by Donna | Mar 27, 2011
I don’t want to re-invent the wheel–and I also want to be sure to keep LL 365 short….or I might lose my privileges (or so my family says!)…so while I am going to spend a little time on helping your struggling reader in this month’s Homework Help, I am not going to spend too much time on reading in general.
So…I will direct you to our sister blog, Positive Parenting, a weekday parenting blog for Christian families. The link below will lead you to the first of three entries about creating a reading environment in your home for new readers. There are so many things that parents can do to create a learning environment–and build a love for reading, whether your children go to school or homeschool.
Blessings to your family as you seek to help your children in the areas of language arts, reading, and writing!
https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/09/day-244-creating-environment-conducive.html
by Donna | Mar 27, 2011
Welcome to Homework Help Week at Language Lady 365! We are going to interrupt our regular posts to provide help to parents (and teachers) in helping their children/students with language arts, reading, writing, and grammar homework.
Roadmap for the week:
1. Starting with some reading help! Reading is the inverse of spelling in the same way that addition is the inverse of subtraction. Build a strong reading background, helping your student to reach “reading fluency,” and a love for learning, and you will go a long way way in helping him or her in language arts in general–and all learning eventually.
2. Then sentence writing, including…
a. Penmanship vs writing
b. Beginning sentence writing
c. Copy work
d. Reading and writing connection
e. Writing “from his brain” and from a source for little ones
Thanks for joining us!
by Donna | Mar 25, 2011
We have talked at length about what a sentence contains:
C apital
A ll makes sense
V erb
E nd mark
S ubject
CAVES!
Again, most people have trouble witht the A one–All makes sense. When a “sentence” doesn’t make sense, it is often because it is not a sentence at all, but it is a phrase or a clause.
We are going to talk in detail about phrases and clauses in the upcoming weeks because we are going to talk a lot about sentence structure–openers, simple sentences, compound sentences, etc.
So…a little “phrase and clause” lesson is in order first:
1. Phrase–
a. Group of words
b. Group of words that is not a sentence
c. Group of words that is not a sentence and does not usually contain a subject and a verb (though may seem to have one or the other)
d. There are various types of phrases–the one that people are most familiar with is the prepositional phrase–begins with a preposition and ends with the object of the preposition:
i. over the clouds
ii. into the clouds
iii. around the clouds
iv. within the clouds
v. under the clouds
2. Clause
a. Group of words
b. Group of words that might or might not be a sentence
c. Group of words that contains a subject and a verb
d. Two kinds of clauses
i. Independent clause–also called a sentence
ii. Dependent clause–also called a subordinate clause
Don’t despair! These are not as complicated as they sound! You write with them all the time–but I hope to help you recognize them and punctuate them correctly in sentences–over the next few weeks!
Happy writing!
by Donna | Nov 26, 2010
If you have read PP 365 very long, you probably know that we are big audio book and radio drama fans. One of the best things we have ever done for our children’s academics and love for learning is to NOT have television stations available for nearly all of our family’s life. (And we still do not today, which is why, along with no game systems, our teenage boys read and listen to audios extensively—and, I might add—love school.)
It’s not too late to get in on Jim Hodge’s audio book, “Story of the Pilgrims,” if you are still looking for an audio to teach your children about the first Thanksgiving. We have a lot of Hodge’s GA Henty audio books, among many others—and you will not be disappointed!
This one (along with many others) is available as a down load from his site—so you can still get it and use it this weekend (or on Monday for school). It is $15 and comes with a written transcript of the book as well.
You can get it at the link below
https://jimhodgesaudiobooks.com/MP3_downloads.html
by Donna | Nov 25, 2010
One of my favorite Thanksgiving picture books is a simple little paperback book called “Liberty B. Mouse Goes to a Party.” It is one of a few about Liberty B. Mouse. Young children love this re-telling of the first Thanksgiving—since it’s through the eyes of a mischievous mouse!
I have such fond memories of reading this story to all of my children—especially the part where Liberty sneezes a mouth full of corn and butter he is eating right into the campfire only to have some of the kernels “pop”—the first popcorn!
Can’t promise that either of the titles is available—but I found some used ones online, and many libraries have them.
“Liberty B. Mouse Goes to a Party” by Pauline C. Peck is available used at https://www.amazon.com/Liberty-B-Mouse-Goes-Party/dp/B001R96S0E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1290656094&sr=8-1-catcorr
The second one, which is also very cute, “Liberty B. Mouse Comes To America,” is a classic retelling of the traditional Thanksgiving story through the eyes of a Mayflower Mouse. It tells the whole story of the Mayflower journey, the long winter, and the first Thanksgiving in simple terms that the young children can understand while still being interesting enough to the attention of older kids. It’s no longer in print, but is available at Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Liberty-B-Mouse-comes-America/dp/B00071SV0S/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
by Donna | Nov 15, 2010
We have been having some guest posts about Thanksgiving, book reviews, and more. Wanted to add another link to the Confident Mom’s website because she is giving away a free e-book about planning Thanksgiving. The book looks great! Craft ideas, decorating ideas, recipes, family activities, and more.
You can find the Confident Mom’s site at https://www.theconfidentmom.com/
You can find the free e-book at https://www.theconfidentmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/thanksgiving-your-way-ebook.pdf
Up this week: organizing to get ready for Christmas! Strategies to deal with “things”!
