Eco Kids

Recently I was introduced to a new favourite website: Eco Kids.

There is a kids area and a teachers area when you first arrive at the website. As a homeschooling parent, you can register as a "teacher" and get access to all of the neat resources available. You just need to provide an email address to use as your log in.

One of the resources that I am enjoying with my kids is the calendars. Each month has a different Eco theme, and each day has a little fact, riddle or activity related to the theme.

For example:
January - Winter Wonderlands
February - Global Village
March - Water
April - Earth Day
May - 3 R's - Recycling, Reusing, Reducing
June - Looking At What We Eat

The calendars are easy to print off, hang on the fridge, and use as a new way of learning about environmental ideas.

There is much more available on the site, so take a moment to look around at Eco Kids

A Wonderful Winter Nature Study

I recently purchased a delightful winter unit from the Five in a Row digital store. The unique thing about this unit is that it is digital. As a customer, I purchased the unit online and received it within a few moments as an attachment in an email. It was quick and easy to download and once opened, it was jammed packed with tons of great ideas. Some of the ideas included tips and printables for winter nature studies (including animal studies), read alouds, poems, songs, quotations, art ideas, etc. The cost of the unit is $16 and is well worth every penny. It can be used across grade levels and can be easily integrated along with any curriculum. It is definitely something that I will go back to year after year during the chilly winter months.

From the Teacher in Me ....

Following are some ideas and website links that may prove useful in helping to increase your child’s reading fluency:

Oral Reading and Fluency:
A. Instructor models fluency.

B. Student reads same passage four times as instructor offers guidance.

C. Engage in other activities.

1. Student may read aloud along with a taped book.
2. Student and instructor may read some passages in unison.

(Taken from notes from “The Good Reader: Teaching Reading From Birth On” ~ by Jessie Wise)


Activities for repeated oral reading practice to help increase fluency:
Student-adult reading--reading one-on-one with an adult, who provides a model of fluent reading, helps with word recognition, and provides feedback.

Choral reading--reading aloud simultaneously in a group.

Tape-assisted reading--reading aloud simultaneously or as an echo with an audio-taped model.

Partner reading--reading aloud with a more fluent partner (or with a partner of equal ability) who provides a model of fluent reading, helps with word recognition, and provides feedback.

Readers' theatre--the rehearsing and performing before an audience of a dialogue-rich script derived from a book.

(Taken from “Fluency Instruction”)


Some Sight Word Website Links:
For those students who need to sound out almost every word, getting them to learn their sight words is essential. These two sites have the Dolch sight word lists available. Have your child practice reading the words on list 1 until he/she masters it, and then move on to list 2 etc. There are 11 lists in total to master!
Dolch List
Jan Brett’s Dolch List


Some Reading Fluency Website Links:
Put Reading First
Fluency Activities
Educational Links: Fluency

A Milestone

Get Ready for the Code - Explode the Code Primer Book A is officially completed - October 24, 2008.

There were moments of "letter writing trauma" as m's looked like seagulls flying across the page and k's's looked like flat-headed crocodiles with their mouths wide open. But truth be told, my heart delights and the corners of my lips curl up in response to the flying m's and wide-mouthed k's.

I'm not sure if I should be aiming for "perfection" in the area of writing or not. But so far, I'm not. - I'm aiming for legibility.

This is my daughter's first attempt at a workbook and to be honest I'm pretty proud of her. She showed perseverance and looked almost studious at times while working away at the exercises. Next week we'll bring on Book B ... Get Set for the Code!

And the Winners are . . .

Here are the curriculum winners for this school year(Kindergarten):

Unit Studies - Five in a Row (presently working out of Volume 2)

Math Bags and Activities - I am making these up. Each bag/activity will focus on a specific Math skill (e.g. number correspondence, numbers up to 100, patterns, 2-D shapes, measurement, sorting, adding and subtracting).

Get Ready for the Code, Get Set for the Code, and Go for the Code - The Primers for the Explode the Code Series.

I have also picked up Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock so that I can participate in:

To Choose or Not to Choose

I'm talking about curriculum here. There are so many choices to choose from when deciding on homeschooling curriculum that it truly can be overwhelming. At a recent homeschooling convention the keynote speaker, Debra Bell, realistically revealed that as a homeschooling parent it is inevitable that we will choose the "wrong" curriculum . . . sometimes. It's not so much a mistake as an opportunity to learn what doesn't work for our families.

Over the last couple of years I have been experimenting with Jane Claire Lambert's Before Five in a Row (FIAR) curriculum. I will admit - both the kids and I love it. This curriculum focuses on quality literature based unit studies and is very open ended. Suggested activities are provided that correspond with the "book of the week" and I can choose which activities I feel will best meet the learning needs and abilities of my children. It is very hands-on which requires more time commitment from myself, however the results are delightful! I have been using Before Five in a Row (for ages 2-4) for the past 2 years in a very unstructured way. My kids have been "doing school" but haven't even realized it. I plan to continue to use some of the Before Five in a Row units during my daughter's Kindergarten year just because the books are so . . . wonderful.

I have recently been searching for blogs of other homeschooling families who are using Five in a Row. There are a lot of them! I am so excited about this newly discovered online community of other "rowers" (that's what they call themselves!). I will be adding "Rower" links to my sidebar . . . soon.