Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Geo-Whiz and Halloween Themes.

We started yesterday morning with spelling and then went on to copy work. A couple of weeks ago I went and raided a local thrift store for books and found some excellent resources. One of the books was "Creatures in Verse" (you would not believe how long it took to find a reference to this book, let alone a link where it could be bought) published by MacMillan Gateway English in 1967.

It was obviously some one's old school copy but it's been our source for copy work for a couple of weeks now and has some really nice poems that all have to do with animals, right up Catherine's alley. Today was The Bat by Thedore Roethke. Fantastic poem and now a favourite of Catherine's.

While she did her work I played a few audio stories. One was a Boris Karloff telling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Now, it should have been a hit right? Except for the goofy songs done in that early 60's Disney harmony fashion. Catherine rolled her eyes every time another song started. Next up was a fantastic reading of Poe's The Black Cat but she wasn't taken with it either.

We then went back to my thrift store finds and read several chapters of Geo-Whiz! This was published by National Geographic in the late 80's and, being a Nat. Geo. book has their typically stunning photographs. It's all about geography, something Catherine thought would be boring but the writing is engaging and it seemed that every time I flipped a page she was saying, "Wow!"

Even though I love curriculm catalogues and I fill them up with highlight marks and penned-in stars to note what I want to buy I have to admit that my best resources generally come from the thrift stores and yard sales.

4 comments:

kitten said...

I wanna go shopping with you!

Dawn said...

I do have some excellent book resources nearby. :) There's the thrift store that has stacks of books for 50 cents, the used bookstore that is piled high with literature, history and science from university students who dump their books at the end of the school year and a monthly book sale in a Masonic Hall basement that has thousands upon thousands of book for a quarter each.

The trade off is that you needs hours to browse each place and about eight hands in order to shift piles while holding on to your stash. :)

T said...

Hey you it's monkeymamma from Homeschool Spot. I feel like I've entered the twilight zone! I am reading The Lengend of Sleepy HOllow to my kids and I just read the Black Cat to Samantha. Got the Edgar Allan Poe book from the library. We're taking the book camping with us this weekend. Finishing Sleepy Hollow as a bedtime story while we are out camping in the wilderness ought to scare them!

Dawn said...

I think you've got the right approach! I love audio for long books but I'm thinking horror and ghost stories and the like are better read by a mother at bedtime in a dimly lit room. :)