Hello Book Bums families!
The calendar and the weather are both letting us know that summer is on the way. This week in the newsletter we share ideas to end the school year well and start making fun, educational plans for your summer needs. Dr. Christy also shares the latest updates from the new Book Bums location in Monroe. Read on and enjoy!
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Word of the Week
fathom (fa-thum) verb/action word - to understand or comprehend
I can not fathom why he made such a silly decision.
Literacy Calendar
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was first published on April 10, 1925.
- Now regarded as an American classic, the novel met with mediocre reviews when it first appeared.
From our Bookshelves
I finished reading The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni last week, and I loved it. I think you should read it too.
I rarely check reviews until after reading, and I wish I hadn’t read them at all this time. You see, some folks thought this one was too . . . Wait. I don’t want to say it. I want you to read it, and I don’t want to put those thoughts into your mind.
I believe that sometimes we find a book that’s just right for where we are. It doesn’t matter what others thought about it. It had something we needed, and that’s all that needs to be said.
I chose The Remarkable Sam Hell because I’d heard one of my grandmas say, “What in the Sam hill?” from time to time. I did some searching about where that phrase came from, and learned it could be that the phrase refers to a Sam Hill, from Michigan, who used notoriously used foul language; but it’s more likely simply a euphemism for “What the hell?”
Tips for Families
With just under thirty days left in the school year, it’s time to think about transitioning from school mode to summer vacation mode.
Here are some ideas to wrap up the year with intention instead of letting all the to-dos run away with you.
- Have a special family dinner where you’ll deliberately acknowledge each person’s year.
- Invite each person to reflect upon their accomplishments. What was great? What was challenging but rewarding? What can you do to end this school year well?
- Record an interview with your children so they can share some of their best memories and favorite life lessons.
- Launch the creation of a flexible family schedule that covers the summer months. Invite everyone to contribute ideas so they have some ownership, and enjoy the eager anticipation of upcoming events.
If your kids struggled or excelled in a particular area in school, plan how you’re going to support their needs and interests through summer camps, tutoring, or another activity that will help them to achieve their academic goals.
Tips for Raising Readers and Writers
This summer, if you have any inclination to support your kids’ reading and spelling, I recommend that you invest in this Alphabet Pocket Chart, some plain white index cards, a basket to hold the blank cards, some writing paper (You can download our Handwriting Workshop paper here), some pencils as well as an electric pencil sharpener.
If you (or your childcare provider) would spend about a half hour each day doing some kind of writing with your kids, your kids can be ready to rock writing in school by the time the first day rolls around.
You can rotate the writing tasks something like this:
- Monday- Nice Note/Letter Writing
- Tuesday- Journal Writing/Scrapbooking
- Wednesday- Poetry Writing (no rhyming required)
- Thursday- Make a Mini Book Day (joke book, best friends book, birds book, phone number book, All About Me book, etc.)
- Friday- Weekend Wish List (foods to eat, books to read, places to go, things to do, friends to see, etc.)
Here’s where that pocket chart and those cards come into play. As the kids are writing, they’re invited to ask you for help with spelling. You’ll ask the kids to stretch out the sounds, in slow motion, and you’ll write the letters that accurately match up with those sounds on an index card. The kids will use that card to write the word they requested, making the sounds (not naming the letters) as they record the word you provided. When they’ve finished writing the word, they place the word card in the pocket that corresponds with the initial letter of the word.
Gradually, you’ll build the number of word cards in the pockets, and the kids will be able to help themselves to all the words they’ve already requested. Each time they go through the words in a pocket to find a desired word, they’re doing the important work of making the sounds to determine which word is the one they’re seeking, and the words become orthographically mapped into their memories.
It’s important that you only include words the kids request. You may say, “I saw you wrote the word restaurant on this week’s wish list. When we see that word in a book, it is spelled with a middle syllable that has an a-u saying /aw/. Would you like for me to make a card for that word so you can get it exactly right the next time you need it? If not, no problem!”
This is a spectacular way for you to help equip your kids for a strong start the next school year. If you need help sharing the phonics rules, just email Christy at christy@bookbums.com, and we’ll get you a list of the lessons, motions, and sounds.
Learn more about using the Dynamic Dictionary by listening to this podcast and/or this podcast.
Practical Grammar
Ugh. I dislike this saying. It says absolutely nothing . . . twice. But it does serve as a good example of tautology.
I was writing about seating arrangements and typed the words close proximity. I stopped because that felt redundant. Proximity means being near or close, but each time I deleted the word close and read my sentence, it felt incomplete. Writing “close proximity” literally means close closeness. I finally deleted the word close, but I couldn’t help feeling the reader would see it as an awkward omission.
Phrases such as close proximity and free gift and 3:00 a.m. in the morning and tiny little are all used in everyday speech and are, certainly, examples of tautology. Tautology, using two words together that mean virtually the same thing, is considered redundant fluff (Ha!) and it’s recommended that the phrasing be adjusted to eliminate that fluff, for using only one of the words will suffice.
But sometimes it just feels right to add a little fluff.
When I say, “Each time I see my granddaughter’s tiny, little feet my heart swells with joy.”
I don’t know about you, but tiny little more accurately conveys the message I’m sharing.
What do you think? Do you say things like, close proximity and tiny little? Amongst friends, can we let it go, or should we hold fast to crisp brevity?
Here are those tiny feet.
Here are those little feet.
Here are those tiny, little feet. I’m sticking with this one.
Wordology Workshop
- The Latin root proxim means nearest.
- You will find it in words like proximity, which Dr. Christy writes about in our Practical Grammar section, as well proximate, approximate, and approximation.
News from Book Bums
We’re preparing for Lakota’s summer school program (to be held at Book Bums, West Chester) as well as The Faith Alliance summer program (to be held at Woodland Elementary School), and we’ll soon be announcing our summer hours for each Book Bums location.
Presently, our focus is on hiring teachers to help us serve the hundreds of students we’ll soon be coaching. If you’re a teacher or you’ve been a teacher and you’d like to dedicate some time (from as little as an hour and a half per week to six hours per week—or more) to equipping kids to successfully navigate our code-based language, please email me at christy@bookbums.com. By now I’ve sent an email to teachers with whom we’ve worked in the past to see who might be available to help some more amazing kids with us. If you didn’t receive an invitation, please reach out and help us spread the word, please.
We’re busy getting the floors in at our Monroe location. Tile? Check. Carpet? This week. Décor? Hello Facebook Marketplace and antique shops within a two-hour drive. Now I just need to get all this stuff out of my house and into our space. But that’s the fun part!
I know we’ll be doing some workshops (Think: Handwriting Workshop) at our Monroe location so families can begin getting to know us, but those workshops will be open to anyone interested in attending. We simply don’t have the availability at our other locations, but with the new space and a wide-open schedule, we’re hoping to find ways to engage with our newest community members and (hopefully) make available the highly requested workshops we’ve hosted in the past.
Tips for Teachers
I had a friend, Jen, who made it her motto to, “Do Today Well.” I just love that. I’ve hung a sign she gave to me inside our West Chester Book Bums. It had been blank when I received it, but I wrote those words she shared—words from her wonderful blog posts—upon my sweet sign.
That was about a decade ago. Though Jen lost her battle with cancer, she’s won an everlasting place in my heart and the hearts of so many others. Jen was a beautiful teacher to me. Her words are a forever reminder to me. Do today well.
Teachers, I doubt you recognize the impact you’re making on your students, their families, and everyone who works alongside you. As you make your way into this new season, I encourage you to do today well. When you’re tired, remember that you can do hard things. You’re constantly being observed by others, so make it your aim to be one of those teachers who’s long remembered with the utmost fondness.
You probably have a person or two or five who made your life better. Whether they were schoolteachers or tutors or coaches or people who joyfully picked you up to take you to Vacation Bible School, they were teaching you something that you’ll long remember.
Strive to be the kind of person your students will forever remember with a smile.
Every day, do today well.
Pause for Poetry
Just for Fun
If we must offer an insult, perhaps we should do it with flair?
You have delighted us for long enough. (Jane Austen)
More of your conversation would infect my brain. (Shakespeare)
It is with the utmost courtesy, and after extending every reasonable measure of patience that civilized company can afford, that I must gently suggest your continued presence has begun to disturb the tranquility of this moment. I would therefore be most obliged if you might withdraw from my immediate vicinity at your earliest convenience, allowing us both the dignity of continuing our affairs separately.
I believe your presence would be greatly appreciated somewhere else.
Your absence would be the greatest gift.
You will vacate this space forthwith.
I find your company intolerably tedious.
I should rather be left to solitude than endure the torment of your presence.
I have exhausted the utmost measure of patience one may extend in such circumstances, and I must therefore insist that you retire without delay, lest my temper betray me into unseemly candor.
~From a Facebook post shared by The Language Nerds
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