Back to School?

If you live in British Columbia and do not send your kids to an independent school then you know the pain parents are going through currently. June 17th was the last time kids were in school, two weeks before they broke-up for summer and it is September 3rd and a there seems to be no end to the strike. I have looked desperately for an independent school but they do not have space for both kids, I can get one or the other in but not both. I am also looking for alternative help, Kumon, Sylvan, that can help with extra studies but these are also expensive alternatives and the $40 per child per day only covers half the cost. We did have a tutor that came in from Tutor Doctor  but the issue we had was we had a wonderful tutor who loved to teach maths but she left to take a full time job and we had an alternative who preferred English. It was fine but I did not like the disruption of changing tutors just as my child was getting into a rhythm.

I am acutely aware that if I do not help my kids along sooner than later then they will fall behind quickly. The schools here in BC have long summer holidays and it has been proven that skills are lost during long summer breaks. Throughout the summer my children have been reading, the summer program at the library has been very useful. One of the things I lack in is teaching my kids is maths, mainly because it does not come easily to me and my mental arrhythmic is appalling due to lack of practice during my younger years plus I was not taught well from the start. My husband on the other hand whom was privately educated and went to a prestigious school in England, oozes confidence and has a much better handle on many subjects but he is so busy with work that he is unable to help my cause (when I say busy, it is seven days a week, lucky to get a few hours of his time). I can't complain my husband is earning money to keep a roof over our heads. Also, it is harder to explain the value of money nowadays because we use cards so often to pay for goods. I do give my children cash for chores and try to teach them to save which seems to be working. The problem with taking my girls out so they can understand how to use money and calculate what change they will get;  in Canada until you get to the till you have no idea what the actual cost is. This is due to the tax(es), they do not appear on the ticket. So if my kids look for something worth $2 then we know they need more but because we do not know what tax amount to calculate before we get to the cashier because the government tax many items differently depending on what it is. It is challenging to teach and get a grasp on  how much one needs to pay. It is ridiculous. In England what you see on the label is what you pay making it easier to see what amount you have in your hand and handing the money to the cashier and if there is change it can be calculated beforehand.

So to make these challenges less of a problem I have purchased a number of exercise books and games; crossword puzzles, word search, paint by number, bingo, Monopoly, educational books, maths books, reading and writing and sketch books for art projects. Here are a selection:

4 Cats Art History Books

4 Cats Art History Books

The books below were bought from the Dollar store for $3 each. They are great and the kids love them too.

There are also a number of TV shows that help. My kids love The Magic School Bus and Horrible Histories. There are also some good websites that I have yet to explore.

Putting a lesson plan in place will help too. Kids love routine so for my 6 and 8 year old my plan looks something like this:

8am Breakfast
9am Quiet reading and read to me individually
9.30am English activity, word search, writing practice, reading aloud etc (depends on age)
10am playtime and snack
10:30am Maths activity, counting games, card games, Bingo, exercise book, times table
11:00am Art or Physical activity
11:30am help to prep food for lunch, set table
12:00 eat, clear table, play
1pm Read, writing, drama, physical activity
2pm Learning about art, history, science experiment
3pm play
4pm help with preparing food or setting table or chores in general.

It gives you a guideline and of course you can mix it up with outings and day trips that they rarely get in a school environment. It helps to get kids back into a routine and I can tell you they will love you for it.

If you have any suggestions, books, Educations shows, learning sites on the web, I would love to hear.

Reading Club for Kids

Week 3 of reading club infact we are now on week 4. Where has the time gone? These are just a few books we picked-up from the library. Some classics, some new and some I have never heard of before. It is wonderful to discover new books not just the children but for me too.

Kids Book Club

Reading for my 5 year old

My youngest chose this book and what a great book to start the summer reading program. Infact both my kids chose several books from the library but these ones stood out from the rest. She loved, Hooray for Reading Day and she was able to read most of it with me. My eldest daughter also enjoyed this book and it took her no time at all to read it. But her reading is now at another level and one of the books she chose was, Charles Dickens and Friends.

Reading for my 8 year old

This Charles Dickens book is written like a comic strip and is a very condensed version of the classics. Oliver Twist is one of the stories and did this story ever draw up a conversation! The first words out of my eldest's mouth was, "I don't like this book the people are mean". I gave her a snapshot of the era and why the author wrote these stories and how children were treated in the Victorian period and it was not a nice time for the poor. My daughter was appalled and couldn't quite believe people could be so aweful. She then went to her little sister and told her what the book was about and how dreadful she thought it was.

I was so happy to hear her talking about the book, learning something from it and asking questions. I can only hope this will spark a love for reading.

Kids Summer Book Club

Our local library is running a summer reading program where children have to read for 20mins everyday and write down in their little booklet the books they have read. After seven days of reading they go back to the library and receive a sticker. The program runs for seven weeks and if they read everyday and complete their booklet each child receives a reading medal.

I think this is a wonderful thing to get kids using libraries and keeps them reading while not at school. My kids are super excited about it all too. Since we have signed up they have read three books per day. One short so they can read to me, a book where I read to them that is a little longer and a book where they sit quietly on their own. My eldest reads just fine but my youngest needs more help with reading but she is picking it up fast. If I read a bigger book with my youngest she will help me read it and she shouts out the words she knows. My eldest will read out loud too, it is nice to listen to them read and it gets them used to reading fluently infront of an audience.

We are working on week one and I will post books and reviews as we go each week.

Books by Shirley Hughes

Shirley Hughes books are wonderfully illustrated and are lovely to read. Just innocent child's play with a little reality thrown in.

I love kids books

I do, I love kids books they are amazing, colourful, imaginative stories you can't find in adult books. I am loving Lauren Child, author and illustrator of Charlie and Lola. Fun to watch on TV, to read and I love her art work too and to top it off the kids think its great. 

One note I should add, Clarice Bean is not really a book for 3-5 year old's, better for kids who have been in school longer, perhaps pre-teens. Anyway, I found it funny but my girls found it hard to understand.

UK Library

So the library I used prior to this blog was based in Vancouver but I have moved back to the UK, living the village life and it is not cheap!

I have signed up the girls to the library and they have their own dinosaur library cards. Today I went on the mobile library bus that sits in the car park across the road of my house every Friday morning. I chose not to have TV or Sky/Cable therefore DVD's are our source of entertainment, therefore since Friday night is pizza, popcorn and movie night I would get a few kids DVD's, which include, Cinderella, FiFi, Rupert the Bear and Angelina Ballerina. As I went to check them out to my horror and amazement you actually have to pay to take out DVD's. I could say a few profanities but after all this blog is for kids and parents. Of course I did not have money, just library cards so I was informed I could pay next time I drop them off.

Hmmm! Sure, it is cheaper than renting from the video store but I thought I was going to a library that had free resources.

Oh well! Village life will continue forth.

Fashion book for kids

I am not convinced that my eldest daughter liked this but she enjoyed the illustrations maybe in a few years time, as for me, I thought this was awesome!! There is a child in us all.

A wonderfully illustrated book about fashion

The change from large dresses to bloomers.

Books - Bunny School

Remarkable illustrations and the story is lovely. This is the second book I have read to the kids of this series and they adore the literature and amazing art work. Highly recommended.

Beautiful books for beautiful kids

I love taking the kids to the library and they get a kick out of getting books and DVD's every week we visit. I have to say, it is saving me a lot of money because once upon a time I would go to the local book store and buy it all. Not these days, it is time to keep the purse strings tight. Here are a few of our faves this week.

A wonderful story about a little girl who wants a pony, beautiful illustrations.

A fun book about a tiger, elephant and a hippo, they all want to catch the fly!

Wonderful, fun story about Marley going to school. Up to no good as usual but harmless fun. I love the colours and illustrations in this book.

I thought this might be fun way for the girls to learn table manners, as it was once taught but the old english language was hard for them to follow, nevertheless it was good to introduce them to something different. 

They both loved this one. The bear wakes from hibernation and he is simply hungry and my oh my he is bigger!

A nice take on this classic story. Simply FUN!

Art Books

These are great, entertaining books about art that my kids just love. These are from my local library:

 I think this is a clever little book. About Max (a little lizard) not knowing what to paint and he asks Art (a big lizard) tells Max what he should paint and Art gets his wish...

This is great - I aint gonna paint no more! All about a little girl who paints everything and her mum is not at all happy but she can't help herself. A great read, I just hope my girls do not decide to take it literally.