Rodgers and Hammerstein Unit Studies for Kids

This past summer, some old friends invited my daughter and I to join them to see Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella at the North Shore Music Theatre. We did and it was excellent. After that weekend, we realized more than we had before how big a deal musical theater is for our girl. She couldn't stop talking about the costumes, especially Cinderella's and the fairy godmother's rags that transformed into gorgeous ball gowns when they spun around right before our eyes. Then there was the fascination with the way the show portrayed aspects of the story, like the prop "horses" lit up with Christmas lights taking Cinderella to the ball. And there were some plot twists we weren't expecting, like the fact that after a second ball Cinderella intentionally leaves a shoe behind. And most of all, the music. We were Rodgers & Hammerstein newbies before that show and were immediately enchanted by the wonderful songs. Within a couple of weeks M had them all memorized, belting them out throughout the day, humming them constantly, getting them stuck in all of our heads. 

Added up, the experience really lit something in her that honestly has stayed alive ever since. It made us want to get her out in the world to see plays and musicals whenever possible, ...AND it inspired one of the most fun things we've been up to this school year: unit studies on Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals! 

Rodgers and Hammerstein Musical Theater Unit Studies for Kids

 

We started with a Cinderella study, then about a month later we moved onto The Sound of Music, and after that State Fair, and finally The King and I. With each one, we began with simply watching the movie, then moved on to check out different versions, do related activities, go on field trips when possible, and end with some sort of special culminating project. These unit studies have been a high point in her week. Here are the fun activities and lessons we've done that you might want to try with any musical-loving kids in your life. I listed them in roughly the order we did them. 

Unit Study: Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella

• The Show: We watched Cinderella live at the North Shore Musical Theatre. It really made an impression! 

• The Songs: We listened to Spotify playlists of R&H Cinderella songs in the car, both the Julie Andrews version and Broadway versions, over and over...and over and over... There are so many great songs, from "In My Own Little Corner" to "Impossible/It's Possible" to "Lovely Night" and more.

• Singing: I Googled lyrics to many of the songs, by M's request, and printed them out for her so she could sing along whenever she wanted and learn the trickier parts. (She also discovered for me that if I let her hold my phone, she could read the lyrics at the bottom of the Spotify screen for the song being played.)

• Other R&H Cinderella Productions: There are so many Cinderella films out there, and we watched two other R&H ones we loved:
• The 1957 version of R&H's Cinderella on YouTube, which we were delighted to find since it doesn't appear to be available anywhere else to stream. It's black and white, was broadcast live on TV in 1957, when it received the biggest television audience for anything up till that point, and stars Julie Andrews. The YouTube video includes a modern introduction by Julie Andrews, and is definitely worth watching. 

• We also watched the version with Brandy as Cinderella, which features Whitney Houston as fairy godmother (M's self-declared "favorite fairy godmother") singing "There's Music in You," which is a R&H song pulled out of old files of theirs and unique to this movie. This one has a diverse cast, and the set and props are peppy and colorful. 

• Online Lessons: We found the Musical Theatre Project online and enjoyed the Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella unit lessons there (a legacy left there from Covid quarantine days). The lessons were brief and to the point and full of good energy. We learned a dance to "A Lovely Night," saw brief videos about Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, and discussed Cinderella's character traits, among other things.

• Read Aloud: There are so many picture book versions of Cinderella, from all over the world, and we read a LOT of them. This gave us a chance to discuss a lot of things-- similarities, differences, themes, authors' choices-- in a kid-friendly way. I made sure we discussed early on what a "rags to riches" story is, and also what a "fairy tale," by definition, is. I was a little worried that by spending all this time on Cinderella that I would be teaching her to value love at first sight or salvation in the form of rescue by a handsome prince! But what was neat was the more we learned and the more stories we read, we started to see more and more the deeper, admirable aspects of this timeless tale-- like the feeling of wishing for something deeply. And Cinderella has a lot of special traits beyond her beauty: she is hopeful, kind, resilient, optimistic (hardly ever letting those mean step sisters really get her down), and in most versions she shows forgiveness in the end, despite all her hardship.    

• Cinderella with a Modern Twist: Since we were becoming such experts in how this tale has been told in different places at different times in different ways, we watched one other movie version of Cinderella that was not Rodgers and Hammerstein. It was a modern version, starring Camila Cabello and featuring Idina Menzel as the stepmother. In it, Cinderella dreams of being a dress designer. This film is a musical, with characters singing a great variety of popular music, from "You Gotta Be" to "Let's Get Loud." My favorites are Cinderella singing "Million to One" as she dreams, and the stepmother and stepsisters singing "Material Girl." This version is so fast-paced and energetic, and just surprising, that's it's really very enjoyable. 

• Culminating Project: Write your own Cinderella: And as a grand finale, my daughter wrote her own Cinderella story. First we listed the features that so many of the stories had: magic, a mean step family, a hard-working main character, a fairy godmother person (or animal in many cases), a happy ending, and so on. Then M chose which aspects she wanted to include in hers. She was inspired to make the fairy godmother in her version a unicorn, who takes Cinderella (who she renamed with her own name) across a rainbow to the ball. She voice typed the story in Google Docs, we printed it off as a booklet in Word, and she illustrated it with stickers and stamps and stencils!

Cinderella story planning sheet

Voice-typing: a break from the physical effort of writing to let the creativity flow :) 

M's own Cinderella story

Unit Study: Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound of Music

• The Show: We watched The Sound of Music on Disney Plus.

• Singing the Songs: M was immediately consumed by the story and all the songs; it's so sweet and fun, it would be hard not to be. Again we listened to the soundtrack on Spotify a lot and I printed out lyrics to various songs for her, from "Edelweiss" to "I Have Confidence."

• Field Trip: We heard stories about the real Maria and the rest of the real von Trapp family on a history tour at the Trapp Family Lodge, which happens to be within easy driving distance from us. While we were there, M and I treated ourselves to lunch out, where we sampled schnitzel-- which is one of Maria's "Favorite Things" in the song of that name.   

Sampling schnitzel

These hills at the Trapp Family Lodge in VT are reminiscent of the Alps...

von Trapp family tree, at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, VT

• Baking: Continuing with the food theme, we experienced another of the "Favorite Things" for ourselves by baking our own "crisp apple strudel."

"Cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudels..."

• Online Articles: We enjoyed looking at the old family photos in this Mental Floss article, and particularly two videos: one of Maria von Trapp teaching Julie Andrews the right way to yodel (really cute and funny) and another of an interview with an elderly Maria von Trapp. 

• Other R&H Sound of Music Production: We couldn't resist checking out a 2018 made-for-TV version of The Sound of Music starring Carrie Underwood, but (in my opinion) it was a very weak replica and overall pretty underwhelming, so I don't really recommend it... 

• Violin: My daughter plays violin, so we added "Do Re Mi" to her repertoire with this video.

• Dancing: We tried to dance the Landler, the Austrian folk dance featured in the film, with this YouTube tutorial.

• Yodeling: We read a great, short National Geographic article about the origins of yodeling in Switzerland with video demonstration by a native, and then we tried it out ourselves with this simple how-to video on yodeling. I'm not sure we were catching on properly, but we had a lot of laughs making some very strange noises while trying. 

• Culminating Project: Rewrite "My Favorite Things": For a final project, I had M write her own version of "My Favorite Things." It's the type of song that's just asking to be rewritten, and everyone's version will come out uniquely. (If I still had an elementary school classroom, I would be doing this project with my whole class!) I had M just brainstorm a bunch of little things in life that make her happy, and she came up with everything from her favorite Disney characters to twirly dresses to big square marshmallows from a local bakery. For the stanza about when she's "feeling sad" she came up with dogs jumping on her and her parents saying no. :) We checked out this simple rewrite example, and used this lesson plan to guide us, particularly using the big idea of focusing on the stress pattern of the syllables. Getting her ideas to fit a certain number of syllables, not to mention placing emphasis on parts of words that wouldn't normally have the emphasis in order to match the stress pattern, was a moderate challenge for a musical 7-year-old, and I think her song turned out amazing-- it's a keepsake for sure. 

M's version of "My Favorite Things"

Unit Study: Rodgers & Hammerstein's State Fair 

• The Show: We watched the 1945 version of State Fair on Amazon Prime. (I don't recommend the 1962 version, available on YouTube, for young kids.) Both my kids enjoyed the comedic elements and it was a simple, though dated, story of the Frake family of Iowa heading to the state fair for the weekend. Mr. Frake is wrapped up in the well being of his prize pig, Mrs. Frake with her award-winning mince meat, while teenage (?) children Margy and Wayne wander around the fair and each has a romantic adventure (that remains chaste in this 1945 version). 

• The Songs: There are a few fun songs, from "Our State Fair" to "It's a Grand Night for Singing" to "Ioway." Per usual, we listened to the soundtrack and printed off lyrics for my daughter to sing along in the car to her heart's content.    

• State Fair Culture: To get a sense of the culture of the Iowa State Fair, we watched a few short PBS videos about it. 

• Learning about the Setting: Occasionally when we are studying a certain place in the world, or about to go on a trip, we check out the Smithsonian Channel's Aerial America series. There is an episode for every state. The episodes are less than an hour, and consist of fly-over footage of a place with voiceover narrating interesting facts and history. We watched Aerial America: Iowa and got lots of views of all those farm fields, and even some of the state fair. 

• Comparing Stage and Screen: We watched a few clips from other stage and screen productions of State Fair. It's always interested to compare the actors, the sets, the costumes, and more with my daughter.  

• Culminating Project: Cooking: We found this old article about a prize-winning mince meat at the Iowa State Fair in the 70s. And we used this recipe to give it a try. I don't think it was anybody's favorite (is it dinner? is it dessert?) but it was fun to try, as the mince meat scenes in the movie are some of the funniest moments.

Had to try out mince meat pie

Unit Study: Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I 

• The Show: We watched the 1956 movie, starring Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner. I had never seen this movie myself it was impressed with it. It has compelling characters and so many interesting aspects to discuss. It is a story based on a novel, which was based on the memoirs of a real person, Anna Leonowens. 
• A bit about the facts and history: Anna took a job teaching the children and wives of King Mongkut of Siam in 1862. (I thought the polygamy aspect might be weird for a kid, but it wasn't a focus in the movie, and I just told her that in many Asian cultures at that time it was common for the king to have more than one wife and she accepted that.) It was a time when nearly every country in Southeast Asia was becoming a colony of a European power. King Mongkut was strategic in handling this, bending to certain pressures but managing to maintain Siam's independence-- and apparently Thailand is the only Southeast nation that has never been colonized. He was progressive in some ways, interested in western developments in science and technology, while he was very traditional in others. Anna was an educated woman, a widow, an experienced traveler, and later part of the suffragette movement. The story takes place at the time of the American Civil War, and in part of the film the story of Uncle Tom's Cabin is portrayed through a Siamese ballet. 

• Discussion Topics: The tension, debates, and friendship the movie portrays between an intelligent, progressive yet traditional monarch, and the modern western woman who arrives at the palace and speaks her mind from the first moment is possibly the best thing about the movie. There were so many interesting topics and themes that we discussed in an age-appropriate way (and a number of them we could have done even more with if my daughter had been older), including:
• What is slavery? What was Uncle Tom's Cabin (mentioned, and portrayed through a ballet scene in the movie) about? What was the Civil War about?
• How can the world feel different depending on one's perspective? (There is a great scene showing the world map with a predominant Siam in the middle of it that the prince/heir knows, contrasted with the "real" world map Anna presents when she is teaching, and there is also a moment when she teaches the children about snow and they don't believe her.)
• The idea of women's roles
• Should things be done in a traditional way, or a new, "scientific" way?
• Power-- what should a good king, or other leader, be like?

• Singing the Songs: This movie has great music and my daughter loved singing the songs as she does every time she watches a new musical, in this case everything from the sweet "Getting to Know You" to the optimistic "Whistle a Happy Tune" to the sweeping-across-the-stage polka "Shall we Dance." 

• Analyzing the Songs: We took the time to read and analyze some King and I lyrics as well, such as the song "A Puzzlement" which is a solo sung by the king. I asked M what the song was really about and the emotions of the character singing it, and we discussed what certain lines meant.

• Comparing Stage and Screen: We checked out some video clips and photos from various productions of The King and I. 

• Other R&H King and I Production: We also watched a 1999 animated, kiddie version of The King and I, which added a plot twist or two and was fun to see for comparison's sake. 

• Lessons: I found an excellent Lincoln Center teacher's guide for The King and I. Some of it was aimed at older kids so I picked and chose activities that worked for us. For my 7-year-old, I particularly loved these parts of it:
• An introduction the the American Musical (page 10 of the guide)
• The first six minutes of this intro to Broadway: The American Musical series, narrated (of course) by Julie Andrews
• An activity to help us analyze the song "A Puzzlement" sung by the king in the movie (page 10 - 11)
• The history, which I summarized above, about the real people and place that this movie was based on (page 12 - 19)
• Learning about the "Book Musical," which Rodgers and Hammerstein first created with Oklahoma (a movie I decided not to watch with my 7-year-old because of the content and amount of innuendo, by the way) and the musical theatre building blocks: music, dance, and theater. We also here learned the names of some of the many jobs involved in making a Broadway show, from choreographer to lyricist to designers, composers, and orchestrators. (page 22 - 26)

• Culminating Project: Musicalize a Favorite Book: The Musical Moments writing activity, described in brief on page 27 of the Lincoln Center guide, inspired our culminating project for The King and I (and really for all the musicals we've studied): a song-writing mini unit. 
• First, we reviewed a bunch of musical numbers M already knew, having her name which characters sing them, what type of song they are, how the character is feeling/what they want in the song, and what important moment in the plot or "turning point" it occurs at. We used these examples: 
• "The Schuyler Sisters" from Hamilton
• "Part of your World" from The Little Mermaid
• "I Just Can't Wait to be King" from The Lion King
• "The Next Right Thing" from Frozen 2
• "I Have Confidence" from The Sound of Music
• "My Own Little Corner" from Cinderella
• "When will my Life Begin?" from Tangled
• After this review, we chose a story we wanted to try to imagine as a musical. We could have used any (non-musical) movie or even perhaps a picture book, but it was a good opportunity to spend some time with some wonderful chapter books we had recently read together, so I had her choose from among these three: 
• Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary
• Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
• Gooseberry Park by Cynthia Rylant
• Then I had her list a few moments from the book that she thought would be good to musicalize (i.e. important moments in the plot, or times that show what characters want or strong emotions. The moment could consist of interactions between characters or be just a moment of the character thinking to herself).  
• For each of the moments, she had to decide: which characters would sing it? What type of song would it be (fast, slow, funny, serious, etc.)? Would there be dancing with it, and if so what type (ballet, hip hop, etc.)? 
• Finally, she chose one moment and wrote a song to go with it! 
• If you were so inclined, or for older students, you could write it from scratch, like a poem, but for our purposes I had M choose a song she knew and change the words.  I was ready to offer as resources for this song lists from the Disney and other musicals she knew. But as it turned out, she had an amazing ability to pull a song out of the air that she felt had a beat or tone that matched her book moment she wanted to musicalize. I printed out the song as it was, and then next to the original lines she wrote her own new words. 
• Together we wrote a song to go with Beezus and Ramona-- a song about how Ramona is always getting into mischief without really intending to, and how her family helps her figure a way out of it somehow, that we imagined being sung by her sister Beezus, to the tune of "Whistle a Happy Tune" (a song from The King and I). 
• Then, more independently, M wrote a song for Gooseberry Park about Kona the dog's icy adventure across town to find and rescue his squirrel friends. She almost instantly thought of "Rhythm Nation" which she knows from the Camila Cabello modern Cinderella movie and wrote great lines such as "A ve-ry, ve-ry, ve-ry big risk!" in place of "Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm nation!"....and "I have to find you right no-o-o-ow" in place of "We are a part of the rhythm nation." 

A musicalized moment from a favorite young reader chapter book, Gooseberry Park

This unit was so much fun. The best part was when M told me in the midst of the song writing at the end of it that writing time-- which normally requires serious effort on her part and some cajoling on mine-- was "so fun right now."   

A few final notes:

We spent less time overall on State Fair because (in my opinion) it just isn't the timeless, magical work of art that the others are. But we still found some topics to study and had fun with the music.

The Rodgers and Hammerstein site has a list of all their shows and a wealth of information about each one, including photos and video clips, and lists of various productions. It is a great resource worth checking out.  

This unit was a good reminder to me of everything homeschool can be: interest-based, personalized, multidisciplinary, memorable, fun, project-based, hands-on...I want to do more unit studies like this! 

I hope if you try these units you have as much fun with them as we did and that your heart, too, will be blessed with the sound of music. :) 

Our Favorite Homeschool Curriculum (So Far)

We are a secular homeschool family in the midst of our third full year of homeschooling and my kids are at two distinctly different ages (6 and 11). I don't use a single all-in-one curriculum because I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket. I choose what will work best for us in particular areas. Some of the programs and resources we use are things we've liked and stuck with since year one (our math curriculum for example), while in other areas I've made changes along the way, as I've gotten to know my kids, and the options out there, and as we've settled into our own unique homeschool rhythms. We purchase (and find free-- keep reading!) some programs and resources that are good and helpful and give some structure to our days. I also forego purchased curriculum in some areas and leave room to be creative and design our own units. One of the best things about homeschool is that if a program or approach isn't working well, you can always make a change-- even mid-year. 

Below are the programs and approaches we are using in our homeschool this year across academic areas. (If you're curious: my 2019 - 20/first year homeschooling curricula and thoughts are here, and 2020 - 21/year two curricula here.) 

Note: I currently have a 6-year-old/first grader and an 11-year-old/sixth grader. I use the resources listed below for both of them (at their respective levels), except where separate programs are noted.

 

Our Homeschool Curriculum 2021 - 22

Reading: No Purchased Curriculum or Planned Lessons or Assignments

I do not use a reading program in our homeschool (though I did our first year). Besides the fact that the one I love from my classroom days is really expensive, the fact is that my own two kids already live readerly lives and aren't at a point where they need daily, explicit lessons (here is a post about some tips and sources I used last year to help my daughter learn to read in the first place). They read a variety of things from graphic novels to online news, historical fiction to their latest favorite fiction series. They both pick up a book whenever they get a chance and disappear into it for long periods of time. They talk about what they read and they ask what new vocabulary means. They don't need reminders to read. Because of all this, I've learned I don't need to schedule or assign reading time officially. We read aloud to them both daily, and keep the house well stocked with fresh library books, and they take care of the rest.     

Writing: No Purchased Curriculum
We work on a certain genre of writing at a time in a unit of 6 or 8 weeks. For my youngest, I usually choose what that genre will be; for my oldest he has a lot of say and jointly plans out with me the types of writing he is interested in working on. Within the genre they're focusing on, they always choose their own topic. For example, my son is itching to write historical fiction next. I won't dictate the time period he needs to write about or the type of story it needs to be. But I will do some research so that I can inspire him with good models of historical fiction, and share some tips for doing that type of writing well. I love putting together a unit of study on a particular type of writing, and I don't need to have had experience with the type of writing myself to find good resources and give them a good learning experience. Last year my son had a blast with a unit on writing rap, and almost every year we write some poetry at some point. Every day they can always add to an existing piece or start a new one. For my youngest she is always welcome to draw first and write later or whichever order she prefers (here are some other tips for getting the youngest kids to write in the first place). After working on a genre for a while, they choose a "best" piece they're proudest of and revise it to make it even better. We always find a way to celebrate and share their writing, especially at the end of a unit.    

Math: Primary Mathematics
Primary Mathematics is part of Singapore Math. It is from Singapore (where students perform quite well in math) but there is a U.S. version that we use. It is challenging. It is mastery-based; you work with a concept until they really understand, or have mastered, it. (This is different from a spiraling math program, in which concepts are touched on briefly, repeatedly, and rotated throughout the year. I have used spiraling programs in the classroom and don't find them as effective.) There are a lot of reviews built in-- reviews after the end of a section, and also periodic cumulative reviews. Primary Mathematics encourages the parent/teacher to allow the student to get the answer using a variety of methods as long as they understand the concept. Primary Mathematics is inexpensive. There is a paperback teacher's guide, a textbook, and a workbook for each half of the school year (for example, "6A" for the first half of 6th grade and a "6B" for the second half). There are no colorful illustrations or bells and whistles as it seems many math programs have; instead, lessons and tasks get right to the point. There are only a few simple materials needed for the program (so few that our first year of homeschooling, because of a funny schedule on Wednesdays, my son and I were able to easily have math class in the car once a week). There are plenty of instructions included for simple math games we play, especially at the primary level, but essentially each day is a brief lesson, and then a couple of practice pages for kids to do on their own. My kids are performing well in math and this program is easy for me to work with as the teacher. This is our third year using it.

 
Science for my 6-year-old: Mystery Science (K-5)
We love Mystery Science. Check out this entire post about why we love it for details. Briefly: it is fun, it is aligned with national science standards, it is very affordable (around $70 for an entire homeschool family for the year), it requires minimal materials, it is online/video-based yet also hands-on. It is super engaging, age-appropriate, and teaches concepts in clever, simple ways that really stick. Science is my daughter's favorite subject. 

Here she is having so much fun figuring out how to make shadows longer or shorter or pointing in different directions as part of a unit on patterns in the sky. (Please excuse the fact that the pictures are taken in our bathroom, as we needed a dark room for the activity!) 

Science for my 11-year-old: Discovery Education Science Techbook (K-8)
Because we love Mystery Science (above) we were sad that my oldest outgrew it this year; it only goes through 5th grade so we had to find another source for 6th-grade lessons for him. We purchased a one-year subscription to Discovery Education Science Techbook through our free membership with the Homeschool Buyers Co-op for around $60. Science Techbook works in an online format. It was one of the few science options I found that was standards-based. There is a lot of technical vocabulary, tougher concepts, and higher-level skills expected as part of the activities-- all good things but it has been an adjustment from the accessible and super engaging Mystery Science he was used to (see above). Some units are quite long and I know we won't get "through" it all by the end of the year...but that happens sometimes in school as well as homeschool. Every time we finish a concept, I spend way too long trying to remember where to find the assessments, but we are learning our way around the interface and how it is organized. (One other note: since Science Techbook is for K - 8, I dabbled in some of the primary units with my youngest as well just to supplement her science, and I felt it was too much computer, paper-and-pencil, and video time, and it didn't feel age-appropriate and fun for younger kids. So I'd recommend it only for older kids.)

Looking at an Elodea leaf under a microscope as part of a unit on cells

Social Studies: Selected Units through the Core Knowledge Foundation 

The Core Knowledge Foundation is a non-profit that publishes educational books, materials, and entire units in many school subjects. We pick and choose from the social studies units exclusively (not other subject areas) and especially for my oldest. I scroll down the Core Knowledge web site where you can download curriculum for free, check the box that says "History & Geography," then check the grade level I am interested in and look at the units available. We don't do every unit listed, because there are a lot. This year W chose which topics he was most interested in, including some that happened to be listed under other grade levels. The units are each essentially a textbook, or mini textbook. There is a student reader and a teacher's guide. My son reads a couple of chapters at a time and then we discuss them, using the questions (and provided answers) in the teacher's guide as a basis. There are a few worksheets scattered across each unit that kids can do, but nothing that takes too much time. It's pretty straightforward, standard educational stuff. But each unit includes online resources, sites you can visit to visualize and extend the content from each chapter. There are virtual tours, links to primary sources, museum web sites, and YouTube videos. We find the online resources and activities that go with them really engaging and I find that part is what really makes things stick. We've found the Core Knowledge units to provide a strong, solid understanding of times in history and events that we've studied. 

W made his own illuminated choir book pages as part of a unit on medieval Europe

 

Those I've listed above (reading, writing, math, science, social studies) are the core subject areas that we do most days. Below are a few other areas of study that we do less frequently. 

Phonics for my 6-year-old: Mix of a Couple of Programs

My daughter is a strong reader and a good speller so she's internalized a lot of things that I would have taught consistently and daily in the classroom. So I just do a little focused practice with her about once a week to work with words and focus on some conventions (handwriting, punctuation, spacing). There are two books I bounce between when we do spelling/phonics work. One is Month-by-Month Phonics for First Grade, which has lots of fun activities to work with words and word patterns. The other is Words Their Way. (I wrote a post in more detail about how Words their Way works here.) It's a spelling approach that allows you to find your student's level using this guide. Once you find their level you know which book to purchase full of spelling lists of the types of words they need to work with. We copy a list of words, cut them out and she can sort them in various ways and notice characteristics of the different words and do activities with them.   

Grammar for my 11-year-old: Easy Grammar

This was recommended to me by a homeschool friend when I realized my then-fourth grader didn't know the parts of speech, and it has worked just fine for us. I only purchase one book, the Teacher Edition, because it includes the lesson information (which is very brief) and answer keys as well as the student pages; I copy them for my son to do. We don't do grammar daily, because he's a strong reader and writer and because there aren't many times someone is going to tell him to diagram a sentence in life or ask him to name the object of the preposition. But I think the basics are good to know and the exercises are quick and to the point. So once a week or so, I introduce a new concept and give him a few practice pages to do. It has worked well for us and cost very little time or money. 

Foreign Language: Duolingo and Dinolingo

Last year we tried Rosetta Stone when my son was just starting out with a foreign language (Greek was his choice). Partway through the year he switched to Duolingo and has stuck with it and likes it. It is online, and free! It is intended for ages 13 and up but my 11-year-old has done fine with it. Like all of these online language programs it seems, it doesn't actually teach most new vocabulary explicitly, but adds it into exercises where you have to guess at first, and then repeats it often until you catch on and get it right. 

My daughter had some fun with sign language last year but wanted to work on the same language as her brother so she does Greek now as well. I found Dinolingo as an age-appropriate, inexpensive option for younger kids. It is more visual, consistently using pictures or videos, and it is highly game-based so she loves it. I think she secretly likes doing Greek simply because it feels a little like she is getting away with playing a video game, but she does go around the house counting in Greek so I know some things are sinking in! 

~

So that is what we use for curriculum in each of the different areas in our homeschool. I hope this is helpful for any homeschoolers just starting out, or looking to change. I hope to share how we put it all together in our regular daily routine soon!

Good Books and Other Tips for Teaching a Child to Read at Home

Learning to read is one of the most exciting things. 

I taught first grade and one of the main things I loved about it was seeing so many kids become readers. I loved witnessing the excitement and incredible growth around that (and I had similar feelings about seeing kids that age become writers). There's a metamorphosis in kids, when they realize they are-- finally, sometimes suddenly-- a reader, when they've cracked the code and feel the special new confidence that comes with the ability to decipher the world around them-- books and so much more. It was exhilarating to see it in my own daughter this year in our homeschool setting. 

At the beginning of this year, M was 5 1/2. She could name most of the letters reliably, and she knew many of the sounds they made. She recognized a few words on sight and could write her own name and sometimes a couple of other names (Mommy, Daddy). She was well-placed as a beginning kindergartner, but she was not yet a reader. 

...Now, she is a reader. We can no longer spell the words we don't want her to hear in our conversations. She constantly catches us off guard by asking, "Why does it say-- ?" as she reads food packages, our to-do lists, road signs, and everything else. She insists on reading some of the questions herself when we play a game. It all happened so quickly, and it's amazing the effect all of these new abilities have on a now-six-year-old's sense of self. 

The Ingredients for Learning to Read

There is a lot of research on the methods for teaching reading skills. I think a few things are most important:

• Regular, brief lessons in letters and sounds, in an intentional sequence: go from easiest and most common sounds/spelling rules (e.g. short vowels and consonants) to those more difficult and/or less frequent (e.g. silent e rule, ing/ang endings). 
• Teach them to recognize by sight words like the, are, and is-- words they'll come across frequently but that often can't be sounded out. Spell them out loud, use flashcards, write them in the air, etc. 
• Read books aloud regularly and talk about them. 
• Writing time, for kids to tell their own stories and learn to put them on paper, with pictures and words.
• Reading time itself, to put appropriate books (not too hard or too easy) in kids' hands and let them practice, with support in how to tackle tricky words and other strategies.   

All of the above heavily supports learning to read. But the moment of putting it all together and really becoming a reader isn't a formula. I see learning to read as partly magic; it's a small miracle within each kid as to when and how it all clicks for them. 

Below is how we approached reading time itself. 

How we Approached Reading This Year

Keep it Cozy

We don't do worksheets or drill sounds during reading time. Reading time is for books. We sit on the couch most days. She reads me two or three books, then I usually read her one or two (at any level, just for the sake of reading aloud) as well. I might read a book to her on a topic we are learning about in science, or a great new library book or something else. She looks forward to being read to probably as much as I like to hear her read to me. 

There are ways to jointly read her books, which we did a lot early in the year, and still do sometimes just for fun, or when the book or the mood calls for it:

• Alternate: I read a page, she reads a page, and so on
• Echo: I read the book first-- either the whole way through or one page at a time-- then she reads it 

Logistics

Most academics we fit in in the morning when we are freshest and most energetic. But reading works in the morning or afternoon because it's not too demanding (see above). I try to start with a tip or reminder that I know is relevant for her at the moment, like: remember to stop when there's a period; if it doesn't make sense try again; make sure the word matches your guess from the picture. Other than that, I just have her choose what she wants to read and we read. I listen and follow along. If she gets stuck and asks for help, or plows ahead with mistakes, then I remind her of another strategy to try. 

For a lot of the year, we had two baskets she could easily draw from: "Working On" for a selection of books I thought were currently about right for her that she hadn't read yet or couldn't read very smoothly yet and "Can Read!" for books she'd mastered. It was nice having a spot she could go to for books she already knew any time she wanted to read to her dad or anyone else. Recently, we've started to outgrow this basket system as what she can read has expanded so widely so that she can select books from all over our house. 

Good Books for Kids Learning to Read

In the classroom I had a whole selection of books to suit kids' different interests and ability levels. But at home, I don't have all that to draw from. In the beginning, it was a little tricky at times to figure out how to get our hands on books that were easy enough for M to practice with-- not to mention the hope that they also be engaging (which many beginner texts are not). But we found things for her to read, without buying a lot, by using the library and some free apps. Essentially, we followed a path from emergent reading (see below) to phonetic reading to patterned books and then to a great variety of options. 

These are the books and sources I've found affordable, accessible, and helpful for a child learning to read at home. While some overlapped, I listed them here in approximately the sequence in which we used them. I am sure there are other good options out there as well but this list got us through!

1. Start with Labels around the House

The night before the first day of homeschool, I taped index cards on various things in our house-- "chair," "piano," etc. The moment M came downstairs, all bright-eyed and eager for the first day of kindergarten, she noticed one, and then another and another. She was full of exclamations: "Why is this here? What does it say?!" We didn't read them to her, but told her to look at it. What would make sense? What did she think it said? Did she have any guesses based on where it was or by looking at the beginning of the word? She quickly figured out some obvious ones but others took more time and I let her puzzle over them, like "light." She immediately thought, "switch" and I said, "Great idea!...But this word starts with /lllll/." Whenever she figured one out triumphantly, we'd say, "Wow! You're a reader!" and you could almost see her self esteem grow. I'm so glad I started our year that way because I feel like it set the tone for her school year. It gave her a sense that she was so capable already and just had to work to unlock the world around her. It was a way to get her to really start to look at words, and made her feel the thrill of being a reader. (And it was the moment I really understood why every kindergarten classroom I've ever been in has labels all over on things like the sink, calendar, and table.)  

2. Respect the Emergent Reading Stage

This is the stage when kids understand that a picture book tells a story. They have heard stories lots of times. They know the words hold meaning but they can't read most of them yet. They can, however, sit down with a known, favorite book, and turn the pages and tell the story aloud, pretend reading. They won't be saying the words exactly as they are written. But they are reading, in their own, emerging way. Rather than rushing past this stage or forcing them to focus on the words, honor this stage for what it is and work with it. 

I found ways to encourage this type of reading for a while. I asked M to try to say more details to go with each page-- so she wasn't just flying through the book providing a cursory summary. If it was a new book she could look closely at the pictures and try to tell the story by using all the clues they provided. This was a little freeing to a beginning reader to be told she could read this way. I think made her feel a lot more confident early on to feel she could "read" any book off our shelves. If it was a story she'd heard before, I could also ask her to try to sound like a grown-up reader and use words like the author used in her telling of the story-- words like gasped and suddenly and worried. It was okay if she didn't know exactly what the words said yet; she could still read by doing the best she could and using a reading voice. By allowing her to work with great books she loved right off, rather than flimsy miniature early readers which kids seem to know aren't real books, it propelled her into the reading world with more engagement. So the strategy for a while was essentially: fake it till you make it. But it worked and was a lot of fun. 

3. Primary Phonics

After the emergent reading stage, we worked with some phonetic readers. I had had success with the Primary Phonics series with some students, especially those for whom it is hard learn and keep straight letters and sounds. Kids like that don't need tricky language in books at first to trip them up. They need controlled texts-- books that have only the words they've learned by sight (e.g., the) and words that consist of sounds they have learned so far. The first book in Set 1 is Mac & Tab, about a cat and a mouse. It consists entirely of words like a, and, the and 3-letter words with only the vowel "a." The pictures are black and white line drawings and they are old stories. But it's empowering for kids to open up a book that follows the rules, that they can sound out, all the way through, even if it takes a while. This was real reading for the first time. 

4. Bob Books

These are even easier than the Primary Phonics set in a way, in that they begin with only truly decodable words. The first book in Set 1: Beginning Readers never includes even the word the, but is made up entirely of the letters "m," "a," "t," and "s." But in other ways these were a little trickier, especially for a kid who has been read to and knows how books should sound. Herein lies the tricky balance for books for early readers; in order to have such a controlled, decodable book, some pages sound awkward. (The first page of book 1 says simply, "Mat." Another page says, "Mat sat. Sam sat.") But when sounding out was hard and reading was slow going, she could read a couple of these little tiny books and feel successful.     

5. Scholastic Box of First Little Readers

When M started being able to branch out a bit from the decodable books above, I found this Scholastic set of patterned stories, in which every page has the same sentence that only changes by a word or two and the pictures give big clues. It makes sense to teach kids explicitly that many books (for early readers) have a pattern, and to look for and identify that pattern to make reading easier. Once they are comfortable with the idea of a text pattern, this type of book can introduce them to more interesting vocabulary. With 25 little books for around $11, this set was a bargain. The boxes are available in various levels, marked by a letter. We got guided reading level C. On Amazon there are pictures of the insides of some of the books so you can quickly get a sense of what they are like if you aren't sure of the right level for your kid. I'd suggest buying a level that feels like a little bit of a stretch at the time, because they will only be at any given level for a finite period of time. Even with the brevity of the text, this series manages to be a little silly and M enjoyed the humor.

6. Board Books

We have a vast collection of board books from when our kids were little. I realized at one point that there were plenty that M could now read herself and I started culling them from our bookshelves. Board books, made for babies, consisting of one word on each page, were great. Some others are rhyming or patterned in some other way that make them easy to tackle for new readers. The familiarity in the fact that we had read these books to my daughter hundreds of times since infancy helped her be more successful with some of them as well. Some good ones we used were Freight Train by Donald Crews, Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett, I Like Fruit by Lorena Siminovich, and Mommies Say Shhh! by Patricia Polacco. In general the ones with the fewest words were best at first, and later she could access others.   

7. Repetitive, Predictable Texts, Including ABC Books

Up until this stage, I had had a hard time finding books from the library (other than more board books) that were simple enough for M to read. But once she could handle a sentence or so on a page and was working with patterned texts, the library became a rich resource for her reading materials. I looked for ABC books, because those are essentially labeling books. I also looked for anything patterned or repetitive, like the classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin Jr. and others like Silly Sally by Audrey Wood, I Went Walking by Sue Williams, and Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley. I found if I did a Google search for "repetitive picture books" or "picture books with predictable text" or "rhyming picture books," I got lots of lists of ideas, then I would borrow some of those titles from the library.   

8. Kahn Academy Kids App

I don't get a lot of apps for the kids, but Kahn Academy Kids is one of the best ones I've found, school-wise. It was free. We put it on our iPad. It plays constant background music, but you can turn off the sound. It offers academically-oriented games too. But we got it for the "Library" part of the app, where there is a good selection of books. The books are under different categories, and we most utilized the Early Readers section. When your child taps on a book, it opens with the option to "read to me" or to "read by myself." We always chose the latter when we were using the app to practice reading. The early readers range from simple decodable stories to more challenging, but they do follow a sequence that makes sense as kids get stronger at reading. Most of the early readers are fiction stories about the same set of characters, which M found engaging. They were a perfect combination of decodable words, patterned text, and interesting stories and characters. And, free! 

(For general listening enjoyment or read aloud, the app also includes some great published nonfiction, like the great Blastoff Readers Series about animals, vehicles, and science topics, and some National Geographic Young Explorer books.)  

9. Epic App (or Epic Online)

A lot of teachers had their students use Epic for remote schooling. We got a free trial to Epic at one point and since then I have been paying the monthly fee (less than $10). It's unpredictable what titles they have, but there are a lot of books available for various ages. There are both Epic originals (not always so good) and lots of great, real published books. Each of my kids have a profile and the app notes their interests and suggests books for them, and keeps a record of which books they've read. 

As far as using it for M for learning to read, we've mostly done one of two things. One is, we look for "Collections" of books that teachers or others have made. These are groupings of books based on a theme or level. We found a Collection called Fiction Level A/B Books and another called Ready to Read. Important note: the leveling on Epic does not seem to follow a consistent standard. Plenty of the supposedly A/B books were harder than that, but it was a good start. The other thing we learned to do is to go to Search, search for a topic, then when the search results come up, narrow them by clicking on the Reading Level filter at the top and choose a level range. It's a range rather than a particular level, but it at least loosely groups books by difficulty. M would choose a book that looked interesting and then we'd look at it together to see if it looked just right for her or not. (The more broad the initial search term you use, the better, because I haven't found a way to simply search for books by level.)   

10. After that, the World...

By the time kids can read beyond predictably patterned books, the world of reading has opened up and it's less about finding specific titles or series. There are so many good series and options for a young reader who can really read-- Henry & Mudge, Little Critter, Elephant and Piggie, and lots more. One thing worth noting, though, is that if you set out to buy books marketed as early readers, some of the labeling can be tricky. Leveling systems are not consistent from one publisher to another, and the terms can be deceiving. For example, we've enjoyed books from the I Can Read! series, at the "My First" level, but M wasn't reading those until recently. They aren't decodable, there isn't a defined pattern-- and yet it's listed as the earliest level. I think a good rule of thumb is, rather than being tied to levels or to a particular publisher, to just flip through a book. Check out first and foremost how many words are on a page; fewer = easier reading level. But also check how easily most of the words could be sounded out, or whether the words of the story follow a predictable pattern, because those things make books easier too. 

Don't be afraid to let young readers try something you think is too hard. For one thing, it's good for kids to learn to recognize for themselves when a book is easy or too hard. But once kids put together the puzzle of reading, they sometimes grow by leaps and bounds. You may be surprised by how much they can read if you casually test them from time to time, asking them to read first one book without any help, then another more difficult one if that goes well, and so on, just to see what they are capable of at a point in time.    

Other Notes

Using the Pictures

Children's books have pictures for a reason. They support the text and help with comprehension and figuring out words that would be too difficult without them. Learning to read means learning to put together all sorts of information-- what the letters in the word itself look like, the context of the sentence and whether it make sense and sounds right, and the picture too. Pictures are engaging and supply details and richness beyond what an early level book can provide in the text alone. Kids using the pictures to figure out a word isn't cheating, but rather a part of being a young reader. 

On Memorization

Sometimes parents are concerned that their kids are just memorizing when they can fly through a book. And sometimes it is true that they know a book so well they literally have it memorized and claim they can "read" it without even looking. When this happens, of course, it makes sense to let them know that that's a neat trick, but it isn't really reading because grown-up reading means looking at the words too. 

But there is no harm in memorizing a book and it can be a good thing at a certain stage. When you have a book memorized, you need to match what you have in your head to the actual text on the page. By doing both at once-- the fluid, rote memorization, and the looking and following along with their eyes-- they are internalizing story language, memorizing what certain words look like, learning new vocabulary well. A memorized book is also an accomplishment. It makes reading fun, and is a nice contrast to the hard work of getting through a brand new book. Memorization allows them to practice other, higher level reading skills like voices for different characters, and fluency and phrasing, while their brain is not entirely consumed by sounding out and figuring out as they go. They shouldn't cling to only books they have memorized, but as part of the learning to read repertoire, it's a good and healthy thing.  

...

I'll end with an anecdote that reminded me how memorization can be a good thing. M wanted to learn all the words to a certain favorite song from the movie Frozen ("Into the Unknown"). So I found and printed the lyrics for her. I imagined I would read these to her or with her because it was a lot of words, but no-- she wanted those lyrics for herself. She read them with voice and expression, following along, efficiently figuring out tough words because she already had big portions of this song memorized. She had a good sense of the language and what it should sound like, so she was able to match that knowledge to the print and consequently to read plain text on a page that would have been beyond her otherwise. 

The lyric reading I witnessed is a reminder, too, of the impact that reading out loud (and talking, for that matter) to kids has on learning to read. The more stories they hear, the more language they know, the more they know how stories tend to go, and the easier a time they have filling in the gaps when it's their time to read themselves. 

Video clip reading/singing "Into the Unknown" (can't resist):