A Few of My Favorite Things: Episode 9: A Child's Garden of Songs

Poetry teaches vocabulary and abstract thinking and helps children to find beauty in everyday things.  Because so many poems rhyme and have rhythm, poems are fairly easy for children to memorize.

Today I want to talk about a book of poems from my childhood.  A Child’s Garden of Verses is a beautiful collection of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poetry.  The poems talk about simple things through the eyes of a child.  In “Land of Counterpane”, Stevenson talks about the things he did to amuse himself while recovering from an illness.  In “Bed in Summer”, Stevenson talks about how hard it is to go to bed while the sun is still out during the long days of summer.   There are many poems about childhood imagination. Because of the simple words, A Child's Garden of Verses is one of the first books I ask my children to read on their own.

"In winter I get up at night

 And dress by yellow candlelight.

 

In summer just the other way,

 

I have to go to bed by day." 

-From "Bed in Summer" by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

 

 

Ted Jacobs, a musician and composer,  set many of the poems from A Child’s Garden of Verses to music.   The gentle folk music uses uillean pipes, penny whistles, fiddles, and dulcimers among other instruments.

A Child's Garden of Songs is available for Amazon Prime Streaming.  Jacobs revisited the book in his second album Back to the Garden.  I just learned that Jacobs has another album of poetry by American poets set to music, and he is working on some other poetry projects.  I am so pleased with the two albums I own that I will be adding to my library very soon! 

 

I am very excited to share a success story with you.  This is one of the students I tutor in my home.  He has a low working memory, so he needs a lot of practice in order to retain information.   Through hard work, he is now able to read some of the poems in A Child's Garden of Verses.  He loves "The Swing." 

Abstract concepts are difficult for my student, but poetry is helping him to step away from the concrete.  A few weeks ago, we read "The Land of Nod."  This poem taught him some vocabulary: abroad means to travel across the sea; afar means far away.  He was also able to say that when you fall asleep it feels like you are traveling abroad, but really you are just dreaming. 

This student has memorized some of the poems by listening to Ted Jacob's songs. His confidence has skyrocketed.  I am so proud of him!

A Few of my Favorite Things: Episode 8: The Inspire Bible

Today I want to talk about my favorite Bible for kids (and adults!)  This is the Inspire Bible.  It is a journaling Bible that has large margins so you can keep notes or doodle, and it also has many verses to color. In the above picture, I created the picture on the left, and I colored the  preprinted verse on the right.

Coloring or journaling helps me to slow down and focus on the verses instead of just skimming through them. I can reflect on a passage for a much longer time when I am journaling. 

I put this on my list of favorite things because my Bible has been a favorite with many of the students I teach. 

There are many different journaling Bibles.  I like this one because it has verses to color as well as margins to journal.  Many journaling Bibles do not have the coloring verses.  This is the New Living Translation (NLT) which is not my favorite version of the Bible, but it is simple to read and understand which would make it good for new readers.  I have priced this Bible from $20-$30.   You can buy the Inspire Bible here.

A Few of my Favorite Things: Episode 7: Thanksgiving Books

I love Thanksgiving.  It was one of my favorite times during the school year when I had my own classroom.  I want to share with you a few of my favorite Thanksgiving books. 

Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving is hands down my absolute favorite Thanksgiving book.  This book tells the story of Squanto, one of the Native Americans who helped the pilgrims survive in the new land.  He was kidnapped and sold as a slave.  Some Spanish Monks bought him and taught him to speak Spanish.  They told him about God. The Monks sent him to England to wait for a ship to take him home.  The book explains how God was able to take all the bad things in Squanto's life and use it for good to help the Pilgrims.  It also compares Squanto to Joseph from the Old Testament, who was also sold as a slave and was able to save his family.

Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving is well written, the pictures are beautiful, and the message is important.  This true story reads like a fairytale, complete with a happily ever after.

I am working on a Thanksgiving skit that parallels the lives of Squanto and Joseph for the children at our church to perform.  I will post it here when it is finished.

Here are a few more of my favorite Thanksgiving books.  These are all from the same series by Kate Waters. They are beautifully photographed books portraying children who lived on the Mayflower or in Plymouth, Massachusetts. 

       

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Few of my Favorite Things: Episode 6: Timelines



This student plays the game Chronology to brush up on her history skills.

 

I’ve been suggesting educational tools that would make nice presents and I have to say, with the exception of the game above, most of the suggestions in this post will go over about as well as a present of socks and underwear.  (In fact, I gave a memory work CD to my five year old nephew who promptly asked his mom why I wanted him to have it.) So let’s just take a timeout from the present idea.  I can’t ignore this educational tool, especially with the focus of aiding memory.  You may not want to put this under the tree, but it’s still a great memory tool.  Most children enjoy it.

I love Timelines!  We are part of a homeschooling community called Classical Conversations that teaches history through a timeline.  The timeline starts at Creation and ends with September 11, 2001 and has 140 different world events.  They use a song (it is 13 minutes long) and timeline cards to teach the events.  I love this method because it tunes children’s ears to pay attention when they come across something from the timeline.  The first time I noticed this was when my daughter was 4.  During the holidays she heard the Christmas story from Luke 2.  She looked at me and said, “MOM!  Caesar Augustus and the Pax Romana!” 



Our dog Remus was named after one of the founders of Rome.



We love the timeline so much that it even inspired our family to name our dogs after the founders of Rome: Romulus and Remus. 





 

The CC timeline CD, called the Audio CDs, comes with lots of memory work including the Timeline, the Presidents, Science facts, History songs, etc.  The CD set costs $35, but watch for sales because they are making a new edition of the materials.  I bought the Cycle 1 CDs for $10 at the end of the school year last year.



 

 All three cycles have the timeline CD.  The Timeline Cards, called Acts and Facts History cards, are beautiful but a little pricey.  I am very glad I bought them because the pictures are of famous works of art that depict the time or event, and the back has about 5 paragraphs of information about each event.  The students at the beginning just look at the pictures to help them remember the card, and as they grow older they can use them for reports and personal study. I tutor the youngest learners in my Classical Conversations community, and they LOVE to play with the timeline cards.  I like to mix them up and have my students put them back in order.  My students try to stump me by hiding one or more cards, and then I have to guess the missing cards.  I also like to use Hedbandz with the timeline cards.  (You can read more about how I use Hedbandz here).

Veritas Press also has timeline cards, and they have recently added a song.  I am not very familiar with these timeline cards, but many people are happy with them. 

For a Biblical timeline, check out the Bible QuestCurriculum.  It comes with a poster of the timeline, and a Big Bible Song that covers all the points of the timeline.  We use Bible Quest as a supplement at our church.  It is $50 for each Old Testament and New Testament, and the entire Big Bible Song is in both the Old Testament and New Testament programs.

Here is a free printable timeline that corresponds with the Mystery of History curriculum.  I have used this at our church as well.  It has many Biblical events, as well as a few historical events.  In my Sunday school class, we whisper the historical events as a reminder that those particular events were not recorded in the Bible.

I have one gift idea that goes along with the timeline theme.  Children (and adults) will enjoy Chronology.  The suggested age is 14 and up, but I play it with my 6 and 8 year old.  I was introduced to this  fun game in college.  Chronology has many historical events, and some other dates- like when the mayonnaise was invented, etc.  Someone will read you a historical event from a card. You decide where that event falls in your timeline. If you are right, keep the card and your timeline grows. The first player to build a timeline of 10 cards wins!

Oh the possibilities! I have high hopes of making a personalized game by creating chronology cards with dates and facts that we study in school.  I've been an educator for 14 years and it hasn't happened yet. 
 

Timelines are an amazing memory tool.  They help us to organize information and file it in our minds in an orderly way.  I have a better grasp of history and humanity because of timelines. 

My Favorite Things: Episode 5: Seeds Family Worship

This week I'm going to talk about some of my favorite memorization aides.  We will start with Scripture Memory because I believe it is the most important.  In some other posts, I will show how I use memory throughout the subject areas.

Let me introduce you to my favorite company for scripture memory.  The problem with many scripture memory songs written for children is that the music is not catchy and the singers sound like chipmunks.  Seeds Family Worship is different. Their songs are pure scripture, set to catchy music.  It is music that I do not mind listening to.  They have several albums on different topics in the Bible: Seeds of Courage; Seeds of Faith; Seeds of Praise, and many more.  Many of the songs stream on Amazon Prime!

Seeds Family worship makes it very easy to learn scripture.  We listen to these CDs in the car, and in the early morning while my children play and get ready for the day. 



Why Memorize:
 Memory is the first step really understanding anything.  I know that sometimes rote memorization seems like a pointless exercise, especially if the content is too complicated for a young child to understand.  But when you choose the content wisely, the children will grow into them. 

Do you remember this song?

"Oh be careful little eyes what you see; oh be careful little eyes what you see; for the Father up above is looking down in love; Oh be careful little eyes what you see."

I learned this song at the age of 2 or 3.  Two and three year olds generally don't have to worry too much about what they are looking at, but I clearly remember that song coming to mind when I was in high school and needed a gentle reminder.   I had not thought of the song for years, but it was in my long term memory when  I needed it. 

Recently, I started journaling my prayers.  Many times, when a scripture comes into my mind, it is in the form of a song that I learned as a little girl.  My hope is to fill my children's hearts with scripture. 


"And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."
                                                                                                                                                           - Deuteronomy 6:6-7

MY FAVORITE THINGS: Episode 4: Hedbandz

 

 

Today I want to talk about one of my favorite games.  Headbandz is a great game on its own, but it can also be a helpful tool for review games.

When you follow the rules, you put a picture card on a head band and ask the other players 20 questions to try to figure out what picture is on your head.  It's a great game, but I rarely play it that way. 

Since I've been talking about math, I thought I'd show you one of the ways I use Hedbandz to drill math facts: specifically in the areas of subtraction and division.  (For my favorite way to drill addition and multiplication, please see the post about Super Genius.)

 

In the picture above, the girl on the left has a 7 and the girl on the right has a 9. (I selected two cards from a deck of playing cards, but writing them on a 3x5 card works just as well.)  I told them the sum was 16.  Then they had to figure out what card was on their head.  I love how easily subtraction (16-9=7 and 16-7 =9), fact families (9+7=16, 7+9=16, 16-9=7, 16-7=9), and algebra (7 + x =16, 9+ x=16) are taught with this simple and fun tool.  You could easily do this for multiplication and division.  Another way to play is to have 3 students.  The first student adds up the numbers on the other two students' heads and tells them the sum. 

 

There are so many ways to use Hedbandz in the classroom.  In the picture below, students are playing 20 questions with the characters from A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Questions might include: Did I turn into a donkey?  Am I in love with someone?  Am I a girl?  Am I a fairy?  Etc.

 



I have used Hedbandz with timeline cards, vocabulary, characters, guess the phonogram, and especially math.  How would you use them?

 

Did you miss my other posts?  Check out some of my other favorite math tools:  AL Abacus, Number-Bots,  and Super Genius.



A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS: Episode 3: Super Genius Addition

Continuing with the Math theme, my next contender is a card game.  Blue Orange Games makes all sorts of games including Spot It (which is one of our family's favorites) and the Super Genius Games.

We own the Super Genius: Addition card game.  Blue Orange Games also makes Super Genius: Multiplication I and II, Reading I and II, Alphabet, and Compound words. 

The deck has two sets of cards.  In the Addition version, the cards with the blue outline have five addition equations, and the cards with the red outline have five different sums. 

To play the game, you turn over one of each set and try to find the match.  Each card has one equation or sum that corresponds to every other card. 

There are other ways to play.  For example you could only use the blue set of cards and try to find corresponding equations.  (One card may say 1 + 9 and another might say 5 + 5, and since both equal 10, they are a match.)  Umm... that's algebra, by the way. 

I find this game to be much more fun than flash cards!  I do think there are a few things they could do to improve the game.  I find 10 + n to be fairly simple for most children to solve.  Most of the cards have a 10 + n equation.  I wish they would use more 9 + n and 8 + n equations, which are more challenging for most students.

If you are a local friend, I encourage you to check out the selection of Blue Orange Games at our local toy store- Toodleyloo Toys.  I bought the Super Genius: Addition game at their store.  If you are not local, check out the Blue Orange Games Website.

An early morning Super Genius: Addition game

Did you miss my other Favorite Things Posts?  Check out Number-Bots and the AL Abacus.