Restaurant Books

I have been guilty myself of the trap I always tell others not to fall into -- not posting because I'm afraid what I'm doing is not "Waldorf enough." It's true we've had to go a bit more mainstream because of the heavy scrutiny of the custody battle but I do try to keep things literature rich. We are doing the art and the cooking and the nature and the stories and the movement and so on and now a bit of letters and numbers are creeping in. So if you hate me for that, move on to a different blog. :-) But I do have some book notes on things that we've done this week so if you like book recommendations read on.

I took the children out to breakfast yesterday and we went to lunch today, of course, so here are some books that go well with a "restaurant theme".

Things People Do pp.10-11

Mr. Angleo by Marjory Schwalje

Today is Monday by Eric Carle

Some notes:
Re. Mr. Angleo, this book is VERY hard to find and I'm thrilled that there are some copies available on Amazon right now. It is the story of a man who wakes up each day, decides what he'd like to cook, and then makes a tremendous amount of it. One day he decides to open up a restaurant since he's already cooking such large quantities (he eats the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner). But when his customers come he only has one thing to offer and it's never what they wanted! He is discouraged and about to give up on his dream when a young boy named Jim comes up with the perfect solution to the problem. Mr. Angelo washes up all the dishes at the end, too, which is a nice touch. I always like books that talk about cleaning up after your project is done. There's a book called The Man Who Never Washed His Dishes which I like to read to my kids too...

Eric Carle's book Today is Monday has written music in the back; you can also buy a cassette tape of the story being read and then the song. This has been a big hit in the car. It also teaches the days of the week (and you have to recite them backwards which is tricky) which is something my kids care an awful lot about now that they spend some days with their dad and some with me. So which day is which and what order they go in and how far it is between them has been a big deal here lately.

We've also talked about the seasons changing and especially birds. There is a great book to go along with birds building nests that I want to recommend; it's really cute and it's called Who Took the Farmer's Hat? by Joan L. Nodset. This one is a classic and good for ages 3 & 4 because they are old enough to get the joke. The premise of the book is that a gust of wind takes the farmer's old hat and sends it flying but every animal he meets who he asks about it gives him a different response. Each says no, but I saw a... and you can see that it was the hat but they think it was an old brown hill, a nice brown hole, a round brown bird, etc. The final person he asks is a bird who says, I haven't seen your hat anywhere but I have this nice round brown nest and the bird has already settled in and laid an egg so the farmer says to her, yes I see that this is most definitely not my hat after all and goes off and buys himself a new one. It's very sweet.