March 24, 2009 by gracefrombrazil.

There are so many enjoyable living books one can read while doing a study on transportation. I really wanted to re-read Jules Verne’s classic Around the World in Eighty Days, but the two week time frame of unit 5 prohibited it. I found such pleasure in reading this with my children years ago.  The ending of Around the World is one of my favorites.  If you have only seen the movies than you are in for a wonderful surprise.  I hardly recognize the book in what passes as the movie renditions.  

I have had the book Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois on my shelf for sometime and since hot air balloons are covered in this unit I decided to give it a go.  Although it was not what I expected it provided some light hearted reading and inspiration during our study.  My older two children were not as entertained by it as my 9 year old but that is okay since I usually read on their level and expect my youngest one to appreciate it.  I had hoped that it would have been more factual about Krakatoa so I was disappointed.  I am glad that I did not save it for a study on volcanoes and read it now.  But what it did do was allow my daughter and me to enter into our hot air balloon making with a sense of adventure.  My daughter even added a “bamboo” house, complete with provisions, for our balloon ”The Forea-Un”. But just like the ill-fated Globe we had to also cut our shelter loose for it to gain any height. 

My son read The Wright Brothers by Charles Ludwig and had no problem finishing it so it must have been pretty good ; )

Next time I will float some other books your way…when we study famines, water and the ocean. 

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March 17, 2009 by gracefrombrazil.

One of my favorite phrases I love to hear during school time is, “Please read us more!”  When this comes from a teenager it feels more consequential.  Sharing enthralling literature is a goal of mine and when I get my children hooked I feel I have scored a significant victory.  This happened in this particular unit on history.

This unit was so enjoyable that I wished it would have spanned longer than just 2 weeks.  Because the unit was so short I was hard pressed to find a read aloud that could be done in this time frame.  I finally chose to read one of Shakespeare’s tragedies in story form, Anthony and Cleopatra.  Yes, it is one of his tragedies but we read it for it’s historical import as well.   I have a varied collection of books that have transformed Shakespeare’s plays into stories.  They are Shakespeare’s Stories (Vol. I and II) by Leon Garfield, Lamb’s Tales From Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb, and The Best of Shakespeare by E. Nesbit   Garfield was the only one who attempted Anthony and Cleopatra .  The writing was done in a way that retained Shakespeare’s flavor and some of his pithy quips.  We pondered Anthony’s words that revealed his hopeless predicament when he muttered, “Ten thousand harms my idleness doth hatch”.   And we mused over Cleopatra’s description of her prior relationship with Julius Caesar as, ”My salad days when I was green in judgement.”  With this subject matter I did use caution. There were a couple words that were for more mature readers that I skipped over.

Other books my children read were George Washington and Abraham Lincoln  by Ingri & Edgar Parin D’Aulaire, for my 3rd grader, and various selections from Great Lives, Great Deeds  published by Reader’s Digest, for both my 8th grader and high schooler.  My high schooler worked her way through Founding Father by Richard Brookhiser.  I discovered this title about George Washington recommended at www.ambleside.com so decided to try it.  My daughter found it a challenge to read.  Although it was not quick reading she  reflected on the author’s thoughts long after she had closed the book.  I hope to read it soon in order to give a better review.

 Next time, I will share about what books we traveled through in our unit on transportation.

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March 3, 2009 by gracefrombrazil.

Unit planning tops my list of favorite activities.  Poring over the objectives in the volume and the supplement,  pulling resources off my shelves, and searching out Internet helps, always stirs up my imagination and creativity.   But that is nothing compared to the actual learning, the reading together, the “aha” moments, and  the meaningful conversations that always take place as we study together.   This unit on  ”Speech, Sound and Language” opened up some areas of discovery for us.  Let me share some of them with you.

One surprise was how fascinated we all were by the book The Story of My Life by Helen Keller.  The only thing that prevented us from non-stop reading was my sore throat, from bronchitis, and lunch time hunger pangs.  I have to admit that I am a bit ambivalent towards Helen Keller.  Knowing that she became part of a cult, Swedenborganism, has always tempered my interest in her life.  But in reading about her accomplishments there is no escaping the tremendous determination and genius she displayed in overcoming substantial obstacles.  Learning Greek is difficult for most people but she added to that Latin, French and German.  She developed such a proficiency that she read works in those languages for pure enjoyment.

I was deeply impressed by how her teacher, Anne Sullivan, showed a self-sacrifice that would challenge any of us who calls herself Christian.  Would I be willing to dedicate my life, even to the detriment of my own eyesight,  so that another could succeed?  

One of the great benefits in using living books is all the extra “goodies” we get from our reading experience.  For example, through Helen Keller’s relationship with Alexander Graham Bell a whole different side of his character was revealed.  Even though we studied him as the inventor of the telephone we became aware of his deep love for children and his ongoing work with the deaf.  Helen also had special friendships with several famous writers of her era such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greeleaf Whittier and Mark Twain.  These men showed real kindness to her.  She read from Mark Twain’s own lips one or two of his tales.  She said, “I feel the twinkle of his eye in his handshake.”

A great challenge I have in using read-alouds is completing the book within the time frame of the unit.  Many times the classic I want to use is much too long to accommodate a 2 week study.  This book would have been manageable but then bronchitis set in.  In the end we were finishing up as we began our next unit.  But no one really minded.

Some other living books that I added for individual reading were, All of  A Kind Family, by Sydney Taylor for my 3rd grader,  It’s a Jungle Out There! by Ron Snell  for my 8th grader, and Fanny Crosby: The Hymn Writer  by Bernard Ruffin for my 10th grader.  Each touched on some of the objectives that were covered during the unit.

Several in my family were hit by a virus during this unit where talking became difficult and our hearing became muffled for weeks because of congestion.  I can say with conviction that we came to value those abilities with new appreciation because of all we experienced in this unit.

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