Homeschool Discoveries

Sharing a few things I've discovered along the way…

A is for Apples (“Life of Fred: Apples”, that is) March 18, 2013

Filed under: Books,Math — kirstenjoyhill @ 4:11 pm

Last year I spent a few months doing the weekly “Blogging through the Alphabet” challenge at Ben and Me.  I didn’t quite make it through all the letters, but it was a lot of fun.  I wasn’t quite ready to start all over again right away…but now that I have sat out the last 26 weeks, I am ready to start again with Round 3 of Blogging Through the Alphabet!

My “A” is for “Apples”…but not just any kind of apples.  A great math book called Life of Fred: Apples.

Life of Fred is a unique series of math textbooks.  While previous books in the Life of Fred series were for late elementary school or middle school and up, the Life of Fred elementary series (beginning with Apples, of course) starts out at a level even most Kindergarteners can understand.

Life of Fred is a very unique series of math books — they tell a story!  Each book tells a little Life of Fred Applesmore of the story of Fred, a very unusual college math professor who happens to only be five years old.  Basic math concepts are interwoven throughout the humorous story about Fred’s day.

In Life of Fred: Apples, readers learn about addition facts that equal seven, calendar and time concepts and some basic instruction about sets, among other things.  At the end of each chapter a short “Your Turn to Play” section gives readers a chance to practice the topic in the chapter with just a few (generally about 3 to 5) questions.

As I mentioned, many of the concepts in Apples are fairly simple.  Even Mr. E is “beyond” several of these concepts in his regular math book.  But since Life of Fred is a series of story books, it makes sense to begin at the beginning.  All three older kids (Miss M–8, Mr. E–almost 6, and Mr. K–4),  really enjoyed listening to Apples, and were eager to begin the second book, Butterflies, right away after we finished it.

Is Life of Fred a replacement for a regular math curriculum?  At the elementary level it is a bit hard to imagine that this would suffice as enough explanation and practice for most students.  A motivated parent might be able to fill in the gaps and provide other means of practice to go along with Fred.   Or they might make a nice “break” for a student who is struggling or burned out on their regular curriculum.

At our house, we are considering Fred to be “math dessert.”    We still do our regular math programs every day (or almost every day, anyway!).  Then Life of Fred is a “treat” to read a couple times per week.   Each chapter only takes a few minutes to read, so we often read after or during lunch or snack.   We could easily go through the books at a faster pace since the kids like them so much.  But at $16 each, I don’t want to buy too many this year.  🙂  We’ll stretch them out, and enjoy Fred slowly over the next couple years (and perhaps over, and over again after that as the kids re-read them!)

To see what other bloggers are writing about for the letter ‘A”, visit this week’s link-up at Ben and Me!

Blogging Through the Alphabet

 

On Time Changes, Internet Connections and Vintage Books March 13, 2013

Filed under: Books,News and Info — kirstenjoyhill @ 12:46 pm
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I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels thrown for a loop by the Daylight Savings time change over the weekend.  The semi-annual time change seems to get harder the older I get and the more kids whose time schedules I have to manage as well.  🙂

On top of the time change and the usual life excitement and distractions, we’ve had ongoing internet connectivity issues that have seemed particularly bad the last several evenings.  Tony spent a while on the phone with tech support last night and a few changes we’ve made to our set-up might help…or we’ll have to replace some of our equipment soon!  So, all that adds up to having a hard time finding time to blog the last few days.

I’ve recently downloaded several vintage English books on to my iPad — books covering topics like  grammar, spelling usage and composition.  I just love looking at vintage books.  Having finished up Sentence Family (review coming soon!), I decided we would start the vintage story Grammarland by M.L. Nesbitt.    We read the introduction today, and I was struck by the quote, “For who could imagine a king or queen saying, ‘I is,’ or ‘you was,’ or ‘it wasn’t me.’  No one speaks that way except people who have never heard of Judge Grammar.”     Now, I think I have heard plenty of people say, “It wasn’t me!”   At least, plenty of children in my house.  Or maybe they are more likely to just say, “Not me!”.    I would venture to guess that “Not I” and “It wasn’t I”  sound pretty formal to most 21st century readers/listeners.   I love the formal style of this 1878 story, but it will be interesting to see as well how many other grammar conventions have changed in the past 135 years!

I was also struck by a little statement in the introduction to The Modern Speller by Kate Van Wagenen, another book I downloaded “just for fun.”    The book starts out by mentioning that this book emphasizes teaching spelling by the Dictation Method — essentially with full sentences instead of lists of words because it helps the student move toward real composition.  The author states, “It is because of this great gain that in all modern schools, teachers are beginning to recognize the advantages of teaching spelling by the dictation method.”    Maybe the modern schools were doing this in 1916 with Van Wagenen wrote her spelling book, but clearly this knowledge was lost somewhere along the way…since all “modern” schools when I was a kid and most schools and spelling methods today teach with a list of words.  🙂  I’m curious now as to how this dictation method exactly worked itself out in these “modern” schools of 1916.

 

Book Discoveries this Week: A Pioneer Sampler March 7, 2013

Filed under: Books,History — kirstenjoyhill @ 10:59 pm

When I made my spreadsheet of books for our US History studies this year,  I originally stuck A Pioneer Sampler by Barbara Greenwood in the “activities and crafts” category.  So when it arrived from the library a bit after we started our most recent history unit (focusing on the pioneers from 1815-1860), I just put it in the book basket and didn’t look at it very closely.

As our unit progressed I finally took the time to look at it.  I discovered that A Pioneer Sampler does have some crafts and activities in it, but it has quite a bit of other content besides that.

A Pioneer Sampler follows the life of a fictional pioneer family (The Robertsons) on a backwoods farm in 1840.  pioneer samplerEach of the nineteen chapters in this fairly lengthy book (240 pages) tells a short story – a vignette if you will — about the life of the Robertson family over the course of the year.   Following each story are one or more short informational sections discussing everything from weaving fabric to making fires to getting lost in the woods.   Intermixed with these factual sections are directions for trying some of these activities at home — like growing a potato plant, making butter or painting with stencils.

In some ways this book made a great read aloud for a unit on the pioneers.  Short chapters broken down into sections make it easy to read a portion each day.  Since we started this book late in our unit, we felt a bit rushed to try and finish it all.    By the time we were about three-fourths of the way through the book, Miss M and I mutually decided not to finish it as a read-aloud.  We had already moved on to our next history topic, and we have too many other interesting books beckoning to us from the book basket.  We’ll hang on to it for a bit in case Miss M wants to read a little bit more on her own.

As interesting and thorough as this book is about pioneer life, I did feel it was a bit redundant for us.  Between the many book basket fiction and non-fiction selections we had for our pioneers unit and our previous reading about pioneer families (including the Little House on the Prairie Series, the Little House on Rocky Ridge series, Caddie Woodlawn, and Bound for Oregon, a book we recently read) I think I had already picked up many of the tidbits of information this book was presenting.

I would probably recommend A Pioneer Sampler for readers less familiar with 19th century pioneer life who don’t plan on reading an extensive list of books on this topic.  You could read this book and call the general topic of pioneer living pretty well covered.   An independent reader who is highly interested in pioneer times might also find this an interesting read.  I’m sure it’s within Miss M’s ability to read on her own if she finds herself interested and motivated to do so.

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

 

Book Discoveries This Week: Bound for Oregon February 28, 2013

Filed under: Books — kirstenjoyhill @ 11:10 pm
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When many of us parents hear the words “Oregon Trail” (especially those of us who were in elementary school in the mid to late 80s), we immediately think of the text-and-minimal-graphics computer game we played on the Apple IIe at school.  Remember buying your supplies, heading out on the trail, trying to shoot animals, and hoping no one would die? I’m not sure if I ever made it to Oregon in that game.  I think I typically either killed off my characters, got bored or ran out of time before I could “win” by making it to the end of the trail.

Since I somehow missed out on having any pre-Civil War American History in school, my knowledge of the Oregon Trail pretty much started and ended with that game.  🙂  For our current US History unit (1815-1860, with a focus on the pioneers), I knew I wanted a book that would take us in depth on the subject.  Miss M read a few non-fiction selections, and I chose Bound for Oregon by Jean Van Leeuwen as a bedtime read-aloud.

Bound for Oregon is a story told as a first-person narrative of Mary Ellen Todd, a 1o year bound for oregonold girl who makes the journey with her family along the Oregon Trail in 1852.   Mary Ellen and her family make new friends and part with them again, deal with sickness, difficult river crossings, trouble with their animals, unfriendly Indians, bad weather and difficult terrain — all the typical challenges and hardships that most pioneering families face as they journeyed thousands of miles across the plains and mountains on their way to Oregon and California.

Miss M and I definitely found this book interesting, though I didn’t think it had some of the same compelling qualities that some of our other read-alouds have had this year.   While hardship and even death (of friends the Todds meet along the way) are present in the story, there was little doubt in my mind of what was going to happen in the end.   I just “knew” that this story would end up happily with the Todd family arriving in Oregon (without having to read the last chapter first or at least early…something I’ve actually done with some books!).   In some ways I guess that makes this book more “educational” about what life was like on the trail for average pioneers who made the journey successfully.

As I read this book I would have guessed that Mary Ellen and her family were a neat conglomeration of average families on the Oregon Trail created for this book.  So I was a bit surprised to learn in reading the author’s note at the end of the book that Bound for Oregon is based on a true story — recollections that Mary Ellen shared with her children and grandchildren that were eventually written down and preserved.

In the end I would say that Bound for Oregon fit a nice spot in our historical fiction read-aloud list for the year,   but it’s not one that I would say is a must-read.

I’m linking up with…

 

Book Discoveries this Week: The Game of Silence and The Porcupine Year February 21, 2013

Filed under: Books — kirstenjoyhill @ 10:45 pm

As we were finishing The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich a couple weeks ago, Miss M and I both agreed — we needed to continue on with its sequels without delay (so much so I ordered a copy of the second book in the series from Amazon so as not to have to wait for a copy to arrive at our library.  Such is the luxury of being a “Prime” member of Amazon).  🙂

The Game of Silence picks up Omakayas’ story about two years later.  A group of raggedy distant relatives of Omakayas’ people arrive on her island, having fled their homes after enemy attacks.  Besides the personal horrors these people have suffered, they bring bad news that the white men intend to drive the Ojibwe people from their island home.  A group of men are sent out in all directions to find out the truth and the cause of this situation.

This sense of imminent change hangs in the background of The Game of Silence, yet the rhythm of the story is still the seasons in one year of Omakayas’ life as she grows and matures.  Miss M could totally relate to Omakayas’ frequent annoyance with her younger brother Pinch (we know all about annoying younger brothers in this house!).   I could completely relate with Omakayas as she tries to impress her family by going out to start the rice harvesting early, yet having her plan go all wrong as she gets in trouble for starting too soon, and her already-prideful cousin Two Strike get glory and attention for her hunting success.

The title of the book comes from a game the grown ups ask the children to play when they must have an important discussion.  One of the elders sings a song, and all the children know they must be quiet, and prizes are given out to the children who can remain quiet the longest (isn’t that a good idea?).  As the book closes, a year of “silence” of another sort ends as few of the scouts sent out return, and those that do return, do so with bad news — there is to be no changing the minds of the government.  Omakayas and her people must leave their beloved island home.

The Game of Silence ends with Omakayas’ family leaving their home in search of a new place to call home, and the story picks up not much later in The Porcupine Year as they are still on their long journey that will take them to northern Minnesota.

While there were a few funny moments in the first two books of this series, we definitely found the most humor in this, the third book.  The story opens as Omakayas and Pinch barely survive being swept through river rapids while hunting at night.  While separated from their family, Pinch has an unfortunate run-in with a baby porcupine and ends up with Quills all over his head and body — earning a new name for himself (Quill) and a pet in the process.   This porcupine plays a surprisingly important role in this next year of the life of Omakayas’ family, which they will forever remember as the “porcupine year.”

The journey to what will hopefully become a new home near Lake of the Woods starts out well enough, but takes a turn toward adversity as their trust is betrayed and many of their possessions and food stores are stolen.  Omakays and her family have to endure a cold winter without the many things they had collected for their journey.

While I usually read to Miss M at bed time, our eagerness to continue the story found us reading on a Saturday afternoon last weekend.  Mr. E eagerly joined us and loved the funny little boy Quill with the pet porcupine that rides on his head.   While Mr. E didn’t end up listening to the whole book with us, he sat in on most of it (joining us after a quick picture book read with daddy).  Mr E told us that he’s liking longer books more now…especially ones with “lots of adventures”.  🙂  I think he’ll be joining us for more bedtime stories in the near future.

Especially when taken as a group, these two books along with The Birchbark House are my favorite read alouds so far this school year.  Erdrich has created such a wonderful, compelling character in Omakays and it is evidence of her great ability as a writer that she has had me both crying and laughing as I read them aloud.   The next book in the series, Chickadee, jumps much further forward to Omakayas as a mother of twin boys who are the focus of the fourth book.

I don’t think I’m quite ready for Omakayas to grow up in my mind.  I think I’ll linger on these pleasant thoughts of her as a maturing young girl a bit longer…but I’ll definitely have Chickadee on hand for the time when we are ready to continue her story.

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

 

US History Unit 4 Recap: New Nation/War of 1812 February 20, 2013

Filed under: Books,History — kirstenjoyhill @ 8:05 am

Yesterday and today I’m catching up on recapping our US History studies.  We finished studying the Revolutionary war back in November, but I just wrote about that yesterday.  We just finished our unit on the post-Revolutionary war years in mid-January, so it’s still a bit fresher in my my mind.   🙂

This unit in our American history studies covered the years from 1783-1815.  There are several major topics in this time period, including the forming of our nation’s government, the writing of the constitution, the Louisiana purchase, the explorations of Lewis and Clark and the War of 1812.

As in our earlier units we used a book by the Maestros (A New Nation) to give us an overview of this time period.  I also read aloud Year of the Horseless Carriage 1801 by Genevieve Foster.  You can read my thoughts on that book here.  While some of it was overlap with A New Nation, most of it was pretty complementary.

Not including Christmas break, we spent six weeks on this unit.   This was the first unit for IMG_20121207_160446which I actually under-estimated the time it would take us.  When I did my planning for the year I thought there would not be very many topics to cover and I only planned four weeks.

Longer Read-Alouds (Linked to blog posts about these books):

Carry on Mr. Bowditch

Justin Morgan Had a Horse

Bears on Hemlock Mountain (not really all that long, but read aloud to all the kids)

Sarah Witcher’s Story

Naya Nuki

Longer Fiction Books Miss M read independently:

The “Caroline” American Girl books — Caroline is the newest historical American Girl, and she lives during the time of the War of 1812.  Miss M got the first book in the Caroline series for Christmas, and read all six books in the series of her own volition over Christmas break.

The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz — I think this was Miss M’s favorite of her assigned fiction reading for this time period.

Away Goes Sally and its sequel Five Bushel Farm by Elizabeth Coatsworth — Miss liked these well enough…but not enough to ask me to get her the remaining books in the series (I think there are three more books about Sally) for her to read on her own

The Story of Eli Whitney by Jean Lee Latham — I thought Miss M would like this because she generally likes stories about inventors…but this one, not so much.  It was a challenge for her to get through this assigned reading.  While I normally don’t really push her to read things she doesn’t care for, I do it every now and then just because I think it’s a good discipline for her to learn for the future.

Book Basket:

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Our book basket of picture book fiction and and non-fiction was a bit lighter for this unit than for some previous units.  My US History Year One spreadsheet lists a number of the titles — at least the ones I planned on getting ahead of time.  🙂  I also found a number of picture books for this time period on the shelves at the library — including more titles about the constitution, our country’s early presidents, and the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Unfortunately I didn’t write down all these titles! One that stands out among the titles I found on the shelf at the library is Unite or Die: How 13 States Became a Nation by Jacqueline Jules, illustrated by Jef Czekaj.   The story of the problems faced as a new government was formed after the Revolutionary War is framed as group of kids putting on a play about the states (dressed in state-shaped costumes!).  A little bit of humor goes a long way to make the details of this topic more interesting.  🙂

 

 

US History Unit 3 Recap: Revolutionary War February 19, 2013

Filed under: Books,History — kirstenjoyhill @ 11:39 pm

I managed to get way behind in my quest to “recap” each unit of our American History studies this year.  My last recap was published on October 25th! We’ve finished two more units since that time and will finish yet another within a couple weeks.  I’m still going to post these recaps though…if only for my own use later when we cycle back around to American History in four years.  🙂

We spent about six weeks on our study of the Revolutionary War.  This was two weeks less than what I had originally planned, and since our previous units took less time than expected, this continued to put us ahead of schedule for our history studies for the year.

Our key text that gave us an overview of the Revolutionary War was “Liberty or Death” by the Maestros.  I’ve mentioned this series of picture books in a variety of other posts.  We loved these books and wish the author would write more to continue the story of American History beyond 1815 when the last book ends. I also read most of “If You Were There in 1776” by Barbara Brenner aloud.  It’s a very interesting book about daily life during that time period.

Longer Fiction Read-Alouds (links to blog posts about these books):

Toliver’s Secret

Ben and Me

A Little Maid of Old Philadelphia

Sophia’s War

Longer Fiction Miss M read independently:IMG_20121102_140717

“Felicity” American Girl books (Felicity is one of Miss M’s favorite American Girl characters)

Hannah of Fairfield, and its sequels Hanna’s Helping Hands and Hannah’s Winter of Hope — these are short chapter books set in the Revolutionary time period

The Secret Soldier — a book we found at our neighborhood Little Free Library about a woman who pretends to be a man so she can fight in the Revolutionary War

Book Basket:

IMG_20121026_175827We filled our history library basket (well, it’s really a crate!) absolutely full with about 30 picture book fiction and non-fiction titles.  I read a few aloud to Miss M and the boys, but Miss M read many of them independently.   There’s a somewhat complete list in my updated US History Year 1 spreadsheet.  A problem with doing this recap close two months after the fact is that I can’t remember a lot of details about which picture books we really liked!

Other Stuff: 

Miss M showed less interest as the school year went on in crafty projects related to history, so I haven’t pushed it.  We’re also not doing much written work this year — just oral narrations or discussions of books we’re reading.  And I’m really okay with that for 3rd grade history.  Next time around Miss M will be in middle school — a perfect time for additional written projects!

We did start watching episodes of the TV show “Liberty’s Kids”.  This animated series does a great job telling about major events of the Revolutionary War through the eyes of a few fictional characters.   The entire series is available to watch on YouTube, or as the saying goes, “check your local listings” — one station available to us over-the-air (we don’t have cable) is showing two episodes per week and we have been recording them.  We’ve continued to slowly watch the episodes well after we finished up with this time period in our history studies.  There are 40 episodes, and we have sometimes gone weeks without even watching one…so we’re only up to about episode 20.

 

Book Discoveries this Week: Another Round-Up of Picture Books February 17, 2013

Filed under: Books — kirstenjoyhill @ 2:15 pm

Left to their own devices, my two middle children (boys ages 4 and almost 6) would come from the library with an entire bag filled with books about Star Wars, Superheros, Cars, Ninjago, and so on.  I try to make a concentrated effort to find interesting picture books for the boys’ library book basket, and then collect my list of a few favorites to share once every couple months.

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We spent most of December reading Christmas books (maybe I’ll write about those during the Christmas season next year?), and then shortly after Christmas and into early January we were busy with travel, winter flu bugs, and other distractions (and hence took fewer trips to the library)….so most of these titles are ones we’ve read within the past month or so.  🙂

My Rhinoceros by Jon Agee.  A boy has his heart set on a pet rhino and brings one home…only to find out that experts say rhinos can only pop balloons and put holes in kites.  But, there may just be a time when that comes in handy! This one was definitely laugh-out-loud funny and enjoyed by both boys.

Ollie the Purple Elephant by Jarrett J. Krosoczka is another story about an unusual pet.  Beware of telling kids they can bring home a purple elephant if they ever find one — because then it may just happen! 😉  Ollie makes a great pet and is loved by the whole family — except for the cat…and the family’s downstairs neighbor who really does not appreciate the family’s dance parties with their pet elephant!  An evil plan by the cat and the neighbor sends Ollie packing, but this story ends up with a warm, fuzzy happy ending. The boys liked it, but I think I may have enjoyed this one a bit more than they did.

17 Things I am not allowed to do any more by Jenny Ofill is another laugh-out-loud funny title.  We really liked 11 Experiments that Failed by the same author and we were excited to run across this one at the library.  It did not disappoint!  The main character of the story has lots of ideas of interesting ways to torment her brother, make school more interesting (“I am NOT allowed to write book reports about beavers any more!”) and generally exasperate everyone around her.

Grandpa Gazillions Number Yard by Laurie Keller.  We’ve enjoyed several books by Laurie Keller. I think her illustration style is a lot of fun — there are lots of details to look at.  This story about unusual uses for numbers was probably most enjoyed by Mr K, our preschooler.  One of my favorite parts of this book was finding Arnie the Donut (main character of another book we enjoyed by Keller) among this books illustrations.  🙂

Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett, Illustrated by Adam Rex.  I was tipped off to this book by Amy, and I thought it was a pretty clever story. One day Chloe gets lost in the woods on the way home and encounters a lion.  Or that’s what the author wanted Chloe to find.  Instead, the illustrator thinks a dragon would be so much cooler, so that’s what he drew instead.  The author and illustrator become characters in the story and Chloe is caught in the middle as they try to decide how things are going to turn out in the book.  Like I said, I thought it was clever, but Mr E’s reaction was, “Why do they keep talking about themselves.  I wish they wouldn’t do that!”  🙂

Infinity and Me by Kate Hosford, Illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska: Another title I heard about from Amy, this story is kind of funny and philosophical all at the same time.  A girl is wondering about what infinity is like, and asks the opinion of people she knows.  I thought some of the answers were kind of funny…though I don’t know if they were really supposed to be taken that way!  My boys, who are always trying to one-up each other, often say they have “infinity” of something or even “10 bazillion infinities” of something, so they enjoyed this book quite a bit.

A Monster is Coming! by David Harrison, Illustrated by Hans Wilhelm.  I don’t usually find “easy reader” sorts of books to be all that interesting or memorable, but this one was an exception.  I thought this cute story about exaggerated rumors of a coming “monster” was pretty interesting given its limited vocabulary.

Monsters Don’t Eat Broccoli by Barbara Jean Hicks, Illustrated by Sue Hendra:  We definitely like books about monsters around here.  What do these monsters like to eat? Apparently trees, rocket ships, and tractors are on the menu.    My kids have definitely been told to “eat their trees” at the dinner table if they are shunning their broccoli.  And readers of this book might quickly notice the similarities between the trees these monsters are eating and the trees some kids like them are eating at the end of the book.  🙂

Walk On! A Guide for Babies of All Ages by Marla Frazee.  Ok, I’ll admit that I chose this one because I wanted to read it, not because I thought the boys would enjoy it.  Though the three older kids did end up finding it funny.  This humorous “instruction manual” for babies just learning to toddle seemed appropriate given our little guy’s cautious forays into the world of walking.  I tried reading it to Baby J…he quickly realized there were no textures or flaps for him in this book, and slid off my lap for some walking practice.

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

 

Book Discoveries this Week: The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich February 7, 2013

Filed under: Books — kirstenjoyhill @ 5:38 am
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We’re back to a historical fiction read aloud to match up with our US History studies with birchbark houseThe Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich, the story of an Ojibwa girl living on what is now called Madeline Island in about 1847.

Omakayas was born on another Island in Lake Superior — but her family and everyone else on her island died in an outbreak of smallpox.  Little Omakayas was rescued by a gruff older woman, and taken in by a family who raises her as their own.   Omakayas is seven years old when the story begins, and The Birchbark House follows one year of her life through ups and downs, joys and sorrows.

We really enjoyed the rhythm of the passing seasons as we read this book, and the details of mid-nineteenth century American Indian life.  Omakayas’ family is still living a traditional life for the most part, as their ancestors have done for centuries…yet the influence of the white men is creeping in, and will end up changing her family’s life in irrevocable ways.

I am not a reader who is easily emotionally moved by sadness in books that I read.  It’s not that I don’t empathize characters experiencing tragedy…but I don’t usually feel those emotions in a particularly deep way.    This was not the case for me with Birchbark House. I cried during a particularly sad part of the story when I was reading it outloud.  Neither Miss M nor I could recall that ever happening before!  A member of Omakayas’ family dies, and I could just imagine and even feel how sad it would be to be in that circumstance.  (Miss M didn’t react so strongly — she just said “oh, I guess that would be sad.”  I had to have a good cry even after we were done reading for that night!).

A day or two later as we finished the book, I was gushing to Tony about how much I enjoyed it.  His comment was “So, it redeemed itself after that sad part, huh?”  I told him that no, the sad part was sad but really good too.    In the end, the sorrow that Omakayas feels shapes her and how she experiences life.  She became a very real character to me — one that I found myself day dreaming about when we weren’t reading the book…Something I haven’t done with too many children’s books I have read with Miss M.

Needless to say, I am marking this as one of my favorite books we’ve read so far this school year (if not the favorite so far).   Miss M and I both agreed to ditch our pre-planned reading list for a bit and read at least the next book in Erdrich’s four book series.   So far, we’re enjoying The Game of Silence just as much.

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

 

Of Book Reports and Ninja Christmas Carols February 2, 2013

Filed under: Books,Creativity — kirstenjoyhill @ 6:15 am
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A little over a week ago, Miss M and Mr. E gave book reports at our co-op.  One of the reasons I really like participating in a co-op is opportunities just like this.   The kids get up in front of their class (a group of 8 or 10 students about the same age) and talk about a book they’ve read.  While we can discuss books all we want at home (and we often do), it is a growing experience to organize your thoughts into a few sentences or paragraphs someone else will understand, and getting up in front of a group to share those thoughts.

Miss M is really never nervous to speak in front of anybody, but writing out her book report has caused some stress in past years.  She narrated to me and I wrote it down as a first grader (we were in a different co-op when she was a K’er), then last year as a 2nd grader I thought she should probably be able to write it down for herself — a process which caused a few more tears than I was expecting.  Some of the tears were due to stress at not knowing how to spell what she wanted to say, and some of the stress was due to the difficulty she discovered in explaining the book she selected — she picked a mystery, which was hard to explain without giving away the whole ending!

This year, Miss M made an easier book selection (one of the “Caroline”  American Girl books), and has gained a lot more confidence in her spelling abilities.  In the book report process she mostly needed a bit of help to organize her thoughts and decide which details were important to communicate in order for the plot to make sense.

This was Mr. E’s first year to give a book report at co-op.  He wanted to pick The Way of the Ninja, a favorite Lego Ninjago book I’ve read to him several times.  He didn’t have too much trouble summarizing the plot, with me writing down what he wanted to say.  Prior to book report day, Mr. E was pretty nervous about giving his report in front of his class of K through 2nd graders.  I reminded him that I could listen in and prompt him if he got stuck on a word, and that his friends would enjoy listening to him give his report.  In the end he did a great job, reading some complicated words that he wanted to use and only getting stuck once!

We heard a lot about Ninjas over the last couple weeks with Mr. E thinking about and then practicing his book report.  By book report day, Miss M was inspired to write a Ninja Christmas Carol.   I guess she still has Christmas on the brain!

All of us ended up contributing to this unusual song, written from the perspective of a Lego Ninjago Ninja who has a “True Skeleton” sending him gifts instead of a “true love” — so the gifts take on a bit of a different flavor:

The Ninjago 12 Days of Christmas:

On the first day of Christmas my true skeleton sent to me: One creepy guy

On the second day of Christmas my true skeleton sent to me: 2 fights in the rain

On the third day of Christmas my true skeleton sent to me: 3 dead ninjas

On the fourth day of Christmas my true skeleton sent to me: Orders to find the 4 weapons of Spinjitzu

On the fifth day of Christmas my true skeleton sent to me:  5 rotten fruits

On the sixth day of Christmas my true skeleton sent to me:  6 more skeletons

On the seventh day of Christmas my true skeleton sent to me:  7 explosives in my house

On the eighth day of Christmas my true skeleton sent to me:  8 annoying parrots

On the ninth day of Christmas my true skeleton sent to me:  9 scary monsters

On the tenth day of Christmas my true skeleton sent to me:  10 balls of fire

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true skeleton sent to me:  11 skull motorbikes

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true skeleton TOOK from me: my 12 favorite weapons

(And my apologies if you now have the 12 Days of Christmas or this variant stuck in your head for the rest of the day!)  😉