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Cheaper By the Dozen Hands-On Literature: Learn Morse Code!

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Written by Jen at A Helping Hand Homeschool.

The novel Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey chronicles the adventures of the Gilbreth family. This family, as the title implies, had twelve children! They lived in New Jersey in the early 1900s, and they had some interesting times.

The Gilbreth parents were early efficiency experts, which meant that they studied processes and teaching methods used by businesses and found ways to make them better. Father didn’t just do this for a job, though – he tested his theories by teaching his children! Father taught his children everything from sailing a boat to using a typewriter, and some of his “projects” can be used by kids today.

In the 1830s, a man named Samuel F.B. Morse invented both Morse code and the transmitting system used to send and receive it. The code went through some changes before it became the alphabet we know today. Learn how to make this easy hands-on idea! Click here.

One of these involves learning Morse code! See how we turned it into a hands-on literature activity!

Hands-On Literature: Learn Morse Code!

In the 1830s, a man named Samuel F.B. Morse invented both Morse code and the transmitting system used to send and receive it. The code went through some changes before it became the alphabet we know today, but it has been in use for over 170 years. Originally, the receiving machine recorded the “dots” and “dashes” on a paper tape, kind of like an adding machine today.

Soon, though, operators became skilled enough to translate it by ear and just wrote down the message as it came through.

Today, we don’t use Morse code nearly as much as they did in the 1800s. It is still used among amateur radio operators though, and military pilots were required to know it up until the 1990s.

It’s a really fun and easy “language” to learn though, and it’s useful for a lot of things. It’s also really fun to be able to use a “secret code!”

 

To do this activity, you will need:

  • 3 or more sheets of posterboard – white or light color works best
  • Permanent markers – 4 different colors
  • Cardstock “tags” (found in the scrapbook section of a craft store) or notecards – approximately 40
  • 1” book ring or twine, string, or yarn
  • A journal or notebook

Morse Code Project Supplies

The first step to learning an alphabet like Morse code is to become familiar with it. In Cheaper by the Dozen, Father taught this code to his children (all of them!) over summer vacation. They complained that they didn’t want to study in the summer, so he promised them they wouldn’t have to.

Instead, he made it almost impossible for them not to learn it!

In order to give his children a constant but easy study tool, he grabbed a can of paint and started in the bathroom. He painted the Morse Code alphabet and mnemonic devices all over the walls! Then, he started in on the hallway, the porch, and the other rooms in their summer cottage.

Needless to say, the kids learned it quickly!

Now, I don’t recommend you paint your walls with Morse code, but you can achieve the same result with posterboard and some permanent markers. (I used four different colors: one for the English letter, one for vowels, one for consonants, and one for numbers.)

Morse Code Alphabet-Numbers Poster

Morse Code Alphabet-Numbers Closeup

This way, your child has an easy reference to work with!

However, we also made a pocket version of this reference, a Decoder Booklet. Now, your child has their own decoder that is easy to carry around and use. We used cardstock “tags” that I purchased in the scrapbook section of my local craft store, but you could just as easily use notecards.

To make the booklet, I used one tag for each letter. I wrote the English letter on one side and the Morse code on the other, so it works like a flash card. For the Morse code letters and numbers, I used the same colors as on the poster.

Morse Code Booklet

Morse Code Decoder Booklet

With this Decoder Booklet, it’s easy to take a few minutes throughout the day to self-quiz and to do different activities. We had fun doing spelling homework in Morse code – it requires your child to both think through the spelling word and the code!

Once you and your kids have a handle on Morse code, it’s fun to write messages back and forth! Father and his children did this each day during the summer. He often left them clues to treats and prizes, but occasionally he used the messages to prank them!

Morse Code Journal

Using a journal or a notebook, you and your kids can leave messages for each other – and respond – in Morse code. It’s really fun, and it helps you to learn and use Morse code much more easily!

Additional Morse Code Learning Resources:

Here are some fun and useful resources that you may want to add to this activity:

  • Learning Morse Code Patterns – If you have an auditory learner in the house, this video is a simple but effective way to learn the patterns for Morse code. It also teaches the phonetic military alphabet!
  • English to Morse Code Learning – This video lesson gives both auditory and visual cues to help connect the Morse code with the English letter.

Learn even more ways to make literature hands-on and fun for your kids!

In the 1830s, a man named Samuel F.B. Morse invented both Morse code and the transmitting system used to send and receive it. The code went through some changes before it became the alphabet we know today. Learn how to make this easy hands-on idea! Click here.

3 Beginner’s Tips: Homeschool High School Literature

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

As if entering the high school years wasn’t daunting enough, you’re expected to be instantly informed about how to teach high school literature.

As I began gathering teaching tips and resources for my first high school son, all I could think of was my own high school years, and that was a long time ago. Gradually, my basic plan for a starting point has changed as each son entered high school because my own high school experience was not much help.

Today, I want to clear away some of the mystery surrounding how to teach literature because I want to give you a beginning point.

Also, teaching high school literature is a very comprehensive topic. Instead of taking you to the glazed-over-eyes point I want to stick to a basic foundation, which I think is more helpful.

3 Beginners Tips: Homeschool High School Literature. Look at this easy starting point!

Try to remember as I share the three beginner’s tips that you can build on them each year.

Try not to sock it all to your teen like I did in the beginning. Look at my 9th Grade Homeschool High School – Avoid the Sock It to Them Attitude.

ONE/ Hone your definition of what is high school literature.

Literature is any written material. That doesn’t help much so you need to help your teen understand what is the importance of studying literature.

Battle for the Mind

Try this. Literature is any written material, but it normally means works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama which having artistic value and makes one think.

In addition, classic literature is written work that transcends time or has outlasted current thinking. Too, great literature or masterpieces are written works that gives shades of meaning to their topics. Opinions, feelings and emotions will vary.

Whether it’s a short story with limited characters or poetry that reflects the author’s world, they all share identifying marks which are to move you and make you hate or delight in the undertone meaning. And like one of my boys said, they just keep talking to you today.

Whether the material is about showing a stylistic technique or it’s an unusual genre, it’s a battle for the mind.

TWO/ Introduce literature through American, British, and World authors.

Something else I did wrong was to be all over the place when selecting curriculum. No matter how organized my first high school teen was, I frustrated him because I didn’t have a method to my planning.

Dividing up grades or semesters by reading and analyzing poems, novels, and short stories from different parts of the world and different time periods gives your teen a well-balanced view.

For example, a study of World literature would obviously include authors from all over the world, but it should coincide with the different time periods of history. This way you’re covering some of the greatest material from different ages.

Don’t forget the timeless tip of using one history book for analyzing literature while reading about history.

For example, when I read the novel by Dickens of A Tale of Two Cities with my boys, it gives a good view of the Victorian period and the French Revolution.

You’ll want to add to it by having your teen research a bit about the French Revolution unless he has already studied it. Understanding the world the author has created or is writing about places your teen right in the middle of the conflicts.

The conflict of two distinct classes, the rich and the poor, along with the way Dickens explains sad times gives your teen a preview of not only literary topics, but history.

THREE/ Literary devices or terms need to be your framework.

I never required my boys to do a book report when they were younger, but I did require critical thinking skills and a broad understanding of literary devices in high school.

I would hear moans of how boring it was and I tried not to make it boring. But, this is high school literature and the skills taught at these grades should equip your teen at the least to think like an adult.

Whether you’re preparing your teen for a college prep course or not, he still needs to learn how to think beyond black and white.

This is the time when your teen forms values, opinions, and beliefs and you need to look beyond the idea that you’re mutilating a good read.

How to Reflect on American, British, and World Literature

Making the connection to our belief system during our study time as we discussed it together was an unexpected benefit.

What I mean is that this is not just the time to read about boring literary devices, but the time to understand the message that the author is illustrating through literary devices.

Sometimes, it’s necessary to memorize definitions like rhyme, meter, or sonnet, but it’s more engaging when you and your teen understand why poetry was written in that style.

Digging into why ancient poets wrote how they did gives your student a richer understanding of the world around him.

You want your homeschooled teen to clearly state a verbal or written response to the topics of today’s world. It begins by analyzing a great book.

I hope this simple beginning and quick glance will give you a good foundation to begin your planning. In my upcoming posts, I will be sharing resources to help guide you and your teen.

Do you think you would like that?

Look at these too, you may like to grab the tips there.

3 Beginners Tips for Homeschool High School Literature. Look at this quick and easy overview to give you a heads up about what to expect. Click here to scoot by and read the AWESOME tips! #homeschool

Hugs and love ya,

How to Transition a Child From Reading to Literature

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

When I was in 8th grade I had an English teacher who loved words and literary analysis. I picked up her love of words and reading, but not so much her affection for literary analysis. Later in life, my fondness for literary analysis and literature was ignited but my earlier aversion affected how I started teaching reading. Click here to get tips on understanding the difference between teaching reading and literature.When I was in 8th grade I had an English teacher who loved words and literary analysis. I picked up her love of words and reading, but not so much her affection for literary analysis. Later in life, my fondness for literary analysis and literature was ignited but my earlier aversion affected how I started teaching reading.

Determined that my boys would not be aliterate, I did some things right and some not so right when I first began to teach reading. What I should’ve done with my first son was to introduce elements of literature earlier than I did. I’m grateful I didn’t totally mess up my kid because his love for excellent literature is apparent today.

From Reading to Literature

Let me back up first because understanding what is literature and what is reading can be confusing to the non-professional. It was to me. And because there are so many facets about comprehending what is literature, it can seem almost over the top to grasp.

I’m going to speak in broad terms here because it’s important to see the big picture before you know how to transition a child from reading to literature. Teaching a child to read has these elements:

  • from the time he can sat on your lap, you begin reading aloud;
  • you teach him to associate symbols, which he later understands are letters with sounds;
  • you teach him that grouping together more than one letter helps him to blend sounds;
  • you begin to engage in formal and direction instruction which is phonics;
  • you continue with assisting him in learning phonics to about the fourth grade if necessary;
  • while you’re teaching him letter sounds, he cements those sounds by reading them in books, which gives him a purpose for reading;
  • you progress from early readers to chapter books; and
  • all throughout the years, you should be very picky about the quality of literature so that you hook an emerging reader on to lifelong reading.

Not focusing just on how to read but fostering a love of it in the early years is the key. That’s a tough enough job.

Here is one of my favorite programs to teach reading!
All About Reading

Switching gears to teaching literature is a gradual process as I’ve learned. It’s my opinion that whether or not you take a literature course in college, you’re not really prepared to know when to introduce all the features of literature to a young child. Of course, if you’re an English teacher that is different.

Before I go further, it’s important to also look at the elements of teaching literature which gives you a starting point in how to teach it. Here are some easy to understand features:

  • it’s about using good books that inspire readers;
  • it can effect the lives of people;
  • it may be praised for its literary value;
  • it may be famous for its historical value;
  • it’s about learning genres along with the elements of fiction;
  • it’s about exposure to a higher level vocabulary;
  • it’s learning how to extract meaning beyond what the author is stating;
  • it’s appreciating why literature can move us;
  • it’s about choosing a method, whether it’s an oral discussion only or part worksheet or part oral discussion to find one that suits your child’s learning style; and
  • it’s about moving from soft or fun literature to sophisticated literature which may not always be so fun.

As you can see, literature is an immense area to study. Knowing when to transition to teaching literature and not teaching reading is not an exact science. Taming it doesn’t have to be a struggle if you know what to focus on at which ages or levels.

Now that you have an overview of the difference, here are a few strategies that won’t overwhelm you.

One/ Introduce genre in a natural way and not like I did with a workbook.

Even though I messed up with one child, I still had time to for a do over.

Instead of pulling out a worksheet to match genre types for books which your kids may not have read, simply explain the type of book it is. As we read together from about third grade on, I saw the need to start explaining the genre and setting.

This is one of my favorite writing programs.
WriteShop

Now that two of my sons are young adults, I get different opinions from them. One son critiqued me and wished I was more formal at the time when explaining the type of literature we were going to discuss and to include more worksheets. The second son critiqued me and said he wished there were no worksheets at all.

Teaching literature should take your child’s learning style into consideration but I also remember that I’m doing the teaching. And just because something is forced, it doesn’t mean it’s not good for my sons.

A balance between discussion and workbooks I feel gives a well-rounded approach and I ended up adapting to both learning styles

Two/ Book reports are not always required but you’ll want to determine a standard in how to analyze a reading.

What you would expect from a middle school student is not the same that you would expect from a high school teen.

Instead of doing book reports, take time to discuss the book with them. This means they read and come back to tell what they learned. I know it takes time, but literature is about taking time to let it move you.

In the beginning, they will just want to tell you what the book is about. Believe me after hearing the retelling of To Kill a Mockingbird numerous times, I thought I would lose patience. But seeing expressions on each of my son’s faced as they read it, made each time feel new. Each kid will identify with the protagonist, Scout, whether they agree with her or not. And understanding a six-year-old with a great wit is what drew my sons into learning about the story.

Three/ Analyzing  and teaching literature is a gradual unfolding.

I did this part wrong too. When Mr. Senior 2013 started middle school, I thought that instantly he was going to understand things like a figure of speech, the elements of fiction, author’s point of view, and etc.

I needed to slow down and realize that from about middle to high school, analyzing literature is a gradual process. Just like higher level math requires a more mature thinking, so does literature.

Don’t be locked into grades, but evaluate each child’s reading level and comprehension. If a child can’t read well yet or is still struggling to comprehend, it’s hard to delve into a deeper meaning of a novel. Let him lounge in the learning to read stage a while longer.

If You Can Read, You Can Teach Literature

Although I didn’t completely turn my son off to excellent literature, I almost made the mistake by several educators which is to make learning about it too mechanical.

With my next sons, I added in hands-on learning in the elementary grades and middle school. For example, while discussing the setting of a book, my sons drew what they thought a time period looked like. When we read Winnie-the-Pooh they drew a forest for the Hundred Acre Wood. A simple map brings the setting of the book to life.

I didn’t know using puppets would be such a great hit with understanding If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

Those are just a few tips in such a broad topic but I wanted to dive into sharing with you what worked and what didn’t work for me.

I’m going to continue on this topic by sharing some upcoming posts with tips about teaching your kids to high school.

Would you like to get some more tips? Tell me what kind of help you need the most.

Hugs and love ya,

Also, scoot by and read:
3 Ways to Choose the BEST Writing Curriculum (for a Growing Homeschool Family), The Ultimate Guide to Poetry for Multiple Ages (For the Intimidated) and 21 Hands-on Ideas for Homeschool Spelling From a Seasoned Mom.