Halloween Reads

Halloween casts an eerie glow on our reading. We choose spooky books and read in hushed whispers. We flip through old favorites and delight in the dark and creepy tales. We let scary books creep in and give us a little chill.

Here are some of our favorite Halloween-time stories. None of these specifically name Halloween, but they each illustrate the spookiness of the season.

The Ghost-Eye Tree, by Bill Martin and John Archambault, takes readers to a quaint country home where two children must walk to town in the dark to fetch a bucket of milk for their mother. They dread passing the ghost-eye tree, so named because it appears to have two glowing eyes that stare at the children and branches that reach like arms.
                                         

 

This story has enough suspense to keep us turning the pages and enough subtle creepiness and realism to give us the chills. This is by far Aidyn's favorite spooky tale, and he loves cuddling up and reading it with me every year.

In a Dark Dark Room and Other Scary Stories, by Alvin Schwartz, is packed with intricately illustrated drawings and scary tales. Many of the stories have moments that cause us to jump but all in good fun. Some of the stories are pretty creepy and macabre, and so may be unsuitable for some children. However, Aidyn loves the stories, even if he remembers the little twist endings.

Bony-Legs, by Joanna Cole, is another favorite. A Russian folktale, Bony-Legs isn't exactly scary, but it has fantastical fairy tale elements that feel creepy as you read (like a witch that eats little children). Despite the creepiness, there are a wealth of messages within the story, like the themes of charity and bravery.

Yesterday, after reading the trio of spooky stories, we talked about elements of horror fiction, what makes these stories particularly creepy, what kinds of vocabulary created scary images, what kinds of illustrations gave us the chills, and the elements of fairy tales (fantasy--talking animals and things in 3s).

I invited Aidyn to think of his own scary story, and he came up with one on the fly and told it to me in his best creepy voice. We then took the idea to the dining room table where I supplied him with paper, a pencil, crayons, markers, and some Halloween music for inspiration. 

He wrote out his story and drew the illustrations. We talked about the use of color in the three books to help him decide what kind of pictures he wanted to include with his story. I also congratulated him on his use of words like "grabbed" and "tossed" because I could visualize those action much better than if he used words like "picked up" and "threw."

Hard at work.

When he finished, we took a little break and talked about covers and titles. We remembered titles of some of our favorite books and movies and analyzed the covers of the three books we read as far as their titles, cover drawings and placement of credits. He decided to title his work "Frightening Monster."

We love cuddling and sharing stories, and I am so excited that Aidyn's becoming a little storyteller himself.

In other news...

Because of my crazy school schedule, moving, and my training for a half-marathon, I am behind on posting. We have done a light chocolate unit study and are in the middle of a Roald Dahl unit study. I hope to post soon, though there won't be many pictures (the camera was lost for weeks!). We're also developing some exciting plans and a possible Destination Disney World unit study for next year. Check back to see what we do!

The Well-Educated Mind: Cracking Open Don Quixote

It's funny how a particular theme finds itself to you through different facets.

I'm not always proud of my taste in movies, but this last week I rewatched an old fave, Career Opportunities, starring Jennifer Connelly and Frank Whaley.

Photo credit

The movie is about Jim Dodge, the "cool guy" in town, who at only 15, invented the artificial cow heart and works closely with the FBI. Only none of these things are true, except his name. Jim creates his own reality, and the townspeople play along but call him the "town liar" behind his back. But he's likeable and funny despite him being full of shit.

Back up 400 years and Miguel de Cervantes has brought to life Don Quixote, a likeable and funny man who is also full of shit.

Having read mounds of adventure novels, he dreams of becoming a knight-errant to relive the heroism he has only read about. After renaming himself, his bony old horse, and devoting himself to a lady he barely knows, he rides off to pursue his adventure.

“Don Quixote and Sancho Panza” by Honore Daumier (1850) via Wikipedia

I also watched a documentary last night called The Woman Who Wasn't There about Tania Head, the woman who completely fabricated a story about surviving the 9/11 attacks, mourned a husband she didn't actually know, and headed The World Trade Center Survivors' Network, even though (as it came out later)  she hadn't even been to America until 2003.

This woman, like Don Quixote, invented an entire fantasy around her, not for money, but for fame. 

This theme of people inventing crazy realities is circling around me, it seems, which has led to this silly comparison:

Compare and Contrast of Jim Dodge and Don Quixote, so far as the first four chapters of DQ:

Same:

1. Both dream up wild fantasies to make their lives more interesting.

2. Both beef up their rides (Quixote names a beat-up and skinny horse Rocinante; Jim rents a limo to take him to a night custodial job at Target)

3. Both envision themselves the fancy of beautiful women (Quixote/Dulcinea; Jim/Josie)

4. People around them know they are full of shit.

5. Both orate on their greatness.

6. Both wear hand-me-downs. (Quixote his great-great grandfather's rusty and moldy armor; Jim wears Darnell's red coveralls)

Different:

1. Jim "lets" Josie keep her name; Don Quixote renames Aldonza a more "harmonious and significant" name, Dulcinea.

2. Quixote actually goes adventuring, even if he still imagines inns to be castles and whores to be virgins. Jim works the night shift at Target (adventure comes to him later).

3. Jim is young, 21, and Quixote is older, 50.

4. Quixote doesn't seem to really know he's full of shit; Jim knows but gets caught up in the fantasy.

Don Quixote is turning out to be a hilarious book, despite my initial fear of its length and age, and I'm excited to read through more of it.

The Well-Educated Mind Reading Challenge

Being an English major and frequent page-turner since I learned to read, I've felt some pressure to read "the classics." After years of feeling stuck in college classes and forced to read books they wanted me to read, I felt like I lost my will to read for personal pleasure.

But I just can't get away from the allure of a reading challenge, which gives me hope that my passion for reading hasn't died.

Since I am interested in giving my son a classical education, reading all of the classics myself can only help me. I have already read some of these, but I am rereading those and cracking open the ones that are new to me.

If you'd like to challenge yourself, feel free to join me.

My plan:

1. Start at the beginning of the list. 

2. Read a little each day.

3. Blog about my progress (at least once a month) to share and keep myself motivated.

Without further ado, here is the list:

Books marked by an orange asterisk (*) are books that are being re-read. Books written in blue ink are ones I have completed. I'll be reading a few from each section so as not to overload on any one type of literature. 

NOVELS

Don Quixote- Miguel de Cervantes (1605) currently reading

The Pilgrimʼs Progress- John Bunyan (1679)

Gulliverʼs Travels- Jonathan Swift (1726)*

Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen (1815)

Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens (1838)

Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte (1847)

The Scarlet Letter- Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850)*

Moby-Dick- Herman Melville (1851)

Uncle Tomʼs Cabin- Harriet Beecher Stowe (1851)*

Madame Bovary- Gustave Flaubert (1857)

Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866)

Anna Karenina- Leo Tolstoy (1877)

The Return of the Native- Thomas Hardy (1878)

The Portrait of a Lady- Henry James (1881)*

Huckleberry Finn- Mark Twain (1884)*

The Red Badge of Courage- Stephen Crane (1895)

Heart of Darkness- Joseph Conrad (1902)

The House of Mirth- Edith Wharton (1905)

The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)*

Mrs. Dalloway- Virginia Woolf (1925)

The Trial- Franz Kafka (1925)

Native Son- Richard Wright (1940)

The Stranger- Albert Camus (1942)

1984- George Orwell (1949)

Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison (1952)*

Seize the Day- Saul Bellow (1956)

One Hundred Years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1967)

If on a winterʼs night a traveler- Italo Calvino (1972)

Song of Solomon- Toni Morrison (1977)

White Noise- Don DelilloPossession- A.S. Byatt (1990)

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES

The Confessions- Augustine (A.D. c. 400)

The Book of Margery Kempe- Margery Kempe (c. 1430)*

Essays- Michel de Montaigne (1580)

The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Herself- Teresa of Avila (1588)

Meditations- Rene Descartes (1641)

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners- John Bunyan (1666)

The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration- Mary Rowlandson (1682)

Confessions- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1781)

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin- Benjamin Franklin (1791)*

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself- Harriet Jacobs (1861)

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass- Frederick Douglass (1881)*

Up from Slavery- Booker T. Washington (1901)

Ecce Homo- Friedrich Nietzsche (1908)

Mein Kampf- Adolf Hitler (1925)

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth- Mohandas Gandhi (1929)

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas- Gertrude Stein (1933)

The Seven Storey Mountain- Thomas Merton (1948)

Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life- C.S. Lewis (1955)

The Autobiography of Malcolm X- Malcolm X (1965)

Journal of a Solitude- May Sarton (1973)

The Gulag Archipelago- Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
Born Again- Charles W. Colson (1977)

Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez- Richard Rodriguez (1982)

All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs- Elie Wiesel (1995)

HISTORIES

The Histories- Herodotus (441 B.C.)

The Peloponnesian War- Thucydides (c. 400 B.C.)

The Republic- Plato (c. 375 B.C.)

Lives- Plutarch (A.D. 100-125)

The City of God- Augustine (Completed 426)

The Ecclesiastical History of the English People- Bede (731)

The Prince- Niccolo Machiavelli (1513)

Utopia- Sire Thomas More (1516)*

The True End of Civil Government- John Locke (1690)

The History of England, Volume V- David Hume (1754)

The Social Contract- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762)

Common Sense- Thomas Paine (1776)

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire- Edward Gibbon (1776-1788)

The Vindication of the Rights of Women- Mary Wollstonecraft (1792)

Democracy in America- Alexis de Tocqueville (1835-40)

The Communist Manifesto- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1848)

The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy- Jacob Burckhardt (1860)

The Souls of Black Folk- W.E.B. Du Bois (1903)

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism- Max Weber (1904)

Queen Victoria- Lytton Strachey (1921)

The Road to Wigan Pier- George Orwell (1937)

The New England Mind- Perry Miller (1939)

The Great Crash 1929- John Kenneth Galbraith (1955)

The Longest Day- Cornelius Ryan (1959)

The Feminine Mystique- Betty Friedan (1963)

Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made- Eugene D. Genovese (1974)

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century- Barbara Tuchman (1978)

All the Presidentʼs Men- Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (1987)

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era- James M. McPherson (1988)

A Midwifeʼs Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary- Laura Thatcher Ulrich (1990)

The End of History and the Last Man- Francis Fukuyama (1992)

DRAMAS

Agamemnon- Aeschylus (c. 458 B.C.)

Oedipus the King- Sophocles (c. 450 B.C.)*

Medea- Euripides (c. 431 B.C.)

The Birds- Aristophanes (c. 400 B.C.)

Poetics- Aristotle (c. 330 B.C.)

Doctor Faustus- Christopher Marlowe (1588)*

Richard III- William Shakespeare (1592-93)

A Midsummer Nightʼs Dream- William Shakespeare (1594-95)*

Hamlet- William Shakespeare (1600)*)

Tartuffe- Moliere (1669)*

The Way of the World- William Congreve (1700)

She Stoops to Conquer- Oliver Goldsmith (1773)

The School for Scandal- Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1777)

A Dollʼs House- Henrik Ibsen (1879)*

The Importance of Being Earnest-Oscar Wilde (1899)

The Cherry Orchard- Anton Chekhov (1904)

Saint Joan- George Bernard Shaw (1924)

Murder in the Cathedral- T.S. Eliot (1935)

Our Town- Thornton Wilder (1938)

Long Dayʼs Journey Into Night- Eugene OʼNeill (1940)

No Exit- Jean Paul Sartre (1944)

A Streetcar Named Desire- Tennessee Williams (1947)

Death of a Salesman- Arthur Miller (1949)

A Man for All Seasons- Robert Bolt (1960)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead- Tom Stoppard (1967)

Equus- Peter Shaffer (1974)

POETRY

The Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2000 B.C.)*

The Iliad and the Odyssey*- Homer (c. 800 B.C.)

Greek Lyricists (c. 600 B.C.)

Odes- Horace (65-8 B.C.)

Beowulf (c. 1000)*

Inferno- Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)*

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (c. 1350)*

The Canterbury Tales- Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400)*

Sonnets- William Shakespeare (1564-1616)*

John Donne (1572-1631)*

Psalms- King James Bible (1611)

Paradise Lost- John Milton (1608-1674)*

Songs of Innocence and Experience- William Blake (1757-1827)

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

John Keats (1795- 1821)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1883)

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)*

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)*

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)*

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)*

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

Robert Frost (1874-1963)*

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

Ezra Pound (1885-1972)*

T.S. Eliot (1888-1954)*

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)*

W. H. Auden (1907-1973)

Philip Larkin (1922-1985)

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)

Mark Strand (1934-)

Adrienne Rich (1929-)

Seamus Heaney (1939-)

Robert Pinsky (1940-)

Jane Kenyon (1947-1995)

Rita Dove (1952-)

Library Haul- May 28, 2013

A la The Well-Trained Mind, I had Aidyn select the books during this library haul based on categories. Doing so helped him to learn the locations of certain sections in the library, and he enjoyed being able to pick  all of the books himself. He chose one of each:

1. a science book
2. a history book
3. a biography/autobiography
4. an art/music book
5. an imaginative storybook
6. a book of poetry
7. a classic novel

(I was also going to have him select a how-to book, but the art book he chose fit the bill.)

Here's what he chose:

1. Science- Volcanoes: Journey to the Crater's Edge
2. History- Eyewitness Books: Castle
3. Biography- Lost Boy: The Story of the Man Who Created Peter Pan
4. Art- Fast and Funny Paper Toys You Can Make
5. Imaginative Storybook- Dr. Suess's Daisy-Head Mazie
6. Poetry- Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep
7. Classic novel- The House at Pooh Corner

Excited about the books he had chosen, we immediately dove in and started reading. He wanted to start the poetry book, so we shut off all the lights, closed the blinds and lit several candles to create a spooky atmosphere. He arranged a blanket and pillow on the floor, and we read spooky poems.

David snapped this picture of us

As our school year is coming to a close, we're going to transition to summer reading and simply enjoy every story and subject to which we are drawn.

Are there any books you are looking forward to reading over the summer? I'd love to hear them!

He Is a Reader! (despite my many failings)

I have been holding out on calling my son "a reader" until I felt like he hit a stride with reading fluently, could pronounce words bigger than c-v-c combos, and could critically engage with the story that is unfolding as he is reading.

He is a reader!

Yes, he still struggles with remembering sight words or that he just read the word "roar" on the previous page, but he is reading!

I hate/love that hindsight is 20/20. On this road to reading, I feel like I made some serious mistakes as well as many loving decisions. We'll start with the terrible first:

1. I had high expectations that he would LOVE the act of reading.
2. I expected that he would learn to read with the same ease that I had with reading.
3. Working through our phonics book felt too much like "school" on too many occasions.
4. I audibly worried about his reading, probably too much.
5. Instead of just answering him when he would ask, "what does this say?" I would encourage him to sound it out himself nearly every time.
6. I talked too much on the Great Importance of Reading and, as a result, pressured him on occasion.
7. I got into a FIAR rut early on, in which I had him label maps and color stupid things because it was related to a FIAR book.
8. I got in the way sometimes of the natural road to reading.

Now that I feel horrible about myself as a parent, let me go over the good choices:

1. I have read to him from the moment he was born, as a loving act, to bond, to lull him to sleep, to share stories with him. We still cuddle up and share books.
2. We have read all sorts of books (and everything counts!): board books, picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, comic books, poetry, non-fiction, horror stories (Goosebumps, for example), etc.

3. I've let him see me enjoy reading and audibly admired his father for reading for fun.
4. We've gone to dozens of library shows and seen magicians, puppeteers, farmers, clowns, etc.

5. We attended library storytelling mornings for tots.
6. We've signed up for summer reading programs at the library every year since he was born.

7. I've made scavenger hunts for him, which he so enjoys.
8. I've patted his back, hugged him, kissed him, congratulated him, supported and waited for him as he has learned to read.
9. I've spent hours scouring YouTube for funny phonics videos that I knew he would love (especially Cliff Hanger videos!).
10. I thought about his love for Legos and helped him "build" words with tiles.

11. We played with words.

12. We live in a book-friendly home. Books spill out from shelves, are stacked on a desk, color the coffee table, and peek out from every imaginable spot.
13. I've kept myself open and tuned in to what engages him, whether it be a kind of book genre, learning style, or learning obstacle.

What I Know Now That I Wish I Knew Then:

• just enjoy the road to reading and worry MUCH less, if at all.
• don't push a boring old phonics book.
• find fun and personalized ways to practice reading.
• don't air out worries, ask if he "likes reading," or cringe if he just shrugs his shoulders.

Where We Are Going from Here:

My goals are to continue reading to him aloud, from a vast array of genres and subjects. I will read all the fart books and joke books he wants since he clearly enjoys them. On that note, I will keep finding personalized ways for him to learn and allow him to find those things for himself by giving him space, without any nagging worries, to explore and figure himself out. We will continue to play with reading, join summer reading programs and watch those who love to entertain and educate at the library. I will continue to proudly watch him grow and help him discover who he is and what makes him happy.

Fun Videos for Learning to Read

I'm always on the lookout for videos to help my child learn to read. Sometimes it just is not enough to work through his Sadlier Phonics books. Words on a page ebb from his memory, but a catchy song or a hilarious video tends to keep those memories alive.

Below is a catch-all collection of YouTube videos which have greatly helped Aidyn remember phonetic sounds.

Our favorite series of all are the Cliff Hanger videos, which not only entertain but provide a nifty sort of captioning, keep us watching to see if this poor guy will ever get off the cliff. Most of the Cliff Hanger videos focus on long vowels, as in "mole" and consonant digraphs like "ship."




Short A videos:

Between the Lions: "If You Can Read at..."
Between the Lions: Chicken Jane and the Bad Ram
Between the Lions: What's Cooking? Slammed and Rammed Ham (-am words)

Short E videos:

Between the Lions: Cliffhanger and the Bed
Between the Lions: Chicken Jane and the Red Elephant
Between the Lions: Gawain's Word: Net
The Electric Company: Wyak- Short E

Short I videos:

Between the Lions: Cliffhanger and the Tricky Pixie
Between the Lions: Gawain's Word: Kick
KidsTV123: The I Song

Short O videos:

Between the Lions: What's Cooking? Hot Chop Drop Soup
Between the Lions: Chicken Jane and the Ox in a Box
Between the Lions: Magnificent Monkey Cheerleaders- Hop
Between the Lions: Sloppy Pop (-op words)

Short U videos:

Between the Lions: Grubby Pup
Between the Lions: What's Cooking? Rubbed and Hugged Mutton
Between the Lions: Chicken Jane and the Duck with the Truck (with -ck ending words, too.)
Classic Sesame Street: I'd Like to Buy a U for the Word "up"

Long Vowels: -ai-, -ay-, -ea-, -oa- videos:

Between the Lions: When Two Vowels Go Walkin' (amazing video to use throughout long vowel instruction!)
Between the Lions: Cliffhanger and the Rain (-ai- words)
Classic Electric Company- Everyone Has a Pain (-ai words)
Between the Lions: Cliffhanger and the Enchanted Goat (many -oa- words)

Silent E videos:

The Electric Company- Silent E Music Video
Classic Electric Company- Silent E


 Long A videos:

(still searching for good ones!)

Long E videos:

Between the Lions: Double E Song (mainly -ee- words)
Between the Lions: Monkey Pop-Up Theatre- Bo Peep (lots of -ee- words)
Classic Sesame Street- E Imagination (-ee- and -ea- words)
Between the Lions: Gawain's Word: Weep
Between the Lions: What's Cooking? Beef in a Sheet (-ee- words)

Long I videos:

Between the Lions: Vowel Boot Camp- Long i

Long O videos:

Between the Lions: Dixie Chimps- Long O
Between the Lions: Cliffhanger, the Mole, and the Rope
Classic Sesame Street- The O Song (wonderful song with long o words)
Between the Lions: Fonix- Double O, Oo (-oo- words like "moo")


Long U videos:

The Electric Company: Josephine: Long U


Y as a vowel videos:

Classic Electric Company- LY
Between the Lions: B.B. the King of Beasts- Troubled by Y

Long vowel combo videos:

Muffin Songs: ABC Phonics Chant Song- Long u, o, and e

Consonant digraph videos:

Between the Lions: Cliffhanger and the Sheep on a Ship (-sh- words)
Between the Lions: Gawain's Word: Shark (-sh- words)
Between the Lions: What's Cooking? Squished Fish on a Dish (-sh- words)
Between the Lions: What's Cooking? Tickled and Pickled Ribs (-ck- and short i words)
Between the Lions: Gawain's Word: Tickle (-ck- words)
Between the Lions: Cliffhanger, the Pheasant and the Phone (-ph- words)
Between the Lions: Cliffhanger and the Chuckling Chickens (-ch- words)

r-controlled vowels videos:

Between the Lions: Cliffhanger and the Dirty Purple Shirt

More will be added as we find and use more. Check back later for new additions!

Word-Building with Phonics Tiles

So my highly kinesthetic first grade boy squirms like a wiggle worm and dissents any type of phonics worksheet. Because I am teaching him how to read, I've had to find alterative methods to pique his interest in learning to read for himself.

One way that has proved fruitful and delightful is word-building with colorful phonics tiles.

Right now we're working on long vowel sounds, which can get confusing for a new reader to get that -ie and -igh make the same sound. Here's what's worked for us:

1. Make flashcards showcasing the phonics sound you're teaching.

Right now we are working on long u sounds.