Seven Quick Takes on the AO Conference, Reading Aloud, Blogoversary Celebration Prizes, and More!

:: 1 ::

In case you missed the big, huge, exciting Facebook announcement on Monday, here it is:

That’s right! AO is having its conference in Texas this year, and I get to go! Woo hoo! It was tough last summer when I wasn’t able to attend the Indiana conference, so I. am. thrilled.

Raise your hand if you’re going!!

 

:: 2 ::

We’ve been working our way through The Swiss Family Robinson, and loving every moment of it. I had forgotten how much fun this one is as a read-aloud, and I’m so glad we’re doing it again.

I’ve been considering which direction to take when we’re done, and I think I’ve decided we’ll do Pinocchio {for the third time}. Pinocchio is a favorite of mine for first grade, and since I’m feeling all sentimental about being on my last first grader, I think another {final} reading is in order.

 

:: 3 ::

This week’s links collection:

• The State Department Turns Its Back on Syrian Christians and Other Non-Muslim Refugees from National Review.
  • I’m praying for our Syrian brothers and sisters…
• How a group of neighbors created their own Internet service from Ars Technica.
  • Ingenuity!
• What These Nurses Invented Will Change C-Sections Forever from mom.me.
  • How I wish this had existed when I was still having babies — I would have loved this. The separation from my babies was the hardest part about having C-sections each time.
• Canon Andrew White: ‘Vicar of Baghdad’ on leading a church in Iraq and being in the crosshairs of Isis from The Independent.
  • Canon White has fascinated me for a long time.

 

:: 4 ::

This month in 2011:

Funny that I found this post this week, for this is the week that I read this fairy tale — Prince Darling, one of my favorites from The Blue Fairy Book — aloud for the fourth time. I have loved it each time, but it felt extra special since this is my last time reading it for first grade.

 

:: 5 ::

My own book pile is growing larger. It’ll be exponentially larger when my copy of Island of the World arrives. I like to have a novel going over Christmas break, and I was still trying to make a decision when some strong, positive from reviews tipped me over the edge on purchasing this one. It’s a hefty tome, clocking in at 850 pages, meaning I’ll likely only have time to finish this one book {unlike last year’s Jane Austen spree}, but that’s not concerning. It’s been on my list for a long while, so I’m looking forward to it.

Is anyone familiar with O’Brien’s science fiction? His Voyage to Alpha Centauri looks interesting to me…

 

:: 6 ::

As you know, last week I announced that in January I’ll be giving away ten awesome prizes in celebration of the upcoming Afterthoughts 10th blogoversary. Today, I want to tell you about another prize. This one I’m calling the ED Snapshots Prize Package {otherwise known as the Build an Awesome Homeschool Package 😉 }. One lucky reader is going to get Plan Your Year — which is where I get my super cute calendars and planning forms that I use for school planning in the summer and year round for all sorts of special things — a Your Morning Basket big basket, which is my favorite Circle Time resource, and access to all of Pam’s Latin printables {where she makes Latin fun!}.

One quick note on Plan Your Year, since most people don’t realize this: Plan Your Year is the only homeschool planner you ever need to buy! Purchasing it gives you lifetime access, and Pam updates it every year with current calendar dates, new forms that users have requested, and more. So basically, this is a prize that will keep on giving. 🙂

This is a fantastic prize package!

 

:: 7 ::

Answering Your Questions:

• Question: I would love to see you blog more about KISS Grammar. How do you use it, what ages/grades, what results are you seeing, how to implement….?
  • Answer: Someday, I’m going to write a post about this, but I’m not sure when that will happen, so I thought I’d give a brief answer here. For years, I just printed out the KISS printable workbooks and did them with my oldest. Last year,  I ended up with two students that needed to do grammar, and so naturally I bombed with both of them. This year, I’m attempting KISS with everyone at the table during Circle Time. I’ve tried and failed at Circle Time grammar before, but this time it’s going well. I’m using the Level 1 6th grade workbook, which I emailed to my Kindle. I won’t go into why I chose that particular one. My practice is that, on grammar days, I write out between 1 and 4 sentences {which I get from the workbook on my Kindle} on a white board. After that, we identify everything we can in the sentence — subject, verb, prepositional phrases, whatever. My youngest student just listens. My girls identify the subjects and verbs. They are starting to get prepositional phrases. My oldest identifies everything else. It’s not a big deal and takes only a bit of time, and I’m still seeing progress … so I can’t complain!