A Tale of Ten Homeschoolers- Giving Our Children the World

Image courtesy of Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I know you’re probably getting tired of reading about how anxious I am for school to start, but I just can’t help myself because I just realized that this is the second last break-post I’ll be writing. After that we’ll be back on task again. I went to the library on Monday to get the books we’ll be needing for the next few weeks, and I honestly had to hold in excited laughter as I was putting the book list in my purse because I didn’t want my kids to think I was nuts. 🙂

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Another thing I’m really excited about is that this week started Jamie Martin’s Read the World Summer Book Club. Each week she’ll be focusing on a different part of the world, and we can choose books to read to coincide with that geographical area. We’ve been using her new book, Give Your Child the World, because of the exhaustive book lists included in it. (I should point out that I am not an affiliate of simplehomeschool.net. I just really wanted to share this great opportunity with you!)

If there’s one thing my kids won’t do voluntarily, it’s reading. So I was a little leery about what my children’s reaction would be when I told them we would be participating in a little book club at the end of their break. I needn’t have worried. Since this week is Multicultural Week in the book club, my children were able to read Magic Tree House selections because they literally take place all over the world. Although they are light reading for my 10 and 11 yr. olds, I’m not complaining. It’s a nice way to ease them back into a reading routine, don’t you think? These are their individual selections and where they take place:

Caollin (11)- Vacation Under the Volcano– Pompeii

London (10)- Night of the Ninjas– Japan

Bailey (8)- Dingoes at Dinnertime– Australia

Luke (7), Ireland (6), Summer (5), and sometimes Kenzie (3)- Afternoon on the Amazon– Amazon River (I am reading this aloud since these are either my pre-readers or beginners)

I gave them each until Friday to finish the books, and so far I’m really pleased with the results. London read not only her book but also read one of the others in one day flat. Caollin and Bailey finished theirs today, and I’ll be finishing up the littles’ book tomorrow.

Since we’ll be doing notebooking for the first time shortly, I used this opportunity to strengthen the kids’ narration skills. Today Bailey wanted to narrate while I was still reading to the littles, so I suggested he draw a picture about what he read (I knew if I told him to write about it, he’d protest). I was pleasantly surprised when he brought me a detailed picture with captions (yay!), and he beautifully narrated to me, as well. I love it!

In other news…

Devin (17) went to NYC for the first time with a friend’s family. She was so excited- she’s been saying for a year that she wants to live there, yet she had never actually been there. Her friend just graduated from homeschool and didn’t want to go to the homeschool graduation ceremony in Harrisburg, which is 2 hours away, so her family took her to NYC (which is also 2 hours away, but hey, it’s NYC!)as a graduation trip, and they asked Devin to come along. What a blessing!

 

They visited Book-Off, a bookstore with a large selection of Japanese merchandise (her friend’s mother is from Japan) and a Japanese market in Edgewater, NJ, where my daughter’s friend bought her a ton of Japanese candy and other goodies. (I’ve never met a more generous teenager in my life.)

My daughter was thrilled when she came home. This trip was like a dream to her because it combined two of her favorite things- New York and all things Japanese! I got to taste some of the candy she brought home. Most of it was really good, but there was one type of candy that was wrapped in a rose flavor, and I wasn’t too fond of that! (I felt like I was actually eating a rose.)

So that’s it for our week. We’ve had lots of fun exploring the world through literature (or in Devin’s case, in real life!). I can’t wait to see what next week brings!