Halloween fun

It's dark and dreary here today, and we're taking it easy as one of the kiddos is under-the-weather.  Some of the holiday-related things we've got on hand for the week are coming out today:

One book I forgot to mention in my Book Sharing Monday post--another great title from Barefoot Books: Tales of Mystery and Magic (book and audio cd), retold and narrated by Hugh Lupton and illustrated by Agnese Baruzzi.  We're listening to this one as I type.

Classics for Kids October shows from years past (and this year, though this last podcast has another episode to be released before it is complete).   Mussorgsky (2008), Grieg (2009), and Stravinsky (2010) are the featured composers.

Halloween Shrinky Dinks: my younger two love these!  This set comes with a halloween tree from which to hang the shrunken ornaments, once finished.  

Spooky Doodles: great for the artistically inhibited, or kids that just wanna have fun.  The black pages require metallic gel pens or other such drawing implements.

Spooky Classics for Children, as told by Jim Weiss, which includes abbreviated versions of Oscar Wilde's "The Canterville Ghost," Hawthorne's "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," and Kipling's "The Sending of Dana Da."  We are big fans of this storyteller.

I'm also tempted by this unabridged version of "The Canterville Ghost," narrated by Rupert Degas, which is also available on iTunes.

And then there are also the movie versions of the tale!  I grew up watching the 1944 version starring Robert Young (Father Knows Best, Marcus Welby) and Margaret O'Brien, but have also enjoyed both the 1986 movie featuring Sir John Gielgud and Alyssa Milano and the 1995 made-for-tv version with Patrick Stewart.  Neither of these latter two versions appears to be available in DVD or streaming format, but there is a 1985 version that is bargain priced at Amazon and might be worth checking out.

Because I can't let go of homeschooling completely, even on a "sick" day, I put together a few pages of copywork (for this year and next) with a spooky theme.  Charles Dickens predominates, but Conan Doyle and Poe make appearances, too, as does childhood favorite L.M. Montgomery.

Halloween Copywork

Now you see me. . .

I tend to retreat to my cave in the depth of winter, but the spring-like weather we're expecting this weekend should wake me up a bit, so I'm hoping to blog with a bit more regularity.  Plus I'm fresh out of interesting YA books to read, which leaves me with more time on my hands.

In addition to all the reading I've been doing, one thing I've been working on lately is creating some worksheets to go with various "Let's Read and Find Out Science" books, which series is a favorite of DD (8).

Here are a couple for What Color is Camouflage? by Carolyn Otto (author) and Megan Lloyd (illustrator):

What’s Your Color

What Color is Camouflage

For copywork to go along with this book I'd suggest the following sentences (from the same book):

Camouflage can be a certain color, or pattern of colors, or a special shape that fools the eye.  Animal camouflage is a kind of disguise.  It makes an animal hard to see.

Winter copywork

This time around I had a little more time to select passages for copywork, so I chose some passages that mention winter, snow, or ice from children's books instead of relying on thinkexist or Bartleby for material.  I tried to pick short excerpts that showed a good use of visual imagery or word rhythm.  Once again, I wanted different copywork selections for the eleven-year-old and the eight-year-old, so material and length vary.


 

If any of you happens to find these documents useful, I'd love to hear about it--please drop me a line in the comments section!

New Year's Copywork

Just a few for this week, then we'll move on to winter copywork (coming soon).

New Year's Copywork

Workbox Wednesday, Christmas edition, Pt. 1

The children were nestled, all snug in their beds,

While Mom ran around, going out of her head. . .

A familiar scene to many homeschooling parents, and workbox users in particular, I'm sure. ☺

Tonight my mission was to get Christmas copywork up and running, and, by tinsel, now I can rest . . . for the moment.

For this round of copywork, I gathered quotations and parts of poems, Christmas carols, and prose to use for DS (12 in January) and DD (8). While I pulled largely from the internet, I did check sources when I could, and included authors and publication dates as available. The font size is larger than the Thanksgiving copywork I posted for some reason--Microsoft Word tells me both documents use the same size and font, but I beg to differ. Anyway, if anyone would like to use these secular Christmas selections, please do so, and let me know if you have any problems downloading them.

Christmas Copywork

Thanksgiving copywork

Here is my first attempt at using Scribd to post a pdf. Let me know if it works! Below is a list of mostly secular Thanksgiving quotations that my kids are using for copywork as we get close to Thanksgiving. I printed them out, cut them into individual slips, and put them in a basket for the kids to choose from each day.

Thanksgiving Copywork