Do a family project: Create a Toy Library

 I ran across the idea to create a Toy Lending Library.  Our local library has a puzzle corner, which is a swap.  The library participates in the Library of Things and has a bunch of Outdoor games to borrow.

Any toys could be part of a lending library: LEGOS, board games, baby toys, such as block sets, etc.  Families may want to combine forces.  Clean out your toys.  Scour thrift stores for puzzles and board games.  Ask friends for donations and suggestions.  Here are some tips.  Does the idea of a lending library sound too complicated?  What about organizing a toy corner at the library?  Kids love to have a bin of LEGOs, sturdy Fisher Price buildings ands accessories, and a box of blocks.  Consider collecting puzzles to swap out.  Bring one and take one.  BTW this is a service project.  Sometimes we feel that service means sorting food or picking up trash.  Projects which get your family excited are service projects, too.

Make your own gift kits!

Update: I just thought of one more easy idea for a Christmas kit.  Collect supplies for a PVC Bubble Wand.  Add a small bottle of Dawn and a bottle of corn syrup to make Super Bubbles.   Add colorful straws and pipe cleaners.  Send this Bubble link to mom.  Super Bubbles are always a hit. 

 I’ve been writing about homemade Christmas science kits here, here, and here.  How about a few more ideas?  Put together a fidget gadget kit.  Here and here are loads of suggestions from DIY stress balls to penny spinners.  Collect colorful paper, balloons, pennies, Orbeez, etc, all the materials with instructions.  You might just send the parent the links with instructions, too.  Great gifts don’t need to break the bank.

Good Will offers loose LEGOs by the pound. (Always check the shipping before you bid!) Add a LEGO book and wait for the compliments.

What about making a Marshmallow Blow Gun Christmas kit?  Collect the PVC parts at Lowe’s and add a bag of marshmallows.   What about a bird box?  Here are plans if you have scrap wood.  You may want a Lowe’s kit.  Add a book to your gift box.  I buy and give used books as presents all the time.  I try to find nicer copies.  You’re going to have the best Christmas!

Traveling Bricks: LEGOs for the win!

 LEGOs can enhance any museum or garden tour.  As a parent you probably want to expose your family to museums, art exhibits, and botanical gardens.  Kiddos might be more receptive if there are LEGOs, especially if they can take a break to build.  For example, the National Building Museum  in Washington, D.C. has Brick City  through February.  Brick City might induce your family to try an unusual museum in addition to the Natural History Museum or the Zoo.  Right now the Virginia Museum of History and Culture is hosting Traveling Bricks.  This type of exhibit usually has a building or area where kids can build with LEGOs, allowing a break at the museum during the visit.   Nature Connects is a traveling LEGO exhibit.  We visited one of the botanical gardens hosting Nature Connects and let Paul borrow a digital camera to take pix.  He could build a framed LEGO image to post on the wall.  Another LEGO joint exhibit is Animal Superpowers.  Another upcoming exhibit is at the Jacksonville Area Museum.  See what local museums or gardens are offering.  Then if you are planning a trip to visit family, see if there is a LEGO exhibit nearby.  Many Children's Museums offer LEGO activities, such as Paint with LEGO or through the LEGO Playful Learning Museum Network.  Let’s get your family excited about going to a museum or botanical garden!

Reluctant Readers

 What do you do with reluctant readers? Like you, I want them exposed to the classics.  This year, the Composition class has five reluctant readers.  Every. single. teen.  Dyslexia is rampant in my family.  Often, learning differences are the source of the problem—but, not always.  I am focused on solutions.  A friend just asked me about graphic novels.  I don’t care if the kid is reading the back of the cereal box as long as he is reading.  Let your teen read graphic novels.  The Great Illustrated Classics and Illustrated Classics are examples.  They are classified as adaptations.  These books have the story, but are easier to read.  Another simplified series are the Longman Classics series.  Could you use Cliffnotes or Sparknotes?  You could.  I think it’s better to read the story—even abridged.  Let your teen listen to the audiobook.  Often the child comes away with a better understanding of the novel.  I’m dealing with teens who also have trouble remaining on task.  They’ll listen to shorter novels; Little Women has been a slog.  Three of the boys have started to listen to the novel, but are having trouble persisting.  On to abridged copies!  I pulled out Longman!  In addition to classics, such as Treasure Island, many modern classics, such as The Diary of Anne Frank, The Giver, The Chosen, and A Wrinkle in Time, are available as graphic novels.  These are still books!  Another tip is to let your teen watch the movie first.  Sometimes, it helps to understand the plot.  Guess what?  Usually, the kid will learn that the book is better!  If I come up with any more solutions, I’ll let you know.

Family Field trips: National Museum of the Marine Corps

If you visit the D.C. area two favorite museums outside the city are Air and Space Museum near Dulles airport and the Marine Corps Museum.  (It is much less expensive to stay in a hotel just outside Washington D.C.  Select a hotel near one of these sites.) Look at the Marine Corps Museum’s up-coming Calendar.  Our family likes to tour the galleries.  However, there are many family-friendly events on Saturdays.  There are fun exhibits for kids in the museum.  Outside is a playground and picnic area.  Plan to spend the morning.  

Family Field trips: Go Fossil Hunting!

  I love to hunt for fossils—okay, mainly shark teeth.  It’s a bit nippy down by Calvert Cliffs (or neighboring beaches) to hunt for fossils.  However, this time of year you won’t fight crowds!  Rob and I stopped by Calvert Cliffs last Christmas.  We bundled up and headed for the beach!  Here are places to hunt for fossils.  I have found shark teeth on beaches in Florida, along the Gulf coast, too.  Here are parks or quarries where you can pay to dig for fossils.  Use your finds to make Fossil Casts.  (Good Will has fossil lots frequently, too.). Use online guides to identify common fossils.  Warning!  This is a very addictive hobby.

Digital Storytelling 101: Christmas Story

I’m desperate for a new idea.  We are slogging through Little Women.   (Sophie’s the only girl.   She and I are the only ones in class who love the book.)  We’ll still take fifteen minutes each class to review components; however, I need a better writing project.  We’re going to write Christmas stories.  The story can be a retelling of the Nativity story or a family Christmas story.  Here is a video module with the basics.  I used Share Your Story last year.  This document has step by step instructions.  Here are examples for Digital Nativity Stories.  Here is another example.  Kids can retell their own Christmas story with family photos, too.  I’ll keep you posted.

Longman Classics

 This past Saturday, we hosted a group of friends for lunch.  One friend, Rick, was discussing his grandson’s reading issues.  I was showing his a copy of Longman Classics. (Here are more Longman Classics.) These have chapter summaries.  There is a Longman for Little Women, I lent to one of the kids in my Composition class, who is struggling with the book.  The kids in the Co-op class either read or listened to Little Women.  However, they struggle with writing, too.  The Longman series is abbreviated or has four graded stages or levels of reading.  I find these abbreviated books to be very helpful for students who are overwhelmed with longer books.  Abridged, leveled, or graded books can help enormously if your child struggles with reading.  The teen will have a good synopsis.  I think the focus should be on success.  An abridged version is still a version of the book.

Combine assignments!

Many families focus on core subjects at the elementary level: English, math, history or geography, and science.  Usually, families must pour most of their energy into English and math.  Let’s combine more subjects!  For example, don’t make handwriting practice a separate subject.  Instead incorporate handwriting into lapbooks, composition, math reasoning, or spelling.  Practice cursive writing with a story.  Use science to add more reading.  Have you heard of Start with a Book?  Look at Bug Studies and Weather Wonders for inspiration.   Head to the library and borrow an armload of books on bugs or weather.  Create a simple journal; there are templates in the packet.  Better yet, make your own book.  Work as a family to create a lapbook.  Make sketches and add art!  Last night, Rob and I subbed for the high school Confirmation class.   They are studying the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.  Bible lessons are great for combining assignments.  We read from the Bible and reviewed the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit with this cryptogram and then did some art with this crayon resist craft.  See?  We added a bit of art seamlessly.  Combine and conquer.

11/13 What are we doing?

 I took screenshots of tomorrow’s plans and photo prompt.  Take a look.

Little Women: Cat Story

 I’m using Little Women—A Retelling.  In it is a creative writing exercise instructing kids to rewrite the story about Laurie returning the March cat.  The incident is in Chapter 3, when Jo and Laurie meet at the ball.  I like to do these assignments along with the class. Here’s mine.

Slice and Dice!

I look at every resource through a conservative world view.  I just posted Little Women resources.  Am I using all of this material?  Nope.  I’ll read parts of the Britannica biography about Louisa May Alcott.  I’m using this resource because many of the questions examine Little Women in the context of the time period and prevailing social norms.  Our class is part of a Catholic Co-op.  We bring in our faith—which I found confusing in Little Women because of its Transcendentalism influences.  We’ll discuss morality lessons in the novel.  However, I am careful to select questions which are objective or focus on the book and its characters.  The last thing I want to do is try to impose contemporary values to a classic novel written and published in the late 1860’s.  That’s why I share so many resources.  I might find only one exercise or two good questions to use for class.

Book vs Film: Little Women

 This year, we’re doing the kids’ favorite books: Holes, Little Women, My Side of the Mountain, and Number the Stars—so far!  The first book is Little Women.  There are movie versions from Little Women 1994 vs.Little Women 2019.  There is a PBS series available on tubi, too.

It’s fun to compare the book to the film.  It can be even more fun to compare different film versions.  Which one captures the book better?  I use a literary guide to help kids do some analysis before we write five paragraph essays.  Below are some links. You could spend a month on this unit.

1.  Younger kids may want to have questions to answer for each chapter. Here are some questions to help kids read more closely.

2. Here is a novel guide.  This one is a series of worksheets.  My current class benefits from this style of guide.  They need critical questions and writing prompts.  I’m going to use Little Women, A Retelling and Britannica’s brief biography.

3. Some classes respond to book clubs.  Here is a reader’s guide (with a recipe for Apple turnovers) for a book club.

4.  Great Books uses a ‘shared inquiry’ approach here with deeper questions, such as ‘Why does Jo  give up her writing career to raise children and run a school with Professor Bhaer? 

5. Do you want to do some serious analysis?  Try  this study guide from the Center for Lit.

6.  Little Women—Teach with Movies has some good questions to adapt.  For example, the novel is semi-autobiographical.  Which parts of the book-film seem the most real?

7. General Maxims of Teaching is just one of the resources from The Orchard House.  

Over-winter some plants!

  Our breakfast room is currently a jungle.  We just brought in the plants.  Some plants sold as annuals are really ‘tender’ perennials.  You can over-winter these plants indoors: Begonias, Petunias, and Purple Heart.  Geraniums, while annuals, can over-winter indoors as house plants, too.  Next spring, we’ll buy a few more plants and give away some of the Purple Heart plants.  For the next four months, we have lush greenery indoors.  This is a terrific family project.  Try to keep any number of annual plants alive over the winter.  Make a lapbook.  Keep records.  Take photos or make sketches.  Yes, this is school!