Autumn Reading...

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Fresh Fall Leaves by Betsy Franco

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A Seed Is Sleepy by Dianna Hurts Aston

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Thanks For Thanksgiving by Heather Patterson

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In November by Cynthia Rylant

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Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman

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Things To Make And Do by Linda Beech

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Handbook Of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock

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Autumn Story by Jill Barklem

Stones & Cones by Jillian Hulme Gilliland (The cover is nothing much to look at, but it's one of the best craft books for young children using natural material that I have come across.)

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Woodland Creatures by Usborne Young Beginners

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Little Mouse on the Prairie by Stephen Cosgrove

Chapter Books (and a few picture books) To Read To A 5yo Girl

I was thinking about this today, now that the bookshelves are in order a bit more.  I know sometimes friends ask me what to read to children 'X' years old, and really I wish I had a ready-made list to send to them, so this post will act as that.

My 5yo daughter is very sterotypically girly and also does not like tension in a story, so this book list reflects those preferences.

Houndsley and Catina (series, no order)
Mr. Putter and Tabby (series, no order)
Mildred and Sam (we have only read the first one)
The Beezus and Ramona books
Winnie-the-Pooh and The House At Pooh Corner
Gooseberry Park
Milly-Molly-Mandy (there is a sequel, but we haven't read it yet)
Betsy-Tacy (series, ordered)
Noisy Village books by Astrid Lindgren (series)
The Cobble Street Cousins (series, ordered)
Mercy Watson (series, no order)
The Lighthouse Family (series)

Also a shout out to The Complete Book of The Flower Fairies by Cecily Mary Barker, the sweet old fashioned poems and illustrations, not the newer early reader series of fairies.

Some picture books we have enjoyed...

Bread and Jam for Francis
Sheila Rae The Brave
Owen
Crysanthemum
Blueberries For Sal
One Morning In Maine
Where's Our Mama?
Miss Rumphius
White Snow Bright Snow
Millions of Cats
The Quilt Story
Madeline
Mama, Do You Love Me?
Make Way For Duckings
Last Stop On Market Street
The Farmer
The King Of The Birds
The Way Home In The Night
Home, by Carson Ellis
Owl Moon


I'll have to keep adding to it!

Why I Refuse To Feel Bad About Getting Rid Of Books

So yesterday and today I attempted to organize the bookshelves relating to children's books.  Only children's books.  This is an important distinction in a tiny home with eight official book storing places and countless unofficial ones.  Specifically I wanted to set up a bookshelf in the room shared by the 5yo and 3yo, and to purge and straighten the 7yo's bookshelf in his room, and the larger communal bookcase in the hall.  Ideally, I would also deal with the bookcase that is used for homeschooling materials, but that didn't end up happening.

So here's what did get done.  First I emptied the communal bookcase, which is a standard five shelf arrangement.  I pulled out ripped books that had survived previous purges, anything that was not technically a book (there was an unsurprisingly large number of colouring books, activity books, etc. in there), and made note of duplicates.  If I have two of the same book it's usually because I like the book, so I can pass on a second copy with a clear conscience.

I did something else this time that I haven't done before, something that made me pause multiple times over the previous bookcase clean-ups.  It had actually made me uncertain enough that I consulted friends before I did it.  I got rid of books I don't like.

Even in the homes of devoted bibliophiles, of which we most assuredly number, there are the flops.  There are the trips to the bookstore where a parent has foolishly promised a two year old that they can choose whatever they like, and what they like are things covered in glitter that come with sheets of stickers.  There are the thrift store bargains that turn out to be abridged.  There are the gifts that well-meaning loved ones send that, heaven help me, play music.

And there were also books in perfectly good condition, that the children like, even, but that I don't.  I don't want to read them.  I don't like the illustrations or the moral or what have you, and yet it's so hard to know if I should get rid of it.  Some well-known authors and characters I just don't enjoy!

Once I made my piles, I arranged books according to type on the shelves.  The top shelf is Lang's coloured fairy books and another series I'm keeping for later years.  The second shelf is the board books I decided to keep (I will read the Ahlbergs until my grown children rebel), plus our levelled readers, the fastest growing section these days.  Shelf three is softcover story books and also the children's Bibles.  Shelf four is chapter books.  Shelf five is hard cover story books and treasuries.

Then I moved into the 7yo's room, pulling books from his shelf that belonged in the communal bookcase under the categories I had set up, purging, etc.  His top shelf was reserved for books of specific interest to him, like graphic novels, the second shelf is for classics and the third shelf for non-fiction.

In the younger childrens' room I set up a book case with two shelves and the option to add a third in the future.  Again I filled it with the books only of interest to them and our current bedtime read alouds.

I ended up with a tottering pile of activity books and laid down the law that there was officially a ban on the purchasing of any activities until these were finished.  I also found a book on Celtic history that I'd bought at a library sale months ago and promptly misplaced.  And, of course, a big stack of books to dispose of.

And then my husband arrived home full of congratulations on our work, went to the shelf and proceeded to find half a dozen more that neither of us really liked.  They sat there by the front door, looking at me, but I refuse to put them back.  My goal is to build a library, and a library is like a garden- it needs to be weeded.  While, yes, weeds are just one person's idea of what shouldn't be in a garden, they also aren't rare, and they will always return and necessitate another good weeding.

Because of this good 'weeding' I feel pretty confident that every book a child brings me I will want to read, and any time I say "go get a reader to practice with" they will choose from a well-curated list of worthwhile titles.

At least for another few weeks!

Book list for a 7yo eager reader

Our oldest is 7 years old and very excited about books.  We didn't start teaching him to read until just before his sixth birthday, and then we slowly meandered through the book Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons.  It worked well for us and he was reading early reader type books within a short time.  When we finished the lessons I let him loose on the bookshelf and he gravitated towards comic strips as his preferred reading material.  Periodically he picked up stories, mostly Frog and Toad, Little Bear, or anything by Arnold Lobel.  When he finished our stack of those, we bought him several volumes of collected Dr. Seuss stories, and others of a similar style.  He read those, and then headed back to the comic strips.  I have no problem with comic strip reading, but I like to offer my children a variety of books and let them choose from the feast, so I planned to buy several different titles for him, when my husband hit on a winner.  While in a bookstore he bought the first book in the graphic novel series Amulet.  The 7yo read it in an hour and a half, looked up and asked 'Are there any more?'. The next day my husband took him to the store and they bought the other six books in the series.  It's been a week, and he has one book left to go before he's finished all seven.

So I had to hustle!  Here's what I bought for him to try:

Nate the Great
Zita the Spacegirl
Billy and Blaze
Henry and Mudge

All parts of series so we can keep going if we find a hit.

By the way, if you have an early reader of your own and are at a loss for books, we loved all the Frog and Toad books, there are four, and Arnold Lobel has written lots of books as well - we especially liked Mouse Soup and Owl at Home.

Learning notes

Random notes about things we've done in our homeschool over the past two weeks or so.

We made pinhole viewers to observe the eclipse and origami ninja stars.

We watched the first two episodes of Planet Earth II.

We spent a lot of time watching weird math and science YouTube videos.  Especially from Smarter Every Day who did videos about extracting venom from stone fish, the science behind why cats land on their feet and the punching force of the mantis shrimp.  Did you know that the mantis shrimp isn't a shrimp?  Also Ted Ed talks about Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe, the Voynich manuscript, the interesting question of the infinity hotel, teleportation and time travel.

We designed a trap, looked at different types of traps and discussed how they work.

The 7yo read a lot of Garfield comics, played with his Pair of Pears game, got people to play chess with him and constructed forts.  The 5yo and 3yo listened to many, many stories and played loud Latin music to choreograph dances to.

We found a whole bunch of interesting caterpillars and researched them.

We learned how the lawnmower works, weeded the garden and had a bonfire, trimmed the hedges, made brownies, washed the dishes, and practiced with the phone.  Life, essentially.

The little girls went to a playgroup with Daddy and did a craft.

Learning Notes Weeks One and Two

It's week three of school already, so I'm behind - good to know some things never change!

My friend Melanie at The Wine-Dark Sea writes a synopsis of her school weeks and I find that idea very appealing, especially in terms of tracking things.  I'm a sucker for lists and I also tend to fall into the pit of self-doubt periodically with regards to school, wondering if we do enough, if we read enough, if everyone is where their peers are...as if any of that really matters to me, which it doesn't.  Most of the time.

Last year I gave learning notes posts a whirl but faltered because we defaulted to curriculum plans so much, which is boring.  Each week all that really changed is whether or not we got our scheduled work done and if we went anywhere.  This year, when I am essentially not using any sort of pre-made curriculum or lesson plans, the notes will be different and fluid, I imagine.

Week One

We started school on August 1st.  The children were complaining of boredom so I decided not to wait for any books to arrive but just use whatever we had lying around.  Which is no small potatoes.  We have a lot of books 'lying around'.

Tuesday

We did a trial run of our Morning Basket.  Stories read: excerpt from A Family Treasury of Little Golden Books, excerpt from the Opie/Wells Mother Goose, The Little Red Hen from Richard Scarry's Animal Nursery Tales
Devotional: Little Visits With God lesson 'Are you glad to go to church?'
Non-fiction reading : Story of the World Volume 1, chapter 7: Hammurabi and the Babylonians

Reading: 7yo read Hardy Boys.  5yo and I did lesson 40 in Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Math: We pulled out a textbook (Journeys in Math 3) to get some conversation ideas and ended up discussing skip counting and odd/even numbers.

Bedtime read aloud - none.  We watched a movie.

Wednesday

Morning Basket: One Morning in Maine by McCloskey
Devotional: lesson was 'Are you growing as a Christian?'

In the afternoon we found a bullfrog and ended up researching it and building a habitat and trying to catch it food before it was released.

Bedtime read aloud - chapter 15 of The Hobbit with the 7yo.  There Is A Bird On My Head with the 5yo.

Thursday

Morning Basket: No fiction read.
Non-fiction: Horrible Histories The Awesome Egyptians Pg 1-11
Devotional: lesson was 'Where is God?'

The 7yo has gotten interested in board games so he had an outing to the library with Daddy in order to laminate some game sheets.

Reading: 7yo read I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words.  5yo did lesson 41 of Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Math: 7yo and I reviewed patterns and simple addition, which we learned last year.

Bedtime Read aloud: 7yo - A comic, 5yo- The Mouses' Terrible Christmas

Friday

Morning Basket: no reading other than devotional.
Devotional: lesson was 'Why not ask?'

Trip to get inoculations and we discussed vaccines.

Reading: 7yo- read a P.aw P.atrol story to 3yo.  5yo - lesson 42 of Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Math: some more reviewing of last year's topics.

7yo helped to stack some brush.  We discussed wet/green versus dry/cured wood, if moss really grows on the North side of the tree, and compass points.

Bedtime read aloud: 5yo Mr. putter and Tabby Walk The Dog.  7yo - Ch. 16 of The Hobbit.

Saturday (I find it easier not to take a weekend and disrupt the routine)

Morning Basket: no reading other than devotional
Devotional: lesson was 'How Strong God Is!'

7yo and I started sorting collectable cards and discussed categories.  Conversation about what a desert is, looked up definition in Oxford English Dictionary and National Geographic Kids' Atlas.  Talked about layers of the Earth, terrain at the bottom of the sea, aquafers, geysers, the Earth's molten core, etc.  7yo decided to build a Lego replica of this.

Reading: I know the 7yo read something, but I don't know what.  5yo and I did lesson 43 of Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Math: nothing specific.

Bedtime Read alouds: 5yo Two by Two.  7yo ch. 17 of The Hobbit.

Sunday

We didn't try and touch on any topics because we take Sunday off for work.  That being said we did a few things today.  We watched an episode of David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities show about nocturnal animals.  The 5 yo learned how to finger knit.

We also read a lot.  Lullaby Berceuse, Doing the Laundry, The Mole Sisters and the Fairy Ring and The Mole Sisters and the Cool Breeze.  The 7yo and I read chapters 18 and 19 to finish the Hobbit.

Monday

Morning Basket: Harold and the Purple Crayon, Make Way for Ducklings, Saint George and the Dragon from The Children's Book of Virtues.
Non-fiction: Story of the World Ch. 8 part 1 The Assyrians: Shamshi-Adad.
Devotional: 'Thou Shalt Not Covet'.

Reading: 7yo read Days With Frog and Toad chapter 1.

Math: reviewed single digit addition.

Bedtime read aloud: 7yo first 2 chapters of Chasing Vermeer.

Tuesday

Morning Basket didn't happen

Math- reviewed changing order of addends does not change sum.  Played Yahtzee and practiced addition including carrying.

Reading: 5yo Lesson 44 of Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  7yo read Little Bear's Birthday Soup.

Watched David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities episode on armoured animals.

Wednesday we spent the day cleaning, and then on Thursday the sink situation happened, so we were fully occupied with repairs for the next three days.  However we did take out he telescope at one point, and we did some star gazing and some cooking and art.

Yesterday started a new week!

Homeschooling - New Thoughts

We seem to have changed from a structured, Classically styled homeschool to a much more fluid, literature based eclectic school style this year.  I don't know that we fit into any molds anymore but in a discussion with a friend the other day we used the term Facilitated Unschooling.  I think that covers it fairly well.

What this means is that we aren't writing schedules, but we are keeping lists of things we've done and read.  We aren't filling out workbooks, unless we feel like it, but sure, if we feel like it then we are.  As usual I am abysmal at crafting and this year we're not going to force it.  There are a lot of guided discussions, carefully chosen videos, suggested books and so forth.

We started school two weeks ago, and the first week was a lot of flailing, followed by a few days of feeling like we had a rhythm, followed by the sink and a sinus cold and a lot of rain, followed by Sunday, when we don't 'do school'.  So tomorrow is a new week and hopefully it flows a bit smoother.

This isn't unschooling by any stretch of the imagination.  It's, well, it's facilitated.  Probably really facilitated.  And it's pretty flexible and changing all the time as I find new books I want to use and we get distracted with sparkly interests for a period of time.