What we're reading and watching

This year we bought a membership to the Shedd Aquarium. My  husband used to take the two older girls there a lot during that lengthy time I had numerous dentist appointments for my implant, but they have no recollection of it because they were too young. So this time, we went as a whole family with a two -month -old baby on tow for almost eight hours straight. For several days afterwards, we watched BBC's Blue Planet: Seas of Life and seeing the animals and then learning about their natural habitats made it so much more fascinating.

Oldest is becoming a history buff and is still devouring Child's History of the World. For science, we are slowly plowing through the Magic School Bus series but the author/illustrator also penned another history series which we are loving. We're currently learning about the middle ages so Ms. Frizzle's Adventures Medieval Castle is a hit right now.

Other books we're reading on the middle age:

Knights in Shining Armour by Gail Gibbons

Castles (A First Discovery Book) 

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales by Marcia Williams (warning: there are bare buns on display)

Days of the Knights by Christopher Maynard

Tales of King Arthur (I believe there's three books total) by Hudson Talbott (some mature themes in the  Lancelot book)

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by Benedict Flynn

Saint George and the Dragon and various other related books by Trinia Hyman 

*Food and Feasts in the Middle Age by Lynne Elliot (this seems to be a series, too. More suitable for older kids) 

A Feast by Aliki

*Good Masters! Sweet Voices!  (For older kids, but so much fun! I enjoyed this one a lot.)

Puss in Boots (The setting is not technically in the middle ages, but I use it to explain a little about the feudal system.)

History-related, we're also reading The Story of Salt by Mark Kurlansky. The Tweets of America by Hudson Talbott is renewing interest in the US puzzle map. 

Our Spring/Easter basket:

The Sun Egg by Elsa Beskow (in Korean)

Children of the Forest by Elsa Beskow (in Korean)

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

Oh, What a Busy Day! Gyo Fujikawa (her poetry book is no longer available on Amazon)

The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt

The Easter Story by Brian Wildsmith

Wonders of Nature by Jane Werner Watson

While We Were Out by Lee Ho-baek (in Korean)
Cheerful (new this year and so, so cute!)

I wish I had some more meaningful Easter books...any recommendations?

Ballet: We've watched a bunch of ballet performances on DVD this year and I wish I kept better track of them. My oldest has pretty much read ever book on ballet in the library. Recently, we watched the Birmingham Royal Ballet's Pokofiev Cinderella choreographed by David Bintley and designed by John Macfarlane and it was a visual treat. The costumes are gorgeous. James Mayhew's book Ella Bella Ballerina and Cinderella went perfectly with the movie. The Ella Bella series is perfect for preschool and up. I love how my eight year old still loves picture books.

For Korean study, I have reluctantly started showing them more videos on youtube. We are still watching Cloud Bread and I just started showing them EBS's 나도 요리사. MBC also has a new reality show with father celebrities going on outings with their children that I am interested in as well.

Finally, S and E's current favorites is 999 Tadpoles by Ken Kimura. E is also loving Rosemary Well's Mother Goose and is showing more interest in learning English. He's the first child I had access to so many Korean books. Even my three-month baby is showing interest in books. I started reading her from 보리's gentle nature series board books and she stares intently at the pictures. My babe is almost sleeping through the night and is sweet and adorable...I love her chubby thighs. Okay, I digress.

For science, aside from MSB books, oldest was really interested in constellations and starry stuff for a while. Now, it's the moon. Franklyn M. Bradley's The Moon Seems to Change is on high interest right now. S really wants to see real dinosaur bones. So a trip to the Field Museum seems to be in order. How I wallet misses being an Illinois resident! As an aside, I was never interested in museums during my pre-children days, but now it's so exciting. I am learning more now than I ever did as a kid. Thanks to my kids, I am becoming better educated :)

What have you been reading and watching?