Bird and Little Bird

A Not Very New Discovery.

A few weeks ago I was hanging out at Nido downtown and complaining to Phiona about cutting out piles and piles of little linen rabbit and fox pieces and how my scissors were starting to get dull.  She looked at me like I was a complete nut and said "Don't you use a rotary cutter?"  Now, some astute and long-time readers might recall that the rotary cutter and I have a bit of a checkered past.  There have been accidents and they have been bloody, unpleasant and not as infrequent as I might like.  This is not a tool to be approached with anything less than reverent caution.  And, it had never occurred to me that I might use it to cut curved shapes.  When I think rotary cutter, I think straight lines only and I definitely don't think about getting creative. A girl might end up with a bandaged finger or three.  No longer.  Phiona is way onto something here.  I've been cutting absolutely everything with the rotary cutter the last few weeks and I love it. 

I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about laying out a big piece of fabric, tracing the shapes and then cutting through them with great efficiency without ever having to move anything other than the cutter itself is so satisfying.  Cutting has always been the most challenging part of project motivation for me.  Nothing stops me from actually getting a project going quite like needing to cut fabric.  So this is a very useful discovery.  Now, I just have to keep searching around here for the tool that encourages actually finishing all these projects in something like a timely manner.  Right...

Library Monday: Teaching Reading to Children.

I know that I often makes jokes here about all of the the things that I am and am not, but one thing that I can actually and truthfully claim to be is a teacher.  And, at the moment, I am primarily a teacher of new and struggling readers.  I thought, especially since there are a large number of homeschooling parents who read this blog, that I might share a bit of what I know about teaching reading to children.  So, a different kind of library Monday this week; strategies for helping your child to become a reader.

I should mention here that the strategies that I'm about to share are by no means the only way to teach reading to children.  There are about as many different methods of teaching reading as there are kids to teach and everyone has an opinion about what works.  I'm not trying to jump into the reading debate by any means, I'm just attempting to give some useful strategies that parents can use to help their children become readers.  I'm also trying to share ideas that require very little in terms of material or specialized equipment; strategies that are primarily book based.  Mariam is getting much of her reading instruction at school, but I am also supplementing by doing (very sneaky) mini-lessons with her here at home, using the ideas that I'm going to share here.

A Word About Reading Readiness

Generally speaking, your child should know the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that they represent before you dive into combining those sounds into words.  As kids move into words that are more difficult to decode (translating a written word into a spoken one by reading the sounds of each letter in the word and blending them together), knowing letter sounds well is what will allow them to have the flexibility to understand how those sounds can change when different letters are combined.

About Choosing Books

Your child's desire to read may sometimes come in the form of picking up a long book full of huge words and plopping down next to you with a "Help me read this."  The motivation here is awesome, because you will need it, but kids can become frustrated when they try to slog through a book that is beyond their skill level and in the long run, they may give up.  So, during the time when you are focused on learning reading skills, pick books that are the right level.  Save the tough stuff for read aloud time. 

A good way to determine the level at which your child can independently read a book is to have them read you a 100 word long passage from a book or story and take note of any errors that they make while reading.  If the book is a good independent reading level for your child, they will read at least 95 of the 100 words correctly.  Also, if you ask them questions about the story (what was it about, what happened etc.), they will be able to answer these. 

If your child reads the book or passage and reads 90 to 95 out of 100 words correctly, this is their instructional level.  In other words, this is a good level book to use to learn new reading skills together.  You'll want to find other books that are the same level and use those for any reading lessons (formal or otherwise) that you do with your kids. 

You can find the levels of common books by using this tool from Scholastic.  You can also subscribe to sites like Reading A-Z for a fee and download leveled readers from there.  I generally like getting kids into real literature as early as possible but I do find that until they read at an early second grade level or so, high quality picture books that are a good fit can be hard to find.  So, I will use early readers (short picture books with leveled text that supports a new reader through use of repeated phrases) available in my school's library or download books from Reading A-Z.  If you are a homeschooler and may be teaching multiple kids to read, it might be worth investing in some early readers yourself.  

Your Reading Routine

Once you've got a book that is a good instructional level (and that everybody wants to read!), get comfy and get ready to read it.  If the book is new, a good way to start is by you and your child doing a "picture walk" with the book.  Flip through the pages of the book and make some predictions about the story based on what you see there.  Point out any words that you think might give your child trouble as well as any sound spellings that you think they may struggle with or that might be new ("oa in this word makes a long "o" sound like in boat..."). 

If your child is a new reader, try a shared or a guided reading of the book the first time through.  There are a couple of good options here; you can read the book and have your child follow the text as you read, or the two of you can read the book aloud together.  If you read together, you might expect that there are moments when your child's voice drops off as he or she waits to see what word you will read when they are unsure.  The idea is to give the support that your child needs in reading the book for the first time so that when they read it back to you later, or the next day, they can feel confident in their ability to do it on their own.  

Once you've read the book together, you can then have your child read it back to you on their own, or you can wait and have them do it later that day or the next.  The idea is to build up a stack of enough familiar instructional level books that your child can read two or three to you as a warm-up each time you sit down to read together.  You can then finish up reading time by reading a new book together. 

For children that are reading above an early first grade level, try having them read the book independently after you have gone through it together to talk about what might happen and any tricky new words or concepts. 

Other Strategic Tidbits

Reading is understanding.  Could I decode One Hundred Years of Solitude in Spanish? Probably.  Could I understand what I had read afterward?  Um, no.  Being able to understand what you read is the entire point of doing it, so check in with your child frequently to make sure that they are able to tell you what their reading is about. 

Building fluency matters too.  Part of being a good reader is building the speed at which you are able to read accurately.  Good readers can read aloud at a pace and in a voice that sounds natural and easy.  Fluency is absolutely essential to reading comprehension, so it is worth giving some energy to.  Remind your child to "make the reading sound like you are telling the story" or "make your reading sound like talking."  Also, get that pointer finger out of the way as soon as you can!  Pointing to each word actually slows kids down and makes it hard for them to start reading with the automaticity that allows them to glance at a line of text and read it fluently.  They can get stuck reading word by word by word, and eventually this will be much slower than it should be. 

Keep read aloud time separate.  You'd be surprised how many kids are secretly a little afraid of becoming readers because they worry that adults will stop reading aloud to them!  Read aloud time is precious for so very many reasons, both for us parents and for our children. 

You can read an amazing story about the power of parents reading to their children here. It will inspire you to read to your kids until the day they leave for college- even when they are more than capable of doing the job for themselves! 

Now We are Six.

 

Yesterday my girl turned six.  Six!  I'm a little unclear on how this happened so quickly.  But, here she is.  Funny, smart, independent and so, so sweet.  She jumps on the bed, makes up crazy songs (that rhyme remarkably well) and likes to write lists of things to remember.  She tells us she loves us all the time, even when she's mad because we insist on making broccoli for dinner.  She loves a good adventure, wants to be a groundhog trainer when she grows up and needs repeated reminders not to call her grandmother before 4 a.m. Pacific Time.  She loves to be read to and will listen to almost anything, including articles from The Economist and passages from P.G. Wodehouse.  She would wear pajamas all the time if we let her, and it takes everything she has to resist the urge to color on the walls.  She is working on a master plan to catch the neighbor's cat with a net and a stuffed mouse on a string.  And now, she is six.  

Sheep Share.

I was very pleased to come home the other afternoon and find a package on my doorstep.  A package full of long-awaited yarn.  It's my Fall 2009 share from the Juniper Moon Farm CSA.  I did have the option of ordering a dye job for my yarn, but the colors, although very nice, didn't jive with my usual palette preferences.  By which I mean they were not shades of pastel blue.  So, I now have this lovely little pile of yarn that smells slightly like the sheep it came from (in a nice way) and which needs a touch of color.  I know nothing of dying yarn, so if you've got any advice, I'm listening. 

A few other little notes (on widely varying subjects):

- Are you and yours watching the owl cam?  Because you should be. 

- My friend and fellow teacher, Evan, has gotten his toes wet with a book review of his own and it looks like a great read.  We are definitely going to be looking for it at the library next week.  

- It seems that if I wanted to, I could sew a chicken.  I kind of want to.

New Project Kits in the Shop.

I'm taking a quick break from the regularly scheduled programming of pre-birthday sewing to mention that I have updated the shop with a few more Mostly Marvelous Ms. Rabbit project kits.  Beige linen, quilting cotton, some Japanese prints by Lecien and of course, just a bit of the magical Heather Ross double gauze (which is getting harder to find by the day... ack!).  Good stuff for stitching, if you are so inclined.  Also, the beige linen can be easily replaced with the lighter colored natural linen if that strikes you as a good idea.  

Carry on, then.

Hiding.

Can you guess what's hiding in the laundry basket?  No?  I'll give you a hint: she is small, funny and very nearly six years old.  And, she won't let me take her picture.

I suppose I should be comforted by the fact that she can duck so quickly.  It is probably a very useful safety skill.

Library Monday: All in a Day.

Today was indeed Library Monday at our house, we actually just walked back in the door a few minutes ago.  Today's score?  All in a Day by Cynthia Rylant and Nikki McClure.   I have been waiting for quite some time for this title to make it into our book bag on library day.  I am an avowed fan of all things Nikki McClure.  To the point that I worry that Dan is getting this close to putting a ban on any more Nikki McClure art gracing the walls of our very small house.  He says "You know that it is a little weird to decorate your entire house with the work of a single artist, right?"  To which I say "Um, no, not really."  And, Mariam and I have both been avid readers of Cynthia Rylant ever since I was introduced to her by my friend (and third grade teacher extraordinaire), Evan.  So, a McClure/Rylant collaboration?  It's like they wrote this book just for me. 

All in a Day is a departure from other well known Cynthia Rylant books (such as the Henry and Mudge or Poppleton series) in that rather than a traditional narrative, it is essentially a long poem about the magic and possibility that each new day of life presents.  However, the poem has the same sweet spirit that fans of Rylant's writing have come to recognize and appreciate at the core of her writing.  Rylant writes a flowing and lovely lyric about the way that each day of our lives shows up ready for adventure and full of hope and McClure's intricate and expressive papercut illustrations are a perfect match for these words.  It is difficult to say exactly what is so compelling about Rylant's writing here without quoting entire passages from the book, but there is something intangible at work.  The book is beautiful when read aloud to a small person sitting nearby and listening with eager ears; it feels as though each word was carefully chosen and yet at the same time, as if such a seamless text just occurred naturally and was jotted down.

Of course, I could probably do an entire separate post about McClure's art work, both in this book and elsewhere, but I'll limit myself a bit and just say that it is at its best here.  Her illustrations are whimsical, sweet and unique and go incredibly well with Rylant's writing (nicely avoiding that phenomenon in which it seems like the author and illustrator never talked ahead of time about what the book was even about).  I feel officially vindicated in my desire to hang Nikki McClure prints in any remaining blank wall space in the house. In fact, this is the part of the post where I sign off to go browse my options at Buy Olympia.

Spring... almost.

If Friday afternoon's conditions were anything to judge by, even a person who wasn't a vitamin D deficient California girl might have been convinced that spring had arrived here in Vermont.  It was beautiful.  The kind of sunshine that convinces you that there is nothing but good in the world and that you have all the time that you could ever need to slow down and enjoy every minute of it.

We went for a walk in the woods.  There was plenty of sunshine, lots of mud and, as we rounded a bend in the woods and came to a clearing atop a hill, a panoramic view of the lake in the distance. 

In the late afternoon, we came back to the house and Annie 2.0 and Mariam cleaned up the back patio and helped Dan make a fire in the fire pit in the backyard.  Annie's husband Mark showed up a bit later and we made homemade pizzas and then ate around the fire until well after dark.  It was a ridiculously good time and I'm glad that we made it happen.  Because today it is 34 degrees and the sky is solid gray once again.  Oh, and it also snowed for about three hours this morning.

At least I wasn't the only one who got tricked into thinking that we might be lucky enough to get an early, easy spring this year.  This little guy was out reveling in the sunshine, too.

 

Tutorial: Easy Pocket Pouch.

I've been making these little pouches off and on for the past couple of years and recently started stitching them up again here and there when I have a few moments and want a quick project to do.  They are super fast and easy and perfect for slipping a little surprise inside and giving away as gifts.  In the event that you might want to make one or four, you could.  I'll tell you how.

First print out the pattern piece, which you can download by clicking this link: download pocket-pouch pattern piece.  Use the pattern piece to cut out one piece from a main fabric, one from a lining contrast fabric and one from lightweight fusible interfacing.  

Using the handy instructions that came along with your fusible interfacing, affix it to the wrong side of your lining fabric.

Lay the main fabric face down on the lining fabric so that all three layers are stacked with the main fabric and lining fabric with their right sides together.  The interfacing will be on the bottom of the stack.

Sew all the way around the outside edge of the stack, using a 1/4 inch seam and leaving a 1 3/4" opening on one side for turning. 

Clip corners and curves, being careful not to cut into your seams. 

Turn the pouch right side out and use a knitting needle or something similar to make sure that the corners and top curve are turned all the way out.

Lay the pouch flat and press it, making sure to fold in the seam allowance at the opening so that the unstitched fabric is tucked inside the pouch. You'll close the opening when you edge stitch the outside of the pouch.

Fold the pouch as in the picture above and press it flat. 

Edge stitch up each side of the pouch.

Affix a snap to the pouch.  I use the non-sewing variety; they seem to be a bit more able to stand up to heavy use and I get to use a hammer to put them in and this is a fun thing.

And there it is.  A little portable pocket for hiding whatever two-dimensional treasures you might like.

Library cards are certainly considered a treasure at our house, so this pouch will be for Mariam to keep hers in. 

A Bygone Era.

The other day I was looking through the considerable stacks on our living room bookshelves trying to find a particular something.  As is often the case with these things, I ended up coming upon something else entirely.  What I found was an old three-ring binder that had belonged to my grandmother when she took high school home economics.  On some level, I knew that it was there, but in all the packing, moving and unpacking that has gone on in our lives in the last few years, it has been mostly kept in a well-guarded box and I hadn't ever had the time to look through it properly.  When I finally unpacked it onto a shelf in our house here in Vermont last summer, it was during such a busy flurry of settling in that I almost immediately forgot exactly where I put it. 

The binder itself is full of page upon page of notes that my grandmother took on such widely varied subjects as what kind of dress to wear if you are really tall and how to hang pictures on your living room wall.  Also covered: what to do with leftover meat (spaghetti sauce), how to choose drapes (beware of stripes!) and how often to wash your hair (every two weeks??).  Unfortunately, none of the pages of notes are dated.  If I were more attentive to details I would probably be able to put it all together with family birthdays and other important family facts, but I'll have to get back to you on that.  My best guess is that this binder is from the mid to late 1920's. 

I particularly enjoy this bit about the skillful homemaker being like someone who is really great at camping because of the need to "plan her feats."  I had not previously thought of housework as an adventure of this kind and will have to remember this the next time that I am unloading the dishwasher and scrubbing mud out of Mariam's snow pants.  This is likely to be this afternoon. 

I won't lie though, I do find the page detailing tricks for working with meringue to be both intriguing and potentially useful.  I do enjoy a good meringue here and there.  

Apparently, laundry has never been well-loved among household chores.  This task gets pretty comprehensive detailing in my grandmother's notes and I have to say, I kind of love it.  Hanging out the wash is practically elevated to an art form here, with all sorts of vital rememberances such as making sure to hang brights at one end of the line in the shade as well as to hang dresses upside down by the hem.  This attention to detail is the running theme throughout my grandmother's (very neatly) handwritten pages.  Keeping the house is not something to be taken lightly; it is serious business and there is a system that should be used and respected while doing it.  When I flip through these pages, I can just imagine the voice of the earnest high-school home ec. teacher as she conveys the absolute seriousness of making a proper jello-mold. 

At some point during the years, the notes fell out of the binder and the pages are now somewhat of a mixed-up mess.  Bits about the vitamin content of common vegetables are sitting next to pages about what kind of underwear to wear on Sundays.  I need to spend an afternoon reorganizing the pages and putting the whole thing back together so that it will read like the comprehensive manual to mid-century small town life that it is.  Who knows, in between the reasons why a person might put tar in their hair and descriptions of when to use gilded picture frames, I might find something really great, like the sound of my grandmother's teenage voice writing page upon page of plans for the family life she hopes to live. 

Edit:  Okay, after a bit more thought, I'm revising my guess about the date when these notes were written.  Let's say around 1930 or so.