While waiting outside Gareth’s drama class on Friday morning, I gave Daegan this informal reading assessment. As the assessment involves reading a list of words of increasing complexity, and only testing if the child can correctly pronounce them, the assessment is indeed ‘informal’—a comprehensive reading assessment looks at comprehension, and would ask a student to read paragraphs or a short story. But it was nice and easy to do, and is something I plan to revisit with him in future to (hopefully!) see growth and improvement. Daegan came out with a grade 6 reading level. Here’s the list...

We did much less reading than usual last week, for a couple reasons. First, the library system was offline ALL WEEK while they upgraded / changed computer systems. Oy! What a headache! You could check books out in person, and return them as well…but that was it! No online access to the library catalog (not even for library employees at work!), no putting things on hold to be picked up later. I was in serious withdrawal! :-) And second, both Jim and I fell ill last week, and read-alouds with a sore throat just aren’t fun. :-( So...

Inspired by this blogger’s goal of reading 1000 picture books this year, I thought I would start doing a weekly round-up of our reading. I will include only those books I have read to or with the boys; Daegan reads on his own every night, and Gareth is beginning to peruse books solo as well. Hover over the book to read the title and author; I’ll comment only on our favourites. Here’s what we read this past week: Someday a Tree is about a family trying to save their beloved oak tree that has...

Homeschooling, like any activity with children, is always evolving. Interests wax and wane, abilities develop (and recede!); there’s illness, playdates, and outside lessons (drama for Gareth—solo—and a Family Clay class right now). And just when you think you’ve got it figured out and a good rhythm going, a momentous change occurs. Back in September as Daegan and I began our first “official” year of homeschooling, what to do with Gareth while we worked was a non-issue. There were several DVDs he enjoyed that Daegan had largely outgrown, so Gareth was only too happy to have the TV (we...