Homeschooling My Kinetic Kids

My oldest (Dragonfly) is almost ten years old and has a lovely group of homeschooled girls she calls her friends.  To capitalize on their friendship and desire to spend time together this summer, the moms have conspired to have them read a few children's novels and meet for book club.  For the month of May, we've been reading "Strawberry Girl," which has been a very interesting and fun read aloud for the beginning of the summer.   "Strawberry Girl"  was written by Lois Lenski in 1945 and won the Newbery Award for it.  The book is set among the "Crackers," rural, poor, white families in Florida during the early 1900s.  We've found it to be a good book for reading aloud because the accent and vocabulary of the "Crackers" is very authentic and can be challenging to read at times, if you're not from that region.  The story has lots of teachable moments about respecting adults, working hard, having compassion for others, dealing with d...

My daughter (age 9/10) has a group of girlfriends her own age.  The moms decided that the girls should have a book club this summer, to encourage them to read good literature.  They'll be getting together once a month to discuss the book and do some fun activities related to themes in the book.  Here's the plan for this year.  The Plan for Summer 2021 May- The Strawberry Girl June- Charlotte's Web July- All of a Kind Family August- TBA As we dive into each classic novel, I'll be posting articles with ideas for ways to engage your kids more on the subjects in the books.  Since I've already done a few blog posts, I've linked them below for you.  I'll add the new posts as well throughout the summer. Of course, you don't need to do a formal book club to get lots of value out of these classic book activities.  Each of them would also make great whole-family read aloud stories and a basis for a unit study in your homeschool.  Let me know in the comments...

During my preteen and teen years, I was obsessed with "who lives, who dies, who tells your story" (although Hamilton hadn't been written yet).  When I was around 11 or 12, the asthma doctor told myself and my parents that I would probably not live into adulthood.  My lungs were so bad that any illness or irritant could be the thing from which I never recovered.  Tough words for a doctor to tell their patient, very difficult words to hear, and heartbreaking for a parent. From that moment on, I was obsessed with telling my own story, and reading other stories about girls my age who had also dealt with difficult things.  I loved the "Dear America" series for that reason.  It was historical fiction about lives in the past, who had overcome adversities and survived them (or not).  I remember also being a bit obsessed with Anne Frank, even addressing an entire diary/journal to her at one point. Living and Adventuring with Asthma I've been wanting...

The kids and I started reading "Little House in the Big Woods" last week for the first time.  They're really enjoying hearing about life in the "old days" and all the ways that things were done differently 150 years ago.  It's been a very special time, too, because we all pile on the parents' bed for reading time and have some quiet time as part of our day.  It's been a great way to reconnect with them. Many of these ideas came from my own reading of the series; however, where possible, I've added links to give you more information about them.  Many of them can be done without extra supplies and don't involve other people, so their perfect for living "self isolated" like a pioneer. 1- Preserve Meat In my search, I found a blog and podcast called "Pioneering Today."  She has a post about salting, fermenting, and other ways to preserve meat.  The very first chapter of "The Little House in the Big Woods"...