Homework, New Style

James has started to independently complete his homework! Rather than just leave him to it, I seem to get best results by being nearby, working on things of my own.

Tonight was novel: After finishing math on his own, James read aloud to me for 20 minutes while I dismantled the Christmas tree (still within the one month from Boxing Day: not bad for me). As I slowly cut the tree into pieces and loaded it into the recycling bin, James plowed through The Magic School Bus: The Electric Field Trip, making darned good decoding attempts on topics such as hydroectric power, geothermal plants, and nuclear energy. 

The big word we spent time on? Molecular. James kept at it until he nailed the pronunciation.

As I tackled the tree trunk with first the loppers, then the pruning saw, James wrote 3 sentences, all on his own. Upon review, he needed to swap verbs for the first and third sentences and completely reconstruct the middle sentence. They were simple sentences, but they covered key information about what James read. Yes!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! These books are gifts that keep on giving.

A New Moon

Found a new book for James' reading favourites:

Harold and the Purple Crayon. I loved this book too, when I was in grammar school, and made my own books about how I would use a magic crayon. I can't remember specifics, but mermaids, talking animals, and waterfalls made for exciting flights of fancy.

I can tell James was excited about this book because his reading grew almost as animated as it is for Where the Wild Things Are. I think James also enjoys being able to read a book out loud without too much difficulty. The strong visuals are appealing as well.

Meanwhile, we are down to the last 2 chapters in our Magic School Bus book!

Reading Together

For much of this Fall, I have been lax about reading with James. He has three favourite books he likes to bring out for his homework reading assignments: Where the Wild Things Are, Chicken Noodle Soup With Rice, and The Cat in the Hat.

I tried reading the library books that came home from school with him (that he supposedly picked out): Sharks, American Colonies, and another 5th-grade book about characters based on American history. After two sentences, James became violently bored and it was truly difficult to keep him focused, even sharing turns reading to each other.

So I went to our bookshelves. Goodness knows, there are enough paperbacks in this household, where almost every room sports a bookcase and the garage is a library-in-training. In James' own room, I picked out a Magic School Bus adventure: The Search for the Missing Bones. We've been reading it slowly over the past few weeks. It's just about right for James' reading level and captures his interest so he now gets excited when he sees the book cover.

With the weather getting colder, the kids getting older and tough things happening, it's sometimes hard to put aside the time for reading together for 20 minutes. But I do love our time curled up on the sofa together. Reading. Exploring. Sharing.

Summer Reading Program 2015!

Regular school's out! We've hit 100 degrees and the days are long. It's summer! Our Sonoma County Library has another wonderful theme for summer reading: Every Hero Has a Story:

For the first time in years, I got both kids to sign up the actual first week of the program. Yay, progress!! James went up to the Resource Desk and asked to sign up. He filled out his entire card as directed by the librarian and filed it away on his own. I am celebrating this independent accomplishment with mental high fives and whooping and a "nice work!" out loud.

I picked out a book for James, and then he picked one out for himself:

Minnie and Moo Go to the Moon was my choice, because it was silly and a non-threatening gateway book to reading. James pulled out Brickbeard's Treasure and gleefully waved it around. On we read!

Adventure at the Library - Ahoy!

James, outside our library.

"Come on, James, time to get your shoes on. We're going!"
"Where we going?" (with reluctance - he's on his iPad)
"Where have you been asking to go all week?"

GASP

"The Liiiiiiiibrary!!!!!!!"

Happy dance ensues.

I wish I could tell you it was for the books. But really, it was for this. They have Eye Spy on the games computer at the library.

We do check out books too, for our weekly reading log. They don't get the happy dance, but they still get a bit of the shine from visiting our local library.

Some of the books we've checked out lately:

• Aurthur: Buster's New Friend
• Peppa Pig: Busy Day at School
• Nate the Great and the Phony Clue

So far, Peppa's the favourite. So it goes.

20 Minutes of Reading, Daily

I've been trying to find new books to read with James. I am never quite sure what will catch his fancy. He adores Pete the Cat, Olivia, and Where the Wild Things Are.
 
I even got him into a Halloween book: Where's My Mummy?

As much as I love sharing these with him, I sometimes want to stretch things a bit. This week, I found a good book to try - my old copy of The Great Brain. Tonight he fell asleep, listening to a long-ago story about a boy with 2 older brothers on the frontier of America. It was great.

We Are Reading in North America!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss, and all you other cool cats who share a birthday on March 2! I love having the kids take part in Read Across America programs. It was fun to be able to do this with James' big sister, 5 years ago, and we've kept on with special reading activities since then. Having James be able to read, especially out loud to us, is quite the gift. This is because by age 3, they weren't sure he'd be able to talk, and we were advised he might never read, let alone write.

What did we do? We went to a book fair at the kids' old school, where James managed to shift focus from buying the one book he wanted (but was not for sale there) to another with a minimal fuss. He got to see some familiar people, who commented how nice it was to see him and my goodness, hadn't he grown?

James and Grandma Cille

We wrote a paragraph about our favourite holiday (Halloween) and read it out loud.

James checked out four books from his classroom library (one for each school night of the week) and we read them together at home.

His whole class got to go to school in their pajamas and read books on Friday.

And there was cake eating, but as James doesn't usually like cake at parties, that was my contribution. Well, that, and wearing hats.

What was the book James picked and has been delighting him these past 3 days? The latest Pete the Cat book:

More Summer 2012 Reading

Here are three more books that James and I read together as part of his summer reading program. We had mixed successes with this group.

"We Were Tired of Living In a House:"

James liked this book, but lost interest 2/3 of the way through the story. He liked the pictures and the adventure, but was not keen on keeping track of what they carried and lost along the way. If the book had been shorter, he probably would have liked to reread this with me.


"Cubes, Cones, Cylinders, and Spheres:"

I thought this was going to be great, as James was obsessed with shapes last year and retains an interest in them. However, there were no words in the book, and while some photos were interesting, several were also like the one directly above. James was totally not interested in talking about finding 3-D shapes in real-life photos. I think words on a page would have anchored him more to this book. Having children play with the shapes would have been best. All in all, disappointing.


"Spot Can Count:"

James' pick to take home, and by far his favourite book of the week. The pictures were engaging and Spot counted barnyard animals up to 10. An easy-to-read, engaging book for James. He loved the fold-out portions of the book that revealed the number of animals for each page. Some were missing, which sadly can happen with well-liked board books.

This coming week we selected only two books. I think that's good, as I am rereading his SpongeBob books with him as well. For the eleventy-seventh time! We'll check back later to report on our last summer reading selections.

2012 Summer Reading: What's Your Dream?

I signed both kids up for our library's Dream Big/Summer Reading program. James actually filled out his own form at the library, he was that excited. Later his sister did so at home, under maternal duress. I am having fun sharing the books. The theme is "Dream Big," which is awesome for summer reading, in my opinion.

James is now 7, and this makes the third year in a row that he's done the program. He is really into it this year! He loves me to read to him. He then insists on reading to me. He can write information on his reading log sheet and get his own stickers for books read. This is big progress.

James, writing his weekly book on his form.

I picked easy reading books for James from the tops of the shelves in the younger kids' area. He loved this first one, Lola Reads to Leo, because he loves it when his big sister reads to him! James also adores babies. Always has. The neat thing about reading a book where one child reads to another is that it made James really want to read to me. And after he read this one to me, he kept finding more to read to me. I love our library!

Love that writing practice!

 I loved the playful illustrations for his next book, The Duck Who Played Kazoo. I think James both loved the story of the lonely duck who found friends and a new home, as well as the whole kazoo angle. Because isn't it fun just to say "kazoo"? James loves music and silly things, so being able to make a kazoo sound on each page as it sings a slightly different song (to match the duck's emotions) was super fun too.

We checked out three books for this coming week. I'll let you know how that works out.

Calm Interlude

James overslept this morning. I actually had to wake him up for school. It's so unusual for him to sleep in and not be sick -- it's maybe the 4th time that I can recall having to do this.

He actually talked with me, asking where his Daddy was and if he could say goodbye to him (before he left for work). When I told him his Daddy had already left, he asked if his sister had said goodbye to Daddy, and seemed relieved when I said yes. Then he climbed into my lap nad snuggled with me.

I was struck again with the semi novelty of having James be my buddy, the way his big sister was. It's not that we didn't love each other. There was just no reaching out on is part and establishing a close relationship like this before. James is actively participating, and I just love it.

For a change, James was calm through a shortened breakfast and school prep morning. His sister's testiness did not phase him, as it has on other mornings. He read his books instead. On the sofa, in the car, and after school while we ran errands and then came home.

His aide and teacher both said he had a great day, concentrating well and doing lots of classwork. He even reminded the students to sing Happy Birthday for their classmate. While I was talking with his aide after school, he went up to kids he knew and tried to socialize with them, instead of trying to wander off or fall on the ground, wailing "I want to go HOME!"

He ate a good dinner and cheerfully submitted to doing about half an hour of homework (after the token "NO!!!" and trying to run away to the nearest, plushest piece of upholstered furniture). He took his evening meds and asked me to read to him - another new and unusual thing for him to do. He even produced the books and listened with the biggest smile.

His Daddy came home just as we finished up, so they got to spend some time with each other. He fell asleep soon after. As I tucked the blankets around him and got ready to close his door, I picked his 2 books off the bed and put them on the table.

These guys have been with him all day!

After the upset of last week and weekend, it's so nice to see James calm and happy again. Doing to well. Being my Buddy.

Revelling in Roald Dahl

James' big sister is on a Roald Dahl streak. She discovered the animated version of "James and the Giant Peach" and loved it. I was looking for a new book to tempt her to a reading level higher than Junie B. Jones and brought out my copy of "Mathilda." She loved it. We spent several happy nights reading that together at bedtime. Then I found the movie in VHS format for $1, so both kids watched it many times, howling with laughter.

Knowing her interest in magic, witches, and irreverent humour, I next brought home "The Witches" from our local library. I didn't know if it might be too scary -- but no, she loved that one too, each and every night. Then she found my Tim Burton version of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and had to watch it. She likes that plenty too.

James has been quietly absorbing this. There are nights when he's in bed but still awake when I start reading bedtime stories to his sister. He rarely lets me read to him, but he loves listening one room away to us reading together - go figure. He has enjoyed the movies and insisted on watching them.

By far his favourite is the Tim Burton movie, and allllll the Special Features. He's started to quote from the movie, hums the Agustus Gloop song, and dance around with the Oompa-Loompas. He introduces himself as Willie Wonka (and now wants to be him for Halloween) and will watch that film 5 times a day, if we didn't stop him. Today he got hold of my phone camera and took a picture while the movie was playing:

You should have seen the glee on his face!

Mr Burton, how young do you accept interns and apprentices? You have a huge fan boy here on the west coast. And thank you, Roald Dahl, for knowing and sharing.

P.S.: I can hardly wait to see how they like "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator" somewhere down the road. Those vermicious knids are awesome. And they can spell, too.

A Book Fair Farewell

Last week after homework and dinner, the kids put on their jammies and I took them ... to James' School Book Fair!

    

Yes, James' school has a pajama party in their library to drum up support for the book fair. It's a great social time that first Big Sister, then James enjoyed; this is our fourth and (sadly) last year of attending. Cookies and milk are handed out to the kids, and a storyteller arrives to read from books and sing songs with the kids in an adjoining room. Teachers post wish lists and greet their students and families. Parents get to nod hello, catch up, and start some of that pesky holiday shopping (well, if you're me you do).

On a sad note, both of Big Sister's former teachers were not there this year, due to extreme budget cuts. But there were still friendly faces and some happy times out after dark! We bought a book for James' first grade classroom and then one book for James. He's been talking about it all week.

Ready?

Magic Marker Monday: Colourful Reading

I have to say that between Speech Therapy and his First Grade Teacher, James has some awesomely creative books to read. Recently, he actually made the book he was then assigned to read. I absolutely love this idea, and can see it working in many different ways.

A Real-life Reading Rainbow

It looks like the teacher printed out several sentences on a sheet of paper, which the kids then cut out, matched, and glued to the appropriate "crayon" page. Very good for working those mad scissor skillz, my friend!

The pages are then placed in the "box," which is more like a simple pouch made of 2 pieces of construction paper.

James' assignment was to then take his book home and read it four times. Could be one person, could be four different people. The listener signs off after each reading. He's read once to each of us at home, which leaves room for reading to his grandparents this week. He is so excited to be the one reading to us for a change!

I can hardly wait for the next one to come home.

For more great masterpieces or to share some of your own, visit 5 Minutes for Special Needs for more Magic Marker Monday.

How Sweet It Is!

This boy is reading!!!

Reading Together

As posted earlier, I was pleased to see that reading was high on the vacation activities list. It's so much easier to pack books than toys, and it's better than watching TV or movies. Big sister gets to practice reading and leadership ... little brother wants to grow up to be just like her. Plus, they have an activity they like to do together:

There was an added bonus to this, in that both of their schools had a Scholastic Book Fair in the week before we left. I got each of them 2 books for the trip and their libraries and their schools got free books. They got the surprise of a "present" and we had the satisfaction of providing a gift that will keep on giving. Even if it's about SpongeBob.

Summer Reading Program

We have loved the Summer Reading Club put on by our local Library for several summers. James has watched his big sister participate, and this year he signed up for the first time and read a book every week.

Besides getting to know the library and librarians better, there were actual prizes! Book bags and picking out a book of his own at the completion of the program.

Today we filled out his last entry, and James picked out this book:

I think it's a wonderful choice, because this truly is what he's interested in right now.


Here is his Summer Reading list:
Week 1: Sign up
Week 2: Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom (also read at summer school)
Week 3: Five Little Monkeys (also read at summer school)
Week 4: Teddy Bears Take the Train
Week 5: The Very Hungry Caterpillar (also read at summer school)
Week 6: How Does a Dinosaur Say Goodnight? (renewed interest from Dino summer camp)
Week 7: Henry's Show and Tell (sister picked out for him)
Week 8: Olivia's Opposites

I Spy ... a Pigsty

There are days when I feel like I am running all day after the kids, trying to clean up after them (and their disasters), or overseeing their efforts to pick up after every meal or play session. There are even rare days when I can just about break even (those are probably the days spent largely outdoors).

But mostly? Our family room and the kids' bedrooms resemble the Real Life version of I Spy:

You know -- it started out as a clever series of books. It's probably a game on CD ROM or an iPhone app by now ...

 

And James is really liking the books right now. It lets him practice things he's covered in school, like colours, numbers, and names of objects. When he's gotten frustreated adn ripped off covers of some of his board books (and eaten them) ... the I Spy books escape mauling (knock wood).

"Who me? Harm a book? Naaaahhh!"


I like these books because they are great resources for getting James to talk with me. He related to a lot of the exciting objects in the books. If only he related to cleaning them up and putting them away on his own in the Real Life version ...

Magic Marker Monday: Hungry for a Story

James' summer preschool session is over. The teacher for this session was also a reading specialist. I really appreciated the fact that she took the time to read with James, and have him start to work on tracing his letters. James brought home a wonderful little book that he'd been working on that month in class. Most appropriately, it was The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Last summer, James made the caterpillar with his SHAPE assistant here at home. It's still hanging on the wall over his bed. How exciting to see it here again, with his bigger handprints, in a book!

I like how it starts simply. These kids have been working on shapes, colours, and basic words for over a year.

I love all the dynamic colours on the caterpillar page. Even though some of the trickier shapes have been cut out for the kids, I know James loved gluing them down and seeing words under what he did.

"I like ..." -- how powerful this is. Makes me think I should do little "I like" books with both my kids.

I love the progression with both numbers and story here. I am guessing this makes a lot of sense to James. More so than simply hearing the story read to him.

Visit 5 Minutes for Special Needs for more Magic Marker Monday creations.



  

Special Exposure / Wordless Weds: Books

James has a new book love:


Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!
Will ya go to bed soon?

(not likely!)

For more great images or to join in the fun, Visit Special Exposure Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.

and ... Wordless Wednesday

Social Stories: Draft

For James' Birthday:

My name is James.

I am four years old.

Soon, I will have a birthday.

A birthday is a special day to remember the day I was born.

On birthdays, many people get presents, birthday cards, and a cake.

Sometimes, they also have a party.

A party is where people come together to celebrate something.

This year, I will have my family at my birthday party.

When I was born, I was a baby.

This is what I looked like on my first birthday.

This is what I looked like on my second birthday.

This is what I looked like on my third birthday.

On my fourth birthday, I had a party with my school friends at a pizza restaurant. We played games.

This year, I will be five years old.

Now that I am five, I can ...