Tress
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Posts posted by Tress
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Another book I read around the same time as I read Number the Stars was The Endless Steppe. I liked them both. It's also about WWII, though from a different vantage point (a girl and her family being exiled to Siberia).
Thank you, I'm putting it on the list!
Nope. No Percy Jackson. Completely different universe since it revolves around Egyptian mythology.
Too bad. I will encourage her to read the books, though. I mean, same writer, should be good, too, right? :)
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Tress, it looks like Lulu has printing in Europe and Australia (ironically, not in Canada.) If you purchase books through Lulu, I don't think it would be any more than anywhere else unless I didn't understand all the fine print I have been reading. ;)
Still researching.
Yes, Lulu would be fine! I got a bit scared when you mentioned Staples, though.
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If I buy pdf's I usually print them because I don't like reading on a screen, so I have nothing against you selling printed versions, but for us outside America.....please, can we then at least privately buy a pdf? I don't mind doing some private paypal payment, or sending you Amazon gift cards or something, but if I have to pay shipping to Europe and custom taxes...that could easily triple the price compared to the price for Americans :(
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:lol: I finally stopped fighting it and just decided to embrace it - so I've incorporated "literary" discussion of HP into our fantasy lit study! If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
We are going to do Lost Tools of Writing after our summer break and she has already lined up several questions from Harry Potter to write about :001_rolleyes: .
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You know, I didn't suggest Wendy Mass because I do sort of think her books are a slightly higher reading level, even if the interest level is right (she's one of my first 10-13 yo girl suggestions). (Though I'm not sure what the lexile or RL things would say). So maybe 11 Birthdays is a bit harder in some way?
Really?! Okay, so maybe she was telling the truth about 11 Birthdays. That's good to know.
Up untill recently my dd10 was always very cooperative, reasonable etc, but we have been having a lot of tween drama the last 6 months, so when you go -in one morning- from a big battle about Latin (because she has to think, for a change, and she doesn't like that) to a big drama at Math (AoPS, because - again- she doesn't like not being able to solve everything in 2 seconds flat) to whining that 11 Birthdays is 'too difficult', I kinda shrugged it off as tween-hormone-stuff. But maybe not.
My boys have been book picky too. At one point, one of my boys wanted only talking animal books... but rejected Redwall, Poppy, Cricket in Times Square, and several others in that vein... Sigh.
:lol: Yeah, that is how I've been feeling, too.
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Did she read the Kane Chronicles which is by Rick Riordian as well?
No, not yet. We have them in the house, but she says she only wants books with Percy in them. Does Percy make any suprise appearances in the Kane Chronicles?
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicolas Flamel series by Michael Scott is similar in style.
Also, try 39 Clues series (look up the website since each one is written by a different children's author.)
Bridge to Terabithia
The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis
Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Stewart
Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper
Thanks for the list. She has read Narnia and Benedict Society in Dutch, but the other books I will put on the list!
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Thank you, Rose!
Shannon's very favorite book is When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. She has liked all of Farrar's book suggestions,so you can't go wrong there! Wendy Mass was another author Farrar turned us on to, and she loved all those books.
She is reading through several fantasy series right now, having finally finished re-reading the HP series for about the 6th time . . . she's enjoying Percy Jackson, the Mysterious Benedict Society, the City of Ember, the Among the Hidden books, and the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place.
She enjoyed The Giver, also by Lois Lowry, too.
Yeah, that re-reading of HP and Percy Jackson really got on my nerves. Nice series both, of course, but how many times can you re-read them before your mind starts to go to mush :tongue_smilie: . My dd read and liked the Mysterious Benedict Society, but she read those in Dutch. I'm unfamilliar with the other books, but will certainly put them on my list! Thanks.
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Thank you, Farrar, for taking the time, especially after my confusing post :lol:.
What is it about Number the Stars that we're looking for? Is it the time period or it being historical fiction in general? Is it the sense of fear and the required courage that pervades the story? Is it just the ordinary kid voice that it's told in? When you thrown in that she also enjoyed Percy Jackson, I feel like you could go nearly anywhere with books for her. She may not know herself what she's looking for exactly...
Yes, you are right, she doesn't know what she is looking for :D.
She has been very difficult to accomodate, every book is either 'boring', 'too old-fashioned', 'not fun', or 'too difficult'. All in quotes, because I'm not really sure those reasons are real. After reading Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, I have trouble believing that 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass is 'too difficult'. I have the distinct impression she is trying to get out of reading English books and she knows my funds aren't unlimited, sigh.
I just asked her again about Number the Stars and she indicated that she liked it because it was about WW2 and kids are being couragous.
Some ideas of things to strew...
Island of the Blue Dolphins (historical fiction, courage, independence)
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (short, easy, but historical fiction, very touching and emotional)
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler (strong voice, mystery...)
One Crazy Summer (independence, adversity, strong kid voices...)
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (WWII)
Red Scarf Girl (more historical adversity)
Angel on the Square (more historical adversity)
Bridge to Terebithia
Walk Two Moons
Wonder
Sounder (historical fic, adversity)
The One and Only Ivan (easy, compelling moral issues)Thank you very much! Awesome list.
Moving from Percy Jackson, you might try some other fantasy. Maybe some more girl centered fantasy like Ella Enchanted or Talking with Dragons or Tuesdays at the Castle. Or A Wrinkle in Time or some early Tamora Pierce. Or she might like the Underland Chronicles.
After seeing her enjoy Percy Jackson, I for sure thought I could hook her onto other fantasy series, but that didn't work out so well. I tried Jacquelien West's The Books of Elsewhere, Chrestomanci series, M.T. Andersons's The Game of Sunken Places...those were all rejected, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was because they have very dark covers, because I don't think she actually tried to read them :banghead: . I will keep these titels in reserve! Thanks.
BTW, I told her I would ask here for recommendations and then buy those, but that she could not reject these books. Wish me luck :gnorsi: .
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Background: English is a foreign language for us and my dd10 has been until recently hesistant to read books in English. It took Percy Jackson to get her over the hump :lol:. She has now read all Percy Jackson books and all Harry Potter books (Harry Potter first in Dutch, then in English, which of course makes it easier), but after that we have been stuck. I tried to interest her in other fantasy series, eg. Chrestomanci, but no luck.
Last week I gave her 'Number the Stars' and she told me -finally- 'this is a book I like' and she would like to read similar books. So I'm looking for book suggestions at the reading level of 'Number the Stars', which might interest her.
(I have a feeling the later Harry Potter / Percy Jackson books are of a higher reading level, but because they are mostly about action, I think she is able to read them without knowing every word, just reading for plot.)
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Love your list. Thank you very much!
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I'm fine with everything! Doesn't even matter if I have to read it upside down :D, but could you please hurry and write something for the 5-7th grade crowd too? :lol:
If needed I can send chocolate, Dutch sweets (drop), my dd10 to help clean your kitchen, you name it :).
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Thanks, Jen, for mentioning that course! I'm definitely going to watch the lectures. I'm very growth minded myself, I have always been careful to praise hard work and not results, I have always tried to give her enough challenge....and still that was probably not enough. I thought we were making progress after months of :banghead:, but last week was very rough :(:iagree:
Dd6 is a perfectionist. The last thing I want is for her to become a "fragile thoroughbred", which I can see easily happening in a homeschool environment. We started Sequential Spelling specifically because it's a daily dose of the thought that mistakes are an opportunity to learn. At first, it was impossible for her to think of making a mistake and we had a lot of meltdowns. We have been sticking with it and it's been getting better.
If I may suggest, Coursera has a Character Education course that has given me some words and phrases to use that are helping me change the way she views challenge. Just about every subject comes easy for her, except math and I'm just tired of her shutting down every time she makes a mistake. It also gives you a peek into how the discovery method for math works in the classroom.
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I agree with Wapiti that a placement test isn't useful in determining if a child will like learning from a certain curriculum.
I do understand that not every child will like Beast Academy and I wouldn't put a struggling student in it.
However if perfectionism is an issue I would recommend working on that (not necessarily with Beast, but with other things you can think of). I seriously regret not adressing it earlier with my dd10, we now have daily drama....I mean DRAMA :banghead: because I'm no longer tolerating her avoiding anything that takes more than 2 seconds of thinking. Sigh.
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:grouphug:
No, I don't think your DD is poorly socialized! She is 6 and still learning. And I would not make changes in play time after one such incident.
I'm not really clear on what 'backtalking' exactly is (I'm not American, English is a foreign language for me), but your DD wasn't yelling or using rude language, right? She was contradicting the mother, or something like that?
If the mother was acting in some kind of official way (Mother sitting away talking with adults, sees something going wrong, walks to the kids and tells them to stop) I would later go over what happened with my kids and do some roleplaying. If the mother was on the ground near the kids, all the time making comments 'let's do this, why don't you get that, no, let so-and-so do this', I can totally see my kids getting confused and treating that mother as a fellow playmate, including contradicting or trying to boss her. I might talk about that with my kids, but would probably just shrug.
My kids play from the time schools go out (3pm) until bedtime outside with neighbourhood kids, so they have a lot of unstructured play time. That's easily 5 hours a day. (Obviously not my 3yo.) -
If nothing happens (MIL has been found unconscious a few hours ago, and we are waiting for more news) I hope I can start something new this week.
Still in search if we have a translation for 'steampunk' ; never heard that word before last week.... :)
:grouphug: I hope your MIL will be okay!
No, steampunk = steampunk in Dutch :D.
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Oh, Tress, I am so sorry that you have had such a lousy week (well, except for the birthday. I am assuming that was a good part of the week.) :grouphug:
I do relate to the migraine-from-hell. I have been having migraines for 40 years and have become somewhat acclimated to the pain but last week I had one that knocked my socks off. I had 4 that week. It was nasty so I do understand about the pain. The good part of the week was that even though I was in pain, I could still read. I hope that plays true for you as well.
Thanks for the hug! No, my birthday was the day after the 4-day migraine-from-hell :thumbdown: , so I didn't exactly celebrate it, but I was very grateful that the pain was finally over! One thing good came from it, the restrictions my doctor had given me, of not using more than 2 triptan tablets a month, have been lifted. I now have a stack of tablets in the home, so I hopefully have never to go through this again. Even typing this, makes me teary eyed, it was that bad.
Oh, but thinking of my birthday and my book-present, I remember the book of poetry I received for Mother's Day, which has such a beautiful cover, I just have to show it to you all :D.
<image removed>
The title is 'Lees maar lang en wees gelukkig', which translates into 'Read for a long time and be happy'.
It contains 500 poems and every page has been designed by a different designer/artist, you can see samples here. It's a really beautiful (small) book.
And the thought of me getting a poetry book (I ordered it myself, so it's not a mistake) makes me want to go :smilielol5: . How far have I come in a few years :D.
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I read 14 books since I last checked in. It's so funny, last year when I joined this group in ...I think October, I had difficulty reading a book a week. Now, I have already read more than 52 books this year :hurray: . Can't really explain it, though.
I read only one Dutch High School book: De Tweeling (The Twins) by Tessa de Loo. A beautiful book about two girls, twins, who are seperated from each other when they are 6 years old. One stays in Germany, the other goes to live with a family in The Netherlands. Both live through World War 2, but have - of course- very different experiences. They meet each other by accindent when they are in their seventies.
I read two books in Latin: Colloquia Pensonarum (only 74 pages, but because it's in Latin I am going to count it ;) ) & Lingua Latina, Familia Romana, both by Hans Orberg. Not exactly high literature, but good to get my reading up to speed.
I read several Circe-recommended books: The Intellectual Life, its Spirits, Conditions, Methods – A.G. Sertillanges, Tending the Heart of Virtue – Vigen Guroian, Beauty in the Word – Stratford Caldecott and I'm now officially Circe'd-out :lol: . These were all books I had bought over the years, started but never finished, so it feels good to now have read them. But anyone who wants me to read more of this, will have to pay me :tongue_smilie: . Especially after a book like 'Tending the Heart of Virtue'. I can't believe I read a whole book based on the idea that you read Fairy Tales and other classical children's lit to your children because you can then talk about good & bad. I mean, of course you do!?! Apart from the fact that Fairy Tales are 1) fun, 2) fun, 3) good for cultural literacy, I thought everyone read those because you can then talk about good & bad with your kids? I have been reading aloud Grimm's and Anderson's Fairy Tales for 10 years now, so maybe I wasn't really the intended audience :D.
In the category SF&F: I finished book 5 of The Wheel of Time: Fires of Heaven. And I got a very nice gift for my birthday: the hardcover edition of Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold, which contains a CDrom with with all books (14, I believe!) from the series in ebook format. I had never read anything about Miles Vorkosigan before, but I'm on book 4 now. It's good.
Two OOP books about homeschooling: Educating the Child at Home; Personal Training & the Work Habit (1914) and Bookless lessons for the Teacher-mother (1922) by Ella Frances Lynch. The first book was very interesting, especially her ideas for integrating all LA skills into poetry study, the second book contained a lot of parenting advice that made me uncomfortable (lot's of 'switching' and let's-make-a-lefthanded-child-properly-righthanded).
I read and plan on re-reading The Little Oratory by David Clayton and Leila Marie Lawler. A beautifully designed book with lots of great advice on developing a family prayer life.
Today I also finished Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel, which was the May challenge for this group, I believe. I'm really thankful for the recommendation to read this. It was fascinating to read about an aspect of the War, I had never heard of before. I knew that the nazi's looted art and that they were very systematic about it, but I had no idea the Allies actively tried to preserve monuments and how much work it was to retrieve all (most of) the stolen art. It's definitely going on my 'High School History reading list' for my kids.
Something else I realized, I learnt at school that the Russians used the tactic of 'scorched earth' when the Germans attacked Russia. And I learnt that the Germans did the same when they were driven from the occupied countries and while they were fighting in Germany itself. I think, I just assumed that that was 'standard practice' during a war. I never realised it was a choice! Therefor it surprised me when I read that the Allies were suprised to see the Germans do this, how they had expected the Germans to capitulate much earlier and that there was disagreement between high nazi officers about this practice. Think about the lifes which could have been saved, during the fights and in the aftermath, if they had decided differently!
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56. De kunstbrigade (Monuments Men) – Robert M. Edsel (BaW recommendation, chunky) (N)
55. The Warrior’s Apprentice – Lois McMaster Bujold
54. De Tweeling (The Twins) – Tessa de Loo (Dutch N3) (N)
53. The Little Oratory – David Clayton & Leila Marie Lawler
52. Lingua Latina, Familia Romana – Hans Orberg (Latin, 304p)
51. Bookless lessons for the Teacher-mother (1922) – Ella Frances Lynch
50. Educating the Child at Home; Personal Training & the Work Habit (1914) – Ella Frances Lynch
49. Barrayar – Lois McMaster Bujold
48. Beauty in the Word – Stratford Caldecott (Circe recommendation)
47. Shards of Honor – Lois McMaster Bujold
46. Colloquia Personarum – Hans Orberg (Latin, 74p)
45. Tending the Heart of Virtue – Vigen Guroian (Circe recommendation)
44. The Fires of Heaven – Robert Jordan (WoT5, chunky)
43. The Intellectual Life, its Spirits, Conditions, Methods – A.G. Sertillanges, O.P. (Circe recommendation)
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I haven't been much on this forum between having the migraine-from-hell (I have been having migraines for years, so you would expect me to be accustomed to it...and having four non-medicated births...I mean...it can't get worse than that, right?....well, it can and it did :glare: ) which had me in bed for almost a week including my birthday, a kidney stone attack, and a funeral (greatgrandmother), I feel I have missed a lot here! I hope to do better next week.
JennW, the flat stanley / Minerva looks great! I'm not really clear on the postcard exchange, though. Did you agree on a certain theme for the postcards? I have tried to find something book /literature related, but haven't been able to find some, yet.
Ali in Or & Pam in CT, thank you for your review of The Fault in Our Stars. I will stick to my decision for my dd10 to wait.
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Wow, you really are early! We follow the Dutch public school year and we still have 6 weeks to go for THIS year :svengo: . Man, I'm so looking forward to a break!
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Whatever is most important to you that isn't otherwise getting done. Nwhen I started this kind of thing, years before the current group epiphany ... It was memory work. I started with English and latin grammar/ vocab and added to it from there.
:lol: Yeah, I seem to have been doing Morning Time for years, without knowing it was Morning Time. But definitely NOT the 2 hour variant! I mean, with young kids, that would have been their whole day and then I would still need to do Math, Dutch and Foreign Languages with them :huh:.
Most of the time we do: Singing, Bible, Saint Story, Prayer, some memory work.
I really like Kolamum's idea of adding some news items. I'm going to try and find something like that in Dutch.
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Older daughter, yes. Younger daughter, not as much. That is, they are worse during her period but she gets them other times as well. Every single one of my kids gets them. DH gets cluster headaches. I get frequent migraines. My poor kids never had a chance. ;)
Oh my! I liked your post, but obviously there is nothing to like if you have so many migraine sufferers in your family :grouphug:.
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Thank you, Tammi K, it's good to hear that you have a good experience with preventative medication! I have been worried and this eases my mind considerably :).
I'm in the Netherlands and the protocol seems to be that you can not take more than 2 triptan tablets a month.
With 9/month, I think I would be fine. But 2/month has been a disaster, so now my doctor has reluctantly agreed to prescribe me more. That is, I now have 10 tablets at home, for a two month periode, so 5/month.
My doctor talked about beta blockers and/or anti depressants, I have never heard of antiseizure meds being prescribed. I will keep that in mind.
Are your or your dds migraines hormone related or not? Just curious.
If I'm reading correctly, you are only taking triptans twice a month. At that frequency it seems a bit premature to worry about rebound headaches from the meds. I'm not a doctor, but I am a migraine sufferer who sees a neurologist. My doctor is pleased if I stay below the 9/month the FDA recommends. Of, course, your doctor may have other concerns but twice a month doesn't seem like it would be a problem.
As for prophylactic meds,There are several options. Generally they are beta blockers, antidepressants, or anti-seizure meds. I've been taking Inderal, a beta blocker for years. It doesn't seem to cause depression. The neurologist chose a different med for my daughter because she is an athlete and beta blocker can keep heart rate from reaching a peak level - so not great if you want a burst of speed!
He prescribed an antidepressant for her. It a low dose. It keeps her migraines fairly well controlled. Some people have drowsiness at first. She didn't. He added it for me and I've also not had any side effects. A different daughter takes topomax, an anti seizure med. She has great success with it. It made me an aphasic, apathetic zombie. I hated it.
Point of all this is, there are many prophylactic migraine meds to try. If one doesn't work or has unpleasant side effects, there are other options. But, if your doctor is worried about taking triptains twice a month, you might want to get a second opinion.
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Can we talk about preventative medication?
My doctor has been warning me that if I keep needing more triptans, this might trigger medication-induced-migrains at which point we have no choice but to start taking preventative medication. Taking medication every day, while my migraines are hormone related (so twice a month) scares me. And I'm also afraid of side effects, I keep running into people who tell me they got terribly depressed and/or got lot of anxiety from those medications. (These are mostly older people, so I don't know how much has changed with maybe newer medications?)
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I'm so sorry for your terrible loss, Rosie! :grouphug:
If my dd likes 'Number the stars', what next?
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
Thank you! I never thought of using Good Reads like that, brilliant idea!