Summer Reading - Done

School starts two weeks from now. Let me just say: "YIKES, that was fast!"

Last week James finished up his Summer Reading list. Seems like just the other day we were filling out that form to get him started! Below are the last two books we read together, and his list from the summer:

"Soon, Baboon, Soon," by David Horowitz:

Interesting cover; I think James liked his nose and the hi-hat.

End papers; I kind of wish they had kids' curtains in this pattern.

Love all that energy ... and then there's Mr. Sad Baboon ...

The artwork was engaging, with it's bright colours and fun with onomatopoeic text. James did love reading those words and identifying the instruments. The end left him smiling too. Not a lot of challenge, but it engaged him, and was still good practice reading.


"Thump, Quack, Moo - A whacky adventure," by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin:

James zoomed in on the hammer; ever since he won that raffle, he's become interested in tools

This page made me a little nervous - James loves to cut things with scissors and almost no common sense.
Still, reading is reading, right?

Love this picture. It feels familiar -- James as the mischievous duck and Farmer Mom, mapping out plans that gang quack a-gley. Seriously, I am heck-bent on plotting for his success for James to live an independent life, and I need to remind myself that he has his own list of wants and ideas that should be consulted.

James lost interest in this book here and there. He did love all the animals using tools and liked to join in the chorus of "thump, quack, moo!" There is a nice little surprise fold-out page at the end. Fun for me but I had to try and explain it to James. National icons are a bit too abstract for his interest at this stage, shall we say. He did like the fold-out page.


So thanks, library -- we enjoyed your summer reading program yet again! James got to pick out a book of his very own as a prize for completing his reading. It was an easy reader chapter book and had a soccer ball on the cover. He grabbed it and I haven't seen it since he started rifling the pages in the car. If I find it, I'll try and post it later.

Here is his list -- including his own writing:

Love drawings like these!

Dreaming Big, all summer long!

Here's the list:

1. Lola Reads to Leo
2. The Duck Who Played Kazoo
3. Spot Can Count
4. We Were Tired of Living In A House
5. Cubes, Cones, Cylinders, and Spheres
6. Soon, Baboon, Soon
7. Thump, Quack, Moo

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.

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

Summer Reading: Senior Year

 It's summer. I love reading. I loved getting my kids into our library's summer reading programs. James prefers to be read to and only certain books. Like many activity, he prefers to not do this with me any more, but will do so with others.

Our beloved, local independent book store is having to close. I chose two books for James, and he seems to like including them with his ABA sessions (in addition to the eternal Matilda, by Roald Dahl).

Bad Kitty Gets A Bath

HiLo - The Great Big Boom

As someone who started a voracious reading habit at age 7, it's hard to have kids who are not the same. That will not stop me from offering it, and trying to engage them in the fun that can be had. Reading is reading, no matter the level.

Summer Reading 2014: Catching Up

Summer school is over for the year already. No cherries but plenty of plums to deal with in the back yard during a drought. I made plum jam for the first time! James is part of our wonderful library's Summer Reading Program. I did sign him up and he has been doing the reading, I just haven't been going to update his card - gah!

We are lucky to have an in-home daycare person who loves books and reading. It's actually her regular job when school's in session. Over a break-in period of several days, she recommended activities and books to read. The grammar series by Brian P. Cleary is a hoot and fun to read. It rhymes like Dr. Seuss and had brilliant illustrations.

 

What sets them apart for me is how well they visually parse sentences. In "Hairy, Scary, Ordinary," all the adjectives are in colour and the rest of the sentence text is black. The Nouns pop out in a sort of Technicolour riot across the pages of "A Mink, A Fink, A Skating Rink."

 

The self-proclaimed Word Nerd also has a marvelous website, which like the books is filled with the energetic and engaging illustrations from Jenya Prosmitsky. The content on the site is rich, and includes games and tests.

We're off and reading!

Magic Marker Monday: Library Art

We've caught up with our reading weeks for the library's summer reading program. Once we get about four weeks in, the prizes start happening. Prizes! As in, additional prize on top of having access to a free library in the first place, with Read-to-a-Dog programs, puppet shows, story times, and computer edutainment games.

James and his sister both received book bags, with crayons to colour a picture of their summer reading dreams on the outside. I loved them both, so here they are:

 James scribbled dutifully in each colour. When pressed to reveal his dream, he said "Reading to Leo." Neat!

Big Sister's was more intense:

"Is that a carrot?" I asked her.
"No mom, it's a bomb to sink the ships," my darling Tank Girl replied.

Bombs being dropped on whaling ships to stop the whale hunting. See the whale getting away while she cheers? I think we'll be checking out some Green Peace books next.

The librarian was impressed and called her bag design concept the most original she'd seen all summer. Then she helped her pick out books on gorillas, whales, and human evolution. I seriously Heart our local library and librarians.


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

                               

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.

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!

Summer Reading Rewards

On our visit to the library last week we updated our Reading Lists for the 2012 Summer Reading program. Because both kids earned their week 5 stickers, they received gift certificates for some frozen yogurt from a newly opened shop that was just across the Town Green. As it was about 90 degrees out, this was a welcome reward.

I had trouble keeping James focused on writing the titles on his list ...

... because the Blues Clues game (see top of image) suddenly became available.

Yodeling for yogurt.

Mmmmmmm, yoooooogurt. Vanilla, comme toujours.

Thank you, Windsor Library and Yogurt Farms, for making literature delicious and delightful for the next generation!

Summer Reading Program 2016

Last week I signed James up for the Summer Reading Program at our wonderful library branch. This will be a good time to just sit together unplugged and read.

Our first two books:

The Big Honey Hunt (the Berenstain Bears - James' choice)

 

Horrible Harry Goes Cuckoo (my choice; I thought James would identify with the challenges of keeping still)

Oh boy!

Field Trip: Library!

We have some truly wonderful childrens' librarians at our local branch, as they love to help children discover all the wonderful things they can find in books. They are so patient with kids in their library and answer all their questions. In fact,one gets the feeling they prefer it to be full of the upcoming generations.

They set up great programs, like Read to a Dog, and regularly have interesting people come perform for the children, such as magicians and acrobats. Harry Potter festivities are plentiful and joyous. My kids have become very accustomed to visits there.

When they toured my daughter's Kindergarten class, to invite all the children to come and participate in their fabulous summer reading program, I thought that maybe it would be a good idea for James' preschool class to get some library exposure. To put it bluntly, I badgered his teacher for months until one morning she told me she had spoken with the librarian and that they had booked a field trip to the library for a reading and library tour.

Today was the day! Even though I was getting over a cold and the weather was grey & drizzling, there was no way I was going to miss this:

Saying hello to the creek below. This is a must do on all their outings!





Exploring the cool library alphabet rug





Reading the Very Hungry Caterpillar, with the help of a felt board!



Surprise butterfly hand puppet at the end (big hit)!



Every kid received an "I visited my library today" sticker, which they were all excited to put on their shirts! Then we had a tour of the entire library (it's actually not that big) and the kids got to explore the preschool book corner & puzzle table.


The librarians were excited too, because they were participating in the effort to get a million people to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar today, and they got to register our whole group!

Slamming Into Summer

So seventh grade ended up badly. That's all I will say in this post. Suffice to say that come August James will be in a new school and new school district. Meanwhile, I am getting used to Teen James, who is now almost 5' 10" at 13 & 5 months. Still a picky eater, so he is a handsome beanpole. He no longer calls out "Help me! HELP Me!!!!" when I wash his hair, but hygiene is still a struggle. He's learned to do his own laundry at a coin-op facility and is learning to rule the vacuum cleaner. As for myself... after dealing with all the schtuff I don't post about explicitly online for way too many years, I am tired.

Meanwhile, this happens to be THE Best summer school he has had in well over over four years. First the classes are at the high school campus, away from the noise and confusion of the previous location (six years running). Second, the teacher is giving them all life skills: cooking, taking the bus,  filling out a job application, and buying things in the store ... what is not to love? Third, he likes the older kids and the teacher.

I am wrangling summer reading on the side.

Still dealing with way too much spitting and use of tissue and toilet paper. Also clogging toilets when upset about things. Trying to get ABA going. Still working full time. Still dealing with end of life and major health issues in my family. Still calling and writing those nuts in DC about how I feel about our current status for education, healthcare, and immigration. And that damned tax bill.

Thank goodness for good friends, good books, and Marvel movies!

And so it goes.

Try It Tuesday: Special Olympics, Special Lady, Special Kids

I don't know much about Eunice Kennedy Shriver, but I had the pleasure of volunteering for the Special Olympics in HS (early 1980s) and in reading about her in the papers today I am impressed with her work to teach, encourage, and challenge special needs kids.

Then these paragraphs caught my eye:

The next generation of the Kennedys often cited Eunice as the family member they looked up to most.

...

Yet Shriver, the mother of four sons and a daughter, thoroughly believed "in motherhood as the nourishment of life," once writing that "it is the most wonderful, satisfying thing we can do."

...

"If I [had] never met Rosemary, never known anything about handicapped children, how would I have ever found out? Because nobody accepted them anyplace." (Eunice Shriver)

...

In 1961, Eunice Shriver turned Timberlawn, the family farm in Maryland, into a free day camp for mentally disabled children. She would get down in the dirt with campers, play in the sandbox, pitch softballs or teach them to swim. Shriver had them riding horseback and shooting bows and arrows.

"Nobody else's mother was doing anything like that," Maria Shriver said in the 1994 book "The Kennedy Women," by Laurence Leamer. "It was always my mother following her own gut going against the grain."

(source: LA Times)


Talk about the epitome of Tackle It/Try It Tuesday! I salute Mrs. Shriver, and moms and caregivers everywhere who follow what they know and feel to make the lives of our special kids happier and better.

My own personal quest this summer? Keeping James challenged with more mainstream activities. He has become potty trained during the day over the past school year and can communicate with others verbally (which is most excellent in itself). Getting him more swim time. He had a month of summer school in June, then speech therapy weekly, 2 sessions of a morning summer camp, and Music Together. He watched his sister have her head under the water breakthrough and enjoys swim sessions at the pool. We go at least once a week. He has made jumps forward. And grown another inch or so, I swear!

Another salute to Trish, who is taking time to regroup with her family. Thank you for all the information and insights, and best wishes.




Feeling Inspired? Or want to be? Visit Try It Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.

The Dining Out Challenge

Oh for the days when James just sat in a chair in a restaurant (few though they were).

One hot & feisty weekend afternoon I decided I was not going to cook dinner. So we brought my daughter's Summer Reading pizza coupon to the local Round Table and I packed a PB&J for James, who has decided he does not like pizza anymore.

My daughter had a ball eating her pizza prize. I am a big pizza fan. We could have spent a good 2 hours there, nibbling crunchy, cheesy goodness, enjoying the a/c, a different room, and our cold drinks. Oh, and making up silly songs. It's a family thang.

James went through his "sanwish" and was *done* with sitting on the seat. In desperation, I gave him my cell phone. He figured out how to set up speed dial (which I have yet to do) and added a new contact to my phone: @.-.!

Their phone number is 1-555-124-1155-555522####6*85##*#327#

When he started downloading ringtones, I had to wrassle him to get the phone back.

How do others cope with restless child syndrome? And sorry, mom & dad. I can guess now what my brother and I put you through l those many years ago!

Homework Duty Divided

One very nice dividend of James' Dad working closer to home: now we can share homework duty!

It was sweet to hear James read to his Dad from the big purple chair. He did a great job too. Then they did math card drills. I got a set each of addition and subtraction cards from the Dollar Store this summer. I have a feeling, though, that he prefers the cards his aide made for him.

His reading homework.

I used the microwave timer to make sure they hit the allotted minutes of work. I was in the kitchen, filling out forms. Ye gods and little fishes, such a lot of paperwork for parents!

I'll get my turn of reading and addition math flash cards at bedtime. Piece of cake.

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.