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Kfamily

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  1. I really like a lot of the suggestions given so far. For my teen, we've added yoga once a week, she uses a squeeze ball and oddly enough :) finds knitting relaxing too. Quiet time reading in her room in the evening is something she considers an important part of each day. Hugs work too. She also feels better if either me or dh lets her talk it out.
  2. Here is this list: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Recordings_of_Books_on_the_Ambleside_List
  3. Yes, my older daughter reads the chapter and then narrates it. But, I created printable sheets for a number of the chapters (she is still reading the end of it) with lots of narration variations. This keeps her from having to just simply retell (orally or written) each chapter. I also connected many art pieces and poetry selections to coordinate with it and this was included in her options for a narration. For example for chapter 34, which covers the morality plays (such as Everyman) she could orally narrate or choose from the following suggestions: Explain the Moralities and how they were different from Miracle and Mystery plays. Write a summary of Everyman. Draw a picture to represent any scene from the description of Everyman. Create a poster to promote your theatre company’s production of Everyman. Create two designs for tickets for your theatre company’s production of Everyman. Here is an example with poetry and art selections added: Chapter 50 (Sir Walter Raleigh) Retell the story of “The Revenge†in a written narration. Was Sir Richard Grenville a brave man? Find two quotes from the reading which supports your answer and include them in your written narration. “Boyhood of Raleigh†by Sir John Millais-Study this art selection and complete a picture study narration for it. “The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet†by Tennyson “The Ocean to Cynthia†by Sir Walter Raleigh
  4. This map may work for Paddle to the Sea....we used the BF map :) http://cartocraze.com/file/display/ten-regions-unit-great-lakes-states-region My plans were to have my daughter study the Mississippi River and all of its tributaries when we read Minn of the Mississippi. This packet has a map towards the end for students to complete on the river system. The states could also be labeled. http://www.meetingoftherivers.org/Our_Mississippi_Unit_1_LR.pdf This is all that I've found for Tree in the Trail: http://www.dpsk12.org/programs/almaproject/pdf/americansmovewest.pdf There is a small map in this one.
  5. The Zubrowski book for mirrors is free online...http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/mirrorsbz.pdf. I happen to own the physical copy of this book too, but thought I would share this online copy here. Every one of these books that I've shared so far are part of my curriculum and so will have lesson plans to accompany them....one day. :) I am currently writing notes and lesson plans for The Wonders of Physics. :)
  6. Yes, it reads narratively. I'm going to use it with a 7th grader, but I could see a 6th grader using it as well. There are diagrams and drawings which really help illustrate the concepts on every page...and yes, I do mean every page. :) I can share the titles of the table of contents if you'd like. I really like the Asimov books too. We just recently read the How Did We Find Out About... Photosynthesis. I forgot, but I also recently purchased the Alvin and Virginia Silverstein books for Energy and Forces and Motion. These read/look more like a textbook but they are compact and I can pick and choose which topics I think need more reinforcement and only use those. We also will be reading Asimov's Breakthroughs in Science which is a history of scientists.
  7. I've just started my younger daughter in The Wonders of Physics by Irving Adler which I really like. We'll be adding the following: Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity by Cwiklik Issac Newton: Mastermind of Modern Science by David C. Knight Galileo and Experimental Science by Rebecca B. Marcus The Chain Reaction: Pioneers of Nuclear Science by Karen Fox The Electron by Fred Bortz (and others in the series) and other books and resources as needed. I may look at CK12's Middle School Physical Science if I feel I need more supplement. These are just the very rough plans as I'm still working this out. :)
  8. The Black Plague by Walter Oleksy When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS by James Cross Giblin Medieval Medicine and the Plague by Lynne Elliott I can think of fiction books for the bubonic plague during the 1600's but not the Black Death of the 1300's... At the Sign of the Sugared Plum by Mary Hooper Years of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks
  9. Letting Swift River Go by Jane Yolen or A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry or The Raft by Jim LaMarche Island Boy by Barbara Cooney Cactus Hotel by Brenda Guiberson Down, Down the Mountain by Ellis Credle or When the Whippoorwill Calls by Candice Ransom Night of the Moonjellies by Mark Shasha The Magic Hill by A. A. Milne Pele and the Rivers of Fire by Michael Nordenstrom I wasn't sure of the age, so the levels vary a bit. Hope this helps a little. :)
  10. Here is the 6th grade list: I've included fiction and nonfiction, because I wasn't sure if you would like both or not. Hitler Youth by Susan Campbell Bartoletti Great Tales from English History (V. 3) by Robert Lacey Children of the Wild West by Russell Freedman Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel by Katherine Shippen Famous Twentieth Century Leaders by Frank Donovan The Man Who Changed China: The Story of Sun Yat-sen by Pearl S. Buck Anastasia's Album by Hugh Brewster Eleanor Roosevelt by Russell Freedman The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig The Great Adventure: Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern America by Albert Marrin The Story of My Life by Helen Keller Corresponding Literature: Young-Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor War Horse by Michael Morpurgo Number the Stars by Lois Lowry Only a Dog: A Story of the Great War by Bertha Whitridge Smith Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr Shipwrecked!: The True Adventures of a Japanese Boy by Rhoda Blumberg Su-Mei's Golden Year by Margueritte Harmon Bro Born in the Year of Courage by Emily Crofford Angel on the Square by Gloria Whelan Additional Suggestions: In Flanders Field: The Story of the Poem by John McCrae by Linda Granfield Where Poppies Grow: A World War I Companion by Linda Granfield Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp by Jerry Stanley Women of Courage by Adele Gutman Nathan (Landmark) America's First World War: General Pershing and the Yanks by Castor Winston Churchill by Quentin Reynolds Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio by Peg Kehret Mao Tse-Tung and His China by Albert Marrin China's Long March by Jean Fritz Underground by David Macaulay Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-li Jiang Literature: The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Treasure Island by Robert L. Stevenson A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling The Neverending Story by Michael Ende The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain Poetry: Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost edited by Gary D. Schmidt Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes edited by Roessel and Rampersand Poetry for Young People: Carl Sandburg edited by Bolin
  11. Here is our list for 3rd grade...which covers modern too. For Reading Aloud: Good Queen Bess by Diane Stanley Peter the Great by Diane Stanley And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? by Jean Fritz What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? by Jean Fritz Just a Few Words, Mr. Lincoln by Jean Fritz Robert Fulton: From Submarine to Steamboat by Stephen Kroll Life on a Plantation by Bobbie Kalman Florence Nightingale by Margaret Leighton A Boy Named FDR: How Franklin D. Roosevelt Grew Up to Change America by Kathleen Krull Gandhi by Primo Levi Fine Print: A Story About Johann Gutenberg by Joann J. Burch Independent Reader Suggestions: A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman by Dorothy Sterling The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk by Donald J. Sobol Pearl Harbor by Stephen Krensky We don't match all of our literature to our history time period, but much of it does for this year. I've included only those that match. :) American Tall Tales by Adrien Stoutenburg The Moffats by Eleanor Estes The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher Sorry, this is messy, but I'm copying and pasting a bit. I can come back in a bit and share the 6th grade list, which is also modern.
  12. We handle literature in much the same way as described by Silvermoon. :) I do think your list is getting better. I like the variety. I'll share our list for 5th grade, but you may have already read some of them. What about poetry? Year Five Literature Poetry: Poetry for Young People: Alfred, Lord Tennyson edited by John Maynard Poetry for Young People: American Poetry edited by John Hollander Poetry for Young People: Walt Whitman edited by Jonathan Levin Tales: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle Two Selections: Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving Mythology: The Trojan War by Oliva Coolidge Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff The Wanderings of Odysseus by Rosemary Sutcliff We read the retelling of the Aeneid (Lively) in Year 6, but you could certainly move anything around as needed. Shakespeare: From Tales From Shakespeare by C. & M. Lamb "As You Like It" "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" "The Merchant of Venice" We finish Tales from Shakespeare in Year 6 and start full plays in Year 7, but you could also read the complete book. Author Study: Invincible Louisa by Cornelia Meigs Literature: The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald The Complete Fairy Tales by George MacDonald A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Faerie Gold: Treasures From the Land of Enchantment by Hunsicker and Lindskoog Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  13. You could also use The Aeneid for Boys and Girls by Alfred Church. It's free here: http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=church&book=aeneid&story=_contents Also, I've just noticed that apparently Memoria Press just published The Aeneid for Boys and Girls. You can buy it from them for $9.95
  14. I wrote from my heart...so hopefully you read this with the gentleness intended. Please feel free to ignore if I said too much. :) I would agree with previous posters about letting narration go for now....and if you knew me and how much weight I put behind narration, then you'd know that this was saying a lot. I think she may sense the anxiety you feel about all of this. We are parents and as much as we wish we could hide it, I think that our children really do sense it. I had issues with my older daughter about reading for several years, roughly ages 9-12 or so. I could not get her to read independently books that I wanted her to read for school. This didn't improve until I changed how I handled it. Now she's just read 20 books in month or so. I'm also thinking that you should let narrations go until she feels safe expressing herself. And the reality is that all children are different and she may be of the type who never really expresses herself outwardly very much. My younger daughter is a very reflective person. When she was younger, we might go an entire dinner (a meal where we all sit down together and is expressly designed for all of us to come together....on equal footing...and share together) without saying more than one word or two. Her dad and big sister are huge talkers! :) We had to work at teaching those two talkers to have respect for other people's voices and we had to work at creating a safe place for her to express herself. My two talkers still have to be reminded a lot, but my younger daughter has found her voice. :) Does your dd express herself in the quiet of her own time? For example, does she engage in imaginative play such as with dress-up clothes, toy figures, dolls, etc? If you left lots of props around the house and sort of covertly pointed them out, would she feel free to express herself at these moments? If you brought home a crown of flowers, or even better made one with her, and then said "Hey, this reminds me of the crown that Titania wore in Midsummer Night's Dream!" And don't say more than this...just leave it out there hanging and pressure free. Would she feel free enough to wear the crown and pretend to be Titania? And maybe not at that moment, but after it had been laying on the counter for a day or two and she thought no one was watching her. If she's not the sort to enjoy dressing up, would she act out scenes or invent her own scenes with toy figures? I know that you can buy toy figures of kings, queens, knights, etc. Would she use these...on her own...when not feeling as if on display? If you could just strew lots of props and toys around and just quietly take note of her expressions, then this is narration. Does she like to draw, paint or sculpt creatively? These are also great ways for her to express herself. Would she write a letter to a grandparent or friend and tell them about what she has been doing? These are all forms of narration. If she doesn't respond well to this subtle approach then I would just let it sit for awhile. I would also spend time expressing the benefits of expression. I would not overdo but just slip in short comments every now and then. For example, when younger brother expresses his joy and delight at something he saw outside in nature, then you would listen attentively but without interruption or insertions of your own and then say something like "Your description of that butterfly was great! It brings my heart such great joy to hear about it, because I love you and everything that excites you delights me too." I would want her to see that sharing her dreams, joys and hopes are going to be nothing but supported and encouraged. I'm sure you probably already do much of this, but a whole year or more of modeling the safety and benefits of expression might help create the atmosphere she needs to move forward. :) I would let narrations, especially in the direct sense, slip to the side for now.
  15. Here are a few suggestions: Roman The Roman Colosseum by Elizabeth Mann In Search of a Homeland: The Story of the Aeneid by Penelope Lively Cleopatra by Diane Stanley Middle Ages Saladin by Diane Stanley Joan of Arc by Diane Stanley Book of Norse Myths by Ingri and Parin D'Aulaire or Nordic Gods and Heroes by Padraic Colum The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle Adventures of Marco Polo by Russell Freedman The Story of Rolf and the Viking's Bow by Allen French Arabs in the Golden Age by Mokhtar Moktefi That Men Shall Be Free: The Story of the Magna Carta by Clifford Lindsey Alderman Charlemagne by Manuel Komroff (Landmark) Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli The Arabian Nights Entertainment by Andrew Lang The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz Robin Hood by Roger L. Green or The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson
  16. We usually divide our literature book into categories. Category 1=books that I deem important enough that we read them together Category 2=books that I would like her to read but know that she enjoys and will read happily on her own and/or something that she won't mind reading and I don't mind if we don't dig deeply into it Category 3= books that are entirely of her own choice and that I don't require any output at all from Category 1 books are the books that we use for a deeper study. These are the books that we read together (as in she generally reads aloud to me) and we then discuss together. We tie writing assignments and narrations with these books. Category 2 books are books that would be nice if she read but that I know in the greater scheme of things are not going to be detrimental to her if they are not-historical fiction and other well-loved books are in this category. I only require oral narrations for these books, but with the once a week rotating written narration. So, I just ask her to pick one each week for a written narration and the rest are orally narrated for that week. Sometimes I create Book Notes and/or lessons for these books and sometimes I do not. If I do, I give her a lot of freedom to choose what she would like to narrate and am flexible enough to adapt as well. Some Category 1 books end up here-when life gets too busy, years go by and some books start to slip through the cracks LOL!-and when they do I have the comfort of knowing that they did get some attention Category 3 books are just books that she picks out. I don't do anything more than keep track of them on a list. If she tells me about it, then I listen enthusiastically. Category 1 books are where we introduce/accomplish our studies. I agree with Critterfixer, sometimes it's better to create your own teaching notes about the books, read it together and just talk about it. This way the burden of background is on you the teacher and not her the student. I introduce some very basic literary terms and story elements and throw in a few thoughtful questions and would consider this a good start. I like to pay attention to my student to test out the waters. If she seems frustrated, overwhelmed, or has the ok-mom-I've-had enough-of-this-look on her face, then I know that it's time to wrap this conversation up and save it for another time. I also like to throw a thoughtful question to her, let us discuss it only a little bit and then send her off to write about it. The discussion gets her thoughts flowing and the move to writing allows her to be alone with her own thoughts and put them down on paper. My daughters write their narrations in notebooks. I read their narrations and then write comments. I combine comments of gentle critique...such as spelling, punctuation, lack of clarity, etc.-all of this based on abilities/age-with comments of interest, delight and excitement. I might ask a question such as "I wonder why this character is behaving this way?" or "Your description of the house was so well-done. I could really see it." or "I like your choice of words in this sentence." My younger daughter eagerly awaits my reading of her narration notebooks, so that she can read my comments. :) I think that your ideas of starting with books in which she's interested is a great idea. Rosemary Sutcliff and Robin McKinley wrote some great books which retell myths and fairy tales. These might be a good starting place for comparison too. One of my older daughter's favorite books is titled A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond. This story is based on Welsh mythology.
  17. I only have some parts of our final plan ready, but I'm thinking that it will look a little like this: Math-Pre-algebra and Pre-geometry...still working out specifics of this...ETA: We're going to give Jousting Armadillos a try for now... English-Essentials of English 2 (this has grammar and comp.), narrations, dictation, commonplace book, literary terms notebook (w/Figuratively Speaking and Prose and Poetry) French-continue with Breaking the Barrier and other resources German-undecided National History-George W. World and Abe Lincoln's World Ancient History-studying Mesopotamia Science-Ellen McHenry units on cells and on elements+ The Sea Around Us, The Wonders of Physics, Asimov's Breakthroughs in Science, The Code of Life and Gregor Mendel: Father of the Science of Genetics (Science is a favorite subject.) Geography-Tree in the Trail and Minn of the Mississippi with the BF maps Arts-undecided Other-ballet, jazz, piano Literature List Big study with older sister... Fairy Tales to Fantasy Focus (currently working on a syllabus for this one)...lots of works covered in this one Shakespeare-Merchant of Venice, Macbeth and As You Like It The Trojan War Treasure Island Robinson Crusoe Age of Fable Tom Sawyer Plutarch: Timoleon, Pelopidas and Cicero (maybe Antony too)
  18. The Brave Writer Partnership approach is very similar/compatible to CM transition steps from oral to written narration. If you find these ideas helpful, then you should definitely use them. Yes, I would say that 5th grade is the ideal age for transitioning to written narration. But, oral narration never has to leave completely and there are other types of narration that allow for some variation in written outputs. Writing lists (together at first and then separately), partially written narrations (Brave Writer Partnership style), drawing diagrams and labeling them, creating maps and labeling them, writing letters, first writing summary sentences for a short selection and then putting these together for a summary paragraph and many other ideas are different ways to help the transitioning writer. I wrote a blog post recently about this very topic and will link it here, just in case you might find it helpful. http://amindinthelight.blogspot.com/search/label/Narration
  19. Yes, my older daughter is almost ready to get her braces off....:) Now we're getting ready for the younger one. She (older daughter) also said they hurt for about a week...but the pain level goes down some each day that passes. In addition to the above ideas, we also make spaghetti...her favorite....and she could cut the noodles to make it easier to eat. She loves veggie Lo-Mein too. Ice cream, frozen yogurt, smoothies, etc. are all nice treats too.
  20. If you could go to PEI, that would be so nice! It's on our bucket list too. We only studied the area through geography. I can pm you a list of the poems we studied, if you'd like. I created lessons for this study, but I haven't had a chance to polish it up for publishing yet. Let me know if you'd like anything from it and I can pm it to you. :) If you haven't seen the movie with Meagan Follows, then it might be a nice way to wrap up the study too. Also, my older daughter really enjoyed the Emily of New Moon series by L. M. Montgomery too.
  21. Thanks everyone. I'm leaning towards German now. I'm also pretty sure that dd will be okay with doing Latin later. I'm thinking we'll just give ourselves a year...maybe two for a German head start and then add Latin. Now to find books that we can use that I like or deal with adapting what I have and what I can find. :)
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