Learning | Charlie Goes to School

SSJCPL bloggers have been posting about the back to school theme quite a bit lately. I hope you can indulge me while I write about yet another book on the topic of school.

Most of our back-to-school posts are assuming that children are learning in a school building that is designed only for that purpose. They leave their home in the morning, have their lessons in the school building with children from other families, and return home at the end of the day. Of course, there are plenty of families whose children are homeschooled, in the same building where they live, like the characters in Charlie Goes to School.

Charlie Goes to School is a picture book by Ree Drummond, with beautiful illustrations by Diane de Groat. You may already be familiar with the main character from Ree Drummond's I Can Read Book, Charlie the Ranch Dog: Where's the Bacon?  Charlie is based on Ree Drummond's real-life basset hound. 

Charlie sees his human family learning at home on their ranch, and he starts thinking about all of the things he knows. It isn't very long before he decides to open his own school.  His students are the other animals on the farm--and he encounters a few classroom management issues. (Can you imagine teaching a kitten and a puppy to read and count?  It wouldn't be easy.)

Homeschooling families will especially enjoy this book. Children who like animals will like it, too. It reminds me of a story about one of my sons' favorite preschool teachers, Miss Barbara. Miss Barbara's mother told me that she used to pretend she was a teacher when she was a little girl; she put all of her dolls and stuffed animals in chairs, and wrote assignments on the blackboard.  I can imagine this book inspiring a child or two to teach their pets, friends, siblings or toys how to say the alphabet or count. 

The target audience for Charlie Goes to School ranges from preschoolers to third grade.  

P.S.  Here's the link for Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman Cooks : Food from My Frontier, which Rena mentioned in her comment below.  

4 Kids | Perfect Game

It was just over a year ago when San Francisco Giants' pitcher Matt Cain pitched a perfect game. What's a perfect game, you ask? Well, it's when a pitcher pitches a minimum of 9 innings without anyone on the other team reaching base. Matt Cain did it against the Houston Astros on June 13, 2012 -- the first pitcher to do it in Giants' franchise history.

 

You might be wondering where I'm going with this.

 

Well, for many of you, today is the first day of school. Yes, I know I blogged about "Back to School" last week (even though that was more about obedience school). But today I'm wondering how many of you will have a perfect game this year -- or rather, perfect attendance.

 

Perfect attendance. As in not missing even ONE day of school. Have you done it before? Huge props if you have. But on this first day of a new school year, why don't we make a promise to not miss even one day of school.

 

You can do it. You really can.

 

I know. I know. If you wake up in the middle of the night with stomach flu and spend the early hours of the day lying on the bathroom floor, I can understand staying home from school.

 

But really, haven't we all stayed home from school for no good reason? I don't want a show of hands here. But let's just be honest with ourselves. Lots of us have probably stayed home when we really could have gone to school.

 

So let's make this a perfect year! No faking being sick. Are you with me?

 

Here's the deal: if you stay home from school when you're really, truly not sick, you are going to miss something. Maybe it's an important assignment. Maybe it's an important math thing that you'll need the rest of your life. Maybe it's hearing a funny story read by your teacher. Maybe it's the chance to give the right answer to a question when no one else in your class can. That would be cool, right?

 

Staying home from school (or work) when I'm not sick reminds me of a great poem by Shel Silverstein, simply titled "Sick." You can find this poem in that great collection of Shel's poems, Where the Sidewalk Ends. "Sick" is the story of little Peggy Ann McKay who simply cannot go to school because she's got a whole lot of sickness going on. Here are my favorite lines:

 

My hip hurts when I move my chin,

My belly button's caving in,

My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,

My 'pendix pains each time it rains.

 

Pretty funny, right? I don't want to ruin the ending if you haven't read it yet. But let's just say Peggy Ann McKay learns a thing or two.

 

But seriously, make a promise to yourself to have a perfect game -- I mean, perfect attendance -- this year.

 

And don't forget, the library is full of great resources to help you with those school assignments. Visit us often.

 

Here's to a wonderful school year!

 

Happy reading!

Teens Only | I Had That Awful Dream Again...

Cartoon courtesy of miserablemilton.com

And I'm sure I'm not alone. I'm sure most of you have had this same dream. Either you dream you're running way late for school -- and it's the day of a big test. Or you dream that it's the day of a final for a class you forgot to attend all semester! I truly despise these dreams. And I can't figure out, for the life of me, while I'm still having these torturous dreams years (ok, many, many years) after graduating from high school and college.

I remember one time I had the "running way late for school" dream, and I actually woke up, took a shower, got dressed and was almost out the front door with my backpack in hand when I realized it was barely 5 am! There went 2 hours of precious sleep I'll never get back!

So if any of you, dear readers, are plagued by these same nightmares, let me share something with you that you might not know. And while this information won't stop those awful nightmares, being really prepared for school might help you rest a little easier.

The Library has a ton of databases on its website (www.ssjcpl.org) that are FREE and totally helpful for homework assignments. Just go to the website, click on Research, then click on Databases. Some of them might require a library card, but hey, those are free too! Well, your first library card is free at least.

If you've got an assignment for your English class on a famous author, a famous work of literature, whatever...you need to check out Literary Reference Center. There are plot summaries, literary criticisms, and biographies of famous authors. You still need to read that assigned book, but this database will give you a lot of helpful information when you go to write that paper.

Under the Careers and Employment link, there's a new one called JobScout. Not only can you learn the basic Internet skills needed to learn a job, but there are also job listings! It's a user-friendly database that is perfect for new and experienced Internet folks! 

Now if you find yourself having to write a paper on a current (perhaps controversial) topic, you simply must check out the Points of View Reference Center. You'll find this little gem under the Articles & News tab. This covers issues from animal experimentation to gun control to athletes and drugs to tea party activism. And within the articles for each issue are long lists of sources cited, so you can dig even deeper into your issue. It's a great place to start when you're handed this kind of assignment. 

Your public library is your friend! And your public library's website can be a life-saver! So check out these databases! 

And here's to many nights of restless sleep! No school nightmares, please.