What We Are Reading Part 2

Last February I wrote about the chapter books we had been reading to the kids.  You can read that post here: What We Are Reading (part 1)

We just wrapped up Stuart Little, so I thought it would be a good time to post what we have read over the past year and what we plan on reading next.  This helps me keep track of what we have read and might inspire you and your family to grab a few of these titles too!

We went through a rough spell after Contessa was born where we were not reading for several months.  But recently at the suggestion of the mom from Steady Mom, we have started reading at breakfast, lunch or both.  Some days breakfast reading doesn't happen, but lunch has been very consistent for us.  I either eat a bit before hand or I wait and eat afterwards.  We are getting in so much more reading this way and the kids sit and listen much better.  Give it a try.

Last February our goal was to read Never Cry Wolf, Misty of Chincoteague, The Trumpet of the Swan, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and three part history book set.  We read Misty of Chincoteague and The Trumpet of the Swan but then made some adjustments to our other books we had selected.  We got a few chapters into Huckleberry Finn and I realized I needed to read Tom Sawyer first.  The history books were very dry and boring, so we donated them.  And Never Cry Wolf got put back on the shelf for some reason.

We added Sailing to Cytheria, Sarah Plain and Tall, Stuart Little, A Lion to Guard Us, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  The kids and I have loved them all!

When we finished the last of Stuart Little today, I had the kids pick out four books to read next.

The kids selected Never Cry Wolf, Where the Red Fern Grows, James and the Giant Peach and Sea Star, which is the sequel to Misty of Chincoteague.  I am excited to read these to the kids except for Where the Red Fern Grows!  That book made me cry back in 5th grade and I am sure I will not be able to get through it at 33 years old without crying some more!  Oh well!

Nathan sent me a quote from C.S. Lewis the other day that I found so profound.  He said "No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally - and often far more - worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond."

Let C.S. Lewis inspire you and your family to read books that fit that criteria!  Go grab a classic and get reading today!

You Like Ron Paul, Except on Foreign Policy - Watch This

Can I Keep'em Coming

About 4 weeks ago Layla received the Moody series from my mother.  Each book ranges from about 185 to 195 pages and there is only one picture per chapter.  Layla has already polished off 4 of these books in 4 weeks!  That makes me nervous because I want to keep her reading massive amounts of books, but I am a bit picky about content because she is very sensitive in spirit.  These books are great because they are about a homeschooling family, so Layla gets to see some similarities to her own life!  She is amazing!  I better go read some more to keep up with her!

Cut Poison Burn

I watched this film this week and it just messed me up.  Kinda in the same way that Food, Inc. and Super Size Me messed me up.  I heard someone say last night that "the first sight of truth is in doubting."  If what you see in this trailer interests you, head on over to cutpoisonburn.com and you can download the entire film for a "personal value fee" which means donate what you can for the cost of the film.

http://cutpoisonburn.com/

School's Back In Session

We started the day after Labor Day and have been enjoying ourselves.  Julius has begun phonics work in his Penny Primer and finds it fun.  We are starting with Story of the World Volume 1 this year.  Layla has begun to gather important dates for a family timeline.  Then I would like to put together a large timeline for our history lessons and add to it as we read books, view art, etc.  Have any of you ever used a timeline? I am not sure if I want one hanging on the wall or to put one together in a large ring binder.  What are your thoughts?  We are several chapters into Tom Sawyer.  Layla has been running a fever for the past few days(six yr. molars?), so our school work has mostly consisted of Montessori activities and read alouds.  The kids have begged for more of these activities since they are so much fun.  It has even kept a feverish girl wanting to do more "work."  Layla is still not convinced the Montessori stuff counts as school!

Butterfly Release

Layla received this wonderful gift for her birthday.  Since it was too cold to do it this Spring, we waited and ordered our caterpillars this summer.  They grew fast and soon we had four painted lady butterflies.  One was deformed because he formed his cocoon on the ground (I'm guessing).  The healthy three flew gracefully away, but our handicapped little buddy was placed on a rock.  An hour or so later it started to rain, so I went outside and found him still on his rock.  I put him under some plants for shelter.  A little while later I checked on him again and he had crawled back to his rock and was out in the rain.  We figured he would become a special treat for a bird.

School Time

Our Reading Program

I have been asked a few times recently what materials we are using for homeschooling.  Because my kids are so young (almost 6, 4 and almost 2) we really haven't pursued much formal learning at this point.  Our main focus has been on reading.  My husband and I really want our children to not only be good readers, but LOVE reading.  I purchased The Great Saltmine and Hifwip program back when Layla was 3 years old.  She already knew her letters, so I started working with her on the Penny Primer portion of this reading program.  For a year, I was frustrated.  She made very slow progress and was not very interested.  By the time she was well over the age of four, and after a summer break of no reading work, I started again.  This time she was easily comprehending the phonic sounds and memorizing them.  She made very fast work of the Penny Primer and we quickly moved on in the phonics program.  What a difference a year made!  I should have taken a hint from my frustration and her lack of progress and interest and backed off.  But, you live and learn.

Layla is now a very fluent reader.  I am amazed at how well she reads, with very little work or credit on my part.  We just walk through each phonics section and stay with that section until she can remember most of the sounds and can easily read all of the words.  Now Layla's face can always be found in a book.  Many times I will send her upstairs to get something and she doesn't come back because she stops by the book shelf and gets lost in reading.

Julius just turned four and I am taking a more relaxed approach with him.  Layla early on learned her alphabet on her own by the age of two.  This past fall, at 3 1/2 Julius didn't know his alphabet.  But with some work this fall and winter, he now knows his letters and is beginning to write his letters (capital and lowercase) and his numbers.  I haven't decided yet when to start the Penny Primer with him.  I may start this spring and see how he does.  If it doesn't go well, then I will wait until next fall to begin to work on phonics with him.

I love The Great Saltmine and Hifwip because it is a vertical phonics program.  Rather than teaching a child just the main phonic sound of a letter first, vertical phonics teaches the child all of the phonic sounds for each letter or letter grouping.  That way you don't have to come back and teach the child other phonic sounds later.  I think this difference helped Layla become an excellent reader in such a short period of time.  Now, even if you have no plans of homeschooling, I would recommend looking into the program.  It was actually designed to teach kids to read before they were in school full-time to ensure a certain level of reading confidence before being in a classroom setting all day.

I was very overwhelmed when I first received the program.  I had no idea how or where to begin, but the program includes a DVD that walks you through all the steps of the program.  Once I watched that I felt so much better and more confident about using it to teach my kids.  Best of all, if you really get confused or stumble on a problem, the creator of the program is available by phone!  That is unheard of nowadays!  This has been our first main purchase of homeschooling material, and I have been very pleased.  It was worth the small investment and I look forward to teaching Julius, Gunnar and the new baby how to read in the future.

What We've Been Reading

Anne of Green Gables, Charlotte's Web

Last year I started reading chapter books aloud to the kids.  We only made it through these two books.

The Courage of Sarah Noble, Because of Winn Dixie, Ruby Holler, Oliver Twist, Peter Pan, Gulliver's Travels, Sprout and the Dogsitter, Old Charlie

This year we have been doing much better.  Chapter reading has been much more consistent, so we have gotten through many more books in a shorter period of time.  Layla now can sit and comprehend the story, even if there are no pictures.  Julius is getting better at sitting, but he is not yet at the stage of enjoying being read to from a chapter book.  He still prefers lots of pictures!  Now we are starting to tackle this stack.  We are about halfway through The Trumpet of the Swan and enjoying it.  I think I may be removing the history books, as I have looked through them and the writing is not very enjoyable.  I need to find some history storybooks that would be much more fun to read, for me and the kids!  I have heard some great things about Story of the World series.  I want to first check our book exchange store because their prices are awesome.

Never Cry Wolf, The Trumpet of the Swan, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Misty of Chincoteague, History of the United States 1-3

Benefit of Home Schooling...

.....the older brother can teach the younger brother.  Beautiful!

First Real Bibles

Layla, Julius and Gunnar all received their first "real" Bibles this Christmas.  Nate has been leading us in daily family worship and the kids wanted their own Bibles to read along with Mommy and Daddy.  Not familiar with what family worship consists of, then grab a few of these books/ CDs to find out (there are many more resources besides these).

Pajamas and Art Books

This fall I purchased some art books for our home school, but haven't yet started to incorporate them into our daily work.  The kids love to grab them every now and then and draw (or attempt to draw) the pictures and lessons in them.  It's so much fun to see how they draw.  It's amazing to me the shapes and details that they are able to interpret just by their own observances.

Puzzle Fun

Can I Get 'Er Done?

As I continue to work my way through a small mountain of bins, I have a bit of doubt in the back of my mind.  Can I really get this all taken care of before tomorrow?  We will see.  Let's take a look at the list.

• Get back to daily school work 
• Finish "Ruby Holler" chapter book with the kids - we had more left than I realized.  We are on page 253 and need to get to 310 to finish, lots of reading today!
• Wash all the dirty towels and sheets
• clean both bathrooms
• clean off fan blades in our bedroom (it's gross!)
  
• Use up any remaining food in the fridge and grocery shop 
  
• Sort through clothing bins and store away clothing that is too small - more bins done, but as you can see above, lots more work to do!
• Find good dinner roll recipe for Thanksgiving - I am going with these Buttermilk-Onion Pull Apart Rolls
• finish Christmas gift ideas for our kids - one gift ordered online, three gifts purchased this weekend from store, just need to finish ordering a few more gifts online  

This year I don't have much Thanksgiving cooking to do, so I thought I put a little more effort into the rolls I was assigned (pun intended :).  So today I need to work on the dinner rolls and work on finishing this list.  I am super excited because I don't have to cook dinner tonight.  I purchased a voucher online that will get me 4 sub sandwiches for only $10 from a local sub shop downtown.  Whoohoo!  I thought that was a pretty good deal and Lenny's makes some tasty subs.

Best wishes to everyone as they prepare for tomorrow's Thanksgiving.  Remember to try your best to be "hushed and not rushed" this holiday season, just as Mrs. June Fuentes recommends. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Reorganizing School Stuff

I keep the kids school and craft supplies on the bottom shelf of the pantry, mainly because that is the space I have available.  Because the kids have access to it, it tends to get a little messy in there!  I decided to divide things up according to each child, making them responsible to return their things to their own basket/box.  I even put their names on them to avoid any confusion.  It has been this way now for weeks and is staying pretty nice and neat.  Occasionally Gunnar will stick his things elsewhere, but Layla and Julius are really good about putting things back where they belong.  Let's see if we can make it through the new year without getting junky again!

Get Your Kids Involved

A Different Way

I was becoming increasingly bothered about our rather frequent usage of Tylenol and Motrin for the kids.  While we tend to not treat fevers in our house until they get over 101, I was having to give the kids a pain reliever for either teething issues and leg aches on a pretty regular basis.  Uggh!  It was frustrating enough that I began to look into more natural alternatives.  This past week we purchased a few herbal and homeopathic remedies for anxiety, leg aches, teething and fevers.   Julius has been using some stress relieving herbs the past few days to help with his bad dreams and night time anxiousness.  The baby has been using the teething tablets and drops.  Last night when Julius woke with leg aches, we got to try the pain relieving remedy.  So far we have been pleased with the results and the Tylenol and Motrin have stayed in the medicine cabinet, only to be used for more emergency type situations.

If you have never looked into the concerns with Tylenol and Motrin, I encourage you to do so.  Not only have they had recent problems with contamination, but there is plenty of evidence of liver damage and other health concerns related to these medicines.  I appreciate these medicines' ability to reduce fever and treat pain, but because of their side effects, I would rather reserve them for times when other, more natural remedies are not effective.  If you are interested in more natural ways to treat yourself and your family, head on over to Keeper of the Home.  Stephanie and other contributing writers have written numerous articles this month on natural remedies, treatments and alternatives. 

As I stated earlier, we are just beginning to try out these natural methods, so I will try and keep you posted on how they are working over a longer period of time!

Work... Well Sort Of:)