Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

Here's an example of what homeschooing looks like in our house. Keep in mind that this is just one sliver of what we do:

I felt like we had exhausted the Berenstain Bears, Junie B Jones, Amanda Pig, PD Eastman, Amelia Bedelia, and so on, and posted on a homeschool group to get new ideas for what to read to the girls.

Among other things (like Charlotte's Web and Ramona the Pest), someone suggested Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. Well, that made me pretty excited, because I loved that book and truly would not be the writer I am today if not for Ms. Blume.

So ... I got it at the library and we read it, and the girls, especially Rachael loved it.

And I was asked to read another chapter again .... and another chapter again .... and I felt like I could only do so much ...

So I went back to the library and got the audio cassette of Judy Blume reading it. I've never been into audio books much myself because I'm one of those people who can't grasp it too well if I'm not looking right at the words. But the girls have been listening to it again and again. Rachael even took it outside on the back porch this afternoon.

Then I did some searches on the web for TOAFGN activities. Most of them are, uh, not my style (like lists of vocabulary words to define, or "cause and effect charts").

But, I found some info about what gave Judy Blume the idea, and how the original manuscript was different, and why it was rejected, and I read that to the girls.

I also showed Rachael some fourth grade school assignments where the kids had to draw photos of the different characters and write a poem about them. She liked looking at them. I could picture her maybe possibly doing something like that herself. Will it upset me if she doesn't? No.

Then I found out that in the 90's there was a Saturday day morning kids' show called "Fudge" (with Eve Plumb AKA Jan Brady as the mom). I somehow found a couple episodes on the Internet, so last night the girls watched them at the kitchen table while I cleaned up and got the dinner ready. They liked it, but I didn't get the impression they wanted to watch any more of it. If they do, that's fine too.

Oh yeah, and I also got SuperFudge out of the library. We read the first couple chapters together, but it didn't grab me as much, and then I forgot about it, and no one has asked for it ... Rebecca was disappointed (as was I) that there was no pictures in that one.

So ... that's sort of how we do things around here. One thing that's neat is that I had no idea we would be doing something with Judy Blume just two weeks ago. I also don't know if we will be doing anything more with Judy Blume in two more weeks.

It's always an adventure around here.