Homeschool Discoveries

I don’t have very many distinct memories of books I read as an elementary-school aged child.  I do remember a few book series I enjoyed reading, like Nancy Drew, The Babysitter’s Club and Sweet Valley Twins (Ugh, anyone else remember those? I distinctly remember also that as a girl about Miss M’s age, my mom said I was not allowed to read the “high school” series from Sweet Valley.  Good call, Mom!).

As far as individual books go, Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’ Dell is one of the few I clearly remember reading.  I also remember that after reading it, I incorporated it into my own imaginative play as I pretended to be the main character from the story.  I’m fairly sure I read it in 3rd grade (based on my memory of which house I “played” this in, from the many I lived in during childhood).  So it was a natural choice to add Island of the Blue dolphins to our read-aloud this for this year. Though I am sure it is one Miss M could have handled on her own, I definitely wanted to share the experience of this book together with her.  I entered into it with some apprehension, however, that I might be disappointed in the re-read of this book that was so highly regarded in my memory!

Luckily, I was not disappointed.  I think I enjoyed it just as much as I remember having enjoyed it when I was Miss M’s age, and Miss M said it was one of her favorites of this year as well.

While this strikes me as a book many of us probably read as a child, here’s a brief recap of the plot:  Karana is a girl living with her small tribe on a remote island off the coast of California.  The population of the tribe is decimated following a battle with a group of Aleut hunters who have come to the island to hunt otter.  Eventually the decision is made that the remnant of the tribe must leave the island.  The tribe’s chief leaves to get help from the mainland, and a ship arrives to take the tribe away.  Karana’s brother, however, is not found aboard the ship as it is leaving the island, and Karana abandons the ship to find her brother, knowing they will be left behind.

Karana’s brother is killed by wild dogs soon after.  (I suppose this could upset some sensitive readers — but if a potential reader/listener reads the summary on the back of the book before beginning, they will have a sizable hint that something must happen to her brother, as the summary states she is alone on the island!).   Karana is thus left alone on the island to find her own way to survive — for what she first believes may only be weeks, months or a year — but for what instead turns out to be 18 years before a ship finally arrives that takes her to the mainland.

Karana’s story is one not only of survival, but of finding friends in unexpected ways, of harmony with her surroundings and of finding peace in difficult circumstances.  I grew up as an only child (in my immediate household — I have half and step siblings I did not live with), and I think that I could relate to Karana’s “aloneness” in some ways.  Other than that, I find it a bit hard, actually, to put my finger on why I liked this book so much as a child and still like it now.  Clearly, I don’t directly relate to her experience of being alone in my current living situation (quite the opposite — I definitely would appreciate a few more moments of peace and quiet!).    I suppose I might be most drawn to Karana’s strong sense of resolve to press on despite the obstacles and find beauty and enjoyment around her.

(Small side note — I picked the small cover picture that reflects the cover of the copy of Island of the Blue Dolphins that I own.  Isn’t it a great illustration? I like it much better than some of the other covers).

After many quite serious, historical read-aloud this year, we’ve next moved on to something much more “fun” and lighthearted.  Miss M and I are a few days into read The Mysterious Benedict Society, having heard and read many positive reviews.  It’s a long one though so this might keep us occupied for a two (or three or four) weeks…if we can keep ourselves from not staying up too late reading it.  😉

I’m linking up with Read Aloud Thursday @ Hope is the Word!

It’s always interesting to see what my boys, ages 4 and 6, pick out at the library when they browse in the non-fiction section.   I’ve heard that many boys gravitate toward this area of the library.  My boys have gone in phases.  I remember Mr. E (now age 6) going through a phase at about age 3 where he wanted to hear any and every book about sports we could find at the library.  Mr. E and Mr. K have both gone through phases where they wanted books about cars and other vehicles.  Various science topics, weapons and war in general are often popular with the boys.

Lately, they haven’t ventured much into the non-fiction section on their own.  While they’ve enjoyed history and science-related books I’ve selected as a part of topics we are studying as a family, they have gravitated more toward Star Wars, Ninjas, and Super Heroes for their book selections.

This past week, however, they came away from the non-fiction section with a big stack of books to bring home.  I think they chose Pox, Plagues and Pestilence by Richard Platt more because of the outlandish illustrations of giants rats, bugs and germs than because they were really excited to learn about disease.  They were actually surprised to find out that this was a true book!

Pox, Plagues and Pestilence details the history, causes, effects, cures and more for many of history’s worst diseases — the black plague, small pox, malaria, influenza and more.  The pages are very busy, full of lots of illustrations and small boxes of text.  I think this very visual presentation was part of what kept the boys listening…for over 45 minutes while I read almost all of the book on a recent afternoon!

I asked them several times if they were ready to be done hearing about death and disease…but no, they wanted me to continue.  I thought the author did a pretty good job of giving death statistics and describing the effects of the diseases without being unnecessarily gruesome.  One word of warning for those with a young audience like mine — there are a couple references to diseases being transmitted sexually.   But those references are minor and easy to edit out for an audience not ready for that sort of discussion.

Many of the books in this most recent library stack are about cars.  I was surprised at how much I myself was draw into Fast! Supercars by Ian Graham.  Mr. K picked this one out on a recent night when I was on duty to read bedtime stories to the boys.  I told him I wasn’t sure we had time for the entire book…but I kept on reading to the end because I was interested too!

Now, before you are too amazed, I do have  to say that I am a sucker for anything having to do with transportation history.   🙂  Fast! Supercars covers a lot of historical ground about the cars that were the fastest in their day, and many that broke the land-speed record at various times in history.  People have been trying to beat the land-speed record for well over 100 years.   I was vaguely aware of that, but I had no idea that more recent land-speed records were set by jet cars and rocket cars — or that the current land-speed record holder broke the sound barrier traveling over 700 miles per hour.  The boys and I all thought that was pretty amazing!

It’s always amazing to think about how much random information the boys are picking up from all these books they select at the library — and how much it adds to their imaginative play.  Just today I overheard the boys pretending that some of their lego weapons could infect the bad guy minifigures with the black plague or smallpox.  🙂

I’m linking up with Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope is the Word!

Earlier this winter, Miss M and I read the first three books in Louise Erdrich’s Birchbark House series.  You can read my review of The Birchbark House here, and my review of The Game of Silence and The Porcupine Year here.

After finishing these three books, which feature main character Omakayas as a girl, we decided we wanted to wait a bit before reading the fourth book in the series, Chickadee.  Chickadee picks up Omakayas’ story a number of years later.  She is now a grown woman with twin boys of her own.   After reading and enjoying the first three books, we just weren’t quite ready for Omakayas to grow up immediately.

Now that a few months have passed since the reading of those three books, we were ready to meet Omakayas in 1866.  (This is actually well-timed historically, since we just finished up a read aloud on the Civil War!).   It’s maple sugaring time, and Omakayas and her family are in the Sugar Bush with many other families.  An older man makes fun of Chickadee for his small size and unusual namesake — Great-Grandmother Nokomis gives this older gentleman a piece of her mind, while Chickadee’s twin, Makoons, takes it a step further and pulls a prank on the old man.

In retaliation, the old man’s sons decide to kidnap one of the twins to take back to their cabin as a servant.  They don’t really care which one they end up with…after all, they reason, don’t they look just alike? And couldn’t the family spare one since they have two of the same?

Babiche and Batiste reach into the family’s shelter in the night, and end up taking Chickadee with them.  Babiche and Bastiste are pretty hilarious and very awful all at the same time. Living in a mouse-infested cabin and seeming to not really care about this, they sing songs in praise of the awful concoction they apparently eat at every meal (and demand that Chickadee prepare for them now that he is their servant):

Bouyah, Bouyah!

The way to start the day!

If your stew is full of hair,

Just spit it out and swear!

If your stew smells like your feet,

 there’s more of it to eat…

Not long after being kidnapped, Chickadee outsmarts the brothers, is temporarily “rescued” by a group of Catholic nuns who would like nothing more than to scrub him down and cut off his braids, and then sets off a journey through the wilderness that he hopes will lead him home.

Meanwhile, his family has traveled to the plains to try and find Chickadee.  Even when they realize he is no longer with the brothers who kidnap him, they decide to put down roots near the Red River while they await Chickadee’s return — starting a new chapter in the family’s story as learn they way of life in a very different environment.

I liked seeing how the characters have grown and changed in the year’s that have passed since The Porcupine Year.   Even Omakayas’ brother Quill has grown up into a respectable, married man (who plays a big role in helping Chickadee return home!).  Nearly all the major characters from the previous books appear in Chickadee — though I kept wondering what happened to the boy that Omakayas’ mother adopted as a baby in The Game of Silence, who traveled with them as a toddler to the Lake of the Woods area in the third book.  He isn’t mentioned, so I hope that plot “hole” is explained in a future book in the series.

Miss M and I enjoyed this title in the Birchbark House series just as much as we enjoyed the others.  And we’ll be looking forward with great anticipation for the next book in the series (though, in looking at the gaps between the previous books, we probably have at least another year or two to wait!).  Readers who haven’t read the first three books could easily jump in at this point in the story…but the first three books are so good that you probably wouldn’t want to.  🙂

I’m linking up with Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope is the Word!

As we wind down our school year and with it, our US History studies for the year, I wanted to do one high-quality read-aloud set in the Civil War time period.  From a short list of Civil War novels I considered, Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith stood out for several reasons:  It won a Newbery Award in 1957, it was a book I remember my step-Dad telling me was very influential to him, and some how I don’t think I had ever read it before. Despite being exposed to many documentaries about the Civil War growing up, I think the only book I read on the topic was Across Five Aprils.

Rifles for Watie follows the story of Jeff Bussey, a teenager from Kansas who decides to enlist in the Union army.  He is sick and tired of the “bushwackers” (pro-slavery men from Missouri) who cross the border and attack Kansans who are anti-slavery, and he figures that joining up to fight in the war is the only way he can really do something about it.  Although at first he misses out on actual fighting (and also gets on the bad side of his commander in the process), he eventually is involved in several battles, first in the infantry, then later in the cavalry and even as a scout.

This book is set in the western front of the war.  Bussey and his comrades fight in Missouri, Arkansas and what is now Oklahoma.   While out on a scouting mission, he finds himself in an unusual situation — a remark by his partner on the scouting mission finds them joining up on the Confederate side with Stand Watie‘s Cherokee Mounted Rifles.   For months he plays the part of a rebel, waiting to find out some important information before returning to the union side — and he discovers how surprisingly likeable both soldiers and civilians on the enemy side really are.

Rifles for Watie is quite a long book.  At 352 pages of small type (in the edition we checked out from the library), it took us close to three weeks to finish it!  But our patience in making it to the end of this book was well worth it.  I would say the most exciting part of the story is the final few chapters of the book, when Jeff is embedded as an impromptu spy with the Confederates.  Much of the story gives a sense of the reality of war for the soldiers (lots of waiting, travel and boredom with a few battles thrown in), as well as of the horror of war without being too graphic. We also liked how Rifles for Watie gives the reader empathy for both sides, and for people groups often overlooked in other books about the Civil War, like members of various Native American tribes.

A funny side note — as we approached the end of the book and the identity is revealed of a union officer who is selling repeating rifles to Watie to make a personal profit, Miss M said to me, “oh, I totally knew it.  The author foreshadowed that for most of the book!”  I didn’t even know that she knew the word “foreshadow”! We don’t have a lot of discussions about literary terminology, but apparently she is picking it up from somewhere.  🙂

Overall I would say this is a great choice for mid to upper elementary as a read-aloud set in this time period, and is probably enjoyable as an independent read in middle school and up.
I’m linking up with Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope is the Word!

This year for our bedtime reading, Miss M and I have mostly read books to correlate with our American History studies.    Before beginning a serious read-aloud about the Civil War, however, Miss M and I decided to pick something more on the “light and fun” side of things.

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg is a book I am nearly certain I read in elementary school, though before we started reading I couldn’t really remember much about it other than it had something to do with kids running away to an art museum.

Claudia and Jamie are two kids from the suburbs who decide to run away together.  Claudia is the instigator in this effort, and she wants not just to run away to some random place — she chooses the Metropolitan Museum of Art as her destination.  Claudia is dissatisfied with all the typical things — life is boring, parents are unfair, allowance is too small, brothers (except for Jamie, apparently) are too annoying.   She and Jamie leave for school one day with instrument cases packed with clothes, and head for the city instead of the school building.

The two kids manage to hide well enough in the museum to not get caught each night, and find a large old bed to sleep in.   They become intrigued by the mystery of a statue that the museum purchased at a bargain price, and may have sculpted by Michelangelo.  Claudia and Jamie hope they can solve the mystery of the statue — a quest that takes over any other reason they may have run away.

Miss M and I had a good time with this book — it was hard to put down each night at bedtime (always the sign of a good book!).  I’m sure Miss M could relate to many of Claudia’s complaints about life (especially the part about the brothers!).  I think there is something appealing at any age to hiding somewhere exciting like a museum and getting away with it!  Miss M and I had a great discussion about how a story like this might have been somewhat realistic in the 1960s when this book was published (It won the Newberry in 1968), it could probably not happen now — art museums have much more sophisticated security systems these days!

This is a bit of a “finding yourself” sort of a story as well.  Claudia wrestles with why she really wanted to run away — what her purpose was in it and what she wanted to accomplish.  I found Claudia to be very relate-able as a character — when she is a bad mood or frustrated she “needs an argument.” I may or may not resemble that characteristic.  😉 I’m sure I must have really enjoyed it as a child as well.

From the Mixed Up Files… would be another great choice for a mid to upper elementary student to read alone, but it made a very enjoyable read-aloud to share together too.

I’m linking up with Read-Aloud Thursday @ Hope is the Word!

For our US History studies, we’re currently doing a short unit on slavery and the Underground Railroad before moving on to the Civil War.  I had a little bit harder time selecting a longer read aloud to go along with this unit.  I checked my usual sources, and I found plenty of picture books…and many chapter books that seemed a bit too mature for Miss M, my third grader.   I was somewhat interested in Brady by Jean Fritz (since we have enjoyed many of her other books), but I wasn’t sure when that book would arrive since I was on a waiting list for one of two copies our library system owns of that title.

I decided to go with a recommendation I got on a forum for Trouble Don’t Last by Shelley Pearsall.   Set in 1859, Trouble Don’t Last tells the story of two slaves running away from a master in Kentucky.

Samuel is an 11-year-old boy who never planned on running away.  He is awakened in the middle of the night by Harrison, a much older slave, and dragged along a bit unwillingly as the two sneak away from their master’s farm.   The entire book is the story of their journey — hiding in trees and bushes, being helped across the river to Ohio by a former slave, being hidden in a cellar, a church and a peddler’s wagon on the underground railroad, stumbling into a settlement of free black people (some people here are helpful while others are downright unfriendly), and even hiding on a real railroad car to move more quickly toward freedom in Canada.

Trouble Don’t Last definitely kept us intrigued and wondering what would happen next on Samuel and Harrison’s journey.  Pearsall also reveals more about each of the main characters as they continue on their journey — their “back-story” and their connection to one another.   I thought this book was a nice mix of describing some of the horror that happened to slaves (such as being beaten or whipped), while not going overboard with descriptions that would not be appropriate for an elementary school audience.   These are brought in as stories of what happened to Harrison and others in the past — not emotionally-charged incidents happening during the time frame of the story (something I was concerned about with other books on this topic I passed over).

Before this unit in our history studies, I have to admit I did not know very much about this topic.  With just a cursory understanding of the Underground Railroad, it was easy for me to have the impression this was something super-well organized that everyone who needed to know about it somehow just knew how the operation worked.  Of course, that was not the case!  The Underground Railroad was a broad network of individuals who mostly didn’t know each other and maybe were just barely willing to do their part.  Slaves had just heard vague stories and knew maybe a certain direction to head — they may not have even known if they would get help or not on the way.

Trouble Don’t Last portrays that quite well — Samuel and Harrison know to head north (and, as it turns out, do have a particular destination in Canada in mind), and aren’t quite sure how they will make it all the way to freedom.   They are as surprised as anyone to end up in the basement of a “fancy white people’s church” or to be hiding on a railroad car — they’ve never even seen a real train before!  Some of the people helping them seem to have their reservations about their part in helping slaves to freedom — the widow just across the border in Ohio helps because she thinks it what her dead husband would want her to do.  A peddler helping the escaping slaves seems to have his own angle as well and at any sign of trouble is eager to be done with them.

Overall, I was quite pleased with this choice for a read-aloud on the topic of the Underground Railroad.  We started a second book to correlate with this unit that we were less pleased with and did not finish — but that’s maybe a topic for another post.  After an intense couple of weeks of reading Trouble Don’t Last, as well as a large stack of picture books on slavery and the Underground Railroad, Miss M was ready to move on and asked we not start another read-aloud on this topic.   Brady by Jean Fritz finally did arrive at our library — I guess I may take a look at it myself and make note of whether we will read it at a future time.

I’m linking up with read-aloud Thursday @ Hope is the Word!