July's Books

I did a REALLY bad job of keeping track of Emma's books this month. I had 2 big projects, 2 midterms, and 2 finals this month, so that took up a lot of my attention.

Read/Listened to by Emma

Comics/Graphic Novels

Guinea Pig Pet Shop Private Eye #'s 2-5 by Colleen AF Venable
Grimm Graphic Novels:
Tom Thumb retold by Scott Sonneborn
The Golden Goose retold by Sean Tulien
The Elves and the Shoemaker retold by Martin Powell
Snow White retold by Martain Powell
The Three Little Pigs retold by Lisa Trumbaur

Chapter Books
Martha Speaks - Various titles, she read about 6 of them.
Magic Ponies #4: Show-Jumping Dreams by Sue Bentley
Magic Pony #1: A Dream Come True by Elizabeth Lindsey (I know, confusing that the two series are almost called the same thing).

Picture Books
Boris and the Wrong Shadow by Leigh Hodgkinson
Imogene's Antlers by David Small
Cars and Trucks and Things That Go by Richard Scarry.

E-books Emma started a few e-books but hasn't finished any yet.

Horrid Henry by Francesca Simon
Happily Every Emma by Sally Warner

Audio Books
Harry Potter #2-3 by J.K. Rowling
Inkheart and Inkspell by Cornelia Funke


Read to/With Emma
We started a new series, Miranda and Starlight by Janet Muirhead Hill. We got the 5 book series for a steal when a store selling local made items was going out of business (the owners were retiring). So far, it's a really good, realistic story about a girl who lives with her grandparents (her mother is alive but not a very responsible individual), loves horses, and has a lot of struggles to deal with. Also, written by a Montanan, taking place in Montana. We like it.

There are so many more books that we have read together, or that Emma has read on her own, but I just couldn't keep up with them or her. I also did a bad job taking pictures this month, so no pictures. Sorry!

Emma's Work In Progress

One of the best things right now about me taking college classes is I can pass some of the learning on to Emma.

While her eyes kinda glaze over when I start spouting business law stuff, they lit up today when I showed her how to make a PowerPoint presentation.

Why did I teach her how to make a PowerPoint presentation? My first response is, "why not?" But actually, Emma mentioned this morning that she wanted to make a new inventory of her horses, went into a bit of detail about how she wanted to do it, and I thought that perhaps a PowerPoint presentation might be what she was looking for.

At first, she wasn't super excited. She thought it was going to be a chore. But then I explained that she could update it every time she got a new horse without having to reprint the entire inventory (right now we have a contact sheet printed out from all 89 pictures of her horses). This way, she can print out each new horse as she acquires them and updates her inventory.

Anyway, enough words, here are some pictures.

Entering in basic info

Playing with the different photo effects. 

I helped her set up the first slide, showed her how to copy it, then set her loose. Once she had about 10 slides titled, she was ready for the photos. I showed her once how to add the photos, change the look of the photo frame, and how to crop and adjust the photos. I walked through it with her once, then she ran with it on her own. 

After she finished 39 slides (some with multiple photos), I showed her how to make fun transitions, and she played with that for a bit. 

The presentation isn't totally finished, but she worked on it for like 5 hours. I convinced her that maybe she should take a break for the rest of the day. Now she's watching Scooby Doo :0)

Anyway, enjoy Emma's first (but not last) PowerPoint presentation! 

I can't wait to teach her more fun things to do on the computer.