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.