Monday

Yesterday Gavin and I learned some more about birds: specifically, more about bird feathers and how they fly.  Gavin sprayed water on a feather and noticed that the underside of the feather was still dry.

Here are the books we read.  This first one I printed off the Internet.  It was published in 1951 and is a wonderful resource and it has beautiful illustrations.

We looked at lots of pictures of feathers in this Eyewitness Book about Birds.

We also read about Nathan Hale yesterday - just because!

Austin is starting to get some responsibilities of his own.  He already has to pick up his toys (with help of course) and now he is starting to put away some of his own clothes after they are washed.  Here he is putting away his pajamas yesterday with Gavin's direction (he is a very helpful big brother and not at all bossy).

And here he is putting away his socks.  He's kind of in two rooms now because he's sleeping in Gavin's room but his clothes are still mostly in his old room.  I'm going to switch him over when I get out summer clothes and pack away winter clothes.

I forgot the chapter book we started yesterday.  We read the first five or six chapters because it is so good!  Thornton Burgess grew up in Massachusetts in the early 1900s and spent most of his childhood in the woods.  This book is about birds living in a orchard and, while the stories are made up and he gives them names, the birds act like they do in nature (personality-wise).  He also weaves in each story lots of facts about each bird like do they migrate? why? where do they build their nest and with what?  do they build a new one every year?  what do they eat? and more.  So in a fun story format you get lots of information.  Gavin liked it so much when I read it at lunch that he had me read it as his bedtime story instead of another chapter of Winnie the Pooh.