A new reading practice plan for Red

First grade has turned out to be much more intense than I anticipated.  I really don't remember it being this crazy when I was 6!  Red has homework nearly every night.  In addition, her teacher has requested that she read to me 15-20 minutes each evening.  Before we were only doing read alouds at bedtime.  With everything we already have going on, what's a mama to do?


I finally figured out what we're going to try and we gave it a shot for the first time last night.  I picked out two books for her at the library this week that are at her reading level.  I gave her the choice of Catwings or Sarah Plain and Tall.  She chose Catwings and read me a chapter last night.  I asked her some quick comprehension questions about the story (i.e. What's the name of the kittens' mom?  What's different about the kittens?  Why does their mother want them to leave the neighborhood?).  Then I read her a chapter of Princess Academy, the new read aloud chapter book we just started.  I'm hopeful that this new reading plan will work for us and help her reading improve even more.  


What do you do for reading practice at your house?

Book Review: The Mysterious Benedict Society

Red received The Mysterious Benedict Society as a a birthday gift from my sister Christy earlier in the year.  Christy is the relative who gives books for every occasion (she's notorious for trolling used book stores) and usually makes good selections.  This time she picked another hit.


The book opens with protagonist Reynie Muldoon living at an orphanage.  Reynie is an extremely bright child who longs for more challenges in life.  When his teacher Miss Perumal comes across a curious newspaper advertisement soliciting gifted children looking for "special opportunities" to take a test, Reynie decides to check it out.  Only four brilliant children make the cut after the testing---Reynie, the obsessive compulsive Sticky Washington, the MacGyver-esque Kate Wetherall, and the annoyingly stubborn Constance Contraire.  They come together under the tutelage of the peculiar Mr. Benedict to form "The Mysterious Benedict Society" and begin a dangerous adventure to save the world.


The author's tone had a Roald Dahl feeling to me, which I enjoyed.  As a read aloud, this book was LONG.  It clocks in at 485 pages and the print is on the small side.  Because of the length, the book at times dragged.  Sometimes I felt that the writer could have tightened the plot up a bit and made it clip along a bit faster.  That's from an adult point of view though because Red LOVED it.  She couldn't wait for a new chapter each night.  We took a few nights off here and there to read other things so it actually took us nearly two months to read it.  In fact, she was so into the book that she wants to start the sequel, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey.  I'm pushing for a break to read another Aunt Christy gift, Princess Academy.  It looks right up Red's alley, not to mention it won the Newbery Honor in 2006.


I'm hoping to get back in the swing of things with blogging and life in general this coming week.  Last week was kind of a mess with Halloween (had a great time, but it was a little piece of crazy), jury duty, and being sick.  Yes, jury duty actually made me sick.  After they picked my panel for a trial, the deputy escorted us to a spare court room where we sat for hours with no water.  There were no drinking fountains on the floor and the bathroom was extremely filthy.  I resorted to drinking from the bathroom tap at one point out of desperation.  By the time I got home, my headache was bad from the dehydration that I threw up.  So I can say with confidence, jury duty makes me sick.  In the end, the defendant plead guilty to a lesser charge so they didn't need us anyway.  Sigh...


And Christmas is officially on it's way whether I like it or not.  It drives me batty when the local radio stations start playing Christmas music the day after Halloween.  Grrrrr....  
On a good note, you all will get sneak peeks on all the projects I'm working on for gifts in the coming weeks.  


Cheers!

Learning to read with Tom Thumb

Recently, Tom Thumb expressed a desire to learn how to read.  Not really knowing where he was at in terms of knowing his letter sounds, I whipped out my favorite reading program The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.  The first 26 lessons are about teaching all the vowel and consonant sounds.  I decided instead of doing the lessons I'd see what he knew already by asking him.  Amazingly, Tom Thumb knew all the letter sounds, with the exception of a strange pronunciation of the letter H (when he sees the letter H he says "hill."  I don't get it either).  Because of that, I skipped those lessons and started right in with him on lesson 27.  I figure we'll resolve the "hill" problem as we go along.


In the last week, we've been working through the lessons in the book for 5-10 minutes just before his nap and he seems to be progressing well.  I don't have any expectations for how fast we'll complete a lesson or how long we'll do it per day so it has been really relaxed.  Today we finished up lesson 35 and went on to lesson 36 which covers S sounds like /z/: is, his, as, and has.  I'm hopeful that this program will work as well for him as it did for Red!

Book Review: The City of Ember

As my year of attempting to read 52 books in 52 weeks is rapidly coming to a close, I continue to look for more interesting reads to inspire me, make me think, and bring me some joy.  And of course a little brain candy is good for you!  


Two of my favorite people in my book club offered up the book The City of Ember as a recommendation.  While this is considered a children's book recommended for ages 9-12, its topic is rather serious.  The book opens with some people known as "The Builders" inserting a message for the people of Ember into a box.  The box is to be entrusted to the mayor and will open on its own in 200 years.  When the box comes into the hands of the seventh mayor, he removes the box from its hiding place, takes it home, and attempts to open it in the hope that it will offer some cure for the "coughing sickness" that is afflicting him and many other people in Ember.  He fails to open the box, and dies before returning it to its spot.  The box and its contents remain a mystery and come to rest in the back of a closet.


The book fast forwards to the year 241.  Lina Mayfleet is 12 and has completed her schooling.  She await the mayor's arrival at her classroom where she will receive her job assignment in the city of Ember.  Ember is a city engulfed in complete darkness, only lit by street lights and the lights inside buildings.  There are frequent blackouts, however, because the city's power comes from an old generator that is in ill repair.  The city is gradually deteriorating.  Rumors of food and supply shortages are rampant.  The clothes washing machines that used to clean the clothes now have to be agitated by hand.  Everything is saved so it can be resold.  The one thing Lina wants is to receive the job assignment of "messenger"---the people who run from one person to another delivering messages for money.  Instead of drawing the messenger job, Lina is assigned to the Pipeworks as a water and sewerage repair assistant.  A childhood friend Doon gets her coveted messenger job and offers to trade.  Then the real story begins...


I enjoyed this book and it reminded me a lot of Lois Lowry's The Giver with a smidge of the movie Logan's Run.  There are so many questions that need to be answered in this book.  What's in the box?  Where is Ember?  Can they escape?  Should they even try?


There were some really interesting details that the author included that I enjoyed.  The city's library is filled with books only written by the people who have lived since Ember was founded.  While looking for a book about fire in the library, Doon discovers a book called "Mysterious Words from the Past."  One of the words referenced is "hogwash."  The entry states "means nonsense, though no one knows what a hog is or why one would wash it."  Another passage that I found interesting and touching is when Lina finds out that a store owner has some colored pencils.  Pencils have become rare and colored ones are nearly unheard of.  He's charging $5 for each pencil when it only costs $7 to get a coat.  Lina wants them so bad she buys a blue and green.  She later, coincidentally, uses the blue pencil to color the sky of a picture she's drawing even though she has never seen the sky before.


After reading the book, I discovered that it had been made into a movie starring Bill Murray and Tim Robbins in 2008.  I don't remember hearing of it, but now I'll have to get it from the library.  Here's the trailer:

While clearly written for children, this book definitely posed some questions that are important for adults to think about too.  What would happen if the Earth were no longer inhabitable.  Where would we go?  What would we do?  What can we do to make sure that the future is safe for our children and grandchildren?  I think I smell a future read aloud for Red and I.

Playing Rightstart Math Games with Tom Thumb

With all the math I've been doing with Red, Tom Thumb has been eagerly eyeing the box of math manipulatives.  He begged me today to take them out so reluctantly I gave it a shot.  I really wasn't sure that he was old enough, but he proved me wrong!  


To get started (because I needed a refresher on the preschool stuff), I took out the Rightstart A lesson manual.  I bought Rightstart A starter kit a couple of years ago for Red.  I really appreciate the way Rightstart incorporates lots of manipulatives and games to make math fun!  The lessons sometimes can be lengthy so for the sake of time we switched to Singapore this year for Red.  


The first few lessons involve recognizing quantities using fingers, beads, and tally sticks.  Tom Thumb and I ran threw the first few lessons with no problem, and we were having a great time to boot!  He loves building things with the tally sticks (AKA popscicle sticks) when we're not using them.  We enjoyed playing Memory with the quantity cards the most.  We took the stack of tally stick and bead cards (they go up to 10), laid them all face down, and matched up.  Here's an example of what those cards look like.  I made these myself from card stock by copying some appendix pages in the lesson book.  Each of these cards represent the quantity 9.

  Then, we applied what we learned by entering quantities on the abacus.

Who knew we could have such a great time doing math?  

I'm betting that this won't be a one day thing.  :-)

Book Review: Leap of Faith by Queen Noor

My book club's selection for October was Leap of Faith by Jordan's Queen Noor.  I wasn't really sure what to expect.  I remember hearing her name before, but that's about it.  After finishing up A Tale of Two Cities, I plowed through this book in record time.


Queen Noor (Lisa Halaby was her birth name) was born in the United States.  Her father was the head of the FAA under JFK, and she went on to become part of the first co-ed graduating class at Princeton University.  After graduating with a degree in architecture and urban planning, she went on to work for a firm in Tehran.  Due to her father's government connections, she met many dignitaries including Jordan's King Hussein.  King Hussein's 3rd wife had recently died in a helicopter crash, leaving him with three children under the age of 5.  Their whirlwind courtship included the children, and upon their marriage she took on the name Noor Al Hussein, meaning "the light of Hussein."  A large portion of the book chronicles the political upheaval that occurred in the Middle East during the 1980s and 1990s, including Desert Storm.  The book then takes us through King Hussein's battle with cancer and ultimately his death in 1999.


I enjoyed this book.  I thought it was a good mix of the history of the region and personal anecdotes.  I especially enjoyed hearing the stories that humanized the Queen---like their constant tardiness.  I found a story of them being late for a meeting with the British royal family especially comical.  They were so late that they completely missed lunch and arrived in time for afternoon tea.  Queen Noor was so hungry that she took extra tea sandwiches and then even ate some of the vegetables out of the royals' garden while touring the palace grounds!  There was also a funny tale of how their family dog would often swim in front of their vacation home and have near misses with Israeli gun boats.  The dog would swim close to the Israeli border, and as the gunboats approached the King would speed out in their boat and pick the dog up.


I was most intrigued with the history of the region.  I had no idea that the concept of creating the nation of Israel pre-dated World War II.  I also had very little understanding of the level of bitterness the founding of Israel created in the Palestinians.  I am very sympathetic to the discrimination and the pain the Jews have experienced.  On the other hand, the idea of being forced out of my home and off my land to resettle elsewhere and have someone else move in because some other far off countries decided it was a good idea---wow.  Yes, I think I would be angry.


While I found the book very interesting, the majority of my book club that met last night disliked the book.  The consensus was that they were hoping for more memoir and less political history of the region.  I understood their point of view, but I also understand that Queen Noor is still part of the Jordan political scene (her stepson is the current king) and needs to protect her country's interests and pride.  I guess my expectations for how much would be revealed was lower.  In addition, they felt it was very one sided.  I thought --- of course it is!  She's defending her husband's legacy!


I think I also felt different because I was ignorant about the time period covered because of my age (I was a child and teenager during the events in the book).  I feel by reading the book I really learned quite a bit about the Middle East and why they are so leery of the United States.  One instance that really shocked me was when the U.S. wanted King Hussein to change the location of where he signed their peace agreement with Israel from a city of the border between the two countries to the White House.  King Hussein strongly felt it should be signed in his country.  To get him to sign the peace agreement at the White House, the U.S. forgave a $700 million (you read that right --- $700 MILLION) debt that Jordan owed and gave Jordan a fleet of fighter jets.  The debt forgiveness and jets were passed in the middle of the night attached to an agriculture bill while C-SPAN wasn't filming.  Obviously, the King took the deal.  The whole episode made me feel even more uncomfortable about my country's involvement in Middle Eastern politics.


The bottom line is Leap of Faith is an interesting read.  If you go into it knowing that you're going to get a lot of political history and not so much memoir, you'll be just fine.

Look it's a flutterby...I mean butterfly!

One of our favorite Halloween traditions is trick or treating at a local history attraction called Greenfield Village.  This year was our 6th year and the kids love it!  You walk the pumpkin lined streets of the village that Henry Ford created from historically significant buildings, meet costumed presenters, and get treats on the way.  

This year Red decided to be a rainbow butterfly, while Tom Thumb told us he wanted to wear his dragon costume from last year again.  For Red's costume, I bought some rainbow wings on eBay and we attached some antenna made of glittery pipe cleaners to a princess headband she already had.  The one thing she really wanted though was to have her face painted.  After watching a few You Tube videos on butterfly face painting (isn't You Tube amazing?), I felt confident enough to give it a shot.  Here are the results:

She insisted that I be the mama butterfly so here's the baby and the mama!

Mama and baby posing in front of the house

At the last minute, Tom Thumb decided to be a train engineer instead!

A wizard at the Pixie Stix station

Most of the pumpkins are intricately carved, but this one was just a square.  Tom Thumb insisted that I take a picture of it anyway.

Red and Red Ridinghood

Red's favorite part --- the dancing skeletons!

The Cobbler and Tom Thumb

Me and the Halloween Centurion

The funniest time of the night was when we went through the treat station sponsored by McDonald's.  Ronald McDonald was there interacting with the kids.  He approached Red and said, "Look-it's a flutterby. I mean butterfly!" And then he turned to Tom Thumb who was riding in his stroller pushed by the Cobbler and said, "Hey, are you going to let him push you around like that?" Tom Thumb smiled and said, "Yes!"


We have three more parties to go to between now and the 31st, but in the meantime---

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL!