Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? and Spring/Gardening Reading List

"Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?" by Nancy White Carlstrom, marks day one of return to Itty Bitty Homeschool from Spring Break. First on the reading list from "Before Five in a Row" by Jane Claire Lambert, "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear," the first of Carlstrom's Jesse Bear books, rhymes along from page to page describing Jesse's day to day activities, especially what he will wear. 

"Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?" by Nancy White Carlstrom,
illustrates loving relationships within the family dynamic.

Before Five in a Row is a treasury of creative ideas designed to help gently, consistently prepare children for the life-long adventure of learning. We're following this "non-curriculum" this summer, plus supplementing additional learning activities, while I marinate on continuing with Five in a Row or move into another direction altogether. The book is devided into two parts. The first section contains hundreds of simple ideas and activities developed around 24 books. Activities are built around each selection, designed to cultivate intimacy with your child while building vital learning-readiness skills. The second section is a rich resource, filled with specific ideas designed to help prepare children for learning through simple, everyday activities. You'll find ideas for bath-time, bed-time, in the kitchen, at the grocery store, etc., basically everyday life. The way it works is you read the same book for five days in a row selecting an activity for each day such as Language Arts, Loving Relationships, Colors, Patterns, and Combinations, Fine Arts, Literature, Poetry, Science and so much more. For additional information visit www.fiveinarow.com. 

Homeschooling year around fits in our family like a long lost relative. I put a lot of thought and planning into it while we had this last break. We're following the religious calendar, so for us it looks like this: off March and April for Lent and Easter "spring break," off two weeks in June for "summer break," and starting the first Friday before Thanksgiving off until January first, which is observes Thanksgiving and the birth of our Savior, "winter break." I was happily surprised that it equals the 180 days, that aligns and is required for public school. While we were off for Lent and Easter, we still had fun learning all about Spring, planting the garden and writing the alphabet.  

So we've read and we've read a lot during break. Addition to the Bible and Creed's reading time, Mama read, "Balancing It All," by Candace Cameron Bure, "Harvest for Hope, A Guide to Mindful Eating" by Jane Goodall, "Growing up Duggar" by Jill, Jinger, Jessa and Janna Duggar, and "The Strong Willed Child," by Dr. James Dobson, plus a couple of homeschool magazines (more on that later). Interesting, cleaver, informative and eye-opening, these books were so much fun to read. Of the books Creed and I read over the break I compiled the best into a Spring/Garden reading list appropriate for three-years-of-age and older.

Itty Bitty Homeschool Spring/Garden Reading List

It's Spring by Samantha Berger and Pamela Chanko

Quiet Bunny by Lisa McCue

The Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt 

Arty Facts, Plants and Art Activities by Crabtree Publishing

The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

A Green, Green Garden by Mercer Mayer

Flip, Float, Fly, Seeds on the Move by JoAnn Early Macken

Let it Rain by Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Jo MacDonald Had a Garden by Mary Quattlebaum

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

What Makes a Rainbow by Betty Ann Schwartz

And the Good Brown Earth by Kathy Henderson

How a Seed Grows by Hdene J. Jordan

The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin

Dirt, the Scoop on Soil by Natalie M. Rosinsky

It's Moving Day by Pamela Hickman

Tillie Lays an Egg by Terry Golson

Farming by Gail Gibbons

An Edible Alphabet 26 Reasons to Love the Farm by Carol Watterson