2014 summer reading, narration, and copy-work

I have used year-round home-schooling for several years.  There are some awesome reasons for doing it-one of them being continuous learning.  Summer education can be light, but very useful.

This summer I am having the boys continue with math, but dropping all other formal curriculum.  They will still be doing language arts and learning an assortment of themes, but it will be accomplished differently.  

They have joined the summer reading program at our local public library, and are reading books from a reading list that I created.  I require them to read 45 minutes per day, and  I am also having each one of them complete a form I prepared, summarizing what they have read. 

Just a few goodies from the summer reading program.  There was also a beanbag ball; it's around here somewhere.  They love doing this.  It gives the boys and me a lot of opportunities for some free/cheap dates together.

Justin and Jonathan are reading the same books and completing the same forms.  

Justin's summary: 

Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand

Jonathan's summary: 

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli

Ryan is completing a different book list and form.  He narrates what he has read to me, and then I create a cursive writing practice sheet using his narration. 

Ryan's narration below -handwriting part not completed yet- from Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John: 

 I  used this site to create the cursive writing practice sheet:

  http://www.worksheetworks.com/english/writing/handwriting/handwriting-cursive-copy-old.html )

Here are Justin and Jonathan's first batch of library books from my list.  I was so thankful that the library carried these titles:

Winter Reading

It seems like the tendency around the holidays is that kids tend to have their heads in the clouds. It's easy for that to happen to adults as well!

Around here, the cold weather isn't really something that keeps the boys from going outside. In fact, they have actually said that they enjoy playing outside more when it's cooler more than they do when it is hot.

However with Christmas coming up and with this momma needing to work on some projects, I decided to come up with an idea to give them something extra to do that would be educational.

So, I decided to do a "reading contest". Today we finished our cute little bulletin board for the wall.  Very, very easy!

I used a foam posterboard. I also found some great lined stationary at this site on which to write book information.
Clipart can be printed from here. We used a glue-stick to paste everything to the board except for their book lists.  I pinned those.
The boys are to write on the list what books they read, the author, and how many pages. I told them that they get a sticker for every 20 pages read. The older boys get extra incentives for reading to Ryan out loud.

I sat down with Michael and we decided that the "contest" would go through the month of December and into January. We decided what the rewards would be and made it something they'd be excited to get.  Some ideas are cash, dates with dad, inexpensive outings, privileges such as getting to stay up later, etc.

The main rule is that I get to choose the books they read. I decided to choose a mix of topics so that they will actually be learning what I want them to learn. When I had reading contests in the past, they tended to pick easy books that had no significance.

We are using our local library.  Justin is already begging me to go back and get more books as he has read almost everything I have chosen (and that was just on Friday!).

Reading to chickens

Jonathan reading to his new chick.  I hope the poor thing learned something.

Routine - Update

Yes, we are back to day shift around here. Yippee! I am happy to have an early morning routine instead of later.


Here is an update on some of the things we are studying:

Have I mentioned how thankful I am to have this blog? It is so nice to be able to document our home education activities with pictures... and with this type of ease! This looks so much nicer than my mundane handwritten journals!

• Science: We are still reading the huge book The Bee People (which I started for our bee unit study). Yesterday, we did an experiment about matter and watched videos that teach the concept.

Everything is made of matter. When you add energy to it, it changes forms. So, of course to begin with, we did the old frying of ice experiment.

Ice - solid

Add energy/ heat

Ice/ solid turns to water/ liquid

Continue the energy/heat and it changes into a gas

• History - we are studying about the early explorers who came to America. Columbus, Hudson, Estevanico, etc...

We are re-creating our time-line:

Last year, we tried posting it on cardstock onto the walls. Sticky tack doesn't always work well on walls, and I discovered a new way of doing it using brown craft paper. The boys love to draw, so I am letting them do the artwork. They drew the explorer's ships :-). The nice thing about the craft paper is that you can roll it up and put it in the corner!

The history book we use has a lot of fun activities. In the last lesson, it explained that the explorers likely used certain types of kn0t-tying techniques for survival (as most sailors do). Justin demonstrates the square knot:

• Language Arts: (Phonics, Writing, Language, Reading, & Spelling) is coming along well. The boys enjoy typing out their spelling words on the computer, and I think by using the computer they are learning 2 things at once (how to type and how to spell!). I have enough Swagbucks to get Justin's new Writing book free! Woo hoo!

The boys are also reading library books about their favorite subjects these days in their leisure time. Justin got a few Garfield comics and a book about vikings. Jonathan is interested in knights and enjoys reading to Ryan.


I am still plodding through Ryan's reading lessons. He is coming along very well. Maybe one of these days I can sneak a video of him reading without him knowing it.

• Math is mostly workbook style. We use supplemental workbooks and we try to do the supplemental lessons that they have in the back of their books.

Jonathan is working through Twin Sisters Addition at this point and Justin is also going through some supplemental exercises in the back of his math.

Math is a good subject for both of them. They do not seem to have any trouble understanding concepts.

• As far as social activities, we still meet with friend/s on Mondays. We either meet in our home, our friend's home or the library (and the park on warm days). One week there were nine kids running through my house. Lots of fun!

Quick Update

I am trying to keep my computer time to a minimum, but I wanted to post a really quick update.

Besides ABeka Math, Reading, & Language Arts, learning hymns (How Firm a Foundation presently!), and drilling with flashcards via "buddy school", we are reading the following books. I read a short section each morning. It may take awhile to finish, but it also allows us to get a lot of information into our brains!

• Just finished Genesis today!
• Scripture Memory: Proverbs 9:10,11 *We were playing a game today with it. If you like "x", then say the verse. Ryan said, "If you like to slide down muddy slides, say the verse." He then proceeded to quote the verse with fervor! I thought that was cute!
  
• Still reading Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends
• Boyscouts of America 1911 version (this book is huge, but reading in little bites!)
  
• Heath, Safety, & Manners (family reading although it is for first grade... it is a good review for Justin and a good start for Ryan!)
• Don't Know Much About American History - learned about the Boston Tea Party today... hoping to find the Disney "Johnny Tremain" movie at the library.
  

• The Great Dinosaur Mystery SOLVED! by Ken Ham who is the founder and executive director of Answers in Genesis. We just started this book yesterday.
  

Something I liked that we read today:" God as foundational to ALL thinking (biology, history, geology, etc.) is the Christian World view. Man's beliefs (evolutionary history) as foundational to ALL thinking is called a Secular world view. Most Christians have been indoctrinated through the media and education system to think in a secular way. They tend to take their secular thinking TO the Bible, instead of using the Bible to BUILD all their thinking.


I(Kim) personally love those verses that say:
I Corinthians 3:18-21a

¹⁸Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.

¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

²⁰And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

²¹Therefore let no man glory in men

A Reason to Read Well

There is just something about reading to little brothers that helps with expression and enunciation. If there is a "reason" to read well, it only helps!

Update:

We took 2 days off school this week just to have some breather time. I needed to catch up on some housework, and the boys enjoyed just playing and relaxing. SCCA is having their fall break this week too, except they are starting with half a day Wednesday and taking Thursday & Friday off. But I felt like we needed it at the beginning of the week, so we took it then.

Believe it or not, that little "break" was just what I needed. I woke up today ready for school to start back again! One of my favorite things about "doing school" is taking each child aside and cuddling him while we study "facts" together. I love seeing that light of understanding dawn on his face after I explain something. I love watching his profile as he reads. It is hard to explain, but it's something I wouldn't want to trade.

We are still studying the character trait "attentiveness" in the morning before we start seat-work and the 3 R's.
I know I am spending a lot of time on it, but I think it's important!

The other day, I did google search on the word "attentiveness", and I found a lot of interesting things. One website, called "Character First" had a definition page, a story page, an analogy page and then a poem. Interestingly, they used a deer for the analogy. I think it's pretty funny because Michael picked up on the deer analogy and we used it a long time ago. They also had a story about Abraham Lincoln (my boys love reading about him).
I liked following the poem well enough to print out, and I am teaching it to the boys:

Attentiveness:

I will look at someone speaking
And I'll listen all I can.
I will sit or stand up straight
Like a soldier on command.
I will not draw attention;
I will guard against distraction.
I will learn to ask the questions
That will help me understand.

There is more to the poem, but I thought the rest of the poem was silly/unnecessary so I am just
teaching the part above.

I bought a book awhile back called Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends. I copied this picture and the one of the other book from Amazon.com so that's why it says "click to look inside". If you really want to look inside you will have to go to Amazon.com and click their picture. :-)



I believe I mentioned it in a post before.
I had started reading it in the mornings to the boys, but laid it aside for awhile. I started it again today. It's cute since it is written by siblings for siblings. There are all types of cute cartoons through the book. The first cartoon is of a cat and dog fighting over dinner. The boys really like it so far. From the reviews I have read it tackles the subject in the light of having a servants' heart. That is what I hope to accomplish through the reading it to them.

Library Reading fun

I am very excited about our afternoon library book reading (mentioned in a post below)! Mondays are usually our days to visit the library in the afternoon. We enjoyed it even more today because Michael was able to go with us, and because Justin was able to use his very own brand new library card and book bag.

Today I was able to consult a very helpful binder in the children's section listing the readers & chapter books written by Christian authors!

Some books we found that were on the right level for my boys:
Adventures in Odyssey Readers
Readers for children by Beverly Lewis - I love her books for adults!
Boxcar children
Henry & Mudge
Various science readers about Volcanoes, Rocks & Minerals, and Meat-eating plants (Justin loves these!)
Jonathan is enjoying whole books now (instead of 2 or 3 word sentences) on his level. It's exciting to hear him read and understand entire books.