Bonny Glen Firsts
It seems I’ve had this master-list-of-recommendations idea before: two years ago. I remember creating this Booknotes page in an attempt to link to my reviews more easily than scrolling through the “books” or “picture books” categories in my archives. I remember not getting very far very fast. I don’t remember forgetting to keep going, and then forgetting all about the page entirely.
Well, anyway, it means I already have a handy-dandy page for pasting titles into as I do my archive clean-up. I’m sure I’ll be finished in another five or six years. 🙂
One thing I’m enjoying about the clean-up is seeing what were the first things I wrote about: which books, games, websites, CDs.
First-ever recommendation, in my third-ever post, on January 21, 2005: Signing Time DVDs. Are we still fans? YOU BET. We’ve used ASL with every single one of our babies, even before we had a hard-of-hearing wonderboy in the family. Huck is currently a huge Signing Time fan-slash-addict. As has been the case with every one of our toddlers, many a meltdown has been averted by his ability to express his very specific and fervent wishes in sign language when the tall people around him fail to understand the nuances of a consonantless syllable.
(Side note: my little goddaughter got to meet Rachel recently. !!! Who, me jealous?)
First game recommendation: iSketch, like online Pictionary. Wow. We were HOOKED on that for a long time. Haven’t played it in years. Haven’t even thought about it. Gosh, I miss it all of a sudden! For a while there, a group of my girlfriends were iSketching once a week. Remember, y’all? Is it even still there? Oh my, it is! Same music and everything!
First-ever unschooling reference: Blog Day 4, a link to Sandra Dodd’s website in a post about strewing. This post is also the first to mention a book: The Lord of the Rings. Highly appropriate, considering Scott and I pretty much fell for each other during a spirited discussion of our mutual passion for the trilogy.
Second book mentioned (though not by name): All About Weeds, a Jane favorite for years. Seriously.
Other books mentioned (mostly in passing) in the first month or so:
Crowded with Genius: The Scottish Enlightenment
A Case of Red Herrings
The Bears of Hemlock Mountain
By the Great Horn Spoon
Peter Rabbit
The Maggie B.
Tikki Tikki Tembo
There’s a Wocket in my Pocket
The Read-Aloud Handbook
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
The Secret Garden
Redwall
Ginger Pye
Moccasin Trail
Seven Alone
By the Great Horn Spoon!
Old Yeller
(Most of the above came from two posts—a transcript of a talk I gave on Mealtime Read-Alouds, and an article I wrote for the Virginia Homeschoolers newsletter.)
Second-ever game: Oregon Trail, which still gets played in occasional week-long bouts, maybe once a year, I’d say? The younger kids haven’t discovered it yet.
First Jim Weiss rave; also first Ancient Greece reference: this post. Fun for me to revisit it just now, because Rilla has suddenly catapulted into the same kind of Greek myths obsession that Rose enjoyed at about her age. Must remember to pull out that Jim Weiss CD, if Rose (Rilla’s self-appointed tutor) hasn’t already beat me to it.
First-blogged Scott injury: that time he threw his back out.
First Shakespeare, first Sherlock Holmes, second Jim Weiss.
First time I gushed about Small Meadow Press: before the first month was up.
First poem! “Be Like the Bird”—but of course.
First Pooh reference: The More It Snows, Tiddly-Pom
First mention of Journey North: two months in.
First appearance of monarch butterflies: March 13, 2005.
OK, obviously I could get carried away with the firsts and seconds. I’m drawing the line at thirds.
sarah says:
Oh my goodness, Lissa! I am so glad you took this trip down memory lane. I completely forgot about the weed book. That was once on the top of my “hunt and find” list for used book sales and somehow got dropped by the wayside. I’m going to have to track that down for summer reading for the gang. Thanks!
On May 19, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Melissa Wiley says:
http://www.amazon.com/About-Weeds-Edwin-Rollin-Spencer/dp/0486230511/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305851605&sr=8-1
Here you go!
On May 19, 2011 at 4:34 pm
Melissa Wiley says:
Aw, I just got misty-eyed. Amazon tells me “You purchased this item on July 13, 2002.” I remember that July! We all had chicken pox, the three girls and I! And I’d checked the weed book out of the library for myself, but returned it because it looked kind of dry (or maybe I was too itchy to care anymore), and then Jane was AGHAST that it had been returned. I hadn’t known she’d found it on the library shelf and was halfway through! So I guess I ordered a copy for keeps. 🙂
Talk about memory lane!
On May 19, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Penny says:
Hey! Your first recommendation was on my 40th birthday! How cool is that? I’m famous!
oh, wait, maybe not… lol
Your recommendations are much appreciated, whenever they happen!
On May 19, 2011 at 5:40 pm
Jennifer says:
Please don’t do this! I fear for my disposable (and not so disposable) income. If I didn’t have children to tend, I’d click over to Amazon right now.
On May 19, 2011 at 6:13 pm
Jennifer says:
If one chose to, one could get quite emotional about these lists. Wedgits just popped into my head – a Bonny Glen recommendation. I purchased it for my son’s first (or second) birthday. We all spent that summer playing on the rug and watching our little baby boy figure out those blocks. I can remember just the way the sun slanted into his room. Sniff, sniff. I could go on. Do you ever think about how your lists become part of people’s lives like that?
On May 20, 2011 at 5:09 am