers for a few different stores, all of them were in the Canberra Centre, so off we went.
First stop was David Jones, they have their stocktaking sale on, obviously, and I managed to pick up a couple of t-shirts each for Thomas and William fairly cheap, and I got a pair of black Mossimo jeans for Jordan, they are size 14 so probably 6 months or so off (he is size 12 comfortably now), but they were $25 off and are really nice. I also got a couple of pairs of plain black undies (I am sure you needed to read that!), and we were done. I still have $30 worth of vouchers left from there, so maybe a book or something, or I may give it to Sam to go towards a new business shirt.
Next we headed off to Borders, I got a $60 voucher for my birthday and told the boys I would buy them a book each. So Jordan got another Sebastian Darke book, he got one for Christmas and is loving it so he needed the other one. Thomas got a new Aussie Nibbles, we found another one of The Littlest Pirate which he loves so that was pretty good. He also bought himself another Dr Seuss Book that we don’t have with his pocket money, they are regular night-time reading and I am sure they are one of the reasons he does so well with his reading because we read them all the time! William got another Eric Carle book, we love them and have quite a few already including The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Quiet Cricket and The Very Busy Spider. The new one is called Polar Bear Polar Bear What do you see and is obviously based on the original Brown Bear Brown Bear (another favourite, although we don’t have that one). I then found another Jodi Picoult book (Her sister’s keeper), so I guess that means I have officially started collecting her books. I finished Nineteen Minutes yesterday, and have started on the third Kay Scarpetta book from Patricia Cornwell. I have all of the Scarpetta Books, and over the years have read them all, but many I bought after I read them so the books are all crisp and new, so even though I have read it, it is lovely to be reading a new book!
So anyway we left Borders with me only having to pay out $15 which I thought was pretty good, and we headed on down to Target. One last voucher left and I promised the kids we could buy something for them. There was some deabte, they always love buying Lego and I have always been happy with that, but they have so much these days they construct what they buy, then it gets put in the big box and the instructions get lost! I have tried to keep them organised but it doesn’t happen, so now I do try to steer them away from Lego. I have been encouraging board games that they can play together, both Jordan and Tom had some pocket/Christmas money left over so I said I would put in as much as they did. As luck would have it we found Mousetrap, we have been looking for it for a while but haven’t managed to see it, and there was only one copy left, so that was pretty cool. We have played it a couple of times already! Today’s photo for Project365 is the Mousetrap game in action.
They are all wet as they were having a water fight outside, rather amusing seeing as it is the coolest day it has been for the last week, but out there they were!
Also whilst at Target I bought a new Wally Lamb book, I have I know this much is true and loved it, it is a massive book but definitely worth it. The new one is The Hour I First Believed and is even more massive, over 700 pages, so it should keep me busy for a few days at least. The boys also got three foam swords which they have been fighting with. I know it is probably not very politically correct, but I don’t really care. We saw one of Tom’s teachers at the shop, and she made some comment about having huge weapons, but oh well. We all play rough games, as kids we played cops and robbers, cowboys and indians and whatever else we could come up with. As my brothers grew up it was Transformers and Ninja Turtles. I don’t buy them toy guns, as I really don’t like them, but again I am sure I had a cap gun when I was a kid. Anyway they find a way to create weapons, and use other objects that hurt much more, so atleast with these foam swords I know that noone is going to lose an eye!
During the shopping trip we had an early lunch at Hungry Jack’s, and the boys had a quick snack just before going home. We were out for about two and half hours, and there was very little whinging, not fighting and everyone was really good. It has even made me feel that I could take them all to the shops again! Mind you next time I won’t be able to buy so much for them as I will not have any gift vouchers to use up, but it was a nice couple of hours!
So that was my day today, although there is still the evening ahead, but I am planning on reading the rest of the day! ahhh so many books to read 
’til tomorrow
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I had this thought, to keep track of what I am reading. Do you remember when you were in a kid in school, and you needed to keep a reading diary. I used to laugh as we had to set a goal, my year 9 teacher thought it was reasonable to set a goal of 3 novels for a term (at this time terms were also about 13 weeks each). I think the first time I handed up my diary I had 72 books on there, the teacher wrote a note to my dad telling me she thought I was lying. My dad replied, ‘Yes I think she was, she easily read more books than that’, rather amusing really that teachers expect so little from kids!
I know I sometimes struggle to get Jordan to read, he gets into it, then loses interest, I am not really sure how to encourage him without nagging him. We all read every night, it can make bed-time a long affair reading with three kids, but it is worthwhile! I also make sure that I read when the kids can see, I leave my books where they can see them, I think it is important for them to see you reading! My house is full of books, I love buying them, having them on shelves, reading and re-reading them! Hopefully the kids will become avid readers and have a love of books like I do, it can take you to whole new worlds!
Anyway, where am I going with this? No-where really, but it did inspire me for my photo today, the book I am currently reading! I bought it for an online book-group on a scrapbooking site I used to be pretty active on, but I never really got into it. I am enjoying it now though, I might even buy a few more of her books!
If you are interested in what I have read, I have set up a page, you can find it here, or just click the link on the top of my blog.
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