Jimmie's Collage » living books

Used Book Sale Bargains

Jimmie — Fri, 20 May 2011 15:00:00 +0000

On Monday night, our local homeschool group had a book sale. A lot of what was there was Abeka curriculum (which sort of pains my CM soul), but I did find some excellent living books here and there.

Here are my finds.

Novels

How God Stopped the Pirates
The Tinker’s Daughter A story of John Bunyan’s daughter. This will go wonderfully with the Pilgrim’s Progress study that Charlene sent me.

Picture Book

Temple Cat I am a sucker for picture books, history books, and cats. What can I say?

Shakespeare Books

Shakespeare

No Fear Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing
Bard of Avon: the Story of William Shakespeare by Diane Stanley
Tales from Shakespeare by Marcia Williams This is probably my favorite find of the sale. Sprite enjoys Shakespeare anyway. These retellings are done in a cartoon style with panels and dialog.

Lilving Geography Books

Geography

Legends and Leagues I’ve been wanting this since I read Cindy West’s review.
Mapping the Unknown

Introduction to Poetry

Poetry

A Child’s Introduction to Poetry This book & CD combination looks so good! I will be sure to review this one after we use a few lessons from it. The first part looks at different forms of poetry. The second half is about famous poets.

Have you bought any good used books lately?

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Da Vinci Picture Books

Jimmie — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 07:54:36 +0000

In our math history lessons (from Livingmath.net) we have finally reached the Renaissance. The focus is on Leonardo Da Vinci, a cross-curricular topic if one ever existed. Is he an artist, an astronomer, a mathematician, or an inventor? Of course, he is all of those, and that’s what makes a study of him so fascinating. We can veer off onto lots of tangents and make application to many different disciplines.

Da Vinci Picture Books

At the recommendation from the Livingmath.net book lists, I bought Leonardo: Beautiful Dreamer by Robert Byrd. Yes, it is a picture book. But it’s not an “easy” book. It’s an oversized, visually appealing overview of Leonardo that is full of narrative, quotes, tidbits, and anecdotes. And of course, all through the book there are beautifully detailed illustrations. Each two page spread focuses on one aspect of Da Vinci’s studies or an event in his life.

We already have Diane Stanley’s Leonardo da Vinci, so when I made my shopping list, I wondered if I really needed another Da Vinci picture book. But I am so glad I bought this one. The detailed illustrations and the extra details really bring Da Vinci to life with a very engaging style.

When I read the article Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children, I was especially glad I did my part to keep picture books in print. People who think that picture books are not mentally stimulating are not using books like Leonardo: Beautiful Dreamer as a standard. Or maybe as soon as they see illustrations, they discount the book as juvenile without actually reading it. Absolutely wrong. Leonardo: Beautiful Dreamer is the perfect example of a picture book for all ages. The illustrations help you understand the text which is full of complex scientific concepts.

We read this meaty picture book over the course of two weeks, reading two to three 2-page spreads daily.

Da Vinci Tangent — Journaling

Da Vinci was a journaler; he kept notebooks with his sketches. I encouraged Sprite to keep journaling and sketching because that is what many artists and writers and inventors do as habit.

Narrating Da Vinci

Because there is so much to learn about Da Vinci, I asked Sprite to choose just two topics to narrate in writing. She chose Da Vinci’s pranks and his interest in flight.

Thumbnails of Da Vinci Notebooking Pages

I made some notebooking pages for Sprite. When selecting which ones to print, she said, “I like this one, but can you take off the picture? I want to draw my own.” This is why we mostly use blank notebooking pages. (Get some on my Freebies page.)

1. Leonardo Da Vinci Science Notebooking Pages — weapons and human anatomy.

2. Leonardo Da Vinci Biography Notebooking Pages — images of Da Vinci himself.

3. Leonardo Da Vinci Art Notebooking Pages — Mona Lisa, sketches, caricatures.

4. Leonardo Da Vinci Quotations Copywork Pages — cursive and print.

Of course the Metropolitan Museum of Art calendar had one page by Da Vinci. Now that the year is at its end, it’s fun to be able to shuffle the pages and look for various styles of art or artists.

I also read The Second Mrs. Gioconda aloud to Sprite. The book was humorous and included a lot of history about Da Vinci. But I recommend this book with some reservations. There are adult themes of marital infidelity in the story. It’s never stated explicitly that Il Moro, Ludovico (Leonardo’s patron) is having affairs, but it does mention his first “love” before his wife and then his new “love” after the interest in his wife fades. I found that inclusion very disturbing. Worse, the element of the second lover during his marriage is essential to the plot as it explains some of his wife’s behavior. It’s not the kind of thing you could just skip over.

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Banned Books Week

Jimmie — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 04:57:45 +0000

I always knew that freedom is highly valued among Americans. But living abroad has made it real as I see how free we truly are.

One of those freedoms is our freedom of speech which impacts reading and publishing.

Although I am a conservative Christian, I am not in favor of censorship. I’ve been on the end of censorship where access to something I want to see or read has been restricted. I cannot tell you how frustrating that is. I want to scream, “I’m a thinking adult! Let me access this.”

There are plenty of books I choose not to read; I “censor” myself.

And that’s the bottom line for me. Adults should have freedom to read what they choose.

Now as a parent and a homeschooling mom, I certainly censor what my daughter reads. That is my responsibility to protect her, a minor. But one day (quite soon) she will be able to make those decisions for herself.

For example, I’ve censored the Harry Potter books. I don’t consider them pure evil, but more a matter of maturity. When Sprite is twelve or older, I will be fine with her reading the Harry Potter series if she chooses. I hope that we would discuss it and that she would read it with an analytical eye, looking for where it contradicts our worldview. I wouldn’t be surprised if she dislikes the dark tone of the novels just as I did.

I always discourage twaddle, but I think that censoring it is counter-productive. Besides, when you’ve been raised on a diet of living books, there is little appetite for junk-food books.

The most frequently challenged books are classics. Look at these lists of challenged and banned books and you’ll see how many are books you’ve either read (and loved) or want to read:

Read more about celebrating Banned Books Week which is September 25 – October 2, 2010. And here is a silly YouTube video about banned books. This is suitable for sharing with children to initiate a discussion about censorship, freedom, and personal responsibility.

What are your thoughts on censoring books? Are you teaching your children about choosing books carefully?

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Reference Books

Jimmie — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:52:16 +0000

I’ve found that with a living books approach, a collection of reference books is vital.

If we used textbooks, everything we “needed” to know would probably be right there. But since we use living books, we often come up with questions and need more information. I love going off on those types of tangents, those “teachable moments.”

Also, using reference books is a very important skill for becoming an independent learner. So far, I’m always the one suggesting we pull down the encyclopedia, but I hope that soon Sprite will do so on her own initiative.

Sometimes I do find that a reference book is missing from the shelf. When I ask Sprite about it, she retrieves it from her bedroom and says she needed it for looking up something. So even though she may not go the extra mile during our homeschool hours, she is using reference books to satisfy her own curiosity.

So we are slowly building our reference library as I find out what we need and get the books shipped over. Besides our dictionary (which these days is always the Oxford American Dictionary on the Kindle), here are the books we have now:

MATH

Everything You Need to Know About Math Homework

I bought this at a Scholastic book display when we went to the education conference. It’s been a great reference to complement our living math approach. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. I wish I had bought this long ago. It really could be used as a base for finding math topics to study. It includes all of those special math terms and plenty of diagrams.

SCIENCE

Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia

We got this one used via Better World Books. I love having it on hand. We turn to it often as an all purpose science reference.

The Way Things Work

This was a thrift store find — just $5. A steal. There are loads of full color diagrams to help you understand how various machines operate.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Write Source 2000

This is our primary writing, literature, grammar, and mechanics resource.

Thesaurus

Rhyming Dictionary

GEOGRAPHY

Kingfisher Student Atlas

Obviously geography is important, but since Sprite is such a visual learner, maps are truly essential to understanding a lot of the history we study. We use the atlas several times each week.

Student Bible Atlas

This one is part of our Beautiful Feet Ancients study.

GENERAL

World Almanac

Almanacs have so much information! I frequently find myself looking up statistics when a local friend asks me something like “How many Americans have dogs?”

Please feel free to share your favorite reference books here. I’d also love to hear tips for encouraging their use during the homeschool day or otherwise.

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Enjoying Our New Kindles in China

Jimmie — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:02:26 +0000

Before we left China in late April, I ordered two Kindles (sent to a US address since Amazon won’t ship Kindles to China). I bought a Kindle DX for me and a Kindle 2 for Sprite. We got them registered immediately, and I fell in love in a matter of days.

I read Little Women, The Jungle, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin (all free books in the public domain) in the first month of having my Kindle. Having the Kindle made me remember how much I love reading. But living abroad had put a damper on my book buying. When I did buy books, it was almost exclusively for Sprite and for her education. The shipping costs to get books abroad are amazingly expensive.

When I got back home to my desktop in China, I added a lot of PDF files to my Kindle — free homeschooling things that I’d collected from various websites. I find that reading the Kindle on the couch or in bed is much more enjoyable than sitting in front of my computer screen. So now I’m actually reading those things I used to download and promptly forget about.

Here are two pages from a Dinah Zike freebie and one from the Handy Book for Girls.

I bought a simple plate stand at Hobby Lobby in USA for less than $5. I’m certain it works as well as any of the high priced ones sold on the Amazon website.

Sprite helped me hot glue a bit of craft foam to the bottom, inside edge to prevent any rubbing.

I often use my stand — whether having my devotional times with my ESV Bible and The Message or listening to audio books or referring to cookbooks in the kitchen. I bought the How to Cook Everything cookbook. I slip my Kindle in a ziptop plastic bag while I’m in the kitchen with it.

I had expected to pay extra fees for using the Whispernet global wireless service in China. Before I bought the Kindles, I researched and found that it costs an additional $2 per book to use this convenient feature abroad. “No worries,” I thought, “I’ll just use my USB cord to add books and avoid any extra charges.”

But when I got to China, I had to experiment. First I turned on the wireless just to see if it worked at all here. It does! (The map Amazon offers does show my area as having Whispernet coverage, but to be honest, I just didn’t believe it until I tried. Not all of China is covered. Be sure to check the map for your location.)

Then I tried searching the Kindle store and downloading a free sample and a free book. It worked, but I wondered if I might get charged a fee for that book. As if to answer my question, when my new items uploaded, I also got a letter from Amazon telling me that although periodicals, blogs, and documents would incur a fee for transmitting via Whispernet, BOOKS ARE FREE via international Whispernet. I read it a dozen times to be sure. But, yes, it clearly says, “There is no charge for wirelessly recieving books, receiving single periodical issues, browsing the Kindle store, or using the experimental web browser while traveling internationally.”

HOT DOG!

I checked my account for a few days afterward to make sure that there were no additional fees from Amazon. Nothing.

Then we tested it again with a purchase of a book for Sprite. I wanted her to read The Watsons go to Birmingham as part of our study of the Civil Rights Movement. I didn’t buy it in America because I knew I could get it for the Kindle. We bought it using the wireless connection, and it downloaded within 2 minutes without any extra charges. Incredible!

I’m going to tell the whole Kindle story — the good and the bad.

Here’s the bad.

Sprite’s Kindle broke after we’d been back in China just a few weeks. We have no idea what happened. There was no impact or damage that we know of. It suddenly started having lines across the top one third of the screen. It made part of the books illegible. Even when powered off, the lines were still visible.

I was so disappointed! I called Amazon customer service to see about getting it repaired.

Here’s the good.

The associate was so helpful. He said the Kindle was still under the one year warranty period and therefore would be exchanged outright for a brand new one.

The only catch was that they would mail only to a USA address. And I had to return the broken Kindle to them. My dear mom received the Kindle and shipped it over to us. Thanks, Mom!

So even though I was terribly disappointed that the Kindle 2 broke so quickly, I was impressed with the Amazon’s customer service to rectify the situation.

While I was on the phone with the associate, I was upfront with him about being in China. He said that we were not paying international download fees because our Kindles are registered to a USA address and while we vacation abroad, the fees are not charged. So if I were to change my registration address to a Chinese one, I would start having to pay the extra $2 per book wireless fee. But for now, wireless is free.

I am totally thrilled with these Kindles! For people like us who live abroad, they are a lifeline to good reading.

No expensive shipping costs. (Amazon, for example, charges an additional $5 per book to mail abroad.)
No waiting two weeks to two months for a package. (Or what about lost packages that never arrive?)
No bulky books to pack and pay airline overage for. (United charged us $300 per 50 lb piece of overage.)
No books on the already overloaded bookshelves at home.
When we travel, we can pack the book-sized Kindle and have an entire library available.

Granted, not all books are available in Kindle format. And some books just wouldn’t work anyway. Imagine an Usborne book with all its full color images reduced to a few paragraphs of text. Yuck. But there are many classics available (and often free or very cheap) and many current bestsellers and new releases available. Most of the modern Newbery award winners,for example, are available in Kindle format.

So for now, Sprite is using her Kindle for homeschool and for recreational reading.

The dictionary is a real hit with her. She prefers the Oxford American Dictionary that comes pre-installed on the Kindle over using her hardback dictionary.

I have to admit that I love this feature of the Kindle too. While reading any Kindle book, you can place the cursor on any word to see the meaning at the bottom of the screen. If you want to read the full dictionary entry, you can see that by pressing a button. Then pressing BACK will take you right back to what you were reading.

I’ve created a lens about using the Kindle for homeschooling. It has some of the practical facts I’ve added here as well as links to where you can find freebies to put on your Kindle.

The Kindle 2 (and I assume the newer ones) can read PDFs too. This is a new function since I bought them Kindles!

Of course, the Kindle reader is free to download, so you can technically read Kindle books without a Kindle at all.

dictionary entry at bottom of screen

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It’s Entropy, Sweetie

Jimmie — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:02:50 +0000

Sprite: [sigh] Mom, why does my room get messy so quickly?

Me: It’s entropy, sweetie.

Sprite: What?

Me: Entropy. [Handing Sprite our new Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia] Look it up.

Sprite reads the encyclopedia entry and looks at me with a smile.

Me: So, in your case, what is the system that is moving towards disorder?

Sprite: [with a groan] My room!

So there’s a teachable moment. That one short encounter involved vocabulary, science, and research skills. I knew we needed a science encyclopedia. We’ve had it only few days, and it’s come in handy several times already. I got it used at Better World Books, a good but slow option for getting books overseas. [By the way, there's a newer version than the one we bought, but I linked to the actual edition that we have.]

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Picture Books for Middle School

Jimmie — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:52:53 +0000

Middle schoolers are far past the picture book stage, aren’t they? I used to think that. But I’ve learned differently through my own homeschooling experience. Picture books are still very appropriate educational tools.

Once Sprite began reading chapter books, I was ready to clean up the bookshelf and give away a lot of her picture books. I assumed she’s outgrown them. Of course there were some select classics that we could never part with, but I wanted to make room for more “advanced” books. When she balked, I relented and didn’t force her to part with any of her books. As we’ve moved frequently over the years, we did give away books and of course buy more, some of which are, ironically, picture books. What a turnaround! It was Living Math.net’s booklists that shifted my perspective on picture books. I tried a few of the recommended titles and discovered that they are valuable learning tools. Sprite has not outgrown them. In fact, I’ve not outgrown them!

First of all, picture books are fantastic for introducing more complex topics. Those tough concepts are made easier to understand through the illustrations and the narrative format. Also, a picture book is very nonthreatening. Its juvenile appearance masks the deep thinking between the pages. Pulling out an all text essay may get some groans, but sitting with a picture book on the couch lowers those defenses and gets kids in the mood to learn.

Case in point: while Sprite and I were having the “photo-shoot” for these photos, I asked her why she liked picture books. She said, “Because of the pictures, of course!” When I pressed her for details, she explained, “Things are easier to understand with the pictures.”

Secondly, picture books are living books. In studying online about the use of picture books for young adolescents, I found a common theme of contrasting picture books with textbooks. For example, look at A Middle School Teacher’s Guide for Selecting Picture Books. We Charlotte Mason educators already know the value of living books, so I won’t bother delving farther.

Furthermore, the illustrations in picture books provide yet another way to inject art appreciation into your homeschool. All it takes is a few pointed questions or statements to alert the child to the art:

“I really like this illustrator’s style. It’s so soft and dreamy.”
“How do you think the illustrator created these pictures?”
“Would you like to try to make some pictures like this?”
“Why do you think this illustrator used ___ in his pictures?”

Also, familiar picture books are a great way to first introduce the elements of fiction — plot, character, setting, point of view, conflict, and theme. Because the story of the picture book is already familiar, the child can focus his attention on the complicated literary analysis.

The latest picture book we’ve studied is The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky. It’s about Eratosthenes, the Greek scientist, writer, librarian, mathematician, and all around brilliant guy. (I’m pretty proud of myself for simply being able to say and spell his name!) There is some advanced math in this book! Seriously! This man estimated the circumference of the earth 300 years before Christ. It turns out that his measurement was off by only 200 miles. Pretty impressive. The book explains the steps he took to come to his conclusion. I have to be honest. If this information were not presented in a picture book with illustrations, there is no way I would understand it myself.

The way a middle schooler uses a picture book is quite different from the way a younger child does. Obviously an older child is going to delve deeper into the topic, possibly searching out other resources after reading the picture book. I have Sprite narrate in writing, synthesizing the ideas we learned into her own words. I encourage her to copy the diagrams in the book to enhance her narrations. Here are some Eratosthenes Notebooking Pages that we used for that purpose.

By the way, have you visited my Freebies Page recently? (Look at the links above the header, across the top of every page.) I’ve revised it quite a bit, adding links to many of my free printables, mostly notebooking pages. (Those files can still be found at HSLaunch, but I’m copying many files over to this website too for more organized access.)

So do you use picture books with your older children? Do you have any tips or titles that you especially like for homeschool?

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Beautiful Feet History of the Horse

Jimmie — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:07:10 +0000

We’re doing something totally different! A Beautiful Feet study — The History of the Horse. (We’ll go back to American history once we finish this. It’s time for a break.)

Books for History of the Horse

Drawing a Horse

This curriculum is a winner for a young girl. Why? Two reasons.

1. It’s about horses. Every book is a horse book.

2. It includes drawing! Drawing assignments are integrated into the material. You read about a horse in a wonderful novel, you study the horse in a non-fiction book, and you draw the horse. [I've learned a huge lesson here. I'm already planning for curriculum purchase for next spring when we are in USA. Note to self -- buy drawing books that incorporate your topics of study and assign them.]

I find that the daily assignments are really sparse, so we’re working through it double speed, doing two lessons per day.

Another reason this curriculum is going over so well is that for the first time, I’m letting Sprite read the novels silently by herself. She loves going back to her room to do her homeschool.

Reading King of the Wind

Click to read my Review of Beautiful Feet History of the Horse Curriculum. It’s really more than a review. It’s a description of the unit study, an outline of the books used, how we used it, extras we added in, and photos from Sprite’s notebook.I’ll keep adding to it as we go through. But if you want the short version — this curriculum is a winner! Love it!

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Reading Books

Jimmie — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:52:29 +0000

Since Sprite was an infant, I’ve read aloud to her. She’s close to ten years old, and I still read to her. She loves to listen as she sets up little worlds with her toys, sketches scenes from her imagination, or molds clay figures. Besides the pure enjoyment of a good book, I love how we share the stories. We learn new words together and use them with a grin of a shared secret. Last night the word was hoyden – a bold and boisterous girl – quite a useful word and likely to get heavy mileage between us! The experiences of the characters tend to weave themselves into our daily conversations as if these people were our relatives or neighbors.

But one of the best parts of reading aloud to my daughter is the sequel. Several days are spent, reading an engrossing book. When it finally comes to a close, there’s that bittersweet feeling of regret – it’s over; there’s no more. Next is the part I adore. I go over to the shelf and pull down the sequel. I show it to Sprite and say the title outloud. Her eyebrows go up and her mouth pops open in realization. There’s another book?! The adventure goes on?! That instant in time etches itself onto my memory as one of those perfect mom moments– seeing her face, feeling my sneaky triumph, sharing in her anticipation. Having a sequel is a beautiful thing.

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