Kayla Jarmon Book Review

 

In case you are new here, my name is Dawn and I’m a ‘bookaholic’.  We love books and I jump at the chance to review them, especially from an author like Kayla Jarmon that is new to me. I had the opportunity to review A Boy and His Dog, Don’t Forget Me , and Dying Is Part of This World. The first two I did with my children and the third one I read myself and will share with my children at a later time.

A Boy and His Dog Cover-01

A Boy and His Dog was a fun read that I read with my four year old and had my older children read on their own.  This book features short sentences and cute pictures. It details a day in the life of a young boy and his dog. Each page has only a few sentences and is short enough to keep the attention of young children and great for new readers. My oldest felt that it was too ‘simple’ for him but both my four year old and 10 year old enjoyed the book. I would recommend it for the preschool/early elementary ages.

Don't Forget Me Cover-01

Don’t Forget Me is a cute but meaningful story about a baby growing in its mother’s womb. The story is told as an imagined conversation between the unborn child and God. The illustrations show the baby growing in the mother’s uterus as well as the mother and father.  It does show the birth of the baby but in a very tasteful and modest way.  We have a two month old baby in our house, so this one was a big hit with my children. I would have loved to have had it to read prior to the baby being born but they enjoyed it afterwards.  This book included scripture references at the end. This book does not go into any of the biology of conception or birth but rather focuses on the Creator and the relationship between God and ourselves (particularly the unborn child). It is a great book to read with siblings expecting a new baby or to help children understand that they are created by God for relationship with him. In my opinion, this book is great for elementary ages. Preschool ages may also enjoy it but will probably need some discussion to help with understanding.

Dying is Part of This World Cover-01

Dying Is Part of This World tackles the difficult topic of death in a way that is meaningful and appropriate for children. I chose to read this one myself at this time and not with my children since they are not currently asking questions about this topic. I plan to use it with them when they are asking questions or if I feel like there is a personal need in our family. To me it was a well written and appropriate book to help facilitate a difficult conversation but not a book that you would read just for enjoyment. This book is longer and includes seven short chapters. Each chapter includes scripture references and discussion questions to help you use it to facilitate discussions with your children about the topic of death and the fear of dying. This book could be used with a wide range of children as a family or one on one discussion starter.

These were interesting books from an author that was new to me. I recommend checking them out. She also has an audio version that will be coming out soon if you are like me and enjoy using audio to facilitate read alouds. Which book by Kayla Jarmon most interests you?

 

Discussion Book Series and A Boy and His Dog by Kayla Jarmon

Discussion Book Series and A Boy and His Dog {Kayla Jarmon Reviews}

Crew Disclaimer

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Field Trip Friday: USS North Carolina

Have you ever heard of a mechanical cow? That was one of the many exciting things we found aboard the USS North Carolina, a retired battleship and floating memorial to the citizens of North Carolina who served and died during the Second World War.

battleship

We have been enjoying our study of World War II and were excited to be able to include this trip to a World War II battleship. The USS North Carolina is located in Wilmington, NC and open for tours 365 days of the year. While not all of the ship is open for tours there is a lot available to see. You start inside the welcome center with a short video explaining the history of the vessel and how it came to rest in Wilmington. Then there is a small museum with some great artifacts from the ship on display. We also found the volunteer interpreters to be quite knowledgeable and engaging.

Then you walk onto the teak deck of the ship. It is amazing just to realize the true size of the ship, all 729 feet of her. They even have one of the sea planes still on display on the deck. The self guided tour takes at least two hours.  You can go up in one of the main gun turrets and see how tight the quarters were, very little has changed since her active service. This allows visitors to have a great look at what life would have been like aboard a major warship during the 1940s.

Next, you can go down below deck and see the various parts of the living and working spaces. This ship is like a small floating town, home to almost 2,400 men. There were galleys (or kitchens), dining halls, doctors and dentists, offices, bunks, radio rooms, a small store, printing room, barbership and even a post office.  I mentioned the mechanical cow earlier; we found this down below near the store and post office. This is a machine that used water and butter to make milk for drinking and to serve the ships ice creamery. These ingredients stored longer than fresh milk and according to the sailors accounts made much better milk than powdered milk.

One thing we found very beneficial on our tour was purchasing the app to help guide us and give us more details and stories about various parts of the ship. Purchasing a code from the ticket office was only $1.50 and there was a tremendous amount of information on the app. We were not able to listen and watch everything but much of it is available even after you leave so we plan to continue to use the app to learn more about the ship as we finish up our studies.

Where: USS North Carolina, located in Wilmington, NC

Hours of Operation:

Labor Day-Memorial Day 8 am-5pm

Memorial Day-Labor Day 8am -8pm

Costs: Home school rates:

  • Preschool: FREE

  • Students K – 6th grades: $3 each

  • Students 7th – 12th grades: $6 each

If a home school has more 10+ students, one teacher/adult will be admitted for free per 10 students. If a home school has less than 10 students, ALL adults are $10 each.

Homeschool Discount: Yes, Monday-Friday during traditional school year (bring proof of homeschool status)

Website: http://www.battleshipnc.com/

Food: There are vending machines on site and restaurants with-in easy driving distance. There are also tables and benches available for picnics.

 

 

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Engaging Students in History–Guest Post

First, I’d like to say thank you to Dawn for letting me write this guest post. One of my passions is teaching history, so I’m excited to share some of my recommendations for engaging young minds in the study of history. First, I’d like to ask you to consider the best and worst teachers that you’ve experienced during your educational journey. I’ll wait.

Ferris Bueller, Anyone?

Over the course of my schooling; public school, community and private colleges, and a public university, I’ve taken classes and coursed taught by more than 100 different educators. Like most good bell curves there were great and not so great examples to think about, but most were ‘in the middle’ that mixed with a few years, has made the vast majority of them faceless, only few really stick out. So what made these stick out? It is possible to apply a rubric judging things like subject matter knowledge, importance of the course, influence on my life, use of technology, teacher/student interactions, student interest in the subject, ect. But, I really think, in hindsight, that two major components really made a handful of educators shine, or fail: passion and delivery. Think about it! Your great teachers were passionate, they wanted you to learn. They practiced and honed their craft, delivering well paced lessons that built upon each other, they knew, or at least had a working knowledge of their subject matter, and they engaged the student.

Trust in Physics

(You can watch Professor Lewin’s complete MIT Physics I course free:  Physics at MIT – the math gets a little dense, but this is a tremendous introduction to Newtonian Physics, suitable for upper middle and high school students.  His book is here:  For the Love of Physics, or the audiobook: For the Love of Physics MP3)

Of course, we all remember ‘bad’ teachers too.  Lessons didn’t build upon each other, the instructor stumbled over terminology, mispronounced words, delivered poor lectures (or even worse, just read from the text), favored certain students, or even wore too much perfume. Maslow teaches us that even the smallest distracting factor can ‘turn off’ the student’s learning. Now, some of us face other distracting factors that exponentially grow this problem, but in the most simple forms, if students are too cold, or too hot, or scared, or hungry, or have to use the rest room, their focus is off of the instruction.

So how do we overcome these obstacles?

First, you, as the teacher, must be engaged and interested in the topic. If your kids realize that you think the topic is unimportant, they will likely turn-off.  No amount of ‘good curriculum’ can overcome that. “Class, turn to page 38 and begin reading.” (newspaper ruffling)

What does that look like for you, at home, teaching your children? 

You, as a family, must work to craft an environment where learning is important.  Naturally, individuals will gravitate towards areas of interest. Our family likes history, we have friends that like nature, or art, or technology.  My kids can tell you about the royal governors of North Carolina or discuss the Tet Offensive, but would be hard pressed to write a simple computer code or identify cubist art.  Our prejudices influence how and what we teach, as an example, we spend a lot more time on history than art. Athletics is an area where this often becomes very evident. Unfortunately, once these interests are established breaking the cycle can be a huge challenge. This is often consolidated under the educational principle of predetermination.

I encourage you to take a moment and evaluate your approach to different topics as you teach them. Do your prejudices show through to your kids? Do you approach history (or art, or math, or literature…) by saying, ‘the pacing guide says we have to cover this material, but I don’t know why, you’re never going to use it.’ If so, those absorbent little minds will see your disinterest and mirror it, effectively putting a psychological wall between the material and themselves.

It’s a huge challenge to approach a wide range of topics with interest, even harder to approach with a true passion. Don’t be afraid to use your resources! Team up with other family members, friends, associates, and your community to find the most passion, for each topic, you can put in front of your kids. Maybe Dad likes computers and Mom can hardly turn one on – doesn’t make sense for the mother to teach C+ from a manual.  Maybe Mom loves basketball and Dad has ‘two left hands’ – who should teach free throws? Look at grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors…many would love the opportunity to accompany your kids on a field trip, using their experiences to engage your learners.

I have the passion, but they won’t engage!

The passion we’re talking about isn’t, and can’t just be, limited to the teacher’s interest in the subject. The teacher needs to engage in a pattern of behavior that shows passion about sharing the information-the passion for teaching.

Take the time to experiment with different approaches to ‘less interesting’ material.  I’m going to stick with history for this explanation.  Most topics are multifaceted. If lists of names and dates don’t trigger interest, change directions. Maybe an immersive living history experience, like Colonial Williamsburg, will spark some interest. Perhaps a historically accurate movie (like Apollo 13) or television series will engage the learner. Maybe a battle reenactment will stimulate their interest.  Use books with different ‘angles’ to find one that works for you. Some learners do well with first person accounts; others need the ‘big picture’. Most common historical periods are rife with resources and in many cases events.  Excellent historical accounts abound, find ones that meet the needs of your learner (from both a sequential learning and content perspective).  Historical fiction can be an easy way to engage your young reader in the period, hopefully stimulating them to read more ‘serious’ history accounts as they expand their base.

Passion? Check! Resources? Check!

Now, it is time to take a crucial step that I alluded to in the last paragraph, evaluate your audience. In discussion of historical events with my kids I tend to drift into hypothetical, what if type scenarios and controversial evaluations. This week our dinnertime conversations revolved around the Great Depression.  Last night I asked, “guys? Do you think the alphabet soup of federal agencies helped end the Great Depression?” We had just spent thirty minutes talking about those programs so of course both kids said, “yes!”  I realized pretty quickly that the question was loaded, my audience didn’t have enough information to answer the question authoritatively. I failed to ‘know my audience.’

There are loads of ‘formal’ audience assessment tools out there (see more from Scholastic here), they’re probably not necessary for your homeschool. Consider their ages, what foundational material they have been exposed to, and tailor the lessons/experiences to their level.  Math is an easy analogy here: no first grade student is ready for calculus- you (or your curriculum) built their lessons around fundamental math skills, numbers up to 20, addition, subtraction, ect.  In the Great Depression example above, I allowed my deeper understanding of politics, history, and economics (shaded by my political views) to lead them into a question well above their grade level. A question that I was then forced to answer on my own…which brings me to the next point.

Do I have to be a subject matter expert?

The short answer is no.  You don’t need to be a subject matter expert. BUT, and I’m sure that you as homeschoolers are aware of this, kids tend to see and evaluate things much differently than adults. When engaged and learning they will ask questions, sometimes very random, abstract, or specific questions. Occasionally, you can punt and assign a homework/research project based on their questions and drive them towards independent learning. Please play that card carefully. If you don’t know the answer don’t make it up either, they can smell horse hockey a mile away. It’s perfectly acceptable to say, ‘you know what? That’s a great question, let me look into it.’  But do that! Research it on your own and share your findings.

I encourage you to get out there, engage your kids in learning.  Work to meet their interests and needs. Especially with history, there are so many fascinating aspects and levels to explore-find their angle and, if history isn’t your thing, you may find your own along the way.

Check out more from Chris Peluso with his new historical fiction novel about the Vietnam War at Heroes Next Door.

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Weigl Book Review

For this review I had the opportunity to check out three different types of books from Weigl Publishers and the digital content that accompanied each book. We reviewed Glaciers, A Lion’s World, and There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant. These were digital books with interactive content. For each book you receive a PDF of the book and inside the PDF there are instructions for going to the website and entering in the book code to access the digital features of the book. You do need internet access in order to use the digital content and extras but you can view the PDF of the book without internet access once you have it downloaded.

Glaciers Earths Water

The first book was Glaciers from the series “Earth’s Water” published under their imprint Lightbox. This book was geared towards upper elementary and middle grades students and packed with information. While it technically is a nonfiction book, it was so much more than a book.  There were awesome web links, videos, and other activities included as you read through the book. I could have done an entire unit study on glaciers based off of this book and the extra activities and information that were linked in the book. There were maps and even quizzes included with the book. The illustrations were excellent including real photographs as well as diagrams that were beneficial to understanding the science concepts. The end of the book included a cool science experiment. We thoroughly enjoyed this book and plan to go back and revisit it later when it ties into our regular science curriculum. I do want to mention one thing that may be an issue for some of my readers, it did discuss a timeline for glacier movement that spanned millions of years.

A Lions World

The second book we looked at was A Lion’s World belonging to our “EyeDiscover” series. Weigl says that it is intended for a K-2 interest range which I believe is appropriate but my four year old also really enjoyed it. It was much shorter with more basic (age appropriate) information. It included audio aspects that were a great way to keep younger children involved and interested. Benjamin (4) said when reading about lions and watching them run, ” That is like how fast I can run with my big strong legs.” Each page had one sentence and the sound and movement made the book a wonderful experience for my son. After I showed it to him initially he asked several times to read it again.

The third book was a fiction title that was geared toward lower elementary school students, There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant. This was a silly rhyming fictional book. You could choose to have it read to the student or for the student to read it themselves. While this was probably our least favorite book as a family, I know some other students who would have really enjoyed the silly story. The ability to have it read to them while they followed along with the words is a great strategy for developing readers.

There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant

We enjoyed these books, particularly the non-fiction titles. I recommend them for families looking to add a digital element to their reading or wanting to support developing readers with the read aloud options. Check out all of the available titles by Weigl Publishers and let us know which ones you think your family would most enjoy.

Multimedia Digital Books {Weigl Publishers Reviews}

Crew Disclaimer

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

YWAM Heroes of History Book Review

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For the last several years we have been using some of the wonderful biographies by YWAM Publishing to supplement our homeschool. However, we had never used the study guides prior to this review. We received the  Heroes of History-Alan Shephard book and study guide from the Heroes of History series for this review. My son was very excited to add it to his collection of books and I was excited about having a unit study already planned out for me.

Heroes of History

This book like the other ones we have read from this series did not disappoint. While it would make a great family read aloud, the level of difficulty in the book makes it appropriate for independent reading for upper elementary and middle grades students. My 11 year old, 6th grade son was assigned this book and parts of the unit study to complete as an independent reading assignment. We chose to take about two weeks  ) to cover this book and study. We could have easily increased that amount of time if we had covered everything in the study guide.

He loved the book and would have been happy to read it on his own during free time. It was an engaging story with lots of great information. I loved seeing him come to his father or myself and excitedly sharing some new tidbit of information he had gleaned as he read. He has been interested in astronauts and space so this was a great fit for him. I love the way the books incorporate the historical accomplishments and the moral character into the books. This gives our children great examples of heroes that they can look up to with qualities they can emulate. My son enjoyed it so much that he is hoping to get several other titles from this series for his birthday which is at the end of this month.

In looking at the study guides I was amazed at how many ideas and activities were included. We could have used this study for many different subjects in our school day, including history, reading, writing, geography, and science.  We did not complete all of the activities in the study guide but did a variety that fit well into our day and my son’s interests.  There were over 84 pages of information, ideas, and worksheets for just this one book included in the study guide. They even listed other books and resources that could be used to further your study.  One section that we did not get the opportunity to really incorporate but that I think is a great resource is the community links section where they give ideas for incorporating community resources into your unit study.

He completed part of the questions that went along with each chapter, a timeline and information sheet about Alan Shepard, and a couple of other activities and projects. One of the activities was to build their own rocket and launch it. There are some fairly simple ideas for this available on the internet but since he had been given a small rocket kit for Christmas that he had not yet completed he used that for the project. He was pretty impressed with himself for being able to turn his rocket kit into ‘school work’.  As you can probably tell from the picture below he and his sister both enjoyed that part of the study.

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We have used the Christian Heroes: Then & Now series before with our missionary studies for the last several years including my children’s favorite one, George Mueller. We also incorporate this biographies into our history whenever possible, most recently using the audio version of Heroes of History- Theodore Roosevelt.I highly recommend these books as family read alouds or as a part of your curriculum. They are interesting, engaging, and full of excellent information.  Check out all of the other Crew reviews of various selections and tell me in the comments which one you would like to read.

Christian Heroes, Heroes of History & Study Guides {YWAM Publishing Reviews}

 

Crew Disclaimer

Modern/Cold War (1953-80)

For the month of may we will be focusing on modern history through the Cold War from 1953-1980. This will incorporate the space race, Vietnam War, Kennedy Assassination, the Civil Rights movement and the building of the interstate system.

One of the things that I look forward to most with this more modern history is the availability of firsthand accounts. We are able to talk to people who served in Vietnam, people who were a part of the civil rights movement. Though we do not know anyone that worked with NASA we do know people that remember the build up and watching that first shuttle launch. My children have grandparents that can tell you where they were when Kennedy was assassinated and friends and neighbors that serves in Vietnam. This personal connection helps make history more meaningful to the children.

Based on our schedule we are going to first cover the interstate system and the Vietnam War. We have been studying Vietnam on the side because of Heroes Next Door so for us this will be the culmination of those studies. We have a bit of traveling to do this month so the children can get real world experience with the interstates.

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Then we are going to cover the Civil Rights movement and the Kennedy Assassination. There are some excellent books that talk about the Civil Rights Movement as well as an exhibit at the North Carolina History Museum. In this month’s resources there are some great YouTube videos from this period that include recordings of speeches and news coverage.

We will follow that up with a week of Space Exploration.This is always an exciting topic for the children to explore. Matthew has been reading Heroes of History: Alan Shepard that is a great biography to include in this study. There are fun science experiments that can be done to better understand space and some additional YouTube videos of news coverage. For a bit of fun you can watch these videos of children’s books being read aloud in space.

We will close out the month with a study of the Cold War. This can be a difficult concept for children but we are going to use The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss to introduce the concept. My son is very interested in spies so we are going to also include some books like The CIA and Other American Spies. I plan to use lots of pages from our NotebookingPages subscription to help them share and organize what they are learning.

For field trips we are planning on the North Carolina History Museum and the Eisenhower Historic Site. We will also do virtual tours of a fall out shelter and NASA. We will round out the month with some Astronaut Ice Cream and maybe a trip to Chick-fil-a which first opened during this time period. There are many other great movies, books, and television shows that I’ve included in this month’s resource list. Let us know how you plan to study this era in history!

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

 

It’s Time To Party (and Read)

Nothing says fun like a good party! So why not encourage reading by combining it with a party.  There are many ways to combine books with parties, some are super simple and some more elaborate. While I do not discount them, I am not talking about parties that are rewards for having read a certain amount of time or books, but parties that incorporate reading. As one of my favorite authors once said, “Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.” – C.S. Lewis

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One of our favorite ways to combine parties and reading are our “Poetry Tea’ times. During those times we sit around the table, complete with table cloth and our nicest dishes, and enjoy reading poetry while partaking in snacks. Sometimes it really is hot tea with cookies; other times it might be lemonade and popcorn, or milk and a bit of cake. I will read a few poems and then the children take turns reading poems. They look forward to these times of fun and reading.

There are times when we combine books and parties by focusing on the time period or geographic location of a book. For example, if we are reading Little House on the Prairie we might cook over our camp fire or make recipes from that time period. We loved making maple candy as they discussed in one of the Little House Books.

One I have not yet done with my children but have seen other children really enjoy are character parties. You can choose a book or let each child choose their own book and everyone dresses up like their favorite characters. You can have generic party snacks or if it is appropriate you can have snacks that are representative of the book. For example, if I was reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar I could have the snacks that the caterpillar ate. If I was reading a book about a ballgame I might have traditional ball park fare like hotdogs and popcorn.

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One idea that we recently participated in was a book tasting.  A good friend of mine had seen the idea and offered to set it up for our 4-H club. It was so much fun. The children each brought some of their favorite books representing different genres and some fun easy to eat snacks. Then we put the books on different tables based on genres and gave the children ‘menus’ that they could fill out with information about books that they thought they found and thought they would enjoy reading. This gave the children exposure to a bunch of different books in various genres that were enjoyed by their peers.

Today is the last day of the 5 Days of Homeschool Blog Hop. I hope you have enjoyed it! Check out the rest of the posts from today: homeschooling with the Brain in Mind

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

SPECIALS!!!

I wanted to take a minute and let you know about a few great deals going on this week that you don’t want to miss.

Today Apologia starts their big sale. $5 Shipping and 25% off of many of their products including Young Explorers!

 Notebooking Pages 50% off sale! This is a great deal for a lifetime membership and some added bonuses.

 

You ARE an Artist Clubhouse Membership

You Are An Artist Chalk Pastels has just opened up enrollment for the Clubhouse program (an annual membership). In honor of that the entire site is 25% off!!

Schoolhouse Teachers is doing a Huge Spring Sale that could have you set for curriculum for next year. Only $99 for your whole family! And as a bonus they will mail you a beautiful tote and a new print magazine. Check it out here.

Use Codes:  $9.95/month – Monthly Membership [Coupon: MONTHLYOPTION ] & $99/year – Annual Membership [Coupon: YEARLYOPTION ]

History Through Reading

We really enjoy learning about history and feel that it is a vital part of our children’s education. However, we do not want history to be about memorizing a bunch of dates and random facts, but an understanding of our past and how it shaped our lives today.  One of the ways that we encourage this love of history is by combining it with our love of reading.

There are some excellent history and historical fiction books that help us to really understand the ‘story’ of history. Some of our favorite historical fiction books are classics like Johnny Tremain and Number the Stars. We recently read, The War that Saved My Life, while we were studying World War II. They enjoyed it so much that I’m planning on purchasing the sequel, The War I Finally Won for us to enjoy as a family.

Historical Fiction for Homeschool

Through these historical fiction books the children have a chance to understand what if might have felt like to live through the historical events and in various times and places. It allows them to understand not just the facts but the emotions and implications of those events.

Of course our favorite historical fiction book is Heroes Next Door: Hornet 24. I am sure I’m a bit biased but it really is a great way to learn about what life was like for our men who served in the Vietnam War. And now for an interview with my favorite historical fiction author, my husband, Chris Peluso author of Heroes Next Door.

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1) What made you decide to write a historical fiction novel?

We run a bookstore. A while back, we took in a huge lot of Vietnam era material.  I read a few of the memoirs and thought, ‘these would be great to share with my son.’ Unfortunately, the adult targeted content was far above his reading and maturity levels. Not long after that our next-door neighbor came home with a Vietnam era helicopter on a trailer. I saw an opportunity to connect the two in a way that would share some of the stories with younger readers and engage their interest and awareness.  I choose the historical fiction approach to allow freedom in story flow and bring elements together as I felt they worked best.

2) Why do you think reading historical fiction is beneficial to children?

I think it gives an opportunity to connect with an individual and experience history through their perspective, in a comfortable, low stress, enjoyable reading environment. It is so easy to be overwhelmed with history, facts, dates, statistics; historical fiction helps remind us that history happens to people, not just calendars.

3) What was your favorite historical fiction novel when you were a child?

I remember The Machine Gunners, by Robert Westall. It is set in England, during the Battle of Britain.  A group of kids find a downed German bomber and recover the tail gun. They then build and equip a small fort, preparing to defend Britain from the impending German invasion. I wasn’t exposed to them when I was younger, but now I really appreciate the works of G.A. Henty.

4) Tell us a little about your novel.

So my book, Heroes Next Door: Hornet 24 follows two precocious kids as they interact with their next door neighbor, who just happens to own a Vietnam era helicopter.  The kids help refurbish the aircraft, during their time ‘next door’ they learn about Army aviation, duty, honor, respect, teamwork, and current events in the 1968-69 period. They follow Mr. Ed through a series of stories, trying to connect the men who flew helicopters with the war. One important theme explores the cost of war, both in lost opportunity and individual sacrifice, concepts that are easily lost when studying what I’ll call macro-history.

5) Any teasers about future books?

 The business side of writing is tricky, editing, publishing, marketing; with this first book I had to navigate through those, that was a lot more complicated than I thought it would be. The writing part is really the easiest part for me. There’s so many great stories out there picking which ones to explore next is really difficult, but, yes, I’m working on the next edition with a new set of characters in a new conflict. With a little support and interest, I can see several more after that. Please like and follow https://www.facebook.com/HNDHornet24/  @HNDHornet24 for updates plus bonus material/conversation starters.

We would love to answer any questions that we can about writing a book, historical fiction, or Heroes Next Door.

Check out all of today’s other 5 Days of Homeschool Blog Posts: When College Isn’t the Next Step

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

SPECIALS!!!

I wanted to take a minute and let you know about a few great deals going on this week that you don’t want to miss.

Today Apologia starts their big sale.

You ARE an Artist Clubhouse Membership

You Are An Artist Chalk Pastels has just opened up enrollment for the Clubhouse program (an annual membership).

Schoolhouse Teachers is doing a Huge Spring Sale that could have you set for curriculum for next year.

Keep Them Reading…Our Favorite Series

Sometimes series of books can get a bad reputation for not being good literature. Some may deserve this reputation just as some non-series books are not good literature, but there are some excellent choices available that can help you encourage a love of reading in your children.

A good series takes you upward and inward, exploring the story in new ways. It expands the characters and helps you feel like a part of the experiences and lets you vicariously live the adventures. Series can help fuel the hunger for reading by building excitement and anticipation for the next book in the series, no one likes a cliffhanger afterall. For some children this is as simple as offering them the first book to read; but for those that do not even want to get started you might try a read aloud. You can read the first book in a series aloud and once their interested provide the others for them to read on their own.

When I was a child I loved reading mysteries! There are several series that I loved then and have had the pleasure of introducing to my children. It has been fun watching them learn to love the characters as much as I did. The Boxcar Children are short chapter books that are so much fun. The children have grand adventures. I prefer the original ones that were written by Gertrude Chandler Warner to the later ones that were written by other authors.  Probably my favorite series of all time is the Mandie series. I would read these so fast that my mom could not keep up with purchasing them. I loved feeling like I was right there with Mandie as she went on adventures and solved mysteries. Later I even visited historical Moses Cone Manor because scenes from a Mandie movie were filmed on location. There are Christian messages throughout the series.

Some series are perfect for new readers. They are short, easy to read, and have the same characters which can make it easier to follow along for young readers who are still working on decoding words.  The Billie B. Brown series is a great example of a series that works well for newer readers. Fancy Nancy is another one that my daughter really enjoyed when she was first reading on her own. In that series Nancy likes to use new  ‘fancy’ words which she then explains. It is a great way to build vocabulary in a fun way.

narnia quote 2

Some series have stood the test of time and became classics in their own right. One of our family favorites to read aloud, and that my son enjoys reading on his own is the Chronicles of Narnia. This series by C. S. Lewis is full of adventures and lessons. It is a great analogy of the story of Christ wrapped into a wonderful and fun fantasy. Our family enjoyed this book so much that we are often quoting various lines in our day-to-day life; I may have even hidden a few in this blog. The  Little House series is another series that I remember from my reading as a child. This series can make you long for ‘simpler’ times and while making you appreciate all of the luxuries of today.  These like the Chronicles of Narnia are longer chapter books that are probably best enjoyed by stronger readers or as read alouds.

Two great series of biographies are the Christian Heroes Then & Now and the Who Was.. series. The Who Was..  series are shorter easy to read chapter books but even my sixth grader who can read much more difficult books still enjoys them. The Christian Heroes Then & Now books are longer and more in-depth. My son reads these frequently on his own and I use them for our missionary studies and to supplement our history studies as read alouds.  This series (along with several of the other ones I’ve mentioned) is also available on audible.

There are many more series including the Green Ember series, The Penderwicks, and Giada De Laurentiss’ Recipe for Adventure that our family enjoys reading. Finding engaging books that keep the children begging for more is a great way to encourage a love of reading. There are series for all ages, tastes, and reading abilities. Even C.S. Lewis’ dear friend penned a well known series that has found renewed interest-can you name it in the comments?   What is your family’s favorite book series?

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Check out all of the other 5 days of homeschool blog posts and my guest post over at the Crew blog today: Encouraging Reading

SPECIALS!!!

I wanted to take a minute and let you know about two great deals going on this week that you don’t want to miss.

You ARE an Artist Clubhouse Membership

You Are An Artist Chalk Pastels has just opened up enrollment for the Clubhouse program (an annual membership). In honor of that the entire site is 25% off!!

Schoolhouse Teachers is doing a Huge Spring Sale that could have you set for curriculum for next year. Only $99 for your whole family! And as a bonus they will mail you a beautiful tote and a new print magazine. Check it out here.

Use Codes:  $9.95/month – Monthly Membership [Coupon: MONTHLYOPTION ] & $99/year – Annual Membership [Coupon: YEARLYOPTION ]

Reading With Your Ears

I love the feeling of a good book in my hands. I am one of those ‘hold outs’ that can’t quite get into reading on our electronic devices. We do have a Kindle and I use it occasionally for informational reading, but it is just not the same.  However, life is busy and I do not have time to read every book we want to read.

That is where audio books come into play in our family. We have found audio books to be a great way to supplement our other reading and give our family hours of enjoyment in situations where traditional reading isn’t really feasible.

How to Use Audio Books in Your Homeschool

There are multiple ways to use audio books. The most common for our family is listening while we ride. Whether a short jaunt to grandma’s house or a long road trip the audio books help make traveling with children a much more pleasurable experience.

We have found that having that story going helps keep them from getting bored and irritated with each other. It also supplements my read alouds and helps to give us that common experience of a story.

Another great use of audio books is during quiet time for children who are not yet reading.  As my children out grew their naps I  found that it was still beneficial for them to have a quiet time in the afternoon and having an audio book to listen to can help ease that transition and keep them quietly in their rooms.

Audio Books for Struggling Readers

Audio books are also beneficial for struggling readers. You can have them listen to the audio to hear information or stories that they would not otherwise be able to read or to reinforce content written above their grade level. For example, our Apologia Science text is available on audio.

You can also have them use the audio and book together to strengthen reading skills. By following along in their books with the audio their comprehension is increased but they are still getting reading practice which is so important for struggling readers. It is much harder to enjoy something that is a struggle, so increasing that fluency is important.

Where Do You Find Audio Books?

I am often asked where to find good audio books.  We use a variety of resources for finding great audio books. One of the most versatile is Audible which is a subscription service that you can use to download audio books. (You can try free for a month and get two free books.

Also, you can cancel at any time and you keep the ones you have already purchased) In addition to the credits we get from our Audible subscription, we can often find additional books on Audible for very reasonable prices. They also download easily onto our Kindle making them very easy for us to take with us and listen on the road.

cs lewis quote

Another great resource for audio books is Heirloom Audio. Heirloom does great dramatizations of GA Henty books. These books are rich in history, story, and moral character. The children love them for the excitement and I love them for the lessons they teach.

Focus on the Family radio theatre is another great option for dramatized audio books. They feature mostly classic books like The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, or our personal favorite The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

There are many great stories that you could start with depending on the ages and interests of your family. As I mentioned above we love The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and the entire Chronicles of Narnia series. The Tales of Beatrix Potter is another great one to start with, especially if you have younger children.  Recently we have found the Green Ember Series.

What Audio Books Do You Enjoy?

Audio books are a great way to support and supplement your other reading times. Whether you are listening just for enjoyment or education there are many wonderful options available. What is your favorite audio book?

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Check out all of the other 5 day blog hop posts over on the Crew Blog: Fostering Independence