Caps For Sale {Before FI♥AR}


~Boaz is 4 years old~


"Caps! Caps for Sale. Fifty cents a cap."

The familiar phrase rang in my ears from when I rowed Caps for Sale with Mali and Elli, and we have listened to the story on CD many times. This week I read it each day and had Bo help me with the repeating parts - especially the "tsz, tsz, tsz" from the monkeys.


Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business is a fun book to monkey around with and monkey around we did!


The monkey is a Gund Swingsley Monkey Stuffed Animal (chocolate) and I chose it because it reminded me of the monkeys in the story! We played lots of "Monkey See Monkey Do" with it and the monkey joined us during our school time. 


And the cap is his dad's from when he was his age. 

Memory Making

With each book we row we make a special memory making treat, but I made much of our row about memory making. :)

Since we were monkeying around we made Banana Split Cookies to start. 



Made with white cake mix, banana pudding, chocolate chips, maraschino cherries, and sprinkles, these were yummy and super easy.


I found the cutest Bow-Tie shirt that I thought was very "gentlemanly." In fact, I had a "Little Man" theme planned all along. :)

A Balancing Act


Counting Caps





Buying Caps from the Monkeys in the Tree (50 Cents a Cap!)

Each chocolate coin was a 50 cent piece.



Counting Pennies



Connecting the Caps to the Monkeys




Bo was doing great, but to challenge him to stay on the lines better, I told him to pretend that if he went off the line, an alligator would get the monkey. Malachi is very challenge oriented and would have taken that challenge on, but Bo. . . he wanted me to do it for him! 


So, we changed the game and pretended that the alligator only got the monkey if he went off more than 3 times and only if he went way off the line. Bo loves playing on the line games (where you have to walk on the line or only step on certain squares), so I thought it would be fun for him. And while Bo is really attentive to detail and likes to get things just so. . . he's a little perfectionist at heart, like me. 

I had several other monkey things planned including songs and finger-plays that we didn't get to, but we did do the lessons from the manual! We talked about how "a fool giving full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control" and talked about the character traits of the Peddler, the illustrations of the trees, the stacked caps, what a cap is, and more!

Reading Time

We are still plugging away with All About Reading Pre-reading. 




Counting to Twenty 

He still occasionally will say 19 - 21 when he counts, but he can read almost any number up to 100.


Tracing Colors Words


My Little Man

I wanted to do more than just monkey around for our row, so I included a gentleman theme, which of course, was inspired by the mustache and gentlemanly attire of the Peddler. 

I made Bow-Tie Napkins.


And loaded up on all things mustache.


And to tie in to our theme ~ mustache vocabulary: handle-bar mustache, which was named from the handlebars of an old-fashioned bike.

And to celebrate: No-Bake Banana Split Dessert


Made with a graham cracker crust and a cream cheese layer topped with bananas, crushed pineapple, strawberries, and whipped cream and then topped with chopped walnuts, drizzled with chocolate syrup, and topped with maraschino cherries. . . 


It was a hit. :)



Especially served with banana milkshakes and mustache straws. 


My Little Man




Before FIAR Quilt

Here are the two fabric squares I cut for our row.


The one on the left below is the one I picked when I rowed this with Mali and Elli, and the one on the right is one that I received in a recent FIAR Quilt Swap. I love them all!


This will be my first quilt and I'm a little nervous to start! Do I want to do a pattern or just sew the squares together?

Delightful Links:

Before FI♥AR Link-Up ~ See how others have "rowed" this book!
Caps for Sale Literature Based Printables
Caps for Sale with Mali and Elli
Rowing with Before FIAR ~ Just a reminder that the manual is a valuable resource and that our rows are not meant to replace the manual. :)

6 comments

  1. You're amazing!! Love this post! Love your creativity!

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  2. This is adorable! My older two are past Before FIAR and I can't wait until my youngest is old enough to start! Such wonderful ideas here. Love it!

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  3. Oh, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this Michelle. You always make me wish I could start all over again. ♥ And I love Bo's shirts and an FIAR Quilt Swap??? That is just over the top cool. YOU are AMAZING!

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  4. Bo is getting so big and you can see he loves learning!

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  5. You made bow tie napkins!!! ha haa... they are great! I love them.

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