A Most Excellent Reading Buddy

I have heard that children gain confidence in reading aloud when they do it with a dog. The dog serves as their audience: a quiet, still, nonjudgmental audience. 

Tuna isn't a struggling reader, but when I brought her home from school, I noticed she lacked confidence in her oral reading. We're working on that, and we've already seen quite a vast improvement. 

I know that Tuna loves cuddling Diego while reading. She strokes his silky ears and curls up next to his warm body, and reads to him (and me). 

This little dude doesn't mind the attention, either. 

Little (Minecraft) House on the Prairie

Tuna loves to learn. In January, when I brought her home from school, she hated school and had no motivation to learn anything. This is no longer the case. My goal of instilling the love of learning and discovery has been met and surpassed. 

I am happy. She is happy. It's a wonderful feeling. 

As I write this blog entry, she's working at the computer to build a Little House on the Prairie scene in her Minecraft world. 

the inside of her log home, with bedstead

We finished reading Little House on the Prairie today, and she watched a couple episodes of season one of the show named for the book online. Then, she started playing Minecraft and decided to build herself Little House scene there. 

Tuna's Little House garden

When building the hearth, her log cabin caught fire and she worked feverishly to put it out, remarking to me that it was "actually a scene from the book since the chimney caught on fire in the book," and asked if I "remember the prairie fire?" before repairing her cabin with stone. 

the outside of her log home after fire damage forced some reconstruction

She added several elements that show me she loved the story and was paying diligent attention while I read. That is plenty of payment for the pain to my throat of reading all those pages aloud. Though she did read aloud, too, about a page at a time, now and then, most of it taxed my vocal chords. 

Tuna's well. There's a cover for it, too. 

I love the form of homeschooling we've settled into, which is on the verge of unschooling. It works so well. Perhaps one day, we will be full unschoolers, though I do see us teetering on the verge for the foreseeable future. 

Whatever works. 

Tuna's cattle

Little House and Little Rug

So Tuna and I have been reading Little House on the Prairie. I think we're about halfway done now. We're at the point where the family gets malaria, is rescued by strangers, and spends some time recovering from their illness. Pa is too weak to work outside, and Ma needs help inside, anyway, so Pa sets about the business of making Ma a rocking chair. 

One of the parts of the Little House books that bores me to tears is the in-depth explanations of the monotony of everyday pioneer life. Laura goes into excruciating detail about how things are done at times in the book and it's just boring to read aloud. 

This rocking chair was no different, except that I had an activity planned for weaving that tied in nicely. So we did it yesterday, right after reading. 

Paper plate weaving is about as simple as weaving can be. You just notch a paper plate and go to town with your yarn. Here is a good explanation of how to begin your paper plate weaving. To finish it off, clip the threads on the back of your plate and tie them in knots around your weaving. This will prevent your work from unraveling.

Tuna's woven round has been dubbed her new Barbie rug. It's just the right size. 

Tuna's paper plate weaving final product with tied-off ends

Have you seen the hula hoop weaving tutorial? I think I'd like to try that with some wool yarn for a small area rug. The concept is the same as the paper plate, just on a bigger scale.