Read a Zillion Books with Jerry Pallotta

Oh wow! My kids and I were BLOWN AWAY by the presentation by author Jerry Pallotta today at the local library. 4th graders from the local elementary school and a preschool class attended, as well as at least 4 homeschool families.

My kids react:
"I thought he was funny. Everything he told us was funny! I like his books because they give you facts - a bunch of facts about the thing in the picture. I bought the Jet Alphabet book because I really like drawing jets and stuff like that. The thing that made me buy the book was a picture of a jet engine that is cut in half so you can see how it works." David, age 11

"I liked the part when he showed us all his books, especially Dory Story. I like that book because it's funny. The little boy was standing on a rock and he had his mouth open." Emily, age 9

"He put those fang things on that kid. That was funny! He put a kid in front of the screen and then the shark was going to eat him. That was
the funniest. I learned that he made all of those books!" James, age 6

Mr. Pallotta is an author of fact-filled, fun to read children's books such as Icky Bug Alphabet Book, The Dinosaur Alphabet Book and The Hershey's Kiss Addition Book. Visit his website at www.alphabetman.com.

If you have the opportunity to hear him speak, TAKE IT!  He is doing a "Read a Zillion Books" tour right now. 

"I can read this whole book!"

Today David and Suzy had doctor's appointments at 9 am, so the only school we managed to accomplish was Reading and Math. However, David and Suzy both had Health class, too! :-)

I wanted to post about a moment that gladdened my heart! I signed out a couple of easy reader books at the library the other day. You know the kind - Mat the Rat sat on a cat.... Anyway, I knew James could read them, but I just put them on the library shelf with the other books, instead of pointing them out and calling them "school". That was last week sometime.

So, today, he brings me one of them and announced proudly "I can read this whole book!" He was SO pleased! I would not have taken away that moment for anything.

He loves the Explode the Code workbook I got for him at the conference - it is book 2, which adds blends and digraphs to short vowel words. He is really on his way to reading well! I am so pleased that I waited until HE was ready and excited about learning to read. We have not had any problems at all about it; he has enjoyed it from Day One.

Convention Purchases

Well, from my report about the convention (below), you can probably tell that I don't go to conventions for the shopping, although I realize many people do. I like to look in the vendor hall, but more often than not, it overwhelms me.

I go to seminars for the "experience" - the seminars, the friends, the night out, etc....

That said, I did find some things to buy! Here they are:

• "markerboard" number line marked 0-25
• soda bottle bird feeder adaptor
• Trees of Michigan field guide (our summer "unit" will be tree identification)
• Zeta Math U See complete set (David has already started it)
• Beta Math U See student books (for James when he finishes Alpha)
• Discovering Great Artists: Hands-on Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters (to replace the art we are doing now)
• My First Book of Cutting - Kumon (for Suzy so she stops cutting hair, pants, etc...)
• Explode the Code book 2 - for James, since I don't have Alphabet Island 2A right now
• Jonathan Park Volume 1 audio CD's
• Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends: How to Fight the Good Fight at Home! by Sarah, Stephen and Grace Mally
• You Can Paint Watercolors: A Step by Step Guide for Absolute Beginners by Alwyn Crenshaw
• a paint with water book (for Suzy)
• My Book Report Journal - ELP (for Emily next year)
• subscriptions to Hopscotch for Girls, Fun for Kidz, Boys' Quest (bimonthly magazines to replace God's World News, which none of us really find too enthralling)
• a place marker thing for James' reading
  
• a DeVos for Governor bumpersticker :-) (actually free!)
  
• Dover coloring book - Warriors of the Ages
• Dover coloring book - Landmarks of the Ancient World

Stuff I had hoped to find but didn't:

• Analytical Grammar (have to SEE it before spending that kind of money, but after hearing Andrew Pudewa, I am pretty much determined to not do any formal grammar at this point)
• How to Write Book Reports (Resurrection Resources)
• Writing Step-by-Step (Builder Books)
• Greek Alphabetarion (Trivium Pursuit)
• Piano for Quitters
• Scripture Memory Fellowship books
• Fun Projects for Hands-on Character Building - Boyer
• More Rummy Roots card game
• Lyrical Life Science
• Even the Sound Waves Obey Him
• ArtWorks for Kids
• Student's Guide to Keeping an Art Journal
• Jon Gnagy Learn to Draw set
• Teaching History Through Art
• Alphabet Island 2A workbook

I wouldn't have purchased all that, but I wanted to see it before ordering.

Stuff I looked at and decided not to get:

• Wordly Wise
• Considering God's Creation (still plan to get it, but wanted to wait to spend the $$ or see if I can find it used)
• Hittite Warrior/God King and other historical novels (just can't spend the money on that!)
• Diana Waring tapes or CD's (again, still want to get them eventually)
• Homeschool in the Woods timeline figures (too expensive, and I like how we do our timeline just fine right now)
• Come Look with Me: Enjoying Art with Children (beautiful book, but I needed something more in-depth)
• Jensen's Grammar (wasn't impressed)
• Progeny Press and Total Language Plus literature guides (Maryann has a bunch I can borrow! lol)
• Rosetta Stone (just can't spend $200 on it right now!)
• Squire and the Scroll (will get it someday)
• 100 Top Picks - Duffy (will buy it eventually)

So, there you go! My adventures in convention spending. :-)

Convention Report

Friday and Saturday I attended the state homeschool convention! I rode over with 3 friends (Pam, Vicki, and Darlene) and we stayed the night in the hotel. AWESOME trip!

About 25 families I know were there. Hundreds of people attend this conference, so we were a very small portion, but when I went in 2004, I didn't know ANYONE from this area that was there! So, that's a huge improvement, eh?

We arrived just in time to check into the hotel and head over to the first seminar. There are 7 time slots for seminars, and I had chosen a seminar in each slot, but I only ended up attending 4 of them. I did not attend either general session (Friday night/Sat am) so I did not hear the keynote speaker.

The two seminars I attended on Friday were fine, but the content did not match the description of the seminar very well, so my expectations were not met. One presenter was one I had heard several times before, so I was disappointed that she had not included enough fresh material in this new seminar, which was titled Managing Multi-Level Teaching. The other seminar, Developing Independent Learners was too general. I wanted MUCH more specific details on how to develop this trait at every age.

I spent an hour or two in the vendor hall and bought a few things that night. Then eleven of us decided to head out for dinner instead of attend the general session that night. We walked to a nearby restaurant that was highly recommended but the wait time was very long. (There were many graduation celebrations in Lansing that day, due to MSU graduations.) So we went back to the hotel and decided to drive out to Olive Garden. Most of us were STARVING, so the drive over was torture. We demanded breadsticks as soon as we walked in! lol Dinner was WONDERFUL - both the food and the company. We took a very long time at the restaurant and didn't get back to the hotel until about 10:30pm!

At a convention, you can tell the night owls from the earlybirds very easily! :-) Some people headed right off to bed as soon as we returned, but others of us stayed up VERY late playing cards, talking, and getting reprimanded by hotel security! Yep, I guess we are a wild bunch of homeschool moms - not a denim jumper in any of OUR suitcases!

About 2am, Vicki, Darlene and I finally turned in for the night and didn't set a wakeup call since the first seminar wasn't scheduled until 10:20 (since we were planning to skip the 8:30 general session!). However, Pam, who was staying in a different room, had OTHER plans for us. At SEVEN AM, a sharp knock sounded at our door, and I blearily answered it to find a perky Pamela greeting me. What did she want? NOTHING except to wake us up! Very funny, Pam! So, none of us in our room got more than 4 hours of sleep. But that's to be expected, I suppose!

We headed over to the convention center eventually and tracked down a muffin for breakfast and then headed into our first seminar of the day. Andrew Pudewa, director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing, was speaking on the topic Nurturing Competent Communicators. This seminar blew us all away!! I highly recommend him as a speaker and if you can get THIS seminar on tape, I would do it!

He said that a wrong, but common attitude is that if children are good readers, they will be good writers. This is not true. He said that children need to build "linguistic databases" in their brains that they can draw on for writing and speaking. Reading current children's fiction is not usually effective at this.

He suggests several things. First, throw out the TV or severely limit it. This would also include DVD's, video games, frivolous computer time, also. Second, read aloud. A LOT. To all ages. He suggested that 2-3 HOURS a day would not be too much. He specifically suggested fiction from 1850-1930. Third, have children MEMORIZE. Poetry. Scripture. Literature. Use the "Suzuki" method to memorize. Start with a short section and add to it as children master the parts. Work up to being able to say LONG sections. He gives this seminar across the country from time to time, so watch the website. You could also order a tape/CD of the seminar from INCH. www.inch.org

I was so glad to have attended THAT seminar, but needed some time to process it, so I didn't attend the next seminar I had planned to hear. I headed into the vendor hall for some more shopping. Then 8 of us headed over to the hotel for lunch in their restaurant. A yummy buffet featuring stroganoff and chicken looked great, so most of us had that. We relaxed upstairs in our room for a bit before heading back over.

Vicki and I went to a seminar entitled "Top 20 Products Used in Over 20 Years Homeschooling" but as soon as we walked in, they handed us a detailed handout of the top 20 products. Since we had the handout, we didn't really think we needed to attend the seminar, so we snuck out just as it began. :-) MORE shopping followed!

The last seminar we attended was the same woman, Donna Reish, who was giving the top 20 products seminar, but the one we went to was entitled Training Children to be Diligent Workers. Another EXCELLENT seminar! I highly recommend this speaker as well - she was funny and practical and had a TON of ideas!

Well, sadly, that marked the end of the convention, or just about. One more walk through the convention hall, some goodbyes, and leaving the hotel room, and then we were driving away. Again it was Pam, Darlene and me, but we swapped Vicki (who was staying one more night with her family, who had driven up to join her) for Tammy. We stopped in Flint at Don Pablo's for dinner, had some great Mexican food, shared some thoughtful conversation, and then started dropping people off one by one.

I can't believe it is over!! Can't wait til next year either!!

Will post my purchases separately. :-)

Mystery of History

We have been using Mystery of History Volume 1 this year, taking it slowly through the text, doing 3 lessons a week or so. We are now on lesson 43 which is an introduction to the City of Rome, c. 753 BC.

This past week, the children took an oral quiz - 30 questions asking: Who is..Eve...the Sumerians....Hammurabi....King Wen...etc....? They got 26 of them right! Here are the 4 they missed. Do you know who these historical people are?
Who was King Minos?
Who was Khufu?
Who was Jeroboam? (They knew it was a Biblical king, so MORE than that is needed!)
Who were the Aryans?

I love the clearly written Christian perspective of the text and the choices of activities are varied and fun, yet bring home the point of the lesson.

The memory cards have been the main sticking point for us. We are keeping up with them, but it is the only thing the kids really complain about. We have enjoyed doing the map work and the timeline.

The activities really complement the lessons. We made a plumb line to go along with the lesson on the prophet Amos. The kids dyed cloth with stinky dye to remember the Phoenicians. They made Lego ziggurats to illustrate the Tower of Babel.

The thing I love about MOH is that Biblical history is integrated seamlessly with the rest of world history, putting it on the same level. I want my kids to see the events of the Bible as true beyond a shadow of a doubt, as well as know when the events occurred and in what order. This is something I never learned, but I am learning now and MOH is a great tool to help my kids to see the big picture.

To Epsilon or Not to Epsilon

Well, for weeks and weeks now, I've needed to order Math-U-See Epsilon for David. He finished Delta mid-January. It was supposed to be a $95 order (with shipping), but then I decided not to order the Fraction Overlays as David probably wouldn't need those anyway. So, I was left with the teacher book/CD and the student book for Epsilon which would be $55 plus shipping. (I think.)

Well, I didn't HAVE $55. Then I had it, but I needed it for bills. Then I didn't have it again, lol. Then I had it again, but needed it for bills again. With no $55 looming easily in the horizon, I needed to find another solution. (No, I can't get it on eBay. It's too new and no one is selling it. In the rare event it does come up on auction, it usually sells for retail!)

So, I finally decided to see if David could pass the Epsilon placement test. He didn't pass, but he came pretty close. So, I figured I would just teach him fractions (Epsilon's focus) out of some books I already have. He understands the concepts fine and doesn't really need the hands-on part anyway. IF there is something we don't get, I have 2 friends that have the Epsilon stuff and I could take David over and show him the lesson on the DVD.

So, I've decided just to CLEP him out of Epsilon after some intense fraction study. :-)

Then, on to ZETA!

Sitting Still Training

I've been working with all 4 of my kids on Sitting Still Training. "What's that?" you ask. "Why?" you wonder.

Well, I've realized that most of my kids have no tolerance at all for sitting still. I'd like to be able to take them somewhere - church, the dentist's office, to a movie, etc. and have them be able to sit still in their chairs. They don't sit still. They wiggle. They talk. They crawl under the chair. They fidget. They get up and run around. They change seats. Enough already! Ta-dah! Sitting Still Training!

How exactly am I doing it? Well, it's pretty simple. They practice sitting still.

I line them up sitting on the couch. I want them all together because that's the hardest time to sit still - when you are with your siblings.

I put on classical music. (They love classical, by the way, thanks to the Classical Kids audiotapes I mentioned on this blog a while back.)

I set the timer.

They sit. And sit. And sit some more.

They aren't always sitting perfectly still and quiet, but that's the goal and they are learning how.

I am working on 90 minutes of sitting still. Once they have all achieved it, which could take a while, we will do a big family prize.

They each have a chart to keep track of how long they can sit. They earn 3 individual prizes along the way (to keep things exciting! and no, I don't care if you call it bribing, if my kids will be sitting still while you say it!).

David is up to something like 45 minutes. Emily is around 30. James and Suzy, not surprisingly, are much farther behind. But I have confidence they can learn it.

And after Sitting Still is achieved, we move on to STANDING STILL. Oy.

Christmas School

Between Thanksgiving and Epiphany, we don't do any "real" school. Instead we work at what I have termed "Christmas School". I've been asked to post some of the activities we have been working on the past couple of weeks and what we plan for the coming weeks as well.

First off, I'd like to list a few of the reasons why I've chosen to do Christmas School. First, since we do school more or less year-round, I don't have any problem taking off 6 weeks or so at this time of year. Second, I found that I never had enough time to do all the fun Christmas-y activities I wanted to do with my kids when we did regular schoolwork. Another reason is that I found that this time of year is a great time for a break; otherwise I get totally burned out trying to accomplish everything and by February I am ready for it to all be over. (This is something I learned while teaching at a Christian school years ago.) When I take a break for Christmas School, I am ready to dive back into our regular schoolwork in the second week of January. There are more reasons, but that's a good part of it.

I should also state that we are continuing on with our math studies during our Christmas School respite. Last year we did NOT do Math, and I regretted it in January. :-)

So, what do we do? I choose some appropriate Bible study. Last year we did a Jesse Tree. Here is a good example of that: http://www.rca.org/worship/material/advent/makingtree.html I used the patterns on this page to print out for the kids to color and make a Jesse tree out of paper.

This year, our Bible study is Color the Christmas Classics. (http://www.colortheclassics.com/) This study comes with an audio cassette or CD and information and coloring sheets for 13 Christmas carols that describe the history of the carol - both lyrics and music. We are enjoying this and it is very different from the Jesse tree study.

We also just finished reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, mainly in preparation for the movie that was just released. I took David (almost age 11) and Emily (age 8) to see the movie on Friday night. They've already demanded that I read another book, and so we will continue with Prince Caspian, because that is the next book that features the 4 children. (I do NOT like the renumbering of the series, and much prefer the old way of numbering that I remember from my childhood.)

We also have tickets for a live performance of A Christmas Carol, so I decided the children should have the book read to them beforehand. Quite unknown to me, the edition of the book I had on my shelf had a read-along CD included in it! So the kids have been listening to that when I am not here. Something that Bob can have them do for school, ye ken? (That's Scottish for "kwim". -g-) They will finish that this week, as our tickets are for this Wednesday.

All the children have created art projects as gifts for their aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Suzy, James, and Emily had fun foam ornaments in varying degrees of difficulty. Suzy did a snowman star, James did a Christmas tree with jeweled ornaments, and Emily did a more complicated sequined snowman. All of them added their photographs to the ornaments. It took several days for them to complete these ornaments which made for a nice relaxed pace.

David, instead of making a craft, learned how to use Windows Movie Maker, which came free with my computer (although apparently not with all computers that have Windows XP). He created a 3 minute movie/slideshow of family photographs accompanied by music. He burned 7 of them to CD's and decorated the paper CD envelopes as gifts for his grandparents and aunts and uncles on my side of the family.For David, I am encouraging every practical use of the computer possible.

OK, let's see. Still to come? Handmade Christmas cards, Decorated Christmas PJ's, Writing a Christmas letter, addressing Christmas cards and mailing them. Baking Christmas cookies, making gingerbread houses, making Christmas candies. Wrapping Christmas gifts, finishing up the last bits of Christmas shopping. Instead of me doing all this stuff late at night after the kids are in bed, we will do it together. Ye ken?

Hope this helps! I will try to post more. Questions? Ask 'em!

Spelling Power

My first rebellion against the traditional spelling curriculums came when I was teaching in a Christian school back in the early 90's. I could see that the traditional spelling books weren't effective in actually teaching the children the word spellings. They could get A's on the tests and then spell the same words wrong in their writing the next week.

At that time, I decided to use a individualized spelling program, but the board of the school vetoed my plan. (None of them were even teachers, but using the A Beka curriculum was a selling point of the school. Sigh.)

So, when it came time to teach my own kids, I decided to forego spelling instruction during the early elementary years. I didn't want to do the traditional weekly plan of a new list every Monday and a test every Friday, with meaningless practice in between. I wanted my children to be able to internalize the spellings of words, instead of memorizing them for the tests and then forgetting them immediately.

I decided to focus on phonics instruction and allow my children the freedom to write without spelling instruction during their early years. David was not ready, by my estimation, for spelling instruction until the fourth grade. Emily was ready at the same time, however, and she was in the second grade.

So, I had heard such good things about Spelling Power and it fit my requirements. I wanted something non-consumable that I could use with all my kids. I wanted it to be personalized. I wanted it to be comprehensive. I wanted it to be easy to use. The research included by the author, Beverly Adams-Gordon, was very impressive to me as well.

So we began.

My children haven't loved it, but what children love learning to spell? Not many, in my experience. I, however, have loved it. Once I learned the method, it was very easy to use. (There was a steep learning curve, which frustrated me at first. I highly suggest finding someone who has used it and ask for their help in deciphering the instructions. I also watched the video, borrowed from a friend, and that helped some.)

It takes just 15 minutes to complete the lesson each day, and about 5-10 minutes of that is direct instruction time. The remainder of the time is for the student to complete the 10 step practice and write the sentences.

The ten step practice is the strength of the program, in my opinion. And the practice steps could be used with any spelling program. The tactile step is the most important (and the easiest to skip) and it has made a big difference for David.

Spelling has been hard for David and extremely easy for Emily. She is ahead of him in spelling, but he doesn't seem to be aware of the fact. He does ask her for help in spelling sometimes, so he does recognize her abilities. Spelling Power works great for both of them. I intend to use it through high school.

Math-U-See

I resisted Math-U-See for years. Too expensive, I said. Too exclusive; why, it's only sold through distributers! I am sure it must be trendy and have no substance.

So, first I used Miquon because it was cheap, but still manipulative-based. Then I flip-flopped over to A Beka, because although the Miquon was non-traditional, I also found that it wasn't very effective or very well-organized. But I missed the hands-on and hated the busy work of A Beka. Then I looked at Saxon - eww! I must have done some other things in there too, including some Walmart-type workbooks.

Then my friend Barb gave a short presentation on MUS during our homeschool support meeting. I was enthralled. It made sense! It was hands-on! It was mastery-based! She had been using it for years with her four kids and still liked it! I was sold.

I went to place my order only to find that they were coming out with new books in the next few weeks, so I breathlessly waited for the new editions.

Oh when I finally got them, I was so excited, but also intimidated! I had to make something called Decimal Street. Man, I was a little overwhelmed by that, but I finally buckled down and got to it. It was AWESOME!!

The lessons all come on DVD. I use the DVD's to teach the kids. I sit with them and watch their new lessons and then they do the pages pretty much independently, unless they have a problems. Mr. Demme explains things very thoroughly and clearly, using the blocks to illustrate. I often learn to look at math in a new way myself! The nice thing about the DVD is, no matter how many times you replay it, Mr. Demme is always just as sweet and patient as he was the first time. Unlike Mom. LOL

I like the fact that there are 6 pages per lesson and you can do them all or just 1, depending on the mastery the child has of the information.

I love the blocks! A friend just told me she was trying to do MUS and it wasn't working out well. In the course of the conversation, she told me she hadn't bought the blocks! What? You're teaching MUS to a 1st grader without the blocks? I don't think I'd attempt that! I think I've convinced her to order them! LOL

This will be our second full year with Math-U-See and I don't foresee us ever needing to change curriculums!