Category: Language Arts: Books: Children’s Literature

Literary Analysis and Short Story Worksheets 0

Short Story Analysis Worksheets

As we start of this new school year we are diving deep into literary analysis!  We have covered the basic literary terms like similes, metaphors, rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia and now we’re diving into some wonderful short stories! As homeschoolers, language arts consists of several blocks during in our day 1) independent reading (the kids read their own novels), 2) literature (our read aloud book/novel), 3) language arts (which included grammar...

Homeschool Literature and Language Arts 0

Literature & Language Arts in our Homeschool

Earlier this week, I had a wonderful back-and-forth email conversation with a reader about literature and language arts in our homeschool. She had questions about the literature book/s we were using when my kids were in grades 2, 5 and 7.  I thought I would share a lot of that conversation with you today. It highlights some of the language arts books/texts/resources we have used over the years. Plus, I’ve...

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Language Arts – Grade 6 (Age 11/12) Curriculum Choices

Have you been planning out your language arts for next year?  I thought I would share my plans with ED (who will be in Grade 6 next year). She’s 11. Below you’ll find out how we tackle the various parts of language arts: literature skills (plot, setting, character, point of view, and so forth), grammar, vocabulary, spelling, literature (reading lots of good novels), and writing (which I’ve written about in...

Reading List Grade 4-6 0

Reading List Grade 4-5

This is a list of some of the well-known children’s novels we’ve been working through the past few years.  Many of these books are award winning (Newbery Award) novels. I always enjoy pouring through other people’s reading lists and thought I would share some of the classics we have on our reading list. We’ve read many of the books on the list (but remember I have three kids!).  Just pick...

Reading List Grades 7 to 9 1

Reading List – Grade 7-9

Today I thought I would share some of the literature that is on our reading list for grades 7 to 9. These are well-known classics.  We’re pretty flexible in that I won’t make them finish a book they “hate.”  Life’s too short and their are too many amazing books! Let me add that our list changes as the kids’ interest change and as we cover different things in our homeschool....

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25 Beloved Books for Kids Ages 8-12

Today I’m going to share a list of chapter books for older kids.  This is a great selection of books. We’ve now read every book on this list (and then some!!).  Many of them we read aloud together.  I loved Hatchet so much that I read this aloud with LD and then read it again to DD just this year.  Sometimes its fun to share the excitement together. Our family...

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25 Beloved Picture Books for Kids Ages 4-8

We absolutely love reading. This is a book I compiled one summer of the books our family loves!  Just click on the picture or link below to print out the list. Books–25 Beloved Books Free Printable Lists 25 Beloved Books for 4-8 Year Olds (In no particular order) These are affiliate links. Millions of Cats  by Wanda Gág Miss Nelson Is Missing!by Harry Allard Strega Nona: Book & CD by...

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Writing Workshop: Depth and Complexity Icons

How do you teach literary analysis to kids?  Helping students study and analyze literature on a deeper level In our new Writing Workshop Unit this January we are going to go look at books more analytically. Some of our mini-lessons have included story structure (building to a climax, etc); finding topics to write about; looking at the opening of books (hooking the reader);  using different techniques such as similes, metaphors,...

Chapter-books-for-7-year-olds 0

15 Chapter Books My 7 Year Old Loved

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about books here in our homeschool. I thought I would spend some time highlighting the books my 7-year old has read and loved this fall. This past summer I bought a huge selection of chapter books that were reasonably short (roughly 100 pages or less). Last year she read through 35 of the Magic Tree House books. (affiliate link).  Just like my son, she...

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10 Books (and Series) My Kids Love (Ages 9, 11)

My kids really love to read.  My daughter in particular is a voracious reader. She reads any spare moment she has. My son likes to read too and always gets his breakfast and settles in for 45 minutes to an hour with a good book. I thought I’d share some of the books and series the kids have really loved this year. Actually this first recommendation came first from my son...

Shakespeare for Kids (Books, Audiobooks, etc.) 0

Shakespeare for Kids (Books, Audiobooks, etc.)

This summer we spent a couple of weeks reading and exploring some of Shakespeare’s famous tales. If you visit your local library you’ll find tons of Shakespeare books in the junior section. I thought I’d highlight some of the ones that we really liked. Bruce Coville (author of the Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher) has retold a number of Shakespeare’s famous works. He incorporates famous lines into his own prose. This...

Australian Books for Kids 0

10 Australian Children’s Books

 Some of you may not know that we lived overseas for many years. In fact, all three kids were born in Central Australia.  ED was just young enough when we left that she doesn’t remember very much about Australia any more. We’ll be doing a short unit on Australia when we start back up with school. With the help of one of my Australian friends, we came up with a...

12 Books Celebrating America 2

12 Books Celebrating America

With the 4th of July right around the corner, I thought I would highlight some books you and your kids can read that celebrate America. I’ve selected books about the American Revolution and Constitution, but also wanted to point out some books about our beautiful country. If I were to recommend just one book, it might have to be They Called Her Molly Pitcher by Anne Rockwell. It is the...

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6 Native American Picture Books to Share with the Kids

I was looking for Native American children’s books written by and about Native Americans.  I found Debbie Reese’s website, American Indians in Children’s Literature. What a great resource! Today I’d like to share some of the books we read together this past week.  I went with the books that were available at our library and that were appealing to the kids. 1) Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story (affiliate link) This is a...