Reading resource to help/teach Kids

[anwesha]

IWonderWhy book series. Chanced upon this while waiting in ped's office, non-fiction for younger age group.

[anwesha]

Any suggestions how to gauge child's comprehension? The ones I am familiar with, are the comprehension tests that are done in school/tests where they give them a(or few) paragraphs and have a list of questions to answer. But how to check comprehension skill for the regular books that they read at home?

[modest]

Thanks !

could you please suggest some resources that you use that i could also use with my kids....

[M V]

#45 These are some of the resources that I use with my kids:

1. Reading Comprehension – Spectrum book series. For example: http://www.amazon.com/Spectrum-Reading-School-Specialty-Publishing/dp/0769638635

2. http://edhelper.com/ I have used this on and off for Math, when extra practice is needed on a particular topic. The worksheets are very useful, but I used to find it a hassle to identify which ones to use and then print them. I wish they published workbooks. But, for $20 annual subscription, it is very good.

3. Singapore Math http://www.singaporemath.com and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SingaporeMath/ If not familiar with this, it needs a little bit of reading up by the parent to understand what it is about, and to decide if parent wants to use these workbooks for kid. Any specific questions, I would be more than happy to try and answer.

4. Critical Thinking – http://www.criticalthinking.com I would highly recommend their workbooks, right from Pre-K level. These actually challenge the child, are very different from school curriculum and are not busy work like some other workbooks tend to be. I have used a few like Building Thinking Skills, Mind Benders, Think Analogies over the years. I recently ordered two bundles for the grades my kids will be entering in the next academic year: http://www.criticalthinking.com/searchBykeyword.do?code=p&catalog=p&searchKey=book%20bundle Each bundle includes about 10-15 books and costs about $200.
They have content samples from all workbooks available online. Store locator shows which stores in major cities carry these books. They have a promotion going on till April 30 of free shipping for orders over $50. http://www.criticalthinking.com/ctc33


5. Science and Social Studies: I get the ISBN numbers of the textbooks the public school follows, and buy them used online. http://www.bookfinder4u.com/ is a good website to find a good price on the books. Even “used” are often in very good condition. The textbooks have a lot of extra activities, links and ideas that the teachers do not touch up on in class. They are also extremely interesting to read just for the sake of it. More than being of use to the kid, they are helpful to me to understand what is taught and how in the school as like most desi parents, I am not familiar with the workings of elementary schools. If they are not so pricey, I also get the Math and Language Arts textbooks. They have a good resale value if you are keen enough to sell them on Amazon. This also helps in kid not having to get textbooks home for homework.

6. Afterschoolers discussion board: http://afterschoolers.yuku.com/ Once in a while, I visit this discussion board. As described there, it is for and by “parents consciously supplementing their children’s education.” This website also takes a while to surf and get a hang of. What helped me was to identify which parent’s approach closely matches mine, and I follow those parents’ posts more closely. I found:
http://afterschoolers.yuku.com/forums/20/t/Learning-Skills-amp-Motivation.html (Learning Skills and Motivation)
http://afterschoolers.yuku.com/forums/10/t/Interactions-with-Your-School.html (Interactions with your School)
http://afterschoolers.yuku.com/forums/21/t/Discipline-Socialization-Responsibility-and-Maturity.html (Discipline, Socialization, Responsibility and Maturity)

sections to be particularly useful. I would suggest not getting too effected by discussions about “The Well-Trained-Mind” or you could end up very depressed about even the best public school and with a strong urge to homeschool.

These are the stuff I use to supplement academics, and to fix the “Oh my god, my kids are not in private elementary school” feelings of panic that strike me periodically. I do not use all of them all the time. What I use depends on how busy my kid is, and what kind of teacher he/she has that year. These are only resources to supplement academics that I feel they might be missing out by not going to a private school.

[flick]

MV ,

Have a quick question the books you suggested in this website : Critical Thinking – http://www.criticalthinking.com
I could not find reviews for these books online . They seem to be a bit expensive. For how long have you been using them ? Are all of them good , or do you buy / use certain books from this publisher ?

Thanks !

[M V]

MV ,

Have a quick question the books you suggested in this website : Critical Thinking ? http://www.criticalthinking.com
I could not find reviews for these books online . They seem to be a bit expensive. For how long have you been using them ? Are all of them good , or do you buy / use certain books from this publisher ?

Thanks !

Thanks for asking. Having spent $400 plus recently, I am dying to wax eloquent about them : )

I just checked, and reviews are available for Building Thinking Skills and Mind Benders on amazon.com. There should be reviews for the other books too.
Yes, they are a bit expensive, but compared to the ones I used to buy for $8 -$10 (JumpStart, REader Rabbit, DK dorling-Kindersley etc), these are worth it. I first bought the Building Thinking Skills books Level 2, then Level 3 ($25-30). these were pretty good, so I bought the Think Analogies and Mind benders. The last two were interesting enough to keep me interested.

Then, I got tired of evaluating if it is worth it or not, and pouring through their print catalog, and ordered the bundles. The books will be used over the summer and school year, and help when kid is waiting for sibling's extra curricular to get over. For my older one I started using them around 2nd grade, and for my younger one KG. The price does bother me at times, but I think of it as 1/5 of a month's tuition at a private school or a month or two worth of fees at Kumon and there are quite a few pages in the workbooks. To start off with, the Building Thinking Skills is a good book to get. I tried having my older kid use the book as a non-consumable (write answers on a multiple-choice sheet I print out) so my younger one can reuse, but gave up on that soon.

As with any of these workbooks, we can feel that the same thing is printable online, but the convenience is worth it.

[M V]

Any suggestions how to gauge child's comprehension? The ones I am familiar with, are the comprehension tests that are done in school/tests where they give them a(or few) paragraphs and have a list of questions to answer. But how to check comprehension skill for the regular books that they read at home?

try http://bookadventure.org

[modest]

thanks a lot modus :)

I would like to add beestar to the list

[M V]

Folks,
I was reading a science book with my daughter and we read about why grass is green. The book stated, the grass looks green because it absorbs all colors in white light apart from green and reflects green. I gave her some more examples of color of sky etc.

Her response was- 'Yes, I know that mommy.. but I want to know why grass cannot absorb green'
My answer was, that is the property of grass, it cannot absorb that particular color, hence reflects it back. Is that right? While she didn't seem convinced, just nodded in agreement. Web search isn't taking me much further.
Appreciate any other explainations.

Anwesha, I faced a somewhat similar situation with my daughter. It is a concept that is a little tough to explain. The final question comes down to something like with the "how did the world begin" discussion. Frankly, I would say I am still stumped about the "origin of color". Anyway, I finally settled on each object naturally has certain "pigments". That seemed to satisfy her. She also was mighty tickled that I didn't know that primary colors of light are different than primary colors of art. In India, I never learnt about primary colors of art. Only knew about RBG primary colors.

An easy experiment to understand this concept more is using a shoebox, colored cellophane papers and colored objects like Lego Blocks. The book 101 Great Science Experiments has one version. If you go to amazon.com, and search inside the book for "banana" : ), it returns this experiment. A regular shoebox lined with black construction paper can be used instead of a black box. Multiple layer of cellophane paper is better than single.

[r2iblore2010]

You can try telling her that the sky had chosen blue, the soil had taken brown, flowers had taken all of the beautiful colors, and grass had no choice but to reflect "GREEN"!!! :)

Grass is green because of chlorophyll, which is a green pigment present in most plants. Likewise, the soil is brown due to the minerals and other organic matter found in it. Rocks come in several colors as well as several shades based on the mineral content. These are some of the examples I can think of.

Some of the resources I let my children use are the internet and a book series called "Children's Knowledge Bank". These books are quite informative, but do not have color pictures. It is a good reference guide for children in grades 2 and above.