Celebrating homeschooling!

We have two tubs of Chistmas/winter books we bring out at this time of year.  My kids have always been excited, but I took note this year on how excited they were.  It was like time stood still.  Everyone grabbed a book and began to read after we brought them out of storage.  Old favorites were read and new books discovered.  It was one of those moments where I decide to celebrate homeschooling.  I realized my children have developed a love of books, and that gave me deep satisfaction.  It's easy to doubt what we do sometimes.  Is it working?  Do my kids know enough?  Is it worth it?  I took these pictures to remind myself that yes it is working, and yes it is worth it. I am cultivating life long learners who love to read.  

Take some time to celebrate today what is working in your homeschooling.  It's easy to get lost in the agenda, and forget about what is important (at least for me).

Enjoy the day!

Becky

Fun Finds: Math books

I have a fun find.  I was at my favorite thrift store in Cincinnati.  I was looking through the books and came across an entire set of Miquon math books.  I was so excited.  This is one of my favorite math programs.  They were less than $1 each. It was the find of finds.  Who would have thought this would be in a thrift store?   I guess you never know.

Proof of actual purchase :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!
Becky

Interesting Article on Phonics

Hello,
I am back.  My husband was out of town last week, and we were pretty excited to make it through the week.  We did have some great chances to play in the leaves. 

I am taking a class to keep up my Ohio certificate.  We had this article in class.  It is a nice article that describes phonics instruction.  I thought it might be helpful.  I will finish up my reading series in the next few weeks with a post on vocabulary.

Hope you are enjoying the first day of November.  We have a beautiful sunny day here.

Becky

Developing a sense of story.

A sense of story is understanding that stories have a beginning, middle, and end.   Students with this ability know stories have characters, a setting, a problem and a solution.  They know that a story has many events that lead to a climax and then usually wraps up and ends. 

So why is this important?  When a child has a sense of story they are more easily able to comprehend a new story.  They expect the story to follow a certain pattern. They are able to make predicitons to figure out what may be next in the story. 

One way to promote a sense of story is through story maps.  A story map is a written diagram you fill in for  a particular story.  I have found a few online that I thoguht you might enjoy using with your student.

For kindergarten and first graders you might want to start with a story structure map.  This one simply gives you a place for a beginning, middle, and an end.  You can model your thinking process the first few times to fill it in.  Then you might have your child dictate to you the answers.  

For Elementary students, here is a nice story map from Scholastic.  You read a story and then either have your student fill it out, or they can dictate answers to you.  If you have never done this before, then I would suggest just concentrating on one or two boxes for your first story.  Depending on how your child does, you can add other elements.  Another way is for you to fill it out completely modeling your thought process.  Talk about the map and fill it in expecting that your child will only listen.  I would model several times gradually having them share their answers.   How often would I do this?  I would not do it for every story you read or they read.  I would work on 1-2 times per week.

For older students this is a nice story map from Houghton Mifflin. It is a bit more complex.  I would use the same procedure discussed above.  I would take it slow and gradually add more of the responsibility to your student. This one is good for older kids as well.  

Lastly, I found this interactive story map for all ages from The National Council of Teachers of English  and The International Reading Association.  Click on the link to get started.  Follow the instructions to fill in the parts of the story.  I had fun playing around with it.

I am hoping that this gives you a place to start.  Developing a sense of story in your child is an effective way to develop reading comphrehension.

Happy Mapping!
Becky