8 years of reading (and counting)

For awhile I've wanted to compile a list of all the chapter books I've read to my girls. It has seemed too daunting. We've read and listened to too much.

Gabby was only 4 when I started. We'd always read, of course. I remember her lovingly chewing on board books in our little apartment when we lived in Utah. One summer we read over a hundred different picture books as part of our library's summer reading goals. The chapter books started at age four. It was kind of an experiment. We'd been living in Pennsylvania for 2 or 3 years, far from our Boston family. My mother-in-law offered to read bedtime stories to Gabby over the phone. It was an intriguing idea. They tried and Gabby really enjoyed it. She understood the stories and could answer questions about them. She didn't get bored either. So I thought, if she didn't need pictures I would try book without them. I picked A.A. Miln's Winnie the Pooh. There are little sketches in there that I cold show her and the stories are pretty brief. That was our first mostly picture-less book. We were hooked.

Usually, we had to read during Bri's naps since she was only 2. But when Bri was 3 and stopped napping, she kind of just went with it and has been a great listener since. A great reader herself. Both girls are. William and Fielding have been a little slower to catch on. Fielding still has no interest in stories without pictures. In fact, we tend to read the same picture books over and over again. It is often dull for me, but I do enjoy hearing him "read" -- stories he's heard so much he's memorized. The Knuffle Bunny books are his favorite. And Pete's a Pizza by William Steig. William and Fielding act it out every time we have pizza for dinner. Just the two of them, running between the kitchen table and the family room, between bites. It's adorable.

William enjoys some chapter books now. James and the Giant Peach was our first read-aloud. Then Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We were reading Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, but it has been lost for about a month and I can't say I'm sorry.

But back to the girls. I can't remember what we read after Pooh -- maybe an abridged version of Peter Pan. I do remember throwing a Little House on the Prairie birthday party for Gabby when she turned 5 and, with very high hopes, gave her the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Unabridged, few pictures, kind of advanced listening for a 5 year-old. I had never read them, so I didn't know what we were getting into. Gabby snuggled up next to me while Bonnie slept each afternoon. She listened and listened. We'd read for maybe an hour. We felt sad when Jack was lost in the river and scared and surprised when he returned in the night like a wolf out of the bushes. We worried when Pa was lost in the snow. We laughed at Mr. Edwards. Gabby listened to all the technical details.

In the summer we started the Chronicles of Narnia. I read several and we listened together to others on tape. She's read them all again herself now.

What else have we read? It is so hard to remember the titles. Although the whines and cries stand out: "just one more page!"

What I can remember...
Every Junie B. Jones book, by Barbara Park, read aloud and then listened on cd
Many American Girl books, including the Kit, Samantha, Kirsten, Kaya, Molly, Felicity, and Josephina series
The Betsy-Tacey books
A few Magic Treehouse books, by Mary Pope Osbourne
The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum
Many books in the Ramona series by Beverly Cleary
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Raoul Daul
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
The Last Holiday Concert by Andrew Clements
The Little Gymnast
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
A Little Princess by Francis Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett
The Birds' Christmas Carol by

Many we've listened to in the car:
The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling (several times. First the girls had to read them, then they were allowed to listen to them, then they were allowed to watch the movies)
Mary Poppins
Hatchet by Gary Paulson
28 Fairmont Avenue by Tomie dePaola
The Penderwicks, The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, and The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jean Birdsall (treasures, every one of them!)
Henry and Ribsy by Beverly Clearly
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
A number of Magic Treehouse books, by Mary Pope Osbourne
Some Mrs. Piggle Wiggle stories

I think I'll add to this list over time -- books that we've read that I left off. Future stories (we just started Brian's Winter by Gary Paulson), I talk about in future posts.

Have a wonderful new year! And happy reading!

What the Dickens!

Gabby's December reading assignment was Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Here's what our plans looked like:

Week one:
Read Stave 1 and complete the worksheet.
Do 4 vocabulary webs from the Stave 1 vocab list.
Read Stave 2 and complete the worksheet.
Do 4 vocabulary webs from the Stave 2 vocab list.
Watch A Muppets Christmas Carol with the family.

Week two:
Read Stave 3 and complete the worksheet.
Do 4 vocabulary webs from the Stave 3 vocab list.
Read Stave 4 and complete the worksheet.
Do 4 vocabulary webs from the Stave 4 vocab list.
Watch Mickey's Christmas Carol with the family.

Week three:
Read Stave 5.
Do 4 vocabulary webs from the Stave 5 vocab list.
Go to the Christmas display at Byers Choice.
Watch Scrooge with the family.

As you can see, there was a lot of movie-watching here. Shall I pretend there was an educational purpose to it? I'm sure it showed how influential and popular A Christmas Carol is. We really just watched them for fun.

I got our vocab list and worksheets from a FABULOUS website called "In the classroom with Least Tern." It also has a grammar unit that Gabby, well I can't say "enjoyed" but at least completed without too much complaining. I like it because EVERY example is taken from A Christmas Carol. ALL the exercises are from A Christmas Carol. I know that learning grammar is considered the greatest drudgery of English studies, but I really liked these lessons. They were challenging and made you think about what the sentences were really saying. The explanations weren't always the best and so sometimes even I couldn't come up with a good answer. Still, I think it helped in understanding Dickens language -- from a very different time and place than my Gabby lives. I hope that doing the grammar will help Gabby have better reading comprehension in the future as she studies more classic literature.

We capped off the reading by going to the Byers Choice Christmas Museum. I find the dolls a little freaky-looking myself, but nevertheless, all together spectacular. The Christmas village is filled with them, flying in hot air balloons, ice skating, and of course, caroling. I love the colonial doll room and the green Irish santas in the gift shop.



We went because there is one room decorated like London in Dickens' time and dioramas of Ebeneezer Scrooge with Crachit, Marley and each of the 3 ghosts.
You'll also find a creche display there and an observation deck where you can watch the dolls being made. Here's an online slideshow.

When we were finished looking at the dolls, the kids got to dress up in old fashioned clothes and take pictures. William and Fielding were very patient with me as I dressed them and said, over and over again, "Just one more picture!" I think Gabby actually enjoyed the dress up.




That's it, no essays or literature webs. Maybe I should have assigned her some project. I didn't want too, though. I didn't want schoolwork to get in the way of enjoying the holidays. With all the extra time we've done some fun things. I taught Gabby how to make evergreen wreaths. We've worked on our annual Christmas puzzle, baked togther. We've had a great time -- despite the grammar! -- and I wonder how we'll top it next year.

A Christmas Party

Last week we went to our homeschool group Christmas party. I brought Gabby, Fielding, and since it was in the early afternoon and William has morning kindergarten, William came too. Bri was still in school. :(

It was mainly a social. There were some movies for the little kids and a simple craft too, but mostly it revolved around eating and chatting. I spent my time refilling plates for William and Fielding. There were A LOT of yummy treats to try. Oreo cheesecake truffles, for one.

I would call this event a success for 2 reasons:

1. There were children Gabby's age there. Several 7th graders, actually. At our last event, she was the oldest kid there.

2. Not only was Gabby in the same room with girls her age but (drumroll) SHE TALKED TO THEM!

Not a major accomplishment for most, but for Gabs, this was a big deal. I know she went hoping to meet some homeschooled kids. I didn't know, though, if when the moment came, she would stick by me or reach out and actually try to make friends.

I am happy to say there was no sticking and definitely some friend-making going on. Gabby spent most of the party kind of tagging along with a couple girls who seemed to welcome her and involve her. There were others that I'm not sure she even had a chance to meet. Hopefully next time. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of some friendships. Perhaps this is the beginning of her throwing off her cloak of timidity and one day being the life of every party. (Is this not realistic, perhaps?)

On a side note, there were some willing and potential friends that Gabby did not make at the party. Occasionally, I would look up to scope the room for Gabby -- her location and whether she seemed, happy, lonely, bored, traumatized... I noticed 2 or 3 boys strategically placing themselves near her. Several times I saw this. I wonder what they were hoping...

Gabby: (suddenly turns around, tosses her hair and notices her hoverers) Oh, hi, I don't think I've met you. I'm Gabby. Do you want to have some refreshments with me? You seem really cool, maybe we should hang out sometime.

If this was anything close to their goal, they picked the wrong girl.

On reinventing the wheel and just generally making stuff up

Sometimes I accuse Max of trying to reinvent the wheel. He does a lot of computer programming for work and rarely will use software that already exists or try to improve what is already in practice in his lab. He likes to start from scratch. I can't fault him because his end result, is always better. His fingers race over the keyboard, hour after exhausting hour until he his finished, pleased, proud and breathing again.

Not a single text or workbook is published by a homeschool company. Everything is meant for actual teachers in actual classrooms. (I realized I just diminished my own home classroom by saying that. Sorry.) I chose not to buy actual homeschool materials for our curriculum. Why? I don't know. It would have been the smart thing to do. Maybe I also feel a need to reinvent the wheel in my life.

Our curriculum has been more successful in some areas more than others. Here's the run-down:

Biology: The textbook I picked up at a homeschool used book sale. It is pretty good. I learned that a local high school uses it and I've found a lot of online resources that coordinate with it. I've enjoyed creating projects as we've read. Sometimes Gabby and I have struggled with the content, but that should be expected since it is advanced for her and has been along time since I studied these topics.

Math: Here there has been ups and downs. My husband is teaching. I've been worried recently that it is not working, but yesterday, I heard a deep and bold, "yeah!" come from the kitchen table where Abigail was factoring polynomials. A few seconds later, "I did it!" So maybe things are on the up, now.

Social Studies: I chose to have Gabby do an intensive geography curriculum this year. That would be great if I had any background in geography at all!

Language Arts/Literature: I have been using Utopia by the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary. There is a lot of group discussion and group projects which, obviously, is hard to do with a class of one. There is also a lot of educational theory in the teachers guide that is over my head. The amount of work itself is staggering. However, I'm not sure if that is because, in a classroom, teachers tend to pick and choose what they do, rather than complete the everything. Do the authors expect me to use the whole book, assign every assignment? It's meant for grades 7-9 -- does that mean it should take me 3 years to complete it or is it meant just for one? Maybe seventh graders would take longer and end up completing less from the book than 9th graders... These I things I would ask the authors, if I could.

We've been plugging along, taking breaks here and there for my own curriculum ideas. Some parts of it I love. I love that Gabby is learning about the concept of utopia and reading great works of fiction. I love the vocabulary webs. These are worksheets that replace the traditional vocabulary list. The student finds the word in the text, writes her own sentence, finds the definition, synonyms, antonyms, root words, derivation, word families... It's great. What a way to expand your vocabulary and actually remember the words you're learning!

I also love the literature webs. These are worksheets the student fills out for reading selections. They include symbols, feelings, ideas, structure.

Here are some examples:



We recently completed a unit on Animal Farm by George Orwell. At first I was overwhelmed with the amount of writing, projects, and worksheets for one, rather short novel. But by the end, when Gabby wrote her final essay, I was saw that she could use as resources all these projects and worksheets, so writing the essay felt like a natural conclusion rather than this overwhelming, all-consuming assignment. She was very well-prepared by the work she had done leading up to it. That impressed me.

Our first unit on Little Women wasn't part of Utopia. Neither is A Christmas Carol. We are just finishing that up. I also read to Gabby and Bri every night. This fall we read A Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett. It is only a few days until Christmas but we are just starting our holiday story -- The Bird's Chritsmas Carol. In January we'll start up with Utopia again. That means, over the Christmas break, I'll have a lot of reading and preparing to do. And I hope, not too many wheels to invent.