What Spawn is Reading This Week - 5/6/2011

I know I don't usually post these on Fridays, but Spawn just wrapped up his first novel yesterday and I thought that was as good an excuse as any to celebrate. =D He finished The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and he LOVED IT!!! =D I am one happy mama today! Not just because he finished his first novel, but it's a classic, and he enjoyed it, understood it, and it's at a 7th - 8th grade reading level! Dude. I taught him that! My home/cyberschooled 8 year old is reading 5 grade levels ahead of his classmates! =D I'm going to buy myself a milkshake tonight in lieu of a pat on the back. =D After he completed his independent reading book, his language arts teacher asked him to complete the first three questions of a worksheet to determine comprehension. Since Spawn finished the book already, we opted to complete all 6 for this book and we'll do all 6 questions for the next book as well. (More on the next book later on.)

Spawn really enjoyed this book, so we zipped through the questions easily and without any grumbling on his part. It has been excellent typing practice for him as well. =D (I had to export this from Word to PowerPoint to save it as a JPEG, so you may have to click the picture below to zoom in and read Spawn's answers.)

When all was said and done, he was glad he'd chosen this book first. It gave him a taste for adventure and mystery reading and was just the right, masculine type of novel to keep a young boy's (excuse me) man's interest. He feels more adult for having read it, too, so it's building his self-confidence as well. It also inspired us to play some mystery games (Scooby Doo's Haunted House board game) and to watch a Sherlock Holmes-inspired movie (The Great Mouse Detective). 

Spawn has a new pen pal that he will be getting in touch with at the end of this month (we'll call his pen pal "A" for now on our blog). So in the spirit of Sherlock Holmes, we're also putting together a little theme park mystery scavenger hunt for his pen pal, A, (who happens to live in the Orlando area and has an annual pass to Walt Disney World =D).

Spawn's next independent reading choice is "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson. He just began reading it yesterday and he's already really involved in the story and characters. It has much shorter chapters and a LOT more of them, so I don't know how or if that will effect Spawn's reading. Also, it's one long story rather than three short stories in the life of a single character, so I'm curious to see how he handles the comprehension needed for a much longer story overall.

And can I just say what a fabulous deal these Great Illustrated Classics are? $3.00 a piece when I find them in the grocery store or craft store and this publication of "Treasure Island"  that I bought in the last year or two must be out of print already. Check out the going rate on B&N: $74.40 new. =O

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom