Picture Books to Jump Start Second Language Learning

12 Jul

Have you ever wanted to teach your children Spanish but were’t sure where to start? That’s exactly how I felt the beginning of this summer. 

Our family’s quest to learn Spanish all began with my oldest’s daughter’s prompting.  I asked a few homeschooling friends what they used and they suggested Duo Lingo and so she commenced her studies using this free online program. Next, I remembered a podcast in which a guest suggested using picture books to teach second languages, so I begin grabbing all the picture books with Spanish text I could find. Now the whole family, particularly my two year old daughter, is using our new, though limited, Spanish vocabulary throughout the day! 

Here is a list of our favorite picture books along with a few chapter books to get your family started learning Spanish in a fun and informal way. I intentionally chose books sprinkled with the language, but you can find many of your favorite picture books entirely translated into Spanish. Here is a good place to look. Let me know if there are any books you recommend.  Gracias! 

Juana & Lucas is a delightful chapter book filled with Spanish words that tell of a young girl learning English in school. 

Esperanza Rising, written by Pam Munoz Ryan, is a beautiful coming of age story dealing with migrant workers in California.  I loved listening to the audio recording of this book for pronunciation of the beautiful Spanish words speckled throughout the book. 

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Filed Under: Books, Family, Homeschooling Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Classical Conversations Cycle 2 Booklist: Medieval History to The Gulf War

26 May

Welcome all Classical Conversation families! Additionally, welcome to homeschooling families that use this list to supplement their medieval history study!

A few notes about the arrangement of books in this post:

    1. This booklist is a tool and not a checklist! Please use it to supplement your morning time routines or studies of CC memory work.
    2. My family will not read all these books listed each week. Instead, this will be a reference list for me to utilize in weekly book selections and in chapter book read alouds or read alones.
    3. The pictured links in the twenty-four week lists are arranged by picture books first followed by chapter book selections.
    4. Additional chapter books, audio books, missionary studies, and fine arts books, including a poetry section, are listed after the twenty-four week suggestions. 
    5. I will not be providing a download of this list, but encourage you to write these suggestions in under the Memoria section of your Foundations Guides.

It is my hope that this list proves to be a wonderful resource for your family enabling you to make memories around the shared experience of reading great books. Enjoy!

*All links below are affiliate links.

Week 1:

What Really Happened In Medieval Times is a wonderful resource filled with 8 biographical short stories on figures such as: Joan of Arc, Saint Patrick, Martin Luther, and more.

Week 2:

 

Geography: English Channel

Week 3:

Geography Selections: France

I Juan de Pareja is a chapter book set in Spain and based on a true story. This is one you will want to read to the entire family ages 8/9 and up! A personal favorite of mine.

Week 4:

 

Week 5:

The Book of Boy holds some religious beliefs that you may want to clarify or discuss. Perhaps it is a good one to read like a book club with your older students such as 5th and 6th grade. Check out this review over at Redeemed Reader. 

Timeline:

Week 6:

Week 7:

Week 8:

Week 9:

Geography Selections:

Week 10:

Geography Selections:

Week 11:

I was unable to find many resources on the French Revolution, with the exception of the two chapter books listed above (one of which was suggested by a reader), so I have opted to provide more books featuring France instead.  Please  leave  your  suggestions  in  the  comments  section. I welcome them!

 

Week 12:

Week 13:


Week 14:

Week 15:

Week 16:


Week 17:

Week 18:

Week 19:

A Single Shard is one of my all-time favorite books. Perfect for a meaningful read aloud!

Week 20:

Inside Out and Back Again is a book written in prose. The protagonist is based on the author’s real life experience moving to Alabama as a refugee after Vietnam. This book will provide many good discussion points about the treatment of people who are different from us in nationality, traditions, and religion. Check out Redeemed Reader’s post for discussion questions! 

I suggest these two incredible books by Gary Schdmidt for read alouds. The Wednesday Wars for upper elementary and middle school, and the second for middle school due to sensitive content. These are two of my very favorite books! The Wednesday Wars ties in Shakespeare as well which is a bonus!

Week 21:

My Brigadista Year is a coming of age story set in Cuba just before the Bay of Pigs. Probably a good fit for 5th or 6th graders knowing that propaganda is woven in the story as a reality of the time and setting. However, I loved this story because it tells how Cuba became a literate nation in such a short amount of time. You can read more about this book over at Common Sense Media. 


Week 22:

Week 23:

Week 24:

 

Audio Resources:

Additional chapter books to read aloud or to read alone:

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness is the first of a four book series by Andrew Peterson. Read more about the series here.  The entire set is found in this book:

 

 

Missionary Biographies set during or just after WWII:

Supplemental Geography:

Books about our Great Artists:

 

Music for Composers Study:

Poetry:

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Filed Under: Books, Family, Homeschooling, What I Am Reading Wednesday, Worldview Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What Another Year of Homeschooling Taught Me

19 Jun

Math and God

Homeschooling. It is not the educational path I would have guessed our family would take, but it is the path we most certainly feel led of God to walk.

Today marks the graduation of pre-kindergarten for my son, and first grade for my daughter. We have come so far this year and learned a great deal–both  in academics and character building. Certainly, I am referring as much to my own education as to our children’s!

I can’t say the end is easier than the beginning, nor that I have gained as much patience and understanding as will garner absolute success next year. I certainly can’t say that! However, we finished, and we finished strong. One willful, determined step at a time.

It is my joy and privilege to educate our children in our home. The number one reason that we choose home education is the call we feel toward making our children fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ. The Great Commission commands us to go and make disciples in all nations and this call starts with the the two disciples that we call son and daughter. Can this purpose be accomplished in either private or public school options? Of course! My husband and I are both products of public education from grammar to graduate school, but we feel we have been called to home education for such a time as this and for our children specifically.

We choose to homeschool because we want to instill a complete Christian worldview into our children and equip them to be able to give an account for the hope that they have in Jesus Christ. We want them to see how all the liberal arts, the sciences,  and the three R’s reveal God and how He speaks through the study of each one.

Personally, one of the more challenging parts of homeschooling is the discipline required. I am a disciplined person in most areas of life…at least I aim to be. Being a home educator leaves no area in my personal life which I can, shall we say, grant the most weight of academic responsibilities to someone else. I feel a great pressure, and simultaneously a great joy, in seeking our children’s academic success.  Undoubtedly, it can be exhausting!

So, today we celebrate. We celebrate victories won and goals accomplished. We seal the books with smiley faces and stickers and victory hugs. As parents know, however, home education never ends. Occasionally, we simply let our kids think so! We are always learning and growing in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.  Any work over the next six weeks will be extra credit and culminate in a prize. Thanks to Pinterest for pre-made charts and prize coupons!

To leave you today, I am linking to two of our new favorite resources that we discovered this year. I hope you will take a look and see if any of them are right for your family.

  • Jonathon Park -Great creation science teaching in action packed stories fun for your whole family. Visit Jonathon here.
  •  Jim Weiss Audio CD’s- Love these historical fiction and non-fiction audio books that teach timeless lessons and inspire the love for academics and literature. Visit Great Hall Productions here.

Always learning,

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Filed Under: Apologetics, Discipline, Faith, Family, Homeschooling Tagged With: ,

Apple Picking in the South

19 Sep

We Southerners require creativity to welcome in the fall; especially considering central and southern Floridans. We substitute artificial leaves and pumpkins for the real deal, and burn Pumpkin Spice candles hoping the fragrance will bring on a cold-front for the Friday night football game. Any excuse to wear a jean jacket and cowboy boots will do as well. Not to mention the obsession with seasonal drinks and forgoing the swimming pool just because it is September!

Now I think I have hit an all-time low, or high, in spurring on the season: taking the kids apple picking at the local Publix “orchard.”

We observed and identified over seven varieties of the 7,500 available world-wide and also acquired the finest apple butter and apple chips that the Publix harvest boasts. To say we had a bushel-full would be a stretch, but the tasting party was quite fun.

We also put our local selection to use as an alternative paint brush.

keep my commandments and live;
keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;

~Proverbs 7:2

Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings,

~Psalm 17:8

Our “farm to table” (maybe that’s farm to factory to table) pickings were first read about in the following books:

A note to parents: the last two books, especially the later, present a time frame for the origin of earth being within the last two million years. I believe that the Bible teaches a younger earth: roughly 6,000-10,000 years old. Rather than avoiding these books, I use such statements to demonstrate that not all “facts” in non-fiction genres are factual, but can be biased beliefs or assumptions based on the worldview of the author.

We also watched this childhood favorite, The Legend of Johnny Appleseed.

Finally, these two books make nice additions to the mix:

Looking at all the beautiful apple skins, smells, and textures of the inner flesh of the apple, I marvel that David prayed for God to keep us as the apple of His eye. Ponder the thousands of varieties of apples compared with the uniqueness of man. What does the science behind mere apples suggest about our Savior, His creativity, His scope of knowledge and the glory due His name?

Now grab a cart and get to picking!

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Filed Under: Creation, Homeschooling, What I Am Reading Wednesday Tagged With: , ,