The Secret Life of the Dyslexic Child

Since making the announcement that I was ordering and starting with Barton for my son I wanted to read something interesting about dyslexia.  I am forever looking for new books.  You all know how it is when you go to the bookstore, right?  You walk in with an idea of different subjects that you would like to learn about.  Well, I've been reading about dyslexia.  I walked through Barnes and Noble and it was teachers appreciation week.  Yippee, 25% off that weekend!  We don't have a B&N in my town but we were in Wichita, Kansas visiting family and I can't ever leave there without going to the bookstore especially when it's teacher appreciation week.  

I found this book called The Secret Life of the Dyslexic Child by Robert Frank.  I have a couple more pages to read before I am on chapter 6.  Wow, is all I can say about this book.  If your child is dyslexic or you just want to know about how a child with dyslexia feels then you have to read this book.  If you know of a child or older person with dyslexia then you have to read this book.  

Dyslexia is not just letter reversals or not being able to read.  It can involve many aspects of life and it does in many people from math, reading, writing and given directions for a project and they just can't remember what was told to them.  There is much more to it than that.  

I hope to be done with this book soon but so far it is two thumbs up. 

My School Room

Don't forget to click on pictures to enlarge.

Well, I have been promising some friends that I would post some pictures of my school room and I finally got around to it. Yes, that's right I have 8 bookshelves and they are all packed. Now you have to remember that I love books and I also have three children in all levels of school. So there, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

If you notice the basket on the floor it has some puzzles in baggies for us to use. Really those puzzles are just about ready to be given away. We will use them this year but that's it for them. Yes I have a ladder. I need one. Can you tell?
This is my table. I have lots of books on it right now. I am in the process of figuring out what books we will use and working on our schedule. If you notice on the floor under the table there are some dinosaur counters and a few odds and ends. Well, my baby loves to sit under there and play with them. I also have some stacks of things that are ready to be given away. The things in the black rolling carrier is full of things we no longer need. That is all going to be given away.

The stack on the floor is getting ready to be sold. I'll probably put them all on my blog next time. I've done some major cleaning and decluttering. It may not look like it but I have gotten rid of lots of paper. How is it that we homeschoolers accumulate so much paper? That blue lid tub is for someone that let me borrow her things a while back and I need to return them. I just need to find her.



Here is a close up view of my bookshelves. This one has the baskets that we will be using for all their books. At the moment they are packed with everything I would like to do between now and Monday I have to get it all in order and only have in there what they will be doing.








Here are the bookshelves from top to bottom. Top of all bookshelves have games that we will be using.

Do you see that stack of books on the floor? Gotta get rid of those too.



On the right corner you can see the books of the bible game I made with clothes pins last year. It also has the calendar on the other side. It's homemade. It's amazing what you can do with pvc pipe.









I made my own schedule pages because I just can not, I said can not, do Homeschool Tracker. I have to have things written down. So I'm in the process of working out our plans for geography only because I am looking forward to doing that.



So there you go. That is a glimpse of my school room and my many bookshelves. Many, many bookshelves. Next year I will be getting rid of my little babies readers. I'm so not looking forward to that. I can hear him now, "I'm to old for those books." *sigh*

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

What about Spelling? A hands on approach

Level 5 is ready. I've been waiting for this to come out not because I need it at this moment but because I will still get it even though I will not use it for at least a year or two.

Not only is it ready but it's on sale till Saturday, July 18. This is the time to get it if you are using this program.

Why do I like this program? Well, it's multi sensory, you use games and different hands on ways to learn. The lessons are written in an easy to understand way and it's all there for you to use, it's all written out for you. No having to figure out what to say or do to help teach spelling. We all know that a child can learn to read and really not know how to spell. You can see that when you have them write out a story. I find that this program works for us.

One other thing I like is the levels. Just because it says level one doesn't mean it's grade one. Everyone should start out with level one. It starts off with basics like making sure each student knows the phonetic sounds. If you child knows this then they will fly through that lesson. We have gone through some lessons fast and others we go slower. Like my younger one started out with level one and kept up a good pace in level one. My middle son with dyslexia went a bit faster at the beginning and kept going till there was a point where he slowed down. Each child is different. I like that I can use this program for my son just starting out in 1st grade and my son with dyslexia who will be in 6th grade.

There is even a site you can go to for help if you have questions. It's called Chatter Bee . At that site there is a group for each level. Even if you go to their website you can go and read up on the FAQ section and get lots of info you might need.

What about cost? Well, level 5 is 25% off right now so it's a great buy. I really don't see the price that bad considering it's all written out for you, you can use it for every child, it has hands on and fun games that captures my boys attention.

I highly recommend this program for spelling. It's the best investment I've made. My kiddos love it. It's the best hands on program we have ever used.

Frogs, Frogs and more Frogs

If you all don't know let me tell you that here in my part of Texas we are in a drought. Big time drought. We need rain to have frogs. There is this project that I wanted to do with the boys but didn't have the frogs to see so we went to the zoo. Of course, there is nothing better than a field trip to brighten up our day. This went along great with a new book that is at our library. It's called...what else but Face to Face with Frogs.

That was an awesome book. The pictures were great and the info was wonderful. We saw pictures of different colored frogs from different parts of the world.

One interesting fact we learned was that some of these frogs get their poison from eating ants. Interesting!! We got in my bed to read the book. Of course we didn't read it all at once. I had to make it last at least two times. We all love reading while laying in my bed together. More bonding time. I just love it.

Our lessons are not always just reading great books and field trips but adding a fun project to go with it. I ordered the Hearts and Trees Spring Kit and it went perfect with what we had done already.

The boys got to draw a picture of a frogs life cycle and we attached it to the lapbook. There was coloring going on and putting it all together. There is still more to do with the spring kit but that is for another time.

The boys enjoyed all the time we spent doing this and as soon as our drought ends we will be looking for frogs in our backyard.

We are slowly inching our way towards more of a CM family and enjoying it.

Another Book

I can't wait to get my copy. All About Spelling has come out with a Reader. It's called the Beehive Reader. Check out the products page all the way at the bottom. This is what the site says about it.....

Your beginning reader will delight in finding out what happens when…

…a busy cat lives in a windmill

…a sleepy bear cub takes a nap

…a grumpy duck demands a snack

…a singing bat befriends a lonely king

… a curious boy shrinks from tall to small

…and much more!

I can't wait to get my copy. I look forward to any book that is sweet and clean

Update: I got my book this weekend and it is better than I expected. You have got to see the sample pages on their site. I'm sure lots of you will be interested in this book. Go here to see this new book.

Reading for Fun

We have started reading a new book. This was not a book by choice. Do you ever find that you must find something fun. Since starting to read this book I have discovered that many have already read it and think it was a great book. I am relieved to hear that others thought it was good.

We have just started with the first chapter and tomorrow we will continue. We need something just for fun besides all the other things we read.

So what are you all reading just for fun?

Our School Room

Well, I am done with getting the bookshelves in order. Almost anyway, hehehe, I can still do more. I have 7 bookcases along one wall. I have one more to bring in from one of the rooms. I want to get most of the books into this room. They can keep some books in their rooms but I want the majority in the school room. Sometimes it's hard to know where a book is or if we even have it if there is a bookcase in one room and a few in the other. So I am trying to get them all in one place.





This first set is reference books for school. I have a shelf for math one for language arts, one and a half for science, one and a half for history and then there are shelves for nature and guides and art.





Then there is an area for the books that we are using now for our curriculum. Also some binders for nature studies and art and music biographies.

If you look on the first picture you can see something on the floor. Can you guess what it is? Yes, it's a fossil. But, do you know what kind it is? I've seen some at museums so I think perhaps some of you might figure this out. These came out of Fort Worth area. My brother gave these to us. The biggest is so heavy that I have a hard time picking it up. It has got to weigh at least 50 or 60 pounds. I vacuum around that thing and pull out the attachments to clean on it and around it. Way to heavy to go picking it up to vacuum under it.

So take your guess. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think it is. Come on, don't be chickens. Take a guess!

My bookshelves are done!

Some of you may know that I bought me 2 more bookshelves last month. They were the cheap kind because I am still hoping hubby will eventually get to our original plan of one wall being bookshelves from top to bottom. Till then I will make do with these.

I took some pictures of the bookshelves already organized and looking nice. Whatcha think?
This is one of the new bookshelves. As you can see on the top I have our microscope and games. That one box has cables and wires to one thing or another and my Ace wraps for my body aches. The top two shelves have our current school books. Next two shelves have my stuff. and the bottom starts with animal books. Oh and the half bookcase is for paper goods and library things and our binders. Plus if you click on the picture to make it larger you will see a small rock collection the boys have on the half bookcase.
We also have some other games in those tall boxes that I got at an educational store. That box with a V on it is an old shoe box that we will be using for our Apologia science project this year. Oh and if you are wondering why the space between bookcases...hubby wanted the outlet available so it's behind those boxes. See those spiral notebooks on the bottom of that last bookcase? I got those at WalMart they had them for 5 cents. Yep, 5! The basket on top is what I have our art supplies in. Just bring it down and I have everything there from watercolor, pastels, inks, and paints including art paper that would fit in there.

I have books for the oldest to read on the top shelf and biographies, homeschool helps, and just books to read that I got from the teacher who was my oldest's kinder teacher. On the top shelf of the end bookcase I have easy readers, then books that have been read by the oldest and waiting to be ready by the others. We also have poetry books and more books that we still have to read.

The tops are very well used as you can see. I have balances of different kinds, puzzles, games, counters and binders. The first two shelves of both of these bookcases that are on the opposite wall have more small games, theocratic books to use for school and our human take apart body.

These bookcases have our school books by subject. We have geography, science, math, language arts, history and art/nature books. The two closed doors, I have books that have been used but that I want to keep and some books to be given away.

This last picture if of our school books for this year. My baby loves to use those Kumon books and has some almost done or half way done but on days that I can't get him to do his regular work I have him choose a book and he can work in that or when he is done and I am working with someone else he gets one of those books. Top shelf is for the oldest and middle son. Aaron has the next shelf and also books that they will all use.

Hope you have enjoyed looking thru my books!

Contest...Books

In celebration of my 100th post on this blog I am going to do a contest that will benefit someone out there that reads and comments on my blog.

A while back a public school teacher gave me a ton of books. What a great teacher. I have doubles of lots of the books. Some of these books were used by the teacher and have little sticky notes in them and some don't but they are nice books and and they were free books. Now you have a chance to have some of my doubles and I have a box full.

Here are the rules to this contest.

1. Come read my blog and leave a comment.

2. Leave at least one comment so I know you came and read and that's it.

3. Contest is from Jan 21-Feb 4.

4. Winner will be picked from those that came and left comments. Winner will be announced on Feb 4th. We'll get in touch and soon after that you'll get some free books in the mail.

Easy as that!

The prize is the following....

...and anyone can enter as long as you leave me a comment. I will probably do this contest again since I have so many books. So keep checking back if you don't win the first time.

Nature on the roads

Today hubby called me from work and he wanted to go to Corpus Christi so off we went to pick him up at work and look what we saw on the side of the road. As a car would drive by they would quickly go into their homes. There was one on the road and I got out to get it out of the way. Yep, I got out of my van and ran to the middle of the road to get that turtle out of the way. First though I had to show the boys. There were lots of "oohhhhs and aaaahhhhhs" from them.

There was lots of shrimping going on down here. We saw about 10 boats in the area.
On the way home we drove to hubby's work to pick up his truck and look at this Texas dog. hehehe Not really, this was an armadillo. There were two roaming around. It was dark and had to use the flash but we got a picture of this guy. That was our cool nature part of the trip.
Now on to the best part. Well, besides going to eat at Olive Garden, YUM!! we had to stop at Barnes & Noble. What would a homeschooling mom be if we didn't stop there? So what did I find? We got a few books for history. Then I saw this book which I really liked. It has all the rules of grammar and punctuation and some tests and answers to those tests. I need that book for myself. I am so bad with my punctuation. My oldest is much better than I am. That was our day out of town.

Update: I always forget to add the titles of the books and was going to put them in but forgot again. So here it goes....The books I got are from a series called History Maker Bios. They have different authors but they all say Barnes & Noble on them. I did look on amazon but they only showed one copy and it was a hard cover and way to expensive so I didn't add that next to The Blue Book link. These are small softcover books and they have lots of different titles. If you go to Barnes & Noble and look on their kids history section I am sure you will see them there. Ferdinand Magellan's author is Elaine Landau, Sir Walter Raleigh by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson, Lewis and Clark by Candice Ransom, Christopher Columbus by Susan Bivin Aller. They are all $5.95US and $7.95Canada. Don't forget to get your teachers discount. I like these books because they are short, have lots of pictures, have a timeline, have some further reading options and websites to go for more info.

Tea Time Tuesday

What did we read today? We read several books. Two bible stories and 4 books. Did we have any tea or sweets? Nope not this time. We went to my room and everyone got in my bed. They love this since they hardly ever get into my bed so it was a treat for them. They would rather do this than sit around the table and eat. By the way I have a king bed. It would have to be to fit all these kids. I think my favorite book this time was The True Story of the Three Pigs. Did anyone else do this today?

Great Book

My sister-in-law's sister works at the local high school and told me they had some books for teachers to buy and if I wanted to get some. She mentioned a book with bird songs and I knew it had to be one of these. I got it at half the original price too. I was jumping for joy when I finally got it. It is neat. The boys love it. Now I have to save up for the others. I'd love to get the other one of 250 bird songs from North America Birds and the one from Around the World will be the last one I get.