The Bija Children's Choir

Reading for Life!

   Since we home-school there's no need for us to push our children to read by a certain age like they do in public school. Depending on the child and the reading tactics teachers employ, the ages I've heard of children learning how to read is from 3 to 12 years old. So I ask you, what are some things that parents and teachers can do to teach children to read?
   The first step most families use is reading out loud. Personally I have found that children at all ages love this, from my newborn to my 10 year old. They all gather around for reading time at night, and no matter what type of book I choose, from board books to Hardy Boys, they all sit cuddled next to me listening intently. The practice of reading out loud to our children lets them think about the story, letting their imaginations roam. There are things that reading out loud helps our children to cultivate, such as predicting, inferring, and summarizing. These will be necessary skills for their grade school, Jr. High, and High School experiences. While we read aloud, remember to interact with your listeners. Ask the younger ones what they see in the pictures. Tell them to describe colors, shapes, and objects they recognize. Ask the older ones how the character might feel, or ask what could happen next. The scholarly world would call this the Theory of Mind. You can read more about it here. Research shows the best way to develop this is to read literature as in Huckleberry Finn, Dickens and Jules Verne. lit·er·a·ture  (lĭt′ər-ə-cho͝or′, -chər)n.1. The body of written works of a language, period, or culture.2. Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value: "Literature must be an analysis of experience and a synthesis of the findings into a unity" (Rebecca West). Summarizing can be a challenge for some children. They have to organize the story in their minds and then focus on the main idea and supporting details. One suggestion to get them started at a young age is to ask them about their day. You can ask them specific questions if they are having a hard time sorting the words out in their head. Another way to help the younger children get started is to take their favorite fairy tale or story and turn it into a puppet show. Help make the puppets but let the child tell the story in his or her own words. You could also keep a reading journal. Just a quick blurb about what you read together. You should do the writing for the younger children, and the older children can keep it simple or make it a mini book report. Write down the title of the book and who it is about. If the child can put into words what happened remember to keep it to just a few words. For instance: Little Toot is about boats. When they get used to that then they can try to think of more things to write down.
   The next step would be having the child read aloud after you. If you know what his favorite book is, then make sure to read it often. He will love it and then will eventually remember some of the words. Even if he get the words wrong in the beginning he will eventually learn them all.
   The third step would be the child reading a book to you using only the illustrations. It doesn't need to be the story that was written. Using his imagination and even changing the story each time will help him to become an author himself. Becoming an author can help boost their excitement for reading. Learn how to make small books and ask your child to write a short story. (My favorite way to make a book, though I use a lot less paper and no fabric just card stock, is found here) My oldest child wrote a story about walking her dog to the park; she used short sentences with easy words. Then teach him or her about illustrations and provide paints, crayons and markers. They will love to decorate, try to write words and be creative.
   Just a few more tips to helping your child learn to read and love it forever. When choosing books for your child pick books that you loved to read as a child. They will see how excited you get when you read it to them. When you pick well written books that have a plot and aren't too wordy for the age they will eventually learn to pick good books for themselves. Read through the books you chose from the library first to make sure it's a good read.

• When I read to my children I try very hard to let them turn the pages when they're ready. Sometimes they need a little more time to look at the pictures to get a better grasp of the story. 
• When you are planning out your bookshelf arrangements make sure to put interesting books where your children can reach them. 
• Give books to your children as gifts and awards.
• Don't push them, make sure they feel that they can succeed.
• If a child cannot sit still for reading encourage them to draw pictures of what is being read.
• Show them how much you love to read by reading your books every day!

I hope you found this helpful in your quest to teach your children to read. Just keep reading!

It's a Trap! --Educating your Kids Through Pop Culture

   Recently my children have been watching Dr. Who with my sister. They are now fanatics. I roll my eyes at this thought, because the kids spend so much time and effort on it rather than their schoolwork. That being said, I have come to accept the fact that this sci-fi show, which has been on TV longer than I've been alive, has it's value.
   My sister, Julia, got Hamlet from the library to watch on her own. As soon as my children saw that David Tennant (10th Dr. Who) starred as Hamlet, they wanted to watch it. She put it on and they sat quietly watching for 40 minutes. After she said it was time to turn it off and move on to another activity my 4 year old daughter, Christy, says to her, "Where's the TARDIS?" (The TARDIS is Dr. Who's spaceship/time machine.) We laughed that she had the patience to wait that whole time to find out why it wasn't there.
   So I figured that was the end of it. No more Shakespeare for my girls. After all, when we tried watching Julius Caesar they complained it was boring. Later that week, Christy asked to watch the Dr. Who movie (she has started to call it Scary Hamlet).

  So Julia put on Hamlet again. They finished it and even asked to watch it again. I was amazed! Julia loves Shakespeare, so she showed a YouTube video to the kids of a comedy group called Reduced Shakespeare Company performing shortened versions of the Bard's plays. They loved it! Maybe they'll look on this experience fondly when it is time to delve into the world of Shakespeare. Or, perhaps we can take this as a lesson to find other things that will help make difficult things more endearing to us and our children. There is so much to find online and in other good books. We just have to find them using the resources available to us, like sisters!
   Another reason these types of shows, or books even, can be beneficial to their young minds is the thinking the children do when they are not reading or watching the program. I get questions all the time about the world of Dr. Who., like why is the TARDIS so large on the inside, and how does it fly? They are introduced to more imagination-creating topics, draw pictures, and make believe they are on time traveling adventures. They even apply what they have learned to other aspects of life, such as Julia and the kids realizing that Santa Claus must be a Time Lord, then finding more reasons to support their theory.
   It never ceases to amaze me how we can find knowledge everywhere, and the seemingly silly or off-the-wall will be able to spark an interest in the greatest of works. As the new year starts, remember to search out those things that will inspire us to learn and shape our world for the better.

Poetry

Lorien Stevens, 9years old, 4th Grade
First attempts at writing poetry:
SEPTEMBER:
I have a frog,
He likes to jog,
He has a pond,
Of which I am fond.

 I have a cat
It's really fat,
It sleeps on the mat.
It likes to eat mice,
And eats ice.

 There was a tree,
With a bee,
And a hat,
With a cat,
And mice,
With dice.

 NOVEMBER:
The pumpkin,
Is a munchkin,
His name is Pup,
He lives in a cup.

 There is a mouse,
He lives not in a house,
But in a hole,
 With a mole.

Did you ever see a moose,
Kissing a goose?
Or did you ever see a mouse,
Wearing a blouse?

A Moment of Silence

A Moment of Silence
 Yesterday I woke up with a sinking feeling. My 8-year-old daughter, Ali, was sick with a bad cold, and I was faced with the daunting task of caring for her and our newborn daughter, Charlotte, all day without the distractions of a play date, field trip, or park day. Although it was difficult, I made the conscious choice to relax and settle into the day, doing my best to enjoy the calmness of it.
 Ali said she thought it would be fun to do some math. We sat down with the unit blocks of ones, tens, and hundreds to give her a tangible way to visualize numbers while working on written subtraction problems. At the end of one of the problems, Ali sat there staring at a cluster of 4 of the "one" unit blocks that were surrounded by a scattering of other one unit blocks. I was just about to say, "OK, let's move on to the next one,", in my usual rush to get through as much homeschooling as possible, when I said to myself "STOP." Baby Charlotte was asleep in the sling, we were sitting in the warm sun, and there was no need to rush. I let Ali stare at the blocks without saying anything. She stared for a long time. I began to think something was wrong, but I held my tongue. After about 90 seconds, she said:
 "This group of blocks in the middle is like the nucleus of an atom. It is very heavy and dense. Papa (Grandpa) said if you had a teaspoon of them it could weigh millions of pounds. The blocks around it are like the electrons."
 Wow, was I ever blown away. Although I had briefly explained about atoms to Ali, we were "officially" studying chemistry this year, not physics, and I had no idea that she had learned, and remembered, this level of detail from her grandfather. It made me think about how much "information processing" can happen if we allow for moments of silence like these. It made me think about the children in school, who are often herded from one activity to the next, and how little opportunity this gives for reflection. Despite the difficulty of the day, I felt joyful for the opportunity to homeschool my daughter and give her the gift of time to reflect.
 Later that day, we had time to go through the many drawings of Ali's that had accumulated in a pile on the kitchen counter. She usually shows me each piece of artwork as it is finished, but I came across a comic she had written that I had never seen before. (Her newest thing was drawing comics, after her grandfather started sharing the Sunday comics with her.) The comic was entitled "Baby Aliens Study a Timeline Three Million Years from Now". She had drawn a rather strange looking teacher (i.e., an "alien") with the following quote bubble next to the teacher: "Humans were strange creatures. We will be studying them the whole year. They came after cavemen but before goglies" One of the alien students, who had eyes floating above her head, had the following quote bubble next to her: "My sis said they made something called c-ar-s. Is that how you say it? Can we study those?" At the top of the comic was a timeline, with time markers listed for each of the following: "Cells, Dinosaurs, Cave Men, Humans, Goglies, Mogos, Loneles, Tagos, Lonas, Pilas".
 I was completely taken aback. Ali had envisioned so many things that I had thought impossible for a child of her age: the fact that humans may not be done evolving, the perspective of other creatures looking back on the human race, the names of future human-like creatures. This was a comic she had written without any adult telling her she had to do it, without any care for a grade or feedback from an adult. This gloriously imaginative comic was written in a moment of silence. I am so grateful for these moments, and the many opportunities for them that come with homeschooling.
 Christina

Government and Education

My thoughts have turned to this common core I've been hearing so much about. I have my thoughts on it , which I will share with you, however I would love to hear your opinions on the matter. My children go to Pathways Charter school which happens to be public so we are required to follow state standards. Common core, as I understand it, is a federal program to make our young people as smart as the rest of the world. Our country ranks 12th in the world on standard tests. I think it is a worthy goal to aquire knowledge. It is what propelled our nation to greatness.  Our grandparents worked to get their children to college or universities and the legacy continues with parents encouraging college attendance.  The work places have changed since their time and a lot of degrees don't provide for families the way they used to. Many people lose their jobs long before they should. Businesses tend to turn their employees over so they don't have to pay higher wages. Many years ago a father could work at one job for 50 years and take care of his family comfortably. Many things have changed since then. One sad downfall is the need for two incomes. Where does that leave the children? What happens to the importance of education? Do our children get left to themselves while we work to care for them?
   My father-in-law was a teacher many years ago and his biggest complaint was the lack of support from the parents. They didn't help their children succeed. Instead the children were required to help the family when they got home. Another problem he faced were the parents blaming him for the childs bad grades. Based on this we can see that reform needs to start at home, not from "the top". My other school teacher friend has talked to me about common core. She says it reminds her of the 50's style of teaching. She mentioned that she got into teaching because she could be creative and connect with the students and really learn how to teach them effectively. Common core has taken that opportunity away from her. Everything being taught has pretty much been scripted with little room for imagination. It seems like the government assumes that if we're taught the same that we'll turn out the same; cookie cutter scholars. I'm glad that I homeschool. I can have common core workbooks, but teach it the way I want. There are a lot of people fighting against this new system and I can understand their fear of it. I just hope this power hungry government won't try to affect our way of homeschooling.

Katie's Quiet Garden

Homeschooling and the Hammock 

 By Katie Perry

 I’m not much of a gardener. I have other interests, and besides, gardening always aggravates my allergies. Mostly, I enjoy our yard from a chair or hammock. I like to let nature do what it wants with our outdoor space. It almost always finds interesting and productive things to do. Our kids feel comfortable digging and playing here, and all of us can find a place to enjoy the sunshine or shade.

 Everyone in the family contributes, but my husband Rich and I do most of the yard work. We put in a burst of effort in the spring, pulling weeds and clearing out dead stuff (allergies permitting), and then we let summer and fall roll along with only occasional maintenance. In late winter we prune the fruit trees and grape vines, but some years it never happens. At times, we work alongside the kids, but other times we enjoy working alone, or together as a couple.

 Since no one likes regular watering, our vegetable garden is on hiatus. When we first planted vegetables in 1998, the older kids were 8, 5, and 2. I invited each to pick a vegetable or fruit to grow from seed or start. We worked together on the planting, watering, and tending. We most enjoyed eating what we grew. Over several years, the kids grew cantaloupe, raspberries, pumpkin, zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, and carrots. I always chose tomatoes. In his teen years, our son Alex maintained a productive strawberry bed, and he eventually took a college class on growing fruit. Now when he comes home to visit, he often spends time pruning (and there is always plenty to do!).

 More recently, we raised hens. It was another great homeschooling project. We worked together to clear space along the back fence for a coop, which we converted from an old rabbit hutch. We picked out six fuzzy chicks, one for each of us, and started them in a pen in the garage. They grew at an astonishing rate. Soon enough, Lottie, Renee, Rosa, Cordelia, Pippi, and Funky were excellent egg layers, and they entertained us by scratching for bugs, bathing in the dust, and jumping to reach the roses. After several years, we gave them away to friends with a bigger property.

 Today our youngest child attends school, we've graduated two, and we have one remaining 17-year-old homeschooler. Our yard continues to play an important role in our family culture and homeschooling life. It’s a welcoming place, well-loved, but never micro-managed. We encourage it to grow in its own way. When we make improvements, we do it together. We enjoy its natural bounty, and value its peace as a retreat. Our yard is nothing fancy, but it flourishes quietly.

The picture is a favorite spot in the yard.