Hosting a successful book club

Poke around this website long or simply walk through my actual home once and it quickly becomes evident we are avid readers here.  Reading is a part of every day life for each member of this house.  To some it came naturally, to others it has been developed and for others it has at times simply been required :)  Still readers we all are.  

To encourage more reading in my kids and some of their peers I host monthly book clubs in my home.  My kids tried a variety of book clubs before I started hosting.  We found that many book clubs were simply social time with many of the kids having not actually read the book and fewer wanting to actually discuss it with any depth.   These traditional book clubs also tended to be very gender divided both in attendees and book topics. This really bothered Maria who loves fantasy and science fiction books and has good friends of both genders.  She could not find a girls fantasy book club or any book club with peers who also really wanted to dig down and discuss ideas and topics in the books.  So we started one here.

I have led a book club for Maria and several of her friends for over three years now.  I have read so many good books with great kids and have truly enjoyed our conversations and the way we learn together.  Through the years we have had between six and twelve attendees. The age span of our group is four years, when we started the kids ranged in age from 10 to 13 and now they are 11 through 15. Currently we have 12 kids who meet regularly evenly divided between boys and girls. Through the years there have been meetings with one boy and four girls or one girl and five boys.


I also lead a book club for Ciaran and some of his friends.  His group is made up of 6 boys ages 10-12. He just started last summer but the group seems to have developed nicely.  He tried for a co-ed group too but they only found one brave girl to join in the mix and eventually she moved on to other things.  For my son I think the all boy piece works nicely at this age for him, I may try to encourage more co-ed options later as he and his friends get older.  For now though they need the comfort of being just with each other and developing into readers together in a safe place with both they enjoy.


These two book clubs have many similarities.  Both groups meet once a month.  The kids pick the books each month and the older kids actually vote on which books to read and in what order.  Both groups tend to live in the fantasy and science fiction genre. I read the books along with them each month and I lead discussion with both groups.  Both have to have an hour of discussion before they get their hour of social time.

I never realized how easy leading book club was for me until I recently needed to ask some other people to help out and take over a month or two.  When I wrote out some discussion questions or found materials to help support the leaders I discovered how natural this process was for me and how unnatural it can be for others.  It is easy for me because I have done it so long and I know the kids and the patterns of what works and what does not work.  It is easy for me to lead because I am an avid reader and I love talking about books.  It is easy for me because I love teaching literature and I often do it in different ways like through the kids understanding of movies.   So I have decided to share some of my strategies.  There really is no secret formula for a successful book club other than enthusiasm but there are some tips that may make it easier for you.

Find Kids With Similar Reading Interests
This is important, perhaps the most important.  More important than age and gender is the reading habits and interest of the kids involved.  Maria needed to find avid readers, she wanted people who loved fantasy and would not be scared off by the size of the books she enjoys.  She needed to find peers who actually liked reading just for fun and would read series of books over the course of a single month.  In order to do this we sat down together and figured out what she wanted the group to look like and then we wrote a very detailed description of what our book club would look like so people joining us knew what they were getting into.  Then we sent that description out via email to groups and forums we were a part of and to her friends with similar interests.  We found a fairly diverse group of kids who all had the same interest in joining a fantasy book club that would read and discuss big books.  The first book we read was Eragon by Christopher Paolina.  The size and topic was a pretty good filter :)

When Ciaran started he knew he wanted a smaller group.  He wanted action and adventure with some fantasy and science fiction.  He knew Percy Jackson and the Olympians series was his baseline book.  If someone would enjoy that book they would probably have a lot of reading in common and enjoy a book club together.  We wrote up his description that way and reached out to his friends.  They would not be the same book club as Maria and they would read smaller books and only one per month.  Some in his group go on to read the series but we only read and discuss book one together.

So we started with the kids interest and built the book club around it.  We followed "If you build it they will come" and they have and it is quite harmonious.  The kids like reading the same sorts of books and trust each other to pick good selections.  They find new books and they also find new friends.

Let The Kids Pick
Discussion will always be deeper and better if the book came from the kids themselves.  Let them rotate choices between members or have all members suggest a book and then vote on them.  In all the time I have led discussions only once have I picked a book for them to read.  That book went over very well but it was years into our discussions and the kids trusted me by that point to pick something they would all love. Let them pick and be ready to read some diverse things yourself.

Have One Discussion Leader 
We have been to book clubs where the leading responsibility rotates and there are benefits to this as well.  However, I believe our book clubs have lasted so long and been successful because we always meet at the same place and have the same discussion leader.  I read the books alongside the kids.  I do not just read a summary of plot and find discussion questions on the internet, I read it and create my own discussion questions.  There has been one exception to this and the older kids had a grand time making up characters and plot lines to pull one over on me when they realized I had not read the book.  They were creative and cooperating which was fun but I don't think I will skip another book :) 

Having a single leader has the benefit of truly getting to know the kids and the way they discuss and approach books.  Having one leader lets you carry lessons from one book to the next and to build on discussion topics and understanding of literature from session to session.  Having one leader provides insight into the group dynamics and the best discussion strategies for the group. Of course the kids have to like the leader and the leader has to like the kids for it to work  It is similar to having one teacher over the course of a school year, much better than continual substitutes. 


Have Great Discussion Questions
Kids rise to the occasion.  If you ask great questions they will give you great answers.  I have had some of my most recent intellectual discussions with teenagers on the book The Hunger Games.  We have talked about politics, government, children used as soldiers, desensitizing violence, what love really is, and how we could survive ourselves if thrown into life or death situations.  When we discussed the book Ender's Game we talked about governments using children, being forced to grow up too quickly, carrying burdens of the world, deciding who gets to live and who gets to die, and the reality of war games.

Kids are capable of so much more than they are often given credit for.   Ask them tough questions, expect great answers, keep pushing them past their easy first off the cuff answers and you will be rewarded with great discussion.  In addition to the serious questions be sure to ask the fun ones.  Kids reveal so much about themselves answering questions like "What one piece of technology would you bring out of the book into your world?"  or "What character would you want as a best friend?" or even "Which piece of candy would you choose in the Candy Shop Wars?"  Some of the light questions, lead to great discussion as well and help the kids in the group get to know one another. 

Skip the Crafts
Perhaps this is biased because I am sort of the anti-crafter so have little talent in this area.  Still I have found the kids enjoy the discussion much more than doing a craft or hand project along side book discussion.  Crafts and book activities are a lot of prep work for the group leader and I have rarely found they add more to the book or a kids understanding of it past about second grade.  They also tend to be a distraction from group discussion time and I find the kids would rather have unstructured time or organized games for their social time then be forced to work on an activity or craft structured around the book they read.  Often these activities can feel forced and kids are fairly diverse and do not enjoy the same types of crafts or activities.  I gave up on crafts and structured book activities and think the clubs have been rewarded for it.

The one exception to this is if you are doing a book club for younger kids.  When I did our American Girl Doll, Little House or If You Lived Groups those succeeded because they had specific crafts, music, food, clothing and activity that brought those books to life.  Of course all of those had real historical roots as well and lent themselves quite naturally to book specific activities and crafts.  I think this type of book club works best with first through fourth grade and past that good discussion and social time has been a better format for us. 

Combine Serious and Fun
I get really good discussion out of the kids for an hour.  They know there is an end to our discussion and that they will have an hour of social time.  They have clear expectations.  One hour of discussion and then one hour of play.  The combination works well.  The kids who are there to socialize still know they have to discuss first and they all come prepared.  Some may come just for the fun but they do the work required to get to the fun, read the book and participate in discussion.  The social time has really bonded them together as friends and has benefited the discussion time as well. As they have grown from a collection of kids with similar reading habits into friends who laugh and work together.  I believe the combination of the two serious and fun has allowed the kids to grow closer, the book club to grow stronger and our discussion to have much more depth.  The social also build trust which is important in a good book club.

Food
We always have a snack after our discussion time.  Kids can go two hours without eating but something about sharing a snack together bring them together.  Food brings adults together and it brings kids together as well.  Root beer floats, Orange Creamsicles, Girl scout Cookies, Homemade Hand painted Hunger Game Cookies, Chips and Candy, all the usual kid suspects.  They enjoy having food and parents are quick to chip in and rotate bringing snacks which helps relieve that from me and lets the kids all take turns sharing their favorite foods.


This post has gotten far longer than I expected.  Thanks for reading and good luck starting your own book club if that is your intention!  

Hunger Games Essay Questions

 With the movie being released the Hunger Games book series by Suzanne Collins is getting even more attention.  Awhile back we wrote some essay questions to review some of the central themes found in The Hunger Games trilogy.  Some questions apply to the entire of the trilogy.  

If you have not read the book I encourage you to read it along with your kids.  I will be posting some book discussion questions as well after our teen book club tonight.

                                                                     
Pick one of the following themes of the Hunger Games Series and discuss it in a 1-3 page paper.

1)  The Hunger Games series shows how old habits die hard.  People will continue old traditions even though they know that they are unfair and unjust. Discuss how the people in the different districts and the capital felt about the hunger games.  Why did they continue to participate?

2)  The Hunger Games series shows that good people can be especially cruel and violent if the situation allows for it or even demands it.  The Hunger Games and then the civil war required some incredibly violent actions by people who were not "bad" people.  Discuss your thoughts on if and when violence and cruelty is OK.

3)  The Hunger Games shows that the ends justify the means and that if the final outcome is good, that makes the strategies, tools and actions getting there OK.  The final tactic that won the civil war was the dropping of bombs on the civilian shield around the presidential mansion.  We don't know who ordered the attack.  If it was the rebels, was this OK?  Was it worth the price of those who died to stop the war and even more killing?

4)  The Hunger Games shows that good leadership often requires morally questionable decisions and actions.  Discuss 3 specific actions that the rebel president did or that Katniss did over the course of the books that was morally questionable.  How did these actions contribute to their leadership?

5)  The Hunger Games shows that television plays a very important role in society.  Discuss how the televised games were received in the Capital.  Discuss how the televised games were received in the Districts.  How did people's actions change because they were going to be on TV?  Did it make them try to be more "sensational" than they would otherwise have been?  If so, was it really "real" or was it a simulacrum?

6)  The Hunger Games Series shows that honor is sometimes assumed where it is not warranted and found where it is not expected.  Who was the most honorable in the book and why?  Who was the least honorable and why?  Who was assumed to have honor but demonstrated a moral and ethical ambiguity when it came time to act on that honor?  Who is more honorable at the beginning of the series Gale or Peeta or Haymitch?  How did this change by the end of the series?

Why read biographies?

Every summer we pick a reading challenge for each of our kids.  The summer between fifth and sixth grade has been "Biography Summer".  Ciaran is coming up on that this year and I am beginning now to try to encourage him to be excited for it. So far my enthusiasm has not been contagious, even Maria's good reviews have not helped.  The summer Maria read biographies she averaged about 3-5 juvenile non-fiction books a week because she found she really enjoyed them. For Ciaran I am going to require 1-2 a week, maybe he will find a similar passion for reading them. Like it or not he will be reading biographies this summer.  Here is to hoping he enjoys them :) 

Why biographies? They are a unique way to teach kids about invention, creativity, ingenuity, fame, power, and gifts of all sorts.  Biographies offer people to relate to, real life examples of success, and a different approach to learning history.  Giving the student freedom to pick the biography allows them to learn more about areas they are passionate about and discover some new areas of interest.

I do not pick the biographies.  I bring the student to the biography section and make them select a variety of individuals across different disciplines.  The only rule is the biographies must be varied and about someone you already do not know a lot about.  It is fine if you pick an athlete, an artist, a scientist, an inventor and a politician.  The point is to learn about a variety of disciplines through the story of a specific person. I also find that by requiring them to read so many biographies at once they start to discover the similarities of famous people across disciplines.  I like encouraging inter-disciplinary thinking and studies whenever possible and reading a variety of biographies is one easy way to do so.

I find even as an adult I still enjoy reading biographies.  It helps me understand some of the similarities and differences  between the lives of famous people.  I enjoy seeing the creative ways different people approach solving different problems and questions they face.  I enjoy learning about the creativity and determination and discipline of many different people throughout history, both ancient and modern. I enjoy my kids discovering the same sorts of things for themselves.

If you have never read biographies yourself I encourage you to try.  Your library is full of them.  Encourage your kids to read biographies and then discuss them together.  You may be pleasantly surprised by what you discover.  

Preparing for the ACT or SAT in High School

Recently I wrote about the importance of testing and how and why to begin preparing for the college entrance exams in junior high.

If you have not read that post yet please start there before you begin this one.  There is some important foundational information that you should know first. 

Remember testing is important in our culture and college entrance right now whether we like it or not so begin planning for that instead of avoiding it and hoping it will go away.

As an ACT tutor and a parent with three kids who hope to go to college one day this is an important topic to me.  I have put together a list of skills to work on with your high school student to best prepare them for their ACT.  Do not wait until they are a junior, begin these in their freshman year if at all possible and continue to build their skills and confidence over the years so their testing situation is not stressful but successful. Remember there are some skills you can start preparing for in junior high as well.

High School Test Prep Strategies

Read strategy books on how to beat the ACT or SAT

There are many different types of strategy books designed to help prepare you for the exam.  Your local library will carry most of them.  Check out a few and find one that works really well for you.  A few good names in the business are Princeton, Barron's and Kaplan.  For the ACT I think the Princeton Cracking the ACT book is the best for strategy and I recommend it for the students I work with.  Whatever book you decide on, read it and practice the strategies outlined even if they feel weird at first.  Help your student to understand and adopt the strategies that will work best for them to beat the test.

Set target goals 
The internet makes college applications easier in many ways.  Just a few google searches will help you discover what the requirements for the various colleges you want to apply to are.  You can type in any college name and ACT scores or SAT scores after it to be taken to a website that gives you the range of acceptance scores for the particular college.  Digging into a college's admission page and you can find the scores needed both for admission and the ever important financial aid. Look at several schools and set goals for yourself.  Have ranges (reach schools and safety schools) and determine what ACT score your student needs and can realistically expect to get. Start with a target composite range.  You will determine the individual section goals soon.

Understand your students strengths and weaknesses

Have your student take a practice ACT under test like conditions.  There is a complete free past ACT available online for this purpose.  This document is put out by the official ACT company and can be downloaded here.  It can also be picked up at any high school guidance counselor's office.  If your student has already taken an official ACT look at the breakdown and results for the official and this diagnostic test, average them and see where the strengths and weaknesses are. Talk with your student and ask them what felt hard and easy for them and create a plan for them to work with their strengths to increase their scores.

Make a plan based on number 2 and 3 and stick to it 
After understanding goals and actual present abilities create a plan to help you get from current ability to desired outcome.  The ACT and SAT are predictable and if you know the score you need you can easily discover about how many questions you need right on each section of the test.  Once you have that goal in mind you can create a study and practice schedule to help your student achieve it.

A practiced ACT tutor can help you with this as well.  One of the biggest advantages students get from working with me is a tailored practice plan based on their individual strengths and weaknesses.  We work together to discover how many questions they truly need to get right in each section to achieve their goals and then we build our strategy around that. What many people do not realize is that few students will actually need to get all of the questions right to achieve their goals.  Many students only need to get half the questions right in each section of the test to achieve their goals, some may only be able to miss 5 or 10 questions a section, and only the exceptional students will really go for accuracy in every single question.  Knowing and understanding your particular student and their goals makes a huge difference to your students success on the test. Working with someone who truly understands the test at this point can be very helpful. 

Practice real ACT and SAT tests. 
Bottom line your student needs to practice a lot.  Just as with any other activity to get good at it you need to practice. Your student needs to build up familiarity and muscle memory with this test so when they sit down to take the test nothing is unfamiliar and much of it will feel easy or at least routine.  By practicing with the skills they adopted after reading a strategy book or working with a tutor they will begin to make the skills part of themselves so on test day it is natural and habit.  Practice with a timer, practice with distractions, practice under test like conditions.  Practice. Practice. Practice. 

Practice some more. 
Now repeat the above.  Seriously the biggest difference to your student's score is likely to be how much they have practiced.  I often get asked how much time I recommend practicing.  The answer is as much as your student will.  I don't believe you can over practice.  If you have a young student they have many years to practice and could go at a slow pace.  If you have a senior I would sit them down and tell them to prepare for a lot of work over a short course of time.   I recently worked with a student who only had 8 weeks to prepare and some high goals I let her know you are looking at two hours of homework a day to properly prepare, are you ready for that?  She was and she did it and she reached her goals. She practiced a lot and she was rewarded. I had another student who practiced an hour a day for over 4 months and also saw much improvement to his test and achieved his goals. 

Bottom line, the practice matters more than anything else.  Hold your student accountable to whatever practice schedule you set up.  Do not just hand them a book and expect them to do it themselves.  Create a practice schedule with assignments they have to hand in to you.  Evaluate their work, continually discover patterns to their correct and incorrect answers and help them work on the areas they need to.

If you get nothing else from either of these posts pay attention to this.  For most students success will depend on the amount of practice they put into the test.  Make them practice! 


I already about the next three areas in the junior high prep section but they still all apply here in high school, especially if you have not done so before they reach high school age.   If you have already developed these skills in your student now is not the time to stop, keep at it :) 


Build your vocabulary 
A good vocabulary will help with the test in a variety of ways.  The SAT directly tests for this, the ACT indirectly tests for it.  Your writing will get a higher score with good vocabulary use.  The science and reading and english sections will all seem less scary if big words are not scary to your student.  Develop their vocabulary. 

There are many books available at your library and local bookstore that highlight words for the SAT.  Give your student these to read and practice.  Encourage unique vocabulary words.  Improve your own vocabulary to help your student improve theirs.  Subscribe to word a day emails or apps. There are also many free website with word lists such as this one. 

Practice decoding strategies for unfamiliar words.  Look at roots, use context clues, show how to use the answers to discover clues about the actual word.  Teach them to rephrase unfamiliar words and to discover relationships between words and analogies.  The more you practice the less intimidating big and unusual words will be for your student.  No matter how much you practice there will likely be unfamiliar words on test day, the key is being comfortable with unfamiliar words and understanding how to approach them.  This sort of practice is far more important than memorizing a bunch of words and definitions. 

Remember building vocabulary is not just studying for this test it is giving your student a life long skill that will help them in all areas of school, college, writing, business and just general intelligence. 


Write 20 minute essays often 
I encouraged you to start this in junior high or even younger if your student is ready.  If you have not started yet start as soon in possible and practice often.  I would encourage writing one 20 minute essay every week in high school.  Yes I can hear the groans.  But really how many minutes a day does your student spending texting friends, surfing the internet, or watching TV?  Surely they can find 20 minutes in the course of a week.

By the time a student is in high school these essays should be about real topics, similar to the ACT and SAT writing prompts.  Pick topics both of interest and non-interest to your student so they get practice writing both things they enjoy and know little about.  Pick topics that have two sides to an issue and force your student to take a position on one side. Set a timer. Allow them up to 10 minutes to outline before they start writing the essay.   After 10 minutes set another 20 minute timer and they hand it in when the beeper goes off no exceptions, no finishing sentences.  This is how it works on test day, this is how it must work when they practice.

Read the writing section in your strategy book and help your student structure their writing around this outlined structure.  A good standardized test essay will have an introduction, three body paragraphs,  and a conclusion paragraph. The body paragraphs should contain one showing the opposite side of the issue from your conclusion and two paragraphs supporting your conclusion.  Learning to write five complete paragraphs in 20 minutes is a learned skill and not a natural one. 

Organizing ideas, drawing conclusions and writing complete ideas in a short amount of time is another lifelong skill.  This will serve them well in college as well as the business world.  While they may not have to ever write another complete essay in less than 30 minutes they will be required to organize complex issues into coherent thoughts and arguments quickly for the rest of their lives.  Practicing 20 minute essays develops this skill and helps prepare them for test day essays as well.  

Read. Read. Read. 
Highschoolers are busy.  I get it.  They are balancing school, homework, sports, clubs, social lives and for many work.  Now mom and dad have added test prep and writing homework every week!  Where in the world are they going to find time to read?  Help them find and make the time.  Reading now is just as important as it was when they were learning to in elementary and when they did for fun in junior high. 

Avid readers score better on tests.  They have better vocabularies.  They tend to be better writers.  They can simply spot errors in the english section of the tests because something doesn't sound "right".  They have an advantage because so much of the test requires reading and they are comfortable with reading and likely faster readers. Being a good reader will also serve them well in college.  Being a good reader will help them be life long learners.  Reading is important, make them read. 

Not all books are created equal.  Encourage reading good books.  There are many lists of classics, award winners, books that have stood the test of time.  There are books with intricate plots, character development, and amazing vocabularies.  Few of them are about vampires :)    Assign good books, or place some around the house and encourage them to pick up some of your favorites.  If you don't read, try.  Set a good example.  Create a book club for your student and their friends.  Read and discuss the book with them.  Either way encourage them to

Keep a list of all the books they have read in junior high and high school.  Consider sending it with their college applications to show them as a rounded and well read individual.  Reading will always bring more rewards than the work that went into it.  Encourage your kids to read!

Get help where you need it 
There are many tutors and prep classes available to you.  If you are overwhelmed just reading this post consider finding help for your student.  If you start the process and feel like you need some extra help get it.  You may find your student only needs a few meetings with a good tutor to set them on the right path or you may discover they work really well with a particular tutor and keep them working with the tutor through the duration of their preparation. 

Keep in mind not all help is the same.  There are big name agencies that charge a lot of money per hour or per class for their tutoring and there are local tutors that may charge substantially less.  Tutoring for this type of test typically runs between $30 - $100 an hour depending on where you live.  More expensive does not necessarily mean better, and cheaper does not necessarily mean bad.  Both can be good, both can be bad, the key is finding the right fit for your student.  Also when working with an agency you may want to understand how much of your money the company gets and how much your tutor receives, people are often very surprised at these numbers when they examine them. 

When interviewing a tutor be sure to understand their method and approach and what is expected of your student when working with them.  If they don't require outside work I would keep looking until you found someone who did.  While taking a class or meeting with a tutor to review strategies is better than going into a test cold it is not as helpful as actually practicing the skills and strategies with a seasoned tutor.  I would recommend you find someone who focuses on individual test strategy as well and not a cookie cutter presentation of each section of the test that is the same to each student. 

Not everyone needs outside help.  A motivated student and an involved parent willing to read strategy books and manage practice can be just as effective for many students as a tutor.  But you need to put in the time and energy to make it work.  

If you do choose to work with a tutor remember this is an investment you are making in your child.  For many students a few hundred dollars spent on tutoring may translate into thousands of dollars in college scholarships. 


Conclusion
Until colleges change their admission and financial aid scholarship policies the college admission test is here to stay.  It is important and it needs to be faced.  Don't bury your head in the sand, cross your fingers and hope for the best.  You can be sure the students your kids are competing against to get into school and a piece of the financial pie are not. 

Take the time needed to create a plan for your student to succeed on these tests.  Follow through with it.  This is an area in your control, don't miss the opportunity to help your student.  Remember the more your student puts in the more they will get out of it. 

If anyone has further questions.  Feel free to drop me an email or leave a comment.

Preparing for the ACT and SAT in Junior High

Recently I have returned to tutoring for the ACT.  For those who do not know, the ACT is like the SAT for the Midwest, it is a college entrance exam.  I did well on my ACT's when I was in high school and then I tutored some in college to make ends meet.  When our lives changed last spring I began tutoring again and of all the odd jobs I have been doing recently I have discovered I truly love this one and I am fairly good at it.

I will keep tutoring as long as I am able.  The reason is I believe it is important and getting good test scores can make a substantial difference in the life of a high school kid soon to be in college and to the lives of their parents. I love seeing my students confidence and test scores rise.  I love watching them achieve their short term goals with the understanding that it is a first step to helping them achieve their long term goals.  I love knowing that together we have opened a door for their future that might have otherwise been closed to them.

Why Testing Matters
For better or worse testing has become extremely important in our country.  Your college entrance standardized test score will make the difference between what college you get accepted to and how much financial aid you will receive.  The test becomes that much more important for home educated students as colleges will put more weight on these scores and sometimes ignore all together the transcript grades of the home educated believing they could be inflated or fabricated if they come from mom and dad.  In addition often home school students have little testing experience under their belt and are used to knowledge being tested in different ways than by the bubbles they must rush to fill in.  Home school students also rarely have experience with the time crunch of these standardized tests and can feel more anxious about them.

If I can communicate one thing to home school parents with kids in the junior and senior high age group it would be START PRACTICING for these tests with your students NOW.  They are not too young to start gaining the skills they need to beat this test and secure a better college future for themselves.  The first thing I tell my tutor students is: the ACT and SAT are not truly a test of your knowledge or intelligence, they are a test of how well you can take their particular test.  They are not a test you can "study" for but they are a test you can and should practice for. Together we work to develop a strategy that is unique to them to help them maximize their score working from their strengths and not fighting their weaknesses. You can do this with your own child at home as well.

Junior High Strategies

Practice Bubble Tests
There are hundreds of standardized test practice books on the market.  There are many free tests you can find and print online now.  There are computer programs that give you multiple choice options.  The resources are there, use them.  From about second grade on I make my kids go through a grade appropriate test review book filled with bubble questions.  We use the Spectrum series and that has worked nicely for us.  This serves two purposes.  It acts as a catch all review for things most schools are teaching at their grade level and it helps my kids get acquainted with the style of bubble testing of their knowledge.  They get practice in these types of questions in a low pressure scenario and I get a general review of their knowledge each year.  Win. Win.

Practice Time Crunch Situations
Every once in awhile set a timer while your student works.  Give them five minutes to finish a math page or one minute to do a math problem.  Make it a game if you want, challenge them to see how fast they can do a page while still getting everything accurate.  As they get older do it more often.  Make them practice moving quickly through a math page or seeing how fast they can read a passage and still understand it.  While in general I don't believe busy or fast work is the key to knowledge and understanding I do think it is an important skill to learn so long as standardized testing has so much weight in our children's future.  Set a timer, don't tell them why, don't make it stressful but get them used to occasional time crunches so they are not facing it for the first time as a junior in high school!

Learn Vocabulary 
 Good vocabulary is very important on these tests.  The avid reader will just naturally have a good vocabulary if they read good books.  Other students will have to work harder at it and should.  The SAT will test it more directly than the ACT but having a good vocabulary will improve your score on both.  It will also help your student feel more confident in all sections of the test if big words do not scare them or they understand how to decode unfamiliar words using context, roots, or other work a rounds. The stronger their vocabulary the stronger their test results.  Build vocabulary skills by talking to them as you would talk to other adults from a young age.  Challenge yourself to use better words.  Make friends with Google Define and never say "I don't know" to what does a word mean.  Play synonym and antonym games, use vocab workbooks.  Occasionally assign reading from a dictionary during reading time.  Get out 1000 best word books from the library.  Keep a vocab list.  Build your students vocabulary.  This can only help them in life and translates to a life long skill not just a test prep one.

Get Comfortable with the Uncomfortable 
Too often in home school situations the uncomfortable gets pushed aside or worked around.  Challenge yourself and your kids to work through the uncomfortable testing, vocabulary, or math situation.  Face the challenge head on together to demonstrate and build the skill they will need in the test when faced with a topic they are unfamiliar with.  Practice reading really hard science or literature textbooks.  Read something translated from a different language.  Look for the hard and uncomfortable every once in awhile and teach your kids to embrace and work through it.  Then when they see it on a test they will have built the skills up to deal with it.  Science tends to be a test section that scare many on the ACT until they realize it truly is a reading comprehension section with charts and graphs and data.  All the information they need to answer the question is in front of them they just need to decode it as uncomfortable as it feels.  Practice this type of skill whenever you have the opportunity and create the opportunities from time to time.

Make sure your math program teaches what is on this test
I am not at all a fan of "teach to the test" but I am also not an ostrich.  Your kid does need a substantial amount of math knowledge to do well on this test and they need particular knowledge, make sure they will have it.  Not all math programs are created alike in the home school world.  If you love your math program and it has holes in it when it comes to standardized test material fill the holes with other material.  Make sure by the time they are a junior they are going to have all the math they need down.  Math is the one test you can't really get around having outside knowledge in.  No matter the tips and tricks you learn you need the math knowledge to do well on this part of the test.  Kaplan has a 100 Math Key Concepts that is worth looking over in junior and senior high to be sure your student understands what they will need.

Practice writing 20 minute essays often
For some reason the time crunch in the essay part always seems to surprise people even though they know it is coming.  This is a skill you can work on from the time your kids are young.  Make them write 20 minute essays on various topics from older elementary years on.  I start with creative writing and my expectation of my third grader is substantially different than my expectation of my 6th grader or it will be of my junior in high school.  As they get older transition them to non-creative topics where they must take a position on a controversial or two sided issue.  The point is they have to get used to writing fast, neat and complete in a short amount of time.  Their brain practices organizing thoughts and getting them down on paper in a quick amount of time.  They are training themselves in an unnatural skill as most people like to take their time to write, which in general is preferable.  It is still important to learn how to organize and communicate thoughts in a quick amount of time. 

Read. Read. Read
Well it is me writing this post so you knew this was coming :)  I honestly believe the amount of time a student spends reading throughout their life will increase their scores overall.  If you are a good reader you have a higher vocabulary, you can read a variety of topics and subjects and language arts does not scare you.  The Reading and English sections will likely go well for you if you have always been an avid reader or even forced to read and retain.  There are time crunch and test strategies you will need to work on later for these sections but if you start with a good reading base all of it will come easier.  I have always made my kids read an hour a day since they were independent readers and I always will.  Some of my kids choose to read more than that in a day. In the end I honestly believe there is no better preparation for college, for testing, and for life than a solid reading foundation.  Make your kids read!

Advanced Testing for the Gifted 
This last recommendation is not for everyone but it is important to consider for some.  If your kid is truly gifted they could qualify for early advanced grade testing through an organization like NUMATS out of Northwestern University.   Programs like this allow advanced students to take the ACT and SAT as early as 6th grade and see how they compare to other advanced students their age as well as the college juniors and seniors who typically take the exams. This experience can be very helpful for the gifted student and gives them early testing experience that will help them years later.  It also allows them to compare their skills with other advanced students.  It is not for everyone as the student goes to an area high school or college testing center and takes the test along with the seniors and juniors taking it, no exceptions. For some students the experience may be anxiety increasing and I would not recommend it for them.  For others it is not stressful but rather rewarding and some even say fun! Our oldest tried this year and enjoyed her experience and was glad she did it.


When to Start
Everything I wrote above is appropriate to do and should be done with kids from sixth grade on.  I have done these things naturally with my kids since about second or third grade so they have no idea I am giving them test prep skills, it is just another "weird" thing they accept about the way they are educated :)  We don't do all of this daily or even weekly.  It is rather peppered throughout their education from time to time.  In this way I believe it is building natural habits that will serve them well later on.  If you have not started these types of things I encourage you to do so in junior high.

Read the followup post.  Preparing for the ACT or SAT in high school.

Growing Up and Letting Go

Some weeks are big in the lives of our children.  This past week was one of those for our oldest.  So many things happened all at once.  Some highs and some lows.  As I walked the journey with my daughter I was just awed by how she handled it all.  With grace and humbleness and with tears and then stubborn resolve.  With determination, with sadness and disappointment, with joy, with passion and with a deeper understanding of herself.

I loved the moments she just needed me to be there with her and know those are going to be fewer and fewer as she builds her resolve to deal with it all herself. I was there to encourage, praise, support, and just hold.  I know after this week I will look at her through a different lens.  I know she grew more all at once this week than she has in a long time.  I know I see something different in her, or I suppose it has always been there just harder for me to accept and see for myself.

My daughter is growing up and she is doing a great job of it.  I suppose this makes it somewhat easier to let go, though that is never the easy part for us mothers is it? Part of me just wants to fight her battles for her but I know the time for that has in general passed and it is her turn to fight them for herself.  Of course I am still here with her and walking this journey but I am slowly learning to hand the reins of control over more and more to her and to step back an watch and support from the sidelines when she comes to me. 

She is facing things now that I can't do for her, fix for her, or even really help her with at all.  I can encourage and support her, let her know I love her no matter what, encourage her and be there to lift her up whenever she needs.  I can not do the things she needs to do, or even understand how she is able to accomplish all she is.  I can not determine her success or failure at tasks she puts so much of herself into.  I can not determine whether it will go well or poorly for her.  I can not make it happen for her as I could in so many areas when she was younger.  I can not protect her from the failures and hurts but I can help her cope with them and get through them.  I can not claim victory for her successes but I can celebrate them with her. 

I can be proud of her and who she has become and is becoming.  I can tell her this and show her love in all her favorite ways and support and encouragement in the ways she needs even if she does not prefer them.  She is growing up and letting go and I am growing and letting go too.  It is both painful and beautiful at the same time. Here is to many more years of growth for us both and may we always be gentle and loving with each other


Kiss those babies!

Confessions of a Swim Mom

My children amaze me sometimes, often in fact.  They have the strength and bravery to do harder things than I ever did at their age or even do now in many ways. 

Every time I watch them get up on a start block and dive in the water I think of everything that race represents for them.  I think of all that brought them to that moment and I am so proud of them, no matter what the clock says or where they finish in the pack they are racing at the moment.

I have a confession to make.   I never wanted to be a sports mom.  Really, I mean it.  We had a house rule.  Only one sport at a time.  No I do not mean one sport per kid, I mean one sport at a time.  So when Maria played soccer unless Ciaran could be on her team (they were occasionally) he was waiting until her season was over and the next season was his and she had to sit out.  The whole family went to practices, games, and supported the one participating and the other kids waited their turn.  We had this whole season rotation worked out and the kids were content.  They were young, they had no choice and they accepted it. 

I was the mom who refused to let my kids learn how to ice skate until they were old enough that I knew it was too late to play hockey effectively here in Minnesota.  Hockey scared me: too much time, too much money, crazy obsessed parents, insane schedules, high expectations on young children, my list went on and on.  I am fully aware of the irony of this now being a swim mom.  Everything I said about hockey could be said about swimming in addition to other swimming oddities and here we are fully in the throes of year round competitive swimming, three kids in with no end in sight. 

We had another rule, notice the trend of rules, no swim lessons until you were willing to put your own head under the water and you could do it independently.  Mom and dad were not getting in the water for paid lessons.  We would take you swimming ourselves, encourage you even try to coax you to put your head under water but you had to be willing to do it on your own and to really want swim lessons.  Then it was swim lessons in the lake with the Red Cross teenagers.  If it was raining, you swam, if it was 90 degrees you swam, if it was 65 degrees and windy you swam.  In Minnesota this can all happen in the same week and did one year.  This was my oldest two kids introduction to swimming.  How in the world did they ever love this sport enough to want to do this all the time?

I blame Michael Phelps, well I also thank him, for the best thing that happened to our family, even if I went in kicking and screaming.  Long time readers of this blog know we don't watch TV, we don't even receive TV channels in our house.  Why does this matter in a post about swimming?  Well in order to watch something on TV we really have to want to and it is quite an ordeal with computers, digital receivers, external antennas running through windows, you get the picture.  The Olympics is one of the few things that qualify in our home to be worth the work and our time to watch.  Beijing 2008 Michael Phelps was the story and we watched every one of his races as a family, no matter the time it was on.  After it was all done Maria said to me "You mean you can swim like a sport not just in the lake? This is what I want to try next."   

Who knew where that simple statement would take us.  She was nine years old.  Off we went to the local pool and signed up for a "swim team" it was not intense, an hour a week and they were not very organized or honestly very good, knowing what I know now.  She loved the water but was very unhappy with her "team".  She was determined to find something better so she made me find a better club through research.  We found a club and she started practicing 4 days a week for an hour a day.  I thought what have we gotten ourselves into?  At the same time I thought the intensity of a club like that would turn her off.  After all this was the girl who said "What is the point of soccer I hate running up and down a field all day."  Surely she would not enjoy something that made her look at a black line for an hour a day while she swam up and down a pool with nothing else to do.  I was wrong, very wrong.

Three years and one more club later we are quite settled into the swimming world.  Both girls made the state team this season and we will have attended something like 20 swim meets this season when it finishes.  All three kids swim and I have a Swim Taxi bumper sticker that defines a large portion of my day :)  My youngest was not subjected to swim lessons in the lake, instead she had private lessons with swim team coaches as her learn to swim. There are certain benefits to being the littlest :)

We spend our weekends literally "camped" in junior highs around the state playing cards, working on tablets, reading books and getting to know other families who have chosen a similar path.  On a typical weekend we could spend anywhere from 10 to 25 hours doing this over the course of two days.  My house has a perma-chlorine smell, I can never find a clean towel even though I have close to thirty in the house and the owner of the local swim shop knows me by name.  There is no way this is less time, money, or craziness than hockey would have been.  At least it is warmer, which given typical Minnesota winters I appreciate.  You know you are a swim parent when you keep your birks and shorts out year round and use them.  

So what turned this reluctant sports mom into a full swim mom? My kids of course and all the benefits our family has seen as a result of swimming.  I can't even begin to explain all of the benefits but there has been a complete transformation in our oldest and much of it is due to her experiences in swimming.  There are all the physical benefits of course.  Life long healthy sport, easy on the joints, building lung capacity, strength, working both sides of the brain at the same time, building myelin, general fitness.  That has all come and in spades.  The girl who never wanted to run up a soccer field trains for 12 hours a week now and sometimes does additional work at home. She has seen great physical benefits in general fitness and strength and she knows those will only continue.  It is wonderful that she found a physical activity that she loves and will continue with.

Honestly though it is the unexpected benefits that have come from swimming that have kept me supportive of it.  In this sport you have to face a lot of things on your own.  You have to get up on the blocks in front of sometimes hundreds of people all looking at you in a bathing suit during your awkward formative years.  Then you dive in and race your peers including many of your friends but each time you swim you are really racing yourself, constantly trying to best your last time.  It is you and the clock and how you perform.  There is no team mate to pass off a bad performance on, no judge to blame, no other excuses.  There is just you and your individual performance to evaluate.  The longer you stay in the sport the harder it is to best your times each time and you need to find other successes for each race.   It is a sport that constantly causes growth every time you swim and offers many hills to climb and plateaus along the way.  It requires mental and physical toughness.  This sport builds and challenges confidence in unique ways.  I have seen so much growth in my kids that I can attribute to their time on swim team. 

I have watched them set goals and then work amazingly hard to achieve them.  I have seen them face challenges and unexpected obstacles and work through them to overcome them and still reach goals.  I have watched them adjust goals when needed and face what they consider failures with grace.  I have watched them handle success with humility.  I have watched them be brave.  I have watched them work through being nervous and through fear.

I have watched them build great friendships.  I have made great friendships.  Just last week I sat at a meet and cried together with another mom when Maria made her first state time, a goal she has been working towards for two years over a variety of obstacles.  The fact that my friend cried with me speaks highly of my friend and of this sport that bonds us together. 

We are making memories that will be a large part of my children's childhood memories when they grow up.  I know they are positive now, I pray they will be looked back upon with favor in the future as well.  I love that they are family memories and that all three kids are sharing this bond.  It may not last forever but I will enjoy it while it is here.  I have seen them draw together in new ways as they share their swimming experiences and look to each other for support and encouragement and sympathy that only a swimmer can give to another swimmer, how much cooler is it that they also have the sibling relationship. 

So here I am years later with all my "rules" thrown out the door.  I spend my weeknights shuttling kids to and from pools and fitting in good nutrition as best we can.  I spend my weekends waiting for hours on end to cheer my kid through a few thirty second races.  I am not just a sports mom but I a swim mom and I would not have it any other way for this moment in time. 

Returning Home

Tonight driving home from a swim meet Maria and I discussed recent months and my return to working outside the home.  I have recently been able to leave my job teaching at the college and I am now able to return home full time starting this week.  I will still keep tutoring a few students regularly but otherwise I will be home full time again.  For this we all are thankful. 

Maria expressed how glad she was that I would be home full time again.  Even as I worked from home much of the time having a job outside the home really changed the way our house functioned and in general it was not for the better.  We all did what we had to do and made it work the best we could.  However, all of us agree it is better I am done with outside teaching responsibilities for now.  These few months made us all realize how committed we are to having a parent home full time and why it is truly important for our family.

For a brief moment I thought about the idea of returning to school for my PhD with plans to eventually get a full time job teaching at a university when the kids were a bit older.  Now I know that is not the right path for us at this time.  Who knows where the future will bring us and I am thankful that as the need arises I am able to find a job and help the family out financially but the best help I can be is to be home full time and dedicating more of my energy to their home schooling and the overall well being of our home and family. 

I love teaching, I am an excellent teacher.  I can teach at all levels from the youngest through college.  I enjoyed parts of teaching college but overall I still feel one on one teaching and tutoring is the most effective form of education whenever it is possible.  I am thankful to be able to provide this style of education for my own children and for the students I am able to tutor.  I am thankful for the privilege to do so as well.

We always said we were committed to home schooling and to having a stay at home parent.  This year has really made us evaluate those claims and determine how much we meant them.  We have discovered we truly meant them and these are some of our highest family values and things we want to preserve about our family.  Sometimes you learn the most about yourself, your family and your values during times of hardship and trials.  The trials are hard but you come out stronger and more confident of your beliefs on the other end of them. 

Why History?

After her third grade standardized test Maria got very angry with me about how much history I teach in comparison to what she was expected to know.  She came out of the test saying mom they only asked me what these three men had in common (they were all presidents of the US) otherwise it was graphs, charts, and reading so why do you make me learn all this history?

I don't teach to the tests, I teach what I want them to learn and what I think will make them a better life long learner and person.  This means I teach a lot of history in addition to reading, writing, math, and science.  Those would probably be the priorities in our house.  Of course we still do spelling, grammar, geography, vocabulary, logic, music, art, pe and other standard lessons.  But when push comes to shove if we are down to the things I spend a lot of time on as a teacher the first 5 subjects are it.

My kids probably feel like we do more history because it is the one subject I read aloud to the younger two and I always engage in extensive conversation and question/answer sessions.  It is something that will come up sometimes when we drive in the car or talk over dinner.  We often tie current events back to historical ones and try to name the similar patterns.

I teach history chronologically and worldwide from nomads to modern.  We use Story of the World for two complete four year cycles and then move to different texts depending on the topics.  I stop when we come to the American Revolution and spend about 2 full months on this time period and follow American history then through the Civil War before returning to world history.

I teach my kids to spot the patterns in history and understand the common motivations for certain events.  My kids can tell you the main reasons people go to war throughout history and sometimes when we are reading about a time in history they will stop me and say "I know where this is going" and then predict the wars and the causes for them.  We spend a lot of time talk about inventors and how they spotted problems in the world that needed a solution and then worked to find them.  I challenge my kids to think about their world and spot problems that we need new inventions to fix and try to brainstorm themselves on possible ways to fix the problems.

I make them read historical biographies during their summer reading. We talk about the common traits in some of the worlds greatest inventors, scientists and historical leaders.  We discuss how we might approach a world problem if we were forced to lead a country to make a decision.  We do this from the time they are in second grade with the complexity of answers and my expectations increasing as they age and learn more. 

I did not love history until high school, it was all just memorizing names and dates and events I did not care about.  Then  I had a teacher who would not let us use textbooks in our class and she told history like a story.  She did not care much about particular dates as long as we could place things along a rough timeline and understood the story arc of history.  This clearly had a lasting impact on me :)  When I headed to college I majored for some of the time in political science mostly because I have always been drawn to the political leaders and systems throughout history. Even my modern classes seemed to always draw me back to the historical roots and patterns to see where we came from, how we got where we are and predict where we are likely to go and a reasonable guess at the outcome.   I ended up going different directions for the remainder of college and graduate school but a part of me always still loved history.

I read presidential biographies for fun :)  I read historical fiction as an escape.  I enjoy political thrillers.  I still like history.  So I suppose that influences the way I teach it.  I also truly believe that history repeats itself in predictable and patterned ways and it helps to understand the past to understand the present and predict the future.

Just last week we discussed why the Canadian separation from England went so different from the American one, as it came after the American Revolution and had all the lessons learned from that to be considered.  When we discuss the years of civil rights abuses in our country we discuss how our treatment of black Americans was different than the treatment of the Jewish people in Germany.  We discuss similarities and differences and how history often can teach us to make better choices if we listen.  We discuss the main causes of war and conflict often and my kids understand battles over resources, ideology, and power better than most their age and even many older than them. 

I teach history so much because I believe it is important and it will affect my kids for the rest of their lives.  The lessons they learn through the stories of history will help them in whatever career or life path they chose for themselves later.  Just as it is important for them to read and write and understand numbers, they need to understand where we came from and all that the past can teach us so we can move forward in the future.  That is why I spend so much time on history.

This blog post is probably not much shorter than the answer I gave my third grader back when she asked why and includes many of the same reasons I gave her :)  You would think that would stop my kids from asking me why :)  I love that my long answers encourage rather than discourage my kids and that they truly are curious about the world around them.  They have a deep desire to understand the reasons we make the decisions we do and how our choices can affect not just ourselves but those around us.  They are starting to look at the world around them and wonder how they can make it better themselves. This I believe comes out of learning history the way we do. 

I recently realized we were needing more field trips in our school days.  With a 7th, 5th and 3rd grader it is easy to slip into the routine of workbooks and typical school studies.  Still when I look back to when I had an 8, 6, and 4 year old we were on field trips at least once a week.  My current 8 year old needs this as well so I need to do more of it for her,  2012 plans to be the year of field trips for our family.

We renewed family memberships and have been trying to take advantage of all opportunities we can.  We have discovered sometimes just an hour or two at the zoo or museum really is enough and worth the time invested.  The zoo is our destination today.  The third time in January.  The kids are now old enough to carry their own backpacks and bring their cameras and sketch books.  We find ourselves spending longer in fewer locations.  One day we simply spent three hours in the dolphin, shark and fish area.   I love that the kids can spend that much time and attention in one place digging a little deeper and simply just being. 

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School at the Zoo

Spending time with African Penguins

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What our kids teach us

This morning listening to Sara Groves with my youngest I was struck by how much our kids teach us.   Sara sings about this in many of her songs and Sirah was asking me about it today.   We discussed some of the many things my kids have taught me and the others they help me to remember.  I am a teacher in many ways and all good teachers know we always are learning from unique places.  Life is full of teachable moments and as much as I talk about the teachable moments I share with my kids I rarely talk about what they teach me.  The list is to numerous to fully share but this year my goal is to share more of these things. 

I am truly blessed to be the mother of these great kids, it is an awesome privelage.   One I can too easily overlook if I am not careful.  This year has helped me to realize it even more as I watch each of them deal with challenges and trials that life throws at them individually and us as a family.  It has not been our easiest year, still it has been a great year in its own way.  Rarely do you stop and take time to truly assess what you love and what is important to you, what your core values are and what hills you will die on, even rarer is when the whole family is asked to do it at the same time. 

It is good to discover the common ground of family priorities.  As a family we have some clarity about what is important to us. Many things were confirmed for us this year: the desire to have a parent home full time with the kids, home schooling really is our way of life, swimming is much more than just a sport of choice for our family, we truly value Awana, we love our neighborhood, home and overall general way of life, we can get by on much less.  Home is really where we all are.  Location does not matter, being together and supporting and loving each other through the challenges, that is what matters. My children have taught me so much this year.  






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135,898

What a crazy number that is. This is the number of times this blog has been viewed as of tonight. That is over 15,000 times a year if I average it out over the 8 years I have been blogging here. Of course I know it did not look like that. Apparently I had over 5000 views last month even though I have only posted a total of 19 times in all of 2011! Many people land here after a Google search, most likely looking for a lesson plan, book recommendation, or field trip idea, or just anything they can find about homeschooling. I have had regular readers over the years but the past few years has seen me rarely blogging and that does not lend itself well to regular readers since there is nothing to regularly read :) Still I know a few of you are still out there and will read these words I write even after the months of silence that has been here. For that I thank you for your interest and especially for your support and encouragement through the years.


This year has been a very different one for our family, a different season in many ways. Tonight when I was at Target for the second time in the day already I was thinking about this blog as a friend asked me for the address yesterday. When I handed it to her I reminded her that it is only my best foot forward and all days are not shiny and happy and perfect like they may seem if you only know me through the posts on this page. You are only seeing the highlights, the things I wanted to record, remember and look back on years later. I started blogging before almost anyone I know. I started blogging in 2001 and this blog was born is 2003. Statistics always fascinate me because numbers speak in interesting ways. These numbers might interest you, the number in parenthesis is the number of posts for the year:

Blog Archive
► 2011 (19)
► 2010 (68)
► 2009 (32)
► 2008 (69)
► 2007 (236)
► 2006 (224)
► 2005 (468)
► 2004 (484)
► 2003 (257)

We can clearly see I used to be an avid blogger and then in 2008 something must have happened in my world that changed the kind of blogger I became and last year probably disqualified me from even being considered a blogger anymore :) So I reflect back and wonder what was it about 2008 that changed in me and my life and led to the changes here? Not sure I have a perfect answer. My best guess was my youngest turned 5 and we were out of the house MUCH more. The taxi days of homeschooling had begun. I also started schooling three kids at once and I can still remember the challenges that brought.

I can remember back in the preschool days when all I did was read aloud all day long and would constantly get asked "How do you read that many books?" I remember saying "I just make the time" or "I just always say yes when they ask." Well what I did not know then was that I also simply had more "free time" then. By that I mean time undictated by anyone else's schedule or commitments. Free time I was not trying to use to fit algebra, swimming, science experiments, church groups, playdates, coops, tutoring, teaching outside classes, book clubs, and the list goes on. I simply had more time and yes I made a choice about how to use that time but it is hard to find the time I want to read aloud to my youngest and I certainly do not do it as often as I used to.

We are on the road often and when we are home we are trying to learn long division, spelling lists, how to write essays and get all that hands on time in science in. Sure I could make more read aloud time. We could quit swimming, gym, book club, and not do outside playdates but we are not going to do that either. So we fit it in as best we can and we still try to prioritize. I still make my kids read an hour a day even through our busy schedules. I do my best to make sure my youngest gets atleast half of that time daily if not all of it with me so she can read aloud. If we don't get it in together she still has to do it on her own. Reading is portable and lends itself nicely to all the time in the car we have. We used to do audio books which I loved but now I find it easier to let them all do their own independent reading while we drive from here to there. Maybe a shared audio book is on our horizon though as I miss them as I type this.

If you told me back when I had three kids under the age of 4 that I had more time then I would have laughed in your face but on reflection I did. I am not saying it was not busy, it was the busiest year of my life, and probably the most exhausting. But so much of it was at home and it was almost as if time stood still on some days and passed so slowly. Now it moves at record pace and we constantly fight to slow it down. Tonight as I sat and watched movies with my girls now 12 and 8 I enjoyed the slowness of the evening. I enjoyed their presence and simply doing nothing together but being entertained. Tomorrow brings swim meets, next week brings geometry, building a hovercraft, starting year end projects, studying for major tests and daily swim practice for important upcoming meets. But for tonight we took the time to eat pizza and ice cream and gummy bears while we watched Flipped and Dolphin Tales and simply enjoyed each other.

When I started this blog 8 years ago I don't think I ever believed I would still be typing here and say the words my 12 and 8 year old daughter. I still recall blogging all about my pregnancy and birth of our youngest before many even knew blogs at all. It has served its purpose through the years and I will continue to keep it around even if I only touch base here a few times a year. Who know perhaps this year will be different but I somehow doubt it.

If you are here for the first time, look around and clearly I used to have more ideas to share. I still have and execute ideas all the time, I just have less time to share them sadly for you. However, I am at peace with that for me, because it means we are spending the time living and enjoying. Somedays I still can't help but wonder at the number 135,898 and say to myself "really" this is just a little blog about a little homeschool family in middle america but okay glad you find value here :)

Be blessed in all you do and hug those babies!
Tenniel

Finding a New Normal

This year is a new experience for us home schooling. I am working part time outside of the home for the first time since we began this journey. I have done some outside teaching all along at home school groups but the kids have always been with me in their other classes. Now I am back teaching in the college classroom as an adjunct, teaching a high school debate class and doing ACT tutoring. The kids are in 7th, 5th and 3rd grade. Life is very busy. We are learning to create new routines. We are finding our new normal. This is also our first year without an active home school cooperative. After 8 years with home school coops it feels odd to not have a place we all go and do something together. The kids are taking a gym class each week at the time of our old coop and Maria is taking a weekly Spanish class at a home school tutoring center. We miss Academy but it was for a season of our life and this is our new season that we are finding peace with now. I thought I would truly miss the teaching part for myself as I love working with junior and senior high kids. Life has brought me new opportunities and I still get to work with kids other than my own through my tutoring and starting up a local debate academy to teach junior and senior high kids those skills. In addition now I get to work with college students again since I have resumed teaching as an adjunct. I also of course teach my own kids. This year has reminded me of how much I love sharing my knowledge and skills in the area of argument and debate. I realize how much I truly love teaching and coaching and I am thankful for the new opportunities to do so.

Science Symphony

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Fun Sparkly Playdough

Fairy Dust Teaching: Galaxy Playdough Enjoy!

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Summer Extension

I planned to start today.  The sky is perfectly blue.  The weather is warm enough for swimming but gentle beautiful breezes.  The curriculum has not all arrived in the mail yet and we only have three days left with the pool with water slides.  I think we can start next week and enjoy the beauty of summer and all its fun for just another week.

Required Reading List

Harry Potter is well loved in this house.  However, my kids did not just get the books whenever and read start to finish.  There are many good discussion topics in Harry Potter and I wanted to wait until they were old enough to discuss the books more in full.  In addition I wanted them to have read certain other books to be able to refer to in our conversations.  I also wanted them to read most of the classics in at least abridged form so we made a deal.  They would get to read Harry Potter when they finished what I wanted them to read first.  I also wait until they are 10 for the first two books 11 for the next three books and 12 for the final two books.  There were lists of books to read before each of these.

Recently some friends asked me to recreate the list of books I required at age 10 and before the first Harry Potter. I do require slightly different books based on gender.  Below is Ciaran's list since he is most recent in my memory.  My son Ciaran was not what I would call an enthusiastic reader until recently.  Still he did read everything required of him as he desired to read Harry Potter. I asked him after he finished the first two books if Harry Potter was worth reading everything I required and he said yes, which honestly surprised me.  Of everything he read, the only book he truly hated and trudged through was Hans Brinker.  The rest he either liked or said he did not mind in the end, even if he was reluctant to start it.  

When a "classic" title is listed I only required the abridged Great Illustrated Classic version.  If you are unfamiliar with this books series, get familiar with it. A very gentle introduction to the main story of all the classics.  I remember reading many as a child and wanted my own kids to read them as well.  It makes the transition to reading the unabridged versions much easier for later years.  The stories are easy to read, big typset, and a whole page picture for every page of writing.  Still the stories are fairly true to the unabridged versions with easier language and a few minor changes overall.  They are pretty quick reads even for reluctant readers. This list is not in order he read them - just broken down by category required


Classics Unabridged - 3

Pinocchio
Peter Pan
Wind in the Willows

Great Illustrated Classics - 17
Treasure Island
Gulliver's Travels
Around the World in 80 Days
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Pollyana
The Secret Garden
Kidnapped
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
Swiss Family Robinson
Oliver Twist

Robinson Crusoe
The Time Machine
The Prince and the Pauper
The Jungle Book
Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle
The Adventures of Hucklberry Finn


General Fiction Required - 11

Indian in the Cupboard - Lynn Banks
Mary Poppins - P.L Travers
The Black Stallion
Black Beauty
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Chocolate Touch
Snow Treasure
Charlottes Web
Bridge to Terabithia
Tuck Everlasting
The Call of the Wild

Series Books Required - 15 with some choice
The entire Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (7 books)
The Wizard of Oz series - Frank L Baun (5 books of choice)
Little House series (3 books of choice for Ciaran, On the Banks of Plum Creek required) 

50 Favorite Picture Books for Kids

I have been thinking about picture book a lot lately.  With my youngest being 8 I know our time with these books is waning.  Still I cling to and love children's picture books.  Every year we buy each child a special picture book for their birthday and for Christmas.  We write a short inscription about them and the book inside.  It is getting harder to find good picture books that represent them as we already own so many of the good books here in the house.  At 11 we switch to buying good quality leather covered books to start their own special book collection to take with them when they move.  But back to picture books.

Sirah just had a birthday and I spent awhile looking through the kids books for her.  I decided on My Name is Not Isabella by Jennifer Fosberry.  This is a sweet book that encourages kids to dream big dreams. In the book the girl pretends to be various famous women in history. It fit Sirah's personality this year and was an encouraging and sweet book.

Still as I was in the bookstore I was struck by how few new good children's books there are. I keep coming back to our old standards even as I read many new books. There are plenty of good pictures but the stories and meanings just do not seem as rich as children's books of past. So I started thinking I would keep a list here of some of my favorite children's books. Feel free to add your own in the comments. I am not ranking the books on this list if they made the list they are good in my mind and well loved in our house.

Miss Rumphius
Roxaboxen
The Empty Pot
Weslandia
The Story of Ferdinand
Little Bear
Frog and Toad
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
Salamander Room
Birthday for Frances

Stone Soup
Make way for Ducklings
Blueberry Shoe
Sailor Moo
The Boy Who Changed the World
Courage
I'd be your Hero
I'd be your Princess
A Coat for Anna
Seven Silly Eaters

Musical Beds
I Love you the Purplest
Owl Moon
The Bee Tree
The Giving Tree
Quick as a Cricket
The Quiet Place
The Paper Bag Princess
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
The Story about Ping

The Kissing Hand
A Pocket full of Kisses
Butterfly House
If You Give a Moose a Muffin
Bedtime for Frances
The Wretched Stone
Love You Forever
Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good, Very Bad Day
I'm Gonna Like Me
Someday

The Mitten
Abuela
A Chair for my Mother
Guess How Much I Love You
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear
Thanks to You: Wisdom from Mother and Child
Pickles to Pittsburgh
Madeline
All of Beatrix Potter

Questions They Ask - Answers we Find

One of the things I love about raising net-natives is Google. I know it makes things too easy sometimes but overall I think it is great to be able to just answer immediately many of the random curious questions they have. Like today. What is the longest living animal on Earth?