Favorite Illustrators/Authors

 Over the last few years our family has found some favorite illustrators. I thought I'd share about some of them. I often like to look up one author and then borrow as many books from that author/illustrator as our library has and do interlibrary loans (which I'm relatively new to, but love!) to borrow more books. That way we can really see their style since we read so many of their books at one time. These are a few of our favorite picture book authors/illustrators. I'm sure there's more that we love but this is a start.

-Barbara Cooney. This is the latest author/illustrator we've enjoyed. I love her books: Emily (about Emily Dickinson, the poet), Eleanor (about Eleanor Roosevelt), Ox-car Man (the first book we had of hers a few years ago; our introduction to her art), and Miss Rumphius. She also has a few Christmas books.

-Madeline books. The older ones are written by Ludwig. He had so many ideas for Madeline books and wasn't able to finish writing them all before he died. His grandson took his notes and partial illustrations and turned them into the rest of the Madeline books. Growing up, I watched the cartoon Madeline and loved it. I love how the books are all told in rhymes

-David Macauley. This is my oldest sons' favorite (well, all of us like his books but my oldest son absolutely loves his books). It started when we got my oldest the book Underground because we lived in a big city at the time. Our oldest was so curious about manhole covers and the pipes that went underground so this book hit the spot. A few months ago we also did some interlibrary loans to read more of his books. I love his detailed drawings (they must've taken so much time!) and creativity. 

-Tomie de Paola. His books have been recently introduced to our family. We have a few of them; he has some that are about traditions (like a tradition in Italy). 

-Helen and Thomas Docherty. They also write books in poems and have beautiful illustrations. Some of our favorites are the Storybook Knight and Snatchabook.

-Pamela Allen. She's an Australian author/illustrator and we don't have a lot of her books. We love the ones we've seen of hers. We have Share! Said the Rooster and Waddle Giggle Gargle (a favorite that we've read many, many times- about a magpie. There were lots of magpies where we used to live so this was a favorite.).

Seagulls at the Beach

 Today we went to the beach; it was beautiful. We counted the rings on a redwood that was by the beach and saw some seagulls. 

Schools in Finland

 I had heard of schools in Finland being really good earlier. The last few weeks I read a book called Stolen Focus. It was really, really good. It's about a journalist who realized that being on his phone and social media so much was causing havoc. He couldn't concentrate like he used to and didn't enjoy reading books anymore. He did something extreme: put away is cell phone and went "off grid" for a few months. He found that he started to enjoy reading again and enjoyed being outside more. In this book he interviewed numerous people about why people today have less ability to focus (largely because of technology). Towards the end he mentioned education and talked about the schools in Finland.

Schools in Finland rank as some of the best schools in the world all around. The students are smart, enjoy learning, and many of them go off to college or trade schools. Why? Part of it is that the teachers are really dedicated. They also have an underlying theme that kids should have time playing and being outside. For so many hours of learning they should have so many hours of play. The way they teach also inspires kids to want to learn. If any student struggles, they go out of their way to help them as much as they can. School doesn't start until a child is 7 years old. They do have a type of "pre-school" but it's almost all games and playing. Students also learn English as a second language early on (starting in 3rd grade) and start Swedish the following year. It seems like overall it's a really good system. There are few tests and it seems like the focus is preparing students for life and to enjoy learning.  

Blueberries and Ocean

 Over the last year I took pictures of the blueberry plants. It's been my first time working with blueberries and I love how they don't have thorns. The kids LOVED picking them when they were ripe in the summer (and eating them fresh). 

We've also gone to the beach a lot these last two weeks...when we can get a break from the rain! There's been some beautiful sunsets and the beach changes so much with the storms...parts of trees and rocks (and other stuff) that have been washed up on the shore.