Trivium Tuesdays-Classical Link-Up #58

Welcome to another week of Trivium Tuesdays!  For those of you who are new here today, this is a link-up aimed at encouraging and informing other homeschoolers who use the Classical model of teaching.  Here we can share with each other and learn from one another.

Featured Post

Today I am featuring Creating Presidential Reports for Early Elementary Students from Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom.  I loved her post because we are doing very much the same thing over here these days.  I think that  having a child express what they learned in a composition of their own (as opposed to filling out a worksheet or taking a multiple choice quiz) is so effective and gratifying for the child.  You can see one way that I'm doing this with my son in my post Help Your Child Capture the Story.

A great tool to have your children use for this is notebooking pages.  I want to take a quick minute to tell you about a great facebook party that is going on tonight for the company, NotebookingPages.com.   They are celebrating their 7th year in business and want to celebrate with all kinds of giveaways, freebies, and discounts!  They are having a facebook party TONIGHT from 9-10pm and would love for you to be there.  I'll be there =)

Most Clicked-On Post from Last Week 

The most clicked on post from last week was Why My 8 Year Old Loves His Latin Curriculum from Intoxicated on Life.  This post was simply a video of Trisha's son talking about Visual Latin, and reading to us some of what he has learned!  I thought it was great!

This Week's Link-Up

Here are the rules:

• Your post must have to do (in some way) with classical homeschooling (any age children).
• Your post may be from your archives as long as you only post it one time on this link-up.
• Please link to your direct post, not your blog in general.
• Please place my Trivium Tuesdays button (found on my right sidebar) on your blog post so others can learn about this link-up!
• It may be helpful to state in your link description what stage of the trivium or what subject your post is about, if applicable, so others can easily find posts they are interested in looking at.
• Remember, everyone loves comments =) So don't be shy, and tell someone if you liked their post!

I reserve the right to remove any link-up that does not have to do with classical homeschooling.         If you are a regular here at Trivium Tuesdays and have something to share that is a little off topic, but still would be an encouragement to the readers here, please still share it =)  I'm referring to people who are just trying to get their blog more exposure without following the rules above.

I will visit each of your blogs this week and feature my favorite link-up for all to see next week!  Also, if your blog has a button I will place it on my sidebar (under Friends to Visit) for the week until it is replaced by the next week's favorite =)

Introducing A Plan in Place, Customized Planners

Today I am excited to share with you one of my new sponsors this month!  A Plan in Place is a great company that sells customized planners for homeschool families.  That's right, you get to decide exactly what you want in your planner, but you don't have to spend hours trying to format and print your own.  My son and I are using their Early Learner planner right now and we are both loving it!  Here is a few words from the kind ladies at A Plan in Place...

___________________________________________________________________________________________

We are excited to introduce ourselves to the readers of Living and Learning at Home!  We are the founders and co-writers of A Plan in Place, Customized Planners for Homeschool Families.  First and foremost, we are ourselves homeschool moms!  Combined, we are homeschooling six kids from pre-school to 6th grade.

A few years ago, we were searching for the perfect planner to organize our homeschool and make our days run more smoothly, but after researching the available options, we could not find anything that would meet our individual needs.  Being homeschool moms, we are used to doing things our own way and we bet you are, too!  We started A Plan in Place with that vision in mind.

Watch this video to see how we can help you put 'A Plan in Place' for your upcoming homeschool year!

Kim Lopez & Suzie Doeren

Simple Spiral Binding Machine - My New Favorite Tool

I am absolutely in love with a tool I got a few months ago.  It's a spiral binding machine.  Seriously, I love it.  I've been going a little crazy and binding everything in site!

I am not being compensated in any way for telling you about this (although these are amazon affiliate links, so I could potentially make about 50 cents if you buy it ).  I bought the Carl Brands Ring Binding System with my own money and I want to tell you about it because I LOVE it (oh, did I already say that?!)

It all started when I got the Young Reader curriculum CD from Heritage History.  I love using living books for teaching my kids, and love the clean formatting that Heritage History brings to these old books.  The only problem is that they are best used in ebook format.  They can also be printed out, but I found myself printing out pages and then misplacing them.  I knew I wanted to make these wonderful stories into books, but I didn't know the best way to do it.  I looked into many different forms of book binding, and finally found the Carl Brands Ring Binding System.   At less than $20, it was a perfect match between price and a great final product!

What kind of things can you bind?

Since I got the binding system, I've gone a little book-binding-crazy!  I've been making books out of just about anything I can get my hands on =)  Here are some of the books I've put together:

• Multiple Heritage History selections
• History lesson plans from Simply Charlotte Mason
• Notebooking Pages along with copywork pages for our Veritas Press Ancient Greece and Rome studies
• Song School Latin workbook pages (just for fun!)
• A Nature Journal
• A Beginning Writing Notebook
• A Story Journal (for simple book reports)
• and more!

How the Binding Machine Works

When I was trying to figure out which binding system to go with, something I really wanted was to see them in action to help me decide.  I thought it might be helpful for you to see how this spiral binding machine works.  I'm not great with videos, but hopefully these will help you get a feel for how it works in case you are looking to make some books too!

This first video is a close up of how the binder actually works:




This second video is so you can get an idea of the whole process and how long it takes to put a small book together:

 Highlights of the binder:

• punches holes into the paper 
• you turn the coil through the holes to make the book
• punch up to 5 pages at a time
• punch any size paper (up to 12 inches)
• punch locks into the strip to ensure perfectly placed holes
• coils come in many sizes to accommodate different book thicknesses

 
If you are looking for a way to preserve your children's work, make notebooks for schoolwork, or make physical books out of ebooks (and not break the bank!) I encourage you to give the Carl Brands Ring Binding System  a try!  Let me know if you have any questions and I can try to help you figure out if it would suit your needs.

Happy Book Binding!

Trivium Tuesdays-Classical Link-Up #57

Welcome to another week of Trivium Tuesdays!  For those of you who are new here today, this is a link-up aimed at encouraging and informing other homeschoolers who use the Classical model of teaching.  Here we can share with each other and learn from one another.

Featured Post

Today I am featuring Stacks of Books from As He Leads is Joy.  I chose this post because she shares with us a book list that she has been using that I have loved for a long time.  If you didn't see it last week, take a minute to find out what it is!  I love it because it breaks down books into types and levels, making it easy to find books that are perfect for your child.

Most Clicked-On Post from Last Week

This most clicked on link from last week was this Very Hungry Caterpillar Craft to go along with the great children's book!  If you have little ones, head on over to see the craft and get the free printable to go along with it!

This Week's Link-Up

Here are the rules:

• Your post must have to do (in some way) with classical homeschooling (any age children).
• Your post may be from your archives as long as you only post it one time on this link-up.
• Please link to your direct post, not your blog in general.
• Please place my Trivium Tuesdays button (found on my right sidebar) on your blog post so others can learn about this link-up!
• It may be helpful to state in your link description what stage of the trivium or what subject your post is about, if applicable, so others can easily find posts they are interested in looking at.
• Remember, everyone loves comments =) So don't be shy, and tell someone if you liked their post!

I reserve the right to remove any link-up that does not have to do with classical homeschooling.         If you are a regular here at Trivium Tuesdays and have something to share that is a little off topic, but still would be an encouragement to the readers here, please still share it =)  I'm referring to people who are just trying to get their blog more exposure without following the rules above.

I will visit each of your blogs this week and feature my favorite link-up for all to see next week!  Also, if your blog has a button I will place it on my sidebar (under Friends to Visit) for the week until it is replaced by the next week's favorite =)

10 Tips for Reading with Your Child

 

Today I have a special post for you!  It is from the creator of My Book Boost (one of the lovely sponsors of Living and Learning at Home  Enjoy!

Hi all! My name is Carrie Lane, creator of the My Book Boost list. I'm excited to be doing this guest post on Living and Learning at Home! Here is just a little bit about myself. I began teaching kids to read when I was a reading tutor in college in 1997. Over the years, working with kids as they're just beginning to read has always been my favorite part of teaching. Now I'm a stay-at-home-mom and I get to experience this special stage with my own kids. I put together some tips for reading with kids that I've personally found helpful.

10 of my Favorite Tips for Reading with Your Child:

• Let them choose between a couple of different books to read to you. They'll feel more invested in the process if they're able to decide which book they're most interested in reading.

• Try to find a time for them to practice reading when they’re not in the middle of doing something else. If you see they've just finished with something, that may be a good time to ask if they want to read a book to you.

• Have your child read easy books over and over (especially if they really enjoy a particular book). This will help them become a confident reader.

• Try not to jump in right away if they get stuck on a word. Give them time to try to work it out so they don't rely on you too much.

• If they are stuck on a word for awhile, suggest they try to skip the word and come back to it after reading to the end of the sentence. Sometimes they can figure out the word by using the context clues when skipping and coming back.

• Join in and read with them at the same time if the book seems way too hard. This will give them the support they need.

• Mention to your child that many words can be sounded out, but some just can't (for example, the word "two"). Sometimes it helps for them to hear that.

• If you're reading a book together, verbalize thoughts that you’re having as you’re reading the book so your child can see a model of how someone might react to what they’re reading. “Oh, what happened there? Let me reread that.” Or "That was surprising! Did you think they would do that?"

• Make sure the books they read aren’t too hard or your child may get frustrated. If they’re missing more than 1 out of 10 words in the book, try to find easier texts for them and/or see if they can pick out "just right" texts for themselves.

• Ask your child meaningful questions about the story before, during, and after reading. If you try out the My Book Boost list, you will find two questions for each book included in the download. The questions have a lot of variety to practice comprehension skills, especially literal and inferencing questions.

 

What tip would you add to this list?

Hopefully the above tips will give you at least one idea to try with your child.

If you would like to save time when it comes to finding great books for your beginning reader to read, the My Book Boost list is a wonderful tool. The list starts with the most basic of books and gradually increases in difficulty.

Quiz: Is My Book Boost a good fit for you?

•  Do you have access to a library where you could check out books regularly?

• Do you have a child who is beginning to read?

• Do you want to make sure your Preschooler, Kindergartener, or 1st grader doesn't lose too much over the summer?

• Do you like high quality books with a variety of authors and illustrators?

• Do you have a child who is working to master the Kindergarten or 1st grade reading level?

If you answered “yes” to 4 or more of the questions, My Book Boost is most likely a good fit for you! See the website www.mybookboost.com for more information!

Nevertheless, happy, happy reading!

~Carrie