entirelysonja

This week I visited the used book sale at the Wheaton Library, and came out with a pile of great stuff, including a 5-year-old DK/Merriam-Webster Children's Dictionary, the third- and fourth-grade volumes of the "What Your X Grader Needs to Know" series (I already had K, 1, and 6, so now I just need 2 and 5 for a complete set), and a couple of Dr. Seuss books.

I feel as though Erika has turned a corner in reading. She's realized that she can easily read many words in books for small children, which makes sitting down to try to puzzle the rest of the words out more interesting. She's also exhibited some interest in reading together, asking for help with words she doesn't know. My sense is that reading is likely to take off pretty quickly for her now that she's reached this point. Today at the Natural History Museum, she read a simple book she'd never seen before in the gift shop. Yesterday, she read the entirety of "Hop on Pop," a book I don't think she'd ever heard read aloud, without much help. She's also picked up the BOB books again, which she had set aside after reaching a point where they became too difficult; this week she read books six and seven in Costco collection 3 -- I think these are toward the end of set 4 in the regular BOB book boxes.

Today we went back to the Natural History Museum with John, so he and Karl could go off on their own while Erika and I spent more time drawing in the Mammals exhibit. Erika spent about 45 minutes drawing before she'd had enough. She drew a tiger, a walrus, a panda, a caracal, a giraffe, a fennec, and some kind of hopping mouse -- I only had time to draw the walrus, the giraffe, a fox, and the beginnings of a zebra during that time. I'm amazed at her endurance for drawing.

Afterwards, we went up the Old Post Office Tower, where the kids enjoyed looking out at the city. I particularly liked watching the airplanes take off and land at National airport.

I just discovered a fantastic podcast from the British Museum and the BBC -- A History of the World in 100 Objects.

It's a series of 10-15 minute lectures, each on a single item in the British Museum's collection. So far they've done 30, ranging from a stone knife almost TWO MILLION years old, to a fabulous gold lion coin from 2500 years ago. The person doing most of the talking, Neil Macgregor, is the curator of the British Museum, and in the podcasts I've heard so far, he does a great job.

I am loving this both because it is increasing my knowledge of history, and because I love the British Museum. I'll definitely have a greater appreciation of certain objects next time I go there!