NW Kid Chaser

  When her grandchildren come to visit, they slowly learn that country life (outside of Chicago during the depression) is anything but boring. In fact, there are remarkable lessons to be learned if you just stick with Grandma Dowdel and pay close attention.

    Simultaneously the town outcast and the town leader, Grandma Dowdel will remind you what’s important. She’ll keep you humble. She’ll set things right.... and this will all occur when you least expect it.

      While reading these books, I couldn’t help but think of the great-aunts who both boss me around and endlessly love me. As a child, I wasn’t always sure where we were going, but I was happy to follow, because I knew the destination would be unlike anything I had seen before.

    I hope one day, I’ll have my own chance to be a wise (and spirited) grandma. It’d be a great blessing to have a life of love, strength, and a bit of mischief... all for the greater good.

    Fabulous Middle School reading for both boys and girls: Check out Richard Peck's magical writing.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Exclamation Mark tells the inside story of the most exciting punctuation mark around.

Read this to your kids and it will be the most
pain-free lesson on conventions they'll ever have!

For the crock pot: this is the recipe that will never again allow us to purchase applesauce at the store. Hooray for boys who can help peel the apples!

We rarely buy books. With the wonder of the public library - all our needs are covered. However, every blue moon there is a book I recommend for purchase. Here's one such treasure:

   The ongoing 'Origami Yoda' books are a great upper-elementary and middle school read. While we wait for the next release, this book helps readers draw, talk, invent and fold (just as the main characters in the book do). This book has brought an entire week of Star Wars puppetry to our home. I've also been perfecting my translation of 'yoda speak' -Play well, my boys do! Now: Room needs cleaning, it does!"

Expertly woven, each story illustrates the give and take necessary between teacher and student for real learning. Visiting both sides of the fence (and both sides of the desk), readers are guaranteed to think back to their own school days that made a difference.

These books would correspond perfectly to classroom studies of:
Lunch Money = Math & Business
Lost & Found = Twins
The Last Holiday Convert = Music & Band
A Week in the Woods = Outdoor School
Extra Credit= Geography & Current Events
The School Story = Writing

   I have never been a 'gardener'. However, I do love to view other people's work. Our neighborhood has an amazing neighborhood garden that I like to visit in the cool evenings of the summer. I enjoy sitting on the bench (as neighbors talk and kids squeal from the swing) and think about how this once empty lot has now become such a thriving oasis.

Constantly trying to read ahead of my eleven year-old son, I have found one more book to add to my pile of recommendations:
The Wanderer by Sharon Creech.

This Newbery Honor Book will appeal to both boys and girls in upper middle school and beyond. Artfully crafted to unveil the ‘truth’ of each character, the story explores belonging, purpose, personal history, and family entanglements while vividly describing the adventure of a girl, two boys, and three uncles on a sailing trip across the Atlantic Ocean.

This book is a great mentor text to demonstrate how an author can take one episode and write it from two perspectives.

I recently listed Carl Hiassen's 'Hoot' as a middle-school must-read.
Last month, my eleven year-old and I watched the movie.

A great adaptation of the original novel, I give this film two thumbs-up and would have been comfortable allowing my eight year-old to watch it as well. Great cinematography of Florida's wild life and a heart warming story: a middle school must-see.

       So, be sure to tell your young writers: If your paper is sometimes messy and often you aren't sure just what to say.. you are doing it right. Keep writing. You are doing it right!