With all the excitement, and busyness of this last week, I didn't read a lot to the younger children beyond the Christmas story out the Bible. Well, that's not true either, there were a number of random books handed to me throughout the week, that I read quickly to whichever ones were standing nearby - but don't ask me to remember what they were.
With "school" officially on break, the weather too cold to make it fun to go out, and old video games looking pale, and boring in comparison to the new, hoped for arrivals, the older children had time on their hands to fill. And, happily they did turn to some books.
G (age 11), brought home several of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, from the library, which she and A (age 9) read through. I think T (age 13) might have read them too, but in more of a this-book-is-here-so-I-might-as-well-read-it kind of way. G, has not been a voracious reader, but really took to the comic book like style of this series.
It's at times like this, that I'm truly thankful for parent review sites, like Focus on the Family provides (click the link to check out their review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid).
Even if you don't totally agree with the views of the website, they provide a nice summary of books, including reading level, highlighting potential areas of interest, or concern, and offer a series of discussion questions, which if nothing else make for a nice comprehension quiz.
T (age 13), has been floundering between series. He enjoys reading, but he likes to have a series to read, and he just hasn't had one lately. Finally, in desperation, I "assigned" him C.S. Lewis' Voyage of the Dawn Treader, from the Narnia series. He read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe some time back (also at my urging), and didn't really care for it. He's not a big fantasy fan. But, I thought maybe jumping in a little later in the series, especially with the exciting movie trailers currently out, might pique his interest.
He dutifully read the book, ask a few quick vocabulary questions, and didn't mention it again. It was disappointing, but not surprising.
We will continue looking for a challenging series, that he can enjoy. In the meantime, I finally got around to reserving more titles from the Creative Minds Biography series for him.
The reading level is only 9-12, so a little easy, and not the vocabulary challenge I would like. But, in the last few weeks, he's spouted quite a few facts about Louis Pasteur.
Like, for instance, when we were discussing whether the store bought eggnog had raw eggs in it (a question from A), and whether it had been pasteurized, T went off on an entire explanation of pasteurization for his younger sister. When I ask him where he learned that, he said from the Louis Pasteur book, that I had asked him to read.
I looked it up, and it's been nearly a year since he read that book. Needless to say, I'm excited to see if the other books in the series will prove as memorable for him, easy readers or not.
Find out what other families are reading at this week's What My Child is Reading blog hop, hosted by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.
It's great to be a homeschooler.
With "school" officially on break, the weather too cold to make it fun to go out, and old video games looking pale, and boring in comparison to the new, hoped for arrivals, the older children had time on their hands to fill. And, happily they did turn to some books.
G (age 11), brought home several of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, from the library, which she and A (age 9) read through. I think T (age 13) might have read them too, but in more of a this-book-is-here-so-I-might-as-well-read-it kind of way. G, has not been a voracious reader, but really took to the comic book like style of this series.It's at times like this, that I'm truly thankful for parent review sites, like Focus on the Family provides (click the link to check out their review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid).
Even if you don't totally agree with the views of the website, they provide a nice summary of books, including reading level, highlighting potential areas of interest, or concern, and offer a series of discussion questions, which if nothing else make for a nice comprehension quiz.
T (age 13), has been floundering between series. He enjoys reading, but he likes to have a series to read, and he just hasn't had one lately. Finally, in desperation, I "assigned" him C.S. Lewis' Voyage of the Dawn Treader, from the Narnia series. He read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe some time back (also at my urging), and didn't really care for it. He's not a big fantasy fan. But, I thought maybe jumping in a little later in the series, especially with the exciting movie trailers currently out, might pique his interest.He dutifully read the book, ask a few quick vocabulary questions, and didn't mention it again. It was disappointing, but not surprising.
We will continue looking for a challenging series, that he can enjoy. In the meantime, I finally got around to reserving more titles from the Creative Minds Biography series for him.The reading level is only 9-12, so a little easy, and not the vocabulary challenge I would like. But, in the last few weeks, he's spouted quite a few facts about Louis Pasteur.
Like, for instance, when we were discussing whether the store bought eggnog had raw eggs in it (a question from A), and whether it had been pasteurized, T went off on an entire explanation of pasteurization for his younger sister. When I ask him where he learned that, he said from the Louis Pasteur book, that I had asked him to read.
I looked it up, and it's been nearly a year since he read that book. Needless to say, I'm excited to see if the other books in the series will prove as memorable for him, easy readers or not.
Find out what other families are reading at this week's What My Child is Reading blog hop, hosted by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.
It's great to be a homeschooler.
