How to Painlessly Add More Books to Your Reading Schedule
February 28, 2010 by Jimmie
“So many books… so little time” is a common refrain among bibliophile homeschoolers. Laundry has to be folded, meals have to be cooked, and errands must be run. As much as we love reading aloud to our children, homemaking often keeps us from doing it as often as we would like. And we are not the only ones who are busy! Our children attend music lessons, help with household chores, and need time outdoors for free play.
Despite our busy lives, I’ve discovered a secret for injecting more books into our schedule – audio books.
Whether downloaded for free, borrowed from the library, or purchased at a retail store or website, audio books are a super way to “read” more books with your children. We store our audio CDs on the shelves along with our books for constant access. Our family rule is that you must ask permission to watch a movie, but listening to audio books is okay anytime. I love that my daughter reaches for an audio book when she’s bored instead of watching television or playing video games.
My daughter’s favorite time to listen to audio books is while she cleans up her room. The story engages her mind and helps her forget the drudgery of her task. I love that she’s hearing good fiction or classic biographies while I’m busy with my own work elsewhere in the house.
Of course, we listen to audio books together as well. That’s the best situation because we can discuss what we’ve heard and share the memories of the book together, even weeks later.
Here are some great times to sneak in more books with audio books:
- During meal preparation and clean up
- While drawing or crafting
- As you assemble a model
- When sick in bed
- During a trip in the car
- As you wait for an event or a doctor’s appointment (use headphones)
- While folding laundry
An average juvenile fiction novel at Audible.com is around 3 hours of listening time. So if you listened to an audio book only half an hour each day, you could easily add fifty titles to your yearly reading list.
Will you choose audio books for fun or for academics? That’s up to you. You can certainly choose historical fiction to match your history curriculum. Or you may want to choose some literary classics that aren’t scheduled in your language arts curriculum. Look at some of those great books lists that you never seem to get around to reading, and choose some titles to listen to on your computer or MP3 player.
Do you use audio books? What time works best for listening? And do you have some suggested titles that were big hits with your family? Please share them in the comments.
Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.
Vocabulary in Your Read Aloud Books
February 28, 2010 by Jimmie
One of the many positives of reading aloud is that you can expose your children to books that they would have difficulty understanding if read independently. Until about eighth grade, children can listen and understand at a higher reading level than they can read. Often these advanced books have new vocabulary that your children (or even you) don’t understand.
So, how should you handle those new words when reading aloud?
You may be tempted to stop mid-stream in your reading and explain each and every new word. It may be counter-intuitive, but stopping to discuss each new word will dramatically decrease the comprehension of the story. When a story is chopped up into bits and continually analyzed, the flow of the story is destroyed, and it’s hard to regain it when you resume reading.
This quote by Esme Raji Codell in How to Get Your Child to Love Reading explains yet another downside to studying each and every new vocabulary word, “Don’t overevaluate. The more you formally test and check, the more you kill the affective gain.”
Put plainly, over analysis kills the joy.
More than likely, a new word in each paragraph will not greatly impede your child’s overall comprehension. The context clues help the child have a general grasp of the meaning.
Here are some Dos for dealing with vocabulary words in read alouds
- Do make a note of new words or hard passages to return to.
- Do postpone most vocabulary discussion to the end of the passage or chapter.
- Do stop the story to explain a new word if it is pivotal to the action and/or is repeated multiple times in the chapter.
- Do answer your child’s questions about a new word.
Once you’ve completed reading your passage, you can stop and discuss a few select vocabulary words.
- Read the word in context again, and encourage your children to make an educated guess as to the meaning.
- Use a dictionary to verify the correct meanings if you’re not absolutely sure. (Here you can sneak in some dictionary skills.)
- Do reread the entire sentence or even paragraph with the new word after you’ve defined it.
Overall, you want the study of new vocabulary words to be an interesting complement to reading outloud. Don’t make it a drudgery of defining long lists of words. Instead, make it fun! Choose just a few of the most interesting words to study. And then try to incorporate the new vocabulary words into your lives somehow. How about using a book of index cards to make your own Word of the Day Calendar? See how many times you can appropriately use the word that day. My daughter and I added the words tatterdemalion and hoyden to our vocabularies using this method. I can tell you that we will both never forget these vocabulary words or the books we learned them from (The Sword in the Tree & The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed, in case you’re wondering).
What are your favorite vocabulary words learned from reading aloud? Do you have any unique ways to handle new words in your books?
Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.
How and Why to Display Your Child’s School Work
February 23, 2010 by Jimmie
Have you ever made a pie or a casserole that was so beautiful that you almost hated to cut into it and serve it? The satisfaction of simply looking at your masterpiece and hearing the praise of your family felt equal to the joy of devouring it.
Every homeschooling mother longs for her child to have that same sense of satisfaction in looking back at thoughtfully done school work. Furthermore, that feeling of accomplishment is a vital foundation for a strong work ethic. I believe that displaying our children’s work is one way we can help promote the joy of a job well done.
You can always slap a paper on the refrigerator with a handy magnet, but I’m talking about giving select pieces of school work a special honor.
Try one of these ideas. (Personalizing and decorating the display method also gives you a great family craft opportunity.)
- Hang a rod or dowel with pretty ribbon and use clothespins to attach papers.
- Create a “clothesline” with a ribbon tied between two hooks.
- Choose an empty frame and hang it on the wall. Then tape the schoolwork directly onto the press board backing.
- Apply magnetic paint on a portion of a wall and use pretty magnets so showcase special assignments.
- Use small bulletin boards – one for each child in the family.
- Place a clear acrylic frame in a prominent place on a table or shelf. Just slide the work in the slot.
Your criteria for featuring various pieces will be up to you. You may want to choose one excellent piece each day or each week or just whenever you think an assignment should be featured. Consider allowing your children to choose their own pieces occasionally.
You may be surprised at what they consider their best work.
Showcasing your child’s work is not just about art. Any well done school work qualifies – a notebooking page, a well written poem or paragraph, a math activity that was especially challenging, a spelling test, a nature journal page, pretty copywork, etc.
Displaying your child’s artwork sends a strong message to your child:
- “I value what you do.”
- “You are creative, smart, or hard-working.”
- “Work done well is beautiful.”
When visitors come to your home, they can see the schoolwork too and have the chance to ask questions or praise your child again.
Share the ways you display your children’s schoolwork. How often do you change the work? What is your criteria? How does it make your children feel?
Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.
Cootie Catchers for Learning
January 12, 2010 by Jimmie
Here is a simple idea to spice up your homeschool lesson – make a cootie catcher! All you need is a square piece of paper, folded according to these directions.
Usually the person holding the cootie catcher asks his partner to choose a number. Then he opens the cootie catcher back and forth that many times. Next the partner chooses a numbered flap from the exposed sections and answers the question underneath. You don’t have to use numbers. You can use colors, symbols, or letters to label the flaps.
Your cootie catcher has four flaps, each with two portions. So in all, you’ve got a maximum of eight sections for information.
Think of all the ways you can use them:
- Math Facts (times nine multiplication facts, for example)
- Fraction and Decimal Equivalents
- Spelling practice
- State abbreviations
Actually, cootie catchers work well for questions on any topic. Have your child select the questions and write them inside the flaps. Then let her manipulate the cootie catcher as you choose a flap. Since your child has the cootie catcher, she has to say if your answer was right or wrong. Then switch roles and quiz your child.
See how much repetition is happening? You child chooses the questions, writes the questions, asks you the questions, and verifies your answer. These cootie catchers are wonderful, sneaky things!
For variety, try these altered cootie catcher ideas:
- Use a BIG square for a super sized cootie catcher.
- Use colored paper or decorate the cootie catcher with stickers, stamps, or sequins.
Have you ever tried using cootie catchers for homeschool? What topic did you use? Have any photos to share with us? Your comments are always welcome.
Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.
Building a Foundation for Bilingual Learners
Being bilingual is a special gift, but it’s not a rarity. Did you know that over 60% of people in the world are bilingual? Among Americans, though, that rate is only 25%. Bilingualism brings very definite benefits: cognitive abilities such as creativity and problem solving skills; cultural awareness and sensitivity; and employment opportunities. If you are homeschooling a bilingual child or would like to introduce a bilingual environment, there are some things you should keep in mind.
First, be absolutely sure that you are educating towards a high level of proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing for at least one language. That doesn’t necessarily have to be English, but don’t make the mistake of letting your children have only a surface understanding of two different languages.
Sometimes bilingual children never get a firm foundation in either language. Although they sound fluent when it comes to oral conversation, they don’t have the deeper understanding to enable them to read and write at advanced levels in any language. This lack of advanced fluency in a base language will be a huge academic handicap. So make sure to choose one foundational language to deliver all of your primary instruction (math, science, history, and language). Then you can add on studies in the second language.
In my family’s particular situation, English is our mother tongue, and Mandarin is our second language. We live in a Chinese speaking environment where both Mandarin and a local language are spoken. Because we have chosen to use English as our foundational language, all homeschooling is done in English. We speak English among ourselves at home and invite native English speakers over to visit. English books and audio recordings are plentiful. We still read aloud to our ten year old daughter, especially choosing books that are a bit hard for her to understand on her own but are comprehensible when read aloud. Just because we value bilingualism doesn’t mean that we lessen the importance of an English-rich environment.
Although you want to develop a high fluency in your base language, you should not fall to the other extreme and be fearful of mixing languages. It’s perfectly normal and healthy to switch back and forth between the two languages while conversing or while studying. For example, if your child is narrating back a reading passage in English and switches briefly to the second language for a key word or phrase, allow that. Later you may want to share how best to express that same idea in English, but don’t devalue the child’s narration because it was presented in a mix of two languages. Actually, this ability to mix language is one of the first signs of bilingual fluency. So don’t be afraid to inject some second language vocabulary into your homeschool lessons. Sometimes explaining a concept in another language gives a new perspective and helps with comprehension.
Here are some practical ways that we have encouraged healthy bilingualism in our family and homeschool:
• When we are among Chinese friends and in public, we use Chinese.
• Our daughter takes extracurricular classes such as piano and art in Chinese.
• We have invited a native speaker to teach Chinese to our daughter. During these lessons, the teacher reads living books in Chinese and has my daughter narrate back in Chinese. That gives them many natural opportunities to work on new vocabulary. Sometimes I select a homeschool topic and ask the Chinese teacher to discuss it with my daughter. This works especially well when there is a hands-on element. For example, when we studied magnetism, I left the magnets out for the teacher. As they played with them, she used the correct vocabulary in Chinese – words like repel, attract, metal, aluminum, etc.
• My husband and I serve as models. We both have taken private Chinese lessons and enjoy studying in our free time. I take art lessons in Chinese.
• We correct one another in grace. When our Chinese is wrong, our daughter lovingly tells us. And when her English phrasing is a bit odd, we also give her tips, “Usually we would say it this way…” We don’t use shame or belittling comments, but instead we foster an encouraging environment where experimentation with language is welcome.
• We inject lots of Chinese phrases and words even as we speak English.
• We encourage friendships with local people, even those who speak the local dialect and cannot speak Mandarin. We allow colloquial expressions but make sure that our daughter understands what is formal Mandarin and what is slang.
• We buy Chinese books and movies.
As you experiment with bilingual learning, you will find what works and doesn’t work for your particular children and family situation. There are very few hard and fast rules, so don’t be afraid of getting it wrong. Instead, be assured that encouraging bilingualism is a huge asset in your child’s education.
Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.
Five Simple Ways to Add Art Appreciation into Your Homeschool Routine
November 24, 2009 by Jimmie
1. Get an art calendar and hang it in your home. Make a point to spend time at least once a month discussing what you see in the artwork. Each month you will have a new reminder and a new art print.
2. Take a field trip to an art museum, an art gallery, or even an artist’s studio. Remember that visual art includes pottery, sculpting, drawing, architecture, and printmaking. Don’t limit yourself to paintings. Look in your yellow pages to see what options you have locally.
3. Choose a favorite children’s book illustrator. Look through as many of his books as possible. Have your child talk about what makes his style unique. (It may be helpful to compare or contrast his work with another illustrator). Then let your child copy his style as he illustrates his own story.
4. Find art that matches the period of history you’re studying. Look for paintings that reflect the historical events in your curriculum, for example art of the American Revolution.
5. Stop and appreciate art when you see it no matter where you are. Is there a unique sculpture at the community center? Is there a reproduction of a famous painting hanging in the mall? Take time to pause and discuss it with your children. For discussion starters, try this PDF.
Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.
Reading Journals
October 8, 2009 by Jimmie
We all want our children to excel as readers. But our job as reading teachers is not over once the phonics and decoding skills are firmly in place. In fact, we want the reading skills to continue to grow over the years as students become more and more independent in comprehending and interacting with text of increasing complexity, both prose and poetry, fiction and non-fiction.
A good tool for an independent reader is a reader’s response journal. These can be individualized for each student and even for each reading selection.
A reading journal is a place to record your interactions with the text. Anything related to the reading passage is possible: thoughts, questions, observations, new words, favorite passages, sketches, notes, symbolism, or feelings. As you read, you can stop and make notes. For example, there may be a new word or a funny story or a character who reminds you of someone you know in real life. Or you can wait until the end of your reading time to do the writing. You can outline what you read, respond to it, criticize it, or predict what will happen in the future. Look at the list of helps below for getting started on a reading journal entry.
Reader’s Response Sentence Starters
- I think that (fill in character) is ….
- I wish that ….
- I don’t agree that ….
- When I read this, it made me feel ….
- I like the way the author used the word/phrase/sentence ….
- It was funny when ….
- This reminded me of ….
- I like ….
- This story should….
- I predict that ….
- I think the author is trying to teach me ….
- I wonder why ….
- The setting looks like this ….(sketch)
- The conflict is ….
For the actual journal itself you can use a spiral bound notebook, a stenographer’s pad, a three ring binder, or a blank journal for long term use. However, I actually prefer to make individual journals for each book. By making a new booklet for each novel, there’s a sense of anticipation, a feeling of freshness, and another chance to be creative. It’s simple to make a booklet with some printer paper folded in half and stapled down the center. Your child can decorate the cover to reflect the topic of his book.
Although any type of interaction with the text is acceptable, a student may need some direction when first starting out with a reader’s journal. So choose one or two reading response prompts as an assignment for the day’s reading. The student can read with those specific prompts in mind and will be more confident of having something to respond to. If it happens that the prompts you chose don’t seem to fit the day’s reading, look over your list and try to find something that fits better. After doing this a few weeks alongside your child, he will eventually understand the flexibility of the reading journal and be able to select journal topics himself.
As your child grows in independence with his reading journal, he still may benefit from a list of reading response topics. Here are some formats for your reading response prompters:
- Make a bookmark or small chart.
- Make a card file.
- Make a minioffice, poster, or bulletin board.
- Make a booklet.
A few notes about reader’s response journals:
A reading journal is not to be evaluated on spelling, grammar, and mechanics. However, some of the ideas a student explores in the reading journal can later be expanded into complete paragraphs or essays which should have correct grammar and such.
A reader’s response journal is not the same as narrating. Narrating is a retelling of what you read whereas a reader’s response should go beyond summarizing and on into the reader’s personal reactions and assessments. If you already use narration as a homeschool strategy, you will want to explain to your children that what you’re asking them to do in the reading journal is not to narrate back what was read. Of course, you may choose to modify the reader’s journal concept to include both written narrations and more personal responses.
Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.
New Ways to Copy Your Spelling Words
October 6, 2009 by Jimmie
We all know the power of repetition in learning spelling. That’s why our teachers made us copy our spelling words ten times each. Unfortunately repetition can also become mindless as your brain disengages from the task. So the balance when teaching spelling is to give our children the power of repetition without the boredom that often accompanies it.
One key is variety! Copying your spelling words ten times with a pencil on notebook paper is boring. But when you change the pencil to a Vis-à-vis pen and the paper to a sliding glass door, then you’ve got something interesting. (Doesn’t that sound naughty to write on a glass door? Don’t you think your children would love doing that?)
So look in your craft cabinet. What unique media can you give your child to write or form letters? And what unusual surface can you write them on? Here’s a mix and match list to get you thinking.
Write With
- Dotters
- Invisible ink
- Oil pastels
- Paint
- Sidewalk chalk
- Window pens
- Eraser
Write On
- Sandpaper
- Chalkboard
- Whiteboard
- Sidewalk
- Windows or glass doors
- Bathtub wall
- Paper taped to the bottom of a table or to a wall
- Magazine Pages
Form Letters With
- String, twine, yarn, or ribbon
- Pipe cleaners
- Playdough or clay
- Toothpicks
- Packing peanuts
- Building blocks
What unique ideas do you have for copying spelling words?
Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.
Puppets for Narration
September 8, 2009 by Jimmie
We have been using narration in our homeschool since the beginning, even before I called myself a Charlotte Mason homeschooler. I find that it’s a no-cost, low-stress technique that fits any reading assignment whether it’s poetry or prose, fiction or non-fiction.
Jumping Jacks for Narration
My ten year old daughter “Sprite” is good at narrating, but I noticed a funny quirk about her narrations. She tends to grab whatever is handy on the table, usually pencils and markers, to represent the characters she’s telling me about. As she recounts the characters’ actions, she moves the pencils accordingly. They don’t really add a lot to her narration, yet they seem to help her focus and keep the retelling straight in her mind. I shouldn’t be so surprised. You see, Sprite is a highly visual learner who sees things in mental pictures. So when she narrates, she’s trying to show me the picture that’s in her mind. Using concrete objects (however unlike the actual image they may be) seems to help her get her message across.
So finally I thought, “Why not make it easier for Sprite to do these ‘puppet’ narrations?” I could give her paper dolls to represent the characters she’s reading about and narrating.
Because we’re sort of crafty, we got a bit carried away and made jumping jacks, complete with lamination and hinged joints. Now we can use Vis-à-vis pens to write names or draw faces. But you certainly don’t have to spend a lot of time on the narration puppets.
Craft Stick People
Here are some links to paper dolls:
- Jumping Jack Template at Black Creek Pioneer Village
- Paper Dali (free)
- Dover Paper doll books (retail)
- Making Friends paper dolls (free)
Actually, you can use toys, stuffed animals, paper dolls, or store bought puppets. Any small figure that can be used to represent the characters in the passage you’re narrating will work well. If you use a toy or stuffed animal, you may want to give it a name tag stuck on with tape so that your child doesn’t forget which character it is representing. Or for a super simple alternative, print out images of the people in your book and attach them to pencils, markers, or craft sticks.
Try adding puppet narrations to your toolbox. They may help a visual learner like my daughter to craft better narrations. Or they may simply inject a bit of variety into your narration routine.
Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.
Homemade Board Games
August 11, 2009 by Jimmie
More than likely your home has quite a few board games. You may even have frequent family game nights.
But how about making your own homemade board games?
Your children can design the game , create it, and then play it! Here are some steps, but they are not linear. So expect to cycle through the steps back and forth as you work out the plan for your own personalized game.
Grammar Game Made by a 10 Year Old
Your first step is certainly to choose a topic for the theme of your board game. Here are some ideas to get you started.
- a read aloud novel
- a period in history
- a science unit
- a grammar skill
- a math concept
- an artist or composer
See how sneaky this project is? Your children are reviewing academic subjects by creating a board game. You could be overt about it and suggest making a board game as a narration activity, an end of unit assignment, or a portfolio product. Or you could keep the secret to yourself and make a board game “just for fun.”
Next, work on your game board by making some sketches and drafts before you start work on quality cardstock. Illustrate your game board to reflect the theme you’ve chosen. To give younger children help with the project (or simply to shorten the time needed for this activity), you can use a printable game board template and let them fill in the path to finish.
Sources for free online game board templates
The HomeSchool Hutt (Look for the printable games section, and click on file folder games.)
Jefferson County Schools (Word templates)
The School Bell
ABC Teach’s File Folder Board Games
MSSS – Crafts and Resources for Bible Stories
ESL Lounge Board Games (Word templates)
The Teachers’ Lounge
A Board Game Image (right click to save to your computer)
Your next step is to decide how you want to move the pieces. Will you draw cards, use a spinner or throw dice? Or maybe use a combination of these methods? Index cards cut in half make excellent cards for games. You could even make your own specialized dice or spinner.
Dice & Spinners
Crayola (basic die template)
Sparklebox (super sized die!)
SEN Teacher (fully customizable dice)
HomeSchool Hutt (spinners to print)
How to Create a Spinner (PDF)
Use small toys, coins, or beans as playing pieces. Or make your own with polymer clay.
Think about rules for the play of the game, and write them down. You can even use some directions from a store bought game to help you think of what to write. Consider using aspects of your favorite games.
- go back to start or go to jail
- drawing cards with special rewards or penalties
- special places on the board that reward or penalize the player
- speaking special words at certain times of the game (think UNO) to avoid a penalty
Play some trial runs to make sure that everything works. You are likely to encounter some situations that you didn’t consider. For example, can two players land on the same space? As you play, edit your rules for more detail. And then have the whole family come play your new creation!
Consider laminating your board game and storing it in a shirt box or a zippered bag. Oh, and take some photos and share your game on your blog. It’s sure to inspire others to inject more creative, hands-on fun into each day.
Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.
