Mars has been downright depressed about her handwriting. She and a friend were designing a publication and her work was erased because, she was told, it was simply “not good enough”.

I have not pushed her in this area simply because I don’t think the problem is that dire. It isn’t like she needs to be rushed into therapy – her handwriting, while a little erratic, is quite legible. I know though that her thoughts are exactly what her friend verbalised – “not good enough”. She has a perfectionist streak but her motor skills simply don’t match up and this has caused her a great deal of frustration. She often makes her writing extremely small even though I have told her that small doesn’t necessarily mean neat. Perhaps she thinks that large handwriting only make the flaws more prominent.

Anyway, I’ve been making more notebooking and copywork materials for her, Charlotte Mason homeschooler that I am :P In shaa Allah I will make them available for download soon. I just need a good PDF converter that won’t mess up my lovely designs :P If you know a good one (preferably free!), please let me know.

Edit: OK I feel silly now… there is a Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS Add-In that allows you to export and save to the PDF and XPS formats in eight 2007 Microsoft Office programs. I used to KNOW these things :P

I found this book while book hunting in Singapore last March… Bear was a wee month-old baby and was fussing up a bit at the bookstore so I almost missed this treasure.

Beautifully written by Alice McLerran and illustrated by Eric Carle, The Mountain That Loved A Bird is a beautiful tale that made my daughter cry buckets! This book is good for kids 10 and above but if your preschooler enjoys a long story, then this is a keeper.

In this story, a lonely stone mountain lives in the middle of a desert. It is barren and thus, has never had company nor experienced anything beyond heat and cold. It has not much to see either – only the movement of the sun, the course of the moon and the stars when the skies were clear.

A small bird named Joy stops by one day. The mountain feels her sharp claws and her soft feathers and, overcome with amazement, asks her to stay. Unfortunately, Joy cannot comply – there is nothing that can sustain her there. However, she promises to make annual visits in spring and to name her daughter Joy, who in turn will name a daughter Joy and so on so that the mountain will always have a friend visiting once a year.

Ninety-nine springs come and go. Each time the separations become harder to endure. One day, unable to tolerate the loneliness, the mountain’s heart breaks. His tears are a stream which slowly but surely transform it and the land surrounding. Joy brings a seed and over time, the tears become tears of hope and happiness. Eventually, Joy brings not a seed, but a twig. Instead of her usual farewells, she tells the mountain that she has come to stay.

Eric Carle’s signature collages are simply superb! You will find that the pictures become wonderfully vibrant as the story progresses. There are other versions of this book that you can check out on the author’s site.

I am presently trying to develop a unit study on this book in collaboration with a few other homeschooling mums. Make du`aa that I complete it in shaa Allah, OK?

Offhand I can think of a few lesson ideas:

• friendship & loyalty
• keeping promises
• hope
• birds
• mountains
• climates
• water, streams etc.
• seeds
• colours

You can also read Eric Carle’s The Tiny Seed as an accompaniment.