Boys and Books

Ugh. C*ptain Underp*nts? Really? Is there proof that these books turn kids into readers? Or is it that these books entice kids to read these books, but nothing else? And why would I want to encourage my child to read books promoting and encouraging behaviors that are not exactly the behaviors I want to promote and encourage? Anyone have insight?

A break through

This morning I packed the kids up and headed for my MOMS Club monthly meeting. Being the only homeschooler in the group is sometimes tricky. Obviously the kids who are there are much younger than Kiddo. But it is still social time for Kutey, and for me. And this morning they had a professional organizer come to speak. I am not so very organized, so I wanted to go and listen. But what to do with Kiddo...

I have been thinking about this for a few days. Sometimes I have another homeschooling friend who will watch the kids while I go to an event. But she has been VERY stressed lately and I did not want to add to her burden. Hubby couldn't stay home for the morning. What to do?

Then an amazing thing happened. Kiddo started reading. To himself. BY himself. Don't get me wrong. He is a good reader, he just has had very little interest in reading to himself. Or by himself. He wants me there to help, he wants to read to me. I love that, but it also means he doesn't read as much as he could. But we came home from the library on Tuesday, he had a new book, he was tired, and he just sat down and read. He finished the book that night. Yesterday he picked up another one.

I had my solution. I brought Kiddo, and his books. I also printed off some "Kidoku" from KrazyDad (LOVE his site!), which Kiddo enjoys. I had a few KenKen left from my last KenKen classroom email for him to do, and I printed a few worksheets from Math Fact Cafe.

He sat quietly in the back of the room...so quietly in fact that some of the moms didn't know he was there. He finished his book, started the next, and worked through 8 kidoku. He was happy, I was happy, Kutey was happy. It was only 45 minutes, but it was a good 45 minutes.

Did I learn anything new from the speaker? Nothing new. I had heard most of what she said before. Just a restating of what I already know. It will take a mental shift for me to be able to get through my clutter, just telling me how to organize things doesn't really help. I am glad I went. The presenter is a homeschooler in my area and I have been curious about her business for a while. I won't be hiring her anytime soon, but it was nice to get to hear her speak.

But even better? I know now that I can go to these things, that Kiddo will be content with his books and puzzles while we are there. And that is a gift.

Fall Curriculum

We are making few changes this fall in our curriculum. We are using mostly stuff we have used in the past. We are perhaps focusing a bit more on getting through some things (Story of the World!), but overall, there are few new surprises this year. The big additions are a more formal science curriculum and more specific geography study.

Here is what we are using:

Math
We are continuing with Singapore, and adding Miquon. Kutey will be participating at whatever level she can. We will also add in a bunch of math games. Kiddo claims he doesn't like math and that it is hard. That just means to me that I haven't done my job. We'll see if we can't get get him liking math a bit more.....

Science
We are using R.E.A.L Science Odyssey: Life level 1 this year. We are really enjoying it (I mentioned we school year-round, right?). I like that everything is laid out clearly for me. I like that the supplies are generally easy to come by (or I already have them). I love that the author spells out the big idea, small idea--makes it easy for me to assess whether or not we are getting what we should be out of each lesson. I love that I could try it before I buy it. We are still working through the first units, so I haven't had to buy it yet, but I will in the coming weeks.

I have also downloaded Earth and Space Level 1. I was a bit torn about which one to do, but since Kiddo has already studied quite a bit about space (but wants more) and had asked to study the human body (which is in the Life curriculum, right away) I opted for that one first.

I am also hoping to throw in some fun science stuff, including experiments from The Magic School Bus Simple Science page. The kids love The Magic School Bus. We'll be watching a number of videos and reading a number of books to go along side our science curriculum.

History
Kiddo adores history. We have volumes 1 and 2 of Story of the World--the book, the activity guide, and the CDs. Kiddo has listened to both volumes all the way through numerous times. He knows a lot, but I want to be a bit more deliberate with this, since he is so interested in history. We have started reading the first book, one chapter at a time, doing discussion, and activities. Because I bought my copy of volume 1 used, I purchased the student pages download. Kiddo will be putting together a history notebook as we go. He adores the maps!

We will also be attempting to add in early American history. For that we will be using library resources--I hope. We started with Columbus, and we'll work our way onward. If you know of a great resource for this, let me know! I am not entirely fond of the thought of muddling my way through, but that is where I am right now.

Reading/Phonics/Spelling
Both kids are working through Explode the Code right now. For Kiddo, this is review, which means he is flying through the books. For him, this is good. He needs the confidence! It is also helping reinforce some spelling rules, which is great! I bought the first Beyond the Code book for Kiddo, but I am not sure how much we will use it. Kutey is just starting out in this. She is going very slowly through Book 1 right now. We skipped the Ready Set Go books, she just didn't need them.

If you are wondering if the teacher's guide is worth buying, let me say that I love it. It gives me so many new ideas! It extends the lessons a bit, reinforcing things a bit more, and gives more explanation of the RULES! I love the rules. I just don't know them all. The teachers guide fills me in.

In addition, each child has reading goals. It isn't so much about number of pages or number of books, or even amount of time. I just want them reading and improving, and challenging themselves. So they will each be reading a variety of books.

Geography
I haven't firmed this one up yet. I am currently thinking I will use this framework from Homeschool Creations (Thanks, T and C for reminding me about this site! I had totally forgotten about it!) We'll give it a go with Egypt, as we study it in history. Then I'll know better if it needs any tweaking or not.

That is what I have planned for the big things right now! We'll continue to do our weekly homeschool group gatherings, and our monthly trips to the Works and hopefully the monthly art class (it is up in the air right now. Not sure if she is offering it or not!)

This is a lot more structure than I have had for the last 2 years. I am not a structure person, but I am finding that if left to my own devices, we get less done than I would like and I spend too much time thinking, not enough doing. Hopefully this means we will spend more time doing!

Summer School

We don't follow a typical school year calendar. I usually say we school all year round, which is true, but it is also true that we take breaks. Our breaks are just unpredictable. We might take a break in October, or in February. We might "do school" on Saturday and Sunday, but not on Wednesday and Thursday. Much depends on what we are working on and what we want to accomplish. Much also depends on energy level. One of the things I love about homeschooling is that when my kids are having an off day, we can go light on school.

Summer this year has meant school. We have actually been working much more diligently on reading and math than we had been this spring. We somehow fell into a much better groove that has meant continued work and excitement.

We area also, of course, inspired by summer reading programs. My favorite is Half-Price Books. For reading 15 minutes, 5 times a week, kids get a $3 voucher to use at the store. My kids love picking out new books, so this is a great program for them! We also participate in our local library summer reading program. This year, because the other two are both time based, I am also letting Kiddo do Border's program. Their program is based on number of books read. You read 10, you get a free book from their list. That is cool, too. The combination lets Kiddo have tangible rewards fast and continuously.

I know some people see summer reading programs as bribing their kids to read. I view it as rewarding behavior that is already in place. We aren't doing anything different than we always do, we are just recognizing that behavior. Or rather, we are allowing others to recognize that behavior. And truthfully, the Half-Price books program saves me money The kids get to buy their own books, I don't have to!

New favorite book

Yesterday Kiddo read There is a Bird on Your Head by Mo Willems. How did I not know about these books before? This one was perfect for Kiddo, just his style. The illustrations are super simple, but the story is HILARIOUS! And the illustrations fit it so well. And the animals are so expressive. Just a fabulous book. Even more gratifying was the fact that Kiddo could read it sounding out only one or two words. His speed and fluency are improving!

New to me children's authors

As Kiddo is learning to read, and I am spending more and more time in the "leveled readers" section of the library, I am becoming aware that there are particular authors that I come back to time after time. They are authors I can count on to have a well-written book that Kiddo will likely enjoy and be able to read. One author I try to find is Dana Meachen Rau. I had never heard of her before, but she is quite prolific. The books we have read of hers have been some of Kiddo's favorites. Often I try to read the books before I check them out of the library, or at least preview the word list. With the leveled readers we have checked out by Dana Meachen Rau, I don't. I haven't found one that didn't work for Kiddo. It might just be that she is a good fit for Kiddo at this level. I don't know, but I will continue to seek out her books.

Another author we have discovered is Cynthia Rylant. She is the author of the Henry and Mudge series, but she is also the author of a number of other wonderful books, including Snow, Silver Packages, When I was Young in the Mountains, and many more.

These authors have been added to the long list of our favorites like Jan Brett, Robert McClosky, Dr. Seuss, Ezra Jack Keats, Virginia Lee Burton, Eric Carle, Shel Silverstein, Crockett Johnson, Maurice Sendak, to name a few. At this point, I could probably name more favorite children's authors than favorite adult authors, in spite of my English major! Just means we read. A lot. Which is good.

Thrift shop find

I am a sucker for books. Really. I have far too many, most of them I have already read. My kids have far too many. They are taking over the house. And not in the good, "oh, look, everyone is reading!" sense. No, they are taking over in the "when did you get this funky new carpet with the Elmo faces on it?" or the "Ooooo, LOVE! the new coffee table, are the legs made out of old books?" sense. I have been trying to be good and check books out of the library instead of buying them (it is a lot cheaper, as long as one remembers to return or renew them on time). That has only helped somewhat, because I currently have 22 books checked out of one library, 29 checked out of another, and 2 checked out of a third! 53 extra books floating around is hardly helpful.

Sometimes, though, you see something that you just have to get, or it is too good of a deal to just leave. That is what happened to me today. I went to the thrift shop with the intent of buying one book. Someone sent me one of those book club chain letters, which I usually break. But hey, it says I could get 36 books for mailing out one book and 6 letters. I like new reading material (I just finished 2 books on Saturday, so I need new reading material!) and it might be fun to see what others recycle. The problem is that while I have a ton of books, I am willing to part with very few of them. The ones I have kept I like. SO I needed one book to send. The kids, of course, each needed to pick out a book. That is fine, I'd rather buy them books than toys, and really, $1 for a book isn't bad.

While I was looking for a book to send for this chain letter, however, I came across a copy of "Now I'm Reading for Beginning Readers--Animal Antics." It is a set of 10 phonics books, short vowels, so they will be an the easy side for kiddo, but again, success makes it fun! I had been looking for a cheap copy of these, or a library copy, to see what they were like, but there they were, on the shelf, for $1. And when I got the register, they rang up at 50 cents. You can't beat that! I am probably lucky I walked out of there with only that and 6 other books. They actually had a great selection today, for once.

Now, if I can just find some way to get Kiddo to think they are a treat to read......

Explode the Code

On Saturday I picked up Explode the Code from my library, thanks to Inter-library loan (ILL). They actually belong to a library in Sheboygan, WI. After all the scary warnings from library lady regarding ILL, I brought them home and have carefully looked through them (the replacement cost for one book is $50--in spite of the fact that the books actually only cost $8, at most, but whatever, I'll be very careful!)

I looked through all the levels. Books 1 and 1 1/2 cover short vowel sounds. Kiddo has those mastered. And they don't really teach any rules, per se. We'll be skipping those entirely. Books 2 and 2 1/2 cover initial consonant blends and final consonant blends. I copied a couple of review lesson pages, and did a few exercises with Kiddo orally. He is having no trouble with them at all, so I think we can safely skip them as well. Book 3 and 3 1/2 start introducing rules. Silent e, the sounds of y, and digraphs like sh,ch, etc. He knows quite a bit of what will be covered, but I like the way it is covered in these books, so I think this is where we will start. Besides, early success is a good thing!

Book 4 and 4 1/2 covers compound words, endings (-ful, ing, and the like), and syllable division. Again, he already knows some of it, but success is good! Book 5 (and I am guessing 5 1/2, though I didn't get to review it) covers some word families ( -all and -alk words, for example) three letter consonant clusters and the -ed ending. Book 6 (and I am guessing 6 1/2) finally gets to ar, er, ir, ur, or, along with igh, ea, ie, and some other vowel clusters. Much of that book will be review, so we'll see if we got that far. Book 7 (there is no 7 1/2)covers the alternate sounds of c and g, -dge and -mb, kn and wr, silent t, silent h, ear, and ph. Book 7 is also where they begin presenting passages to read and answer questions about. Book 8 (there is no 8 1/2) covers -ness and -less, -ous and -or, -ist and -ity, -ture and -ment, -able and -ible, -sion and -tion, -ance and -ence, -tive and -sive, -ify and -ize, -ti- and -ci-. all suffixes or endings.

It seems very systematic, with enough practice and exposure without overdoing it. My only complaint thus far (and keep in mind, I have only looked at most of them, not used them with a child) is the pictures. What we have done with Kiddo has required minimal explaining as far as what he is to do, but much more explanation of what the picture is showing. As an example, in one lesson, kiddo looked at a picture of a girl and said "dance!" and wrote down the word dance. Looked like she was dancing to me, too, but I knew the lesson was about consonant clusters, and dance is was not one of the words. Silent e hasn't been covered, nor has soft c, so it couldn't be dance. We had to spend some time thinking about what else she might be doing. Jump was the word we finally came up with. Another one had a picture of a boat, but the word choices were stiff, skip, and skiff. Kiddo had no clue what to circle, as he had never heard "skiff." So, while most of the activities he can do independently, Mom or Dad have to be accessible to help decipher the pictures. Even so, I think we'll give it a try.

Oh, and for the curious, the half books do not introduce new content. They simply give more practice with the content presented in the previous whole number book. I won't be buying 3 1/2. I figure I can pick it up if I find Kiddo needs more. I guess we'll see!

I am not sure what pace we will use with these. Kiddo was thoroughly enjoying them yesterday, but I also don't want to burn him out on them, so I guess we'll have to see. The lessons in book 3 are mostly 8 pages long, and there are 13 lessons. I doubt he will want to do all 8 pages in one sitting, but we will see! I am sure I will post more as we go.

Kiddo's Reading

If you have been reading this blog, you know I spend a lot of time talking about reading. Mostly because I think it is essential to learning. And because I am teaching someone to read for the first time. While it is a thoroughly rewarding experience, it is not without it's frustrations.

Finding just the right teaching tools has been the biggest frustration for me. Leveled readers are not all the same, and picking them out sight unseen is risky. The vocabulary in some of the "Level 1" books is outlandish, and other "Level 1" books are too simple. And worse, within the same series, it sometimes seems there is little rhyme or reason to the level assignments. I checked out books from 3 different levels of the "Rookie Reader" series at the library this week. They are all more or less the same difficulty. The higher level ones have more words, but the words are no more difficult than those in the lower level books. This is why I have started going to the library alone to get books for reading. While it would be great if Kiddo could pick out his own books, I can't simply tell him to go and get a level 1 book and know that it will be appropriate.

Because of that, I am starting to maintain a list in the sidebar of this blog of the books Kiddo has read. Maybe it will help someone, maybe not, but at least I have a record then of what he has read. I'll hopefully start adding authors and maybe dates. I am trying to find a way to put up a review of the level of the books, so that others can use the list as a resource, but that will take a bit longer!