New Class New PRABE blog - The White Queen

Well, here we go again! Now that I am taking four classes my homework load has increased dramatically. My time to read has also gone down but I guess I need to start up again I guess.  They are showing a mini series called The White Queen. I had heard that they were making a series based on the books, The White Queen, The Red Queen and the Kingmakers Daughter. I have always been obsessed with any book from English history based on the kings and queens. So before the mini series got released I wanted to read the book. My mom had the book, The White queen so I started it this week. The problem is that I didn't want to do anything but read this book. Basically, this is the story about the kings and queens before the Tutor's. Elizabeth Woodville is a Lancaster and after Edward of York defeats the current King Henry VI he comes upon Elizabeth on the side of the street.  Elizabeth not only succeeds in getting Edward to return her lands to her, but also causes Edward to fall in love with her. A Lancaster woman and a York king. Elizabeth swears that she is too virtuous to be Edwards mistress and so, since he decides that he must have her, he marries Elizabeth in a secret ceremony.

I can't wait to continue this story to find out what happens after this secret marriage.

OH MY GOODNESS -GONE GIRL

Ok I am so not going to ruin this for you! Holy Moly you have got to read this book soon. I am really loving it. I didn't get a ton read but what I did it is changing entirely! So instead of giving you an overview of Gone Girl I will tell you about the Parents Magazine I read. It didn't take me an hour but I promise I read my other book for more than an hour. I could hardly put it down. I am going out of town this week so hopeful I can finish it!  

The article that was probably the most entertaining was "Disney Three Ways". This is because My family is taking a trip to Disney over Christmas this next year. Basically the article talks about three different types of Disney families. These three types of travelers it tells where to stay, play, eat, and how to save.

One is the Park Pro - My family is far from that! I have only been to Disney once in my life and it was when I was in my 20's and had 3 - 20 month old triplets. Disney Fun....I would not say that! STRESSFUL is more like it! This time I think it will be so much easier because we don't have to worry about diapers, bottles, missed naps etc. A park pro is one that has taken several trips to Disney but needs new ideas.

The next is the Newbie Traveler - This is basically the expert guide for first-time families. You could research for months and be overwhellmed at planning a trip to disney. This is why this time around I am hiring a travel expert to help! With school, triplets, working two part-time jobs, etc...I have no time to plan a Disney vacation.

The next category is the Disney lite traveler. For those that just want a little Disney. Basically saying that you can come but you can still go but stay off park property and go to places like Animal Kingdom, Fantasyland etc.

I'm looking forward to the trip but reading this article gets me excited to think about it.

6/18/13 - 9:00-10:00 Parents magazine
6/17/13 - 8:00-8:45 Gone Girl

Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

I have been wanting to read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn for a long time. I have seen this book on the best seller list for a while and my friends have also said it was worth a read. So far it is living up to the hype. The book starts out with two main characters, Nick and Amy. They both meet in New York City and are both authors. With the internet taking off both Nick and Amy lost their jobs. Nick convinces Amy to move back to his home town in Missouri. Nick borrowed money from his wife's trust fund and opened up a bar with his twin sister. They live together unhappily for a year until on the day of their 5th wedding anniversary he gets a phone call at the bar that his front door is ajar. The ottoman has been overturned, and the police discover evidence of blood, lots of it, spilled and cleaned up in the kitchen. As the police investigate, and begin to suspect Nick is the killer, I think that too!  There’s something very fishy! He is arrested — wrongfully, he insists over and over again he is not the killer.
The book goes from one chapter in Nick's perspective and then the next chapter is pulled from Amy's journal that talk about their dates when they first met. That is about as far as I have got so far.
As sleepy as I was this book kept me up wanting to read more. Can't wait to continue!!
June 10th -10:00pm - 11:00pm, June 11th 11:00pm-1:00AM

Beautiful Creatures Finished

This week has been crazy! Three kids with pink eye that are stir crazy to be out and about. This mama is going a little nuts.  Earlier in the week, I traveled to Great Bend, KS where we will be relocating to later next month. We just accepted an offer on our house today!! Thankfully, when I travel it gives me plenty of time of uninterrupted reading time. That doesn't seem to happen very often. I am a night owl so when my entire family is sleeping I can go in the lobby and relax with my book. I finally was able to finish my book, Beautiful Creatures, by  Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

I really wanted to finish the book soon because the movie is releasing on DVD soon. The book ended up being pretty good. I am not sure yet if I will read the following books but I might. There are two other books that are part of the set. I did not enjoy this book as much as the last teen series I read, Divergent and Convergent by Veronica Roth but it was still entertaining. I always like to read books before they are movies.

To the summary, during a reenactment of the Civil War Battle of Honey Hill. Sarafine (Lena's mom) starts her plan to turn her daughter dark. If Lena goes Dark at sixteen, all her Light Caster relatives will die. If Lena goes Light, all her Dark relatives—will die. During the confrontation between Lena and her mom, Sarafine stabs Ethan. With Ethan dead at his girlfriend Lena's feet, (basically the same thing that happened to Lena's mom and her husband over a hundred years earlier). Lena repeats Genevieve's mistake and uses The Book of Moons to resurrect Ethan. In doing so, Lena goes unclaimed, and she seems to be both Light and Dark.  Ethan, meanwhile, is resurrected. Because Lena went unclaimed, Sarafine and the other Dark Casters live, setting up the sequel.

It sounds all very confusing but trying to summarize half a book into a few paragraphs is hard. I am looking forward to the movie. I have a feeling that the book will be a lot better than the movie.

Monday, June 3rd. 9:30-12:30

Beautiful Creatures - By Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

I have just started a book Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. I have actually been wanting to read this book for awhile. I have seen the middle school kids with the series of these books and it peaked my interest. Some of the best books I have read in the past few years have been from recommendations from my middle school kids. Once I found out Beautiful Creatures was going to be turned into a movie it made me even more interested. I love to read books that they turn into movies. Nine times out of ten the books are so much better than the book. I was told this book was a twist of Twilight series and the HBO series True Blood. I LOVE both of these!

The books starts out in Gatilin in South Carolina. A boy Ethan Wate is bored in his small town and can't wait to leave. He has dreams of a girl falling, and Ethan can't seem to save her. Then a new girl comes to town that he can't seem to get off his mind. Lena Duchannes is shy and reluctant and Ethan struggles to get to know her. Ethan has a series of flashbacks to a civil-war era, triggered from a cursed locket. Basically telling the story of Ethan's great-great-great-great uncle and Genevieve Duchannes, Lena's great-great-great-great-grandmother. Genevieve, the old grandmother, decides to use magic from The Book of Moons to help her boyfriend and it goes all wrong and Genevieve's future family is cursed forever.

After their flashback experience, Lena tells Ethan that she's a spell-caster. She has all sorts of magical powers, some she can control more than others. She can manipulate the weather and surge electricity.  Lena's family can also do magical things, from shape-shifting to healing, teleporting to telekinesis.  Lena is afraid of her own sixteenth birthday, which is coming up super fast. Thanks to Genevieve, when a Duchannes turns sixteen, she is Claimed. That means that The Book of Moons chooses whether she will be Light or Dark. If she goes Dark, she will lose everything she knows.

That is all I know so far. Pretty good book so far. The cool thing about this book is that it is narrated from the point of view of a boy and creates an entirely new type of teen romance hero. I really enjoy teen books because of books like Twilight, The Hunger Games, Insurgent are quick easy reads.

I was crazy busy last week so I had to do all my reading on Friday night. After the kids go to bed is my only time I can think let alone read a book I want to read. Normally if a book has not snagged me by this point I am out but I really like this one. I think I will continue.

Friday, May 31st 9:00pm-11:45.

PRABE Blog - I can teach my child to read

Here is the start of my PRABE blog. This happened at a great time because my sister-in-law just wrote a book. She started a parenting blog years ago and has thousands of viewers.

I can teach my child to read - Jenae Crowley

I just finished reading my sister's new book. I can not tell you how well-written an amazing this book is. Having three kids the same age and trying to teach them to read is a stressful undertaking. This book gives basic, simple and fun ways to teach your kids. It is a quick read and a must have for any parent that has a infant - school age child! Her book took me a little over an hour to read and went by super fast! A few of the things that stood out to me were the following:

 Rule 1 - If a book is based on a popular movie character or toy, it is probably not a high-quality piece of literature! 

I completely agree...it have a lot of these books at home expecially for the boys. They LOVE superheros and one way to get them interested in reading at night is to start off with a book that they WANT to read. Most of these books, as she said, are not very well written. I try and only read these books if I have too! 

Rule 3- Explore the Classics
 I am obsessed with the classics...I grew up on a lot of these same books and they still are my favorites. Caps for Sale, Where The Wild Things Are, Harry the Dirty Dog. I own as many classics as possible. As she said, these books will stand the test of time. My kids favorite book is Going on a Bear Hunt. I can understand why Jenae calls this a classic! 

Rule 5 - Use Begining Readers in moderation 

This is a good one for me to read. Since I am trying to get the kids to learn sight words I have really been pushing these Early Readers. They get very excited when they know a word on the page. The Bob Books are some of their favorite because they get a sense of accomplishment when they realize they know all the words on the page. I need to make sure that I do not only work with these but throw in some others. 

I also enjoyed the section 5 Teach your Child to read for meaning and comprehension. 

It was a good refresher to make sure when you are reading to ask questions, have the children infer and predict what might happen to the characters, having them summerize the book etc. Don't just read but teach! 

Section 10 about Classyifying books also was very interesting to me.

Making sure kids comprehend what they are reading. She also mentioned how with the new updated state standards in public schools about nonfiction texts. Under new standards children by fifth grade, informational or nonfiction texts will make up 50% of students reading and narritive fiction the other half. This seems crazy to me that the state is moving more to nonfiction books. I don't really understand this!

I could go on and on about how helpful I thought this book was. I think it is neat that this book came out at the same time I am taking this class. I am a very proud sister-in-law!


 http://www.icanteachmychildtoread.com/


TIME READ: 1 hour -30 min  SATURDAY, May 25th 10-11:10

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