When Homeschooling Meets Military

We have four children, and they have all been home-schooled.  It works for us.

Anyway, one of the books we use for early reading is called "Explode the Code."  My kids LOVE Explode the Code (and I would heartily recommend it for early reading even if your children are attending regular school - it is fun and it works wonders), which uses silly sentences and pictures to teach all sorts of reading rules before the children even know they are learning. 

One of the exercises the books use is to take silly sentences (like:  Do Barby and a classmate ride horseback in rowboat?) and then ask the child if the sentence makes sense.  Today we got an interesting question:

Can an army on the hillside see in the darkness?

My six year old son said yes, the answer book said no.  My son, very exasperated, argued his point, "Haven't these people heard of NIGHT VISION GOGGLES?"

Touche. 

Comments

[Apryl]

LOL you should consider writing that in to them. LOL

[Andi]

Heh. A true geardo offspring....

[Jessie]

I agree with your son. Thanks for the post! I needed a laugh today.

[Amber]

Smart guy! The books aren't *always* right. :-)

[Melonie K.]

HA! Love it!!! My daughter and I loved EtC too, but had a similar conversation on that one. Imagine that. heehee

[Penny]

*laughs* His logic is right on the mark too! :)

[Wifeunit]

He is totally right too!

[army_wife]

What age/ability/grade level is Explode the Code good for? We are just starting to homeschool (our oldest is doing K4 now) and I'm always interested in curricula that will keep learning interesting for my boys.

Kids are great, aren't they? Some things they say just take us by surprise sometimes... LOL. It's surprising how much they really understand sometimes.

[Melonie K.]

To army_wife: I used the first series (Get Ready/Get Set/Go for the Code) with my daughter as a PreK/K text (around age 4/5) and then transitioned her to the regular Explode the Code books for K-1st. But they could easily be stretched out for 2nd grade, or used with older children who have a sight-word basis but not a good grasp of phonics, as well as children who are older but have a learning difference that requires some more phonics work.

I also would not hesitate to use EtC with a high schooler or adult who was studying English as a foreign language and needed some help breaking down how English phonetics work. My German exchange student flipped through the books years ago when I bought them, as did a Japanese friend, and they both agreed that they'd have been handy when they were learning English. :-)

[vitamins]

Hello
This is really very funny.This post made me laugh.Some times children ask so innocent questions that make us laugh.In this case I think he is right.Thank you for this funny post.

[Stormy Wolf]

That is too funny and very true. They need to update their books. lol. Smart kid by the way.

[Lemon Stand]

I have never heard of those books but we did find that the Geronimo Stilton books made even our dyslexic daughter want to read. They used different graphics and fonts to make the stories silly and fun while teaching them the rules of the language.

As for your son, I hope you gave him an A?

[Ration Pack]

It was quiet confusing and complicated for me to understand because no one form my family was in military.