Language Lessons Through Literature

Lydia finished Handwriting Without Tears Kindergarten.  I decided a while back that once she learned how to write her letters, we would start copywork.  I've had Language Lessons Through Literature on my radar for a few months and bought it back in December.   It is a fairly gentle, Charlotte Mason/Classical hybrid grammar program.  It uses children's classics, poems, art, and copywork to teach grammar and writing.  I decided to give it a try, thinking I'd like it well enough.

I bought the book and the PDF workbook.  The workbook isn't required because the book has all the assignments and copywork sentences in it, but the PDF has all the copywork in several different handwriting fonts, including HWT, which was huge for me.  Rather than copy each onto paper individually, I can now just print them right off!

Today we did our first day, so this is by no means an exhaustive review, but we had a good first experience and I wanted to share.  The first book is Peter Rabbit.  Lydia, Ellie, and I sat down together and read the book.  The girls really enjoyed the story and when it was time to do copywork, Lydia was very interested in the sentence that was from her story.  We talked about sentences starting with a capitol letter and ending with punctuation (she already knows about period, question marks, and exclamation marks).  At the end I had her draw a picture from Peter Rabbit and she loved doing it. She loved it so much she kept on drawing the rest of the day.  Eleanor saw her having fun with it and decided she just had to join in and do her own "copywork" (scribbles with crayons).  Lydia also pretended Peter Rabbit later. I played Mr. McGregor.

Peter (complete with shoes), Mr. McGregor, and the garden gate.

"Mr. McGregor said, 'Who ate a bite out of my tomato!? I'm going to eat you up!"

I'm excited to see where this goes in the future.

Master List of Books Read Outloud: 2013

I've decided I'd like to create a post that lists all the books we've read out loud or audio books that Lydia has listened to so that I can remember them all.  For the sake of simplicity, I'm only going to list "real" books rather than picture books, unless the picture book is substantial.  I'll update this list as she finishes books.

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (librivox)
The Burgess Animal Book for Children (librivox)
The Wind in the Willows (audible)
The Story of the World: Ancient Times (cd)
Black Beauty (audible)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (audible)
Little House in the Big Woods (read aloud, cd)
The Wizard of Oz (audible)
Peter Pan (audible)
Pollyanna (audible)
Heidi (audible)

List of books I want to read aloud during Kindergarten:

Matilda
Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie (current read aloud)
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Stuart Little
Wizard of Oz
Mary Poppins
My Father's Dragon

New ideas for the New Year

I've decided it is time to do a little more school-wise, and although I touched on this in my latest Quarterly Review, I wanted to be more specific so I can have a reference for myself and a little accountability as well.

So far, we've been great about doing math, reading, art study, and memorization almost every day.  The major reason for this is because we do them either during, or immediately after lunch when the younger two girls are down for naps.  However, these subjects about max out that time and I want to do handwriting, read alouds, and exercise daily as well.  Mornings are mostly out because we either have therapy appointments or social obligations most mornings of the week.  So that leaves afternoons and evening.  Knowing this, here's my new plan:

Continue to do math, reading, art study, and memorization during and right after lunch.  As it is a new "semester," We're doing a new art study along with Ambleside Online's schedule focusing on Jacob van Ruisdael and Pieter de Hooch.  We're also listening to a new composer, Bach.  I've also added a few more memorization selections to our list.  Lydia seems to pick up poems faster than scriptures, so she still has tons of religious selections left but only one poem and fact.  So I've added "The Rainbow" by Walter de la Mare and "A Dragon-fly" by E. Farjeon to our poems list.  I've also added Lydia's, Mommy's, and Daddy's full names and Mommy's cell-phone number to her facts/lists memorization section.

After naptime (which is now quiet time for Lydia and Ellie because they almost never sleep anymore) I think I'm going to try to be consistent about doing a chapter book read aloud.  I'd love to work our way up to half hour at at ime.  Daddy does picture books every night before bed time and we do family scripture study before bed as well.  The girls and I have just really gotten out of the habit of doing a chapter book together.  It is tricky to pick books for them, though, because they still don't really follow the stories very well.  So basically I need to pick books that I would enjoy reading aloud that they might get some enjoyment out of.  It is especially helpful if there are at least a few pictures.  So here's my book list.  Some of these I've read to Lydia before, but she was very, very little and didn't get at thing out of it other than some cuddle time:

Little House on the Prairie, starting with Farmer Boy
The Hobbit, illustrated by Alan Lee
Winnie the Pooh and the House at Pooh Corner

I think I'm going to try to do handwriting right after read alouds.

And I mentioned exercise.  I found some awesome children's yoga videos on YouTube called Cosmic Kids Yoga. They are adorable and the girls have enjoyed them the few times I've turned them on.  I'm thinking I'll try to make it something that we do in the morning around 9 or so.  If Lydia is at therapy, she just misses those days, but at least Ellie and I will get in the habit.

So that's it.  That's my new plan.  Here's hoping I can stick to it. 

Read Alouds

A few days ago we finished Anne of Green Gables as a read aloud!  I completely love that book and it's sequels, and they will always hold a place near and dear to my heart.  Lydia enjoyed reading it with me although it is almost all over her head at this point.  I'm planning on rereading many of our read alouds when she gets older, but right now it is good just to get her used to it and to let her listen to great language.

I had a rough time deciding what to read next with her.  It came down to Anne of Avonlea, Little Women, The Girl of the Limberlost, or The Secret Garden.  As you can see on my sidebar, I chose The Secret Garden.  I actually didn't like this book when I was a kid, and I never read it all the way through.  I think I will like it much more now.  I recently read The Lost Prince, which is also by Frances Hodgson Burnett and A Little Princess has always been one of my favorite stories, so I think I'll like The Secret Garden this time around.  I will probably do Little Women and The Girl of the Limberlost as read alouds at a later date, and reread the Anne of Green Gables series by myself.