Over the summer we have been taking it pretty easy-- busy summer schedule or swimming and park visits not included.  However, summer is coming to a close and with it Noah and I will be moving into a time of more focused learning and reading.  
I won't say that we are homeschooling per-se, but we are at least going to be using this year to pursue the possibility and see how it feels.   A part of that is having a greater sense of a theme, and with it thematic books.  However, I have been debating how I would like to present these books to Noah.  We aren't in a formal classroom, and I don't think that he would flourish under falsely created school-like conditions.  Instead I have been looking for a way to make sure that we are really getting to know the stories that we are pulling from our shelves and the library shelves and get to know the characters therein. 

Imagine my delight to come across a recent post at The Imagination Tree detailing her weekly link party of 5 In a Row Books.  As Anna Ranson on Imagination Tree states,

"The idea is that you choose 5 titles from among your usual books (or from the library) and read them every single day for at least a week....short picture books which feature strong rhythm and/ or repeated refrain so that the children can quickly memorise the words and join in with the story-telling. This empowers them to be able to "read" and re-tell stories from a young age, and also makes them very fluent in a range of text types and literature styles."

It is great to see other families interested in this and read of their experiences with reading the same books over and over for a week and seeing how their child responds.  Now, reading at least 5 a day isn't a problem out here for Momma Weston.  Often Noah will move between Jim and I having a book read 2 or three times in a row, and every night he knows he gets 4 books before bed, and catches me on it if I try to skimp. 

Some nights when I am exhausted before we go in there to read I wish I had set it up from the beginning as 3 before bed, but most nights I am curious what he will choose and excited as he notices more and more detail in the illustrations.  I won't be limiting myself at bedtime to read these selections every day, but it helps to have that built in time to focus on Noah and his burgeoning love of the written word.

Reading 5 a day is no issue, but it will be a challenge to be faithful and read each of these books every day, as Noah is lately scattered in his book choices, where he used to want to read the same books every day several times for months.  (I'm a bit happy to have the variety.) 

For our first week I am picking books from Noah's regular selections that he has been choosing lately and as we proceed into the month of September I will try to choose books more on theme.

Tonight was my second day of reading all 5, and this evening Noah had a minor meltdown at bedtime.  His Da is working a show at the Convention Center right now, which means he
 is up and away before Noah wakes, working the weekend and staying later in the evening, and Noah was enjoying some Da-snuggle time on the couch when it was time to go to bed and he wasn't very happy, but the meltdown showed just how much he needed the sleep. 

But, I digress.  I asked him what he wanted to read as his first book; usually something transportation themed wins out, but tonight he sniffed and told me,  "Bunny-- flower."  It took me a minute, but then I realized he had been speaking of Margaret Wise Brown's adorable book about a Mother Bunny whose son is threatening to run away. In one page her little one tells her that he will hide as a crocus in a hidden garden, and she tells him that if he does that, she will follow and be a gardener. 

Yup, after a meltdown all that would soothe my usual rough and tumble boy is reading about a bunny that turns into a flower-- he even sniffs the pages of books when he sees flowers on them, which is about the most adorably, achingly cute thing ever! 

Our Selections:

The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown

Curious George and the Bunny  by H.A. Rey

5 Little Monkies Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow

5 Little Ducks Went Out One Day by Pamela Paparone

Bill Grogan's Goat byMary Ann Hoberman