A is for Ardizzone

My friend Veee is also profiling her favorite authors or illustrators, so after reading here, pop over to find out her pick at Acknowledging Him! 

My choice for the "A" post is Edward Ardizzone. I've posted a little about his works before.  I am always struck by the beauty of his watercolors.  The fuzzy edges and wiggly lines make me feel that even *I* could draw like him, if I tried. It just looks so homey and natural.  Of course, he was a master illustrator, winning the Kate Greenaway Medal for Tim All Alone and numerous other awards.  No one could REALLY draw like he did!

He was able to capture the spirit of childhood in his drawings.  The emotions that emanates from his work are warm, comfortable and inviting.  I love the old fashioned styles and stories that he illustrated and feel like I *dream* in Ardizzone at times.   

Wouldn't it be great to have your child content at pulling a wagon full of babies around and be satisfied? Our children have so much technology around them at all times and are not content any longer. I miss the days of Tim.

Let's give out children a view of childhood that they haven't had and is HARD to get in our time.  Simplicity. Contentment. Adventurousness. Wide open for dreaming and doing.  Go to your library or Amazon and start enjoying Mr. Ardizzone's world today! 

A New Series Announcement

My friend Veee over at Acknowledging Him and I are beginning a new series of posts together. We're each going to blog about a favorite author or illustrator.  We're going to start with an "A" name and continue through the alphabet, until we've each introduced you to 26 of our favorites.  We're not telling each other who we chose to profile each time, so I'll be as eager as you are to read her posts!  We'll have our first posts up later this week, so watch for it!  (Edited to add: Her blog platform folded, so this series did not go far, sadly. She posts at Instagram now.) 

Teaching the Teen Numbers

Some kids breeze through learning the teen numbers. They simply click. Others have a harder time with these numbers. They don't follow the verbal pattern of counting and that makes them HARD!  On top of that, number 17 sounds an awful lot like 70.  It's all very confusing.  Here are so helps for teaching those pesky teen numbers.

Numbers in the Teens Song

Mathwire

Marshmallow Counting Frames

New Zealand Teachers Tips

An Online Game

Montessori Math

Montessori Teen Board

A Pinterest Board FULL of Ideas

Grace for 2013

Praise the Lord for daily grace and new beginnings.  Are you discouraged in your schooling? Don't be!  His grace is new every morning....and every minute if you need it that often!  Take a deep breath, pray and begin again.

We are sharing our Christmas vacation with a vicious virus. BOO!  The 2013 part of our 2012-2013 school year will be here before we know it.  I have many plans for fun studies and readings with the little Lambies.  I have some pictures of December studies to blog and share, too. All in good time, friends!

A Struggling Reader Story

Some of my children have struggled to learn to read.  Some have picked it up quickly.  Some take a while, but end up successful in not TOO much time.

With one of my strugglers, I took a new tact this year.  He had been working through 100 Easy Lessons, and reached a little over halfway.  Each day, he struggled through it, guessing some sounds, forgetting what he had "mastered" yesterday... It's the way his brain works.  I know it.  He knows it.  We try not to get too worked up about it because when it clicks, it will click!

We tried Pathway Phonics, too, among other things, but it advanced too quickly for him so we set it aside and returned to 100 EZ Lessons.

When school started this year, I sat this son down and talked about how last year went.  We discussed how hard letters are for his brain to remember and how repetition is the key.  Then I "broke the bad news".  I told him we were going to start 100 EZ Lessons over again, rather than pick up where we left off before summer break.

He wasn't happy.

However, ten weeks into our school year, I can say it was the right decision!  He is breezing through the book, reading successfully and with more speed and accuracy.  He actually is interested now in learning to read and is practicing outside of reading time!  He has correctly sounded out words and phrases in real life, even during free time.  He's not fluent by any means, but I see a being a Reader in his future THIS YEAR!

Sometimes, it just takes a reset button.

Buggy For Bugs

If your kids are anything like mine, they are love the four-footed furry animals, but they are also always bringing in new six and eight-legged friends.  We've been a host family to grasshoppers, locusts, an injured honeybee, praying mantises, a potato bug, a sun scorpion and many other buggidies.

I use a couple of different sites to identify new insects and spiders that we see.  The first I found was What's That Bug.  We found this one when we captured a sun scorpion and had no idea what in the world it could be.  We love the Bug-of-the-Month feature.

What's That Bug led me to BugGuide. Now I usually use BugGuide first, since they have a nice thumbnail feature that makes searching easier than by name only.

I'll often bring up one or the other site and let an interested child have some bonus computer time browsing around.  Yep, it's science!

Starting with Money

Missy's newest endeavor is to master the art of money.  She's ten now, and needs to have this skill for adulthood!  Today we sat down and learned the names of the coins.  Missy's special learning style requires many, many multiple repetitions of facts before they are mastered, so we began with simple sorting.  I had her pour out all of her coins. I showed her each, a penny, a nickel, a dime and a quarter, one at a time. I named each president, not that I expect her to remember their names in this lesson, and we talked about the color, size and weight of each coin.  We noted which ones had smooth edges and which have a reeded edge.

I had her find a penny and declare, "I found a penny!" until she had separated each out into a pile.  Then we repeated it with nickels, dimes and quarters.  It took some time, but she was having fun and learning the name of each coin. After that, I held up random coins and had her say "That is a ______ and it's worth ____cents.".  After doing that for a while, I had her pul random coins from the pile, say their names and values and then drop them into the red cup we had nearby.  Our final activity was the funnest.  She closed her eyes, held out her hand and I dropped a coin or two into it.  She had to feel the coin and decide what coin it was and tell me before opening her eyes.  If she got it right, she got to add it to the cup.

She still wanted to play with the coins more, but it was time to wrap up the lesson. I try never to wear her out during a lesson, but stop when she's still enjoying herself. I let her go and let Jack and Troubles join in.  Since they know the coin names and values already, I just played a short game with them.  I had them close their eyes, hold out their hands and I dropped three or four coins in.  They felt the coins, added the values and declared their guess before opening their eyes and self-correcting.  They also attempted to add the value of ALL the coins.  Neither was able to do that, though.

I hope that if you have a child who has special needs, you are focusing on real-life skills rather than frustrating your child and yourself on math that they will not be using in their lives.  Missy works on counting, two and three digit addition and subtraction, reading a clock and money and until these are mastered, she doesn't need anything else!

Here are some helpful site for printables and games:
Simple Worksheets and Games
Lots of coin activities!
Interactive games