My 2008 list of what I've read

January How Life Imitates Chess by Gary Kasparov Water for Elephants The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan Real Food by Nina Plank Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barabara Kingslover Chronicle of a Death Foretold

February Swimming with Scapulars One Mississippi Get the Sugar Out Square Foot Gardening Real Food Writing Road to Reading

March Stones for Ibarra The Golden Compass Square Foot Gardening All New Square Foot Gardening The Long Walk

Vietnam

Ten Mice for Tet by Pegi Shea

• Illustrations are embroidered
• Counting book with a few Vietnamese words
• End notes have cultural information refering to each page for plenty of rabbit trails
• Tet is the Lunar New Year Celebration. When Bill went, the whole country took at least a 2 week vacation around Tet!

A Boat to Nowhere by Maureen Wartski

• Reading book for junior high. I read aloud to 3rd grade boys
• Story of an old man and 3 children escaping from communist Vietnam in a sailboat. Violence, starvation, indifference by others, heavy topics but the boys loved it. The sequal is too heavy for younger kids. Better for junior high or older

Beyond the East Wind by Quyen Van Duong

• Lyrically told Vietnamese legends, great for narrations
• The kids narrated the first story about how Vietnam began

Our Lady of La Vang--Marian vision

• We used this version of the history of OLOLV for a narration
• There is a chapel to OLOLV at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception with lovely mosaics
• There are many stories of Christian persecution including Joseph Tuc who at age 9 refused to be an apostate and was martyred

Money

• The link has pictures of the paper dong. There are also coins (we have some). When Bill went in 2007, it was uncommon for anyone to use credit cards.
• We discussed the exchange rate and the price of breakfast there and here. We used an online exchange site to convert from $ to VND and from VND to $.
• You can find a picture of the dong sign online too.
• We put paper dong in a red envelope in their flap book

Map--link to line maps of Vietnam. We made legends and colored in surrounding countries to put in our flapbooks.

Flag

• We made flag flaps for the front of our books. The star was an intersting math problem--for me!
• on the reverse we glued the flag quiz from the link
• Our friend told us that the old Vietnamese flag--before socialism--was quite different

Tet Dragon--we made one for our own dragon dance on Tet

Paint a Chrysanthemum

• We used the book Language of Flowers by G. Scoble which talks about flower language. It has photos of flowers so we practiced painting a Chrysanthemum from the picture in the book. Some aisian artists spent a lifetime just trying to paint one.
• The meaning of flowers to the Vietnamese we found in Culture Shock:Vietnam which was a good resource for me in general.

Tom Dooley--adult book about the Catholic doctor's Navy mission with north Vietnamse refugees before Saigon fell.

Mosaics

OLOG Rock Mosaic Kit
Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda

• illustrations are hand drawn mosaics.
• Catholic Mosaic?

Flag Cake --use berries for tessarae to decorate a cake

Hawaii

History

• Nothing is the Same by De Paola--includes attack on Pearl Harbor

I'm Still Scared by De Paola--shows how Tommy's life is changed by the Pearl Harbor attack

Shoal of Time--adult history, a little slow but thorough

Longitude--This adult level book has a small mention of Cpt. Cook and how he used the Harrison watch when he sailed to Hawaii. It is said that when Cpt. Cook was killed by the Hawaiians, the watch stopped. Always made me think of that kids' song "My Grandfather's Clock".

Fairy Tales

• Three Little Hawaiian Pigs and the Magic Shark--fairy tales you know with a Hawaiian twist. More fairy tales in this series include Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood
• The Magic Shark Learns to Cook--Magic Shark reforms and learns to cook. Story which includes recipes and cooking safety
• Island Heritage Press
• Sam Choy's Cooking With Kids--Jodie Francis says her kids like this cookbook

Faith

• Father Damien and the Bells--about Blessed Damien of Molokai
• Mother Marianne of Molokai
• Holy Man by Gavan Daws--adult bio of Fr. Damien
• God's Photo Album--quotes and pictures taken by the children and families of Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Ewa. Sales of the book saved the school from closing.

Astronomy/navigation

• Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey about Nainoa Thompson

Other

• Footloose the Mongoose--about an ukulele (literally "jumping flea") playing mongoose. By the way, "uku" is also the term for headlice.
• Iki, the Littlest Opihi--opihi are molluscs (limpets)
• How the B-52 Cockroach Learned to Fly-In Hawaii cockroaches are huge and really do fly. Here's modern "Just So" story.
• One Gecko, Two Mynahs, and More-counting book. End notes are good for rabbit trails. Especially interesting is why the mongoose was introduced to the islands and the ironic result
• Permanent exhibition at the US Botanic Garden on Hawaiian plants. The endangered species of the week is currently a plant from Kauai (it's Jan 24th today)

Links:
Homeschool unit study on Hawaii--activities

Polynesian Cultural Center

Bishop Museum--the kids loved this museum which had science exhibits for kids and lots of Hawaiiana. The endowment came from the husband of a Hawaiian princess.

Waikiki Aquarium--has a virtual tour, surely including the humuhumunukunukuapuaa (sound it out. It's not hard), the state fish. We saw fish that looked like seaweed there. Very cool!

A helpful map of Oahu

Gardening

Picture Books:
Roots, Shoots, Buckets, & Boots by Sharon Lovejoy. Workman Publishing, New York. 1999.

• Instructions for themed gardens for children
• Includes pizza garden and sunflower houses among others

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

The Carrot Seed

Jamberry by Bruce Degen

Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas by Cheryl Bardoe

Anno's Magic Seeds by Mitsumasa Anno Our 9 year old enjoyed doing the math in his head

Jack's Garden by Henry Cole What went in the garden next to the House that Jack Built?

The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco Is anything as sweet as honey or as worth pursuing?

9 Fruits Alive by Mindy MacDonald--the fruits of the Holy Spirit

Poetry Speaks to Children some insect/bee poems

Child's Garden of Verses by RL Stevenson

Adult Books:

All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingslover

Other:

Real Learning blog gardening rabbit trail--I requested all the books from the library

Snakes

The Singing Snake by Stefan Czernecki and Timothy Rhodes. Hyperion Books for Children, New York. 1993.

• Australian aboriginal folktale with artwork in the style of aboriginal paintings
• Explanation of origin of didgeridoo and phrase "snake in the grass"

Verdi by Janell Cannon

• Picture book story of a python who resists changing from a daredevil to a laze-about-in-the-tree sort of snake.
• Kids were excited to listen to music by Verdi after reading this

Sea Snakes by D. M. Souza

• Non-fiction about true sea snakes with photographs
• includes some info about land snakes who hunt in the water and sea kraits

Greatest Survival Stories Ever Told by Lamar Underwood

• Excerpt from the non-fiction book The Long Walk tells about surviving in the Gobi by eating snakes--read aloud
• Also includes Rikki Tikki Tavi by Kipling

Forty Dreams of St. John Bosco

• includes dream called "the Snake and the Rosary" about 5 pages long. Read aloud

Make a snake circle book--we used it to record life cycle

Snake Tales Naturalist MacBeth Derham's story about catching and getting bitten by a snake at age 10. Read aloud.

The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble

• Silly "domino effect" story. The kids loved it