I'm a huge sucker for chapter books. Often, I don't know who enjoys the books more, me or the kids listening.
I've teamed up with FrontGate Media as a reviewer and I've reviewed some great books and DVDs. This time they sent a chapter book....Alleluia!!
Young Whit & the Traitor's Treasure by Phil Lollar & Dave Arnold
Adventures in Odyssey is a popular Christian radio program and now John Avery Whittaker has made his way to the pages of this first in the series historical mystery. Although the back book cover recommends this book for 10+, my 10, 6, and 5 year olds are all enjoying the story.
More important though, is that I'm enjoying it because let's face it, come bedtime story time if the book is a dud I'm going to nod off and start making up sentences not even written on the pages. You've done that, too, right?
FrontGate Media is giving away multiple copies so be sure to click over there and enter to win.
Enter to win here. Of course, if you don't win or would like to score yourself a copy today, you can click over to Amazon. If you'd prefer it's also available at Focus On the Family.
Stray papers and well-used workbooks, hand drawn maps and piles of literature. The school desks are in need of a serious going over. Even though, I just received our first 2017-18 curriculum order from Teaching Textbooks. That was all I needed to start thinking about posting our full homeschool curriculum plan for this coming school year.
Peter turned 5 in December and showed a number of reading readiness signs so we began with All About Reading Level 1 in January. He's been watching his older siblings "do school" for years and is always asking to "do school". That's how it is with homeschool, the kids' natural curiosity leads to learning and then all of a sudden we're "doing school".
Kindergarten is NOT a big deal in our homeschool. There's no hoopla about the first day of school. Buying glue sticks and markers doesn't mark any special day for us.
Although the learning process is natural and Peter's been doing plenty of Kindergarten work already, he will officially be in Kindergarten this year. Over the years I've found that assigning our children to a grade makes it much easier for them when people ask them about school.
I never assigned grades to our oldest three children when they were in elementary school, but that made for many condescending glares by onlookers. I remember one time in particular; we were at a grocery store mid-morning when the cashier asked, "Aren't you kids supposed to be in school?" I quickly remarked, "We homeschool." Looking at Emily, Nick, and Amber she said, "Oh, what grades are you kids in?" They all gave her a blank stare, shifted back and forth and then looked at me. I stuttered and stammered through an attempt to explain in 30 seconds or less why I felt grading was unnecessary and how a child's natural curiosity will always keep them moving forward on the learning curve. Blah, blah, blah!
I still agree with my old self and I'm rarely one to comply with the norm, but for my children's sake, I make a big deal about what grade they are in so we never have to experience that again.
That was a long intro for a simple run down of the plans I have for Peter this year. First off, Joseph, Peter and Maria often do school together. Or at least I attempt to have them all together. Life gets crazy, kids get crazy and sometimes my perfectly scripted plans go awry.
Reading Road Maps - read all Kinder level books and discuss plot and type of conflict.
What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know - read through all chapters with Peter and supplement with suggested books and music CDs.
Historical DVDs and books will be added according to topics in What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know
Tell Me About the Catholic Faith - we used this two years ago, but then didn't touch it at all this last year. I really like the free printables that Lacey from Catholic Icing has available. We'll pick up where we left off with plans to complete the full book this year.
That will make for a full Kindergarten year. Up next, I'll be detailing Joseph's 3rd grade plans.
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It's no surprise that as homeschoolers books often take center stage. We use tons of books for school - textbooks, atlases, living books, classic literature, biographies - and so many more.
I love reading about what others are reading. I get so many good ideas for future reading, so I thought I would share our most recent book picks. Maybe you'll find something new for your summer reading.
Amber is always reading something. This year I've been assigning historical fiction as part of her history/literature studies, but after fifteen or so historical fiction novels she was ready for something totally different. These Word Cloud Classics are beautiful books with faux leather softcovers embossed with book quotes. They are sized nicely for travel, too, easily fitting into a purse. Of the three or four we own, Amber chose Peter Pan for her last assigned reading of the school year.
These books are so lovely and would make great gifts for young people who enjoy classic literature.
She also reads for fun. She enjoyed this book and grabbed another of the author's books at our next library visit.
Now Sam is not a strong reader. He does not read for fun; he reads because I make him. He reads because I read to him. The Incredible Journey Books are meant for ages 7-11. Sam's 12. He finds these books very easy reading, but still enjoys the stories. I chose this series to correlate with his Geography studies. Each book takes the reader to a new destination: Caymen Islands, Mexico, African Desert, and more. Sam labeled a world map as he read these books - a great addition to his formal Geography studies.
He also reads and rereads his PULL magazines. His current high speed sport of choice is BMX racing.
Joseph is making noticeable progress in his reading this year. We've been especially good with daily reading lessons which is making a huge difference. He's still working through All About Reading Level 1. I've been bribing him with chocolate to read using the notecard method described in this post. He's also become very adept at reading Margaret Hillert's Beginning to Read books. He's having an easy time picking up the dolch sight words since he's so visual in his learning. His absolute favorite is Not I, Not I.
I should really do a video of him reading the book. He's just so sweet (when he wants to be).
There's so much noise around this place that a few months ago I started reading to the little kids on my bed. They love being able to cuddle up in mom and dad's bed, especially if good books are involved. Our latest chapter books were Sam the Man and the Chicken Plan and Sam the Man and the Rutabaga Plan. Peter and Maria absolutely adored these books. Multiple times a day they asked for me to read more.
If you have a budding backyard farmer they are sure to love these stories. They made for great read alouds, too.
I enjoy a good memoir and Kelly Corrigan's The Middle Place did not disappoint. It was a quick and enjoyable read. Laugh out loud moments interspersed with head nodding interspersed with a few tears. The general story: a woman with breast cancer who adores her father, who also gets cancer, bares her soul. Other than being a woman, wife, and mother our lives are not parallel, but the story is still very relatable.
I added her other two books to my summer reading list.
So that's what we're reading now or at least within the last few weeks.
Have you read any books lately that are must reads? I'd love to know because my "Read Next" list isn't nearly long enough. Hah!
When I'm researching a new curriculum option I like to see how other families are actually using the product. Do they use it exactly as is? Or do they tweak it to meet their needs?
I tweak everything!!! For one, Joseph does not fit into any box. In some areas his skills are around grade level, yet in other areas he has substantial delays. Homeschooling is the perfect solution to meeting his wide range of needs.
Today I'd like to share A Day With All About Reading.
Joseph (Down syndrome, age 8) is working through Level 1. Progress is slow, but consistent. He's on lesson 16. And we've been at this for well over a school year. I spend a lot of time on the Fluency Practice pages and the word flashcards. Let's say one lesson takes us 6 school days to complete, I still start each day with the green word flashcards. It's become a habit and if I try to start instruction any other way, Joe gets grumpy and wants the fwashcards. I also add in sight word reading lessons between each All About Reading lesson.
Most lessons have activity pages to go with, such as this one. He just learned the /th/ sound and this activity page has him cut out and color (if desired) fried eggs, then place them in a pan and flip them to read. I don't usually have Joe color the pages, but I thought it would be a good lesson in following directions and perseverance to have him use a highlighter to color in each yolk. I gave him explicit directions to color in the entire yolk without getting any yolk on his egg white. While he worked hard at this, I spent time reading books to Peter and Maria.
I put three eggs at a time in the pan, he flipped them and read the /th/ word. The activity pages in All About Reading are simple, fun, and effective practice.
I have a super fun idea to get your kids to practice reading and develop fluency.
Whenever our niece comes to visit, she has a poem to read to us. Her assignment is to read it and have people sign that they listened to her.
Peter is also working through Level 1 - we just started some time in the late fall. He's really good at reading the flashcards, but needs a lot of practice with fluency. Every other lesson of All About Reading has the student read from the phonics reader. One time through the story isn't enough. He's pretty slow and choppy and the meaning of the story is lost. So, I thought about our niece's assignment and adapted it to our homeschool.
I wrote the name of the story on the notecard and then numbered it 1-6. I told him he had to read the story to 6 people and then I would give him a treat. I purchased a giant bag of candy for him to pick from.
It's working like a dream. The first time he reads the story I sign, so then he only has to get 5 other people to listen and sign, but he can't double up. Each person to sign has to = a reading.
Emily's home on spring break - Peter's reading to her while she folds laundry.
Peter reads "The Sad Hog" to Maria.
Peter reads it again to Sam.
Here's a look at his notecard with signatures. I purchased some chocolate, too, so next time Joseph has a phonics reader lesson I'll be using this fluency practice technique with him, too.
All About Reading has been a winner for our family. Do you have questions about this or other levels? Just ask in the comments.
All About Learning Press is always offering new and exciting free games and other learning activities. Here's a fun one for practicing compound words.
Find musical DVDs to help him learn math facts, states, etc. - ✔
Sit with him for endless hours in the bathroom while working on potty training. - ✔
Teach him how to butter his own bread. - ✔
You'd do these for any of your kids right? The difference when dealing with a special needs child is that often times the first thing tried doesn't work. Or the second. Or the third. Usually around the 4th or 5th try is when I finally find something that works. I hope my trial and error process provides you with more insight to help you know where to start.
For any homeschooling parent, especially if you are starting from the beginning, teaching your child to read is the skill that requires the most of your time.
Over the years I've used many different reading programs. I've purchased ready to go curriculum. I've printed and printed and printed phonics worksheets and mini books. I've spent my Dollar Tree budget on workbooks worth exactly what I paid. I've bought my share of early readers. Oh, how I despise most early readers. Some have worked, others not so much. I'll share two of my favorite series later in this post.
Here's what I'm using to teach Joseph (with Down syndrome) to read today. I say today, because I do change things up a bit through the school year depending on what's working and whether I find something new I'd like to try. However, I have no plans on changing because the following two reading tactics are working quite well for us.
This is the phonics component to Joe's reading program. It's really the spine, the meat, the backbone to how I'm teaching Joe to read. Phonics play an important part in reading, even for kiddos with special needs. I've read in numerous places how kids with Down syndrome can only learn to read through sight reading. That's false and short sighted because really, are you going to make flashcards for every word in the dictionary? Because that's what sight reading means - memorizing and learning to recognize words immediately.
Phonics is a tool for readers. A tool to help them sound out a word using very specific rules relating to letter combinations. And I love All About Reading!
It takes you through step by step using a sequence that makes sense. Each step is scripted, which at first (if you haven't used a scripted curriculum) feels fake and slow. But once you pick up on the flow and script style, it's really easy to be natural and still follow the script.
Letter sounds come easy to Joe, but the blending of letters together to read a word is a slow process. He definitely gets the process. It's just his lips don't always want to move into the letter sound shapes quickly. Say the word fun. Look at yourself in the mirror as you say it slowly. Your lips have to make 3 different shapes. Then in order to say the word fast you have to be able to move your lips and tongue quickly. That's where people with Down syndrome often struggle. The brain power is there! The necessary facial control is sometimes difficult.
All About Reading lessons include a section called Fluency Practice. It's usually 1-3 pages of words, phrases, and sentences for your child to read to increase their reading speed. Speed is important for reading comprehension. As we've progressed through the lessons the Fluency pages are our least favorite part because they take a long, loooong, looooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnng time to get through. Like Lesson 10 took over a month.
Looking at a whole page of sentences was overwhelming even if I covered up everything except what he was reading. He just knew it was never ending. So I grabbed a yellow legal pad, turned it sideways and started writing out the sentences word by word for Joe to read, and we haven't turned back. It's working just as I had hoped.
The key to this style of fluency practice is to write one word at a time.
The 2nd key is to adjust the sentences so there's lots of repetition. See my samples below. In the first example the sentences are the same length; I just changed up a word or two in each sentence. Reading the same words over and over again helps with instant recognition.
Lesson 10 Sentences
Lesson 12 Sentences - definitely harder than lesson 10.
Once the full sentence is written I let Joe read it again pointing on his own. Then a smiley face and I start writing the next sentence having him read each word as I write it. Once the page is full, we're done for the day.
----------------------------------Edited 4-13-18------------------------------------
Since this blog post I started a YouTube channel. For a look at All About Reading Level 1 and how I customize it to make it work best for Joseph check out the video.
#2
Like I said earlier, I've bought my fair share of early readers. We've stuffed our library bag, too. I'm hard to please when it comes to those early readers. Some readers have advanced words. We checked out one Level Pre-Primer from the library with the words tornado and lightning. Clearly, those are not pre-primer words. Some are simply stupid.
Thankfully, I ran across Margaret Hillert's "Beginning to Read" books. Most of the books are familiar stories, simplified to only include words off the Dolch word list. The Dolch word list includes 220 of the most often used words in books, textbooks, newspapers, etc. Hillert's books are repetitive throughout and list the words used in the back of the book. Her simplest books use just over 30 different words.
Original copyright hardcovers
New updated versions. These include excellent additional literacy activities. The rhyming activity is really helping Joe with his rhyming.
Books we've read according to number of words
34 - The Three Little Pigs
36 - The Three Goats
43 - The Yellow Boat
44 - Cinderella at the Ball
45 - The Three Bears
49 - A House For Little Red
58 - The Purple Pussycat
61 - Four Good Friends
61 - Dear Dragon Goes to the Library
67 - It's St. Patrick's Day, Dear Dragon
69 - Little Red Riding Hood
72 - Pinocchio
This is just a handful of her books. Amazon has many, many more, but they are pricey. Buying used is probably a good option. Here's another option for purchasing used copies.
Here's how we use the Beginning to Read books.
Day 1. I read aloud the story a couple of times during Morning Time or whenever time permits.
Day 2. I read the title, then have Joe read the title from the title page. I read the first few pages, then have him read a sentence or two. I read a few more pages, then have him read a sentence or two. This continues till the end.
Day 3. I point, he reads. If he gets stuck on a non-phonetic word (true sight word) I simply tell him the word and he keeps reading. If he gets stuck on a phonetic word, I have him sound it out and go on.
Day 4. Repeat of Day 3.
Day 5. I quiz him on the words using homemade flashcards. I write each word on a card, then set out 12 in front of him. I say a word, he finds it and holds it. Each time he finds a word, I replace it with another card so there are always 12 cards in front of him. Once all cards have been picked up he gets a reward, usually a hug, high 5 or animal cracker.
Day 6. Same as Day 5, except I put out 16-20 cards at a time.
Day 7. Joe holds the pile, reads a card, then hands it to me. Once I have all the cards (which I've done nothing to earn them) he congratulates me. He's so funny.
Writing out the flashcards doesn't take much time because the words are used in multiple stories so I just reuse them over and over.
He also reads the book to himself during afternoon quiet time. At this time, I don't correct him if I hear a wrong word. I let him read it any way he chooses as long as he's reading quietly. I want him to simply enjoy books.
Thanks for reading; that was a lot of information. Do you have other questions about teaching reading to beginners? I'd love to help. Please leave a comment here at the blog or at the Camp Homeschool Facebook page.
