WFMW: Audio Books

This week I thought I'd share something that's been working for our whole family: audio books.

A couple of weeks ago, I turned L onto the idea of listening to audio versions of the Magic Treehouse series while he's in bed at night. He's really something of an insomniac, and we've had a lot of trouble with him sneaking out of bed and playing at all hours of the night, but this has seemed to help. He also isn't complaining as much about being lonely or scared at bedtime.  He's thoroughly enjoying the stories, and I think I've rekindled his interest in actually reading the books together, which we've done off and on.

I also picked up a cassette version (I know, old school,) of  an audio Bible at Goodwill a while back. I've been listening to it while I do housework during the day, and L has requested to listen to it during meals. I consider this one a win for the whole family, and maybe the best 8 bucks I've spent in a while. 

Audio books are working for us. For more WFMW posts, head over to www.wearethatfamily.com. 

Library Book Sale Haul

It's library book sale time! As a homeschooler and a bookworm, I look forward to the library book sales every year. 

Today we went to the Fort Worth library sale, and for around $26, picked up 19 books, 6 cds, 7 movies, and an audio Bible.

Next weekend our little town has their sale. I'm excited to see what's up for grabs this year.

If you've never been to a library sale near you, it's worth looking up on the web to see when the next date is. Be there on the first day of the sale for the best selection, or go on the last day for even better deals. Also, if you have wee little ones, like I do, it's probably better to leave 'em at home, (if you can.) Mine get tired of looking way before I do...

Resources for a Pink Princess Party

Every since V decided she wanted the pinkest, princessy-est party ever, I've been looking for fun, (preferably pink,) snacks to go with the pink cupcakes, pink cookies, and pink lemonade that had immediately come to mind.
Along the way, I've run across some neat books for anyone with a little girl that likes tea parties, princesses or pink. I thought I'd share some of my favorites here:



 

Pink Princess Cookbook: Fun but doable recipes for things like "Pretty Princess Puffs," "Candy Coated Dragonflies," and "Blueberry Biscuits." I like this one so much I purchased it.

Princess Tea: This book has several party plans built around specific themes, including recipes, as well as a few decor and activity ideas. Although many of them didn't exactly fit the "pink princess" theme, there were some pretty neat ideas. I especially liked the "Indian Princess Tea," and the "Lotus Princess Tea" themes.

DK Cookbook for Girls: DK books are great, and this one was no exception. It includes a wide variety of yummy looking recipes, but I found a few that seemed especially well suited to a "fancy" princess party, "Strawberry Meringues," "Chocolate and Raspberry Brownies," and "Chocolate Truffles."

Usborne Fairy Cooking: Virtually all of the recipes in this book would work in a princess party. There seemed to be a special emphasis on tiny, pink foods.

Disclaimer: I'm recommending these books based only on the fact that I think they'd be useful to anyone looking to throw a tea party, princess party, fairy party, etc. I was not in contact with any of the publishers, nor did I receive any compensation. The links in this post are Amazon Affiliate links however.

The Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos from Bookworms Wordwide (Review)

A book about tattoos about books. Sounds pretty cool, right? As a lover of books and tattoos, I was intrigued.
Every tattoo has a story, (although, admittedly, some stories are more compelling than others.) Here's a whole book about people, and the (mostly,) written words that inspired their tattoos.  From fairly obscure poetry references, to homages to the written word itself, (in the form of alphabets, and tattoos of librarians,) to illustrations from Where the Wild Things Are, this book covers a pretty diverse group of subjects.
I enjoyed the photos, but equally interesting were the quotes and explanations behind them. In typical book worm fashion, I made mental notes to try to get my hands on some of the books that were mentioned. Of course.
I know a lot of people with tattoos of cartoon characters, random animals, and people's names. I don't actually know anyone with tattoos inspired by books. The idea is fascinating to me.
I'd recommend this book to folks who enjoy either tats or books, but for a book lover who happens to also be a tattoo enthusiast, this book would be a real treat.
I think it would make a neat gift.

Disclosure: I was provided with a free review copy of the book by Harper Perennial. No other compensation was provided. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Additional Disclosure: Yes, I have tattoos. No, they're not literary. ;)

WFMW: Organize Your Books

Even before I had kids, I had a lot of books. Now that I have two little ones, and we're homeschooling, we're swimming in books. After getting fed up with not being able to find books that I knew I had, I decided to get organized.

(I should mention that this is one of those organizational projects where things get worse before they get better, as evidenced in the picture.)

I started fairly small, with the two bookshelves that held specifically homeschool-y books. I sorted them by subject: math, reading, science, art etc.

I did this several months ago, and can vouch for how much of a difference it makes. Now I can find what I'm looking for within a minute or two, instead of having to search through hundreds of books.

We have several other bookshelves in our house, and my next organizing project will be to sort the books on the craft bookshelf.

Getting organized works for me. For more WFMW posts, check out the linky at http://www.wearethatfamily.com/.

Book Review: Stretch By Neal Pollack

My reading lately has been pretty utilitarian. In the few minutes after my head hits the pillow at night, and before I drop off into a mommy coma, I read a few pages out of a parenting or homeschooling book, or the Bible.

When I read the blurb oline about Stretch, The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude, by Neal Pollack it sounded like a pretty fun, lighthearted read. The folks at Harper Perennial were gracious enough to send me a review copy.

I enjoyed the book so much that I finished it in a couple of days.

The book follows Neal, an author in his thirties, who's pretty sure he's already peaked professionally and personally, as he sets out on a journey to find "his best self." He reluctantly takes up yoga with his wife, and slowly becomes fully immersed in the yoga culture.

Neal starts out as a rank beginner, always out of his league, but eventually graduates to fancy overseas yoga retreats, rubbing elbows with gurus, and a yoga marathon. (Did you know there were yoga marathons? Me neither.)

In a sea of clean living vegetarians, Neal overindulges in everything. His cynical musings about the new age-y navel gazing of the yoga community, (himself included,) were laugh out loud funny. (I should mention that I don't actually laugh out loud all that often.)

The takeaway from the book for me was the pretty unversal experience of searching for something. In an unlikely ending, Neal eventually does find what he's looking for, but manages to never take himself too seriously.

I should mention in the interest of full disclosure that the book does contain a good bit of profanity and crass humor.

Disclosure: I was provided with a review copy of the book from the publisher, in hopes that I'd review it. No other compensation was provided, and the opinions expressed are my own.

What We're Reading

I love to read. I always have. When L was born, I was excited to read to him, especially in that newborn-captive-audience stage. After a a year or two, I got sick of reading Hop on Pop, and The Cat in the Hat, and started looking for other options. After all, at that early age, I think he was more interested in snuggling with mommy, and listening to me talk than what I was reading about . I remember reading magazines out loud to him, as well as long passages in the Bible. When he was about 2, I read him Robinson Crusoe at bedtime, because it was a story I liked.
Then came the preschool era, when he had very distinct opinions about what he wanted to read about. For several years, it was a combination of Dr. Suess and Thomas the Tank stories, day in and day out.
Now that he's a little older, I'm having fun reading him some of my childhood favorites. We're working our way through the Ramona series, by Beverly Cleary. I thought he'd enjoy reading about, and possibly relate to the mischievous little girl. We started with Ramona the Pest, in which Ramona is about the same age as him.
He's also enjoyed several books from the Magic Tree House series. I like that there is one on nearly any topic you can think of, and we've been able to tie a few into our unit studies.
His favorite books right now are Pokemon books, of course, but I've branched out from the little picture books, and we're reading the chapter books, which incidentally seem to have a better story line anyway. (Well, as good of a story line as you can expect from a Pokemon book. Ahem.)
What are your favorite books for a 5 year old?