Very Last First Time

Our FIAR book this week was Very Last First Time, written by Jan Andrews, and illustrated by Ian Wallace. It was nice to tie in reading about the Inuit village on Ungava Bay in Northern Canada during the week that we learned about Canada in our NOW group. The boys totally get the "no roads" in this Northern community. This summer, they enjoyed watching Ice Road Truckers with their dad (edited for language by dad). We looked on the map, and Yellow Knife (where IRT starts) is about the same latitude as Ungava Bay. That gave the kids a good mental image of the harsh weather of the Inuit village. When I planned the school year, we were going to visit Dana Point tide pools this week. But with the craziness of life this November, I'll need to postpone that until spring. This week, we just read more books by the fire. We read Mama, Do You Love Me? by Barbara M. Joosse. This is a silly story with an artic setting. The little girl asks, "What if I put salmon in your parka, ermine in your mittens, and lemmings in your mukluks?" The mom answers, "Then I would be angry...but I would still love you." There's a lot of great images to go with the new vocabulary. But, the most helpful part of this book was explaining how getting in trouble for doing something wrong doesn't mean the kids are loved any less. We also read Papa, Do You Love Me? by the same author. I need to remember to check out this book again when we study Kenya in February.