End of Summer Literacy Fun

My first summer with three kids was... interesting. I had lofty plans for activities and learning, but most of them didn't happen. We did have fun celebrating summer today though with some reading and a little field trip.

We got a couple books from the library about ice cream, and read a little on the subject before we headed out to visit our local dairy plant.

I must admit, we were a bit disappointed in our visit to the dairy plant. There was no actual tour. Their idea of a "tour" was to let us watch a video on how they make their various dairy products. Kind of lame.

But we took a picture with a (fake) cow!

And we got free ice cream! So it wasn't a total bust. Turns out they don't even make ice cream at the plant we visit. They make it in Chattanooga.

Anyhow, we decided to go up to the store and buy some rock salt so we could make ice cream ourselves. We found directions online for making ice cream without an ice cream maker (because we don't have one), using just ziploc baggies, rock salt, and then stuff pretty much everybody has around the kitchen (ice cubes, milk, sugar, and vanilla). I was pretty skeptical as to whether this was actually going to work or not, but it did! I ended up doing all the shaking, because the bags were too heavy for the three year old and my two big kids were busy teaching themselves the Cha-Cha Slide (don't ask). It only took five minutes though! And it was really yummy! Downside: It didn't make very much, and it melted REALLY fast.

Here's Isaac giving a "thumbs up" (we'll have to work on that) for his ice cream.

Other books about ice cream:

The Ice Cream King by Steve Metzger and Julie Downing

I Am An Ice Cream Truck by Ace Landers

Milk to Ice Cream by Inez Snyder

Wemberly's Ice Cream Star by Kevin Henkes

I Like Ice Cream by Robin Pickering

Should I Share My Ice Cream by Mo Willems

From Cow to Ice Cream by Bertram T. Knight

Ice Cream by Elisha Cooper

Yummy Ice Cream: A Book About Sharing by Emma Quay and Anna

Guilty Confession of A Literacy Teacher:

None of my kids can read.

O.K. so one of them is only three, and the other two have only just recently moved to this country (from Ethiopia) and learned English. But in all honesty, I feel they should all be closer to reading than they are. My oldest daughter really wants to read and has a lot of anxiety about starting school again next month because she can't read. Problem is, she wants me to like zap her with the power to read and just be done with it like that. She is not very motivated to put the work in to actually figuring it out with me. She has actually told me numerous times that her brain is broken and she can't learn how to read.

Guilty confession number 2: I have actually considered hiring a tutor to teach my daughter to read.

I can't tell you how many people have told me how great I'm going to be at teaching my kids English, and teaching then how to read. I should be, right? I mean, heck, I'm the "Literacy Launchpad Lady" for crying out loud! But, my forte is more getting kids prepped for learning to read, and instilling motivation in them. I work with preschoolers who aren't at the actual reading stage yet. So when you put me and my daughter together, who already struggle to connect just as a mother and daughter, add the stress of learning to read (with all the anxiety surrounding it on my daughter's part), add a traumatized brain that struggles to retain info, add two brothers who have to be up in everybody's business all the time, and add the fatigue from all our summer activities... it's just tough!

Right now we're still just working on letter sounds. I think she finally has the letter names down. Progress! But yes, very slow progress.

Fumbling Through Summer

Forgive me for my absence here. I'm new to the whole being a mom of three kids over summer break thing. It's time consuming. I'll be back. Promise!

Summer Reading Programs and Summer Homeschooling

Summer is totally kicking my butt this year. Hence my lack of posts lately.

Took my kids up to one of our local libraries last week to get them signed up for the summer reading program. I was a bit disappointed. I signed them up as pre-readers since that's what they are. But I'm thinking I may have to go and see if they'll make an exception for us, and let them do the regular reading program. The pre-readers are given these little Bingo-type cards with various different activities on them and they have to cross 10 off to win their first prize, and then another 10 to get their second. The activities are so simple, and my kids are so eager to get their prize, that they had 10 crossed off in less than a week. At this rate, they'll have completed the entire summer reading program in less than three weeks. And it really isn't challenging them at all.

In other news, we are trying to start some reading instruction this summer (squeezing our lessons in between ESL summer school and swimming at the pool). We haven't made much progress yet. Much of the time I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall. It's tough when you've got one that is so easily discouraged, but yet puts hardly any effort into even TRYING.

Anybody else participating in a summer reading program with their kids? How are you liking it?

Writing Books, Preserving Memories

I stumbled upon a wonderful idea for preserving family memories while I was surfing the net for summer survival ideas to keep us busy once school ends for the year. I wish I could remember where I found this idea, but the gist of it is to keep a little drawing journal of family memories. The thought is that this is easier and less time consuming than scrapbooking, and so more memories can be recorded and preserved.

I loved the idea, and it also sounded like a great way to help the bonding process with my Ethiopian children, as we could read the journal together and have warm fuzzy feelings about the memories we have made.

When my kids initially discovered my sketchbook and box of crayons on my nightstand, they started asking questions, and even though I only had a few entries completed, I went ahead and read them my journal. I explained that I have been recording memories in my journal in the evening before I go to bed. Then I read the completed entries to them, and they LOVED IT! And since that first reading they have requested additional readings, and have also asked for their own drawing journals.

I just gave them their blank journals this week, and they are already filling them up. I love that they sit in their beds at night and draw in them, because I told them that's when I do my drawing. They tell me what they want to write in their journals, and then I write it down on a sheet of paper and they copy the words into their books (they can't write independently yet). Then they illustrate them too, of course!

My daughter even decided she wanted to type some of her text up on the computer last night. She needed a lot of help, but it was great literacy practice, as well as great computer practice!

I'm not a scrapbooker, so this is a perfect way for me to visually record some family memories. And it is all great literacy practice for my kiddos. Check out these photos from our journals:

Mommy's journal

Mel's journal

Mary's journal (note: the brown circles in the drawing of the pool here are coins that they were playing with... not poop, as it kind of looks like)

I also bought a journal for Isaac, but he's been falling asleep every evening before our journaling time, so his is still empty.

Caught Reading

I still don't catch my older kids reading much. But they also spend much of their time at school, so there's not as much opportunity to catch them reading (couple that with the fact that they still don't know how to read, and are still learning English). But here are a few snapshots of literacy going on around here.

Doing a puppet show at the library.

Drawn and written by my older son.

More puppet show.

Reading magazines at the library while Mommy browses the shelves.

Being read to by Cousin Kylynn.

Why Don't Teachers Like Reading?

Photo by woodleywonderworks

I am convinced that there is a large number of elementary school teachers out there that do not like reading. Or maybe just don't love it. Or is it that they simply don't know how to pass on the passion? What other explanation is there for why more children don't enjoy this pastime?

I'm especially bent out of shape about this today because I've been reading Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer while battling through trite reading logs with one of my children, and wading through mounds of ditto sheets that come home with them everyday. I hate, hate, hate the reading homework my child has to do. It benefits them in no way. All they're learning is that reading is boring and frustrating, and that homework stinks!

Why would someone that loves reading assign such homework? Especially when there is heaps of research indicating that time simply spent reading books of their own choosing (a student's choosing) is way more beneficial? Maybe there are a lot of teachers that aren't familiar with this research? But why aren't they familiar with it when books like The Book Whisperer are full of this info? Why aren't teachers who love to read, reading books like The Book Whisperer? And The Read Aloud Handbook?

Formal reading instruction is not my forte. My thing is motivating readers! So it's tough to see my child schlup through their reading homework week after week, obviously not enjoying any of it.

I didn't think I was going to have to worry about this kind of stuff. I thought I would be homeschooling my children. But that's not in the cards for my family right now, and so my task is now to do all that's in my power to show my children that reading is the bomb! And that they will be readers soon! I am all about supporting my children's teachers, but I also have a responsibility as a parent. I'm not saying we won't do the assigned homework (though with the crazy home life we have right now, that often happens), but I will tell my children the truth: that I don't like some of their homework assignment (while also explaining the good intentions the teacher had in assigning it), and that this is not what reading really is. Then I will spend as much time as I can taking them to the library, finding books that will interest them, and setting aside plenty of time at home to read with them. Oh, and being a reading role model too, of course!

How do you encourage a passion for reading as a parent? As a teacher? As a librarian? What books do you think should be required reading for teachers?