FALL BOOKS

With the days finally getting cooler (except for this week,  but we won't talk about our 89 degree weather!!! ) , I've pulled back a little on the schooling to let the kids have some free time outside.  We've still been plugging away at our normal studies, only about half time though.  We've added in some fun read alouds both from our public library and our home library.

Here are some of the books we've been reading:

Thanksgiving at the Tappletons' by Eileen Spinelli
Don't Eat too Much Turkey by Miriam Hoban
The Memory Cupboard by Charlotte Herman
Thanksgiving is Here by Diane Goode
Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes
Thelonius Turkey Lives! by Lynn Rowe Reed
Beauty and the Beaks a Turkey's Cautionary Tale by Mary Jane and Herm Auch
A Thanksgiving Wish by Michael Rosen
Turk and Runt by Lisa Wheeler
Fall Changes by Ellen B. Senisi
The Very First Thanksgiving Day by Rhonda Gowler Greene
The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote
Apples by Gail Gibbons
One Fall Day by Molly Bang
An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott
Thanksgiving is... by Gail Gibbons
Silly Tilly's Thanksgiving Dinner by Lillian Hoban
The Thanksgiving Door by Debby Atwell
Apple Picking Time by Michele Benoit Slawson
The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern
When Autumn Comes by Robert Maass
The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh
A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting
It's a Family Thanksgiving! by Deborah F. Fink
Possum's Harvest Moon by Anne Hunter
If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern
If You Were at...The First Thanksgiving by Anne Kamma
County Fair (my first little house books) by Laura Ingalls Wilder


What have you been doing to make fall extra special?  Are you all tucked in for the cool weather or are you like us desert dwellers just breaking out of our summer hibernation?

Our years spent in Ohio made me appreciate many things.  One was the changing of seasons.  Fall was by far my most favorite.  I loved the crisp cool air, the beautiful changing leaves and an overall anticipation of change in the air.  Fires burning, piles of leaves to jump in, family and friends gathered together for hayrides and bonfires, all in preparation for hunkering down for the cold months ahead.  Those times definitely kept you going through the long bleak winters where, come March, the anticipation of Spring was on everyones minds.  It's harder to find the same feeling here in the desert, but it's there, if you look hard enough and ignore the near 90* temperatures!  

Over the next week or so I'm going to take my kids out in search of fall in our neighborhood.  There are some trees that turn colors, although most have probably already peaked (peaking lasts about a day around here LOL).  Other trees are budding and blooming thriving in the cooler weather.  One big change is the citrus ripening.  We've already picked some lemons from our tree.  By Christmas the tree is in it's full yellow glory.  Maybe that tree would be a good place to start for the kids to note the changes in their nature journals.

Enjoy your fall weather, while it lasts, wherever you live!