Posts Tagged ‘reading’
Tuesday Tour: Book Lists, Summer Fun, and More!
Written by Sheila Wray Gregoire on June 17, 2008 – 9:55 am -
Hello everybody! Summer’s hit, and just about every homeschooler I know has stopped or at least slowed down for the year.
So what are we going to fill our time with this summer? We’re headed camping a bunch of different times, and I plan to bring no technology except my computer (a girl can only take so much!) so that I can get some writing done.
But in the meantime, we’ll all be knitting and reading up a storm! So here are some links to keep you busy this summer:
First, the Make it From Scratch Blog Carnival is up over at Our Red House. Head on over for great recipes and craft ideas!
Want tons of suggestions for summer fun, from car bingo games to learning by osmosis? Try Three Rivers Library for great links for homeschoolers!
At our homeschool I’m assigning ten books for each child to read this summer. They’ll probably read more than that, but 10 have to be really good, worthwhile books that I have chosen for them. Actually, I’m giving them each a list of 25 books, and they can choose ten from there!
If you want to do the same thing at your home, here are a few sites that can get you started:
I Think Therefore I Blog has a great roundup of all the incentives for kids to read. Get in to movies free, get $10 in a bank account, free pizza, etc. etc. So check it out!
ChristianBooks.com has summer reading lists up by grade level, and they include classics, not only Christian books. Good selection!
Houston Independent Schools Network has lists by grade level, too, but they’re a lot longer!
If you want to join About.com’s Summer Reading incentive program, you can find more here.
Here’s HomeschoolBuzz’s summer reading program.
If you’re interested in branching out into new books yourself, check out the Spring Reading Thing at Callapidder Days. It’s almost over, but stop in to see what other people have read. You just may find a great nugget to add to your list!
Here’s my post on what I’m reading this summer over at my To Love, Honor and Vacuum blog!
That’s all I have time for today, but I hope that keeps you busy! Get reading, and have fun!
Tags: reading, summer
Posted in Tuesday Tour | No Comments »
Memo Monday: So Much To Do, So Little Time
Written by Jacque on January 14, 2008 – 4:00 am -
~~~~~~~~~~~Mark your calendar~~~~~~~~~~~
Carnivals:
–>Judy of Consent Of The Governed will be hosting the next Carnival of Homeschooling.
–>The Charlotte Mason Carnival is at Liberty and Lily.
–>The Homesteading Carnival is at Shades of Pink this week.
–>The next Carnival of Principled Government is to be held at She’s Right. Here is the handy dandy carnival submit form.
–>The Carnival of School Politics and Philosophy is up over at Bell Work Online.
–>This week’s Carnival of Space is up at Dynamics of Cats.
Contests:
*COH Icon - Graphics Contest at Why Homeschool*
- Don’t forget the Cates are holding a contest for icons for The Carnival of Homeschooling! Why Homeschool’s Carnival of Homeschooling Graphics Contest
*Dianne asks, “Ready for a Contest?” *
- and challenges you to participate and enunciate something great to shoot for as a goal in 2008. You can even abbreviate, and please don’t be late. Contest ends 12:00 midnight on Thursday, January 31, 2008.
*“Write Like Mike” Homeschool Writing Contest *
- Calling all homeschoolers who think they can “Write Like Mike.” Know any sports-crazy children between the ages of 8-12? Get them to write a sports column about a local or national event (250 words or less) and have them enter Walden Media/The Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s “Write Like Mike” Contest for an opportunity to have their sports column published in an upcoming issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine! SUBMISSION DEADLINE: February 14, 2008
*MamaArcher Book Giveaway*
- MamaArcher is having a giveaway! To enter, leave a comment. If you want a second entry, please post about his on your blog & link back to this post. Please leave a comment HERE with the url of that post. The last day for entries is February 3rd. The winner will be announced on Feb. 4th. Good luck & spread the word! She is offering the following book: Upper Grade Phonics by Joyce Codesa, Sarah McFadden Fornara, Jan Martin, and Norm Sneller
*Heart of the Matter Online Homeschooling Mag Homeschool Care Package Contest*
- Sometimes it is just a bit hard to get back into the swing of things after the holidays so how about a Homeschool care package to bring a little excitement back? One lucky winner will receive a very well-stocked homeschool care package!
*Heart of Wisdom E-Book Contest*
- I have not yet even blogged about the HOW E-Book I won in this contest! A Free Book Random Drawing will be held every Monday through the months of December and January starting December 10. Each week,
THREE Heart of Wisdom subscribers will be randomly selected to receive one FREE Homeschool Book from Homeschool-Books.com. We will offer a new title each week. 1st place will receive the tree book 2nd and 3rd place will receive the Ebooks.
~~~~~~~~~~~Participate in~~~~~~~~~~~~
*January SWAP TIME!*
It is time to sign up for the January SWAP! Leave a comment and let Heather know you want to participate. If you have never participated in a swap, Check out our past SWAP Posts here at HSBA. Chances are they will answer all of your questions and more. Oh, and if you swapped in the past and forgot to send in your link, it isn’t too late! We would love to add your post showcasing your swap gift to our past posts. People still like to click back and see all the gifts, so by all means - share!
*The Winter Reading Challenge*
Trish’s Winter Reading Challenge is from Jan. 7th - March 17th, 2008. It’s not really a contest, but Trish is giving away a $25 Amazon gift certificate to one participant!
You need to read her original post so you know what to do, like sign Mr. Linky with a direct link to your post once you’ve had a chance to make a list of the books you intend to read between January 7 and March 17, 2008. Also, As an added incentive, she will be sending one lucky participant a $25 gift certificate to (where else?) Amazon.com. She’ll do a random drawing from the names of everyone who posts both an initial list by Monday, February 11, 2008 and a post about their results at the end of the challenge. The drawing will be held Monday, March 17, 2008 sometime in the evening. The winner’s name will be posted after the drawing. :)I am making a list of books I want to read this year. I will be adding to it as I go, and I will try to complete as many as I can in the WRC time. Please go to her original post to get all the details!
*Homeschooling Boys Website and Yahoo Group*
HomeschoolingBoys.com is a site I just found a couple of weeks ago. It is a site for homeschool families with boys and covers topics from homeschool issues to discipline to field trips. There is a Yahoo Group you can Click to join here!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Take A Look~~~~~~~~~~~~~
English and Grammar Curriculum:
English for the Thoughtful Child 1 is an English/Writing for children ‘Grades: 3-4′. A Simply Grammar-like course for a younger child following the Charlotte Mason approach from Greenleaf Press. It contains everything you need for language arts - wholesome classic literature excerpts, narration, dictation, memorization, and composition. Lessons are self-contained and the book is very easy to use with short, manageable exercises and assignments. Like Simply Grammar, this volume is also a revision of an older book, complete with quaint, but stimulating, period illustrations.
English for the Thoughtful Child 2 is the English/Writing for children ‘Grades: 3-4′. This sequel contains all the distinctive features of the original. It contains nature lessons, oral composition, picture lessons, memory work, and a gentle introduction to grammar, all centered around the development of writing skills.
Simply Grammar by Charlotte Mason and Karen Andreola is an expanded version of Charlotte Mason’s First Grammar Lessons. The exercises use Miss Mason’s method of narration. Most work is oral, but any of it can be written. One grammar rule is taught per lesson, and all exercises that follow refer to the rule. Your child will learn to create his own sentences, describe pictures, and tell stories using all the important parts of speech. It is nonconsumable, and can be used for a several-year program, and will enhance any language course. For 4th to 8th grade.
Easy Grammar
I used this for my girls in high school. It is actually available for all grades. In the high school workbook, students start by learning a list of prepositions. Then, by identifying and crossing out prepositions and prepositional phrases, students can see the core of each sentence. Concepts are presented in small, understandable increments, followed practice pages. It is a complete grammar course. I had the girls do their worksheets and correct them themselves. We did the pages that they needed to complete what they already knew. The workbook pages and tests are reproducible for families, although you will probably want to purchase the student workbooks because of the sheer volume of copying involved (200-300+ pages). Tests can be reproduced from the teacher book or a test booklet purchased for convenience.
Reading Fiction:
These are some of our favorite reads. I tried to categorize them into the best age groups, but many of them fit into any category, so you will have to see how it fits for you!
Blackberry Hollow by Paul Peabody
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Little Faith by Mrs. O.F. Walton A young child on the streets in the last century, the little orphan girl learns to trust people agin.
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery Oh, the lovely stories of Anne with an e, the little orphan on Prince Edward Island, who finds the real meaning of family.
Jeb Stuart by Gertrude Hecker Winders A true story about a famous American boy in the saddle.
The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare The scene is Jerusalem, the time is of Christ, the characters are realistic, and you will love this historical fiction.
Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare A young family in Colonial times must make a choice to leave their young son in Indian country to get their entire family to their new claim in Maine.
Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis Classic story of the children who find the passage to another world in the wardrobe.
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien Classic tale of good and evil in Middle Earth. There is far too little space on this page to give this justice. I love these books.
Lamb Among the Stars series by Chris Walley Amanda loves with this series. It is a fully realized futuristic sci-fi/fanatasy epic. If you are interested in this series, “One thing about this series is in order to understand what is going on, you have to take yourself out of our sinful world and imagine a place where there is no sin and “The King Reigns”.”` Read The Lamb Among Stars Series.
A book for moms or dads that I am reading again… and all the way through this time, is Preparing Sons to Provide for a Single Income Family by Steven Maxwell. Though this is not a fiction selection, I really wanted to let you know about this one! For a detailed list of what I am reading for the Winter Reading Challenge, read My Books 2008.
New Online Homeschool Magazine: The Heart of the Matter
The purpose of The Heart of the Matter is to provide a place for homeschooling parents and teachers to find all of the resources they desire in one convenient location. It is our hope that you will find inspiration, practical advice, objective reviews of curriculum and products, fantastic giveaways and more! Please take time to read this wonderful online magazine. There are so many writers over there you will consider friends already. Those you don’t know, well, it will be well worth your time to get to know them!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~Take a Moment~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pray for Homeschool Families:
Heather, who is beating brain cancer. Read her testimony at Especially Heather.
Tristan Irwin, a two-year-old with Leukemia, and his family.
Lindafay’s family is being forced to leave their beloved home in Turkey. This is the land their children know as home. Please pray for them as they leave this land and people who hold a special place in their hearts, as well as their safety as they travel.
Thanks for joining me for this week’s Memo Monday. I hope I am giving you a good list to work with. If you have any ideas for Monday Monday, let me know. Is there a list you want to see kept up on or to let other homeschool moms know about?
Have a wonderful week! Blessings!
Tags: blogging, carnivals, Contests, Giveaway, & Memes, curriculum, english, grammar, homeschooling, homesteading, reading
Posted in Everyday Posts, Memo Monday | 2 Comments »
Saturday Poetry and Literature: Reading Literature
Written by SuperAngel on December 22, 2007 – 8:44 am -
Winter. A great time to sit with your coffee in front of the fireplace, snuggled under a warm afghan, reading a new book or an old favorite. Just make sure you don’t forget yourself, reading for hours, forgetting that the horses need to be fed or dinner needs to be made.
Reading literature has become a passion for me. I really love it. I wish more people had the love of reading a good book as I do. Reading is the entrance to a world of new thoughts. It enhances your way of thinking. To share a love of books is to share a love of learning. Books need to be a part of everyone’s life. There are countless things you can learn from books.
I acquired my love of reading and literature very young. I loved being able to read about people’s lives and learn from them. I loved getting lost in their world and putting myself in their shoes. I think that books give a very interesting look on life and many situations.
I also don’t think one can ever have enough books. We even have multiple copies of some of our books. We have more than one copy for a couple of reasons: 1) More than one person can read it at the same time. 2) You can give your extra copy of your children’s favorites to them when they leave to have their own home. 3) It is easier to do a study on one book when you have enough for everyone. We were very blessed to have been able to purchase quite a few of our books from the library. They had them for sale for $.50 each because they were upgrading to newer books and disposed of the older, better classics. It is unfortunate that our world has degraded so much that we no longer have a sense of what is good and wholesome.
We have so many books our walls are lined with bookshelves and are filled up. I love to walk into a house and see full bookshelves. It tells me that there is a love of books. I agree with Cicero who said, “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
I don’t know about you, but I love the old books. The ones with the cloth covers and the yellowed pages. I love the shape of them. I love how they are so thick, yet small enough that you can hold them in one hand. It reminds me of the olden days when children used to tie their books together with their belts and head to school. It is so nostalgic to me. I love thinking of those times. I also prefer hardcover books. They have that nostalgia to them. I can’t bend it as easily and therefore it won’t get ruined by me squeezing it as I get into the story. 
Although softcovers do allow easy accessibility for keeping the pages apart.
Reading definitely enhances your vocabulary. Because I have read so many books and of so many different genres, I have a very good vocabulary. I have learned so many new words by reading literature. I have a ’sophisticated’ way of using my words, if you will. I was once told that I talk strange (for a teenager) because of the words I use and how I use them. I would rather be told I had a strange way of talking, then talk like other people my age, with the “like whoa, man, like that is like so like cool, dude.”
To have a love of literature and reading is to have a love of words and their meanings. When I read a book and there is a word I don’t know, I love to get out our 1828 Webster’s Dictionary and look it up. It thrills me to find a new word and its meaning. I love books that have the meaning of words at the bottom of the pages. It is neat to read it and then go back and read it knowing what it means to the story.
Another great reason for homeschooled children to read literature is that it can be counted as schooling. You can incorporate many of your other subjects into reading literature. If your child doesn’t care for textbooks, give them a book to read. If you are studying the 1800’s, get out David Copperfield, if you are studying Romans, get out The Robe. You can learn a lot about the culture, customs, and events going on at those times from reading literature about the times you are studying. Those are just some of the great ideas that you can come up with using literature.
There are so many great books that you can read. If you aren’t an avid reader and are kinda lost as to what you would want to read, there are multiple literary clubs online that you can join.
One is the HSB Literary Club. We just finished discussing The Hedge of Thorns. What a wonderful book that was!! That book cannot be recommended enough, I think. We will start discussing The Inheritance after the beginning of the year. I sure would love to see you there. Also, you do not have to have an HSB blog account to join in the discussion.
There is also the Society of Avid Young Readers. They are currently reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. They are reading a book a week, so if you want to read the above, better hurry over there.
So what are you reading?? What do you prefer-Fiction or Non-fiction?? Classic or Newer books?? I would love to know.
I am reading a couple of works right now. I recently finished up The Dark Foundations by Chris Walley and The Hedge of Thorns by John Hatchard. I am now reading Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens. I also plan to get The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.
If you are looking for a great place to purchase some wholesome books, there is The Old Schoolhouse Store, which carries the Lamplighter books. Those are some of the best books. They have wonderful inspiring stories that also have very important lessons and virtues in the storyline.
Something I found that was quite neat is GoogleBooks. Some of the books you can actually read as a whole online. I did this when I was waiting for my Walley book to come in. Of course, nothing beats having the hardcover in your hands, but it was great that I could start to read it while I was waiting for it.
Also, Mom found these 2 websites Munsey’s & Books By Henty that you can download books from. The second one is only G.A. Henty books, but we found G.A. Henty, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen on the Munsey’s site.
There are so many books that you will never be able to read them all, I know. But instilling a love of reading in your child will help them immensely in life.
If you are not sure about what books you want your children to read, there are several lists that have age-appropriate books. AmblesideOnline has lists for children divided up to school grades. I also have posted a list of books I have read. Now, its not all the books I have ever read because that would be way too long, but it a list of ones I wrote down as I read them and it is mostly Classics. I would be happy to tell you when I read what books and if they would be a good read for your child. I know I am no expert, but if I have read it I could probably give a good idea about the book and its storyline.
I hope this has encouraged you to read more books and to let your child learn to love reading. Books are a gift that keep on giving.
Prayers and Blessings as always,
Tags: Ambleside, books, Classics, Dickens, Douglas, Henty, Homeschool, Lewis, literature, reading, The Old Schoolhouse Store, Walley, Webster
Posted in Saturday Poetry and Literature | No Comments »
