Summer Break

I am looking forward to summer break. Really. It's hard to keep from dancing when I think about it. The only time I have been more excited about summer break was the year I got married. Our wedding was the week after finals.

My kids are not doing math lessons this summer.  They will probably forget everything they know. I don't care. We will learn it again next year.

I want to paint walls and furniture, build shelves, organize bedrooms, clean out flower beds, have a yard sale, finish building the tree house, and do the obligatory summertime traveling.

I want the kids to explore every inch of our nine acres, break in the tree house, fish in the pond, ride bikes, help me clean out flower beds, build gigantic Lego projects, and read lots of books.

Since I can't ever seem to give up academics completely, I do plan to have the boys practice keyboarding (some sites I pinned ) and write some book reports. Thing2's reports will only be a sentence or two, but I want Thing1 to practice summarizing stories this summer. To keep it nice and simple, I think we will use some forms I found on Busy Teacher's Cafe. I created a spreadsheet (I know, I'm a nerd) of books I want them to read and assigned points to each book. For simplicity, I just used AR points and added a bonus if the book is considered more than one year above their levels. If they read the book and write a report on it, they get the points. They can use the points they accumulate to buy books of their own.

A snip from Thing2's list

23 out of 62 suggestions for Thing1. They range from half a point for Hill of Fire to 32 points for The Hobbit.
I am curious to see which books he chooses to tackle.

I showed the list to them tonight, and they begged to start it now. I told them to wait until May 16, then I downloaded a new Audible book to tide them over. Did I mention I am excited about May 16? Now the boys are, too.

C.S. Lewis

In the less than eloquent, albeit sincere, words of Thing1,

"C.S. Lewis sure did write some good books."

Don't forget the audiobooks.

One of my blog's purposes is to remind me of the "every day" of our homeschool experience. It's amazing the details I forget over the course of a year. Today I want to make sure I remember the hours we've spent in audiobooks.

Why did we learn so much more when we experienced it in a story?

Jim Weiss said (in an interview with Leigh Bortins on the 11/20/2013 edition of Leigh at Lunch) that it is because "Story hits you simultaneously in the head and the heart."

Why did we choose to experience the stories through audio books instead of movies or dramatized audio versions?

Mr. Weiss nailed it again. "I don't think we are doing our kids any favor to assume that they are unable to love and listen to something unless all the bells and whistles are there."

What if I could not find a book on my kids' levels?

Kids can appreciate (with practice) a much more complicated story than they can read by themselves. To me, the purpose of reading aloud (or audiobooks) is to expose our kids (and ourselves) to material that is beyond their levels. Say one of the boys heard a big, unfamiliar word while he was listening. Next time he heard the word, it was a familiar word. The third time time he heard it, he probably figured out exactly what it meant.

What if my kids would not pay attention to a long story?

I didn't expect them to at first. It took a lot of exposure before they were hooked. I found that a perfect time for exposing the kids to stories was in the car. They were captive! They may not have paid perfect attention, but it was there, and they eventually grew to appreciate them, then request them every time we got into the car.

Wouldn't it have been better if I read them the story myself rather than listening to a recording?

Yes, and I've tried to read to them as much as possible. But when what I read to them is all they got, it was not enough for their listening appetites. It just does not seem feasible for me to sit and read for hours a day. Plus, it's just plain fun to hear a professional read a story.

What books have we listened to?

Most of the memory on my phone is taken up by audio books.  The boys each have a cheap mp3 player loaded with audio books.  When we go to the library, we usually take away at least one audio book.

Our book selections usually go through phases. Thank goodness our Hank the Cowdog phase has died. It was fun for the first dozen books. Now the phase is Homer Price. Every single night.

Our first audiobooks were the Winnie The Pooh books. Remember about the captive audience? That's what I think of when I remember the Pooh CD's.

Thing1 listened to The Hobbit when he was 5. We should do that again. I think it was the voice of the narrator and the language that captivated him. I know he remembers nothing about it now. Thing2's 4- to 5-year-old favorites were Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Little House in the Big Woods and Farmer Boy.

Trumpet of the Swan was good because E.B. White read it. I am anxious to listen to him read Charlotte's Web. Anything narrated by the author fascinates me.

The Railway Children was good. It stretched Thing1 when he was about 6.

The whole family listened to Where the Red Fern Grows on a road trip recently. If we didn't all cry, we all almost cried. Everybody was paying attention, captive or not.  101 Dalmations stands out as another great road trip story because of its fun factor for the whole family.

In addition to serving as incredible learning tools that have stretched our minds and imaginations, audiobooks have entertained us together and occupied us separately. They have shortened car rides and made bedtime a little more tolerable. They have been a huge part of our homeschool's "every day."

When You Were Alive

Thing2 exclaimed, "Hey, this book is about knights, Uh-gyp-shin warriors and Arkansas."

"You mean United States?"

"Oh, yeah. This oughtta be intruh-sting!"

Later, after poring over the pictures and discussing with his dad whether or not there was a World War III...

"Mama, you know the soldiers who had triangle hats in Arkansas?"

"You mean United States?"

"Yeah. United States. You know, the ones when you were alive."

"I wasn't alive."

My birthday is coming up, which reminds me of my advancing age, but, really, the Revolutionary War was a few years before my time.

The book is Great Events that Changed the World by Brian Delf and Richard Platt. It really is intruh-sting.

Mother Worries

While The Husband was reading Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson to the boys last night, he stopped after this passage:

"Any occurrence, good or bad, which upset the order of Mother's days always brought on a fit of worry, and of course the present great excitement had resulted in a perfect frenzy. She had thought of every danger or unpleasantness which might accompany the arrival of the new Folks and was now inventing new and unlikely ones."

The Husband looked at the boys and raised one eyebrow. "That rabbit mama sounds just like your mama." 

Touché.

Ruby Bridges

Pick up this book next time you are at the library. I dare you to read it to your kids without crying.

Rules, Fun Reading, and Summer

We have a house rule about what we call fun reading.  It only happens before bedtime and on car rides.  In case you think this is harsh, here is why:  If we did not have this rule, one or two smaller members of our family would never see the sunlight.  Okay, that is not true. But the trampoline would be used more for a reading couch than for bouncing.  I will clarify that I am not talking about all reading, only reading for pure entertainment.

In light of the rule, I have been thinking about this summer when our formal studies have slowed down.  I need some kind of summer reading list.  Right now, during the school year, there is plenty of history and science-related reading to do during the day.  I just have to have books on the appropriate subjects available.

Here is what I want to think about for summertime:

• Books on subjects that piqued the kids' interest during the school year.
• Books on subjects that are interesting but that we have not gotten to yet in "school."
• More challenging fiction.

Again, I am not making a list because I want control.  (Or do I? Muahahahaha!)  It is because I already know which books these same members of the family will choose for fun reading. (Is there an end to The Boxcar Children?)  These smaller family members genuinely enjoy reading books from my lists, but they would not choose them on their own without the rule.

Here is where I ask for help.  Please leave me any suggestions that come to mind!  Thing1 is a 7-year-old avid reader, and Thing2 will be a 5-year-old beginning reader mostly interested in read-aloud material.  I can't wait for suggestions!  Closer to summertime, I will post the list.

The Reluctant Dragon

It's about time for a book review. I love to look back at the kids' reactions of books from last year (or maybe the year before) when I used to take time to do this.

As with many of our favorite reads this year, this suggestion came from Thing1's Writing With Ease Level 1 Workbook. When he has to listen to and copy from an excerpt, he usually wants to read the whole thing. This is the major reason I am considering using the workbook again next year.

Thing1:
The Reluctant Dragon [by Kenneth Grahame] is really a good story. It is about a boy who makes a friend with a dragon who is a nice dragon. St. George comes, and they talk it all out that he will get him where he has lots of layers of skin and scales during the fight. They had to fight because the villagers told St. George to come. When the fight was over, the boy came over to the dragon, and the dragon opened one eye and winked at him to tell him that he was okay. The villagers learned to not tell people that they need to fight when they do not know about the enemy.

Thing2:
I like the front of it because it has a good picture. I liked when St. George and the little boy took the dragon home. St. George and the dragon and the boy are all my favorite.

Also popular with Thing1 lately:
 The Saturdays
Then There Were Five
The Basketball Mystery

Sadly, he has run out of Happy Hollisters. He will have to reread the ones we have collected since the libraries around here don't carry them.

More popular books with Thing2:
Moving Day
Tic-Tac-Toe Mystery
Flat Track

Babies grow up.

Today I finished listening to Peter Pan on audiobook. Until today, I thought I had made great strides in overcoming the sadness of my babies growing up. But the ending of that story would surely uncover the most deeply buried melancholy in the most stoic heart.

Mine was not so deeply buried, though. I am the one who cried when I turned 10, not because I was in double digits, but because I didn't want my baby siblings to grow up. When I got married, I wanted children of my own, but if it hurt my heart to watch baby brothers and sisters grow up, how much more painful would it be to watch my own offspring?

Too often God has to remind me of his infinitely superior wisdom.  Sometime after the birth of Thing1, after wondering if I was ever going to have the privilege of raising a child, I was comforted by shifting my focus from the precious little people in this world to the most precious One who blesses us with childhood and whom it is my sole purpose to serve and glorify. Why not do my best to help the babies grow up to know this purpose and fulfill it? And then why not rejoice when they do grow up into good people instead of wishing they would stay little forever?

I realized that too tight a grip on yesterday ties up my hands and hinders me from serving today. Since then, I have found that every baby and boyish stage, so far, has been my favorite. Like Peter Pan’s Wendy, I have smiled “wet smiles” at special moments like when Thing1 said he would love me for a thousand years or when I noticed Thing2’s feet hung to The Husband’s knees when he carried him, sleeping, to his bed. I am sure many more smiles will be wet, but unlike my 10-year-old tears, my grownup tears are grateful and content. Until I listen to a book like Peter Pan…

Worth getting out this morning!

Spent $1 on these.

Stick To It.

From The Railway Children (our latest Audible listen) by Edith Nesbit: 

"Stick to it," said Peter, "everything has an end, and you get to it if you only keep all on."

Which is quite true, if you come to think of it, and a useful thing to remember in seasons of trouble - such as measles, arithmetic, impositions, and those times when you are in disgrace, and feel as though no one will ever love you again and you will never - never again - love anybody."

Maybe this commentary on perseverance will brighten someone else's day as much as it brightened mine.


Also in our Audible Library:

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz read by Anne Hathaway.  Her voices are funny and engaging, but the voice of Oz is particularly annoying.
• The Trumpet of the Swan read by E. B. White.  I can't wait to listen to this so I can hear exactly what he had in mind when he wrote the book.  On the sample I heard, his voice is slow and relaxed.  Remind me to update you on what we thought after we listen to the whole thing.
• The Count of Monte Cristo.  For me.  The Husband laughed (good naturedly, of course) every time he got home from work and found me cooking supper with the articulate, accented voice of John Lee blaring from my phone.  After listening for 47 hours (really), I feel like I have the gist of the story, but I need to listen again to really appreciate it.  So many details!  By the way, John Lee is a very boring name to belong to such an exciting voice.
• Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell.  A "new treatment of the world's oldest epic," according to the description on Audible.  Because I never read it, and it is on "the list."  Not for children.  Well, now I've read it...listened to it, at least.  I don't think my ninth grader will be reading this particular version...

CBD links are affiliate links, but Audible links are not!

Learning

"Learning is defined as a permanent change in behavior."
Carmen &Geoffrey McGuinness, Verbal Intelligence

Freedom

"...Freedom being the sauce best beloved by the boyish soul."
                                     Louisa May Alcott, Little Men, Chapter 47

Thank you, Mr. Postman!

Look what came in the mail today! 

Two new books and a CBD Homeschool Sale Catalog. 

We will have leftovers for supper.  I have some reading to do.

Reading Reflex

I did some research this morning on the Phono-Graphix method I'm modeling Thing1's phonics (or non-phonics) after.  I had no idea there was a book for parents!

This is a very logical system that teaches that words are made up of "sound pictures" instead of teaching all the rules and exceptions to rules of traditional phonics.  Basically it teaches from sound, which the child already knows inside and out, to the pictures (letters) that make the sounds instead of teaching letters, which mean nothing to the child, and then linking them with the sounds he already knows.

It is immensely satisfying to my very logical child to make lists of all the different ways that one sound is represented in words.  We call this a map.

And then, eventually, to make a list of the different sounds one picture can make.

The book is Reading Reflex by Carmen and Geoffrey McGuinness.  I am ordering it now.  I just might ditch my Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading that I planned to use for Thing2 now that I have found this book written for parents.  I'll let you know.

Big Kid Books

Thing1 began his first big-kid chapter book Wednesday.  The story was interesting to him, but the biggest challenge was the small print.  When he lost his place, he thought it was impossible to find it without reading it all again.  Something to work on.  One page was enough for the first day, but on the second day he read an entire chapter.  Since Wednesday, he finished the first 10-chapter book and started on a second.

The book was The Mystery of the Laughing Cat, part of a series I enjoyed when I was a kid.  My maiden name is scrawled inside the front cover.  I can't find that particular book on sale now, but I did find a current list of books in the series.  It looks like they have been redone since I collected them.

If he takes to it, a whole new world opens to him!  I have lots of books in this young, fluent-reader category probably because my fondest childhood memories involve this type of reading.  The thrill of having a child realize he can read and love it surpasses every thrill so far in my homeschool adventure.

His summary of the book:

Book Stacks

There's a stack of books on my desk from a Savers haul yesterday.

I'm excited about Thing1 trying the A to Z Mysteries as he has some friends who liked them around his age.  I don't know anything about Shoeshine Girl yet, but I recognize the author, Clyde Robert Bulla, from the Read Aloud Treasury list.  Another interesting one is Noah Webster's Advice to the Young.

 There's a stack of in-progress books by my morning coffee spot.

Swiss Family Robinson is mine and Thing1's current read aloud.  It has been fun and challenging.  Thing2 enjoys the short but sweet stories in The Beginner's Bible.  I just finished Creative Counterpart and appreciated it refreshing me in my purpose.  The Help is my bedtime reading.  I like to have something just for fun to wind down with.

Lastly, there's usually a stack of to-be-read books by my bed.

I am afraid the only way I will ever get through Homer is to listen while I work. It's been sitting on the nightstand for way too long.  I am excited to start The Family (as far as I know, only available through Vision Forum) soon, now that I am finished with Creative Counterpart.  In the interest of decluttering, I will put these back on the shelf today.

I am thankful that my challenge is finding time to read the good books I have rather than not being able to find good books to read.  Most of these are borrowed, Paperback swapped, gifted, or found at Savers.

Where Can I Find Audio Books?

I want to institute a listening time for Thing1 during Things2's rest time.

Factors to Consider:

• The boys received a stereo for Christmas that has a cassette player, CD player, and MP3 hookup.
• Thing1 likes to listen to books, but it is hard to find good ones on tape that are not a hassle to retrieve.
• We have tried the library2go website, which has been okay for me, but it is definitely a hassle, and there are practically no children's books.
• Our libraries have a few books on tape that we can borrow now that we have a cassette player, but we have already listened to all their books on CD, which isn't many.
• I considered buying a membership to the big library in the Fort, but I searched online, and they don't have many good children's audiobooks, either.
• I would like to start listening to the audiobooks suggested in The Well-Trained Mind such as Peter Pan, The Railway Children, Charlotte's Web, etc.
• For myself, I would like to listen (since I don't make time to sit and read) to classics that I never read. 

My Idea::
Joining Audible.

What do you think?  Please comment if there is a solution I have not considered!

*CBD link is an affiliate link.*

Putting it Down in Writing

From Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography:

“The thing most like living one’s life over again, seems to be a Recollection of that Life; and to make that Recollection as durable as possible, the putting it down in writing.”  

One day I will finish this book.  For now, I will enjoy the gems I found in the first half.

Eeyore

"A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference."
-Eeyore (A. A. Milne)