Learning Language Arts Through Literature

Anyone still searching for the right Language Arts curriculum for this school year MUST check out Learning Language Arts Through Literature. We're on lesson 4 in the Red (2nd grade) book and the Tan (6th grade) book and I couldn't be happier. I've disliked our English curriculum for the last 2 years and feel like I've finally found something that works. I love the lessons, I love that they're based on "real" literature (a la Charlotte Mason), I love that there are separate teacher's and student manuals and that the students do all of their work in the manual (vs. in a notebook), and I love that they incorporate reading, writing, dictation, grammar, spelling, phonics, and even art.
The pace of the lessons has been working for both boys, somehow, even though one is a fairly slow worker and one is fairly fast. They're Christian too, and they sometimes use Bible verses as the basis for the lessons, which we can't get enough of. (Since this is about English, should I have said "of which we can't get enough"?) As our memory verse for this week tells us, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be fully equipped to do every good work." 2 Tim. 3:16-17.
Did I do that from memory? Of course I did.

Cricket in Times Square and LibriVox

We finished Island of the Blue Dolphins and have been studying The Cricket in Times Square for the last week or so. We're doing a lapbook, like we did for Island, and we're also using this wonderful site to find activities and English lessons that relate to the book: http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading24/cricket_in_times_square.htm. One thing I've learned is that Simon doesn't have the stamina for writing that Isaac does, so I try to have Simon do some of his work on his own, then I take over as his "secretary"; he tells me what to write, and I write it. It's amazing how his attitude instantly changes once I start helping him.
So, at one point, Mario takes Chester (the cricket) to the soda shop and gets him a strawberry soda. It's lemon/lime soda, vanilla ice cream, and strawberry syrup. We recreated these at home, which was a much-needed reward after a busy Monday. We also learned early in the story that Tucker the mouse loves liverwurst, so the kids and I had crackers with Braunschwieger with our strawberry sodas. Believe it or not, Simon and Esme had their Braunschwieger eaten before I even had a chance to beg them to try it. Isaac ate it too, and of course, so did I. I tried to take a picture of all of this, only to discover that our newer, better camera is broken. "Grace dropped it" was the story I was told. So, I need to start using the old one, but I was too annoyed to go and find it yesterday.
In unrelated news, I was digging around for a kids' church lesson for Wednesday and I came across this site: http://librivox.org/. It's a collection of free audio books (you can even volunteer to do some recording, if you want to). I didn't look very hard, but in the A's and B's I found Aesop's Fables and the Bible, and I looked a little farther and I found Little Women and Little Men by Louisa May Alcott, so I think this is worth investigating. I'm listening to "The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg" right now, and it's pretty cool.

Allison's Vocab Search

I think I have created a vocabulary game with a magical combination of fun, physical activity, and education - at least, until I try it out on the kids and they scoff at its lameness. For now, anyway, I am feeling like a creative genius. Here's my game:
1. I made a huge wall of vocabulary words using the roll of paper I bought for our easel that doesn't actually fit on our easel. There's a space to the side of each word for taping up the definitions.



2. I put a picture of each word on an index card with the word written on the back. Then, I taped the index cards (picture side out) around the house. I think this one is a picture of "sinew." (This is Island of the Blue Dolphins vocab.)



3. Next, I wrote a simple, one- or two-word definition for each word on another index card. Example: my definition for "ponder" is "think."

The point of the game is that they run around the house looking at the cards, then they come downstairs and tape the definitions up next to the words, based on what they've learned from the pictures. So, looking at an index card with a picture of a guy thinking and seeing the word "ponder" on the back should give them the clue they need to tape up the definition "think" next to the word "ponder" on the big list. I'm thinking about giving them 60 seconds to run around looking at words, then 60 seconds to tape up definitions, and alternating that until they get tired or bored.

Here's Grace, wishing she were old enough to read (or run, or use tape) so she could get in on this game:

Island of the Blue Dolphins

The kids and I just finished reading Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell, and we did a cool lapbook project along with it. I did not make this project up. (Ha! As if you were wondering.) We got it for free from Hands of a Child, a lapbooking website: http://www.handsofachild.com/freebie.html. I was surprised by how much the kids loved the story, because it is, after all, about a girl...but they were fascinated. I was fascinated too. The book is based on a true story of a girl who lived alone on an island for 18 years! She was finally "rescued," but by that time, no one knew her tribe's native language anymore (the tribe had all died, mainly of disease), so no one was ever able to get the details of what she did all that time. She could only communicate in signs. So it's historical fiction, and it's awesome. We want to watch the movie (circa 1964), but it looks like we'll have to buy it. Here's a link, if you're interested: http://silveragemovies.com/island-of-the-blue-dolphins-1964-p-255.html.
We did find a movie called End of the Spear on Netflix - also on Hulu - also at this website (http://endofthespear.com/%29, which is a great movie about Nate Saint, the missionary pilot who died trying to help the Wuaroni tribe in Ecuador. We read about him for school a few weeks ago and just happened upon the movie while searching the "faith and spirituality" category. There was a documentary about him too, but we haven't seen that yet. Be prepared to read a bunch of subtitles to your younguns, because all of the dialog between the Wuaroni natives is in the Wuaroni language. If you'd rather read the book, here's a link to that; it's written by Nate Saint's son, Steve Saint.
Our other big project right now is studying and memorizing the fruits of the spirit, which are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Even Esme has these memorized, although demonstrating them consistently is another matter. For some great songs about this verse (Galatians 5:22-23), check out my YouTube playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE7E25DA3AC5CB32.
And that is homeschooling for this week.

Handwriting Practice

Esme goes through worksheets faster than I can churn them out, even with the help of the internet, preschool curriculum, and several preschool workbooks. This is a great site that lets you customize your own handwriting worksheets - printing and cursive, letters and numbers: http://www.handwritingforkids.com/.