New School Year

New School Year is upon us. I find it challenging already.

Ballet Girl is in Second Grade. For her the emphasis is reading, spelling, grammar and math.

• For reading, we are continuing with reading for fluency. I try to find texts that are interesting and engaging, often familiar so that she will have no difficulty decoding. I also insist that if she encounters an unknown word, she looks it up and writes it down and reviews it with me or someone else periodically. The girl reads well, but she would not readily reach out for a book and would not spontaneously read. This is bad and is completely contrary to what needs to be happening. Readings does need to be pleasure and not a task, and should be sought more than TV. So, this is a big challenge at the moment.
• For spelling, we are continuing with All About Spelling. We just finished reviewing level 1, about half of level 2 and a few small parts from level 3. While level 1 was mostly basic rules which are true most of the time, level 2 and beyond contain rules that have exceptions which need to be either memorized or learned through a lot of reading, as well as homonyms-words that sound the same but mean different things. Many of these features are best learned in small doses but regardless of the volume a requirement is repetition. For us,this requirements means that we need to 1) read the words visually a few times, 2) write the words a few times on a piece of paper, 3) say or write a sentence with the words, 4) dictation and 5) continuous review. This brings the challenge of how often and how much to assign; what are the consequences for a missed assignment. I don't believe in catch-up work and doubling the work. I believe in move on kind of work but I do recognize that when I am willing to accept slack, the kid is willing to take it to the next level and test my limits. So, I need to be more strict and disciplined.
• Grammar is a new subject for us. I briefly introduced some simple concepts at the end of first grade. The plan is to cover verbs and tenses both in grammar and spelling; singular and plural nouns in both grammar and spelling, and the separate roles of the words in the sentence, as well as the basic sentence types. We will also follow the Bulgarian grammar for second grade as a guide.
• Math is the cool subject. The girl is figuring out a lot of things on her own, and I am pleased, but because she prefers playing and would not by herself sit and work on problems, she is not fluent yet with the multiplication table, which I find frustrating. We are chagging along and the plan is to finish Beast Academy 3 B,C,D and Singapore Math 4A and 4B. I think this is doable but requires the girl to concentrate more than she has been concentrating the last few months.
• Science and History we are going to cover in Portuguese, and will be mostly learning in parallel.  For instance while studying the Ancient Egyptians we will talk about their scientific discoveries and we will try to solve some of the same problems with what we have today. This is also helping with building the foundation in Portuguese which I am also supporting with read alouds- Turma da Monica, Don Quixote, Peter Pan, Historias do Mundo; filmes-Carrossel, Mulan, etc; e cancoes.
• Piano, continues as usual, I am frustrated that we spend way too much time on a simple piece. For instance in the summer I was hoping to have completed two, instead we were stuck at one. Boo. I know her teacher wants to polish the pieces, but I am getting fed up with hearing the same piece for months, so no, thank you, we do need to move along and improve along the way, but learning has to be more active, especially now, when school work is not overwhelming.
• Sports. We are in the midst of soccer season. She loves it. She wants to move on with gymnastics in the winter and the spring. In the spring, I also plan on having them take swim lessons at the park district. 

Sunlight boy is in Kindergarten. The plan for him is to get him reading in English, continue reading Bulgarian and move on in math.

• English - he is reading the Bob Books. We are in set 1, 8 books in and thus far the progress has been satisfactory. He is approaching the reading with enthusiasm and pride. I think that he will be a reader by the end of K and in the summer we will continue along the road I took with the young lady.
• Math- we are almost finished with Singapore Math 2B. I will teach him to multiply 2-digit numbers before moving him to Singapore Math 3A and 3B. The goal is to finish the Singapore Math 3 sequence by the beginning of first grade.
• The young man started piano this fall and is enthusiastic about it as well. He is picking up the material with fair ease although his hands are still slightly uncoordinated and very stiff, but regular practice and encouragement will resolve this issue, I hope.
• Science, history, Portuguese and Sports apply equally to both kids. The young man is in soccer, which he loves, and will be forced into gymnastics and swimming before the end of the year.

We are reading every day. On the weekends sometimes I read twice, sometimes just once, depends on my energy. 

We have read some great books thus far. Most recently in August we read books about Ancient Egypt, The Adventures in Ancient Egypt book is very similar to the book we read about Don Quixote in portuguese. It is layed out in a cartoon format and is very accessible and entertaining. Overall the adventures of the boy and girl resemble a little the Magic Tree House books, but these are annotated with historically accurate information right when needed, and as such I consider them better.

Yes, we talked about the daily life of the egyptians. We talked about their beliefs and hierarchial system. We talked about their traditions and inventions which have come about from basic and logistic social and individual needs. I am pleased with how we covered Ancient Egypt as a first visit.

In August we read a book about pranksters, the Terrible Two. The author is the same as the author of Battle Bunny which we met last summer. We loved this book and ballet girl was able to foretell many of the things to come about. Overall, a great story about turning the ordinary life in the middle of nowhere (read Iowa) into exciting adventure. I also loved the emphasis on planning and thinking and designing. Love the book. Now in September, we are reading Toshko Afrikanski, which in many way resembles the adventures of Paddington, but is relevant to Bulgaria in the 20's-40's. It is a very funny read and the kids are loving it. I have to start inserting comments about the reality of Bulgaria at the time just to complete the learning.

In August we read Don Quixote das Criancas, which in style is similar to Adventures in Ancient Egypt. Greate fit in terms of Genre. The book is also nice because it contains in the back relevant information about the historical time and the author. We also read a lot about the adventures of Turma da Monica. I suspect we will be coming often to these adventures for stress free, goal free, readings.

In September, we are finishing another version of Don Quixote, which is a longer narrative with more descriptive adventures. After we are done we are going to read Peter Pan and some information from the Historia do Mundo para as criancas-up to Babylon.

This is another book from the Monteiro Lobato series that I acquired in August which we will read later on this year as well, or if not all of it, at least some parts.

King George and what is his problem I just finished reading. Oh, I did not learn a thing from US History class, but I learned a lot from this one simple book. It made me wonder if the Civil Warn reenactment that we witnessed was not actually accurate. From the description of the revolutionary war, the war seemed like a slug with luck written all over it. America is a very lucky country. Read this book to your kids, they will walk away with more than the mumbo jumbo in the history books. The US history books in order to make it a full year course include complicated, unnecessary information which forces the student to understand nothing. Maybe the goal of education is to produce low self esteem individuals with no knowledge and no critical thinking skills. How sad if indeed this is the goal.

Picture Books are Back!!!!

The wonderful things about picture books are that they are short, simple, full of pictures and they are everywhere!

During the last few months I concentrated my efforts on chapter books and I completely forgot about the rich content of picture books, well, forgot only until my last visit to the library.
I was searching for a particular book which was supposed to be 'on the shelf', and looking for the particular shelf which was supposed to host the particular book took me through rows and rows of picture books. Wow! I was thrilled with the discoveries I made. We are in need of simple, funny, amusing and short texts, and picture books are filling up this gap. They are a fabulous place to turn to when in doubt about what to read next. Pick a picture book. Any picture book can cure the uncertainty and can even point you to a direction. Don't forget picture books!

We love picture books.  Here are some that we have found quite enjoyable.

This book starts sad. A poor cat without a friend, roams the streets and is chased and unwanted, until an unexpected and maybe unwanted adventure takes her to an equally lonely person. The happy end! This is a great story. Yes, it is sad, but also very hopeful and positive and encouraging. Yes, you are not alone, keep on going and you will find your rightful place. This is a book worth reading several times. The first time for the listeners to understand the sequence of events and build some imagery. The other times to discuss all the wonderful themes in the book-loneliness, adventure, hunger, need, want, friendship, interpersonal relationships, attitudes, prejudice.

 This was the story that cheered up the mood in the house after we read the Scrawny Cat. It is a silly story, similar to the story about the chicken who cried that the sky is falling or the other chicken which cried that there is fire in the sky. This is a much more funny story and involves people from the neighborhood. As the previous book this one qualifies for multiple readings. On the first read, let the story settle and amuse. On the other readings, bring out discussion topics-the community and how all members are interdependent, the need/want for different professions, the relationship, the impact of a small event on the community. Great story, which is so more than a story. Enjoy!

 This was the third book we read. We did not like it much but it was funny. Again, it can be read multiple times and different things can be discussed. The first time we read it we tried to get the content but we also concentrated on understanding the pictures, looking for details and clues for the rest of the events. Upon other readings I think we will talk about 1) what is the chance that the two friends would take exactly the same routes and find each other-is it really as unlikely as we think (there is a lot of Bayesian to teach, priors-anyone!); 2) another obvious topic to tackle is geography-where do you think the friends live, why France(where is France), why Nepal (where is Nepal), What is Everest. Great starting point for learning.

What a gem! I follow a blog in which the lady presents with commentary the words she uses in her homeschool to cover topics and subjects. She provided a list with books related to the topic of home/houses which I also find fascinating, especially with my little man being into Legos and construction, and us living in Chicago which is rich in architectural history. There was one book which I picked and I liked-Old House, New House. It is a bit complicated but maybe we can give it a shot soon. Among the comments to the blog publication was mentioned the book which I am listing here. This is a fabulous book. I highly recommend it. It encouraged me to think about the large scale and meaning of home and all the details that form our living. It is a fabulous introduction to the structure of life, to the organization of communities, to the historical, geological, social, economic, technological and biological elements that form our daily existence and integration with nature. I am fascinated by the richness of the questions it is asking the reader to reflect on. It is a picture book with very concise and informative text. Enjoy!

Yes, you are right, this is not a picture book. The spirit of this book is like a picture book. The descriptions are vivid, the stories are easy to relate to, innocent, silly and amusing that yes, this is almost as good as a picture book. The stories are almost like the stories about Pippi Longstocking; but only almost! The children in this book are ordinary children, who see the world as all ordinary kids; they are not extravagant, they are plain ordinary and still manage to have most unbelievable adventures. This is Pippi Longstockings adventures but without Pippi, with only Tommi and Anika. I love this book. There are references to the older way of life; the childhood when there was no TV, no cars; when it was safe to on your bike around your neighborhood, when your neighbors knew you well, when a wagon rolling through the street and rising dust was a usual thing.  This is a fun book to pre-read and to post-read! Enjoy!

As we were reading the Moffats, I told myself: 'Wait, we have better Bulgarian books-Patilantsi', for instance. Turns out that, yes, our literature is better but it is also 100 years old which means that some of the language is difficult for me too. We are reading the Bulgarian book now because the chapters are shorter, equally silly and full of great cultural information.

Weslandia is a wonderful book about someone who is different. There was a speech this year at the Oscars by someone who said ' When I was 15 I wanted to kill myself. Look how far I have come. If you are weird, if you don't fit, please, keep on doing what you are doing, keep on being yourself.' This book is wonderful because it is educational and inspirational. If you want to cover history, social science, geography, science, math, whatever educational topic is on your mind, you can use this book. I find this book most remarkable because it allows you to understand that there is nothing wrong with just being different; in fact, this book can inspire you to think outside the box and see the extraordinary in the ordinary.

What a powerful story! This book is appropriate to all audiences 5+. It is so simple. It is not the detail of geography that the boy learned that make this book so special; the magic is captured by the mental adventures that the map allowed the boy to take, far away from hunger and poverty, far away from trouble.

This is an old favorite. I loved it the first time I read this book a few years ago. More or less we come across this book at least once each year. We always have something new to talk about, some new detail to uncover. It is a simple and straightforward story, so it is quite surprising that it is one of the few books that we have embraced over and over.

Yes, if you want a good laugh, this is your book. It is a silly book. In a humorous way you can talk about friendship, adoption, envy, jealousy, pop culture, economics, the self, self-importance. There is so much in this book which while very simple and silly is also very rich! It gave us the surprise we have been looking for for a while now. Read it and laugh, laugh out loud.






These two that follow are my own readings. I found both books quite interesting and engaging. One Crazy Summer is complicated for young readers, I think, or for anyone not familiar with this part of the US history, the black panthers. I was not familiar with the history, so it was difficult for me to tune in, but after a certain moment the book acquires a very humane image and you don't need the historical element to stay engaged. The Long Walk To Water is a fascinating book, and gives you a perspective on immigration. I am an immigrant but I came from a peaceful country. I did not have to fight for my life, I was never hungry. I am told we didn't have much but it was never evident to me that we struggled in our daily lives. The person who narrates the main story has struggled. What is most astounding is that along his story of survival, you hear a lot of stories of lost life. You wonder about evolution, about the meaning of humanity. Are we by being humane really being good to one another or are we the real evil by imposing rules that are not natural. What I mean is that hunger and poverty and drought will naturally wipe out the people who are in these places. This is driven by nature. But we by moving resources, and only very limited amounts, from area of abundance to area of scarcity, we create additional need, additional motivation for ferocity; we create the inhumane which what our humane gesture tried to avoid. To me the absolute resolution is absolute relocation from the geographical area of scarcity, but this is not feasible. Yet, the process of selection is full of conflict-selecting only the strong, only the fit, are we really not playing nature, are we really not pretending to be better; who are we to decide that one's life is worthy of saving and another's is not; why is being sick an indication of lack of potential. We have easily lost poets, engineers, just because their road to the point of salvation was difficult. I am very conflicted when it comes to humanity and the fine balance of resources in nature. The book is interesting, with positive end, but to me, humans playing nature, playing the merciful and also the villain who select the few to be saved presents a huge, unresolved problem. Good, easy, quick reads, worthy of discussion with young and old. I recommend both.

New Read Aloud

On Friday we finished Lily, the Rainforest fairy and on Saturday I found myself at a loss. What should I read now? I briefly contemplated reading Charlotte's web but decided against it because it is too long. I picked two books from downstairs-Junne B. Jones and Tom Sawyer, both easy readings. However, Junne B. Jones is plain dull and if I am reading I like to be entertained too; Tom Sawyer is somewhat complicated and has concerning elements (murderers, slavery) that I am not interested in delving into right now.
In the morning the kids watched Disney's Os Tres Mosqueteiros so in the afternoon when we found ourselves at Barnes and Noble and I saw this 48 page version along with a buy two get the third free deal, I did not hesitate and purchased The three musketeers, Little Princess and Robinso Crusoe. We started reading The Three Musketeers on Saturday night. There are elements that need explanation- what is a cardinal, what are the king's guards and how they are different from the musketeers, why the two sets of guards were fighting, why the two sets of guards were needed. The plot is also somewhat chunked up, but not badly enough that it is impossible to patch. I am completely content with patching since I am translating and have been providing patching along the way for the last six years:). For myself and for my audience I think these sets of books are great-simple, entertaining and different.

Here is a list of some videos we will be using in the next few weeks to boost our Portuguese learning:
Os tres mosqueteiros cegos (watched tonight and loved)
Principe e mendigo
Tres fabulas de Lafontaine (Raposa e Uvas; Lobo e Cordeiro; A raposa e o Corvo)
O Magico de Oz
Ferdinando (have watched many times, but will come back soon when we discuss Spain and the conquistadores)
Fabula de Rei Midas
No Pais de Matematica
Tres lobinhos e porquinho mau
A verdadeira historia dos tres porquinhos
Turma da Monica-Roupa Nova do Rei
Turma da Monica-Jacare de Estimacao
Historia Contada-Roupa Nova do Rei

Coleção Disquinho Historia on YouTube.com