I'm also hoping to do some homeschool planning on some of our time off. We have switched gears on our social studies plans for the year (less Story of the World and more unit studies) for the time being which is going well; however, at the end of last week, I also realized that we haven't opened our science books in (a-hem) a while. We have been so into our Thanksgiving studies that it slipped by. I also feel like we are playing quite a bit of catch-up from the weeks of fall sickness that we had. Lots of half-days here and there due to extra dr. visits trying to get everyone well. Lord willing, that is behind us for now but we have some school catch-up to do!
I thought I would also share N1's "holiday reading list" that I made for her to take her through November and December. Amy asked me to share this a few weeks ago and I totally forgot (sorry!) so here it is. This is mostly my attempt to guide N1 to read some great kid books that she might not pick up on her own.
This is the same plan as her fall and summer reading list. She has to read two of the books on the list (along with any other free reading that she may do on her own). Note: I will let her listen to one choice on audio from the list, but the rest I want to her read whether it be from a "real" book or on her Kindle. If she reads a third book, she earns an ice cream date with the parent of her choice. Four books earns her some book money that she can spend in a real-live bookstore or on Amazon.com (for real books or for her Kindle). Five books earns her a special surprise (to be determined by responsible adults). : ) This time, I've also made sure that we have our own copies of these books in our home, again, whether on paper or loaded on her Kindle. I picked up The Courage of Sarah Noble, Wind in the Willows and Misty of Chincoteague at a used bookstore recently, and we already had a copy of Farmer Boy and Stuart Little. (She also has a free version of Wind in the Willows on her Kindle).
I will admit that so far, N1 has never read beyond the two books she has to read. Some, I think, because she's not sure about the books that Mama has picked, and two, because she is reading a ton on her own. So far, though, I still feel that this is a useful guide for her to have before her in helping her select some good books and I do see some results from it. From her fall reading list, she read All of a Kind Family ... and then promptly checked out every sequel in that series either on book or audio (whatever she could find) and devoured the rest of them. She also listened to Anne of Green Gables on CD; I admit I put that one on there to challenge her and she read maybe a third of it before finishing it on CD. It's a start. : )
Well, we are off today for an orthodotic evaluation for the oldest and just maybe sneaking in a Christmas errand or two while we are out which should be an adventure with all four munchkins. We shall see how much actually gets done! Happy Tuesday to all!
Thanks for posting this, Stephanie! So far our little history experiment is going well, too. What I've been doing with Lulu is assign her a book a week for Book-It at Pizza Hut. She reads tons of self-selected stuff, too. So far that little personal pan pizza has been motivation enough! ;-)
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