Book Reviews: Sticking With It and Worrying Too Much

One thing we can all agree on in our family is that we love to read!  My husband and I enjoy fantasy books, like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.  We also enjoy various historical, self-improvement, and humorous reads, among others.  Reezle has a penchant for animal books, from birding to caring for cats, and other non-fiction.  And Little G can't get enough of his children's human body and science books, when he isn't toting around his favorite math workbook.

Since reading is a well-received way of learning new information for my kiddos, I like to get them books that help them through various things they may be struggling with.  Recently, I bought my daughter a workbook on anxiety.  While her brother is the type to shrug off most things, she tends to worry, worry, worry about the smallest things.  And since worries tend to grow over time, I thought it would be wise to address it now and provide her with tools to manage the feelings of stress.  Among those tools is What To Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety by Dawn Huebner, Ph.D.  It's full of brilliant metaphor and exercises to help children understand and manage their fears.  I would give it 5 stars and would absolutely recommend it to anyone who wants to help a child who may be prone to worry.  Recommended reading level: age 6 or grade 1 and up.  Mama Bonn's thoughts: I think this is a suitable workbook for children through elementary school.

Little G, our easily-frustrated kiddo, often has little to no patience with himself any time he doesn't already know how to do something.  Learning, though not difficult for him, causes frustration because the little dude feels like he should know it already.  My goal with him is to help him realize that making mistakes is part of the process of learning, and actually helps us retain our knowledge better if we don't allow the frustration to be the focus.  My mantra with him has been everyone makes mistakes, and that is perfectly okay!  He doesn't seem to be convinced, so I looked around for, of course, a book. I found a winner!  Try And Stick With It by Cheri J. Meiners, M. Ed. discusses the very issues Little G is struggling with and offers useful suggestions.  We have several of Cheri J. Meiners' books, and they're all wonderful so far.  They even have a section in the back of the book with information on how parents (grandparents, teachers, etc.) can discuss various sections of the book in more depth.  Again, a 5 star book that I would highly recommend.  Recommended reading level: Reading level states 4 years and up.  Mama Bonn's thoughts: For independent readers, I would say it's a great book for 1st graders, so the age range on this is probably preschool through grade 2 or 3, generally speaking.

Our First Day of Homeschool 2012-13

Today was our first official day of school! In continuing tradition, we celebrated in our pajamas.

Little G writing 575 in expanded form

I was a little concerned about how Little G would handle a full load of courses this year, affording him less time to do the things he enjoys independently. I expected boredom and frustration on his first day, but there was none! He handled his first day as a 1st/2nd grader like a pro.

Miss Reezle worked on math, language arts, history, and health. She also spent roughly 45 minutes playing Poptropica, which is surprisingly educational. She did great on her first day as a 3rd grader! Her spelling list for this unit is:

objects, insects, facts, products, plants, trucks, napkins, hundreds, numbers, gashes, boxes, foxes, riches, sandwiches, inches, bosses, dresses, *systems, *pencils, *presidents

The red one we need to work on. Mostly, she does fabulous with the root words; she just has a bit of difficulty with some of the suffixes. This morning, there were a lot more red words in that list. Once she reviewed them, she did great. I shared some tips I hope will be helpful for knowing and remembering which suffixes fit. She seems to have caught on very quickly, so we'll go through the spelling words list tomorrow and find out if it sticks.

Mr. G's spelling words list for Unit 4 was:

spot, stop, sled, brush, speck, swim, crib, drum, crab, splash, trot, grin, prop, slip, fled, brick, crush, grab, frog, crash, won, and busy, with bonus words travel, dragon, and crunch.

He got them all correct, easily, so we moved on to the unit review and wrapped things up.

As a little surprise for the kiddos, I downloaded several children's books to my iPad. Today we read Pete The Cat: I Love My White Shoes. This story was awesome. Both kids are well beyond the book in terms of reading level, but the message was fun and useful. Basically, no matter what happens, keep a positive attitude.

That's a message even I could learn something from. And Sticky, too, apparently, because she joined right in the reading break with us! What other school offers a furry friend to snuggle and pet while you're going through the day? We love our (home) school!

Summer Reading

Over the summer, I've heard so many parents discussing difficulties they're facing with summer reading lists and keeping their children interested in books. I truly believe it is the way reading and literature are presented to children in schools. Most people don't dislike reading; they dislike being required to read. I think most people would develop an aversion to eating cake if they were made to do it, and required to answer 10 questions about the taste, texture, and content. Schools require reading for content, so there is a sadly large number of children who don't even understand the concept of reading for enjoyment.

If the summer reading is driving you nuts, there are a few things you can do. A lot of local libraries offer summer reading incentive programs. After reading a certain number of books, the kiddos get a prize! Book It! has a summer reading program. What kiddo doesn't love earning a pizza? Barnes & Noble and Chuck E. Cheese's both offer reading incentives as well. And if your kids have a particular interest (space, karate, cars, etc.) you can buy them a book or two on their topic of interest to get them interested. It's all about taking the focus off of reading as a chore and reminding them that there is so much to enjoy about reading. Finding a fun series will also keep a lot of kids tuned in. My daughter is always looking for the latest cool book series since she started on Junie B. Jones in 1st grade! The Judy Moody books are great, too, and I just discovered they have a related series featuring her brother, Stink. (Yes, classy, I know - ha!)

I remember when I realized that reading could be fun. I was 9 years old, and I'd just discovered The Babysitters Club. I couldn't put the books down. Now my daughter is reading them on my Kindle, and I love it!


We hear no complaints from Sticky. She loves the attention from her non-furry siblings, and I think she even enjoys the stories when they take turns reading aloud to one another. As soon as she sees them curled up with a book, she snuggles herself beside them to take advantage of this relaxing, cozy time.

Ah, summer. We're loving it. Lots of time to read books on topics from volcanoes to birds, and everything in between. Reezle will be taking Spanish this fall, so I downloaded the Kindle version of Spanish for Dummies for her. As for me, I'm waiting for Brandon Sanderson to release the remainder of my beloved Wheel of Time series!

Happy reading!

Summer Days

My latest little obsession is Instagram. Typically, other than Facebook, I'm not much of a fan of social networks or having my information or photos splattered across the interwebs. But Instagram is just too fun to ignore.

Couple that and an adorable little moment where my son is reading a bird book like it's his job, and mommy can't resist the photo op. Doesn't he look comfy, all snuggled up on the couch among big pillows with a cozy blanket over him? It's miserably hot here in the Midwest, but we're staying cool inside and enjoying some lazy afternoons with some old school Star Trek reruns and piles of good books. Outside, the birds have been largely absent from the feeders and our grass is turning a parched shade of pale yellow. The garden, however, is producing some tasty organic treats in spite of the heat.


That picture is of one of the most perfect zucchinis I have ever seen. Delicious. If last year is any indication, we should have enough for ourselves and half the neighborhood. And, if we could get some rain, there's a variety of other delicious vegetables out there, too.

On an unrelated note, our new school materials will be shipping soon! We're very excited about this. I still have to hammer out some details about the upcoming school year and the foreign language Reezle is hoping to take, but this is so much better than the typical back-to-school circus each year. We don't miss it. At all.

I Wanna Be a Doctor

My son often tells me, "I wanna be a doctor." And I believe him, because he carries this book around like most kids carry a security blanket, and randomly spits out facts that even I didn't know.


Go for it, little dude. You'll be awesome!

Review: Different Like Me, My Book of Autism Heroes

The other night, just before bed, my 6 year-old son proudly proclaimed, "I'm HAPPY I have autism!" He went on to tell me it's because his brain is "interesting and smart". I can't argue with him there.

We had just read some of the book Different Like Me, and he found Nikola Tesla and Temple Grandin most interesting. My daughter liked Einstein and Tesla best.

I love that there is a book like this, which celebrates the positives of being on the spectrum. I firmly believe there are gifts in every challenge, and autism is absolutely one of the most profound examples of that. Though it is not possible to say with certainty whether all of the individuals in this book would have received a diagnosis on the autism spectrum, they do at least share many familiar traits. In a society that seems all too eager to point out what cannot be accomplished because of autism, this book is about possibilities and potentials, about focusing on strengths and developing one's gifts, and about how much one person can contribute to the world in spite of challenges and differences.

The book might be a bit dry for younger children, but probably great for the 8 and up group who are beginning to understand what their diagnosis is and what it means. I love positive and empowering children's books, and this is definitely among them. Rather than the redundant, patronizing attempts at "acceptance" that too many other books throw out at us, this book focuses more on the individual and their accomplishments and contributions to the world - without the seemingly obligatory "even though they had autism" qualifier.

My Brother Charlie Book Review

I recently picked up a copy of My Brother Charlie for my kids after seeing some rave reviews of it online. Because it was so highly-rated, I didn't even flip through it until I had it home. Mistake.

The very first things that made me say, uh oh, this might not be what I was looking for... were the puzzle pieces scattered on the inside of the book jacket. I know some people like to say that autistic children are little puzzles, but I absolutely detest that metaphor. My child isn't a puzzle, he's a person. Just because he thinks differently and sometimes acts differently than children his age doesn't mean he's a puzzle that needs to be solved. But I wasn't going to let the artwork make my decision on the book. And, as it turns out, it didn't have to.

The general feel of the supposed "acceptance" message in this book felt condescending, like "Yeah, Charlie is broken, but we love him anyway," rather than true acceptance. Granted, the boy in the story was non-verbal, but even that aspect could have had a more positive spin than talking about how Mommy cried because the doctors told her Charlie would never say 'I Love You'. Yes, poor Mommy, because her son isn't going to express love the way she wants him to, to make her feel good. My son didn't need words to express love. I'm fairy certain no one does. I absolutely loathe how the world has such a narrow view of what people should be and how they should act.

In another part of the story, Charlie's sister discusses how he sometimes "ruins" playdates by, well, being himself. Apparently, in his family, needing to be alone and away from people is unacceptable and highly annoying.

Another thing I found abrasive was the statement, "Charlie has autism. But autism doesn't have Charlie." I would expect someone to say this about a disease, like diabetes or cancer. Autism is a neurological difference. Of course it doesn't "have" anyone. That bit reminded me of the horrific I Am Autism video that the deplorable organization Autism Speaks put out not long ago as part of their fear propaganda. It made my skin crawl.

I mean, I don't know. Children are naturally a bit selfish, and maybe that's why the book has those undertones to it. For the purpose of relating. But I thought it was so bad that I didn't even give it to my kids to read, I just took it back.

My position on autism may be different from that of others. For me, my hopes are that my son lives a happy, fulfilling, meaningful, rich life, whatever that means for him. I really don't care about anything else, or anyone else's opinions. I wouldn't change him for anything, because everyone has challenges and this just happens to be the one we deal with.

Oral Fluency and Speech

I finally located the online oral fluency assessment I used previously with the kids, and it was extremely close to the school's assessment results. Since Little G is technically in Kindergarten, he does not do an oral fluency assessment through K12 yet. At the beginning of the year, he was reading about 40 words per minute, hampered somewhat by his speech disorder. His comprehension was perfect, though. He is now reading at 62 words per minute, also with perfect comprehension. This is a late 1st grade to early 2nd grade reading level, and if his speech disorder wasn't holding him back I believe he would have done even better.

Because his speech is not "bad enough" to hold him back beyond his actual grade level, he does not qualify for services any longer. People assess him and tell me that he's actually doing more than most children his age. But I believe in helping him achieve his true, fullest potential, not just "passable" on some one-size-fits-all assessment. So, I am working at finding as much information as I can to help him compensate for his disorder and bring his speech capabilities more in line with his intellectual ability. I take a video of him every 8 weeks to determine what is progressing and what isn't, and what we need to focus on most. His progress from last year at this time until now is nothing short of amazing! Words are extremely important to my son, and he has an incredible desire to communicate. I believe that is his greatest asset in terms of stomping his challenges.

Aimsweb is the benchmark assessment used to evaluate K12 students. I think in general it is probably a decent evaluation tool. However, in evaluating children with special needs (like my son's speech), or gifted children, it probably falls short. It's frustrating. Teacher friends of mine have said the same. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who feels this way, yet I don't have any better ideas so perhaps I ought to just keep my Aimsweb opinions to myself.

Meanwhile, I am very proud of how well both of my little students are doing. Even at this age, homeschool requires some self-discipline to do as well as they are doing. They are hard workers who really want to achieve their best, and I am blessed to be a part of the process.

New Materials

These are Little G's first grade materials. My 5 year-old first grader is pretty stoked.

There is also new Math materials, not pictured here since it was a lot more of the same items we had for Kindergarten and I've already put them away. We do have Math+ Green now, and apparently the color change is pretty exciting stuff. There will be plenty of pictures soon.

The weather remains unseasonably warm and beautiful for October. My husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary yesterday, and the warmth and sunshine reminded me of the weather when we got married in 2001. I've got all of the windows open and we're taking advantage of these beautiful days before the dreaded snow starts to fly. Outdoor hooping for the win!

Spain and First Grade Curriculum

Our quote of the day is brought to you by Reezle: "Sticky is my furry sister. She picked me to be her non-furry sister." Indeed she did.

This morning started off with some unexpected excitement; the OLS had Little G's 1st grade Phonics and Language Arts! The good news? He was super excited and we worked on Phonics today. The not so good news? They don't have 1st grade Math in there yet, nor is it listed in our orders. Of course, that is the one he wants the most, so I bought him a math workbook to hold him over until the OLS updates his curriculum.

In other academic news, we are currently studying Europe in K History. Today's focus was on Spain and I had G color Spain on his Europe map while we talked about it. I found a couple of beautiful time lapse videos on YouTube, which had both of my children saying they want to go to Spain.

They also did some Art, which I will share sometime this weekend. R chose her favorite illustration from a book she recently read, Clara and The Bookwagon, and it turned out amazing! Little G colored Spain's flag and his suitcase for our European adventures.

Over the weekend, I plan to spend some time working with G on his handwriting. His capital letters are great, but his lower case letters could use some refining. I also want to get him writing more sentences, which I'm sure can be easily accomplished just by encouraging him to write descriptive sentences about the things he loves. Like cats. And Math.

I am ready for the weekend. I'm sort of emotionally drained for non-school reasons, and I just want a day or two where I don't have to think about much of anything but snuggling up with my kids and maybe watching some movies, playing a little Monopoly, and getting lost in a good book. The chilly, windy, rainy, 55-degree weather almost begs for chili to be made, so I will probably be adding that to my to-do list as well.

Our Happy Monday

Our happy Monday was a busy Monday. I discovered the joys of coffee yesterday, at wits end with this constant exhaustion I feel due to my inability to sleep like a normal person. So today I tried it again, and discovered (or should I say rediscovered?) the joy of heart palpitations. Caffeine and I don't get along. I knew it 15 years ago, but somehow I thought that exhaustion might trump caffeine intolerance. Nope. So, on to my next plan to feel less zombie-like during our school days. You know, once I figure out what that is.

One of the many things I am enjoying about homeschooling is the flexibility of both scheduling and curriculum content. I'm always supplementing with something, and I find that the internet truly is a wonderful resource. A History lesson about the 7 continents and their well-known landmarks, geography, and climate are much more interesting with the aid of YouTube videos. When I was in school, we basically had one or two pictures in a textbook (sometimes) and our imaginations. Videos about the Great Barrier Reef (Australia), the Great Wall of China (Asia), castles (Europe), The Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, and Mt. Rushmore (North America, obviously), penguins (Antarctica), rainforests and macaws (South America), and giraffes (Africa) kept both of the kids engaged and interested. Better yet? They were talking about it for the rest of the day. Good stuff.

For art class, while discussing how Joan Miro lived in Barcelona, Spain and went to study art in Paris, France, we used Google Maps (including street view) to find out what both places look like and how far away from home he went to study (roughly 11 hours by today's travel, in case you were wondering). Reezle decided she would like to visit Barcelona and Paris, especially after we visited the Eiffel Tower via Google's street view. And today, we looked at various images of the earth while we studied the earth's poles and the equator.



An abstract drawing R made for Art using shapes and lines.

With week four of homeschool underway, we're all still loving it. Little G had his assessment yesterday and, like his sister and just as we expected, he scored well above and received the same recommendations as R. Officially, he will be starting some first grade curriculum, probably later this week. He is very excited and keeps asking me to check the OLS (online school) to see if it is there yet, even though I told him it probably won't be until later in the week or possible even next week. He finished his Kindergarten Math book tonight after dinner, so it will be mostly Study Island and working through the remaining Kindergarten lessons in the OLS to keep him busy while we wait for the new curriculum to update on the site.

Reezle will also be starting curriculum for the next grade level because she is assessing out of Math and Language Arts; I'm just waiting to hear back from our second grade teacher on when. I'm just happy that both of them are so interested in learning. Or, um, all three of them if you count the cat; she hasn't missed a lesson yet.

Fall is definitely in the air, with cool nights that bring thoughts of changing leaves, Halloween, squash soup and cups of cocoa to mind. This is my favorite season, the only downside of which is the fact that my least favorite season follows. For now, we enjoy. I hope to make some homemade applesauce with the kids, and we will be making apple shirts soon, which I can hardly wait to post about!

Grade 2 Assessments

Below are the results from R's Grade 2 assessments in reading and math:


That little blue dot at the top of the charts, well above the "Above Average" line, is where R scored. The recommendation on both is, "Consider need for individualized instruction." I did consider that need, and thus we are homeschooling.

Her confidence after seeing her accomplishments in print has soared, and we knocked out quite a few lessons in Math yesterday. She is really looking forward to the Grade 3 Math curriculum.

Little G's assessment is on Monday, and I expect similar results. He is more than halfway through his Math workbook and has 27 of 36 units of Phonics completed, just 15 days into the school year. He keeps saying, "I want to learn stuff." Hopefully when the grade 1 curriculum materials arrive, he will. He's already coveting his big sister's Math workbook.

This year ought to prove interesting! Any doubts or concerns I had are pretty much gone at this point, and we have some fun activities coming up on our Fall calendar. They are happy and thriving, and I couldn't ask for more.

Warm and Fuzzies, Books, and Assessments

Today was warm and fuzzy trade in day!

R and Little G each chose a new book from the prize redemption selection (which mommy needs to replenish very soon at the rate they're going) and they spend the latter part of Language Arts reading their new books quietly to themselves, then to each other, and finally to me. Little G chose Splish, Splat, Splat, a super cute book about a cat, and R chose Do Cats Always Land On Their Feet? (the answer is no, in case you were wondering).


R also had an assessment this afternoon with her teacher contact through the virtual school. She read three stories to assess her fluency, or the rate at which she reads orally. She reads at 140 words per minute, which according to NAEP is a grade 4 average. R is just starting grade 2. She also did an assessment for math, for which she had 8 minutes to answer 20-some questions of varying degrees of difficulty. She wasn't expected to finish all of the problems, but she did. The national average is 10-24 points, and the goal is 15 points. R got 47 points out of a possible 50.

In light of her results, we are discussing moving her up to the grade 3 curriculum so she is challenged. R, of course, is very excited about this because she loves to learn and the idea of new material she has never encountered had her jumping around like a kid waiting for Santa.

Little G has his assessment on Monday, and I expect similar results. He's actually been helping R with spelling and grammar since last year when he was in preschool. He is another one with a voracious appetite for knowledge; he worked from page 60-something in his Math workbook to page 109 in a matter of hours today. I think the curriculum, if we followed it, has him somewhere around page 30. He knows everything in the book, and mastered most of it (colors, shapes, number identification) before he even started preschool, so it's just busy work. I really look forward to getting him into some advanced curriculum so I can feel like I am teaching him something. Meanwhile, he continues to do addition, subtraction and multiplication flash cards and play chess with Daddy, and he works on a grade 2 workbook with various math and language arts material in it for fun. And he reads and reads and reads, which satisfies some of his thirst for knowledge.

I love being a part of this. And I had another great talk with my grandma about it, wherein I admitted that I had wanted to tell her about homeschooling sooner but worried about what she would think. She just kept saying she was proud of me and my kids, and that totally made my day :)

Groovy

We're finding a groove.

I am more grateful now than ever about finishing up my last few college credits via correspondence courses. It gave me an idea of what a partially web-based school curriculum would be like, taught me time management in terms of independent learning, and gave me the confidence to do teach my children using a method which can be very personally rewarding for students. I loved independent learning, and it appears that my children are feeling the same way.

Today we experienced our first Elluminate sessions with each of their virtual academy teachers. This is where students and/or parents/learning coaches have virtual conferences and assemblies via an online sort of Skype-like interface. It was a fun, highly interactive, and very informative experience for us. The children even had a chance to doodle on a white board, a program similar to Paint, with their classmates. It seemed a bit overwhelming at first, but it was actually very user-friendly and fun to use.

We are becoming comfortable with our scheduling very quickly and beginning to settle into a routine that works for us. It's not nearly as scary as it feels just starting out, and I am already identifying places where we can supplement some of the things I was hoping to fit in. Study Island (mentioned in my previous post) is something we enjoy doing pretty much any time of the day, since both R and G like to test their knowledge. The most difficult part for me so far is letting R answer her own questions on the assessments even when I know she's wrong. That is part of the learning process, and her skills need to be evaluated for what they are. I write down any areas where she seems to have hesitation, and come up with a fun way to help her understand it better. The main issue for her seems to be with reading all possible answers before making a selection, and following instructions, not the actual material. She is still Accelerated or Advanced across the board, so I'm not concerned. Similarly, Little G has scored Advanced in all of his assessments, never getting below 100% on any of them thus far.

This Kindergarten Phonics, though...ugh. It's frustrating the heck out of G - not because he doesn't know it, but because he's bored to tears. It's like asking a 9 year-old to do sight word flash cards. He was (no joke here) helping R study for her first grade spelling tests and instructing her on the proper way to pluralize words when he was in preschool last year because he had already mastered what she was learning. I will never forget hearing R mutter something in frustration at her desk as G said, very animated with hands going and all, "You have to drop the Y and add an I-E-S, sissy." I wrote a quick note to his teacher and asked if we could at least change his Study Island Reading items to first grade. She's awesome about getting back to us quickly, so I should know something as soon as tomorrow.

Since the Kindergarten Phonics is what it is, I am having G join in R's Phonics and Language Arts lessons. I even print extra worksheets for him so he can actually do the work, too. And I supplement a lot in this area. In addition to the curriculum, they both have at least an hour of independent reading each day. We also make time to take turns reading aloud to each other after we break for lunch. It is a relaxing way to get their minds back into thinking mode.

Daddy is also helping to supplement their curriculum. In the evenings and on the weekends, he is often doing math flashcards with them (addition, subtraction, and multiplication) or playing skill games like chess, checkers, or memory. I love this, because it is a great way for them to spend special time with Daddy while also learning. This is not anything new, but now that we have specific things to study, he discusses a lot of what they are learning.

We're all looking forward to getting started tomorrow. R has already asked me if I have printed out our lesson plans for the day yet. I have. We talked a little about what we have planned for the day, and she was literally jumping with joy about Science because we will be going around measuring things. And, for Music, stuffed animals will be participating. How cool is that!?

Very cool, indeed.