Reading is a little, okay a lot, trickier to document than math. I think everyone should just rest assured right now that we spend a couple of hours reading a day. It may not be with everyone at all times and they may not be sitting next to me the whole time, but even while they play trains, I'm probably reading to them.
In January we focused a lot on Owl Moon. We read it, Harry narrated it. (I didn't write it down and now I could kick myself). We checked out owl books from the library and decided that while big owls are pretty, baby owls are "pretty gross." We looked at what they eat and when they fly. We talked about where they live and what it would be like to go owling. But we didn't actually go owling. We also tried to make paintings that "looked cold" using some of the techniques in the book. Finally, at the end of this we made paper bag owls.
When we finished that we read A New Coat for Anna. Harry narrated and I did write it down. It was a lot more detailed than I thought it would be. We decided the book probably took place in Germany right after WWII (that caught his interest). We talked about weaving and shearing and all of the steps that go into making a new coat. I attempted to have Harry make a lapbook for it, but it didn't quite go anywhere. Harry wove paper in an attempt to talk about weaving. We check out a bunch of books on weaving, shearing, dying--all things wool. It was a lot of fun. We also read a couple of other books that describe the time period in different places in Europe. The one I liked best was Boxes for Katje. It made me want to plant tulips!
The last January book was Stopping By Woods on A Snowy Evening. This is obviously the poem by Robert Frost and the hardest one for Harry to get into. But was talked about cold and how it made us feel. I think I should have tried to have Harry memorize some, but next poem I will.
And now in February we have Allen Say. I've already talked a lot about what I am going to do, but what have I done? We've read these books already: Grandfather's Journey, Emma's Rug, and How My Parents Learned to Eat. Harry has done narration on all of them. So far his favorite is How my Parents... which isn't written by Say, but illustrated by him. I think Harry likes that one because we have it as a book on tape. And to him cassette tapes are a marvel of modern technology. He had no idea what it was or what it did when I first handed it to him. I thought that was hilarious. He spent the entire day on Friday playing the tape over and over again. He also has been telling me about some of the details in the pictures and the story since then. With Grandfather's Journey we labeled a map with the journey from Japan to California. I want to do one for the journey through the US, but I think that will have to be tomorrow. We also wrote a letter to Harry's grandparents asking for information on our ancestors--where they came from, why, who they were, etc. We'll mail it soon, really. We have a few more books to read and I have a bunch more on Japan itself to read. So we're still in the middle of Japan. Emma's Rug wasn't too interesting to Harry, although he did narrate it.
And that's the "official" reading. Harry reads a lot. He's read a couple of Henry and Mudge books, but he isn't really interested in them. He and Jason are still reading Eragon. I'm reading him Little House in the Big Woods and Poppy and Rye. Harry also reads to Sam a lot. Which may be my favorite thing about homeschooling.
PS, I don't know what's going on with the font, but it's getting late and I'll try to figure it out tomorrow.
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