Tag: boys

Kirby’s Kids Grade by Grade Homeschool Reading List

Published on by Susie @ Kirby's Kabin Blog25 Comments

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Here is a list of books that we will be reading with our homeschool. I will update the list as we go through this journey. Many of these books can be found at your local library for FREE but I have provided Amazon links where you can find most of them ‘used’ for cheap. We also keep an Amazon list of books that we would like to purchase and sometimes they are gifted to us for Christmas and/or birthdays.

You should keep a record of the books read. You can do this in a notebook or using this printable HERE. (My kids like the plain ones so they can doodle around the margins but I may try to come up with a ‘prettier’ one later.)

I have also been using a lot of these books with some of the Novel-Ties Study Guides and other unit study guides that I have found online. I try to find as many FREE guides as I can but that isn’t always possible.

Remember that even though I have included Amazon links to these titles you may be able to purchase them used or at a different site for a better price. You may also have access to these books on your Kindle or other reading devices. Be sure to check back in as we will update this as we add more books to our own favorites here!

You may also like to check out these links for book reports:

Pre-K/Kindergarten

These will need to be read-alouds

First Grade:

Some of these may need to be read-alouds

Second Grade:

Third Grade:

Fourth Grade:

Fifth Grade:

Sixth Grade:

Seventh Grade:

Eighth Grade:

Ninth Grade:

Tenth Grade:

Eleventh Grade:

Twelfth Grade:

Updated May 31, 2022

printable-reading-listDownload

Momma, I can write!

Published on by Susie @ Kirby's Kabin BlogLeave a comment

Anyone with kids, especially boys, can know how hard it is to help them get their handwriting to a legible state. It starts when they are young as a scribble and progresses as they get older. Well, my youngest who is 3, and my special needs son who is 14, both have a lot of trouble in this area. I don’t want to push them and I know that it will happen in time but I was running out of ideas to get them interested and to encourage them in this area.

My 4 year old just picked up a crayon one day and started writing his name.The 3 year old has shown absolutely no interest in wanting to draw, trace, or attempt to write his name. He would ‘trace’ them with a toy dinosaur or a race car but nothing more than that. He knows the majority of the alphabet by sight and can tell you what the sounds are but just doesn’t want to write.

We have used playdough to make letters. We have tracing pads, tracing games on the tablets, and a variety of other activities. Sometimes they like to pull out the Wikki Stix and use them as well to make letters. When it comes to actually writing they would often just plain out refuse or the 14 year old would conveniently ‘forget’ how to write.

That was before Christmas. For Christmas the kids received a couple of drawing pads. They love them! Then we also got a couple more of the same things, see So Much More Than A Basketball, at their older sister’s house. This was indeed a blessing!

Now the boys have been drawing and drawing and drawing. First thing they grab in the morning is a drawing pad. They wait for their Grandpa to stop in and they play ‘Guess What I Drew?’ with him. The kids don’t realize that they are strengthening their fine motor skills, they are learning the proper way to hold a writing utensil, and they are using their imaginations. The difference a couple of weeks can make has been incredible!

The 3 year old is not only learning to draw some amazing art work but he has been practicing his letters as well. He walks around the house with his drawing pad and finds letters and words to copy. Now he will ask me to write things on the drawing pad for him to copy too.

This enthusiasm has rubbed off on big brother as well and he has been practicing his name on the drawing pads and on the huge chalkboard in the playroom. It makes my heart smile to see them happily doing these things on their own. We didn’t have ‘school’ for the past two weeks either so that has given them a chance to explore and practice on their own. This is helping them to build their independent working skills as well.

Another benefit is that the kids are also learning to read! As they walk around copying things they always ask someone to read what they wrote. Then in turn they repeat it and before we even realised it the kiddos are reading everything!

 

This is a picture of the art work the 3 year old left on my desk:

 

Life in 2016

Published on by Susie @ Kirby's Kabin BlogLeave a comment

Reflections of 2016

December 30, 2016

December 27, 2016

December 21,2016

December 6, 2016

December 5, 2016

December 3, 2016

December 1, 2016

November 28, 2016

November 27, 2016

November 26, 2016

November 20, 2016

November 18, 2016

November 8, 2016

So Much More Than A Basketball

Published on by Susie @ Kirby's Kabin Blog5 Comments

Wow! Well, I had written this article last December after we had the surprise pleasure of meeting with the ‘Basketball Cop’. I came to revisit this post only to find out that is GONE! I’m not entirely sure how this happens but I have had some comments from others that this has happened with some other posts on my blog as well. I do apologize and will try to find out what is causing this.

This picture was taken December 25, 2016 in Gainesville, FL. We had went to my oldest daughter’s place for Christmas dinner. There were a lot of people, mostly kids, crammed into a small apartment so it was a bit noisy. We were in the middle of exchanging gifts when we heard a loud rap on the door.

Immediately we all stopped what we were doing and my son-in-law went to open the door and found a police officer standing at the door. Our first thought was that someone had called in a noise complaint but that wasn’t the case at all. She explained to us that she had some gifts she would like to pass out.

We brought all of the kids outside and she began passing out gifts only to realize that she didn’t have enough girl gifts. Well, the kids were not that concerned as she let them choose a boy gift. She promised to return with some girl gifts later on.

Later on she did return with more gifts and more people. It was then that I found out who was responsible for the gifts and this prompted me to investigate further. I had seen the ‘Basketball Cop’ on the news, after his YouTube video went viral, and I had told people about how wonderful he was but I never imagined how much he and the Basketball Cop Foundation did for the community.

If you have never heard of him or his foundation I encourage you to take a moment and check out the link I posted above. He is also on Facebook and Twitter too!

I really hate the fact that my original post was deleted and I am looking for an original that may have been posted elsewhere. I can’t go back and recreate that post or recapture the excitement I felt when I was writing it. I do pray that you will feel a bit of excitement yourself if you happen to check out the links and see what an amazing thing has started.