Summer Reading List

Sheila left me a comment on my last post about public school. Don't worry, Sheila, I didn't take it personally, but I thought I'd use that as an opportunity to blog about my son's school and why we made the decision to send him there.

He goes to a private school. I'm pretty sure they are further ahead than the public school kindergarten classes here. Second, the kindergarten is only two days a week. First and second grades meet three days a week and third through twelfth meets four days a week. They have three 11 week trimesters. Independent work is emphasized. In fact, the school started as a homeschool Latin class in the founder's basement and grew from there. What I love about it is that if I were going to homeschool 100%, this would be the kind of curriculum I would use. But as you do in every "class" situation, your child does not always get to move at their pace. Which is why I "afterschool" so I can help him where they are moving faster than his pace and keep him challenged where they are moving slower than his pace.

There are a couple of reasons we decided that homeschooling was not the best solution for us, but if we didn't have this school as an option, we probably would be homeschooling. The first reason is work schedules and the second reason is that Samuel is an only child with limited opportunities for interactions with other children of any age. I have gone to some of the local homeschool group activities and while the activities were good, I have not been successful in building any friendships, either for myself or my son.

And since the comment came in regards to the reading level of his class, I thought I would share his summer reading list with you. So if they are reading these books by summer time, I think they will pick up the pace in the last trimester (beginning in March).

Rising 1st Graders

I Can Read Books
• Morris Goes to School (Level 1)
• Frog and Toad (5 book series, Level 2)
• Mouse Tales (Level 2)
• Wind in the Willows
I Spy, Each Peach Pear and Plum, 32 p.
Drummer Hoff, 32 p.
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, 20 p.
Doctor DeSoto, 32 p.
Corduroy, 28 p.
Circus Caps for Sale
Curious George, 36 p.
Harry the Dirty Dog, 32 p.
Bread and Jam for Frances, 32 p. (5 book series)
The Little Engine that Could, 37 p.
Floss, 32 p.
Ox-cart Man, 40 p.
Blueberries for Sal, 32 p.
The Magic Fish, 32 p.
Gregory’s Shadow, 32 p.
Maybelle The Cable Car, 42 p.
Madeline, 46 p. (6 book series)
Seaman’s Journal: On the Trail with Lewis and Clark, 32 p.
Poems to Read to the Very Young, by Josette Frank

January Afterschool Report

This month we focussed mostly on reading and math. In his Kindergarten class, they are still on CVC short vowel words. Mostly I view this as writing practice. In math they are doing addition by "fact houses". All the combinations that add up to a certain number...so the "four fact house" consists of 0+4, 1+3, 2+2, 3+1, and 4+0. They are on six right now. This is what we did at home the other 5 days of each week:

Bible
· “Fun Devotions for Boys: Gotta Have God” by Diane Cory - we actually just started this and are enjoying it so far.

Math
· Math History - “Mathematicians Are People, Too: Stories for the Lives of Great Mathematicians” by Luetta and Wilbert Reimer – Thales, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Hypatia
· Tangrams – “Grandfather Tang’s Story: A Tale Told With Tangrams” by Ann Tompert
· Regrouping (adding 2 digit numbers) – “A Fair Bear Share” by Stuart J. Murphy
· Area – “Bigger, Better, Best!” By Stuart J. Murphy
· Symmetry – “Let’s Fly a Kite” by Stuart J. Murphy
· Understanding Halves – “Give Me Half!” by Stuart J Murphy
We also played some Uno and Battleship.

Music
· Beethoven – Fifth Symphony, Fur Elise, Moonlight Sonata
· “Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers: Ludwig van Beethoven” by Mike Venezia

Reading
· “Addie Meets Max” by Joan Robins (An I Can Read Book)
· “Frogs” by Laura Driscoll (Station Stop 1 All Aboard Science Reader)
· “Honey Bunny’s Honey Bear” by Marilyn Sadler (Step into Reading 2)
· “Blue Goose” by Nancy Tafuri
· “My Friend Rabbit” by Eric Rohmann
· “Water” (An All Aboard Science Reader Station Stop 1) by Emily Neye
· “A Dollar for Penny” by Dr. Julie Glass (Step Into Reading Step 1 – also math)
· “Snow Wonder” by Charles Ghigna (Step Into Reading Step 2)
· “Cat on the Mat” by Susan Schade (Step Into Reading Step 2)

Literature
· “The Story of Dr. Dolittle” by Hugh Lofting - we are also reading a new "fun" series (A to Z mysteries by Ron Roy), so we still have a few chapters left.

History/Geography
Read from the Library of the Thirteen Colonies and the Lost Colony series:
· “The Colony of North Carolina” by Susan Whitehurst
· “The Colony of Connecticut” by Susan Whitehurst
· “The Colony of South Carolina” by Susan Whitehurst
· "The Colony of Maryland” by Brooke Coleman

Nature/Science
· “The Adventures of Peter Cottontail” by Thornton Burgess

Life Skills
· Making his bed - this is a HUGE deal since his Dad never makes the bed. With his work schedule, he sleeps later than us every day and I don't always remember to go back and make the bed as an example to Samuel.

Bird Study

I mentioned in this post about our cool bird field guide. It's sometimes hard to use because we don't get a great look at any bird before they are scared off by our movements or sounds. We have a tree just outside our balcony and we sit out there sometimes trying to intice them to come to our tree so we can look at them. Last spring we were excited to see a mourning dove build a nest in the center of the tree, but soon the leaves filled in and we never got a good look at the pair (or any babies they had) after that.

This past week we had an ice and snow storm that broke off a branch of the tree, so we are very sad about that. But one good thing is that Samuel spied several "blue" birds alighting on the white branches. We tried to get closer looks and even a close up picture, but we always seemed to spook them away. Still, Samuel got out his trusty bird guide and decide they were barn swallows. Even though our field guide said they were summer birds in Kentucky, he was adament. They did look more like this bird in our guide than any other. I just was unable to give him another option.

So I asked him if he wanted to try drawing a picture in his nature notebook (and other stuff). It's just a small notebook we infrequently write nature notes in and sometimes he draws a picture. He said he couldn't do it. I told him of course he couldn't do it if he never tries. This is an area we struggle with. If he can't do it perfectly or without help, he doesn't even want to try. I told him to look at the picture in the book and copy it. I left him alone for a while with his notebook, field guide and some colored pencils. When I came back in to the room, I was shocked and amazed to see this:


This is probably better than I could do and he's only 5 1/2. I am definitely going to encourage him to draw more. He's not interested at all in the Draw Write Now book we have though, although I love it.

Product Review - ETC Online

I received an e-mail from Homeschool Buyers Co-op and followed a link to this product and to look it over. I am thinking about purchasing either a math or phonics computer "game" for summer school around here. I looked it over on my own and then called Samuel in to do the student demo. I started him at the end of Book 1 which I knew would be no challenge. Most of the exercises entailed reading two sentences and matching one of them to a picture.

It kept working him up the demo levels (not all inclusive) until I knew he wasn't reading or comprehending all the words in the sentences. However, he could read enough of the words to match one correctly to a sentence. To me, this defeats the purpose of telling me where we need to do more off-line work. To be fair, I skipped ahead to a higher level (words ending in -ed) and there were no pictures. That "game" entailed filling in the blank from a list of words to make the sentence make sense.

I have not used the ETC books before, so this may be a good fit for a family who likes and uses these books. It just isn't what I am looking for.

Summer Planning

I have just begun thinking about summer. It might have something to do with the fact that we have had several below freezing days in a row and snow two days in a row. I know my friends to the North are saying, "that's nothing", but to us in the Ohio Valley of KY, it's something.

So, on to to summer...

The obvious start is reading and read-alouds. This will continue as part of bedtime, as usual. Nothing to plan other than to make sure I have some good books in my running list that I can check out from the library. I will include some biographies and historical literature in this category.

My idea from there is to have each day be a specific "camp" day. So far I have

Art Camp

• Watercolor Tutorials from Hearts and Trees (scroll down to the links on the sidebar) - currently she has 8 lessons
• Usborne's I Can Draw Animals - I'm on the waiting list to check this out of the library. If I like it, I'll buy it.
• I also may purchase the Clouds Art Show pdf, also from Hearts and Trees
• Field trip(s) to the KY Museum of Arts and Crafts and the Speed Art Museum

Cooking Camp
Kids Cooking Lessons from Kids Cooking Activities, possibly finishing with a end of summer Pizza Cooking party with a few friends. There are 13 lessons and I may combine the Assistant Chef and the Chef in Training program because he already has kitchen experience.

Science/Nature Camp

• Walks at local parks, exploring some we haven't been to before
• easy science experiments from a kit he received for his last birthday and this website
• Field trips to the Science Museum

And that's as far as I've gotten. I know I don't want to forget math, but we use math almost day, and I know that his skills are already at first grade level, except perhaps with money and time. However, having never used a formal program before, I don't know how to come up with "math camp" ideas.

My other thought is to have a whole week devoted to each subject on a rotating basis so he would have a whole art camp week, capped off by a field trip to a museum on Friday and then we wouldn't do it again untit it came up in the rotation again. However, I'm leaning more toward each "subject" being a day of the week.

But this is just my preliminary thoughts, so I'll be searching and looking for ideas all the way up to June, which is when we will start our summer, probably with a vacation.

Math Living Book Reviews

I really want to make math interesting in a real way to my son. I include him in most of the math I do to get through the day. He likes doing math worksheets now and enjoys his addition flash cards every once in while.

I love introducing new math topics by way of a story. We have read most of the Stuart J. Murphy Level 1 books more than once, and some of th Level 2 books. We even check out a Level 3 or 4 (can't remember now) book each spring called "Earth Day Hooray" which teaches recycling AND place value, even though he is just now starting to understand the idea of place value.

Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert is another book that I recently discovered. A granddaughter is playing with tangram puzzles with her grandfather and begs him to tell a story using the tangrams. The story he weaves is full of animals and they use their tangrams to make the animals in the story. The story itself is a story about friendship.

I know some people own sets of math manipulatives and probably own plastic or magnet tangram puzzles, but there is a page at the back that you can copy and cut out to have your own set. I enlarged my copy.

Samuel is 5 1/2 and this was a good introduction to using shapes. It was not easy for him and I had to help quite a bit, even though we had a pattern to follow, but he really enjoyed both the puzzles and the story.

The other book, Mathematicians Are People Too, is a great way to introduce math history. Each chapter tells of a different mathematician in history. The stories read like fiction and it really is interesting. My son enjoyed the first story about Thales; however, the next two chapters, while interesting to me, were just a little above him. I plan to check this out again in another 6 - 12 months and see how it goes over then.

One Year Bible

I just added a new widget for the One Year Bible Blog. I have four resolutions for 2009 and beyond to improve myself in regard to these four areas:

1. Financial
2. Health
3. Relationships
4. Spiritual

Using the One Year Bible blog is one way of working on the spiritual area. I know that it would be better to let the Lord lead me in daily bible readings, but I am not disciplined enough to have daily or even weekly bible time. This is my way of having some accountability for reading the Bible. If you think this is something you would like to try, please check out that blog.