Tension was high before we left the house for the first day of school. Hair was done (three times til perfection), clothes were ironed, bags were packed. I looked nervously at the clock as I realized we were ready way too early. I wasn’t sure how I was going to keep the girls and their […]

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Today was the day…   Despite the unrelenting rain, both Caroline and Katherine had wonderful days. When asked their favorite part of their first day they both said, “The whole thing!” And when asked what she thought of her kindergarten teacher, Katherine will go on record with the one of the best quotes of the […]

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I love my girls. A lot. I also love school and the return to a schedule. It appears that Caroline may be feeling a bit more of my love for school than for her right now… As she was going to sleep tonight she said, “I think grown ups invented school so that they didn’t […]

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I am always on the look out for books for emergent readers. You know emergent readers. They are the ones who are so close to reading that they can almost taste it. The ones who can sound out cvc (consonant-vowel-consonant) words with only minimal effort. The ones who can recognize lots of sight words. The ones […]

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Jules, of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, wrote eloquently, as always, about a fabulous series, The New York Review Children’s Collection. Why hadn’t I ever heard of such a thing, I wondered? And then I read the description posted on their website: The New York Review Children’s Collection began in 2003 in an attempt to […]

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Sometimes the creative blogging juices just aren’t there. Today would be one of those days. When this happens, I flip back through my pictures for inspiration. Today I found this… They are just some of the many bookcases at a fantastically wonderful bookstore we visited during our time on the Cape. I think I could […]

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I truly believe, for the most part, that children gravitate toward the materials that surround them. In this house, those materials would be books, paper and writing supplies. The girls are both avid readers and writers, in part, because of the things that are around them every day. Lately too, I’ve noticed another benefit. Caroline, […]

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with Bear and his friend Mouse, a delightful duo created by the author Bonny Becker and the illustrator Kady MacDonald Denton. Last night, Katherine and I read A Bedtime for Bear and we just couldn’t get enough. From the adorable illustrations to the wonderful vocabulary to the insightful but subtle message, this book has it all. Katherine […]

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So I am a little late to the party. Or maybe a lot late. To be totally honest, I completely forgot about one of my favorite collections of blog posts from last year and couldn’t have been happier when I stumbled upon it yesterday. Cathy Mere of Reflect and Refine: Building a Learning Community and author […]

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I often have visions of beautiful sunny days when sisters play quietly like the best friends they really are.  Sometimes, we actually have those days. Yesterday was not one of them. All day long I heard, “I’m bored!” “Everyone’s on vacation except us!” “What can we do!?” By mid afternoon, I realized that my vision […]

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