Tag Archives: kidlit

Summer Reading, Part II: Feelings and Classics

Picking up where we left off, it’s time to talk about what I assigned my new fourth grader to read this summer. I started the summer with just one book I wanted her to read, figuring one book plus the typing program I wanted her to do and the Italian language lessons she wanted to do (via Mango, free through the library!) would be plenty. But she asked for books and book projects so I obliged.

Feelings

Why feelings? Because tweens have a LOT of them. I worked through this book with my oldest the year I homeschooled the kids, which was also fourth grade. Truth be told, we haven’t quite finished but we’re almost through it. We read some together, she read some on her own, and she did the exercises in a notebook. I’m not sure whether it’s helped her, but it’s helped me understand what she thinks about and how she sees herself and that is useful info as a parent. At the very least it’s opened up some conversation. The book:

Classics

As a starting point, we got out the literature curriculum I used with my oldest when I homeschooled fourth grade and looked through the book list. We ended up with:

I had all kinds of activities we could’ve done, but we mostly didn’t. What we did do: she did some of the homeschool curriculum reading comprehension questions for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so I could gauge what she retained/understood, we (mostly she) made cabbage soup for dinner one night (like the Buckets ate for every meal), and she watched the movies for each book. I think there was some drawing of spiders and maybe Templeton the rat in there too. I had the idea of making donuts because it seems like everyone in Charlotte’s Web is eating donuts for breakfast all the time but we just ran out of summer before I had the energy envelope to do anything like that. We did have some informal conversations about the differences between the movies (particularly for Charlie and Chocolate Factory) and the books; Charlotte’s Web actually is very very close to the book.

Though I’ve seen both movies (the Gene Wilder as Wonka version, of course) many times, I’m not sure I had actually read either book all the way through so I welcomed the opportunity to do so. Then I learned a little about E. B. White (did you know he’s the same White as The Elements of Style?) and read The Trumpet of the Swan to myself in honor of his birthday (July 11). I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t as good as Charlotte’s Web or Stuart Little.

That was it. Next time we’re gonna talk about CHICKENS. UNUSUAL chickens…

Summer Reading, Part I: Ninjas (and some dinosaurs)

I grew up with summer reading assignments, which I especially remember in high school. My kids have had zero. Four kids, 10 years of school, zero summer reading. Makes me sad. So, I assigned my own! As our summer wraps up (my kids go back to school this week!, I’m sharing what we’ve read.

In truth, my kids read voraciously. It’s not that I needed to assign things to make them read. My husband is frequently telling me I’ve created monsters, and I giggle a little satisfied, evil laugh–the best kind of monsters! Every kid has a kindle (I got tired of sharing) and a reading light for their beds, and everyone gets reading time in bed every night. I have occasionally gotten a, “you know, Mom, so-and-so gets to watch TV in bed before going to sleep…” — not gonna happen. Anyway, my point: they read A LOT on their own.

So if I didn’t need to make them read, why assign reading? I had different goals for each kid and the books I (or they) chose reflected that. I’m going to do a multi-part (separate posts because I don’t have the stamina for long posts) run-down, by incoming grade level of the child:

Second Grader

My goal was basically to entertain him with something that would interest him but he wouldn’t have picked up himself, and that would allow for a variety of independent projects. I chose:

Did you guess he really likes ninjas? The actual book to my surprise only took him about 20 minutes to read, and I verified comprehension with some worksheets from the excellent teaching resources on the author’s “classroom adventures” site. The Fact Tracker is more dense, nonfiction and very detailed. It took longer to get through, broken up across a week or two. We also did (most of) a mini “research” project from the website materials. And plenty of crafts (stick ninjas, a paper samurai hat, and more). I based our activities loosely on the provided plans and if my son wanted to modify things, I usually let him–the goal was to read something he wouldn’t have picked up on his own, learn, be creative, and have fun. Oh, and there’s been LOTS of dressing up like a ninja, fighting like a ninja, trying to sneak around like a ninja, etc…

It’s an added bonus that he then decided to start the Magic Tree House series at the beginning. I think he read 22 of them before he lost interest, some from our shelf (we have a very incomplete set from when my oldest was into them maybe 9 or 10 years ago?) and kindle library checkouts.

We also got a used copy of an out-of-print dinosaur activity book, Triassic Terrors. It was… ok. Less of a hit with him but had some fun activities, including some game where you pop out the pieces and set them up. I think we have maybe two pages left undone? It was worth the $7 I paid for it on Thrift Books.

I’ll be back whenever energy allows with more of our summer reading fun!

Are you really a unicorn? (A book review)

I’ve been following author Jess Hernandez on Twitter for a while and was so excited to see her debut picture book, First Day of Unicorn School (available for pre-order now!), is out on NetGalley. Sooo I logged in for the first time in two years (yikes), requested the book, and was thrilled to be approved within the hour. I sat down to read it with my four-year-old this afternoon and I was NOT disappointed.

First of all, look at that gorgeous cover! The whole book is full of bright, fun illustrations just like the cover art. My daughter loved them, and we spent a while just looking at the pictures and talking about the animals.

So, does the content live up to the expectation set by the cover? Yes! Milly is a donkey with a party hat (NOT a Unicorn), but gets accepted to Unicorn School anyway. She’s so nervous on her first day that her classmates are going to discover she’s not actually a unicorn and she won’t fit in, but it turns out her classmates all have a secret of their own . . . My four-year-old caught on quickly to what was happening (“Mom, she’s not a unicorn!”), and had a great time pointing out all the different “unicorn horns” throughout the book.

Ultimately, it’s a feel-good picture book showing kids that everyone has something they’re worried about, something they fear will keep them from fitting in — which actually means we’re all more similar than we thought, and really have nothing to fear. It’s about accepting ourselves and each other, and gets that message across in a totally kid-friendly, non-preachy way. I think it’s fabulous!

The book is actually geared for kids in grades K-2, so I’m looking forward to reading it to my first grader, too, and seeing how well she picks up the message. I give this one five stars, and recommend it to everyone with little kids at home.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy!