The Grouchy Ladybug
Our literature unit last week was on The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. I chose it to go along with our Fruit of the Spirit lesson on kindness (post coming soon), because while the main character isn’t terribly kind, the other ladybug in the story is a wonderful example of being kind even to those who treat you badly. My 5-year old niece was staying with us last week, and she and Ian adored this story. Not only did they think it was funny that the grouchy ladybug went around trying to pick fights with animals so much bigger than itself, they loved the repetition that allowed them to “read” along with me as soon as they caught on to the pattern. Several times I caught both of them flipping through the pages saying the words out loud, so excited that they could read the story all by themselves.
Even though this story was just a part of our “Kindness” lesson, the kids enjoyed it so much I decided to throw in some extra learning about ladybugs. I pulled out some books we happened to have in our home library: The Ladybug (Life Cycles) by Sabrina Crewe, The Ladybug and Other Insects (a First Discovery Book) by Gallinard Jeunesse, and About Insects: A Guide for Children by Cathryn Sill, part of a series we love because of its simplicity (there are books on mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, etc. as well). We found a few fun videos on YouTube, starting with a basic story video of the book. I really liked this quiet, soothing reading of it. We watched a Reading Rainbow episode called Bugs. and there was a fun Ladybug playlist someone had put together. There were also some fun lapbook materials from Homeschool Share. I only used a couple pages this time, but Ian got such a kick out of the story I think we’ll definitely come back to it when Elijah and Arianna get older!