Friday, May 30, 2014

Reading with a friend

Joseph helping Ezra with his reading lesson. senk 2014
Joseph loves to read. He has started his first chapter book, "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White, and is often found sitting on the couch reading some of his favorite children's books.

Recently, while I was breastfeeding our four-month-old, Gratian, Ezra requested his reading lesson. Unable to help him at that precise moment, I was astonished to hear Joseph say, "I'll help you, Ezra!"

So, with "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" by Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington in hand, Joseph turned to the appropriate page, and started reading the Instructor's directions to his younger brother. Ezra was delighted - as evidence of all-smiles reveals - and followed along really well.

But this isn't the first time Joseph has read to his brother. In fact, he often likes to grab his favorite Berenstain Bears' book, cozy on the couch, and read to me and Ezra while I am nursing the baby. He will even ask us to choose our favorites so he can read them to us.

Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise co-authored a great book, "The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home," which has been really helpful in our homeschooling adventure in the Shenandoah Valley. In a world where literacy is vital, reading (including comprehension) is one of the core components of Joseph's education. Bauer and Wise state in "The Well-Trained Mind": "A classical education relies heavily on the written word. As a parent-educator, your number one goal should be to have your child reading fluently when she starts first-grade work" (2009:31).

It's exciting to see Joseph only a handful of lessons away from the end of "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading." We have been working through this book for so long that it is a definite measure of how much Joseph has learned over the last two years. So, as we look toward first grade for Joseph and preschool for Ezra, we anticipate the lessons to come - those learned as a student, but also as a parent-educator.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Dinosaur delights

Dinosaurs about to meet an erupting volcano.  senk 2013
My boys love dinosaurs. They have little dinosaur figurines, which they commandeered from my college dorm-room-door birthday decorating days. They have larger dinosaurs, which they used during our volcano eruptions earlier in the school year. They have dinosaur pillowcases (courtesy of a Grandma who loves to sew). So, it only makes sense that one of Joey's Exploration units would be on Dinosaurs.

Designed as a thematic unit, the Dinosaur exploration allows Joey to learn about something he likes, while also practicing life skills he needs. Reading and math are at the top of our list when it comes to learning. So, all of our lessons center around these main concepts. But, when looking at thematic lessons, it can be difficult to know what resources are particularly good for a specific topic. Of course, Google and Pinterest can proffer ideas - but then, you have to sift through the overload of information. Here is a look at what resources and activities worked well for my Kindergartener and Preschooler.

The core of the lesson centers around a fun activity book entitled, "I love dinosaurs Giant Activity Book" by Let's Go Green. It's particularly good for my preschooler, but Joey loves it too. It is not overly challenging, but provides great connection points to talk about more complex concepts: like carnivores vs. herbivores vs. omnivores. Joey had fun applying what he learned to identify the different dinosaurs via one of those describing words, based on what they ate. We took reading exercises from "National Geographic Kids Ultimate Dinopedia: The Most Complete Dinosaur Reference Ever" by Don Lessem and "National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Dinosaurs." We had acquired the latter at The Green Valley Bookfair for a fabulous price and it was particularly useful for Joey to practice reading. The former has a great introduction on habitats, fossil formation, and other basic dinosaur information. Then, there is a puzzler deck from The World Almanac for Kids on Dinosaur Science! which captured Joey's attention with mind-bending questions, kind of like Brain Quest in format.

Joey and Ezra had fun hands-on activities, too. Using handmade play dough, they pressed their toy dinosaurs' feet in it to springboard a discussion on trace fossils. Russell made soft pretzel dough and helped the boys fashion coils into dinosaur footprints. (They were delicious - especially sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar!) We had storytime with Jane Yolen and Mark Teague's creations, such as "How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?" and "How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Friends?" The boys even got to try to make up their on How Do Dinosaurs... book ideas! Story time always leads into great discussions about authors and illustrators (who they are and what they do), which are key concepts in Kindergarten standards. And we are already anticipating field trips in the coming months to some museums with dinosaur-related fossils and displays. For those of us that live on the East Coast, "Dinosaurs of the East Coast" by David B Weishampel and Luther Young has been invaluable in tracking information on seeing sites firsthand. And, we've carefully selected videos that can give a look at dinosaur life - all thanks to Shenandoah County Public Library and Netflix. Do be careful what you choose, though, for those little guys or gals - we, of course, perused most of the episodes of Dinosaur Train and came across dinosaur videos through the Discovery Channel, too. We even bought a dinosaur tree to plant - at least that's how it was advertised : )

So, let curiosity and imagination flow; explore dinosaurs like a 4-or-6-year-old aspiring paleontologist; and then post some fun dinosaur activities that you do, too.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Integrated Learning Rocks!

The boys love hands-on science.  senk 2013
If you were to ask Joey what his favorite homeschooling lessons are, he would look at you quite resolutely and reply, "science." Not only are his science lessons hands-on, but they're infused with integrated learning. Joey reads and writes in his journal about his latest exploration topic (currently constellations), follows directions to assemble kits and models (recently an inexpensive microscope kit), and becomes an eye-witness for how science works (such as, observing the transition between physical states of water from solid to liquid to gas).

Joey will spend hours putting together a wheelbarrow, parking gate, letter scale, crane, and various other levers-based designs with his Engino Mechanical Science Building Kit or using his Little Labs series Intro to Engineering test the speed of a racing car he built as it traveled down inclines and explore concepts of engineering on land, with air, and in water. It's amazing to see how easily he follows the directions in the accompanying booklets and revels over the challenges they provide.

But, Joey isn't just learning science through reading or assembling kits. He also has science integrated with mathematical principles. For Christmas, dear friends (and neighbors) bought Joey a gem of book: Addition Adventures by MindWare. This booklet weaves together addition and orienteering in order to discover the answer to a posed problem (such as, which clump of grass has a hidden 4-leaf clover). Joey solves the addition problem and then uses the answer to move along the grid in the specified compass direction. The trail twists and turns around the grid, until it stops on the right answer. Of course, my almost-6-year-old likes to provide more of a challenge for himself and answers the addition problems in Roman numerals, but you don't have to. {Nota been: if you get the Addition Adventures book, make a note that there is a typo on page 28. Joey discovered it! Number 20 should be "9 + ___ = 11 (E)"}

Levers with Grandmommy - how exciting!  senk 2013
Suffice it to say, I love integrated learning! Outside of the grade-specified school setting, learning is not rigid and specific, but dynamic and integrated. I hope Joey and I can continue to embrace life-long learning and find ways to link together subject matter, rather than filter them into remote topics for study.

What are your thoughts on integrated learning? How do you find ways to bring subject matter together rather than rend them into separate categories?