Part of my Grand Schedule is the plan of Chapter Books to read. It seems to work out that we read around one chapter book a month and I already had a number of books sitting on the shelves earmarked for this purpose. I have to tell my eldest in advance what we are planning on reading together because otherwise he might read them himself and then he is bored listening. I have tried to organise a plan for the coming year so that I can tie in issues of The Arrow. The Arrow works well for us. I like the fact that it is based on books we have read and enjoyed and the children are learning so much from using it: careful handwriting, punctuation and grammar, good writing skills, literary appreciation. I have woven together some of my book ideas with some gleaned from the Arrow backlist or 2008/09 list to create this reading schedule:The Secret Garden
Little House on the Prairie
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Why the Whales Came (This is on at a local theatre in February and I plan to take the children to the show.)
On the Banks of Plum Creek
The Trumpet of the Swan
Tom's Midnight Garden
The Eagle of the Ninth
Just So Stories
As with my Grand Schedule in general, I strongly suspect we will wander off this path before the year is out: I am bound to find some irresistible book on the shelves of a charity shop or have some title recommended which I just can't wait to read, but I feel so much more confident knowing that I have a clear route to follow if inspiration does fail me!
Reading aloud to the children is one of the few consistent things in my Home Ed life and I place the highest value on it. The benefits are manifold: hearing good literature, enjoying fantastic stories, sharing the experience, discussing the plot and characters while we wash up. All these make a rich vein to mine. However, I am blessed with a 'kinesthetic' learner who loves, even needs, to be doing something with his hands. It used to be a real problem for me how much he wriggled and fiddled and played with things while I was reading and I would take away his toy and tell him to sit still and concentrate. Much grief could have been saved if I had come across Julie's wisdom earlier:
For kids with busy hands, dump out a box of Legos or blocks and let your youngIt was a moment of revelation. Using his hands enabled him to concentrate, it did not distract him. Now I encourage him to have something to play with while I read. I have produced yet another A4 sheet and pinned it up in the toy cupboard:
ones build while they listen.
What can you do while listening to a Chapter Book?
A jigsaw
Threading Cards
Screw ball or Rubik’s Cube
Nuts and Bolts
French Knitting
Knitting
Lego
Plasticine
Colouring-In
Drawing
Blik-Blok (building blocks)
Pattern Blocks (coloured blocks which fit in a tray)
He discovered it with delight on his return yesterday. I think this, of all my lists, may be the one used the most!
2 comments:
Great revelation. Have a mentioned that you might find good ideas for your kids on the homeschooling creatively yahoo group? Sounds like you've got at least one right brained learner in your bunch.
Why do you stagger when you read the book and when you do the copywork from The Arrow? I usually read the book at the same time. That ties the copywork and dictation directly in to the appreciation of the story. And since you are using back issues, you can do them whichever month works best with other things (because reading that one book when there is a local play of it is a great idea).
To be honest, it had never occured to me to do them at the same time! I think I began using the Arrow by picking one for a book we'd already read and I never thought to do them together! I suppose I like the idea of knowing the whole story and maybe I'd worry about not being as far as the next copywriting passage but now you've opened my eyes to the possiblity, I'll give it a try and see what my son prefers. It just goes to show that what seems like the way to do something so often turns out just to be my way of doing it!
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