Reading to the Kids

Today is Wednesday, and Wednesday mornings are for taking care of the homeschool kids while their moms are in the Bible study, and one of the best parts is reading to the little guys (5-6 years old).

Today was a very good day because, after a month of various illnesses, most of my littlest lambs were back. Also, we read 4 books, so they were very happy.

Our books for today:

Ol' Mama Squirrel by David Ezra Stein

When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Diane Goode

ish by Peter H. Reynolds

My Daddy is a Cowboy by Stephanie Seales, illustrated by C.G. Esperanza

The children were full of energy, questions, and comments this morning. There were a lot of requests to see something in the picture, to know who the person was, to know why someone did something, to know what was going to happen.... I finally asked, "Do you know how books work? I read, you listen, and then you'll find out!" But I wasn't actually feeling impatient with them; I was more amused at their chatter.

There were also judgements of the characters ("He's not being nice to his sister"), misunderstandings ("Why did he throw out her pictures?" "He didn't; he threw out his own pictures and she rescued them"), and random thoughts ("I'm going swimming today!").

The best was when we got to the last book, My Daddy is a Cowboy. They had so many questions and comments about the people and the horses and the people who weren't even in the story and the cake in the shop window. Every page elicited more questions and comments.

Then we got to the line where the little girl talks about her daddy telling her stories about his childhood and says, "I listen closely and only interrupt five times to ask questions." 

And my sweet lambs thought that five times was a lot and that she shouldn't interrupt. I just laughed at them and kept going.

Wednesday morning story time is one of my favourite times.

Wednesday Morning

 The women's study at the church has started again, and that means I get to be with my homeschool kids again on Wednesday mornings!

There was the usual first day chaos, with things not quite set up and children going to the wrong rooms (despite the email that told their moms exactly which room they were in). There was also some "but that child told me we were in this room" nonsense. Don't listen to the other children; listen to the person who set up the rooms! There was also one unregistered child who showed up, but since he was with the junior high kids, there was plenty of room for him.

After things settled, I was able to spend some time with the four rooms of elementary aged children. We played fast games of "Pets" trivia (courtesy of Professor Noggin, maker of many, many sets of trivia cards). I had time to read to the little ones as well. 

Reading to the little ones is my favourite part of the morning. There are around 12 of them and they're all 5 and 6 years old and they love story time. This week we read The Many Problems of Rochel-Leah by Jane Yolen, which I have written about previously; The Pigeon Needs a Bath by Mo Willems, which is just as funny as all the pigeon books; and Annie and the Wild Animals by Jan Brett, which is a fun story with excellent illustrations. It was an excellent start to the year with some of our favourite authors.

I am so happy to be caring for my little (and not-so-little) lambs once more!

Reading to the Kids

One of our favourite authors in the homeschool room is Mo Willems. Although until today the kids didn't realize how many of his books we'd read; they don't keep track of authors, just books that they enjoy!

Since September we have read:

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

Knuffle Bunny

Knuffle Bunny Too

Leonardo the Terrible Monster

The Pigeon Will Ride the Rollercoaster

Sam the Most Scaredy-Cat Kid in the World

That is NOT a Good Idea

The Duckling Gets a Cookie?

and today we added Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs to the list.

The kids love them. The slightly older kids (7-9 or so) get more jokes than the little ones (5-6), but they all enjoy the stories. I like some of the extra little jokes that all the kids miss, like the Go Asteroids! sports poster on the wall in the dinosaur's bedroom.

Mo Willems writes and illustrates good, fun stories that can be enjoyed by both parents and children. I'm very happy that I found one of his books on a list of best Caldicott Medal books and started looking for more.

Picture Books

It's still early in the year so I haven't read too many books to the Wednesday morning gang, but we already have some favourites.

In the fall we read A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead, illustrated by Erin E. Stead. This year we added Amos McGee Misses the Bus to the list and they were quite pleased to have another story about Amos McGee and the zoo animals. I had cries of "I remember that man!" as I started the book.

They enjoyed Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein. They were quite vocal every time Little Chicken interrupted his bedtime stories! I think the slightly older group enjoyed it more (at least they were louder in their denials when Little Chicken kept insisting that he wouldn't interrupt the next story).

The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read by Rita L. Hubbard and illustrated by Oge Mora was a bit different as it was a true story. I had to explain a few things about slavery and why Mary Walker had to work so hard even when she was free. They seemed very interested in her life and were pleased when she could read.

I have never had some of them laugh so hard as when I read them Dodsworth in New York by Tim Egan last week. They absolutely love the crazy duck character and were incredibly pleased to learn that there are at least three more books in the series. Happily, I was able to get the next one for tomorrow, so I should have a happy gang.

From a Helper

Most of my homeschool and Sunday School stories come from the kids, but this one comes from one of the helpers! He is only 16 and many of my earlier stories were about him, so it's no surprise that he's still coming up in "things the kids say".

Anyway, I was with my older group of younger kids when this particular helper came from his room across the hall to talk with me. The conversation went something like this:

Him: I need to leave the room for a couple minutes.

Me: No you don't.

Him: I need to get some water.

Me: You're supposed to do that before we start.

Him: I know, but there's something wrong with my coffee. There's something strange in it.

Me (and the children): <guessing random things that may be in his coffee>

Him: No, there's something black in my coffee.

Me: Is it coffee?

Him: No, it's like black bits in the coffee.

Me: So coffee grounds?

Him: Oh...yeah....I didn't think of that!

Me: You were concerned because there was coffee in your coffee?

Him: I was wondering of the sugar could go bad or something.

He left and returned to his room while we laughed and then returned to our game.

A Year of Picture Books

It is almost the end of the year, so it's time to post my best books of 2024. I'm starting with picture books because they make up around 40% of books read this year. I read them to my Wednesday morning kids, and this year we got through 65 books. My goal has been to read different books each week and I managed to not repeat any books thanks to my collection, a couple friends lending books, and the Best of Caldecott list combined with the public library. My goal for next year is to continue to find new books to read.

It's very difficult to tell you the best of the 65 because there were many, many good books, but I'll give you some the the kids seemed to really enjoy. The books are a mix of old and new and the audience ranged from 5-8 years old.

One series favourite was the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie books with their many variants by Laura Numenoff and illustrated by Felicia Bond. Whatever you are giving to the animals (a pancake or a party for the pig; a donut for the dog; a muffin for the moose; a cupcake for the cat, etc.), the kids love them.

Robert Munsch is always a favourite (with Michael Martchenko illustrating); we read Jonathan Cleaned Up; The Paperbag Princess; and Angela's Airplane.

One particularly silly book that we read was this year was Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis. The entire book is written in this invented "insect language" and has wonderful (although simple) illustrations that also tell the story. The kids absolutely loved it! They could follow the story well enough with the pictures and found the nonsense words hilarious. 

Other books that we really enjoyed:

Knight Owl by Christopher Denise

The Mitten by Jan Brett

Something From Nothing by Phoebe Gilman

A Frog Thing by Eric Drachman, illustrated by James Muscavello

Friday Night at Hodge's Cafe by Tim Egan

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McClosky

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Mell Fell by Corey R. Tabor (also by the same author: Snail Crossing and Simon and the Better Bone)

A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead, illustrated by Erin E. Stead

Kitten's First Full Moon by Keven Henkes

Pigeon Pie, Oh My! by Debbie Singleton, illustrated by Kristyna Litten

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmeiri

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Williams

Wednesday Mornings

With the arrival of fall came the start of the women's study at church. There are over 100 women registered for the morning sessions, which had given me around 72 children to care for. It's a bit crowded in places, but I managed to fit everyone in.

My older boys are unsupervised this year; they have been told that if they behave properly, I will not need to find an adult to watch them. If there is trouble, they will have an adult in the room with them. We're two weeks in and they're doing okay!

The rest of the groups are running normally. The older girls (a group that suddenly includes the older 10 and 11 year old girls with the junior high -- high school girls attend the study) are on their own as always and doing well. I may need to find a little more time to spend with them as they are a slightly younger group. The other three groups have some older teens supervising them, and I spend some time with them as well. The oldest ones get trivia games; the littles get story time; and the middles get a story and then trivia. It's a lot of fun.

Next week is a fellowship week. The ladies bring food and spend the first hour or so in fellowship and brunch and the second hour with a guest speaker or in a special prayer time. My kids spend an hour working and then have game, craft, and play time. It's a lot of fun (even though it leaves me extra tired!).

I really, really love spending this time with my homeschool groups. There's always a lot of laughter and it's just fun for everyone.

The Last Day

Wednesday morning women's study ended today, a couple weeks earlier than planned. That means the end of my Wednesday morning homeschool rooms. I brought them suckers to celebrate surviving another year, so the kids were happy. I'm good with a break now, although I know I'll miss them by the time we start up again in the fall.

This year I read at least 44 picture books to the little kids. Between the middles and the board room kids, we played around 42 trivia games from around 16 decks. We also did a variety of crafts with varying levels of success. They would like to do most of them again: the puzzles, puppets, cards, and woven friendship bracelets. 

I already have a stack of books on my "for later" list at the library to start us off in the fall, as well as a list to look for at used books stores this summer. I would like to find more trivia cards since we're missing at least half the set, although they are hard to find (at least for a price I'm willing to pay). I have more craft ideas running through my head as well.

So I'm ready for a break and planning for fall all at the same time! I really love my homeschool kids and I love Wednesday mornings.

Wednesday Morning

Yesterday my board room helper was not available (he was at a family reunion) so I had decided to grab one of the other big boys to help. Of course the least responsible, most likely to either be too bossy or just talk the whole time, young man wanted to help! I turned him down and got one of the boys I wanted instead: one of the oldest in his family, responsible, and likely to do his work and make sure the others did theirs. 

Our trivia cards were about reptiles and amphibians. We had fun, and I made sure they knew the difference between poisonous and venomous creatures. They tried to name every turtle some variation of "Giant, Huge, Enormous Turtle" only to find that they were actually named things like "Green Turtle" and "Leatherback Turtle". One young girl had both of her older brothers in the room and they kept suggesting the wrong answers when it was her turn...and she kept believing them! My middle group boys thought it was funny when I referred to them as the "unusual reptiles" (the girls thought it was hilarious). 

My little ones enjoyed Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin (written by Chieri Uegaki and illustrated by Qin Leng), although they thought her brothers were very mean to her (they were at the beginning). They also liked the story A New Coat For Anna (written by Harriet Ziefert and illustrated by Anita Lobel), especially seeing the sheep, the spinner, and the weaver. I try to make sure that the children will enjoy both the story and the illustrations, and these were definitely successful. 

In all, it was a good Wednesday morning.

A Word of Advice

If you find yourself caring for a group of 7-10 year-olds, and for some reason decide that making friendship bracelets is a good idea (because they have been asking to make them): stop and reconsider! Maybe another activity will be better.

But if you do it anyway, have the thread precut to save time, have everyone make the same pattern (especially if most of them don't know what they're doing), and be prepared to repeat the same instructions at least 87 times in the hour.

(This might be mostly for myself so I remember this for next time.)

Something from Nothing

Last week I read the little guys Something from Nothing by Phoebe Gilman. It's a retelling of a Jewish folktale about a grandpa and his small grandson, Joseph who firmly believes that Grandpa can fix anything. Grandpa made a blanket for baby Joseph, and as Joseph grows the blanket becomes tattered and worn and mom wants to throw it out. Joseph brings it to Grandpa who makes it into a coat for Joseph. The story is basically how Grandpa keeps making new (and smaller) things as the items too small, dirty or tattered. I won't tell you the end!

It's a pretty simple story with a lot of repetition, but the kids seemed to really enjoy seeing what Grandpa could make. The illustrations are wonderful as well. There's so much to see on each page and I had to make sure to take time for everyone to see everything. A family of mice live under the house and use the scraps of fabric from Grandpa's sewing for pretty much everything, including blankets, clothes, curtains, and a tablecloth.

It's a delightful story with delightful pictures.

A Story From the Kids

 Yesterday we had only a few minutes left after I finished reading the second book to the little guys. I didn't want to start a new book, so I suggested that they tell me a story.

First they amused themselves by telling "stories" that were variations on "Once upon a time there was a knight. The end!" These seemed to be incredibly funny to them, especially when they used someone's name instead of a knight.

Finally one young man started a story: 

"Once upon a time there was a knight and a prince, but he said that he could be a knight too. They went into a forest and there was a bear."

At this point he seemed to be stuck, so I suggested the game where everyone tells a bit of the story. They loved the idea, so I had the next person in line continue. 

As the story progressed, the bear found some honey, but he was stung by bees. He ran away and then the knights killed the bees. The knights returned to the castle. Then seven bears came so the knights went back outside and were surrounded by bears.

That's when the moms started coming to pick up their kids, so I don't know what happened next! 

Wednesday Mornings

Wednesday mornings are women's ministry time at the church. I have a pile of homeschool kids to care for those days. I'm not sure how many of them there are; some who were registered have never attended and others started late and I just deal with each week as it come! The children are supposed to come with 2 hours of work, although I'm pretty flexible about "work" as long as they are doing something quiet and independent.

My groups:

1. The older girls (the 11 and older group) meet in a corner of the auditorium. They're technically unsupervised, but with a group of ladies meeting across the room, I'm not too worried about them!
2. The older boys (the 12 and older group) meet in a classroom and are supervised by one of the dads who is also one of our pastors. Past experience has shown that this group should not be left alone as they tend to neglect any school work as they get louder and louder.
3. The little guys (5 and 6 years old) have a couple of the young ladies supervising them and helping them with work. There's a lot of colouring going on in that room and probably more chatting than there should be, but they are very small. They're also the exception to "bring 2 hours of work"; after the mid-morning break, we have activities for them to enjoy.
4. The middle group (somewhere around 6-8 years old, with a couple older ones thrown in) are sometimes supervised and sometimes not, depending on whether or not I can get one of the older girls to help. They're pretty good on their own; they're old enough to do their work and young enough to feel very grown up when I leave them alone!
5. The boardroom kids (around 9-11 years old) have a couple boys who were causing some trouble by talking too much and being inappropriate (bathroom talk and pictures), so one of the high school boys supervises them now. When he's not available, they try very hard to prove that they can behave on their own!

Those are my kids and I love hanging out with them, although I don't spend much time with the older kids. The study runs from 9:30-11:30, and my morning is broken up into 30-minute blocks. The first block is for making sure everyone is settled; helping with computer issues for the older kids (and reminding them that their technology is only to be used for school purposes); doing a quick check on the older girls to say hi, make sure all is well and answer any school questions they may have; making sure the activities are ready for the littles; making sure there is extra work for any middles who finish early; going over things with the middles (I'll be in the board room, if there's a real emergency go across the hall and get Pastor Adam first, you can take your break when the big hand is on the 5); and greeting the latecomers.

Then it gets fun. The next two blocks are trivia times, first with the boardroom kids and then with the middles. We like Professor Noggin and have many, many decks of nature, countries, history, and science cards. There is a lot of laughter, some arguments (fewer now that "argue with Miss Dorothy about the answer will result in your team losing a card), stories based on the questions, and a general increase in the knowledge of random facts. This month we added the Human Body deck, so there's also some appreciation of the more disgusting information!

Between the two groups is break time (10 minutes regardless of when they start; the boardroom group sometimes goes over a bit as we're finishing the game). When I finish with the boardroom kids, I pop in to let the older boys know they can take their break and to talk with them for a couple minutes. The other groups know when to start their break (I suspect that Pastor Adam does as well, but he waits for me to come anyway). 

After I finish playing trivia with the middles, I stop by the littles' room to tell them to tidy up whatever activities they've been doing and I'll be back after I check in with the boardroom kids. I do a quick check to see that all is well and answer any questions they may have, and then head back to my littles for story time. Depending on how long I take in the boardroom either they're just finishing tidying up or I have a row of students sitting on the tables waiting for me (sitting on the table is a story time treat). We read and discuss the books until the moms show up and another Wednesday morning comes to an end!

Teaching Math

It's math month in the home school room. The first week, we learned about Euclid and some geometry (shapes, perimeter, angles, and symmetry). The second week, we learned about Pythagoras and his theorem, as well as odd/even numbers, triangular numbers, and perfect numbers. Next week, we're learning about Fibonacci so we can see the beauty of the Fibonacci sequence. There's a bit of adding and subtracting thrown in, and basically fun with numbers.

The most fun part is teaching the little kids (grades 1-3) things like the Pythagorean theorem and how to do square numbers and all sort of math that they've never heard about. They have no clue what I'm talking about, and I'm not sure how much they remember (although they could all explain right angles to me a week after I taught it, so there's that), but they just have so much enthusiasm for it, and they're so delighted when they understand something. They haven't reached a point where they think that they can't do it, so they listen eagerly and make the connections and love it!

Seriously, we have this conversation all the time:
One (or more) of them: I don't understand that.
Me: I know, but I'm going to explain it to you, okay?
Them: Okay!

And then I explain it, and they get it (to whatever extent), and we're all happy.

It's a bit more challenging with the bigger kids who already know that some learning is really hard, but even they try learning what I'm teaching. The best part is that they aren't afraid to say when they don't understand, so I can try again. And some of them already know some of what I'm teaching (and most of them can do the basic math behind the concepts), so that helps.

So far, math month has been a lot of fun.

Book Month

On Wednesday mornings, we have the Ladies' Study at the church. Because we have a large number of homeschool families, part of our child care is the homeschool room. This is my responsibility, and I love it.

I actually have 2 rooms: grades 1-3 (formerly grades 1-4, but it became necessary to move the grade 4 student up to the big kids' room, much to their delight) and grades 4 and up. For the first hour, I teach the little kids while the big kids do school work, and then in the second hour we switch.

Every month I have a theme of sorts for what I'm teaching them. September/October we combined into church history months, culminating with Martin Luther on Reformation Day. November was geography month, and they did country projects. December we were off. January was astronomy month, and we had fun learning about stars and planets and the size of our solar system and galaxy.

This month is book month. I told them to bring books to read (or look at for my smallest students). For the smaller students, I had them read quietly for the first 30 minutes, and then my helper read them a story, and I finished with another story. The big kids had to read for the first 30 minutes, and then had a choice to keep reading or to start writing/drawing a book. I wouldn't let them just sit and colour; the choice was "read a book or make a book".

I have never heard my homeschool rooms so quiet, even the little guys (although it was a bit noisier as they can't all read in their heads just yet so there was a lot of whisper reading). It was beautiful, and I got to relax and read as well. I'm pretty sure this was my best idea yet. I wonder if we can keep book month going for the rest of the year?