Jimmie — Heart of the Matter | Heart of the Matter

July 16, 2010 By Jimmie 9 Comment

Do you ever forget to wash the dishes or do the laundry? Although you may procrastinate doing those chores, you probably don’t forget them since they are visible eye sores that provide constant reminders. Sometimes in homeschooling, we do forget important things because, unlike the dirty dishes cluttering the sink, they are intangible.

Narration is one tool that is very easy to forget.

Narration is telling back. After you read aloud or your child reads, you have the child tell back what he heard. Oral narrations are quick, easy, and very effective for cementing understanding. But because they are so simple, narrations are also very easy to neglect. And maybe you and your child even start to feel a little bored with the request to “narrate.”

How can you establish a lively narration habit in your homeschool?

Here are some hands-on tools that you can make for, or better yet alongside, your children.

Narration Jar
Decorate a container and fill it with varied narration prompts. Have a child draw out a prompt or two after each reading session.
Narration Cube
Make a cube with cardstock and fill in six different narration prompts. Have a child roll the die to find his narration assignment.
Narration Spinner
Create a spinner with creative narration ideas. After the reading is done, take a twirl and get a narration suggestion.

You can even make different cubes or spinners for different types of reading material – a science narration cube, a novel narration spinner, etc. Or each child can have a custom made cube or spinner with appropriately leveled assignments, harder for older children and simpler for younger ones.

Later, after you have internalized the various ways to narrate, you won’t need these narration tools. You and your children will automatically have fresh ideas for oral narrations.

What are your favorite ways to remind yourself to narrate? Do your children prefer a particular type of narration?

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.

June 15, 2010 By Jimmie 4 Comment

This eight page book with pockets is perfect for showing off school projects, holding a book report, or serving as a lapbook base. It’s not hard to make. I made one first with my ten year old daughter watching. Then she made another one all by herself. I started with two really huge manila envelopes. You can use paper for this craft as well, but you won’t get the nifty pocket feature.

Step One

Take two manila envelopes and fold them down the center.

Step Two

With one of the envelopes, cut one inch slits at the top and the bottom of the fold line.

This is your first envelope, finished.

Step Three

With the second envelope, cut the middle section of the fold-line, leaving the one inch at top and bottom connected. This is easily done with an craft knife on a cutting board.

Step Four

Put the notched envelope inside the hole in the second envelope. First fold it so it is easier to handle.

Then slide it in so the fold-lines match up.

Then carefully open up the folded envelope so it lies flat on the other. The notches you made should fit perfectly into the other envelope.

This is what it looks like when correctly assembled. It all lies flat.

Step Five

Close the book and start imagining how to use your new bound book with pockets.

the cover, page 1

Inside the book, pages 2 and three.

Inside the book, pages four and five. I’ve got two pockets, one on each side, perfect for storing papers, flashcards, minibooks, newspaper articles, postcards, or whatever treasures I choose.

Inside, pages 6 and 7. (Back cover not shown would be page 8.)

Enjoy! If you have trouble understanding the directions, look at these directions or page 13 of this ebook. Of course, you can leave a question here too and I’ll do my best to help you via email.

If you make it and blog it, be sure to come back and leave a link here.

May 11, 2010 By Jimmie 2 Comment

Is language arts getting a little dull? Add some hink pinks for seriously silly word fun.

Hink pinks are riddles whose answer is two rhyming words.

Here’s an example:

Q. What is a wide stick?
A. a broad rod

And another:

Q. What do you call a cushioned balcony?
A. a soft loft

If the answer is two syllables, then the riddle is called a hinkey pinkey.

Q. What is a frightening fruit?
A. a scary berry

Three syllables are hinkety pinketies.

Can you imagine some fun language arts lessons with these? The best part is that while you’re teaching vocabulary, parts of speech, rhyming words, and syllables, no one even notices because the riddles are so much silly, mind-bending fun. For more printable hink pink puzzles to solve, look at this list. The best fun, of course, is in creating your own hink pinks. Here’s how to do it.

Step One
Start with your answer. Choose two rhyming words that fit together. Choosing ridiculous combinations makes it more fun. This is where you can use a rhyming dictionary if you like.

Step Two
Make your riddle. Reword your rhyme by using synonyms. This is where a thesaurus can come in handy.

Optional
Illustrate your hink pinks with silly pictures like my scary berry.

Step Three
Find someone to quiz. Ask your riddle (the part that doesn’t rhyme). See if your partner can solve the set of rhyming words. If he can’t, show him the illustration as a hint.

Here is a worksheet I made to walk you through these steps for making hink pinks. Try it out this week and then leave a comment with the best hink pinks you and your children created.

April 6, 2010 By Jimmie 4 Comment

Copying the work of masters was once the main way that artists learned their craft. In your own homeschool, making reproductions of famous works of art is a great way to add a hands-on component to your artist study while you learn some drawing or painting skills alongside.

Why should you make your own reproduction of a piece of art? I can think of two main reasons:

To practice drawing
To practice careful observation

To look at a painting in a museum or in a book and appreciate it is one level of observation. To narrate it back in words is a deeper level. But to duplicate it requires a much more sustained level of concentration. After you’ve copied your own version of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, you will forevermore recognize that painting. It almost becomes your own work since you’ve spent so much time interacting with it.

There are several different ways to reproduce a famous painting. Choose what best fits your children’s patience level, personal interests, and your time constraints.

Color a coloring page
Trace the original
Draw it from a gridded framework
Make a freehand sketch

Tip – make your paper the same size or at least the same proportions as the painting you are reproducing. This similarity will help you get your proportions right on the page.

After you’ve chosen your method, you’ll want to plan a bit. Study your painting and chose what should be drawn first (the main subject) and then later (the background and props). Study the proportions and the layout on the page. If you don’t use the gridded framework method, at least make a vertical and horizontal halfway mark on your paper as a guide. By all means use pencils and have plenty of quality erasers on hand for revising your sketch.

Allow plenty of time for the project, stretched over several days. And make sure your children understand upfront that you’re not expecting the reproduction to be completed in 15 minutes. When someone gets frustrated, it’s time to stop. Put it aside for another day. But on the other hand, if your child is really enjoying the creative process, by all means don’t stop her mid-stream. Allow as much time as needed or desired each day until the project is complete.

Professional artist create in this way, working on a project over days or even over months. You can also make comparisons to the writing process of drafting, editing, and revising before publishing. Making your own reproduction gives you the chance to explode the myth that masterpieces are instantly created in their perfection. Here is a perfect chance to talk about perseverance with your children.

Fill in your sketch with the medium of your choice – colored pencils, oil pastels, or paints. I enjoy using watercolor pencils because they are so easy to control. Simply brushing on water can mix the colors and fill in the shapes nicely. At this stage, encourage your children to match the colors as precisely as they can. To do this well, you’ll need some quality art materials that allow blending colors.

What if your child truly despises drawing or coloring? There actually is another option. You can physically reproduce the painting. This works especially well for portraits of people. Have your child dress in clothes similar to the painting and pose in the same position with similar props. Take a few photographs, trying to get as close to the original as you can. Look at these examples — Seurat’s SundayAfternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and Picasso’s Old Guitarist. After your reproductions are complete, be sure to showcase them somewhere.

What have your experiences been with reproducing art? Was it a success or a disaster? Share your ideas in a comment; feel free to link to an art project post on your own blog.

February 28, 2010 By Jimmie 14 Comment

“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.

grinning audio59

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.

homeschool audio31 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.

February 28, 2010 By Jimmie 2 Comment

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?

read aloud vocabulary

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?

February 23, 2010 By Jimmie 10 Comment

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?

January 12, 2010 By Jimmie 6 Comment

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.

cootie catcher wars5 cootie catcher wars4

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.

cootie catcher wars6 cootie catcher wars7

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.

November 30, 2009 By Jimmie 1 Comment

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.

November 24, 2009 By Jimmie 2 Comment

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.

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