In short, we highly recommend North Captiva island as a family vacation. Rent a house or condo on the beach. There are slight complications as island vacations do tend to have such as getting there by water taxi and correctly estimating a week’s worth of groceries but it is well worth it. And if you do, take some of these books with you!
Every summer I stress out about what books to get for my kids that they will like but are also exposing them — as only books can do — to the wide world all around them both past, present and future. This summer, we are going to take a trip around the world by reading these multi-cultural books. What is great about this list is that it covers all the ages of my kids: from preschool through elementary school. I will be sneaky and check out these books for them and leave them strewn about the house for them to examine when they are bored. I will keep you posted on what books my kids actually liked because that is a whole ‘nother list! See you at the library!
Bermuda would make a great family reunion vacation spot. What is not to like about Bermuda? Pink sand beaches. Friendly people. Crystal clear aquamarine blue ocean. Good food. The only downside is that it is a little pricey. Here are our favorite places to stay and eat, fun things that we enjoyed doing, and some recipes to make Bermudian specialties.
Book reviews of action adventure and realistic fiction chapter books by an 11-year-old girl in 6th grade.
To cover the Culture Revolution, I selected Little Leap Forward, a chapter book about living during this time in China. Zen Shorts still remains one of my all time favorite picture books because is manages to combine Chinese Philosopher Chuang Tsu’s parables in a way that is accessible to kids and yet leave adult readers pondering Big Ideas. Finally, for everyone who has a Joy Luck Club story from their homeland, I hope that you all have had a chance to read this book that broke the ground for a new Asian American literature genre twenty-five years ago.
The vocabulary words for Week 12 are from the picture book, Gregory, the Terrible Eater.
The words for Week 11 are from the picture book, Annie and the Wild Animals by Jan Brett. I noticed that in my son’s Kindergarten room, the teacher or maybe literacy specialist, mounts a special poster with the cover of book and the list of vocabulary words from the book. They have a time called “Text Talk” where they read the story and talk about the big words. The words stay up all year so the children can look at them. Sometimes, the words come home via a handout to the parents in my child’s backpack, but times are tough and I think they are conserving on paper so I copied these words from the posters and made up the sentences myself. I find that this post is very popular so I will continue it on my own as my child is moving on first grade next year.