The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

This book, by Barbara Robinson, is another that I'd seen the movie but never read the book. We read it for Christmas this year. The movie (with Loretta Swit) is pretty faithful to the book. It was a fun, quick read and I think we'll have to make it a family tradition.

Sarah, Plain and Tall

We read Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan this last week, and since there was no church last night I grabbed the video off my mom's shelf and we watched the video. I had never read the book before and didn't realize how different the Hallmark movie is from the book. I like the book better. It is such a quick read that I think we'll read it again this week.

Expanding Memory

K. is still at the age when she likes to play Memory. We have a very old game that my mother picked up at the second hand store years ago. It has 108 cards. When we first started playing it I divided it up into 6 groups, so it was easier for a 3 year old to handle. Now we have combined sets so we have 3 groups. Yesterday, after we played, K. said I'm going to tell you a story about one of my cards. When she finished, she said, "Now it's your turn." I said, "I'm going to tell you a story using all my cards." It was a very silly story about a king who lived on a boat. When I finished my story. She told me another story, then said, "Tell my the story again." Anyway, I had to tell the story about the king 3 or 4 times. However, when we were through I got to thinking that this was really a good way to help her learn to tell stories. Because the pictures of what goes in the story are already set, it gives the story direction instead of her just going off in any direction and on many different tangents.

Purity

K. pulled the book Mrs. Rosey-Posey and the Chocolate Cherry Treat by Robin Jones Gunn off the shelf. It had fallen apart from use, so I sewed it back together. This is a great book about being set apart and keeping your life clean based on 2 Timothy 2:21. K. really likes it and, by request, I've been reading it to her at least once a day for about 2 weeks now.

The only thing that bothers me about the book is that it leaves you with the idea that once your "plate" is dirty the King can't use you, but God forgives and washes us whiter than snow.

The Secret Garden

We finished reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. K. enjoyed it and now we have the DVD (Hallmark Hall of Fame version), borrowed from the library. We watched it as a family on Saturday, but K. is re-watching parts of it each day.

Community

I made a great discovery of a series of DVDs about "My Community". The series is produced by Stone House Publications/Schlessinger Media. It is a series of ten DVDs for pre-kindergarten through second grade. The titles are:

• What is a Community?
• Transportation
• School
• Post Office
• Police Station
• Local Government
• Local Businesses
• Library
• Hospital
• Fire Station

We have watched Community, Post Office, Police Station, and Library and are really enjoying them. From the Community DVD I picked out the explanation of Urban, Suburban, and Rural to expand upon. We found pictures and wrote the appropriate title on them.

From the Library DVD I picked the two kinds of books in the library: Fiction and Nonfiction to expand upon. K. wrote the word and I wrote the definition. I had her go find three books that went in each group and I wrote the book's titles on the page.

Heritage History

I just found out about this website, and I'm so excited I just have to share it. This website has historical books to read -- comprehensive history, military history, biographies, legends, adapted literature, historical fiction, mythology -- that are in the public domain. This will be a great addition to our history courses!

Heritage History -- "Putting the Story back into History, with traditional tales from long-ago."

Card Stock

A couple days ago I was getting ready to print out some Thanksgiving games and realized I was out of card stock. I found a good substitute was to cut an old manilla folder to 8-1/2" width. The yellowish-tan color of the folder didn't affect the colors of the game very much, and it went through the printer just fine.

Veteran's Day

For Veteran's Day we read an article on-line about what Veteran's Day is and how it got started. We also talked about the poppy being the symbol of Veteran's Day and read the poem 'In Flanders Field'. Then K. made a poppy. I cut two flower shapes out of an old file folder (one larger than the other). Then K. tore constuction paper and glued it on the shapes. When the glue was dry I put them together with a brad. (She had found the brad in my drawer a few days earlier and wanted to know what it was -- I figured this was a good way to demonstrate its use.)

I had requested the book Pepper's Purple Heart: A Veterans Day Story by Heather Henry at the library, but it didn't arrive until December. This is a fun story. The book explains what a veteran is and that it is a good thing to serve your country. Being a newer book it refers to both Vietnam and Iraq. The last page of the book has a brief history of Veterans Day.

More Recommended Books:

• Veterans Day by Marlene Targ Brill
• Veterans Day by Jacqueline S. Cotton (for the youngest children)
• Veterans Day by Amanda Doerling Tourville

Days of Creation

For Kindergarten Science, we are studying Creation. I wanted to do something hands-on for a fun way to remember what God made each day. I came up with the idea of cutting the numbers out of cardboard and then as we study each day, find corresponding pictures and words to glue on the number. I got a piece of corrugated cardboard that was 25" x 49". I made a graph (each square equalled 2") and drew the numbers on, making sure each number touched the next number in 2 places to make it more sturdy.

Then I drew the graph on the cardboard, then drew the numbers on. I used my bread knife to cut the outline of the numbers.

Here are the numbers up on the wall in K's room. I hot glued some popsicle sticks on the back of the middle of the '4' because it was a bit wobbly. I think it will be a real nice decoration when we are all done. Doing this has make K. excited about kindergarten. She is ready to start, but we have 9 more weeks, which is good since I'm not quite ready!

Screws and Wheels

To introduce Screws, I drew a diagonal line on a sheet of paper with a fat marker, then I cut along the line. I asked K. what it looked like: an inclined plane. Then I took the paper and wound it around a pencil so it looked like a screw. To experiment with screws I pulled out my cookie press and stuffed a large piece of tissue paper in the tube (instead of cookie dough). Then we held the button down and watched the tissue paper get pushed out of the tube. After that K. played with the threaded rod from the cookie press, making the nut go up and down. We also screwed screws into some pre-made holes.

To learn about Wheels, I put a LARGE and HEAVY book on the table and had K. push it from one end of the table to the other. It was hard to do. Rolling it on something would make it easier. So we put markers under the book and pushed it along. This worked well, but we had to keep putting new markers under the book, so it was tiresome. The rollers needed to be attached to the book, or the book needed to be on something with wheels. K. went and got her little plastic wagon, but the book was too heavy and the wheels didn't turn, so we got the Tinkertoys out and made wheels, set the wagon on the wheels and the book on the wagon. It worked!

Reading Numbers

The last few weeks we have been working on recognizing numbers: 45 is forty-five, not fifty-four. I made up some games that K. enjoyed and she has learned to read the numbers correctly.

• Game 1
• You'll need a sheet of paper with the numbers 1 through 100 written in order and pennies or buttons.
• I said a number and K. found the number and covered it with a button.
• I found that doing about 30 numbers was all we could do at one time without her getting tired of it.
• Game 2
• Use the same sheet of paper as in Game 1 and 100 pennies or buttons
• Cover all the numbers with a penny.
• I removed a penny and read the number, then K. removed a penny and read the number. We just kept going back and forth until we both had taken 30 pennies off the sheet.
• Game 3
• You'll need 2 sets of cards with the numerals 0 through 9 (one on each card) and 2 coins or buttons.
• Turn the cards upside down and mix them up, then spread them out (as you would for a matching game).
• K. tossed the 2 coins, picked up the 2 cards they landed on, set the cards side by side and read the number, then switch the order of the cards and read the number. We took turns and played until the cards were all used.
• A variation is to place the cards in a line or circle and use a spinner. Spin your first number, count cards from 'Start' until you get to that number. Spin your second number and start counting from where you picked up the first number.

Reading - Phonics Step 7

K. started reading during Step 5, so she learned Step 5 and Step 6 while reading. I inherited the reading books from Sing, Spell, Read, and Write -- we just finished book 9. We read one story a day. We do not read the word lists at the beginning of each story. That just seems too "classroom" to me and really isn't necessary.

K. also reads books of her choosing to me throughout the day. Right now she is reading Danny and the Dinosaur to me. Before that she read Pancakes for Breakfast (wordless book), and Sammy the Seal.

Inclined Plane

We started out our lesson about inclined planes by K. picking up a VERY heavy book and placing it on a box (about a foot off the floor). Then we took a shelf and used it for an inclined plane from the floor to the top of the box. K. slid the book up the inclined plane and found it much easier.

Then we looked around the house for other inclined planes: stairs, toys (dump truck, car ramp). Then we went on-line (Googled "inclined plane pictures") to look for more examples of inclined planes. While we were looking at those I remembered a game at pbskids.org - Curious George - Feed Gnocchi. This games lets you tilt ramps (inclined planes) to make a meatball fall onto the plate of spaghetti.

Levers

This week we learned about levers. On our way to the backyard I grabbed an old shelf and an empty 2 liter soda pop bottle with the lid on.

I set the board (lever) on the bottle (fulcrum) and placed 4 bricks (load) on one end. Then we were easily able to move the fulcrum closer and farther from the load to see what made the load easier and harder to lift.

More Friction

We finished our science section on friction. K. knows that friction:

1. is caused when 2 things rub together
2. slows things down
• ramp experiments
3. heats things up
• rub hands together
• pull nail from block of wood
• sanding wood
4. wears things away
• sand rough piece of wood
5. can be decreased by using oil or other lubricant
• rub 2 pieces of sand paper together, then put vasoline on them and rub them together -- notice the difference
• rub 2 crackers together, then put peanut butter or butter on them and rub them together -- notice the difference -- then eat them
6. is useful
• write/draw on construction paper with chalk, then dip chalk in vasoline and try writing
• open a jar, then try opening the jar with soapy hands
• turn a door know, then try turning the door knob with soapy hands

Runny Babbit

We are in the midst of reading the book Runny Babbit by Shel Silverstein. This is a book of poems, but like "runny babbit" the beginnings of some words have been switched. It really taxes your phonics skills!

I tried to pull this book out a few months ago when K. started making up silly words, but I couldn't find it until I was re-doing our bookshelves. We are all enjoying the book immensely. We will read one or two poems each evening and read some of the favorite ones that we have read before. Here is one of K.'s favorites:

KUGS AND HISSES

Runny said, "I'm lonesome,

I feel so glad and soomy.

I need some kugs and hisses --

Now, who's gonna give 'em to me?"

"I will," said Polly Dorkupine,

"'Cause you're cute as a rug in a bug."

Said Runny, "Well, I'll kake the tiss,

But never hind the mug."

Phonics, Step 6

The next things to teach are these rules (which are ususally true, but there always seem to some exceptions):

1. An 'e' on the end of a word makes the first vowel in the word "say its name" (the long vowel sound).
• We didn't do much with this rule because K. had already learned it in the reading she has chosen to do.
2. "When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking" -- the first vowel is long and the second is silent.
• K. had a bit of trouble with this one when I first introducted it. I printed out 15 sample words and looked through magazines to find pictures to cut out and glue by the words. This provided practice reading the words as K. has to find the right word to go with the pictures. After doing this once she got the hang of it.
3. 'Y' on the end of a word is a vowel and complies to rule #2 above. (bay, stay, gray)
4. When 'y' is the only vowel in the word it says "i". (my, cry, fly)
5. If a two syllable word ends in 'Y', it says 'e'. (baby, mommy, flabby)

I thought it would be difficult to teach K. about syllables, but by clapping her name (3 syllables), mommy (2 syllables), and dad (1 syllable) she got the hang of it really quickly. I also showed her that each syllable had a vowel (at least one).

Charlotte's Web

We finished Charlotte's Web by E.B. White last night. K. enjoyed it, and we will probably read it again in kindergarten when we learn about insects.

Nutty Math

I picked up a 1/4 lb of mixed nuts at the grocery store this week to use in school. First I had K. put them into groups by the kind . . . walnut, almond, brazil, hazel. Then we talked about what they looked and felt like. The walnut is roundish and wrinkly. The almond is oval and has holes. The Brazil is triangular with smoother wrinkles. The hazel is round and smooth.

Next K. counted each kind of nut and we made a bar graph. We talked about most, least, fewer, and more. Then we used tally marks to count up the total number of nuts. After that my husband cracked the nuts open. We talked about which was easiest to open and which was hardest. For an older child we could have weighed the nut meats and figured the cost per pound for them. (We paid $1.99 lb for them in the shells.) We could have even compared the cost to purchasing shelled nuts and seeing if we saved money or not.

Phonics, Step 5

The next sounds to teach are:

• 'a' as in father
• 'c' as in circus (when i, e, or y follow the letter c)
• 'g' as in giant (when i, e, or y follow the letter g -- usually)
• long vowel sounds
• 'a' as in apron
• 'e' as in eagle
• 'i' as in ice cream
• 'o' as in oatmeal
• 'u' as in united states

I taught these the same way I taught the digraphs in Step 4.

Autumn Pumpkin

We don't observe halloween, so we decided to make an Autumn Pumpkin from one we were given. We collected leaves, cleaned out the pumpkin, traced the leaves onto the pumpkin and cut them out. That night we ate our watermelon by the light from our Autumn Pumpkin.

Playdoh Letters

One thing we enjoy doing is making letters out of playdoh.

Friction

In Science we have started a unit on simple machines. This day we were talking about friction. First, we used three wooden blocks. One was plain, one I stuck a piece of fun foam on, and one we covered with parchement (since I was out of waxed paper). Then we slid them down this board and talked about how friction makes things go slower. After that K. decided she should slide down the board. Then I gave her a piece of parchment to sit on. She went down so quickly that it was hard to get a good picture of her -- but she understands about friction!

Measuring

We grew some small watermelons this year. We chose one and measured its circumference each week with some old rick rack. When we were through measuring, we used unifix cubes to measure how much it grew between measurements. We started with green cubes and made a stick the length of the first measurement. Then we moved the green stick over to the second string and added enough yellow cubes to make it the length of that string, and so on.

Here you can see our addition problem.

Then we turned it into a graphing tool.

Police Officers' Job

I borrowed two books from the library about Police Officers. The first was A Day in the Life of a Police Officer by Heather Adamson. This book had great photographs and the information was presented simply, but it was really just a list of facts.

The second book was Policeman Small by Lois Lenski. Policeman Small is a traffic cop who stands in the middle of the street and directs the traffic. It is written as a story, but isn't factual for today -- at least not where we live. However K. did enjoy this book. I had a problem with the story line -- I'm just not sure how the children could go to school at 8:30 in the morning and then be at the circus parade with their parents at 11:00.

If anyone knows of a book that presents the job of a modern day police officer in a story, let me know!

Labor Day

We used the book Labor Day by Geoffrey Scott for school on Labor Day. The book tells the history of Labor Day. It is written as an interesting story instead of a collection of facts. It also has nice pictures/drawings. It glorified present day labor unions a bit more than I liked, but on the whole it was very good and I would recommend it. The final paragraph is:

We celebrate Labor Day to honor American workers. We think about how working hard helps make our country strong. And we remember that all workers are important, no matter what their job.

Soon, Annala

This is another picture book that K. enjoyed having read to her again and again. It is about Jewish immigrants who left their two youngest children in Europe with relatives. Annala, the youngest daughter, wants to know when her brothers will be coming to America, but meanwhile she starts school and begins to learn English. After a year her Aunt and Uncle come to America and bring their new baby and her brothers.

At one point when the family is all together again, the Aunt uses a dresser drawer for the baby to sleep in. After we had read the book a few times I saw K. doing the same with her dolls. I did point out that they didn't close the drawer with the baby in it.

Card File

Sorry I haven't posted lately. I've been busy creating a card file (I know, rather old-fashioned) of all the "homeschool stuff" I've downloaded. I just knew that if I didn't, I'd be looking through things and find myself saying, "Oh, that would have been so great to have used last week/month/year." I did find that I have some really neat stuff that I can incorporate into our kindergarten curriculum, and I hope to update you on all this in the next couple weeks.

Something to Think On

the teacher's knowledge

is not a hammer,

it is a light

quote from thomas tapper

Away Went the Balloons

This book, by Carolyn Haywood, is somewhat different from the others we have read. It is the story of an elementary school (particularly a few first graders) that has a Balloon Day, at which time each child releases two balloons with their name attached. Each chapter tells the story of a balloon and who finds it and how or where they find it.

K. really enjoyed this book, and I'm being asked to re-read some of her favorite chapters. This was a fun read since each chapter was so different.

Oodles of Noodles

Math this week was oodles of fun! We picked the number 6 and glued sets of 6 noodles onto a piece of construction paper. The only rule was that each set had to have a different shape. The goal of this activity is for the student to learn that a number of items can look large or small, but still be the same amount.

Digraph Sounds

I printed a sheet of paper with pictures of 32 objects. Each object began with either sh, ch, th, or wh. K. cut the objects out and then glued each piece of paper onto the correct sheet.

Fill in the Letters

I printed out the outlines of some of the letters we are learning. K. used a paint brush to paint them with glue and then she used buttons, sequins, wood shapes, and yarn to fill them in.

Can You Make it Wet?

Science was a quick and easy lesson this week. I let K. pick four items (pebble, paper, sock, cloth napkin). She dipped them in a bowl of water. We noted how they look and feel differently when wet. Then we hung them (except the pebble) up to dry -- to see which would dry first. The paper dried first, then the napkin, then the sock.

Storytime with the Millers

We also finished Storytime with the Millers by Mildren A. Martin this week. This is the book I picked up at the CHEA Convention for K. She has really enjoyed it and requests that we read most of the stories over and over. Because each story is based on a Bible verse and character trait, we are keeping this book at the dining table to read and talk about.

Here Comes the Bus!

This week we read Here Comes the Bus! by Carolyn Haywood. It is a great book about Jonathan moving to the country and his year in first grade. It has some really fun parts, like when Jonathan forgot his birthday cake and when all the children brought their pets to school -- on the bus, of course!

In this book you meet Melissa Molasses and Taffy, which are the main characters in the later book, Taffy and Melissa Molasses.

Our Address

This week in Social Studies I took a picture of our house, printed it, cut it out and let K. glue it on a large piece of construction paper. I then wrote our address and phone number on it. It makes a nice placemat for her and reinforces our address and phone number.

Adding Heat

In science this week we saw how properties change when you add heat. We mixed up a batch of gingerbread cookie dough and cut out girls and boys of differing thicknesses. Of course, the thinner the cookies, the crispier they were and the thicker the cookies the softer they were.

We also added heat to a chocolate candy bar. I let the bowl cool a minute so Kimmi could hold it and pour the chocolate into a small pan. We then put the pan in the refridgerator for the chocolate to cool and harden.

By Stirring

This week our science lesson was: Can you stir it?

• We mixed a little bit of milk with corn starch . . . that's really fun to play with
• We shook cream and made butter, we used the butter for the crust of a batch of lemon squares and used the butter milk in our waffles the next morning.
• I had an 8 oz container of heavy whipping cream that I had used about 2 tablespoons out of. It made 1/3 cup of butter.
• We stirred (with the electric mixer) an egg white, then I didn't want to throw it away, so we made meringue kisses.
• Once the egg white is stiff, add 4 tablespoons of sugar, 1 T at a time, then add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Preheat the oven to 250°. Place meringue in large dollips on parchment. Bake for 1 hour, then turn heat off and let meringues sit in the oven for 6 hours -- do not open the door.

Math Literature

One of the workshops we went to at the CHEA Convention was entitled 'Math Games'. It was about not using a curriculum for early elementary math. One of the handouts had a list of books that integrate math and literature. Right now we are using Math Fables by Greg Tang. Using stories it goes through numbers 1 through 10 showing all the addition combinations that make each number (1+6, 2+5, 3+4 all equal 7).

I have red and blue buttons that I hot glued together so turned one way they are blue and turned over they are red. I made a set of ten. As we read the book I have K. put out the right number of buttons, then turn over the number mentioned to show the addition equations. Here's an example:

Salt Crystals

This week in science we were doing a lesson called 'Does It Change In Water?' We added flour, oil, sugar, salt, pasta, butter, ice . . . all sorts of things to water -- some cold, some warm -- to see if and how they changed.

The last part of the lesson was to add enough salt to warm water so that the water was cloudy, then to pour some on a saucer and let it sit in a warm place until the water evaporated. Of course, salt crystals formed, but I've never had such nice crystals form. Some were almost 1/4" square and about 1/16" thick. They were really neat to look at with the magnifying glass.

Treasury for Children

In reading Educating the WholeHearted Child, the Clarksons recommend James Herriot's Treasury for Children so highly that I thought I'd see if it was in our library system. I was a bit trepidatious (I don't think that's a real word) about the book because I've read his other books so I know how much swearing and drinking are in them. I started to read them to our older girls when they were jr. high and high school age, but quit after the first couple chapters because I just wasn't comfortable saying, "don't do this and don't say this" then reading a book where both are done liberally. The only objectionable thing in Treasury for Children is one "What the devil?"

I not only found the book, but also the audio book. I requested both. We got the audio book before we had our vacation and enjoyed listening to the stories. K.'s favorite is 'Moses the Kitten'.

Last week the book came in and now we are working our way through it and all the wonderful illustrations. It is neat to hear K. recognize the stories from the audio book when I'm reading it.

Farm Tales

We found this book at the library. It is a compilation of unabridged Little Golden Books. It has a couple we already had -- The Shy Little Kitten and The Little Red Hen, but it has introduced us to Mrs. Mooley (who jumped over the moon) and Two Little Gardeners and many others. All the illustrations are wonderful (I enjoy just looking at the pictures) and some have so many details to discover that we spend more time talking about the picture than reading the text. If I was just starting my family, I would definitely invest in purchasing a used copy of this book instead of all the little ones.

Penmanship

Now that K. is 4-1/2 we are starting to officially learn how to write the alphabet. She has taught herself how to draw all the uppercase letters, but now she needs to learn how to correctly write them. I found an activity book at Staples that has a little saying that goes with each letter. For instance, for the letter H it goes: Draw two Stick Kids side by side. They're shaking hands! Draw a line between them. I'm hoping that these sayings will help override any bad habits she has taught herself.

She doesn't have all the small muscle control I would like before writing on paper, so I put a couple pounds of uncooked rice in a tub and she is practicing writing the letters with her finger in the rice.

Phonics, Step 4

Now that we have completed learning the blends, I wrote a story and used clip art to illustrate it. After K. has read it a few times we will be on to learn the clusters.

I've grouped the clusters this way:

• ar, er, ir, or, ur
• ch, sh, th
• aw, ew, ow, oo (as in spoon)
• oy, oi, ou, oo (as in book)
• ing, ang, ong, tion

Children know how to say these clusters -- they use words with them all the time -- however, they don't know what letters make the sounds. Using this reasoning, this is how I'm introducing the clusters (I'll use 'ar' in this example):

1. Show a picture of a car and ask K. what it is.
2. K. tells me "car"
3. I write "car" next to the picture
4. We sound out the word: k - ar
5. I bring attention to the sound of 'ar'
6. We use the letter cards to build more words which contain 'ar'. Here are some examples: hard, card, far, jar, mark, lark

If I want K. to have more practice:

• 
  
  I can write the words we build on a sheet of paper for us to review.
• 
  
  To spread phonics over the whole week, and since she enjoys cutting and gluing, I can also write the words on a paper (or each on a card) and K. can find pictures of the items and glue them next to the word.
• 
  
  Another idea is to write some sentences K. can read after each group of clusters is learned. They might be silly like "Her car is full of fur." K. could illustrate the sentences.

After learning the clusters there will be another book to read.

Our Neighborhood

Last week we finished all the structures that we were making for "Our Neighborhood". We took them in on the living room floor and arranged them in their basic direction from our house. In this first picture you can locate our house (bottom) and get the idea of the main street going past the stables, doctor's office, gas station, and bank.

This picture gives a better view of the gas station and shows the library. We made the grocery store, but it is in the other direction and isn't in these pictures.

K. enjoyed getting out her cars and people and playing. The buildings are made from half gallon juice or milk cartons. I covered them with butcher paper and K. used markers to draw on the windows and doors. Most of the buildings are open on the top so she can put people "in" the building. For the stables we made fences from tongue depressors, stuck them (and glued) into a round styrofoam, and found pictures of horses and glued them on the fences.

Bubbles

Last week I was going through our bookshelves pulling out books I wanted to use for kindergarten science and came upon the book Make It Change by David Evans and Claudette Williams. It doesn't go with our kindergarten theme of Creation, so I decided to go through it before going back to our regular book, Science Experiences. Yesterday we did the page "Can you make bubbles?" I had a large container of bubbles that was about 4 years old, so we used that up instead of making our own bubbles, but we did make our own bubble blowers from pipe cleaners. We made this large one first, then we made a couple smaller ones. There was a slight breeze and we discovered that the breeze was better at "blowing" the really big bubbles than us blowing them. We played with the bubbles for about 30 minutes. It was a lot of fun!

Eddie's Friend Boodles

This wasn't one of my favorite books by Carolyn Haywood. It was a good story, but not very captivating. The book did introduce us to funzies, though, and we are having fun with them. A funzie is a tall tale -- like Paul Bunyan -- something you and everyone listening knows isn't true, but it is fun to say.

Eddie's Menagerie

I was a bit disappointed in this book by Carolyn Haywood. It was written in 1978, and I guess she changed with the times and decided they didn't need to go to church on Sundays.

Other than that it was a very good story. If your children like animals, they will love Eddie and his adventures that center around the pet shop, a colorful cap, his family, and friends. Eddie is older in this book so I thought K. might not relate to it and like it as well, but she enjoyed it just fine -- "read the next chapter!"

Back Yard Science

See our catepillar? A few days ago while I was weeding in the backyard I found this little catepillar. K. and I brought it inside and put it in a jar with an avocado leaf and bell pepper sprouts (we had an over-abundance). It ate the bell pepper sprouts, so the next day we went back out and gathered an assortment of leaves and plants from where I found it. Of course, it likes the tomato leaves! Anyway it has almost doubled in size now.

Calendar

When K. was 2 she started asking about when things would happen, so I decided it was time to introduce the calendar. I made a two-week calendar form and put it on the bulletin board in our dining room. I labeled the days of the week and used clip art for pictures and symbols for events -- church, Cubbies, park day, grocery shopping, birthdays, sisters visiting, etc. -- and covered them with clear contact to make them last. With the two-week calendar we had the concept of what was happening this week and next week. Then on Sunday, the events that were "next week" got moved up to "this week". I also made a sun, with the center cut out to move from day to day to show which day it was. We used this for almost 2 years.

Now we use the family calendar and just put up special events (not weekly the weekly ones of church, Bible Study, groceries as she now understands what day those things happen). We use an orange highlighter to draw pictures of these events and to circle the number of the current day. I chose a highlighter because any writing on the calendar (birthdays, dr's appointments, etc.) will still show through.

Two and Two are Four

This book, by Carolyn Haywood, is about a family that moves from the city to the country. The Dad buys a farm, but he takes the train to the city to his job and there is an older couple (the Perkins) who work the farm. The isn't really about the farm, but about living in the country and the adventures that Teddy and Babs and the Perkins' grandchildren (Peter and Jane who come for the summer) have. The children have problems with a skunk and pigs. They go on a barge ride for the 4th of July, and they get a pony. There are a couple chapters that deal quite nicely with disobedient children, although I think I would have prefered Babs having to help clean her hat instead of it being done for her.

At the beginning of the book K. started saying, "I want to live on a farm." There are a couple chapters she really enjoyed and we have read them more than once.

"B" is for Betsy

This is the first book Carolyn Haywood wrote. On an historical note, it is interesting that in this book (written in 1939) the children's first year of school is first grade, but in Betsy's Little Star (written in 1950) the first year of school is kindergarten.

We really enjoyed "B" is for Betsy. It is full of fun with some suspense. K.'s favorite chapter was "How Betsy went to pick violets and got into trouble". One thing I really like about Carolyn Haywood's books is that the children call the adults Mr. or Mrs. It is really nice to read books that reinforce that.

Taffy and Melissa Molasses

This is one of my favorite books by Carolyn Haywood. Taffy and Melissa live on a farm and have a variety of wonderful adventures with Jonathan (Here Comes the Bus) during their summer vacation from school. From the surprise of a pony being born to being locked in the summer house during a rain storm to picking blueberries to being stranded on a rock their adventures this book are fun, realistic, and exciting.

Reading this book was the first time K. has ever said, "Read the next chapter". Her favorite chapter was about the 4th of July -- we've read it over a couple times. With the 4th just a couple weeks away it was quite appropriate to read this book now. Isn't it so neat how God orchestrates even what book I pick up to read!

Memorization

"Memorization is not for impressing others, but for impressing the memorizer's heart."

This is a quote from Educating the Whole Hearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson. I think I will make it into a big poster to help me remember and evalute what to have K. memorize.

Is memorizing all the presidents of the U.S. in order, the 13 times tables, or the tallest mountain on each continent to impress others, or to impress my child's heart? Are those really things my child needs to memorize or things she needs to be exposed to and understand? Am I educating my child to be a contestant on Jeopardy or a contender for Jehovah?

Hello, Star

Hello, Star, by Carolyn Haywood, is a quick read with only eight chapters. It is a look at Star's visit to her Grandparent's farm during her fifth summer, but it isn't about the farm. Star and her cousin Jerri (boy) have adventures involving racoons and swans. The main idea of the book is that wild animals are fun to watch, but you should not try to make them pets.

Independence Day

I picked up four books from the library to read to K. about the 4th of July.

• Independence Day by Helen Frost
• Independence Day by Ann Heinrichs
• Independence Day by Robin Nelson
• The Declaration of Independence by Melinda Lilly

I like parts of each one, but one skipped over the Revolutionary War and another talked more about how we celebrate today, and . . .

So I took the parts of each one that I liked, put it in my own words, and wrote my own book. I added clip art and scanned pictures from the books so it really looks pretty good. Here is the text from the book. If you like it, you can make your own!

We celebrate Independence Day every year to remember how the United States of American became a free country. Independence Day is on the 4th of July. Independence Day is the birthday of America. It is the day we decided to become a free country. Today the United States has 50 states, but the country used to be much smaller. It began with only 13 states. But before they were states, they were called colonies. The 13 colonies belonged to Great Britain. Great Britain is on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. King George III was the leader of Great Britain. He made laws for the 13 American colonies. Many people in America thought the laws were unfair. They decided Great Britain should not rule America. The American colonists wanted to govern their own land. They colonies' leaders had a meeting called the Continental Congress. They talked about America being free. John Adams asked Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence says that all people are equal. They have the right to be free and to rule themselves. It says the colonies should be free states. When Jefferson was through writing he took the Declaration of Independence to the Continental Congress. Members of the congress liked what Jefferson wrote. They voted yes on July 4, 1776. The colonial leaders at the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence. Great Britain did not want America to be free. They fought for six years, but in 1783 the colonists won the Revolutionary War and their freedom. Every year Americans celebrate their freedom on Independence Day. We display flags and decorate with red, white, and blue. Families and friends celebrate Independence Day. They have picnics at parks and homes. Many people eat hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, watermelon, and apple pie. Communities celebrate Independence Day. They have parades during the day and firework displays at night.

I ended the book with a portion of the poem 'The Flag Goes By' by Henry Holcomb Bennett.

Penny and Peter

We finished reading Penny and Peter by Carolyn Haywood yesterday. I'm not sure which chapter was my favorite, but K.'s was when the crabs were crawling all over in the train. Penny and Peter got into some interesting scrapes and this book had us laughing a lot. It does celebrate Christmas, but there is no mention of Santa Claus.

There were some incidents that were so familiar that I'm sure I read this book when I was in elementary school. Did you know that Carolyn Haywood wrote one book almost every year from 1939 (B is for Betsy) to 1987 (Hello, Star)!

Pre-Writing Activity

Yesterday we did this really fun pre-writing activity. K. and I made a batch of bisquit dough and then formed it into numbers. We did 0 through 9 and still had some dough so we added 10, 11, 12, and 13. Then we ate them for dinner!

Letter Cards

If you choose to write the letters of the alphabet on 3 x 5 cards, here are a couple tips.

1. When writing each letter, place the card over something that is divided in thirds so each letter will have the same baseline and words, such as bag, will be straight and not go uphill.
2. Write the vowels on a different color of card than the consonants. I didn't think of this until I was done, so I doodled a colorful border on the vowel's cards.

Phonics, Step 3

When I decided to go ahead and start teaching K. to read, I figured I could probably find everything I needed for free on the internet. The problem I ran into was that there was too much information, and I became frustrated. My goal here is to give you a simple sequence in which to present phonics instruction, keeping workpages to a minimum.

Step 1 was to teach the sounds of the letters. If this is the method you are using, you should either choose only pictures of items that have the same sound (cat, church, and ceiling all start with c, but they don't sound the same) or have a different folder for each sound of that letter.

Step 2 was to start sounding out three letter words using the short vowel sounds. Originally I made the lists, but I've decided that a better way to go is to write each letter of the alphabet on a 3 x 5 card and use them to "build" words. I wrote a five page book with sentences for her to read and some for me to read. This allows the story to have more complete thoughts without having to introduce words K. hasn't learned to read yet. The book has colorful pictures I pulled from clip art to make it fun and interesting.

Step 3 is to introduce the consonant blends: br, cr, tr, fr, dr, gr, pr, bl, pl, cl, fl, st, sn, sm, and str. I'm using the 3 x 5 cards to build words. Because K. sometimes wants to do "homework" (the influence of college aged siblings), I've made three workpages for her to do, matching the blends to pictures of items that begin with that blend. After we've practiced the blends well enough, there will be another "book" for her to read.

Betsy and Mr. Kilpatrick

Oh, this was a fun book full of twists and funny happenings! In Betsy and Mr. Kilpatrick, by Carolyn Haywood, Mr. Kilpatrick, the policeman who has always seen the children across the street to school, has received a promotion and will be replaced by a lady officer. They children are sad to lose Mr. Kilpatrick and want to do something special for him.

Improvising

Sometimes you may not have exactly what you need to do an experiment (or something else) the way the book says to. We needed a balance scale. The book said to use a yard stick and told how to make a base for it. I didn't have a yard stick, but I did have this piece of wood left over from some project. I didn't have the materials to make the stand, so I walked around our home looking for a place to put a screw. I noticed that there was an existing hole in the end of the banister that was just the right size for the screw I had. Our balance scale worked great and it was the perfect height for K. to use. I put a screw in our utility closet so I can hang the scale out of the way, and when we need to use the scale, or K. wants to play with it, it is easily installed on the banister.

Science

Here is an example of a story telling activity that integrated with the unit on Magnets in Science Experiences for the Early Childhood Years. We turned a shoe box over and cut off one side. Then we made people from chenille wires and put their "feet" in a large paper clip. Using magnets on the underside of the box allowed us to move the people around while telling a story. K. still likes to pull this out and play with it every so often.

Here you can see the magnets on the underside of the box.

Here's A Penny

We really enjoyed reading Here's a Penny by Carolyn Haywood. It is about a young boy, Penny, who was adopted. Having an adopted child (K.), I loved the way she presented it. The book initiated some questions and good conversations. Penny is a lovable, adventurous boy who has some trouble with getting a pet kitten and wants an older brother.

More About Little Pear

We just finished reading More About Little Pear by Eleanor Frances Lattimore this morning. It was a fun book to read, introducing some Chinese customs and ideas. The story begins on Little Pear's last day of school and ends when it is almost time for school to start again. Little Pear gets into some mischief, which allows for discussion. Except for one episode at the end of the book he isn't intentionally bad, just curious and adventurous.

Agriculture

Are you interested in teaching your children about gardening and animals? Here are links to a couple websites that can give you a boost in that direction.

• Los Angeles County Farm Bureau - especially check out 'Barnyard Corner' and 'Backyard Ideas'
• California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom - you'll find lesson plans for grades K-12, resources, games, and more!

These are public school resources, so be sure to "walk circumspectly".

The Four Year Old Game Plan, part 2

When I was writing the first post I was going by days and since Bible and Music don't have their own day, I forgot them. Bible we do every day and Music is just when K. is in the mood.

Bible

• Memorizing the verses for the Wordless Book; after the verses are memorized we will work on the dialogue that goes with them. An idea that I really like to go with the presentation is nesting cans spray painted the corresponding colors. There was a website where you could purchase them, but I'm working on collecting appropriate cans.
• Romans 3:23 - black page
• 1 John 1:7b - red page
• Psalm 51:7 - white page
• John 14:2 - gold page
• 2 Peter 3:18 - green page
• Reading Little Visits with Jesus by Mary Manz Simon with corresponding Scripture.
• Reading lots of Bible Stories
• Acting out Bible stories. Some of K.'s favorites to act out are Mary and Martha, David and Goliath (which sounds simple to do with 2 people, but you need David's father and brothers, and King Saul), the Ten Plagues and Crossing the Red Sea, and Jesus bringing the little girl back to life.

Music

• Understanding that each note on the page has a name and each key on the piano has a name and they correspond to each other.
• Sing, sing, and sing some more!

Memorial Day

To learn about Memorial Day I picked up the book Memorial Day by Geoffrey Scott from the library. It does a really good job of explaining the history of the day. How it grew out of the Civil War and was called Decoration Day. It also narrates a Decoration Day celebration in a small town in 1878 describing what the children did in school, the food, the people, the parade, and decorating the graves.

We had a good time making these patriotic placemats. I folded the blue construction paper in half and drew a line 1-1/2-inches from the open end, then used our paper cutter to cut the slits for weaving the red and white strips. I was surprised that K. (at 5 years) did a very good job weaving and was determined to complete her placemat by herself.

 

 

What's the Point?

Homeschooling I often need to remind myself of Cynthia Tobias' question, "What's the point?" Point being defined as aim, goal, desired outcome.

Here's an example: Sometimes we have work pages. You know the kind, five letters down the left side of the page and five pictures down the right side. The child is to draw a line matching the letter to the picture of the object that begins with that letter. Simple, right?

I'm not sure if it is normal or abnormal children that draw a single straight line from letter to object, or maybe it is children who are (or were, like me) conditioned in a classroom situation that is the way it must be done, but K. never learned that, so she likes to make her lines wander about a bit before ending up at the desired destination. It isn't that she doesn't know where to draw the line, she'll tell me before she starts her line, this is just more interesting, or something.

Now, it is easy for me to get frustrated because it is much simpler, faster, easier, etc. to draw a straight line. So that is when I need to step back mentally and ask, "What's the point?" Is the point on this worksheet to be able to draw a straight line? No! The point is that she knows 'apple' starts with A and 'elephant' starts with E. Does her wandering line show that? Yes! So we've come to a compromise. It is okay for lines to wander, but each line must be a different color so I can easily tell what was matched.

Then next time you start to get frustrated, step back and ask, "What's the point?" It may save you and your child some unnecessary frustration.

The Four Year Old Game Plan

I wanted to do something a bit more scheduled when K. turned 4, but I didn't want to have a whole school day. I decided that 30 minutes a day would be just right. I planned this 'school time' between two other activities so that I couldn't go past the 30 minute limit.

On Mondays we have Social Studies.

• We are learning the names and locations of the states.
• I put a large map of the US on a bulletin board.
• For 26 of the states we have OLD View Master reels. I used yarn to map the trip through these states. We look at the reel and then move our car to that state and add a picture of something we saw in the reel.
• For the last 24 states we will use books from the library to look at pictures about each state.
• We are learning about our world.
• First we learned about the farm. I used Down on the Farm from Teacher Book Bag.
• Now we are learning about our community. I am using Exploring My Neighborhood from Teacher Book Bag.

On Tuesdays we have Science.

• I found the book Science Experiences for the Early Childhood Years (7th edition) at a second hand store. There are 4 to 8 experiments for each topic, plus activities to integrate each topic into math, music, literature, etc.
• It depends on how interested K. is in a subject as to how much we do. I thought she would be very interested in Plants, but she wasn't, however, she was captivated with Water.

On Wednesdays we have Writing.

• I discovered Peggy Kaye's Games for Writing at the library. Part One of the book has eleven activities that teach pencil control and telling well-organized tales. This is the only part of the book we are using until K.'s pencil control is ready for writing letters.

On Thursdays we have Math.

• The math section in Down on the Farm is a country store where K. uses pennies to purchase groceries. She picks her groceries, puts out the number of pennies for each, then counts all the pennies.
• I found more activities at Bringing Learning to Life.
• Part One of Games for Math by Peggy Kaye has games for counting, size, shape, patterns, and more.

On Fridays we have Reading.

• We practiced our phonics. K. enjoyed learning a phonics song. You can find lots of them on You Tube.
• Using clip art I made some worksheets for matching pictures to their beginning letter. (If you'd like these you can e-mail me.)
• Now we are reading three letter words. I made rhyming word lists. A page for each short vowel. As K. sounds out each word we use it in a sentence or talk about what it is because reading isn't just about sounding out groups of letters, but understanding the meaning of those groups of letters.

Teaching to Count, Part 2

After K. learned to count to 30 she got the idea that you just add the -one, -two, -three, etc. to the 30, 40, 50, and so forth. She did real great if I supplied the 40, 50, 60 . . ., but she had trouble remembering them in the right order. Since she is a visual learner, I decided to make this way to practice. It involves both visual and kinesthetic learning.

I took 4 x 6 cards and cut them in half, then wrote two sets of the numbers 1 - 9 and three of the number 0. Lay the first set out like this and have your child count 0 - 9, pointing at each card when they say the number.

Then have your child take the 1 from the second set and move it along the columns of numbers as they say the numbers. Do the same with the 2, 3, 4, etc. counting to 100.

This exercise really helped K. understand how the numbers progress.

Carolyn Haywood

I'm so EXCITED! I was just on our library website requesting some of Carolyn Haywood's books. It appears that some of her books are being re-published. This is what is said:

From Carolyn Haywood, author of the beloved Betsy series, here are four more classics for young readers. These adorable stories of childhood adventures are as fresh today as when they were written more than a half century ago. And now, thanks to dynamic new covers, they're ready to charm a whole new generation of readers.

Hopefully these will get a great reception, and they will re-publish all her books!

Robert Rows the River

The setting of Robert Rows the River by Carolyn Haywood is the River Thames in England. The book takes place over a five week holiday from school. In the book Robert befriends a Romani boy, Aaron, who has a monkey for a pet. Robert has to deal with the prejudice of his other friends toward his new Gypsy friend. The boys have all sorts of adventures and at the end of the story all the children become friends.

Betsy's Little Star

We finished Betsy's Little Star by Carolyn Haywood a couple days ago. Now I am re-reading the chapters K. liked best.  This book is about Star, who is 4 years old at the beginning of the book and so not quite old enough to start kindergarten in September when all her friends do. In the last two chapters Star turns 5, her birthday is December 24th, and she starts kindergarten when school starts back up in January. In between Star had some wonderful adventures.

Carolyn Haywood writes such good books! You will find mention of Sunday School, prayer, God, and scripture in her books. However there are a few things to watch out for:

• Most of her books have a chapter on Halloween. In the 1950's when these books were written Halloween was just something everyone did. I remember I was in 5th or 6th grade when Christians started saying "What is Halloween and should we be involved?" (that was the mid 1970's). Since we haven't discussed Halloween yet and K. isn't reading yet, I just change wording as I go along so they are having a costume party.
• Most of her books have Santa Claus in them. Depending on the content, I either change wording or skip the chapter.
• The children have a lot of freedom. Star, at 4 years old, was allowed to go around the block and cross streets by herself. Again, in the 1950's that may have been okay, but today?

The Cricket in Times Square

I read K. her first long book when she was 3 years old. It was The Cricket in Times Square by Garth Williams. At first she wasn't very interested, but I would read, one chapter a day, while she was eating her lunch or dinner, and she enjoyed looking at the illustrations that were every few pages. When we finished the book she wanted me to read it again, and she always wants to look for "Chester" cricket when out on evening walks. I'm sure we will read it again when she is a bit older. It is such a fun book!

Read-Aloud

I have five books that I draw upon as a source of quality books to share with our children.

• Reading with Babies, Toddlers, and Twos by Susan Straub
• Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt
• Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson
• The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease (mine was published in 1985)
• Adventuring with Books edited by Mary Lou White (here is the 1985 edition)

There is some overlapping of books between these bibliographies, but then you know those books are really, really good!

Teaching to Count

When our oldest child was about 3 years old one day I heard her counting. I was a firm believer in "better late than early" so hadn't taught her to count, so I tried to figure out how she had learned. She had learned by listening to me count trophy parts (we have our own business).

When you teach your child to count, count objects so they aren't just memorizing the words, but the words actually have meaning. Count everything. Count the number of apples your buying at the store. Count the number of seeds in your slice of watermelon. Count the spoons for setting the table. Count the number of times you brush her hair. Count toys as you put them away. Count their socks, underwear, shoes, fingers, toes, hands, etc.

Don't forget zero. It is a very important concept. Before you put the glasses on the table, there are zero glasses on the table. Before any toys are in a container, there are zero. And so forth.

Teaching the Alphabet

Here is how I introduced the alphabet. What you'll need:

• 26 manila folders (or large sheets of construction paper)
• felt tip pen
• large envelope or a 27th folder (to keep cut letters and pictures in)
• magazines to cut up
• scissors
• glue

Write one letter of the alphabet on the front of each folder. For letter recognition, cut out the large letters from titles of articles in magazines. Show one to your child and tell them the letter. Then let them glue it on the outside of the folder. Once they have learned the letter names, show them a letter and ask what letter it is, or let them find the folder it goes on. Letting your child do the glueing can be time consuming, messy, and frustrating, but it is really part of the learning process and the more they do it, the better they will get at it!

After your child know the names of letters (you don't have to tackle all 26 at one time), cut out pictures that your child will be able to identfy. The conversation might go something like this:

• Mom: What is this?
• Child: Bus
• Mom: That's right. Bus. B..B..Bus. Bus starts with the letter 'B'.

After you've been doing this awhile and your child is learning the sounds of the letters, the conversation would change to:

• Mom: What is this?
• Child: Bus
• Mom: That's right. Bus. B..B..Bus. What letter does bus start with?
• Child: B

Then find the B folder and let your child glue the picture inside the folder. Each time you open a folder have your child name all the pictures in the folder. Try to only get 1 of each item, unless you find a really neat picture that just has to be included! As your child gets older include him in the selection of pictures.

We would only average 10 pictures at a time and usually only about 3 times a week.

Hint #1: If you don't have magazines, ask relatives and friends for old magazines, purchase them at a second hand store, or request a free catalog from a place like Oriental Trading (once you're on their mailing list they'll send you catalogs forever!).

Hint #2: You will find that some magazines use thicker paper than others. It is much easier for children to glue pictures from these magazines as the thinner paper tears easier when wet with glue.