Igniting a Love for Written Words

My kids are perfect.
Yeah, I know, every mother says that.
But really.
I have four perfect kids.

Perfect they are. at. being. kids.

They love to play. In fact, currently, it is their life aim.

They do what they love 100%. And, what they don't love, like work, well, that they do at a minimum, with just enough effort to get by.

When my children, who sometimes have the perception that school is work, start a day with the single goal of getting this done so they can go play, it doesn't end well.

I get frustrated.
They get frustrated when I make them redo sloppy, rushed work riddled with mistakes.

It is certainly not a blissful homeschool moment.

School is not, can not, always be fun and games.

There is work involved.
Hard work.

Quite frankly, I want my children to learn to do hard work, to put forth 100% effort when work is involved. They need to have determination and grit. I want them to succeed and not just with an "I made it, got that done" attitude. No, I want them to flourish.

So, when one of my daughters, who happens to struggle with motivation to read books, latched onto audio books, I was thrilled. We sought titles we both liked, and visited the library frequently to restock our supply. In this way, she 'read' and 'reread' many good books. Her comprehension skills and vocabulary increased.

During lessons, she still was required to read words from actual books. She needed to continue progressing in actual reading and decoding. However, the audio books offered us common ground for recreational reading.

After a few years of audio books, my husband and I knew we needed to increase her time reading actual words, rather than relying heavily on audio books.

We began by introducing her to a few new-to-her series of books. For reluctant page turners, book series offer a safe and enjoyable way to keep them coming back to books. Finding a series with vocab and sentence structure which did not challenger her, lent itself to greater success. After all, we weren't using these books to improve her reading skills, we were trying to ignite a love of reading, not just a love for a great story, though that is important, as well. {Our favorite for her is Imagination Station, a series from Adventures in Odyssey.}

Another motivator we utilized was picture books. Asking her to read picture books to her younger brother offered her a valid purpose, and did not in any way make her feel babyish for still reading picture books.

However, the greatest incentive arrived this past Christmas in the form of a Kindle. After downloading many books {mostly free versions!} she has been hooked.

Last night at dinner, after using the Kindle for just one day, she informed me she had read the first chapter of Little Women, the first chapter of James, and the first chapter in a Boxcar children book. Then, she asked me to find a Shakespeare play for her. Her sister's love of the Bard is wearing off on her, I think. {This is the one I downloaded for her as she is quite familiar with the storyline and characters.}

After I commented on her progress, she casually remarked, "Just put it on my Kindle, I'll read it."

{Music to my ears!} So, I did and will.



I should note, we still support and encourage her to listen to audio books. For Christmas, we got her The Cat of Bubastes, read by Jim Weiss.

What They Are Reading Now

Seems like this has become an annual tradition. At the start of a new calendar year, I share what the children are reading for their lessons. {The past two years of reading lists are found here: 2012 and 2013.}

Without further ado, here are the books our children have started reading this new year.

Our ninth grader has started The Pearl, by John Steinbeck and The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis, accompanied by this Progeny Press Literature Guide.

Our daughters will be using literature guides as well. For our seventh grader, she has begun Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury with this Veritas Press Comprehension Guide. The Cricket in Times Square is a family favorite. Our fifth grader will read through it while using an accompanying Progeny Press Study Guide.

Our youngest, who is in first grade, is reading through the Big Book of Farmyard Tales, one story at a time. Since I read Peter Pan to our older children years ago, I decided to read it with my youngest, just he and I.

Ox-Cart Man Extension Activity

Our youngest is enjoying a wide variety of picture books each week of his first grade year. Most of these books we have had for years. A good portion of them are widely recommended. The Ox-Cart Man is one. A sweet poem valuing hard work and economizing by Donald Hall set to the folk art illustrations of Barbara Cooney make for a lovely book to share with any youngster.

The book itself can easily stand on its own as a story. You don't really need to add anything to it. In fact, I wasn't going to. I was simply going to have my child orally narrate or answer a few comprehension questions after the reading. Then, we would move on. However, this day, we moved onto a lesson in grammar. This lesson happened to be on the months of the year. Having been through this grammar book several (OK, three) times before, I knew we would eventually be covering the seasons as well. This all led to an inspiration and impromptu creation. Well, first I combed the internet for what I wanted. Why re-invent the wheel, eh?

After a brief search, I couldn't find just what I wanted. {I did find this great resource for teaching the book, though.} I ended up creating a simple worksheet. The worksheet is a chart with four rows, one for each season. The months are listed under each season. {Technically, some months overlap two season, but for simplicity, I included those months in the season in which the majority of the days occur.}

The idea was for my child to use the book which clearly states the families' activities throughout the year during various months and seasons and chart these on the worksheet. To make it easier for my first grader, I included free clip art depicting many of the activities. He completed the chart on his own.

It turned out to be a great cross-curricula activity!

Literary Pumpkins: Pilgrim's Progress

She wanted to bring a decorated pumpkin to the AWANA Pumpkin Night.

Typically we do 'literary pumpkins' which depict a scene or character of a book recently read. This time, however, my daughter, who is in fifth grade, decided to do a scene from a book she read last year. {Apparently, Mary Poppins and Heidi offered no inspiration for pumpkin included scenes.}

Using one of last year's literary selections, my daughter depicted a scene from Dangerous Journey, a condensed version of Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan.

Strapped to his back, the pumpkin is Christian's burden. The rest of the scene was easily assembled with materials we had on hand. {Boy doll and cross stand upright with the help of plastic coated twist ties salvaged from packaged toys. Base is constructed from a shoe box.}

Shakespeare Resources and Lesson Ideas

When my daughter chose Shakespeare as her birthday party theme, I was thrilled. I thought there would be lots of ideas and plans available. Since her birthday party was to be postponed until after the holiday season, I decided to wait until after Christmas to start planning. After all, I assumed there was a plethora of information and ideas available. There was no hurry, right?

Alas, I was wrong, quite wrong. Apparently, not many young girls have a Shakespeare themed birthday party. I had to start from square one with only a few weeks to plan her party.

However, the internet is bursting with information about Shakespeare, his works, and the time period in which he lived. I researched it all. What follows are websites and resources which I thought would be great resources for anyone planning a lesson on Shakespeare.


Online Resources

Complete Works of Shakespeare found here

Language {articles and helps}

• an article on Elizabethan language
• Speak Like Shakespeare
• Talk Like Shakespeare

Quotes

• Shakespeare Quotes

Food {articles and recipes}

• food from the 1500's
• English food from the 1600's
• Renaissance foods
• Renaissance cooking and recipes
• cook book from 1591 called A Book of Cookrye

Clothing

• video on how to make clothing {warning, it is funny}
• article on how to make clothing of the time period
• sewing hats
• alternative directions on sewing hats
• suggested supplies and fabrics for hats
• place to purchase hats
• how to make a jester hat from craft foam
• how to make a jester hat from construction paper

Games of Shakespeare's time found here

Articles and Activities for Kids

• from Cricket: free articles about Shakespeare 
• from free-for-kids: Shakespeare word games
• from Activity Village: coloring pages
• from Crayola: coloring page
• free printable Globe Theatre paper model

Teacher Resources

• Activity Village has free printables for notebooking
• life and times of Shakespeare with free power point presentations {You will have to poke around this site as some of it needs updated links}
• short written biography found here
• A Day with William Shakespeare can be accessed here
• brief video biography found here
• a link to Shakespeare's Globe online resource listing, lots to peruse for the serious student

Books and Videos {we found most at our local library}

Biographies and Nonfiction Resources

• Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare, by Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema
• Who Was William Shakespeare, by Celeste Mannis
• William Shakespeare and the Globe, by Aliki
• Shakespeare and Macbeth: The Story Behind the Play, by Stewart Ross
• Shakespeare's Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook, by Francine Segan
• Shakespeare for Kids: His Life and Times, by Colleen Aagesen

Works

• The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works, General Editors Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor
• Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children, edited by Edith Nesbit
• Tales from Shakespeare, retold by Charles and Mary Lamb
• audio retelling Shakespeare for Children, by Jim Weiss

Picture Books of Plays

• The Tempest, retold by Ann Keay Beneduce
• William Shakespeare's Macbeth, retold by Bruce Coville
• William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, retold by Bruce Coville
• William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, retold by Bruce Coville
• William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, retold by Bruce Coville
• William Shakespeare's Hamlet, retold by Bruce Coville
• William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, retold by Bruce Coville

Videos of Plays

• BBC & Time Life Films: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - {We borrowed Twelfth Night}

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Moby Dick Lesson Ideas and Resources

It wasn't long until my six year old started picking out books about Moby Dick. To be completely truthful he picked up the first book because he thought it was about Jonah. He was quite disappointed to find out it wasn't, but gave the book a try anyway. After his first time through with his older sister reading, he was hooked. It didn't hurt that his brother had read Moby Dick last year.

Since he is interested, I thought I'd start looking for some lesson ideas and resources. What I have found is listed below.


Books

• Moby Dick: Chasing the Great White Whale, by Eric A. Kimmel (picture book)
• Moby Dick: Based on the Novel by Herman Melville, retold by Lew Sayre Schwartz (comic books style)
• Moby Dick, by Henry Melville (junior classic version, less than 200 pages)
• Moby Dick, Henry Melville  (actual 700+ page book)
• Moby Dick, by Henry Melville (read it online at The Literature Network)

Whale Activities for Younger Kids

• Make a stuffed paper bag whale following these instructions.
• Or, try making this whale from a white tube sock.
• Rather make a whale from paper? Instructions on an origami whale are found here.
• Color one of these whale picture pages.
• Try this free game called Whale Word Match by Learning Games for Kids.

On Line Free Lesson Plans for Older Kids

• The Great Book Foundation offers a synopsis of the novel and discussion questions here.
• Discovery Education offers two free lesson plans for high schoolers reading Moby Dick. The first is a literature guide with journaling activities. It is found here. The second centers on whether Captain Ahab was a tragic hero or not. The free lesson plan includes vocabulary and suggestions for debate. You can find it here. 

Related Post
Ships, Navigation, and Whaling

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A Perfect Wizard?

Our local library recently rearranged their shelves in the children's library room, which has made finding certain favorite books harder.  On the other hand, the children and I are discovering new gems every visit. 

The new biography section lines the left back wall.  Typically, I comb through those shelves looking for whomever we are studying in history.  I was quickly scanning the titles when I noticed The Perfect Wizard.  Who is that about? I thought.  Pulling it off the shelf I realized the book was about Hans Christian Andersen a beloved fairy tale writer of ours.  The library also had the book on audio, and I picked that us as well. (In case our youngest wanted to hear the book again and again.)  The library also had a picture book containing eleven fairy tales written by Hans Christian Andersen.  With illustrations by Lizbeth Zwerger, I had to pick it up too. 

Over lunch, one day, I read the book aloud to the children.  They were enthralled as much as I was.  Andersen did not lead a cushy life.  Instead, it was one of suffering and perseverance.  When I finished the short biography, I casually mentioned the book compiled and illustrated by Zwerger.  My daughters immediately scooped it up, took it upstairs to read, and I haven't seen it since.


Linked to Read Aloud Thursday at Hope Is the Word

The Week Before School 'Officially' Starts

...a weekly wrap up

We have had a great last week of summer break!  Though I wouldn't be honest, if I didn't add that I am sad to see our summer break end.  We will spend next week slowly easing back into our school schedule.  Which means, we'll probably do half days of academics and half days of 'phys ed' - ya know, the kind that requires a pool. {wink, wink}

1.  Our free* field trip to Brandywine River Museum to see Summer Sojourns: Art on Holiday.  Though it was a wonderful exhibit, the boys like the illustrative works of Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth better.  Our oldest son has a copy of Treasure Island which features Wyeth's illustrations, and the boys had fun pointing out all the pictures.  The girls liked Andrew Wyeth's Night Sleeper and Master Bedroom, both of which feature his dog napping.  We decided on a 4" by 6" picture postcard of Portrait of Pig, by James Wyeth (original is 48" by 84" - it is huge!) to send to a five year old child we sponsor through Compassion.  It was my daughter's favorite picture when she was five.

{*On Sundays, before noon, there is free admittance.}

2.  Tuesdays, in August, are dollar days at the Natural History Museum.  I hope to share more about our trip sometime next week.

3.  Monday, we were at the library so our youngest, who had finished 30 hours of reading/being read to, could get his bag.  Now, he has one just like his older siblings!

4.  Our two older children finished Andy Stanley's Five Things God Uses to Grow Your Faith video series with my husband facilitating their learning.  My husband and I had been through the materials earlier this summer and wanted to share it with our older children. 

5.  I have fond memories of using sign language as a child.  My second grade teacher taught us the alphabet, and I loved spelling words on my fingers.  {She also taught us Braille, but I completely forgot that.}  Later, when my children first began to speak, I taught them a few simple signs for 'more,' 'please,' and 'thank you.'  We also used signs for 'yes' and 'no.'  As they aged, we have gotten away from using any sign language.  Truthfully, I miss it.  So when I saw a few resources at the library for teaching sign language, I borrowed them.  This past week, all four children watched Signing Time! Practice Time, Level 1 ABCs and 123s as a brief, but thorough introduction to sign language.  We are now spelling things and counting with our fingers.  It also brought back memories of the simple words we signed when they were toddlers.  My eleven year old daughter was signing 'more' and 'please.'  Which led my oldest son to sign 'thank you.'  Neither had signed those words for more than eight years! 

6.  With the Olympics being aired everyday this week, we were, of course, watching!  We picked up Field Events in Action, by Bobbie Kalman and Queen of the Track: Alice Coachman, Olympic High-Jump Champion, by Heather Lang at the library to go along with this past week's Olympic obsession track and field. {My small confession: I love the Olympics! In fact, we were almost late to church because I was watching the marathon...ahem.}

7.  And, because we keep returning to Shakespeare, we listened to Greathall Productions, Inc. Shakespeare for Children, as told by Jim Weiss.  This CD contained "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Taming of the Shrew."  Oh, how the children and I laughed!  {"The Taming of the Shrew" has become my new Shakespeare favorite.}

8.  We spent most of the afternoons beside in the pool. 
Hot temperatures + Hazy skies + Humid air = Pool {for our family!}
The children also tried speaking under water with sign language (#5).  What fun to play and learn!

Before I return to cleaning the house and preparing the school room for our official start next week, I want to share two quotes from signs we passed on the way to the art museum...

One was in front of a church.  On it, we read:

 "Experts built the Titanic, Amateur's built the Ark"

The other sign was in front of a local high school.  It declared:

"Read a BOOK, not fb or twitter."

Both made me laugh, and hopefully you share the humor.
Happy Friday!


Find more weekly wrap-ups at:

Finishing Their Reading Lists

It's official!  Yesterday, we have completed 180 days of school!  With the end of their school year, comes the finishing of our children's required reading lists.  Of course, our children will read over the summer, and we will encourage them to read a variety of books.  However, we do not require specific books be read over the summer months.  In other words, there is no summer reading list in our homeschool.

Sometime mid-year, I shared a few books my children were reading at the time.  Today, I wanted to share what books they finished this school year reading.  Only the three older children are able to read fluently.  So, I have only included the titles they recently finished.

Our oldest son wrapped up Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens.  He thought it was 'alright.'  He like A Christmas Carol better which he read a couple years ago.

Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery was our oldest daughter's final book to read.  She also completed an accompanying literature guide published by Veritas Press.  She was already familiar with Anne through a beginner reading book she had read a few years ago.  All in all, my daughter loved Anne.  Who wouldn't?  {OK, I am biased on this matter.}

Our younger daughter finished The Bears on Hemlock Mountain, by Alice Dalgliesh yesterday.  She liked the main character's adventure of traveling over the mountain twice.  I liked when he hid under the big iron pot!

Accompanying Activities for Dangerous Journey, Grades 4-6 {Free Download}

Many a months ago, I remarked that I wanted to share some of the literary activities I had created to use with our children.  This is the first one.

While our oldest son read Dangerous Journey: The Story of Pilgrim's Progress, Oliver Hunkin, I created all the activities I now present to you.  A few years later, our oldest daughter completed them.  During the next school year another child of ours will delve into the pages of Dangerous Journey and will work through these activities, as well.  Today, I have made them available to you.  Feel free to download the document and print it for your own use. 

Accompanying Activities for Dangerous Journey

to use with 4th through 6th graders

Reading Aloud Fairy Tales

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. 

If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."

~ Albert Einstein

Don't you just love that quote by Einstein?  Though I don't hold stock in it completely, I do know it can be fun to read fairy tales to children. 

Lately, I have been reading a few more fairy tales to our younger children.  The older have perused these picture books on their own.  {All the books mentioned in this post were found at our local library.}

The top three favorites in our house, over the past three weeks, have been:

1. Jack and the Bean Stalk - We found two versions at our library.  The first version was retold by Ann Keay Beneduce and the second was retold by Jonh Cech.  Each tell the tale in a slightly different manner, but the children liked them both.  A young boy sneaking by a giant more than once delighted our youngest. 
2. Rumpelstiltskin - The version we found is yet another fairy tale retold by John Cech.  The children love to revisit this tale of triumph.  Outsmarting the trickster Rumpelstiltskin provides great enjoyment to our young listeners.
3. The Nightingale - Originally written by Hans Christian Andersen, this fairy tale tells of a Chinese emperor who has everything.  He is praised by travelers for his beautiful palace and gardens.  However, each one mentions the beauty of a singing nightingale.  The emperor's jealousy leads to a search and capture of the nightingale.  Onward the story continues through twists and turns that captivated our young listeners.

Related Post:
One of Grimm's Tales in Two Picture Books


Linked to Read Aloud Thursday at Hope Is the Word

Ships, Navigation, and Whaling

This year, our oldest son completed a small unit study on ships, navigation, and whaling.  This unit fit easily into the context of our current colonial America studies, but reached beyond the 1700's into the 1800's. 

For bite sized nonfiction information, he read Ships, by Philip Wilkinson and Whale Port, by Mark Foster. 

Ships, published by Kingfisher, is divided into four main sections: Trade and Discovery, Ships of War, Peopling the World, and Discovering Ships.  Each section has numerous topics displayed in the typical two page spread of this type of book.  The information was just enough to create an interest and determine a course of more in depth study. 

Whale Port is a fun book that follows the fictional town of Tuckanucket from colonial times to contemporary times.  Though the book has elements of imagination, it is seeped with true facts of interest.  The overall effect was the story of whaling through the years.  It was a good book for my son to read after his recent reading of Moby Dick.  {He read this title on his own by his own choice.  Though it was not part of this unit study, it did lend itself well to the theme.}

For a personal example of navigation and shipping, he read Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham.  This biography follows the remarkable life of Nathaniel Bowditch.  Bowditch's determination, perseverance, and diligence are character traits are showcased in this well written book.  If you only want to read one book on navigation, let this be the one.  I highly recommend it.

For more hands on activities and further navigational information, he used Tools of Navigation, by Rachel Dickinson.  This book includes the history, as well as the science, of navigation.  Some of the topics include ancient navigators, explorers, using the stars to navigate, and land exploration. With directions to make your own compass and explanations on contour mapping, the fifteen different activities are applicable and interesting for children and adults. 

Previously read books relating to ships, navigation, and whaling:
All Set Sail, by Armstrong Sperry
Clipper Ship, by Thomas P. Lewis

Developing Reading Comprehension

One of our main goals as parents is to cultivate a love for reading in our children.  It is a great desire, and easy to accomplish, but just as easy to squelch. 

As homeschooling parents who have taught three children to read, we still need to check pronunciation and develop comprehension.    To do so, we have implemented several different methods. 

For pronunciation, we listen to our children read aloud several times a week.  During these read aloud sessions, we also work on speed and elocution for our older children.

Checking comprehension can be a bit more time intensive. 

Sometimes we have the child narrate orally what a chapter or book was about.  This is very easy to do and provides a great opportunity to dialogue about characters, plots, and events. 

Other times, we have the child write either a few sentences or a few paragraphs (depending on their age) about their reading.  This is very similar to the oral narrative, but provides a written component.  Often, our children draw a picture to accompany this written work.

Another way we develop comprehension is through literary guides.  Two we prefer are Veritas Press literature guides and Progeny Press study guides.  Both offer vocabulary, detailed questions, and related projects to accompany a selected book.  We use these guides occasionally for variety. 

Finally, for a few books, I have developed our own comprehension guides.  When I wanted to use a particular book for a specific purpose, I wasn't always able to find a guide.  In these cases, I simply made our own.  I hope to eventually share these short guides with you as free downloads on this site.

The Mitten - A Folktale and Mini Preschool Unit

An old Ukrainian folktale called The Mitten tells of a mitten lost on a cold winter's day.  Slowly, one by one, the animals of the forest climb into the mitten.  Eventually, the mitten, bursting at the seams, can hold no more.  It busts open.  All the animals scatter and the mitten is found, broken into pieces.

We read several versions of the folktale.  Each altered the details slightly, but the main idea remained intact.  Every reading delighted our youngest son.  He laughed as the animals moved and squeezed to get inside the mitten, and laughed harder when the mitten burst open.

Since he enjoyed the folktale so much, I added a few learning activities based on, or related to, the story.

He completed some worksheets and an activity from Enchanted Learning.  Several were focused on reading sight words and recognizing beginning consonant sounds.  Others involved matching and counting.  Then, we made a mitten to reenact the story by stuffing pictures of forest animals inside the mitten.  {The one pictured above is his 'fixed' mitten.} 

Afterward, I pulled out his Winter Pocket Folder that I had made him last year. 

He completed several of the hands on activities like matching colors...

putting numbers in order...

and matching shapes and scenes.

To end this mini preschool unit, we read The Hat, by Jan Brett.  Written as a companion book to The Mitten, the book, The Hat, depicts a little hedgehog who accidentally gets a sock caught on his head.  He tells all the other animals that it is his hat, and the results are comical.

Versions of The Mitten we found at our library:
The Mitten, by Jan Brett
The Mitten, by Alvin Tresselt
The Mitten, by Jim Aylesworth

The Gift of the Magi

One read aloud I wanted to be sure to include this year was The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry.  A story of self sacrifice on the behalf of a beloved is a timeless message, and definitely appropriate for this time of year. 

I searched our library for an illustrated version to better engage my younger children.  One picture book with illustrations by Lisbeth Werger was my only option.  However, this one option proved to be fabulous.  The muted illustrations of pencil drawings and watercolor resonate with the story line.  The underlying sorrow of poverty and somber story line are superbly depicted. 

The story, in this book, is unaltered.  Though some of the vocabulary needed to be explained as I read aloud, it did not hinder the children from understanding and appreciating the plot and broader themes of this short story.  We followed the reading with a brief discussion on O. Henry's concluding sentiments of sacrifice, gifts, and wisdom.   

A Legend and a Folk Tale - Read Alouds

Legends and folk tales are fun to share with children.  Last week, we took a few days and read two.  The first was Tikta'Liktak: An Inuit-Eskimo Legend, retold by James Houston.  Tikta'Liktak leaves home one day in search of food.  Through a series of events, he finds himself adrift on ice at sea.  He successfully makes it to an unihabitated island and survives for many months.  At one point, Tikta'Liktak succumbs to despair.  This part may need to be altered slightly for younger listeners.  Eventually, through creative ingenuity, Tikta'Liktak leaves this island and returns home.  This version is illustrated with black and white drawings.

The second story we read was Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving. We read both the original, unabridged version published by Dover, and a retelling picture book version using modern English called Rip Van Winkle's Return, retold by Eric A. Kimmel.  Both captivated the children.  They loved the tale of Rip falling asleep in the Kaatskill mountains after a game of nine pin.  Only to awake, seemingly 'the next day,' but truly twenty years later.  The picture book by Kimmel strayed only slightly from the original by adding a 'lesson learned' by Rip.  

Out of the two, I believe the children found the comedic affect of Rip Van Winkle more enjoyable than the suspense and drama of Tikta'Liktak.  However, both read alouds offered us a chance to talk about different cultures, time periods, and beliefs.

To find more read aloud selections, visit Amy at Hope Is the Word
for this week's Read-Aloud Thursday link up.

Don Quixote - A Picture Book Version

For history class, we are studying 1400's/1500's to 1850 over the course of this school year.  Typically, our read aloud selections focus on historical accounts, literature, or biographies from this time period.  At times, we will read an unrelated selection, but for the most part, our selections center around our history studies. 

This past week, I found Don Quixote and the Windmills, by Eric A. Kimmel at our local library.  It is picture book retelling a short portion of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's original Don Quixote.  The illustrations are bold and perfect to share with a small group of listeners.  The text is fabulous to read aloud.  It combines suspense and humor.  Our children were delighted, even our oldest who read Adventures of Don Quixote, by Argentina Palacios, earlier this year.



To find out about more read aloud selections, visit Amy at Hope Is the Word
for this week's Read-Aloud Thursday link up.

To Read or Not to Read

Though I find great enjoyment in reading Shakespeare's plays and sonnets, I have shied away from sharing Shakespeare's plays with my younger children in the past.  Since our oldest now reached seventh grade, I thought we ought to read more than the sonnets.  Laying aside my apprehension, we embarked on a mini unit including all the children from preschool through seventh grade. 

To begin, we read through three plays, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet.  Instead of reading the originals, we tried illustrated storybooks of the plays retold by Bruce Coville.  The younger children were enthralled with these read alouds, and they served as a great introduction to the story lines and characters for our older children.  Afterward, the older children sought out more Shakespeare to read.  They tried some of the stories found in Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales From Shakespeare.

For a biography of William Shakespeare, we read Bard of Avon, by Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema.  This is an illustrated text offering a summary of his life, relationships, and work on a level that interested the younger children, but did not overwhelm them. 

For a fun historical fiction account involving Shakespeare, our oldest son read The Shakespeare Stealer, by Gary Blackwood.  It is the first in a three book series about a young orphan boy living in England who works at the Globe Theatre.

All in all, I am glad this year, we chose to study Shakespeare and his works a bit more closely. 


Linking to Read-Aloud Thursday at Hope is the Word.